Optimus Primal had sent Cheetor, Depth Charge and Silverbolt to dispose of a long range Predacon jamming tower in Maximal territory, a simple task that was done almost daily. The one thing that no one expected was the kind of forces that Megatron had guarding the tower. Cheetor and Silverbolt both fell early in the fight. Depth Charge vs. Quickstrike, Inferno, Waspinator and Rampage: DING! Round one! Rampage’s missiles and Quickstrike’s cybervenom had rendered him soundly beaten shortly after the chrome kitty and bird-dog went down.

He was not accustomed to losing.

The angry manta flung his burden, Cheetor and Silverbolt in stasis, onto the sand underneath a palm tree. The Beach - aptly named, indeed, - was deep into Maximal territory; Depth Charge knew the Preds wouldn’t follow him here. He lifted his wrist to his mouthpiece and spat, "Depth Charge to Primal."

Wailing static reached the hunter’s audios.

The jamming tower was a doozy, it seemed. This far into Maximal boundaries and he still couldn’t get through to home base or any of his comrades. Depth Charge sighed heavily. There was nothing to do but wait until the dose of cybervenom he’d taken wore off. He wasn’t going to fly with his head swimming like it was - he might as well fly blindfolded.

The Maximal manta sat stiffly against one of the many palm trees that decorated the area, prompting a near miss by a falling coconut. Blood red eyes stared at the grounded nut-like fruit. Humans would eat these in the future, he remembered, but to him it didn’t look particularly appetizing. Coconuts were yellowish-brown, sometimes even green, with a hard, shell-like hide on the outside, and a brown, hairy, harder shell-like hide on the inside. Why would anyone want to eat that? He’d stick to fish and energon, thanks much.

Cheetor stirred, sitting up with a moan. "Jumpin’ gyros, what hit me?"

"Cybervenom, pyre-missiles... take your pick." The hunter replied coldly, shoulder joint sparking.

"Talk about your rotten luck." Pausing a moment to brush a bit of debris from his chest. "How’d we do?" Cheetor asked with perked ears.

"Silverbolt fell after you did and I was outnumbered four-to-one." Depth Charge muttered. He wasn’t all too happy.

"So the tower is still up, huh?" the cat said dejectedly.

Depth Charge tore his gaze from the ocean to the youth. "What do you think?" he said, irritated. After seeing the blank look on the other Maximal’s face he shouted skeptically "Of course the tower is still standing!"

Cheetor sat up and rubbed his head. He was a mess. Glancing over at the still deep stasis Silverbolt, he came to the obvious conclusion that they were not in the best of shape. He hardly even recalled what happened. With a snarl, the young transformer switched to beast mode, settling down on the sand. "So what’re we waiting for? We outta go get ‘Bolt repaired, not to mention us, too."

"I’m waiting for my head to quit ringing," Depth Charge growled. "And you talking so much isn’t exactly helping, so shut up."

Cheetor’s red gaze remained on his damaged and displeased teammate for a few nano-clicks before turning back to the front. The ocean accompanying this stretch of beach was beautiful. Crystal clear, bluer than the sky itself, full of color and life and things. It was no wonder Depth Charge kept himself out here. Yawning, the transmetal cheetah padded to the shore, joints sparking, and sat in the wave break. He swatted at imaginary things in the water, letting his beast mode instincts run his mind for a while. He’d learned long ago that suppressing one’s beast mode was asking for disaster. Eventually, the beast would take over.

Depth Charge watched the young ‘bot striking incoming waves with his paws in some sort of fruitless game. The shore fish weren’t even big enough to look at, much less eat, so what was the cat going after? Shrugging, the hunter shut his optics off and lowered his head, resting his sharp chin against his chest. A little shut-down would help evacuate some of the cybervenom running through his systems. Cheetor could take care of himself. Thunder rumbled in the distance as the off-shore storms loomed closer.

"Protoform X’s spark signature detected."

Depth Charge’s head snapped up and cocked to listen, "Where?"

"Vector zero-zero-two."

That close?!

Fire came from behind, destroying the tree the hunter was leaning on and pitching him forward. Cheetor leapt up and transformed, rushing to his comrade’s aid perhaps a little too zealously. Rampage saw him coming and easily centered, slamming a missile home into the middle of the cat’s chest. From his viewpoint on the ground Depth Charge watched Cheetor fly backwards and tumble into the ocean with a splash. What a diode-blowing glitch of a day this turned out to be.

Rampage cackled and grabbed his nemesis’ neck with one hand, hoisting him onto his feet. The manta seized the crab’s gun hand and twisted, wrenching the deadly tri-barreled cannon free. Rampage laughed, throwing his playmate back. "Like I need that? I can kill you like I killed your family -- with my bare hands!"

"Shut up!" Depth Charge shouted after recovering his balance. "Talking will get you nowhere, X, not this time."

The latter sighed, "When will you learn? X is no longer my handle, friend! It’s Rampage, now!"

"The name is different, but the monster is the same!"

With a furious cry the hunter let loose, chest cannon launching disk after explosive disk at his target. Rampage ducked the volley easily; his friend’s mounted launcher was not very accurate in robot mode. The twisted Predacon pitched himself forward at the first chance, slamming himself into the hunter, sending the latter spiraling to the ground.

The red robot gurgled madly. "Face it, Fishface! You can’t win. You couldn’t win on Omicron and you can’t win here!"

Cheetor stood up, staggering in the warm coast waters. Smoke and steam billowed from his chest, and sparks showered the white sand. Looking up he saw that Depth Charge wasn’t faring well and Silverbolt was still in stasis lock.

"Remember that night, old friend? My first experience in mass murder!" Another murderous cackle emerged from Rampage’s vocaliser as the hunter stood. "Such a night of pain for you, wasn’t it?"

"Shut up."

"You lost the only two beings that meant anything to you."

"Shut up!"

"And -- what’s worse? You were there and couldn’t save them. Their death is your fault alone for not stopping me."

"Shut up!"Depth Charge snarled and rushed at his aggressor, only to be grabbed by the wrists and stopped in his tracks. Rampage leaned in, holding the larger transformer by bending his hands back, preventing any further forward motion. "What kind of a life do you think you’d have, if you killed me? What hope do you really have? I have destroyed your ability to live normally. You couldn’t even hope to function in normal society."

"Yes I can."

The cheetah aimed, placing the halves of his beast mode head together and fired once, then again, and again and again.

Rampage grimaced as shots rained down on him. Cheetor’s plasma blasts were nothing to the massive crab, mere bee stings, but irritating nonetheless. A twisted grin adorned his face as he turned back to face the manta before him. "You are nothing without me." Rampage released Depth Charge for a split second and reached down, retrieving his fallen missile launcher. Without another word he aimed and fired gross point blank into Depth Charge’s chest, once, twice, thrice.

Cheetor dropped his arms as the hunter fell backward. "No!"

Depth Charge was beside himself, optics wide, mouthpiece stretched into what could only be explained as pure, gaping shock. He couldn’t react. The suddenness of having his chest blown open and his spark exposed prevented him from defending himself. Rampage cackled madly, kneeling, and reached into his destruction, grasping the pulsing orb in his hand. Depth Charge’s spark he had never felt; he’d never been that close. It was warm to the touch, throbbing like an organic heart with vigorous life that drove on and on. The hunter’s optics narrowed and stared hard into Rampage’s face, the face of the victor. What Rampage had said was the truth. This was it. He’d lost the fight...for good.

So be it.

Free me.

****

Depth Charge’s optics jerked online. The backlash of a massive explosion rang in his head. What the Pit was going on?

Optimus Primal’s gargantuan form flew overhead, blocking out the sunlight for a split second. The Maximal C.O.’s shot had been lucky; he’d narrowly missed hitting the fallen hunter as well as his attacker. Primal, in flight mode, banked sharply, coming around and firing an encore. Rampage hissed and sidestepped the powerful blasts as Cheetor bombarded him from behind. No! Not now! He had been so close! He could taste his friend’s fear, the terror tainting the ray’s steely emotions. He knew he didn’t have a choice. He’d kill his hunter another day.

Primal turned to fire again, but Rampage had disappeared. Cheetor collapsed into a sitting position, exhausted and damaged. Depth Charge didn’t bother to move. The massive Maximal commander hovered, transformed, and landed with a reverberating thud.

"We couldn’t take the tower down, Big Bot. We tried -"

"I know you did, Cheetor," Optimus said, turning his attention to the ray. "Are you still online?"

Depth Charge nodded, recovering his composure. "Barely. Help me up." The hunter sat up with an agonized grunt and took Primal’s offered hand. Standing, he observed the damage.

Optimus shook his head. "You look like scrap. Where’s Silverbolt?" the transmetal ape asked, remembering.

"I’d imagine he’s still where I left him." Depth Charge replied languidly, pointing a weary hand towards the lofty palm trees. "Still there... out... cold.."

The hunter swayed badly all of a sudden and toppled over, optics black, in stasis lock. Optimus Primal shook his head. That was the closest Rampage had ever gotten to killing the manta, he was sure. The Maximal ape bent down, lifted Depth Charge’s heavy frame from the sand and turned to Cheetor, "Can you fly back?"

"Yeah. I think so." the cat said tiredly, placing a hand on his smoking chest. His transmetal armor, though completely blown away, had prevented much internal damage. "I can carry Silverbolt. See you back at base, Big Bot."

****

The sun had set and the base was dark by the time Optimus Primal flew in. He hadn’t realized how late it was. Rattrap was still on monitor duty, but he would soon be relieved for a few megacycles rest. The local vermin could live off of four hours of shut-down easily. Because of all the naps he takes in-between, Primal thought with a smile as he trudged through the blast doors. Depth Charge’s tail dragged noisily on the rock floor, alerting the rat-bot to his commander’s presence. "Heya fearless leader. Finally find our boys?" Upon seeing the fact that the manta ray was being carried back, he quipped, "I take it da mission was a flop."

"Affirmative. Megatron had more forces guarding the tower than anticipated."

"Than who anticipated? You or ol’ Cap’n Minnow?" Rattrap snickered.

"Both of us." Primal replied as he shut Depth Charge into the CR chamber. "Base report."

The vermin swiveled his chair about, optics sweeping over the monitor screens. "All quiet on the western front, bossmonkey. Along with da rest of the fronts, of course."

Cheetor’s afterburners began to echo in the massive cavern. The young robot skidded to a smoking, sparking halt in front of his leader and his rat-faced comrade, letting Silverbolt’s inert form slide to the ground. "How long’l Big Blue be in the CR, Optimus?" His chest sputtered uneasily.

"Somewhere between two and four megacycles." Primal replied. Eyeing the cat’s smoldering torso, he said, "Go find Rhinox and have him patch that up until morning."