Of Winged Cats and Ancient Ships

The butterfly floated by the motionless white panther, unaware of the danger it was in. It landed briefly near the pure white nose, and then took off again.

Bright blue eyes snapped open. The butterfly took no notice. The eyes focused on their target, waiting... waiting... NOW!

In one fluid, graceful motion, the panther sprang after the butterfly, golden claws splayed, ready for the kill.

Spirit observed calmly as Angel bounded after the butterfly. For all Angel was meant to do (destruction and the like), she couldn't even catch a lazy butterfly. Well, it was better than Angel contemplating her existence, as she had been in the past week or so. Spirit was afraid Angel'd depress herself with too much thinking about true purposes, altered programming, and enhanced Sparks.

Angel watched the butterfly fly out of reach into the sky, just as a blue fireball streaked by far overhead.

"What was THAT?"

How was Spirit supposed to know?

"Angel to base, did you see that?"

"According to my calculations, it landed right on the Predacon base," Rhinox said.

"That would destroy the ship, wouldn't it?"

"Yes."

"Cool! Let's have a barbeque! I call Inferno!" Spirit made a disgusted noise.

"Angel," the voice on the other end switched to Optimus', "You are to meet me at the crash site, understood?"

Spirit thought this was wise; Angel would want to see the wreckage whether Optimus authorized it or not.

"Loud and clear! Angel out!" She turned to Spirit. "Come on! We've got a barbeque to get to!" The little white cat hopped onto Angel's back, hoping her friend was just kidding about eating Predacons.

Angel arrived just in time to see Optimus confronting a strange, winged character. Her eyes got large and wide as a familiar, horrible feeling came over her.

"Meow?" Spirit asked, wondering what was going on. Angel didn't answer; she didn't even move. Instinct told her to run, to get far away from the strange being Optimus was trying to keep from destroying Megatron, now a dragon. Their argument was brought to an abrupt end when the ground under Optimus split open, and he disappeared into the lava below.

Angel snapped out of the trance, ignoring the feeling, ran towards the unsuspecting being, pounced, flattened her opponent, went into a roll, and transformed out of the roll, cutting and impressive figure with spear staff in hand. Whoever that guy was, he was going to pay for what he did to Optimus.

He took a step towards Angel.

"Destroyer? Why have you not completed your mission?" Angel dropped her spear, battle stance forgotten. After a few moments, she stammered out a, "W-who... are you?"

"I am Tigerhawk of the Vok," he answered, confused. "And you are Destroyer of the Vok. Do you not remember?"

Angel was still and silent for what seemed like forever. She finally thought of the words she wanted to say.

"I'm not Destroyer, and I'm not Vok. I am Angel, a Maximal. And since Optimus was trying to protect Megatron, even though I don't get why, it's my job to finish what he started." She twirled her staff and fell into a ready stance; inwardly hoping all this showing off would scare Tigerhawk away. It didn't.

"I was authorized to terminate you if something like this happened." Angel wanted to run away, but she willed herself to stay put.

Tigerhawk armed his machine guns and started shooting. Realizing her staff wouldn't do her any good, she dropped it and fired finger laserbolts at him. They didn't do much damage, but they did make him switch tactics. He formed rainbow hued balls of energy in his hands and launched them at her. She dodged them while forming her own blue energy balls in her hands, mirroring his offence. That didn't work. Taking a cue from Evil Angel, now known as Destroyer, she put both hands together, and formed a massive blue beam. It still missed, but Tigerhawk wasn't getting anywhere either.

He flew at her, transforming to beast mode. Angel decided he didn't know her very well, because she was nearly unstoppable (in her opinion) in beast mode. The two winged cats tangled for a while, then broke apart. Angel knew it as well as Tigerhawk: they were evenly matched. They could fight each other till the world ended, and neither would win, unless something interfered.

Something did. Spirit meowed "Watch out!" which caught both Angel and Tigerhawk's attention. The turned towards Spirit, which gave a hidden Tarantulas the opening he needed, and both winged cats were offline before they knew what hit them.

The dream made Angel jump awake. It was getting worse. She could almost make out voices now.

She'd woken up exactly where she'd fallen. That was weird; one would think Tarantulas'd love an opportunity to take Angel out.

"Spirit? What happened?" The little white cat explained that the spider'd taken Tigerhawk somewhere.

"Great. Hey, I wanna rematch! That stupid spider messed up our battle! Which way did they go?"

Spirit led the way, with Angel right behind.

Following Tarantulas' rather obvious trail (it's not easy to inconspicuously haul around an unconscious Tigerhawk around) brought the cats to a cave. Angel poked her head in and saw the last bot she wanted to see.

"Spothead." Cheetor glared at her when she used that name. Technically it wasn't an insult, but coming from Angel it was.

"Who said you could come here?"

"Who said I couldn't?"

"Go home. This doesn't concern you."

Angel puffed up her feathers and snarled, "This concerns me more than it does you. That Tigerhawk guy is responsible for Optimus' death, and I want a rematch with him." Little mechanical arachnoids started attacking them, so Angel and Cheetor dismantled the little robots while they argued.

"You don't even know what you're talking about! Tigerhawk's Tigatron and Airazor!"

"No he's not! He works for the Vok!"

"The who?"

BOOM! Forgetting their fight for a moment, Cheetor, Angel, and Spirit stuck their heads into the main part of the cave, just in time to see the remains of Tarantulas hit the floor, and two mecha-skull things float overhead and out of the cave. Tigerhawk was strung up on a web, and a laser-type device looked ready to explode.

"Angel, come and help me get Tigerhawk down," Cheetor said. Angel didn't do anything. She'd frozen again. Cheetor thwacked her on the head, and she came out of the stupor.

"THAT'S the Vok," she told him meekly.

"Help me get Tigerhawk down! This thing's gonna blow!"

"Spirit," Angel said, transforming, "Get outside." Spirit, knowing she couldn't provide any help, went outside and waited for the others to drag Tigerhawk out, just in time. The cave collapsed in a puff of black smoke.

"What was up with you in there?" Cheetor asked, setting Tigerhawk down.

"Huh?"

"You froze! You don't just freeze when you have to do something!"

Angel wasn't about to tell Cheetor she heard voices, so she said, "Mind your own business!" and punched him in the face.

"Hey! What was that for?"

"You hit me, so I hit you!"

"Oh, yeah? Well-" Cheetor hit Angel. Spirit sat down, sighing as a fistfight broke out. Her interest shifted from the feuding Angel and Cheetor to a Spark entering Tigerhawk, who woke up slowly, and then to Optimus landing beside Tigerhawk. Spirit was surprised to see Optimus, but she knew she shouldn't have been. It'd take a lot more than just a little lava to defeat Optimal Optimus.

Tigerhawk seemed confused.

"Is one of them Predacon now?" he asked, pointing at Cheetor and Angel.

"No," Optimus said, shaking his head. "Just sibling rivalry. I'll stop Cheetor, you stop Angel."

Angel was ready to take another swing at the spothead, but she saw Tigerhawk approaching out of the corner of her eye. She was ready for a rematch. Tigerhawk, however, wasn't, and made that clear when Angel wheeled around to face him. He put up his hands to signify he didn't want to fight.

Not dropping out of a battle stance, Angel asked, "Can someone tell me what's going on?"

"Tigerhawk's on our side now," Optimus explained. Angel dropped her fists, now utterly confused.

"But I thought you were-"

"Nope."

"My head hurts." Spirit pointed out Angel's headache was probably the result of fighting Tigerhawk and Cheetor in the same day.

"That doesn't make me any less confused. So," she said, turning back to Tigerhawk, "You're a Maximal."

"Yes."

"Which means you're a traitor." This wasn't the first time Cheetor had called Angel a traitor. It was becoming a sore point, especially when he brought up the time “she” tried to destroy the base.

"Hey, I was defending myself! Tigerhawk said he was gonna kill me!"

“I didn’t have any control over that,” Tigerhawk explained. Knowing this was a defense she herself used, she nodded understandingly.

“Angel,” Optimus said. “Go home and get some rest. You’ve seen more than your share of action today.” Angel was about to protest that because of her Spark, she could take more punishment then the average Maximal, but Spirit meowed, “I’m hungry,” so Angel sighed, picked Spirit up, and flew to the fishing hole.

The dream was MUCH worse that night. She could hear and understand voices now. They were calling out, “Destroyer... Destroyer,” beckoning her to return to them so she could fulfill her purpose. It left Angel so badly shaken that she couldn’t go back to sleep, since she knew what awaited her. She rested her head on her paws, listening to the quiet sounds of the Ark in the night.

Funny, she heard footsteps. The Ark didn’t make those noises. And, since she didn’t have anything better to do, she decided to investigate. Spirit, sleeping on the other side of the room, briefly opened her eyes, and then went back to sleep.

Poking her head out into the corridor, she saw Tigerhawk pacing nervously. She exited her room loudly, making her presence known, so he wouldn’t think she was sneaking up on him.

“What are you doing up?” he asked her.

“Couldn’t sleep.”

“You had the dream too, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, I think. What happens in yours?”

“I’m sitting in a circle of stones, and I almost hear voices...”

Angel’s ears flopped down, and she said, “They’re calling you. They call me, too.”

“It appears as though we have the same problem. You, too, are... like me?”

“Made by those Vok guys? Yeah. Except you seem to know what you’re doing, and everything I do happens by accident.”

“Like what?”

“Once I made a funnel cloud. I think. It appeared and carried Dinobot away before he could attack me again.”

“Would you like me to teach you to control what you can do?”

Angel stared up at him, not sure what to say. She practically hated that aspect of herself, and that would be embracing it, wouldn't it? On the other hand, she would be able to fight better, and probably be less of a threat to herself.

"Okay."

In the morning, Optimus found Tigerhawk instructing Angel on various techniques, then demonstrating, and then having Angel try it out. Angel was a quick learner, so they progressed quickly. In short, Angel had become a force to be reckoned with literally overnight. And, as childish as she was, Angel knew this power wasn't for fun. When/if she used it, it was only if she meant it. Which, she thought rather disappointedly, meant she couldn't use it on Cheetor.

Tigerhawk made an energy ball the color of flame, and told Angel to try it. Hers turned out blue. And it was pretty. She didn't think any of this stuff could be pretty, but it was. Maybe this wasn't so bad, after all.

She heard Optimus in another room, reading out of this old book thing. The Coverment of Primal, or something. What he was reading described Tigerhawk, and she wondered for a moment why she wasn't mentioned in that thing. Well, you shouldn't always believe what you read.

Later, Optimus, Depth Charge, Tigerhawk, and Angel wound up underground. Everyone was very serious, so Angel picked up something big was going to happen. She didn't know what, because no one ever told her these things. Optimus announced Megatron had found the Nemesis, and Angel felt much better when Tigerhawk asked what the Nemesis was.

"The ship that shot down the Ark," Optimus replied. That would have to be a pretty big ship, Angel thought. Since she was bored, she imagined herself flying a ship, attacking the Nemesis (or what she thought looked like the Nemesis), and taking it down, becoming a hero to all. And then they'd give her a parade. With confetti. And butterflies.

"Angel, come on! We don't have time to waste!" Optimus looked annoyed.

"Huh? What's going on?"

"Depth Charge is going to the Nemesis, and we're going to fly to where it is."

"Oh." Score another one for Angel! Now she was going on a really important mission, and Cheetor had to stay at the base! Ha!

Her triumph faded as she found herself flying over an ocean, with nothing in sight but water.

And then there was an explosion. A BIG explosion. Water flew everywhere.

"He did it! Depth Charge did it!" Optimus exclaimed. Angel was disappointed. Now that smelly old fish would get a parade, and all she'd get was a teasing from Cheetor about how she had to fly over an ocean for nothing. No confetti. No butterflies... Her train of thought derailed when she saw bits of Depth Charge float to the surface. Now she felt bad, especially about the "smelly old fish" comment.

Optimus was saying something, but Angel wasn't paying attention. She was watching a dark thing under water get bigger... and bigger...

"Um... Optimus? What's that?" Please don't say the Nemesis...

"It's the Nemesis."

"It's really big."

"We need to get over land if we battle that thing."

Angel's mind flashed a picture of her parade getting trashed by a ship about the size of a planet. Optimus, Tigerhawk, and Angel turned around and headed for land as fast as they could.

Their fleeing stopped as soon as they got over land safely, and the three prepared for battle. At least, that's what Angel decided they did, because it sounded dramatic. In reality, they just waited for the Nemesis to catch up, which didn't take long. Angel hoped her newly learned abilities would be useful.

At Optimus' order, their assault on the massive ship of doom began. Angel felt like the odd cat out, since her beast mode didn't have any long range weapons, so sher just pretended to fire on the ship with pretend machine guns. Right now seemed like a bad time for pretending, though.

Bullets did nothing. Optimus got hurt, so he went back to the Ark, while Angel and Tigerhawk let loose their power. Angel had trouble figuring out what to use. She wasn't about to admit it, but she was intimidated by the Nemesis.

After throwing a few pretty blue energy balls, she glanced over at Tigerhawk. He seemed to be deep in thought. It didn't affect his fighting, but Angel wasn't sure now was a good time to be thinking.

After she narrowly dodged a spray of bullets, Tigerhawk grabbed her by the arm and said, "Go home. It is not safe here."

"Of course it's not safe here! There's a big, black ship trying to kill us!"

"Which is why you should not be here. Your life should not be wasted on this."

"What are you saying?!? We're gonna die?"

"I may, but you won't if you go."

"And you think my life's more important than mine?"

"You are young. Your whole life is ahead of you."

"And you're an old geezer? No way I'm going! I'm sticking it out here."

"GO!"

Angel folded her arms over her chest and said, "Nope." Tigerhawk aimed his weapons at her. She could see where this was going. They'd get into another fight, one neither could win, making them easy targets for Megatron. And both of them would die. If she went, Tigerhawk could use some of his more devastating attacks without anyone in the way. He'd have a better chance of succeeding than Angel, since she was only a beginner. As stubborn as she was, Angel came to the conclusion she'd have to back down.

"'Kay. I'll go," she mumbled, and then made a beeline for the Ark, leaving Tigerhawk on his own.

She knew something was wrong when she landed outside the Ark and saw an enraged Optimus. She guessed what it was, and left him alone. She left everyone alone. She went straight to her room, ignoring all the goings on, until gravity seemed to quit. The final battle had begun.

Angel's part in the final battle was disappointingly small. Optimus was battling Megatron in the Nemesis, and everyone else was trying to get the Ark to fly. Angel didn't know the first thing about getting a working ship to get off the ground, much less a broken one. She provided failing optimism, and that's about it. Not for the first time that day, she felt useless.

And then Rhinox got some message, found a shuttle, flew it into the Nemesis, and everyone was saved. The Beast Wars were over.

And reality slapped Angel in the face. Hard. No more Beast Wars meant going to Cybertron, the planet most everyone called home. Angel thought of Earth as her home. She couldn't think of a place she'd never been to as home. She didn't even like the idea of a planet completely devoid of butterflies (she'd asked Rattrap if there were butterflies on Cybertron, and he laughed at her).

Spirit couldn't go. Angel knew that from the beginning, but it seemed like the Beast Wars would never end, so they'd be on Earth forever. But a little cat couldn't live on a mechanical planet and be happy. Angel wasn't sure she herself could be happy on Cybertron, but it looked like she didn't have much choice in the matter.

Thus, while everyone else was packing up to leave, Angel took Spirit to the fishing hole, to catch one last fish, and then to say goodbye.

"And I promise," Angel told Spirit, "if I don't like it on Cybertron, I'll come right back, and I'll live here."

Spirit seemed to take it rather calmly. She meowed the standard kind of goodbye: I'll miss you, I hope we meet again, etc. It hurt Angel's feelings a little, but she didn't want to say anything.

The final preparations were being made when Angel returned. The Maximals, with Megatron tied to the outer hull, left Earth in the shuttle Rhinox found. Optimus gave a speech, and it was probably a good one, but Angel wasn't listening. She had nose and paws pressed against a window, watching Earth get smaller and smaller, wondering if she'd ever see Earth again, and what the future held for her.