A Woman's Touch

A Woman’s Touch

Author's Note: I got this inspiration from a conversation that a few of you other authors and I shared. You know who you are, and all that jazz. Also, the time continuum basically went to the dogs after Optimus went to try to negotiate with the Planet-Buster in the end of the first season. He came back safe, since the Vok had other ideas that they wanted to toy with. Also, the factions were in their respective bases, so no stealing pods for that spider duo. Then there was a plot change, and I think that it was . . . good. No fuzors, however, since I don’t feel like taking care of too many people. And then I got bored, so I added in a new element. This is also like the “Chibis!” story that I wrote a while ago. If anyone wants to pick it up again, please do, since I’m out of ideas. Thanks!

The light faded away. Rattrap groaned, and tried to move, but something . . . someone was draped over his lower half. He started to push himself up, when he saw his hands.

Pink.

Flesh.

Lithe.

He looked down at his chest, and screamed shrilly, in not his normal voice. He wasn’t expecting to see what he did. An unfamiliar, but male, voice groaned. “Whoever that was, shut up. My head hurts.”

“W-who was dat?” Rattrap asked.

“Airazor. Wait. This isn’t my voice.”

Rattrap looked at his . . . her legs, or rather, tried to. A tan, lithe girl was sprawled across them, her yellow-orange-tan hair pulled up sharply into a pony-tail. She wore a spotted sports jacket, over a cobalt blue top. Her legs were covered in swishy pants, like the type runners use, while she had slim running shoes on.

Cheetor opened her eyes, revealing them to be hazel, in her delicate, tanned face. She was young, looking to be about twelve, by human standards. She moved herself off of the smaller, but somewhat muscular, woman she had been sprawled across. They looked each other over. Cheetor was silent, looking at the confused warm brown eyes of the small woman. Her brown hair was cropped short, ending at her jaw. She was wearing loose-fitting clothing, with what she could tell, a lot of pockets, and used them to hide things in. Specifically, she was wearing a over-large jean jacket and dark jeans, with a mouse-grey shirt on.

“Rattrap?”

“Kiddo?”

“This is bad.”

A woman, a bit taller than Rattrap, and dressed in greys, but with a dash of red here or there, walked over to the two, and crouched close. She, also, had brown hair, but longer than Rattrap’s, and thicker, hanging around her shoulders in loose waves. “Rattrap? Cheetor?”

“Who . . . Big Bot?”

She nodded, and Rattrap sighed. Then something hit him. “What about Airazor?”

“I’m male, you dope.”

Optimus sighed, and said, “Cheetor, go get Dinobot. I’ll get Rhinox.”

Fifteen minutes later, Cheetor came back with a stunning young woman, younger than Rattrap. Her features were slightly sharp, within a European face. Striking light blue eyes glared around the room. She was in a brown and tan natural leather over-jacket, and royal-blue linen tunic, with brown leather pants, with boots up to her knee. She had delicate eyebrows, and dark brown, curly hair that reached down to her waist. She glared at Rattrap, as the shorter woman said, “Choppuhface, ’ya’re stunnin’, ta say da least.”

Rattrap’s voice was higher, but it had the same accent. However, when he heard Dinobot’s voice, the small woman had to sit. It was smooth, unhalting, no snarling undertones, nothing. It sounded, to Cheetor, when he first heard it, like a well-made instrument, honey-smooth, honed to perfection, while her own voice was still high, in development.

“You say one more thing about me, and I’ll rip your slagging optics . . . eyes out.” She looked around the room, and her eyes settled upon the one male. “Airazor, then. Primus . . .”

“Yes,” the Asian-looking woman hanging upon his waist replied, “and Tigatron.”

Just as Optimus arrived with Rhinox, an incoming transmission alert went off. The leader walked over, grey robes fluttering, and opened it. A dark-complexioned woman, tall by her looks, with violet eyes glared worriedly into the calm grey eyes of the Maximal leader. Optimus sighed, and rubbed between her eyebrows tiredly. “Megatron?”

“Yes . . .” The voice was commanding, but it softer than usual; a woman’s. “Optimus, I take it.”

“Correct. You and your troops have had our issue, then?”

“All except for Blackarachnia, who, oddly, has become male.”

“I feel her agony,” Airazor called over.

A male’s face moved in beside Megatron’s, as Airazor was walking over to Optimus. The voice was smooth, deep, but had a slight tremor in it. “Airazor, we have to talk about this.”

“Truce between you and me . . . you accept?”

“Yes.”

Megatron irritably pushed Blackarachnia out of the way again, and said, “These aliens are starting to annoy me.”

“I think that those two are right, Megatron. Would you and your troops agree to a truce?”

“Yes.”

“We’ll meet you by the standing stones to place out the conditions.”

“We will leave within fifteen cycles.”

Terrorsaur looked to Waspinator, who was watching her. “Waspy, buddy, you look like you stepped outta the R-pool again.”

“I don’t feel good.”

Terrorsaur stopped, and blinked. That was the first time in a long time that he had heard Waspinator say something in the first perspective. She reached out, and took the younger woman’s hand reassuringly. Within an instant, Waspinator had embraced Terrorsaur, shuddering. “I can access everything . . . nothing was damaged . . . like . . . like before, when . . .”

“Waspinator, calm down. Lemme look at ’ya. C’mon, Waspy, lookit me, I mean . . . well . . . you can’t look worse than I do.”

Waspinator reluctantly looked up at her companion, and earned a reassuring smile from the pale red-head. “Look, you and I both know that this isn’t going to be easy, right?”

“Yeah . . . but you don’t understand, Terrorsaur. You . . . you remember what it was that caused me to become who I was, to willingly delete parts of my memory so . . . so I wouldn’t remember the horrors that we had . . . that we had . . .”

“Waspy, don’t, please . . . I mean . . . aah, here comes the waterworks.”

Tarantulus, now looking like a heavily-built ninja-ess from Japan, walked in, trying to put her hair up and out of the way. She stopped, and looked over the two other humans. She’d seen neither before, but at least one looked familiar, with a crimson cloth jacket, creamy shirt, and dark jeans with red boots. Her hair was fiery-red, slightly curly, and hung down almost to her waist, while bright, intelligent eyes were slightly dulled with concern for her friend.

On the other hand, the smaller one was being cradled within the red-head’s arms. She was crying softly, so Tarantulus couldn’t see her eyes. However, her hair was extraordinary. It was cropped to just below shoulder-length, and was the most perfect shade of gold. She was wearing a forest-green tunic, with a black shirt underneath, from a quick glance. Her pants were wide-legged, made from a thin cloth, and were a magnificent shade of midnight-blue.

Terrorsaur glared at the once-spider. The ninja blinked her dark, slanted eyes in return. “We’re leaving. Megs has a truce arranged between us and the Maximals, so we’re going to the Standing Stones to figure everything out.”

The golden-haired woman turned, and blinked at Tarantulus, revealing her eyes to be lavender. She sighed, but didn’t let go of Terrorsaur’s hand, holding onto one last vestige of comfort. “We’re coming.”

As they followed the ninja outside, Terrorsaur roughly rubbed away her friends’s tears, whispering, “Try not to remember. You’ll do fine. After all, remember that I was there with you, too.”

Optimus glared at her hair hanging over her face, and tried once more to pull it all back. Cheetor touched her leader’s arm, and said, “It isn’t all one length. That’s why it isn’t all going back.”

“Primus. One more unnecessary issue.”

“Gee, you’re a wonderful morning person,” Rhinox commented dryly, chuckling warmly. Although her black hair was densely curly, she didn’t have too much trouble, since it was cropped short to her skull, with only two long strands reaching down to her waist from behind her ears. Rhinox sighed, and leaned further back against one of the rocks, looking over her dark-skinned hands once more. She was used to the army-green metal that had once formed them. Moving her eyes slowly over her new body, she saw the thick, brown, rough-woven cloth that consisted of her sweatshirt, and then beneath that was a softer green sleeveless shirt. Her thick arms and legs were powerful, not nearly as powerful as they had once been. But, besides Dinobot, who looked like she could take on anybody at the moment, Rhinox was the strongest.

Dinobot, however, didn’t feel anywhere as he . . . she, Dinobot corrected herself, looked. She looked at her hands, calloused, but thin. Her wrists were the same: thin but strong. She sighed, and closed her eyes, balling a fist, and looked down again, seeing the shape her hand made. She couldn’t even lift the sword that had once belonged to her, that had been standing beside the CR chamber, waiting for her when she got out. Cheetor hadn’t noticed . . . At least, Dinobot hoped that she hadn’t noticed . . .

Flipping her hair over her shoulder, she called down from where she had perched herself upon a high pillar. “They’re coming.”

“Finally,” Rattrap mumbled.

Optimus blinked at Airazor and Tigatron, who were whispered something between themselves somewhat earnestly. She cleared her throat, and the two looked up with slightly-guilty looks upon their faces. Optimus sighed. “Sorry to break up the argument, but if you didn’t hear Dinobot, the Predacons are approaching.”

“Oh,” Airazor replied, and stood, then helped her close friend to her feet.

Megatron was the first to walk closer. Instantly, she knew that the one in greys was Primal, and the African woman was Rhinox, just judging by size and color co-ordination. Airazor was the next easiest, since he was the only male there. Rattrap’s identity came to her next, then Cheetor’s. Finally, she looked up at a pillar, where a dark beauty sat, her looks slightly marred by her frowning glare. Megatron blinked, then whispered, “Pit . . . Is that you, Dinobot?”

“Eat slag and die.”

Terrorsaur could be heard snickering at the venom dripping from the smooth voice, as was Rattrap. “Looks like it is, wouldn’t you think?”

“By looks . . . I wouldn’t originally think so, no.”

“Great. Lovely. Shut up and hurry up with the terms of the truce. I have training to get done.”

“Woah!”

Everyone stopped, to try to find out the source of the new voice. They ended up turning towards a third group, which consisted mainly of, surprise, surprise . . . femmes. One with a British accent said, “Well, this is lovely. They’re all girls. I hope it’s reversible.”

“I don’t!” a guy’s voice called out. He winked and grinned at a the two groups, getting dirty looks in return.

An angry sigh caused him to stop dead. “Dannn, enough. You’re so dead if you continue with this behavior.”

“Miss Special’s got a point,” a strawberry-blonde said, smiling. “And looking at them . . . they don’t think that you have the right . . . uh . . . how do I put this nicely?”

“You aren’t the best of boys?”

“Miss Special, please, try to be nice,” the British-accented one said, looking at the older girl slightly disapprovingly.

A fourth girl ran into sight, carrying long metal . . . sheaths? The blonde smirked at the weaponry, and as soon as the auburn-haired girl had caught up with them, she started handing the swords out silently. Each had an engraved name upon them, both on sword and on scabbard. Finally, three were left. She blinked at all three, then set about setting the broadsword over her right shoulder. Once the katana and the Japanese short sword were secure at her left side, she looked at the two groups. “Bad odds for us girls, I’d say. Oh, well. That sucks.”

“Who the Pit are you?!” Megatron screeched, enraged.

The strawberry-blonde smiled, and said, “Oh! Sorry! I’m Starath, this is Sapphire, Miss Special, Dannn, and Sinead. The others should be here soon . . . shouldn’t they?”

The one called Sinead nodded. “I wasted only enough time to grab your swords, and nothing else. They should be here in fifteen.”

“Minutes or hours?” Miss Special asked, looking around the two groups, and, seeing her target, smiled. “Well, Inferno turned out not-too-badly.”

“ . . . you’re scaring me.”

“Sinead, stop taking everything so seriously!”

“Believe me, I would if I could. But I can’t. Character flaw.”

“Ooh, that sucks.”

“Yeah, I’d certainly say so.”

“Would you mind telling us why you’re here?” Optimus asked, feeling her head oddly start to ache.

Sapphire looked to Sinead, who shrugged. “Guess it’s up to me, then. Basically, we wanted to come to the Beast Wars and meet you all. Only . . . something was screwed up, and we basically got screwed over, since we didn’t specify which Beast Wars universe we wanted to land in. So, instead of meeting you as bots . . . man, these Vok are brutal with their so-called punishments.”

There was a teasing whistle, and a raucous voice called out, “Hey, Fearless Leader! Lookit Lover-girl up there!”

Sinead’s face drained of all color, then flushed to an angry crimson. Her voice was low and silky, and the one who yelled out the jeer immediately shut up, seeing that a wrong move was made. “StarGazer, if you do not shut up, I’ll make you. Comments like that are completely unnecessary, and you know how I feel about that line of thought. Got it?”

“Yes,” came the quiet answer.

“You gonna try that tease again?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“’Cause you’ll ram those swords of yours up my butt faster than I could run.”

“Anything is faster than your run.”

“Hey! We dwarves are actually very deadly over short sprints! Completely wasted on long distance!”

The anger lifted, as the two began arguing over who was better, Gimli or Aragorn, a favorite pastime of theirs. Sapphire butted in at a glaring silence, “Frodo?”

“Is a baby,” StarGazer said, as she tried “looking down” at Sinead.

The taller one simply just stood straighter, then gave the shorter one a pious look. Cheetor laughed, and commented, “This looks just like an argument between Rattrap and Dinobot!”

StarGazer, always ready for a quarrel, said, “Yeah, but we’re better at it!”

Sinead snorted, laughing, and turning away. “Wow, that was wrong, Star.”

“You and your gutterball mind,” Sapphire said, laughing at the indescribable look on Rattrap’s face, as she finally got what StarGazer said.

Dinobot shuddered. “Primus. And only when I thought that Rattrap could think that badly . . .”

Terrorsaur was still laughing, and Waspinator managed to crack a few smiles, as StarGazer continued tormenting Sinead and Rattrap with evil-sounding phrases for simple things. It was a new game she had picked up, and was quite good at the presentation.

Megatron looked to Optimus, and the two started to walk around the stone circle, laying down ideas for both the truce and the handling of the real humans. Before they could finish, however, there was the clash of steel against steel, and both ran to see what was going on.

Sinead and Starath had decided that they were bored, and were play-sparring. Dinobot was refereeing, although she didn’t let herself seem as if she was watching. She sighed, and rested her head in her hands, oddly comforted in the sounds of swordfighting. Then again, she was a fighter . . .

“I’ll take on anybody in wrestling!” Rattrap piped up.

Dannn raised his hand, and said, “And I’m from New York!”

“Bring it, kid!”

Optimus sighed, and shook her head. “Something tells me, Megatron, that this could get ugly.”

“You have no need to tell me,” the darker woman said, leaning against a stone pillar.

The earth rumbled.

Everyone stopped moving.

Megatron turned to look behind her, at the center of the circle, where the ground was sunken slightly more than the rest of the area. She blinked, as a hologram shimmered to life before them. The tall, robed “woman” blinked down, then sighed. “You were mistreated by a renegade of my species. I apologize. You shall be reverted to your forms that you were meant to have. Also, it is in our wishes that you contain a truce, in order to preserve this world. You may mine it for that element that you seem to lack in your systems . . . Energon, I believe it is called by your species. Behold.”

“She” waved her hand, and the Beast Warriors were surrounded in light. They re-emerged after a moment, and all but Optimus, Megatron, Cheetor, Rattrap and Tarantulus were back in their original forms. The “female” Vok was nowhere to be seen. Sapphire squealed, and ran over to wrap her arms around Rattrap’s neck, then sighed in bliss, as he blinked at her. Sinead held her stomach, then whispered in a stage whisper, “Ugh . . . someone find me a barf-bag.”

Sapphire glared at Sinead, who grinned, then looked at Starath. “I dare you to hug Megsie.”

“I will if you’ll hug Dinobot.”

“Can’t.”

“So get him down here.”

“Hmm . . . that’s a possibility. But how?”

Starath leapt at the opportunity. “Dinobot! I dare you!”

Dinobot blinked down at Starath. “. . . what?”

“Oh! Sorry! I double-dare you to give Sinead a kiss!”

“STARATH!!!”

“Oh, yes, I’m trouble. You knew that, though, Sinead, did you?”

“Gwaaah! You’re more than trouble!” Sinead spluttered, turning red again. “This is so not funny.”

“Your face is!” Miss Special said, from her perch upon Inferno’s shoulders.

Sinead glared at her, then put the broadsword back into its scabbard, and crossed her arms over her chest. Rattrap was laughing, and he said, “C’mon, Choppuhface! Lookit dat face! You know dat you wanna kiss ’er!”

“You’re not right in the head,” Dinobot hissed, his optics narrowed to glowing crimson slits.

Sinead blinked, then said, “How about this, Dinobot. Only if Megs gives Starath a smooch full on the lips.”

“How dare you pull me into this!” Megatron bellowed.

“So? Starath likes you. A lot.”

“Sinead’s in love with Dinobot,” Starath countered.

“She’s an ‘I’ll die if I don’t hug him’ sort of person . . .”

“Replace ‘hug’ with ‘kiss’ for you, Dinobot.”

“Yes, but where?” Miss Special snickered quietly. StarGazer overheard this, and bit her lip, trying not to laugh.

Dinobot’s face was starting to darken, in what Rattrap quickly pointed out as a blush. Megatron’s was doing the same. Starath and Sinead were now facing each other, trying to out-do each other in how much the other loved their respective characters.

“All you’d like to do is hang off of Megatron all day!”

“So? I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with that! All you’d want to do is keep him locked up in your room all day!”

“Ooh, that was low. Somewhat true, but low.” Laughter rippled through the group, as Sinead continued, “At least I’d let him see sunlight, and be able to walk around!”

“You are accusing me of using bondage? Hah! I’d do one step better!”

“Oh, I so don’t want to know,” Megatron growled.

Dinobot winced. “This is only getting worse.”

“Primus, but I actually agree with you on that one.”

“A first.”

“Hopefully a last.”

“Hmph. How should this be ended?”

“You never have turned down a dare, Dinobot, and you know that as well as I.”

“Yes, but you have. I remember that time.”

“. . . let’s not go there.”

Dinobot snickered evilly, and then jumped down off of the pillar, and blinked at Megatron. “You first.”

“Ah, but my dear Dinobot, age before beauty, yes.”

“Exactly. You first.”

“What?! . . . Oh, I slagging hate you.”

Dinobot grinned evilly at the tyrant, and said, “Besides. Leaders are supposed to go into battle in front of their troops, are they not? Not that I am following you, of course . . .”

With a pointed glare, Megatron walked forward first, but turned about suddenly, and shoved Dinobot ahead of him. StarGazer looked up at Miss Special. “They look like second-graders who are trying to both be first, yet don’t want to be, you know? Just like asking a girl if she’d share her sandwich!”

“They’re so cute!” Miss Special said, and then laughed. “Go figure. Dinobot was pushed there first. Looklook! Oh, so not fair! KISS HER ON THE LIPS, YOU JERK, AND NOT ON HER CHEEK!”

Dinobot glared at Miss Special, then growled something indecipherable, before glaring at Megatron. “Lunatic. You’re next.”

Megatron was a full three shades darker than what he normally was. That, and he couldn’t back out. His enemies and his troops were both watching, and . . . slaggit, Terrorsaur would never let him hear the end of this. His quickly kissed Starath, then folded his arms over his chest, and glared off to one side, not at anything in particular. Starath launched herself at his waist, then hung on, giggling. Sinead was blushing hard, and wouldn’t even look at Dinobot. StarGazer called over, “You’re too cute, Sinead!”

A flash went off, and Dannn grinned over the viewfinder of his camera. “I love photography class. What about you, Sinead? How much do you love cameras?”

“Enough that I’ll shove that one up your–”

“Choppuhface!!! I found Lady Venom!”

“–huh?”

Two more girls ran up, one slightly taller than Sinead, and wearing a sword over each shoulder, as well as numerous daggers, and sharp throwing-objects strapped to her arms and legs. She blinked, then grinned at Sinead’s face. “Why are you so red? I missed something, didn’t I?”

“Kitty’s over there. That, and Lady V, he’s not here yet. This is immediately post-Quantum Surge.”

“Aah, that sucks. But you didn’t answer Tiga’s question.”

Sapphire, StarGazer, and Dannn could be heard snickering. Finally, the shortest of the three, StarGazer, piped up. “Choppuhfaces were suckin’ faces.”

Sinead wanted to crawl into a hole and die.

Dinobot glared at the shorter femme, who made a face at him. “You can’t do anything to me, Scale-Belly! Sinead would kill you faster than you could blink!”

“Dang straight,” Sinead grumbled. She grinned evilly at the blonde. “But that doesn’t mean that I can’t kill you.”

“Aah, shoot!”

StarGazer was off like a shot, to hide behind Waspinator and Terrorsaur. They looked back towards the auburn-haired girl, who was chuckling. “I’m not going to plow through those two just so I can get at you, Star. Stop hiding. I’m not going to kill you. I think that it’s a bad idea to kill off your second-in-command.”

“Not if it’s Rattrap,” Optimus said under his breath, just loud enough for Rhinox and Pacerpaw to hear. She had arrived not three minutes before, and promptly decided to latch onto the technician. She also had to be the eldest here.

He sighed, and looked to Megatron, who was blinking worriedly down at the Starath hanging around his waist. Looking over at Optimus, the Predacon leader asked, “The humans wouldn’t be able to stand the magma fumes at the Darkside.”

Optimus blinked at the tyrant. “And the Axalon doesn’t nearly have enough room . . .”

“Not unless you share rooms,” a new voice said. She smiled sweetly at Optimus. “I’m Nurannoniel.”

Sinead and Starath called over, “She loves you!”

Optimus’s face darkened slightly, and he sighed. “Sometimes, I wish I were deaf.”

Nurannoniel laughed, and replied, “Even if you were to hear the truth?”

He could only blink at her in response, as both teams had a good laugh over his facial expression.