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"Soon, we will have more Predacons to serve the royalty!"
Inferno paced back and forth waiting for the creatures his queen decided to align the Predacons with. He saw no need for them, but he would do whatever the royalty commanded, he just wished they would hurry up. Now was the time for action, nothing less. They had spent the last hour working on a large oval platform, smooth on top, slightly curved on the bottom. It's function remained a mystery to Inferno.
"I grow impatient, how much longer before the pods become new predacon allies!"
Slag King continued working on the device, Skull Grotess laughed at the stupid ant. "What makes you so sure they're going to become Predacons?"
"What are you talking about dragon? They can't be anything else, Megatron commands it!"
"I'm sure he does."
"What are you up to?" Inferno reached to draw his gun "No tricks, or you'll buuuurn for your treachery!" He noticed a small glow emanating from the creature's orb and pulled his weapon. Grotess swatted the gun away with such force Inferno almost fell to the ground along with it.
"A double cross!" he cried "I must warn the royalty! But first, I'll dispose of you!"
Grotess beckoned the robot to come. "You present me with an interesting challenge robot..." he spread his wings and loomed over Inferno, " I've never killed something that wasn't alive before."
Slag King looked up from his work and saw the two squaring off. "One on one," he thought, "that's not fair. The robot's gonna need more help..."
Inferno lunged at Grotess, landing a punch on his jaw. Grotess didn't flinch, only smiled.
"Is that the best you can do?"
Enraged, Inferno struck Grotess repeatedly, but his strikes had no effect. Grotess just stood, eyes glaring down at him. Inferno returned his stare.
"So creature, you want to play rough?!" Inferno transformed to beast mode, scurrying to his gun. Grotess watched as he changed back and aimed the weapon at him.
"When you play with Inferno, you get BUUURRRNED!!!" With that Inferno ignited his gun and hurled it at the beast. Grotess took the shot on his temple and staggered back, he expected the robot to fire his gun, not throw it. Inferno lunged again at Grotess, striking him repeatedly on the temple, trying to draw first blood. Grotess reached out and grabbed Inferno by the throat, lifting him into the air as he had done only hours ago. Inferno renewed his struggled but could not break the grip.
"Unhand me creature, your destruction cannot be avoided! All traitors must die, so commands the royalty!"
"Command this." Grotess opened him mouth wide, spewing forth a geyser of flame that streaked through the robot's body. Inferno howled in pain and Grotess laughed, firing another blast directly at Inferno's head. With a final agonized scream, Inferno's head exploded in a shower of half melted circuitry and metal. Grotess, still holding the burning body in his hand, tossed it absently to the ground and returned to Slag King.
"No more disturbances."
" 'preciate it, but I'm done." Slag King stood, looking his work over. "With this we can get high enough to launch the tractor beams and snag some of those Stasis pods. After that, it's smooth sailing." He looked over at Inferno's melting corpse. "What're we gonna tell Smeghead Megs?"
"Megatron? Should he ask, we tell him the Beasts arrived and destroyed his little pet. It's nothing Jaguar wouldn't have done to him anyway...
Slag King nodded. "Ready for launch?"
The two stepped on the platform. Grotess looked skyward.
"Let's go."
********
Within the Maximal base Optimal Optimus, Violet Horn, and Power Jaguar looked over a map of the area, trying to decide what Megatron and Aligatron's next move would be, should they be in cahoots. Violet Horn had dispatched Yellow Giraffe and Flying Attacker to scout the area and see if there were any unusual goings on, while the rest of the Beasts and Maximals remained on standby.
Tired of waiting around, Cheetor decided to give Goldar a tour of the base.
"Well, you've already seen the control room, so I'll show you Rhinox's lab."
"Uh, is he going to be okay with that?"
"Sure he is! He's got his nose to a monitor all day in the control room anyway. C'mon."
As the two headed down the hall, Goldar stopped suddenly. "Hey," he tapped on a sealed door marked TOP SECRET, "What's this?"
"Oh, that's where we keep the classified Cybertronian files. Between you and me, Optimus is real anal about that room. I'm starting to wonder."
"Hmmm... wanna take a look?"
Cheetor shook his head "No way, if we got caught-"
"Then we just won't get caught." Goldar produced a small sliver of metal from his armor and slid it into the slot for access. Before he could jimmy the lock, Cheetor tapped him on the shoulder
"Black widow, six o clock!"
Goldar slipped the sliver out of the lock and back into his armor as Blackarachnia walked by. She stopped and looked at Goldar, recognizing him as a Battle Beast.
"What," she grumbled " is the circus in town?"
"Speaking of the circus," Goldar shot back "What freak show did you escape from?"
Cheetor got between the two "Hey, come on guys! Blackarachnia, Optimus has been looking for you, he's in a meeting with Power Jaguar and Violet Horn right now."
"Oh, so there's more of these things running around? That's just great." She walked a few steps before turning around and adding "I hope they're all housetrained."
Cheetor moved Goldar along in the other direction before he could reply. "Don't worry about her, she and Silverbolt have a real silicon chip on their shoulder."
"In that case, they'd get along great with Violet Horn."
"I've been meaning to ask you about that, what's the deal with Jaguar and Violet Horn? They've been at each other's throats since they got here."
"Oh, that. They've never liked each other. Violet Horn thinks anyone who didn't have studies or a wealthy family is beneath him. Most of us Fire Beasts come from the lower class, so we had to fight for everything we own. He thinks we're no better than underfoot vermin. That's why he hates to see Jaguar in a position of power, it makes him his equal.
"Oh."
"But you want to know what really set it off? A couple of years ago, two of our Beasts, Slo and Pangol, got into a real bad fight with a couple of Wood Beasts, Brown Gyro and Hedgehog."
"But I thought Hedgehog was a Fire Beast?"
"I'm getting to that. The fight ruined a lot of the forest, majorly pissed Violet Horn off. But then the Power Sunburst came into Pangol and Slo, and the damage they did before didn't even compare to what they did afterwards, they almost killed Hedgehog and Brown Gyro in the process. Me, Jaguar, and some of the other Fire beasts showed up and tried to separate them, but Violet Horn just stood there and watched, he wanted to see who was stronger. When we finally got them apart, Violet Horn blamed Jaguar for what happened and sucker punched him." Goldar laughed "But right after that, Jaguar got up and royally beat the ever loving crap outta him! Hedgehog couldn't believe that Violet Horn attacked Jaguar after all his bull about being to good to resort to violence, so he left with us and became a Fire Beast."
"Primus! That must have been embarrassing for Violet Horn!"
"You got that right. He's been afraid of Jaguar ever since."
"You wouldn't know it..."
"He always acts big in front of his Beasts, he's gotta keep up appearances. Since there weren't that many beasts around, a lot of them don't know what happened. But enough of that, got any pictures of when you went Transmetal 2? Jaguar said you looked different the last time he saw you."
"Sure, this way."
"And what the heck is a Transmetal anyway..."
**********
Flying Attacker sped into the room, almost colliding with Jaguar.
"S-sorry." she excused herself and ran to Violet Horn. "Violet Horn, I spotted Skull Grotess and Slag King with one of the enemy robots!"
"Excellent Flying Attacker! Did you perchance notice their activities?"
"Yes," she nodded "Skull Grotess was melting the robot into a pool of liquid metal."
Jaguar looked at her, confused, "With the robot's consent?"
Flying Attacker thought about it a moment. Jaguar rolled his eyes and almost laughed. "I was kidding."
Flying Attacker was lost in thought.
"No, no, I believe he was resisting. Skull Grotess did not have the robot's permission."
Optimus tapped his fingers on the table. "So they're already starting to turn on each other. That's a good sign. This little allegiance may not last as long as we expected."
"I doubt that," Jaguar crossed his arms. "Since there was only one Pred, Grotess was probably ordered to eliminate him. They'll have a story to tell Megatron if he asks."
Violet Horn nodded grudgingly. "Tis true. Flying Attacker, did you spy any other activities?"
"Yes, Slag King made reference to something called a Stasis Pod."
Optimus stood suddenly, startling Jaguar and Violet Horn. "The stasis pods! This is bad, if they're trying what I think they're trying-"
"Uh, you want to clue us in here?"
Optimus looked at Jaguar and realized that the Beasts obviously didn't know the situation with the stasis pods.
"The stasis pods are Maximal protoforms stuck in orbit around the planet, ejected by our ship shortly before we crashed here on Earth. Though their primary programming makes them Maximals, tampering can turn them into Predacons. If Megatron 's intent on creating a new army of Predacons, we don't have a chance." Optimus stepped from the room, changing to flight mode, "Get on and let's go!" Jaguar hopped on his left side and Violet Horn his right. A moment later, they were gone.
**********
Megatron had to physically restrain Snapper to keep him from firing upon the Flying Squirrel they saw entering the base.
"You fool!" he sputtered as Snapper retreated into his shell, "She's obviously spotted something. It's only a matter of time before the base becomes...undermanned, yes."
Five minutes later, Optimal Optimus, along with Violet Horn and Jaguar, jetted from the base, much to Megatron's delight.
"This is better than I had hoped for, yes." He looked at the group of Predacons he still had: Rampage, Dinobot, Manterror, Waspinator, and Snapper. "This is it Predacons. In mere moments the Ark shall be ours, the universe shall once again belong to the Decepticons, and Megatron's name shall be echoed in the ears of those who were, and those yet to come!" A smile touched his lips as he looked skyward and saw a figure approaching. "And yet another turn for the better. Welcome back Skyshadow."
Skyshadow swooped down from the air and landed next to Megatron. "Hey boss. I hear we have new pals, the Lazerbeasts, right."
"For the time being, yes."
"Oh," he smiled "Is that why Inferno was helping those other two out? Just wanted to warn you, I saw one of those Beastformers you'd told me about spying on them. She's probably made it back by now."
"I am aware of that, yes. No doubt That's where Optimus and those other beasts were headed."
"You don't have to worry about Optimus stopping them. They were getting ready to launch when I decided to come back and warn you. Those pods are as good as ours."
Megatron looked at Skyshadow "How do you know about the plan to capture more pods?"
"I overheard the two lazerbeasts with Inferno talking about it. Didn't make me your number one spy for nothing huh?"
Megatron laughed. "I see. Skyshadow, I have assembled the rest of the Fuzors on the opposite side of the base, you're to lead them as our second wave. Do not leave your position until you have my say so."
"It'd be a pleasure. Brilliant as always Megatron." Skyshadow bowed and flew off.
**********
Quickstrike backed as far as he could against the rocks as Terragator and Buzzclaw advanced on him. "Ah'm warnin' ya, ah'll slag yah both!"
"OOOooOOOoo..." Buzzclaw continued forward, "I'm so scared." Terragator moved closer and Quickstrike lashed at him with his cobra head. It had no effect, bouncing harmlessly off the fuzor's armored shell.
"Well," Terragator smiled, "That was ineffective..."
Quickstrike looked to Aquasting for help, but his fellow Fuzor merely hovered above them, amused by the scene. The lazerbeasts sent with them merely watched. Condorassin found it extremely funny, the other Fuzors had picked on Quickstrike as soon as they left Megatron.
"Not so tough when you're not sucking up to Megatron, are you?" Terragator continued to advance on Quickstrike until Skyshadow landed between them. "Come now, what's the problem here?"
Quickstrike got a little closer. "Lucky you showed up when you did Skyshadow, ah was about to kick some major keister!"
Terragator snapped at him, sending Quickstrike scurrying back against the wall. Skyshadow laughed. "No need for that Terragator, we have a job to do." he looked to the Lazerbeasts, waving them over. "A very special job, courtesy of Ghost Aligatron."
Quickstrike transformed to robot mode, "Now hold up there partner, you ain't plottin' behind Megatron's back are ya? There's some serious penalties for that..."
Skyshadow whipped around, grabbed Quickstrike by the throat and slammed him against the rocks. Quickstrike could feel the hot exhaust coming from Skyshadow as he sneered, baring the rows of teeth that lined his jaws.
"You listen to me you little skidplate sucker, I told you before, and I'll tell you one last time, I don't serve that idiot. None of us Fuzors do except you. You're a pathetic disgrace to us, and if you open your mouth about this to Megatron, or get in my way, Primus help you I'll shred every neuro fiber from you one by one, you got that?"
Petrified, staring at Skyshadow's malicious set of teeth and eyes, Quickstrike could only nod. Skyshadow smiled, to Quickstrike it was just as scary as his sneer.
"Good. I knew you'd come around." With that he tossed Quickstrike to the ground turning to the Lazerbeasts. Condorassin was the first to approach.
"Orders from Aligatron eh?"
**********(Megatron, rampage, dinobot, manterror, waspinator, snapper)(skyshadow, injector, terragator, quickstrike, buzzclaw, condorassin, monkey fighter, puzzlecolor, kickback, flying dragon)
(rhinox, blackarachnia, silverbolt, cheetor, goldar, death spider, hedgehog, dog hunter, big serow, dream eater, flying attacker, yellow giraffe)
The attack caught everyone in the Maximal base off guard. Megatron had rushed their defenses, rendering them assunder and exposing the Maximals to a full frontal attack. Rhinox tried to assemble everyone for a plan.
"Blackarachnia, Silverbolt, protect the Beastformers, they can't handle the kind of firepower Rampage is packing-"
"Whoa!" Big Serow shoved Rhinox aside. "We ain't those stupid primates, we don't need your protection!" The other Wood Beasts gathered behind him as he spoke. "We're Beastformers, we've mixed it up with Decepticons, we'll do the same with Predacons."
Blackarachnia looked to Rhinox. "Let them fight, it's their fault if they get killed."
Big Serow snorted distastefully at Blackarachnia. "I wasn't asking permission." He turned to the other Beasts. "TO THE DEATH!" They shouted as one "TO THE DEATH!"
"Keep firing!" Megatron commanded. The Maximals were putting up little resistance, hiding behind the equipment and fallen debris. Thinking victory near, Megatron neared an overturned table, received a solid punch from Rhinox. Megatron was driven back, but not knocked down.
"Ah," he rubbed his jaw. "Do you really think you can stop us? Your defeat is eminent!"
Big Serow jumped out from behind Rhinox "Defeat this!" With his right hand morphed to a drill, he swung at Megatron, grazing his chest in a shower of sparks. Megatron backed away, surprised by the Beast's rage. Rhinox drew his twin machine guns and fired.
As Snapper grappled with Dream Eater, Blackarachnia turned to attack Rampage head on. He laughed when he saw her standing alone.
"You face me alone? You must pray for death, I will be your answer."
Blackarachnia just smiled "I think not."
Hedgehog and Dog Hunter ran their weapons through Rampage's knees from behind. With a scream, Rampage fell to the ground, twisting to see his attackers. Hedgehog took his spear and ran it through the upper part of Rampage's leg, wrenching the appendage from it's socket.
"AAAAAHHH! Rampage, TERRORIZE!"
In a mass shifting of gears and wiring, Rampage reverted back to crab mode, catching both Beasts in his massive claws. They could feel their armor strain as he began to crush them. Blackarachnia kicked rampage squarely in the face and again on the top of his shell, but to no avail. With a resounding laugh Rampage swatted her with a claw, following up with a missile blast that brought a shower of rocks and debris on top of her. Blood began to trickle from Dog Hunter's mouth. His armor was turning in on him. Barely able to breathe now, Hedgehog managed to pull one arm free. Rampage laughed, amused by the Beast's attempt to free himself.
"There is no escape animal, no amount of injury can stop me."
"I-is that right?"
Hedgehog reached behind him and pulled two quills free. With a single motion, he buried them in Rampage's eye, sending them straight through and out the other side of his head, rupturing his second eye as well. For the first time in a long time, Rampage screamed in real pain. Flinging the Beasts away he began lashing out randomly and caught Waspinator in one of his swipes. Waspinator smashed into a wall and slid to the ground. Flying Attacker stood over him, weapon in hand. Waspinator looked up at her, barely able to move.
"Oh no...beast girl going to slag Waspinator!"
Flying Attacker tilted her head to one side. "What does this 'slag' mean?"
Manterror tried repeatedly to behead Yellow Giraffe, but could not get past the beast's defenses. He became more and more irritated, mostly due to the fact that the animal wouldn't stop talking.
"So you guys want to take over the universe right? What then? I mean, are you gonna have dinner parties and invite each other over for a cup of energon, or maybe you could finally settle down with the missus, have a few cyber kids, say how do you guys reproduce anyway-
"SHUT....UP!!!!"
Manterror lashed at Yellow Giraffe again, missing him by an inch. The giraffe grabbed his claw as it whizzed past him and slammed Manterror into a nearby computer. Half dazed by the blow, Manterror couldn't escape as Yellow Giraffe put him in a massive bear hug.
"Ha! Now I gotcha! So tell me, who came up with the new Predacon design? I mean, what was wrong with the old Decepticon symbol, and who had the bright idea to change the name to Predacons, I mean, what was wrong with Decepticons, were you all that big a fan of the original group, there were a lot of em, what about the Seacons, or Terracons...."
Manterror hung his head, wishing for a stray shot to end his misery.
Death Spider had wrapped Dinobot in webbing three times and yet the creature continued forward, shredding the wrapping as soon as it took hold. Swinging his weapon, Death Spider was met by one of Dinobot's talons, slicing his weapon in half. With a swift kick, Dinobot sent the beast to the ground. Blood trickled from a fresh wound on his temple. Growling with a savage fury Dinobot latched onto his arm and began swinging him about wildly, eventually smashing Death Spider through a computer monitor. Through the sparking circuitry Death Spider caught a glimpse of Dinobot headed towards Flying Attacker before he passed out.
Goldar and Cheetor ran to make their way back to the control room. Cheetor had showed Goldar the original Transformers housed within the Ark, retelling the incident in which Megatron first tried to destroy them and alter time. The explosions cut their tour of the base short, and as they raced back, Cheetor had a horrible realization.
"Slag!" he stopped short, Goldar stopping a few feet off. "We can't get out."
"What do you mean?"
"The base is rigged, if the Predacons attack, this room seals itself off. Last line of defense from the Preds."
The emergency lights had began to flash, bathing them in sharp orange and yellow hues.
"Great." Goldar approached the door that blocked their way. "Can't we open it with a code word or something?"
"Yeah, but only Rhinox knows it."
"So we're stuck here..."
"Yeah."
"Crap."
Megatron grabbed Rhinox in his jaws and hurled him into Big Serow. The two slammed into the main computer, bringing forth a shower of sparks as the security weapons shut down. Megatron laughed at their attempts to stand. "Fools, at last, victory is mine!"
Big Serow got to his feet and charged Megatron, weapon in hand. Absently, Megatron swatted the creature away, but Big Serow got to his feet again, reared back, and tossed his weapon. Megatron turned his head away a split second before the serrated blade could strike his eye, instead burying itself in his neck.
"AArrrhh!" He wrenched the object from his being and glared at Big Serow. "How dare you... It's time I fought fire with fire, yes. Skyshadow, attack!"
The Predacon fuzors swarmed into the maximal base, prepared for their final strike. Big Serow sneered at them, "This the best you can do, robot?"
"No," Condorassin stepped out from behind Megatron. He was joined by Monkey Fighter, Puzzlecolor, Kickback, and Flying Dragon, "But we are."
**********
The levitation platform had taken Skull Grotess and Slag King as high as they needed to go, just enough for the tractor beam to do it's job. Slag King adjusted the settings one more time, then nodded.
"That'll do it. It'll take about five minutes to charge, then we better get off. I'm not sure how much power this baby will put out when it starts to pull them in."
Grotess looked off into the distance and squinted. "Someone's coming."
Slag King looked around and saw nothing. "Wha? Where?!"
"About a mile off."
Slag King shook his head, he forgot that being a dragon, Grotess had heightened senses. "Megatron?"
"No. He should be attacking the Maximal base by now." Grotess closed his eyes and allowed him mind to wander, the forms of the newcomers became clearer behind his closed lids, clearer...
"Optimal Optimus, Power Jaguar, and Violet Horn."
"That's just great, now what?!"
"We kill them."
Violet Horn spotted the two Lazerbeasts immediately.
"In the distance there, tis Grotess and Slag King."
"Alright boys." Optimal Optimus upped his speed "Lazerbeasts are your forte. Any ideas?"
Jaguar narrowed his eyes to cut down on the wind. "Slag King's nothing, so he'll probably stay behind and defend the platform. Crap, that means we gotta tangle with Grotess..."
"I take it that's a bad thing."
"Try to imagine a metric ton of energon going off in your face."
"Thank you for that image Jaguar."
Skull Grotess spread his wings and stepped off the platform, hovering.
"Stay here and make sure the stasis pods are gathered."
"Can do."
Grotess slowed his breathing and closed his eyes. As he did so, a swell of gold and purple energy began to surround his very being. Slag King watched the dragon as he continued to summon his inner strength and smiled, thinking of the fireworks yet to come. Grotess clenched his hands into tight fists, allowing the power to flow through him, its presence heightening his senses tenfold. The maximal and Beasts would not live to see another sunrise. His eyes snapped open, the energy played about his fists, so thick it could have been a solid mass. His eyes blanked and filled with a soft purple glow, soon increasing in intensity, making it impossible for Slag King to stare directly at him. A dry smile came across the face of Skull Grotess as he readied himself.
Violet Horn saw the energy engulfing Grotess and shouted "We've been discovered!"
"Optimus, dodge!"
No sooner had Jaguar shouted the words, a purple beam of raw energy shot straight through Optimus, causing immediate system shutdown. Grotess laughed as the three plummeted towards the earth below.
To be continued......
