A Blast From the Past

Part 1

Author’s note: Oh my wow, do you all know HOW long it took me to finish this fic? A little more than 2 years, that’s how long! Whew, and thank God I’ve got no writer’s block for the next part. Anyways, Beast Wars and all the original characters belong to Hasbro, Mainframe, yada, yada, yada. Kacheetah, Puddy, and Nightraptor belong to my friend Puddy and I. Yeah, you might have heard of another Nightraptor from someone else’s series (I forgot whose) but I never copied that one! So yeah, on with the fic!

On the African grasslands grazed hundreds of gazelle. There were so many, they seemed to dominate the planet.

In the thick grass some hundreds of yards away gazed fierce, yet beautiful eyes. The eyes belonged to a cheetah, which was watching every gazelle's move, deciding which one to bring down for breakfast. Her well-camouflaged coat and excellent stealth kept the gazelle unaware that danger and possibly death was nearby.

The cheetah had picked her target, a large adult male away from the herd. Never leaving her eye off her prey, the cheetah slowly stepped forward, one paw in front of the other. She crouched low and froze whenever a gazelle looked in her direction.

Eventually, the cheetah got within three hundred yards, and when the timing was perfect, she exploded into a sudden dash. The sound of distant, thumping paws made the gazelles' heads perk up and immediately, the entire herd ran away.

In only a matter of seconds, the cheetah reached her full speed, an amazing seventy-five miles per hour. To keep traction, she dug her claws into the soft earth, leaving clouds of dust behind. Eventually, the cheetah caught up to the fearful gazelle, following his zigzag ways. When she was close enough, she stuck out a paw to trip the gazelle. Fortunately, he stumbled, and the cheetah quickly took advantage of this moment by tackling her prey.

The two animals crashed to the ground, the gazelle dazed. The cheetah clamped her powerful jaws down on the throat of her victim. The gazelle kicked, but only the cheetah could decide whether it would live or not. Death was chosen, and the kicking died away.

Waiting at a boulder was another cheetah, looking quite jealous from his friend's performance. The female dragged her prey to the boulder, not needing any help.

"Well, think you can do betta?" Kacheetah asked as she strutted towards Cheetor and dropped her proof of her impressive hunting skills. She smiled, blood stained over her jaws.

Cheetor narrowed his eyes at her. He walked to the carcass and examined it. The gazelle was large and yet, the whole hunt lasted in a matter of seconds. He was a good hunter himself, but not that good.

"Fine, you win this time," he said with defeat.

"Ah HA! See? I told ya I was da bomb at this kinda stuff!" Kacheetah gloated happily.

The two cheetahs scarfed down on their breakfast. Kacheetah had only been with the Maximals for the past month, but because of her smart-alecky, mischievous attitude and her close age to his, Cheetor became attached to the femme. Kacheetah received a good vibe from the bot herself when she crash-landed on Earth. The two had quickly become inseparable friends.

After finishing up on breakfast, Cheetor realized how late they had both been out. "C'mon, let's go home,” he suggested. “Rhinox is covering for us and it’ll be a little bit before Bigbot finds out we’ve been gone.”

“You worry too much, boy,” Kacheetah commented. “Fine, let’s bounce.” The two cheetahs headed back to the Axalon, enjoying the nature and friendship of their walk.

Yet, unbeknownst to the two teenagers, two others were mere yards away.

"Man, these rocks are killin' me," one said.

"Oh quit your whinin’, Puddy," said the other.

"Hey, you don't have a fat body that forces your paws to the hard rocks!" the one known as Puddy said.

"I don't have paws," growled her sister.

"Shut up, Nightraptor."

"Hey, it's not my fault you chose a frikin' fat cat for a beastmode!" Nightraptor argued.

Puddy flattened her orange ears against her head and growled.

Nightraptor looked at her sister and sighed heavily. Both of their lives on Cybertron had been complicated lately, and waking up in their stasis pods on an unknown planet, not knowing if they were even alone or with their comrades didn’t help any more. Fortunately, neither of the sisters’ pods was badly damaged, so they both had their memory of their past still intact. They both remembered Optimus Primal, the rest of the crew, and the Axalon, but they weren’t sure if all three were on the same planet.

As the two walked along, in hope for a temporary shelter, Nightraptor heard a rustle in some nearby bushes. She froze, so did Puddy.

“What’s that?” Puddy whispered.

Nightraptor lifted her snout and sniffed the air. Both sisters hoped it was a decent-sized animal that was worth a meal; they were getting pretty hungry. Nightraptor caught the scent of the creature, and no, it was nothing worth eating, but it was the scent of a male raptor.

Velociraptor? Is this Earth? I thought they were extinct by now, Nightraptor wondered.

"Nightraptor, what is it?" Puddy asked.

“Shhh,” she said sharply.

Nightraptor ignored her sister's question. This scent confused her and interested her at the same time. She had to investigate this creature. However, raptors were raptors and Nightraptor had to keep cautious. She flexed her sickle killer claws and growled low in her throat, preparing for an attack, if not a courting ritual. A male raptor probably wouldn't want to court or mate with Nightraptor anyways. Her beast mode was of an adult, jet-black velociraptor with blue stripes fused with an eagle. She had the full body of a raptor, but had huge black wings and white tail feathers set on her backside. Puddy had the beast mode of an adult orange tabby cat with black stripes, but unfortunately, the cat she scanned was awfully overweight.

Nightraptor’s emerald, reptilian eyes scanned the area for the male. The sight of a brown and tan one caught her sight and she noticed him sniffing the air.

He had caught her scent as well.

Eventually, the male found Nightraptor and the two raptors gazed into each other’s eyes for a cycle. This gaze evoked a flashback in Nightraptor’s mind…

She had been running blind with Citagurl. She was scared and excited at the same time. This dark maze was getting more fun by the cycle with the other screaming teenagers, but what if something was protruding out that could trip her?

"Cita, do you have any idea where we're going?" She asked between breaths. This was getting tiring.

"No, I’m just following that fem," Citagurl replied, pointing to a bot that was far up ahead.

"Thunderwing!! Everybody chase Thunderwing!" A bot suddenly cried out from the girls' left.

Brutality turned and squinted down a corridor in that direction. She saw an older, dark blue and orange bot take off down another corridor. Three others followed him in pursuit. She guessed he was the one known as Thunderwing.

"C'mon, let's follow them!" Citagurl exclaimed as she grabbed Brutality's hand.

"Yeah, let's go!"

Nightraptor shook her head. “What the--?” she asked herself.

This raptor’s eyes confused her. She had never seen them before, but deep within, they were awfully familiar.

From the male’s, more known as Dinobot’s, point of view, the same thoughts were in his mind. The existence of a raptor/eagle and an abnormally big cat together in peace confused him. He had never seen them before either, but Nightraptor’s eyes were familiar to him as well.

Bah, no matter. I’ve got a patrol to tend to, Dinobot thought to himself as he shook his head from the confusion.

He gave Nightraptor one more look and walked off.

“Such weird creatures,” he said to himself. “This is definitely not Earth.”

Nightraptor didn’t want Dinobot to leave. To her, he was just a male velociraptor, but something about his eyes evoked that memory of hers, a memory that occurred at least four years ago. Now she felt sad. That memory reminded her of someone she met those years ago, someone she dearly loved, but was taken away from her, never to see her again.

“Nightraptor, you okay?” Puddy asked.

Nightraptor turned to her sister. Sadness decorated her facial features.

“You're the most awesome girlfriend anyone could have," echoed through her mind. She couldn’t stand it.

With a frustrated growl, Nightraptor shook the memories away.

“Y-yeah, I’m fine,” she replied with a choked voice. “C’mon, let’s go find a shelter.”

And with that, the winged raptor quickly turned and started walking north. Puddy wasn’t sure with what that moment of sadness was about, but asking about it when her sister was on the verge of an emotional breakdown wasn’t a good idea. She’d ask later.

So, Puddy followed Nightraptor in pursuit of a shelter. But little did both sisters know, was that they were headed in the direction of the Predacons' base.

Dinobot continued on his patrol, more frustrated than ever. The female he saw several minutes ago haunted his mind, and he couldn’t get her out.

“What’s with this female?” he asked himself. “I’ve never met her before.”

And with that last line….

"Hey, 'Blaze look at her," Thunderwing pointed. Crimsonblaze saw the fem his friend was pointing at.

"Should I fall out from behind a wall and grab her butt?" he joked.

"I DARE you, Thunder, I DARE you," Crimsonblaze laughed.

“Grrrr GET OUTTA MY HEAD!!!!!” Dinobot growled to himself, thrashing his tail side to side violently. Several birds took quick flight from their trees after hearing Dinobot’s outburst.

The raptor cursed to himself. Now this female made him act in ways that could give his position away to any Predacons that could possibly be nearby.

He took a deep breath. Calm, he thought. Be calm. CALM.

He started walking again, and this time, with a little more ease. Females were usually the last things on his mind. He should’ve meditated more often. That would help. He walked about a mile further--no Predacon activity. Some more checking, and it would be time to head back to base.

As Dinobot was about to take another step, a silvery object shined in the sunlight and caught his eye. He turned to his right, and scrutinized the area from which the object was in. As he looked closer, he could make out two of them, battered and covered in mud. Dinobot carefully walked towards them, his raptor instinct of strong curiosity overcoming him.

“Stasis pods,” he gasped as he approached them.

Yet they were both opened and empty. The protoforms were alive and walking the earth somewhere.

Dinobot looked at the ground and found raptor and feline foot tracks that led from the pods to the further grass fields.

The female’s scent was here too, and it was strong. One of the pods was covered in it, and since Dinobot was closer to the pod than he was to the female, he got a better whiff of the scent.

It was familiar. He smelled this scent before, before he even caught sight of the female raptor/eagle. He took one loud, long whiff, and…

Thunderwing smiled, enjoying his mate's voice over the audio link.

"When you come over tomorrow, I’m going to treat you like a goddess,” he said.

Dinobot stepped back, with a disgusted look on his face. Love. These were memories of love, memories that occurred about four years ago. He remembered those days very well, when he was young, and a female was the only thing on his mind. But now, he was in war, he was more serious and disciplined about it, and the thought of an attracting female in his life just meant distraction.

Dinobot then tapped the COM link on his chest and said, “Dinobot to Maximal base.”

Mere seconds later, he was replied with a chipper ~"Hey Baby, wassup my soulja?"~

Dinobot snarled in disgust. Of all people to answer, it had to be her.

“Kacheetah, I’m at coordinates 5486 and I just found two stasis pods, but they’re…”

~"For real?! Stasis pods?! Oh tyte!"~

Dinobot growled angrily, “Don’t interrupt me, female! And no, it’s not really tyte because both pods are empty.”

~"Damn, don’t need ta get an attitude, guy. Man, they’re empty? Slag, dat’s gatch. Aw’ight, I’ll inform O.P., hold on."~

Dinobot irritably waited for whatever order Optimus was going to give after hearing the news. Usually, he wouldn’t be so irritable, but the raptor despised Kacheetah very much. Her personality was a female mix of Rattrap and Cheetor, but much more “hip-hop”. When the fembot wasn’t occupied with an assignment, she spent most of her time flirting with Cheetor, or listening to her 21st century Earth music, Rap, Hip Hop, and R&B. And she would play her music LOUD. No, not too loud to disturb the whole crew, but Dinobot spent much of his spare time working out in the workout/sparring room, and it just so happened to be right next to Kacheetah’s quarters.

Dinobot really didn’t listen to music anymore; there was no time for it. The only thing occupying his mind was constant new battle strategies and how they were going to destroy the Predacons. Though back on Cybertron, before he joined Megatron’s crew, Dinobot preferred the rock 'n roll/heavy metal type of music. He admired both Cybertronian and Earth music of that kind. AC/DC always appealed to him.

Mere seconds later, Kacheetah was back on the COM link. Optimus had told her to inform Dinobot that he and Cheetor were on their way to investigate the pods and that he was to stay and guard them. Dinobot turned his attention to the pod covered in the female’s scent. He sniffed it one more time and gasped, wide-eyed.

“This scent…the tracks…those two creatures are the protoforms!” Dinobot realized.

It had to be! Sure, there were already weird creatures on this planet, but Dinobot had never seen an orange cat that size. Animals with robot forms were usually bigger because of their robotic size. And besides his horrible stench, Dinobot could definitely tell Rattrap from an ordinary rat because of the size difference.

Dinobot turned his head around and looked at the direction from which he came from. Not only was his encounter with the female there, but so was the Predacon base. He narrowed his eyes and growled low in his throat at the thought of them getting captured by the Predacons. It was a definite possibility, and he had to stop it from happening. The more soldiers on the Predacon force, the worse.

The raptor sighed in relief when the sight of Optimus and Cheetor coming in fast caught his eye. He had to tell them everything. And quick.

“Megatron!”

“Yesss?” the tyrant replied.

“I’m detecting two Maximal signatures at coordinates 3630. They’re heading in our direction!”

Megatron looked over his shoulder at Tarantulas, his face with a confused look.

“Maximals? Heading in our direction? Do they have anything with them?” he demanded.

Tarantulas got a visual on the signatures. His brow shot up at the sight of a winged black and blue raptor and an orange and black feline. If the scientist had a normal mouth, he would’ve smiled.

“Newcomers! I figured the storm last night would’ve caused a pod or two to come down.” He whispered. “Too bad our power was knocked out to detect them.”

A plan was forming in his head. If he got the opportunity, he could put these two bots to use.

“Tarantulas! Have you got a visual?” Megatron asked impatiently.

“Yes I have,” Tarantulas replied as Megatron’s outburst knocked him back to reality.

“And…?” the leader asked. He walked towards Tarantulas to get a look himself. He shoved the spider to the side before he could answer. Megatron’s brows shot up as well and he scrutinized the camera view that lay in front of him.

“It turns out there’s new Maximals…”

“I KNOW they’re Maximals, fool!” Megatron snapped. He started thinking.

“Hmm, hopefully the Maximals haven’t found them yet. And they’ve GOT to be captured, yess...”

And, unsurprisingly, Megatron started talking to himself. Tarantulas got sick of this chronic action.

“Ummm, Megatron???”

“Huh? Oh! Yes, Tarantulas, inform the others of this and have Inferno, Terrorsaur and Waspinator meet me in here. You, Blackarachnia, and Scorpinok will stay and guard the base.

“But Megatron! Have me come with you---”

“NO, you will stay here,” Megatron said firmly, looking Tarantulas straight in the optic. He knew Tarantulas and his ways of treachery. Something was going on in that spider’s head, and Megatron was not going to let the newcomers get involved.

Tarantulas sadly informed Inferno, Terrorsaur and Waspinator. They came and the four left. His plan was ruined. Curse that slag suckin’ saurian! Tarantuals saw a monitor to his right and slammed it with a claw, then let out a frustrated cry.

Outside the base, Megatron walked quickly in beast mode towards the femmes with a smirk. These new bots were going to be his.

“Oh for the love of---PUDDY GET OVER HERE!!!!!” Nightraptor screamed angrily.

The two had been walking for the past hour, and Nightraptor had noticed her sister stopped following her. As the raptor turned around to see what in Primus’ name her sister was doing this time, she saw the cat halfway up an acacia tree, trying to get the leftovers of a leopard’s abandoned impala. Unfortunately, on a nearby branch, there was a huge beehive, and the insects were everywhere.

The feline pawed aggressively at each bee that got in her way as she tried to eat. This angered the swarm, and more and more bees were flying at her.

“Puddy, leave that carcass alone! You’re gonna get stung!” Nightraptor warned.

“But I’m hungry,” Puddy whined as she stole a piece of meat. She then made a disgusted gesture and spat the piece out at the beehive. That triggered a rage within the bees and soon, all of them came after her.

“Ah! Nightraptor help! Grrr, stupid bees!” Puddy cried, swatting at all of them.

“Puddy get down!” the raptor ordered.

“No-ouch! I’m-ouch-scared!”

“Oh my gosh, what a stupid cat,” Nightraptor sighed as she unfolded her wings and floated up the tree. She growled and swatted her claws, her tough skin protecting her from stings. The raptor quickly gathered up her sister and flew far, far away from the tree. She then glided down and gave her sister a glare.

“What? I was hungry!” Puddy said sheepishly.

“I would’ve gotten something if you’d ask! But, see, look what you’ve gotten yourself into,” Nightraptor argued, pointing to the stings all over Puddy.

“Shut up,” the cat said as she licked the wounds.

“Are you going to be able to walk?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay let’s go.”

The two started walking, and Puddy then remembered earlier when her sister suddenly became sad and almost cried. She was very curious to as why.

“Nightraptor, why were you sad earlier?” Puddy asked to her sister in front of her.

The raptor stopped in her tracks and just stood there. Puddy was afraid she might have triggered another bunch of memories to haunt her sister.

“Nightraptor? Hello?” Puddy called. She quickly, but painfully walked up to her sister and stood beside her.

“Nightraptor, what’s…

“Shhh! Look,” Nightraptor whispered. She pointed a claw to a small puddle under them. Every other second, a distant rumble would cause ripples to appear and shake the puddle. In the distance, both femmes could hear huge rumbles, and that’s what triggered the ripples.

“What is it?” Puddy asked, a little freaked out. The rumbling then became louder every second.

“I don’t know,” Nightraptor replied, “but whatever it is, it’s coming this way.”

A loud screech then echoed throughout the grasslands, and a red flying object appeared in the sky. After that object, a fairly huge purplish one came into view, then two more flying objects-- another reddish one, and a green one.

“Um, Nightraptor, why are they all coming this way together?” Puddy asked. She could tell they were obviously four animals of different species, but they oddly didn’t mind each other’s company.

For a while, Nightraptor’s spirits lifted. “Perhaps they’re the rest of the crew and they’ve taken beast forms as well!” she replied with hope.

“I hope you’re right, but for some reason, I don’t have a good feeling about them,” Puddy said doubtfully. She and her sister cautiously moved forward towards the mysterious group. They both transformed to robot mode and drew their weapons just to be careful.

In general, you could say Nightraptor looked like a daughter Dinobot and Airazor would have, but with different coloring. She had a green face with blood red optics and a nose like Airazor’s. Atop her head was a similar covering to what Dinobot had, and like his, it was an orange-like color. It came around to cover the sides of her face, and was lined around with a black lining that came to a v-shape between her optics. In the smack middle of that was a silver stone. However, like Airazor, black feathers protruded from the top out to the sides. She had shoulder pads like Airazor, but they came up at a 45 degree angle, and then slanted down, giving it an upside down V shape. Her beast head rested on her chest and her wings on her back. Her sides were covered in green that became an orange waist. Her thighs were silver and had green covering over her shins and calves, with orange ball joints. Her tail feathers stayed on her lower back. Her feet looked exactly like Dinobot’s, but had her blue and black beast colors.

Puddy looked much like Kacheetah and Cheetor, save the colors. She had the same form and her beastmode parts were in the same place. She had bright green optics and her metal color consisted of bright blues, magentas, and silvers on her arms and legs. Tiger-like stripes decorated above her eyes and along her cheeks.

Puddy gripped her gun tight. She had no idea what these creatures were, but something told her they were bad. As they got closer, she zoomed in on her view and could make out a purple T-rex, a red pterodactyl, a reddish robot, and a wasp. Her hand started to shake nervously. These were Transformers for sure, and they could be of any faction.

Megatron transformed to robot mode to make the mystery femmes feel more comfortable. Unfortunately, he thought they were like the other pod inhabitants and lost their memory. The other Predacons followed his example.

As everyone’s face came into clear view of each other, a loud gasp emerged from both groups.

Nightraptor didn’t really know what to think. She tightened her grip on her sword and prepared to fight. There the tyrant was, full of ego and walking towards her with his minions. She recognized them all (except Inferno), for Megatron’s group was notorious on Cybertron.

Then, her fuel pump’s rate began to accelerate and it almost leapt to her throat at a realization. If Megatron was here, then so was he.

Puddy had the same thoughts, but was less nervous about it.

“Nightraptor,” she whispered, “it’s them.”

“Well, well here! If it isn’t Brutality and her sister Puddy, yess,” Megatron smirked as he approached the femmes.

“You retarded evil slag suckin’ saurian,” Nightraptor growled through clenched teeth. Her optics narrowed in anger.

Megatron laughed. Angering this femme was amusing to him. He remembered her well from Cybertron and what he had done to her.

"Now, now, Brutality, why use the "R" word, hmm? Don’t you remember giving that one up for the sake of your boyfriend?" he smirked.

Puddy winced. "Oooh, you shouldn't have said that," she warned Megs. She sensed the growing annoyance and anger in her sister.

Then, the cat saw a ladybug on the ground.

“Get the females,” Megatron ordered his troops with a smile.

Puddy, unsurprisingly distracted by the ladybug, was seized by Inferno unexpectedly. The cat-bot flailed her arms and legs and tried to elbow the bot from behind, but it was no use. Inferno smacked her across the head with his flamethrower and the femme was easily knocked out. He then flew back to the Soundwave to get her in a cage as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, the others came at Nightraptor while Megatron stood back and watched, entertaining himself. As Terrorsaur and Waspinator jumped at her, Nightraptor shot herself directly up into the sky and threw her sword down into Waspinator’s back. The wasp was able to dig it out, but he was in great pain and his wings were damaged. He couldn’t fly.

“Zlag,” he whined.

Terrorsaur flew up after her, but Nightraptor immediately dropped to the ground. She preferred fighting down there than aerial combat. Terrorsaur shot at the femme with his purple optic lasers, but Nightraptor hid behind a nearby boulder.

Waspinator quietly snuck to the other side of the boulder, holding his gun. He peered over the side and saw the occupied fembot. She wasn’t looking in his direction.

Good, he thought.

As Terrorsaur flew to Nightraptor’s right, trying to get her from seeing Waspinator on her left, Nightraptor stepped to her left, avoiding Terrorsaur’s shots and remembered the wasp. Coincidentally, Nightraptor turned to her left to see if Waspinator was there, just as he whipped around the boulder to shoot her.

A gun to Nightraptor’s face evoked instincts of long and hard training, and she quickly stepped to her left and pushed the gun down to the right. Instantly, she grabbed the gun and Waspinator’s hand and jerked them up, twisting Waspinator’s wrist. The wasp dropped his gun in pain, and Nightraptor kicked him up the solar plexus.

Nightraptor never forgot about Terrorsaur, so she tried to step around Waspinator for covering, but a piercing surge of pain entered her back and swept through her body. Terrorsaur laughed proudly at his shot and flew down to help Waspinator finish the job. Nightraptor winced in pain and almost fell to her knees, but turned around to face her opponents instead. She could handle it.

“C’mon, Nightraptor, give it up! You can’t defeat two at once!” Megatron yelled.

As much as she wanted to, Nightraptor knew not to say anything back. She must focus on the situation at hand. She dropped to the ground and swept Waspinator off his feet. As soon as he hit the ground, Nightraptor rolled on top and over him, putting his body over hers to protect herself from Terrorsaur’s expected shot. She smiled when she heard Waspinator's body suddenly push down onto hers and explode. Fortunately, he got shot in the head, so he was knocked out.

She threw what was left off of her and at Terrorsaur. She shakily stood up and shot green optic lasers at him as Waspinator covered his view.

Megatron was growing impatient and displeased with his minions. The Maximals could be looking for the femmes as well and he wanted them both back at his base as soon as possible.

He saw Nightraptor was distracted with Terrorsaur and he quickly shot her in the head with his T-rex laser. The femme fell to the ground, instantly unconscious.

"Yes!" he shouted. "Terrorsaur! Gather the fembot!”

Terrorsaur obeyed and Megatron took Waspinator. Unfortunately for the two Preds, Optimus, Cheetor and Dinobot were right behind them, ready to attack and rescue Nightraptor and Puddy.

Optimus fired a missile at Megatron, and luckily hit his target. The plan was for him to distract Ol' Megs as Cheetor and Dinobot worked together on getting Nightraptor and Puddy back. Megatron fell, but quickly got back up and turned around. Waspinator's lifeless body fell out of his arms and landed harshly on the ground. No one found the effort to go pick him up.

"Where's the other bot?" Cheetor asked Dinobot. All he could see were Megatron, Nightraptor in Terrorsaur's arms, and Waspinator lying in the dirt.

"She must have run away or been captured earlier!" Dinobot shouted back, trying to shoot Terrorsaur without hurting Nightraptor. "Cheetor! Get under Terrorsaur and prepare to catch her!" he ordered.

Cheetor did as he was told, hoping Dinobot's plan would work. He transformed to beast mode, and sped up under the dactyl-bot.

Terrorsaur shot his optic lasers below at Dinobot, but the warrior easily avoided each shot. This wasn't easy for Terry-- flying back to base, carrying a heavy body, trying not to get shot, and beat off the enemy at the same time. Dinobot took advantage of this and quickly sidestepped and shot Terrorsaur in the side before the Pred could gather enough strength to turn and block it. He squawked in pain and dropped the lifeless female warrior before fearfully retreating. Cheetor leaped into the air and caught Nightraptor on his back.

Meanwhile, Optimus and Megatron were going at it, but Megatron had the upper hand. He pinned the battered Maximal commander to the ground and charged up his T-rex hand to give the final blow.

"Say good-bye, Optimus! These femmes are MINE!!!!" he laughed.

“Guess again,” Optimus smirked as he rammed his fist into Megatron’s stomach, remembering the move he had used on Scorponok a while ago. Megatron’s optics went wide with fear, and Optimus’ fist cannon soon blew him back.

“Bigbot, we’ve got one of them!” Cheetor hollered.

Optimus slowly stood up, rubbed his head and smiled, relieved that they succeeded in getting at least one of their comrades. Yet, he still longed to find the other one. She was nowhere in sight.

Megatron seemed to be knocked out for the moment, the battle was over for now.

“Are we going to search for the other one?” Dinobot asked as he walked over and transformed.

“I don’t think so,” Optimus replied worriedly as he caught sight of a nice-sized hole in Nightraptor’s head, marring her face. Her vital cerebral circuits were damaged and mechfluid stained much of Cheetor’s back.

“We’ll send out a search team for her in the morning. Meanwhile, I think this one really needs access to a CR Chamber.”

Dinobot nodded and started walking back to the Axalon ahead of the crew. The others followed him, happy, disappointed, and curious at the same time for the event that just unfolded. Throughout the day, the femme lingered in Dinobot’s thoughts. And now she was going to live under the same roof as he.