Alien
Saga, Chapter 6: The Experiments
By: Beastbot
In case you don’t know what a nanite is, it is a microscopic insectoid machine, used many times in science fiction. They are used in several stories to build things with excellent precision, keep creatures healthy, etc. “Optimus Primal Transmetal 2” looks like Sonar Transmetal 2. Tigerhawk is, in my story, only slightly larger and stronger than he was as Tigatron, and not NEARLY as powerful as he was in the TV show. Also, Blackarachnia Transmetal 2, in my fics, is more like her toy- she has the shoulder pads, the jaw-grappling hook, etc.)
“Why have you called us, Father?”
“Come, Scourge, and you as well, Scarem. The experiments have been completed, and the transformers’ journeys into their past memories are almost complete as well. It will be very interesting to see what effect our experiments had on these robots.”
“But, Father,” Scourge inquired Prometheus, “Would it not be more useful to isolate the new robots, and then run tests on them individually?”
Prometheus snorted at that remark. “You are not yet old enough to see the error in that, my son. Part of our experiments is seeing how the transformers react to each other as well. Thus, we are leaving them contained in the room where they were experimented on for a while, perhaps a day or so. Then, we will continue to the next stage of the test…”
The three Vexorans walked further down the hall they were in for a while, before finally stopping at a red door. Prometheus wordlessly opened the door, and motioned for his two sons to step inside. Prometheus closed the door behind them, and the trio watched in interest as, on a viewscreen attached to one wall of the room, a scene involving awakening Transformers played out….
Groan…. Wazzpinator not feel zzo good. Feel like Wazzpinator get hit with ton of rhino-bot’s ammo.
Waspinator’s optics came online, and he saw where he was.
What iz thiz place? Wazzzzpinator not…. Ooooohhh, Wazzpinator remember now. Weird gooey-bots abduct Wazzpinator and other Maximalz and Predaconz, then make Wazzzpinator wait for while. Then gooey-bots take Wazzpinator and otherz to thiz room and hook Wazzzpinator up to gizmos. Wazzpinator not remember much after that…. Gooey-bots must have stopped performing teztz on Wazzpinator.
Waspinator raised a red hand to his head and massaged his scalp, trying to get rid of the rip-roaring headache.
Wait….. what izz Wazzpinator doing with someone’s hand? Wait… thiz hand is Wazzpinator’s! What iz happening?
Waspinator slowly stood up, examining his body. Instead of yellow, most of his body was black or red, and his abdomen was gold with black stripes. He also had four transparent green wings that looked much more robotic than they used too.
Ooooh! Wazzpinator iz Tranzmetal now! Wazzpinator happy! Beazt mode!
Responding to Waspinator’s thoughts, his internal computer willingly complied, and with a whir and a click, Waspinator converted to his new Transmetal beast mode. His beast mode eyes were more metallic and had a gold tint to them. He also now had large, straight, red antennae, and red insect legs.
Ooo! Wazzpinator like thiz even better than robot mode! But, wait… if Wazzpinator iz Tranzmetal, than that must mean Wazzpinator has …computer, vehicle mode!
Waspinator’s computer willingly complied again, and he transformed into his vehicle mode, now complete with a jet cockpit coming out of his mouth, and hardened insect wings made to imitate jet wings.
“Weeeeee!” Waspinator exclaimed, doing a somersault in mid-air. However, somewhere in his mid-somersault, he got confused, and crashed into the floor, face first.
Wazzpinator needs to get uzed to thiz…
Dinobot Transmetal 2’s optics came online. He was about to examine his surroundings, when something caught his eye. He was staring eye to eye with… himself!?
No, that isn’t me…. The body seems to have more organic parts, and his face is blue…. What in the inferno is going on here?!
Dinobot’s memory files came online.. What happened? Last thing he remembered, he was looking into the faces of his Maximal friends, and then….
Wait a minute!! If my memory serves me right, then I was fatally wounded after saving the humans from the Predacons! What am I doing….
Dinobot didn’t finish his thought, as his optics came online just then, and he was staring someone that looked an awful lot like him right in the face.
Both Dinobots leapt bolt upright at the same time, the old Dinobot taking out his sword and rotary shield while Dinobot Transmetal 2 activated his laser eye targeting.
“What in the inferno are YOU!?” Both cried aloud at the same time.
This seems vaguely familiar… the old Dinobot thought.
“I am Dinobot!” Dinobot Transmetal 2 stated threateningly.
“Hah! Your memory circuits must be offline! I am Dinobot!”
“Impostor!” both shouted accusingly at the same time, Dinobot Transmetal 2 charging up his laser-eye while the old Dinobot did the same with his two eyes.
Dinobot Transmetal 2 let his laser fire first, Dinobot blocking it with his rotary shield, then unleashing his two green lasers at his opponent. Dinobot Transmetal 2 converted to beast mode quickly, ducking the blast, then lunged at Dinobot. The two soon became involved in a brawl, neither believing what the other was.
Cheetor’s nerve circuits came online first, sending bolts of pain through the young ‘bot’s Transmetal 2 body. He had never hurt so much in his life… okay, maybe he hurt a little more when he was changing into a Transmetal 2….. and when he almost died because of a fatal wound Tarantulas gave him….and when he became a Transmetal….. but other than that…
Cheetor’s optics came online soon afterwards, but everything seemed out of focus. He tried to magnify his vision to see if that would help clear things up, but it didn’t.
What the slag’s going on?
Cheetor tried to stand upright, and much to his relief, found that he could, although spasms of pain shot through his pistons as he did so.
Something doesn’t feel right….
Cheetor looked down at his feet. The claws on his feet seemed a little… thicker… than usual. As he examined the rest of his body, he found out that basically everything else was the same, except that the claws on his hands were a little bit thinner. The thing that really worried him was the fact that the two areas that he had noticed were a bit different- his claws- were the areas that were aching the most.
What’s happening to me? It’s gotta be something those aliens did while I was in stasis lock a little while ago, but what? Maybe if I transform to beast mode, it’ll slow down whatever process is happening. Computer, beast mode!
Cheetor closed his eyes, waiting for the transformation that usually took place after he said those two words.
After a few seconds, he opened his eyes again, surprised that nothing had happened.
Computer, BEAST MODE!
Nothing happened.
Ahh, slaggit, the stupid…
Cheetor collapsed into stasis lock so fast, he didn’t even know he did so.
Megatron stood up and dusted himself off. Strange, he didn’t seem any different, like most of the other occupants of this room seemed to be. And yet….
Megatron’s attention was diverted to a small fight going on in one corner of the room, involving a certain Transmetal 2 velociraptor and….. the old Dinobot!? How could this be!?
“Dinobot!” Megatron barked, referring to his Transmetal 2 servant.
Dinobot Transmetal 2, upon hearing his name called, shoved the other Dinobot off with his back legs and waltzed up to Megatron. Despite Dinobot’s obvious effort to have his expression remain neutral, the Transmetal 2 was suffering from a lot of pain. His left arm had been sheared off below the elbow, leaving a trail of mech fluid on the floor behind him, and his beastly visage had several slash marks on it.
“What?! I am not loyal to you anymore; I serve only Rampage!” Dinobot replied.
“Yes I realize that. But...who was that you were fighting with?”
“He calls himself….Dinobot…. but it is obviously some kind of trick.”
“Well, he isn’t…. let me be frank, Dinobot. Before you were…”
Megatron’s explanation was interrupted as the old Dinobot, from outside both Megatron’s and Dinobot Transmetal 2’s area of view, suddenly leapt onto Dinobot Transmetal 2’s back, stabbing his dented sword through the left side of the new Dinobot’s back. It appeared that the old Dinobot had taken quite a beating as well, as a large burn mark was on his chest and his face was dented a little.
Megatron, taken by surprise, barely had time to think before the old Dinobot jerked his sword out from Dinobot Transmetal 2’s back, sending the metallic velociraptor into stasis lock, and pounced upon Megatron, pushing the Predacon down onto the floor. The crocodile-bot’s neck was just inches away from the menacing tip of Dinobot’s sword.
“State your allegiance…Megatron!?” Dinobot said, his tone turning from one of hostility to one of surprise when he found out who the green-and-gold figure was.
“Ah, my old nemesis is somehow alive again… no doubt the work of those accursed aliens,” Megatron replied, a nervous tinge a little evident in his voice.
Dinobot just stood there, sword pointed at Megatron’s throat, for a few seconds. After all, what the velociraptor had just seen in the past few cycles had been a lot to take in.
During this moment of silence, an odd thought came into Megatron’s thought processor.
Megatron, battle armor mode.
Before Megatron had even realized what he had just thought, a reddish cloud seemed to envelop the Predacon leader, Dinobot stepping back slowly as he looked at the phenomenon.
The red cloud continued to swirl around the form of Megatron for a few seconds, then vanished as quickly as it had appeared. The Megatron that remained in its place, however, was not the same Megatron it had covered just a few seconds ago. No, this ‘bot’s entire color scheme was different; it was mostly red, with large, yellow, skeleton-like wings. Megatron now looked about a foot taller than he was before, and his left arm seemed to be composed of a dragon’s head and neck.
Megatron looked at his new body in wonder.
Internal computer, he thought, scan new body.
Body structure remains the same; outward appearance is Transmetal 2 nanite armor. Nanites are of alien origin. Command words, “Battle armor mode” engage the nanites to create the armor. Command words, “Basic armor mode” will engage the nanites to dissipate the armor and store it within themselves until its use is required again. Command word, “Terrorize” and command words, “Beast mode” may still be used in battle armor mode. Battle armor beast mode is that of a dragon. Warning; continued exposure to battle armor mode will result in partial nanite control over central processor.
Ahh, yess… Megatron thought to himself. So, it appears these aliens did do something to me after all…. Still, they had to include that flaw in it. But no matter. This armor will still give me the advantage I need to defeat the Maximals… that is, if we ever get off this blasted spaceship.
Standing up to his full height, Megatron converted to his Transmetal 2 dragon beast mode, towering over the form of the old Dinobot.
“What in the inferno….?” Dinobot asked, fear evident on his face for the first time in who knew how long.
Megatron wordlessly whacked Dinobot across the head with his new armored tail, sending the Maximal flying into one of the corners of the room.
Megatron chuckled a bit, slowly walking up to Dinobot as he did so.
“I’d reeeally like to chat with you about what has happened since your….most advantageous demise, but I’m afraid I’m just a bit preoccupied, what with these aliens and all. I can’t have you to worry about as well. Say goodbye to your pitifully short second life, Dinobot.”
Megatron took a deep breath, but just as he was about to burn Dinobot into a charred pile of ashes, a punch hit him right in the face, sending the Predacon reeling back into a nearby wall.
“What the…?” Megatron said incredulously, opening his eyes to stare at the now fully functional form of Optimus Primal. The batbot walked up to Megatron, using one of the large claws on the Maximal commander’s hands to keep Megatron pinned against the wall.
“You’re breaking the truce NOW, Megatron?” Optimus reprimanded, “When we’re stuck in an isolated room on an alien spacecraft? Seems to me like you’re letting your temper get the best of you.”
“Perhaps, Primal,” Megatron said, kicking Optimus away from him and converting to his battle armor robot mode. “But in case you haven’t noticed, the aliens seemed to have given me an upgrade. So don’t even think about threatening me, because I can just as easily turn you into roasted bat wings.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, Megatron,” Optimus retorted. “Computer, battle armor mode.”
Megatron watched in both surprise and disappointment as a grey cloud seemed to swirl around Optimus for a few seconds, leaving in its place a figure that looked somewhat like a cross between a bat, a robot, and a human. The face had long, leathery ears poking out of the top, and Optimus Primal Transmetal 2 now had several long fangs jutting out of his mouth. His hands now had long, scythe-shaped claws on them, and he had wings on his back that had some various patches of fur and metal on them. One of his robot legs was brown, the other grey, and his chest was now transmetal red.
“It seems the aliens have given me an upgrade as well, Megatron.”
“It seems you are willing to fight me to your last dying breath, Primal, but I am not in the mood for such games at this time. Just make sure any resurrected traitors don’t attack me for no apparent reason.”
Megatron tromped off to the other side of the large, grey room in a huff, converting back into his basic armor robot mode. All this time, though, he wouldn’t keep his eyes off Optimus Primal and Dinobot.
Optimus converted back to his basic armor robot mode and helped Dinobot get up.
“Optimus!? What has… where am….?”
Optimus chuckled a bit at his comrade’s total confusion, placing a hand on Dinobot’s shoulder. “It’s a long story, Dinobot. Maybe I’ll tell it to you sometime.”
“You’d better tell it to me… now,” Dinobot retorted, quickly regaining his “stone face” and shrugging off Optimus’ hand.
Megatron sat down in a corner of the room, eavesdropping on Optimus’ and the old Dinobot’s conversation to see if he could learn exactly how the traitor had been brought back to life. The Predacon leader hadn’t gotten much info- only that Dinobot had no recollection of what happened after he died in the tropical valley and before he woke up here. So far, everything else had just been Optimus explaining what had happened since Dinobot had “died”.
Megatron was just about to lose interest in the discussion when a large, brown scorpion scuttled into his view, just a few feet away. The scorpion’s eyes regarded Megatron questioningly.
Megatron squinted at the form in disbelief. If you replaced all the brown colors on this scorpion with black, then he would look exactly like….
“Scorponok!?” Megatron asked incredulously.
“Who’s Scor-pin-ock?” the scorpion said in Quickstrike’s voice. “Sandstorm, terrorize!”
The scorpion converted to robot mode the same way Scorponok did, and, indeed, his robot mode looked exactly like Scorponok’s as well, except for some coloration differences. The only major differences were the scorpionbot’s face; it looked like a combination of Quickstrike’s and Scorponok’s, with a gas-mask-type mouth and glowing green eyes. Sandstorm’s height also seemed to be taller than Quickstrike’s, but shorter than Scorponok’s.
As the realization of what the aliens had done to Quickstrike and Scorponok dawned on him, Megatron stood up, towering over the new ‘bot.
“It seems that the aliens somehow managed to fuse my old lackey’s body with the fuzor’s,” Megatron muttered to himself. “I would have preferred two loyal Predacons to one, but perhaps this new comrade is an able fighter, unlike the other two numbskulls.”
“Mah dayta tracks tell me yer the bossbot,” Sandstorm said, saluting, “Though ah don’t know why.”
So, Megatron thought, he also seems to have no recollection of his past life.. er, lives… either.
“Well, your data tracks are indeed correct,” Megatron replied, grinning.
“Ah guess so,” said Sandstorm, stepping forward. “As you probably herd, mah name’s-“
Sandstorm’s sentence was interrupted as he tripped over Megatron’s foot. Sandstorm, surprised, pushed Megatron down on the ground with him.
Megatron shook his head, placing his hand over his optics.
Then again, perhaps he’s just twice the numbskull he was before…
“Airazor? Airazor?!”
Airazor woke up. At first she thought this was a dream, considering she was staring into Tigatron’s face, a ‘bot she had thought long dead. It quickly became apparent that it wasn’t, however, as her core processor could never dream up anything as wild as this.
Although she herself was the same, Tigatron looked rather different- in fact, the only thing that even faintly resembled his old body was his tiger face. Tigatron’s beast mode had somehow been infused with an eagle’s, and the Maximal now had wings and eagle back feet. Also, apparent by the fact that the new ‘bot was asymmetrical, Tigatron had been changed into a Transmetal 2.
“Tigatron?” Airazor said, standing up. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing!
“Yes, it is me,” Tigatron said, looking himself over while chuckling. “It appears I have changed a bit since I last saw you, as have you.”
Airazor looked herself over after converting to her beast mode, remembering that she had not had her Transmetal form since she last saw Tigatron.
“Oh, yeah, I forgot,” Airazor replied sheepishly. “Do you remember what happened since I last saw you?”
Tigatron shook his head. “Sadly, no, although if I did, I probably would say it was quite a wild ride, considering how I look now.”
“Oh, you look fine,” Airazor complemented, “Just… different. Change is good, though.”
“I certainly hope so,” said Tigatron. “Although, my name doesn’t really seem to fit me any more. Perhaps the new name I have picked out for myself, Tigerhawk, isn’t very creative, but it is quite accurate.”
Airazor blinked, her data processors picking up the new name and downloading it into her memory. “It is indeed…. Tigerhawk.”
Eventually, the rest of the Transformers, with the exception of Cheetor, woke up. They all found themselves apparently the same as they were before, with the exception of Blackarachnia, who had found herself to be a Transmetal 2. Silverbolt was delighted in this, although he was somewhat depressed that he hadn’t been given a new form. He had liked it when he had a bit of canine in him, and the mystery of his alternate third mode, the one that didn’t appear to do anything, still eluded him.
The only other two ‘bots that were mad at not being given new forms were Depth Charge and Rampage, as a new form could empower one to defeat the other.
The Maximals had all welcomed back the old Dinobot, and, of course, the Predacons had merely harrumphed at his presence. The new Dinobot, however, along with any other damaged ‘bots had healed mysteriously. Rattrap guessed it had something to do with alien tech in this room. He thought that maybe it produced something that healed damaged transformers.
Optimus and the rest of the Maximals were seriously worried about Cheetor, however. Even the “magical healing process” had not affected the catbot. Not only that, but Cheetor appeared to be changing into another form slowly- his feet now ended in what looked like some type of hoofs, and his arms looked more like human hands than clawed hands now.
And there was still that problem about what happened to Prometheus and Tarantulas…..
“Are you sure it was wise to leave them in that room without the anti-violence device activated, like it had been before?” Scourge asked his father as the Vexoran bodyguard turned off the viewscreen.
“Affirmative,” Prometheus said, walking out of the room as he did so, his two sons not following him. “With the device on, we could not determine exactly how they would have reacted to each other..”
Anything else Prometheus might have said was not heard by Scarem and Scourge, as he had walked out of their earshot.
“Um… Scourge?” Scarem whispered, “When, exactly, are you going to put your ‘master plan to destroy the transformers’ into action?”
“Patience, my brother, patience,” Scourge replied, a smirk on his hideous mouth. “You know the Vexorans will be watching our transformers day and night until the tests are over. After that, however, is when we will strike…”