A Wasp's Tale

6.May.06

A Wasp’s Tale

Waspinator groaned in pain. “Where is Wazpinator?” He awoke in the middle of the energon fields where geysers erupted pure energon every second. After taking a heavy dose of the powerful substance, he laid there regaining his perspective of reality.

Suddenly he heard gunfire and turned to look at the source. His comrade Terrorsaur was fighting some other transformer in the sky. As they fought, Waspinator gazed in awe as Terrorsaur fell to pieces. The new Maximal then flew down to the stasis pod from which it came and met with a familiar rhinoceros. From her curvaceous structure, Waspinator presumed she was female.

“Wow! She’s good!” Waspinator thought. Then, realizing what had just happened, he shook his head along with his thoughts. ”Oh no! Another Maximal! Megatron doesn’t like failure!”

The two Maximals in the distance returned to their base along with Cheetor as Waspinator hid behind a pillar of rock. When the Maximals were out of sight, Waspinator hurried over to Terrorsaur’s aid and helped pull him back together.

As he took Terrorsaur’s head in his hands, it spoke, “That rumbling rhino’s got our Predacon!”

“Megatron will not be happy!” said Waspinator nervously.

“I know!” Terrorsaur screeched.

They then returned to the Darkside, keeping Megatron’s fury in mind.

* * *

“Grrrr!” the tyrannous tyrant roared as he threw Waspinator’s body against the wall like a rag doll. “You three outnumbered the Maximals there! How could you have failed?!”

“Everything was going great until the protoform came online!” said Terrorsaur, snapping his head back on.

“And who’s fault was that?!”

Terrorsaur tried to shield from the excessive yelling.

“Waspinator!”

Helping himself up, the Waspinator stood at attention.

“You’ve been involved in multiple failures lately! I’m giving you a chance to redeem yourself, yes. You’ll be assigned to a reconnaissance mission.”

“Wazpinator alone?”

“Don’t question me! Just go!”

Knowing that this mission could be suicidal, he looks towards his comrades for any encouragement – Blackarachnia goes on contemplating future inventions, Terrorsaur shrugged at Waspinator’s unfortunate situation, Tarantulas is nowhere to be seen, and Scorponok, well, enough said. Waspinator then leaves the Darkside mumbling curse words.

* * *

“Wazpinator sick of listening to Megatron!” Waspinator complained while flying over to the Axalon in beast mode. “Wazpinator is true leader of Predacons!”

When he reached the Axalon, he transformed to his robot mode and saw that the base was running and active. Hiding behind a boulder at the face of a cliff, he eyes the Maximals, obeying Megatron’s orders. One thing that caught his eye was the new Maximal. He watched as she was assisting Optimus Primal with picking plant specimens underneath the base. Why he was so intrigued with this one Maximal, he did not know. When Optimus went inside the base, the new Maximal was left alone to survey the area.

Suddenly, Waspinator heard a noise behind him. He turned around and saw that it was a venomous snake hissing at him – otherwise harmless to transformers. Ignoring the snake, he carried on his duties. But something was missing; the new Maximal had disappeared.

“Huh?” Waspinator talked to himself. “Where she go?”

“Alright Predacon,” Waspinator jumped, the new Maximal was right behind him and poised to attack, “you’ve got three seconds to tell me what you’re doing here.”

Waspinator giggled nervously and stumbled on his words.

The Maximal was about to fire her bolt rockets when twin lasers suddenly streaked across from overhead. Turned away from Waspinator, the new Maximal was distracted by the crumbling cliff face. Involuntarily, Waspinator gave a slap at her rear.

“Did you just…?” The Maximal asked, giving an awkward look.

“Uh, no?” Waspinator replied.

Suddenly, out of the crumbling rocks, out came a boulder tumbling down towards the Maximal. Waspinator’s instinct was to push the Maximal out of the way and that is what he did. This moment of heroism was short-lived as the boulder went smashing into Waspinator’s foot. Struggling like a trapped wasp, he actually manages to free himself and flies away before the Maximal could utter a word. Soon after, Rattrap and Dinobot show up.

“Awww jeeez!” Rattrap exclaimed. “Whaddya nuts Dinobutt? Ya almost turned our newcomuh into a slaggin’ pancake!”

“For your information, vermin, she was not in my sights!” Dinobot growled. “I… apologize Airazor I intended to blast that incompetent Predacon, Waspinator.”

“That Predacon just saved my life.” Airazor said.

“Ehhh”, Rattrap shrugged, “I think ya woulda made it out by ya self. Wait a minute, wha was Waspinator doin’ around here anyhows? Shouldn’t we be uhh after him?”

“My scanners indicate that he’s far from reach, that coward.” Dinobot snorted while clenching his fist.

Meanwhile, Waspinator was on his way to the Darkside. “Doh, Wazpinator so stupid! How embarrassing! Bad hand!” He slaps his guilty hand. “Birdbot name Airazor?” He was near enough to the Axalon to hear the name and far enough to avoid getting blasted to scraps by Dinobot and Rattrap. He then ponders for a moment and continues flying back to base.

* * *

“Wazpinator back!” Waspinator said to his comrades.

Computer noises and typing sounds were all that replied Waspinator.

“Wazpinator knows what Maximals up to!” Apparently, he was lying to get attention.

“Waspinator! You’re here!” Blackarachnia said excitedly, “I need you to do me a favor.”

“Wazpinator can help!”

“Good, follow me.”

Soon afterwards, Waspinator and Blackarachnia were in the lab. Waspinator was commanded to perform the most heroic task ever – moving cargo. A stack of heavy steel containers that contained “who knows what but sure was heavy” loomed over Waspinator’s head and sat in his arms. His body trembled by the sheer weight of the cargo.

“Alright move it to the left,” said Blackarachnia, “no wait, that’s not going to work, bring it forward more, stop! You’re moving too fast!”

At this time, Waspinator’s servos were on fire. Suddenly, one after the other, the steel containers fell on top of Waspinator, squashing him.

“Perfect!” Said Blackarachnia as she turned off the lights and walked out of the lab, leaving Waspinator in the dark.

At that moment, Waspinator could have sworn he heard laughter outside in the corridors by his fellow comrades. After mumbling a few curse words, Waspinator goes into repair mode underneath all the wrecked cargo.

* * *

“Where is Wazpinator now?” said Waspinator. He appeared to be in a dark. Suddenly he heard menacing laughter from all around him. Out of the darkness appeared Megatron’s head, then Blackarachnia, then Tarantulas, and the rest of the Predacons, all laughing at him. The intimidating laughter continued echoing all around him.

“I’m from Brooklyn!” Said Rattrap’s head as it appeared and disappeared abruptly.

“Noooo! Wazpinator got to get out of here!” Waspinator said as he tried to fly away.

“No no no, Waspinator!” Megatron’s head spoke. “You cannot fly unless you find the two-winged being!”

“Terrorsaur?” Waspinator said to Megatron.

“No you imbecile! Airazor!”

Waspinator’s wings suddenly melted into molten metal and he plummets into the dark abyss. Soon afterwards, he hits solid ground and he notices that he’s in Cybertron. Still the haunting laughter persisted as his fellow Predacons loomed over him on the building tops and skyscrapers. Without his wings, he tries to run away from the uncontrolled laughter and towards a familiar object in the distance. It was the Axalon! To seek refuge from the laughter, he entered the lift that would take him into the interior of the fallen starship.

When he was inside, the light turned on but just dimly. Suddenly, from the direction of the long corridor, a bright light shone. Shading the light with his hand, Waspinator noticed a familiar figure bathed in the light and he walked towards it. He kept walking, walking, and walking. When he noticed he wasn’t going far, he started to run. Running then became sprinting as the corridor appeared to grow longer and longer. The faster he went, the longer the corridor became. Soon the corridor morphed into a whirling vortex and sucked him in.

Waspinator woke up and hit his head against a steel crate. He didn’t know where he was for a moment. It looked like he was in a coffin.

“Oh no! Wazpinator buried alive! Help! Help!” Waspinator yelled as he pushed the cargo out of the way.

“Hey! What’s going on here?” Blackarachnia said as she turned on the lights in the lab. “You better not have messed with my inventions!”

“Wazpinator not dead! Wazpinator not dead!” He stood up.

“You’ll be dead soon if you don’t scram!”

Waspinator came back to reality and went to his quarters, slouching as he walked. In his quarters, he thought about his dream.

* * *

The next day, Waspinator requested to go on another reconnaissance mission to the Axalon.

“Wazpinator leaving now,” he said.

“Yes, yes, sure, sure,” said Megatron. The Predacons were hard at work for something Waspinator didn’t know about.

After mumbling even more curse words, he was off to the Axalon. On the way, Waspinator spotted a small white speck amidst the landscape he was flying over. He swooped down and landed near the thing. Now that he was closer to it, he saw that it was but a single flower. Its vivid colors, beauty, and radiance reminded him of Airazor and as he loomed over it, something else was noticed. A shriveled plant wrapped around the blooming flower, which appeared to be reaching for the sky and away from all things ugly and decaying. Nonetheless, Waspinator picked the radiant flower and the shriveled plant fell to pieces.

When he got to the Axalon, he went to hide behind his previous hiding spot, which strategically wasn’t very smart. Even so, he went on spying on his favorite specimen of his mission. This time, however, something was different.

“Oh no!” he said, “What Tigerbot doing there?”

Tigerbot indeed, and he was getting acquainted with Airazor. As the two transformers laughed, Waspinator buzzed angrily and clenched the resilient flower in his hands.

“What Tigerbot got that Wazpinator don’t?” Waspinator detested the thought of them two being together and so he left the Axalon.

He flew, and then landed near a small pond surrounded by a few trees and shrubs. “Wazpinator thinks Airazor is very beautiful, but what does Airazor think of Wazpinator?” he said as he goes to look at his reflection in the crystal water. “Wazpinator ugly!” Then he splashes the apparition away furiously with his hand. After giving a dejected sigh, he goes to sit down on a nearby rock. He tossed the flower to the ground and rested his head in his hands. “Airazor would never like Wazpinator.” He said after groaning in frustration. “Wazpinator is Predacon!” he said with a fist, “Airazor is Maximal….” Then he opened it as if he had crushed something delicate and very dear to him.

Before heading back to the Darkside, Waspinator thought about going back to the Axalon to gain one last glimpse of Airazor. Suddenly, Tigatron showed up.

“Where do you think you’re going in such a hurry, Waspinator?” he asked sarcastically.

“None of your business Tigerbot!” replied Waspinator. Then he took out his weapon and fired a single shot at Tigatron.

With the reflexes of a tiger, Tigatron dodged the projectile. When the projectile had gone passed him, it was then heading straight towards Airazor. Airazor was then struck down by the projectile’s explosion and she clasped her left arm in pain right after. In retaliation, Tigatron tackled Waspinator to the ground.

“You will hurt no more loved ones, Predacon!” Tigatron said as he aimed his gun towards Waspinator’s head at pointblank range.

“Stop!” yelled Airazor, still clasping her arm.

As Tigatron let his guard down for half a second, Waspinator took this opportunity to reverse Tigatron’s maneuver and now he was the one holding the gun at pointblank range.

Trying to stop the quarreling, Airazor got up and prepared to shoot her bolt rockets to blast the gun out of Waspinator’s hand. Suddenly, pain surged from her damaged arm and deviated her aim as she shot the projectile. The projectile exploded against Waspinator’s side and knocked him into a wall of rock. He lay against the stone upside-down with his feet reaching for the sky. Immediately afterwards, rubble fell on him and buried him up to his knees.

A moment of silence bestowed upon the three transformers until gunfire rained upon them. It was the Predacons! They surrounded and attacked the two Maximals who were at a strategic disadvantage.

As Airazor and Tigatron scrambled to try and hide from the suppressive fire, Waspinator’s sensors detected a large amount of energon directly below him and the two Maximals. Just as the Predacons were closing in on the Maximals, the ground began to shake violently. A chain reaction had been triggered from the crossfire somehow and the ground bulged up and exploded with enormous energy. Energon waves swept the landscape.

* * *

Waspinator awoke with the same feeling he had when he was exposed to the energon geyser. When he stood up, he was in a dark cavern surrounded by bits and pieces of glowing energon. Suddenly, he heard sounds coming from behind a boulder. It was Airazor and she was crying for help. The boulder was crushing her leg and she couldn’t transform into beast mode to keep her from energon surges.

Rushing to Airazor’s aid, Waspinator attempted to move the boulder – which was about ten times his size and weight. Nonetheless, he kept trying.

“Wha… what are you doing?” Airazor asked, trying to fight the pain.

“Wazpinator saving you!” he replied.

“It’s too heavy!”

“Wazpinator does not care!” Suddenly, energon surges occurred in the two transformers.

“You have to transform!”

Ignoring Airazor, Waspinator kept on trying to move the massive stone. With all his might he could summon and using the cavern wall for leverage, the boulder began to move. At the same time, his servos began to overheat and started to glow red-hot. Suddenly, the boulder rolled off of Airazor’s leg and she immediately transformed to beast mode.

“Wazpinator did it!” Waspinator said excitedly, raising his arms into the air in victory. Abruptly afterwards, his arms fell off and he gave a short grunt. Then he transformed into beast mode after immediately reattaching his fallen appendages.

During their moment of silence, the two transformers waited for their fuel dampeners to recharge so that they’d be protected against energon surges in robot mode.

“That’s twice now,” said Airazor, breaking the silence.

Waspinator did not utter a word as faced away from Airazor and went to the opposite side of the cavern, digging in the rocks to find a way out.

“So you’re not talking to me now?” she asked, “Who are you? Why do you keep helping me?” As Airazor’s voice became more aggressive, she felt more insecure with this Predacon looking after her. “Is this some kind of setup?! What do you want from me?! Answer me, Predacon!” Then she transformed to her robot mode and armed her weapons.

There was a long pause before Waspinator transformed into robot mode and whispered these words: “Wazpinator in love”.

“What?” Airazor asked, for she could not hear him from the other side of the cavern.

“Wazpinator in love with you!” he shouted as he turned around and the words echoed throughout the cavern.

“Oh….” At that moment, she held down her weapons as she peered down. If she had skin on her face, it would have turned rosy red.

“Wazpinator in love with you since first day Wazpinator laid big bug eyes on you.”

“I had no idea….” She was speechless and didn’t know what to feel. Not only was a Predacon helping her this whole time, but the Predacon was also in love with her.

“But doesn’t matter now! Airazor hate Wazpinator!” Feeling discouraged, Waspinator turned back towards the rocks, persistent at digging.

“Well… I don’t hate you, that’s for sure.”

“Airazor shot at Wazpinator!”

“That was an accident, and I couldn’t let you hurt Tigatron!”

“All Tigerbot’s fault! Wazpinator will scrap Tigerbot!”

“Why Tigatron?”

“Come on! Wazpinator knows! You two in love with each other!”

“I… I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Humph! At least Wazpinator does not lie.”

Airazor became silent as she looked away from Waspinator.

Waspinator gave sigh and said, “Nobody cares about Wazpinator….”

Airazor then tried to walk towards Waspinator, but at half way she succumbed to her wounds, stumbled, and fell to the cold cavern floor.

Rushing to her aid once again, Waspinator stopped digging and went to grasp her forearms, lifting her up on her feet. As she stood, Waspinator saw her in all her beauty. Her eyes were like a thousand sparks glowing inside dark orbs. Her lips were like chrome seas. Her smile was like the sun.

“Thanks,” said Airazor, with her voice that sounded gentle and caring. “Um, you may let go of me now.”

Without realizing it, Waspinator was holding her two hands in his. Through embarrassment, Waspinator slowly pulled his hands away from Airazor. They both gave a chuckle and then something was discovered.

“Look!” said Airazor, pointing at the rocks that Waspinator had dug out. “I believe you’ve found a way out.”

So it seemed, a crevice was showing amidst the rocks. It was only large enough for a single transformer to squeeze through at a time.

“Wazpinator will go find help,” said Waspinator. “Will Airazor be all right here?”

She gave a nod and then Waspinator went to crawl through the dark crevice.

* * *

Waspinator found himself in a tunnel after he had crawled through the crevice. The farther he crawled, the narrower the tunnel became. He could barely squeeze through the tunnel when there was an opening ahead. He pushed onward, and found that it was just another cavern only this one was smaller. He noticed something else also. At his feet, laid the flower he had picked for Airazor and it had survived the explosion. He went back to the previous cavern and presented Airazor with the blossom.

“For me?” she asked.

“Uh huh, does Airazor like flowers?”

“Waspinator, that’s very nice of you but—“

Suddenly, the ground began to shake violently. Soon afterwards, the side of the cavern exploded with rocks flying everywhere. Out of the dust and debris, the Predacons emerged!

“Ah, yes! You’ve captured the Maximal. Good work Waspinator, we’ll take it from here,” said Megatron.

“What?” said Airazor, “You tricked me!”

“No!” Waspinator was trying to reassure Airazor but of no avail, “Wazpinator not—!“

”You lied to me! This was a setup!”

“Predacons!” interrupted Megatron, “Return to base! We have a new sub-commander in charge!”

“You tricked me just to get promoted?! Tigatron was right, Predacons can never be trusted!” said Airazor.

Waspinator gasped at Airazor’s words. There was nothing he could do to help at that moment as Terrorsaur and Scorponok carried her away. He followed his Predacon comrades in a slouch and with rain cloud over his head.

* * *

In the Darkside’s brig, Airazor was restrained against Tarantulas’ photon web, still with her wounds that had not been repaired yet. Her energy was waning due to her injuries and Predacons did not like letting prisoners use their CR chamber apparently. At this point, all hope seemed lost for the Maximal as Tarantulas walked up to her.

“Don’t struggle Maximal,” said Tarantulas with a cackle, “wouldn’t want to damage the body of our future Predacon!”

“Tarantulas!” said Megatron on Tarantulas’ comlink, “I need to speak with you, privately!” Megatron’s voice sounded infuriated, possibly from one of Tarantulas’ recent evil schemes.

“Don’t you move an inch!” Tarantulas said to Airazor after groaning a bit. He then exited the brig leaving his specimen in the dark lonely chamber.

“Airazor!” whispered a voice.

“Who’s there?” she asked.

“Me! Wazpinator!”

“You? Why are you here? Haven’t you had enough of me?”

“Wazpinator here to rescue you!”

“What?” she said as Waspinator punched in the access code to Tarantulas’ computer.

“Access denied,” said the monotonous computer.

After mumbling some curse words, Waspinator decided to use brute force.

“Stop! You’re making too much noise!” whispered Airazor.

Once again pushing the limit, Waspinator repeatedly punched the panel with all his might. Soon afterwards, the web deactivated.

“That’s three times now,” said Airazor, “come on! We have to get out of here!”

“Can’t,” said Waspinator.

“Why not?”

“Wazpinator is Predacon!”

Suddenly, Airazor was knocked off her feet and into the wall. A large foot stepped on her wounded area and she yelled in pain.

“Yes, you ARE a Predacon, Waspinator,” said Megatron, whose foot belonged to him, “Helping a Maximal escape are we? I smell treachery! Make your move Waspinator! Destroy her and prove your loyalty to the Predacons!”

Not knowing what to do, he was disposed to obey the tyrant, walked up to the Maximal, and took out his weapon. As he aimed his weapon near her head and looked at her face. That look made him feel the shame he would experience if he were to be misunderstood and misremembered by the one he loved. And yet if he didn’t obey, Megatron would melt him down into molten metal. Then he uttered these words: “Wazpinator… is… Predacon….”

Suddenly, he turned his weapon away from Airazor and pointed it towards Megatron instead.

“What are you—?“ Megatron said, as he was knocked backward a little as Waspinator’s meager projectile struck him.

“…No more,” said Waspinator, proudly.

When Megatron recovered, he was furious at Waspinator and charged towards him. After striking Waspinator down to the floor with his dinosaur claw, he then closed it around Waspinator’s head, and was crushing it. As Waspinator tried to fight the pain, one of his bug-eyes fractured with a loud cracking sound. “You are going to regret that!!!” Megatron threatened.

Meanwhile, summoning every last bit of her strength, Airazor charged her weapon and took a single shot at Megatron from behind. The impact was large enough to knock Megatron off of Waspinator. Taking action, Waspinator got up and carried away Airazor in his arms.

Running as fast as he could through the corridors, he reached the exit bay. Attempting to fly away from the Darkside, Waspinator fired up his wings and lifted off the ground with Airazor cradled in his arms. Just when they thought they were safe, the Predacons opened fire on them. Waspinator was doing well in evasive maneuvering, however, he wasn’t prepared for what was to happen next.

Suddenly, Megatron ordered his Predacons to cease-fire. Just when it seemed like Waspinator and Airazor had won this battle, Megatron unveiled his new invention. It was a missile, pulsing with energon, and as he fired it from his dinosaur claw. He laughed menacingly as he said, “Goodbye traitor!” So sinisterly was that laugh that it made Waspinator remember the nightmare that he had the night before. The intimidating laughter echoed through his ears and he was paralyzed in the air from sheer terror that appeared to come from nowhere as the missile Megatron shot was honing in on him.

Then, Waspinator heard Airazor’s cry for help. Now at the brink of losing her spark, Airazor spoke weakly and said, “I… I… love… Tiga….” She suddenly went into stasis lock. Speechless, Waspinator decided to sacrifice himself once again and released Airazor, letting her fall towards the earth. With the missile already too close to evade, Waspinator faced it while shedding a single tear. The tear fell through the air and glowed from the missile explosion. While Airazor was safe and sound, lying on a bed of grass, the tear dripped onto her face and rolled off of it as if she had shed the tear.

* * *

Once again, Waspinator awoke from stasis lock. He was lying down on a table and saw that he was surrounded by the Maximals.

“Maximal torture chamber!” yelled Waspinator. He then squirmed his way backward and fell on the floor. Squirming even more, he stumbled into Rhinox.

“Hold on there, Waspinator,” said Rhinox, “If you move anymore your head will detach again.”

“Man!” complained Rattrap, “Did ya know how long it took for us to put ya back together?”

“Wazpinator does not understand,” said Waspinator.

“We saw what you did for Airazor,” explained Rhinox.

“Airazor! Where is Airazor?! Is Airazor all right?

“Calm down! She’s fine thanks to you, but just barely. Right now, she’s in the CR chamber.”

Suddenly, out of the crowd of Maximals, Tigatron jumped out in his beast mode, trampling over Waspinator. He growled at him for a second and then got off of him, transforming to his robot mode. Noting Waspinator’s bravery, he gave him a hand and said, “Welcome, Maximal,” with a smile.

* * *

Night enveloped the landscape as the two moons shone overhead. Waspinator was out on top of the Axalon, sitting and watching the constellations.

“Lovely aren’t they?” said Airazor, who appeared suddenly.

“Yeah,” said Waspinator who was startled somewhat.

Airazor walked over to Waspinator and sat down right next to him. At that moment, there was a long silence between the two Maximals.

“Listen, um,” Airazor was trying to say something, “I really… I’m really grateful that—“

“Wazpinator knows… Wazpinator is ugly….”

“What? No, no, no… it’s not that. It’s just… well… I don’t have feelings for you….”

Waspinator felt like his heart was stabbed and was falling into a really deep dark abyss and yet, he was not surprised. He sighed dejectedly and tilted his head down a little as he peered the landscape.

“Will you be all right?”

“Wazpinator is always all right….”

Suddenly, a falling star broke through the night sky, but this was not any ordinary falling star.

“Look!” said Airazor, “A stasis pod! We have to go get it before the Predacons!”

“No… Wazpinator not feel like it right now….”

“Well… maybe this will help,” Airazor kissed Waspinator on the cheek.

Suddenly, as if he had been zapped by electricity he skyrocketed into the air and was leading the race for the stasis pod. After laughing happily, Airazor followed behind Waspinator to join the race. Who will win?

The End