Changing Ways

Disclaimer: I don’t own Beast Wars.

Tarantulas placed the Predacon chip into the pod, thus replacing the Maximal chip he had taken out earlier. He then walked over to his computer.

“Computer, scan for beast modes using Predacon base power.” Using the scanners, Tarantulas’ computer scanned the area. It found the DNA of a preying mantas. Tarantulas, seeing the form and giving up on trying to find another one of his kind, decided to keep it.

“Create replica immediately.”

“Confirmed.”

After a few seconds, the stasis pod hatch flew open as a dark figure came out from inside of it. Tarantulas began to chuckle.

*****

Caterina was in beast mode and in a tree looking for Predacons. So far, she hadn’t found any wondering into her territory.

“Let’s see a leader go on a scout mission.” She muttered as she continued to look around at the scenery. “Well, at least the view’s good.”

Caterina suddenly thought she heard something.

“Predacon energy signature: detected.” Caterina then jumped down from the tree, transformed and hid. Waspinator then appeared, in beast mode.

“Waspinator not see any Maximals.” He said as he searched the area. He then noticed something behind a tree. He moved behind the tree to find nothing. Caterina had moved around the tree to prevent the wasp from finding her. Waspinator moved around the tree, as did the young leader. This continued three more times until Waspinator decided to turn around. He saw nothing. He started to look around the area, thinking that the Maximal was still there. Caterina then jumped onto Waspinator then jumped to the ground.

“Hey, you’re pretty good at hide n’ seek.”

“Waspinator not want to play hide and seek with cat-bot. Waspinator will slag cat-bot.” Waspinator then transformed and began to fire. Caterina dodged the blasts and began to fire back.

“And you thought because I was a young leader, I wasn’t gonna be able to kick you~”

“Terrorize!” Suddenly, Terrorsaur swooped down and transformed to robot mode. He began to fire his weapon as well.

“Aw man.” Caterina then climbed the tree and jumped onto a sandy hill. She began to fire at the two flyers.

“Just what I mean,” she said. “The two idiots shooting at me.” As Caterina shot Waspinator onto the hill, Terrorsaur noticed that the ground underneath Caterina and transformed. He then swooped down towards the new Maximal leader, who moved out of the way and witnessed Terrorsaur going through the hill and making a big hole on the top.

“Ya missed me!” As if on cue, Caterina and Waspinator fell through the cracks below them. Both transformers fell to the ground of what was revealed to be a cave.

“Look what that slaggin’ femme bot did!” Terrorsaur complained. “Now were trapped until our beast modes can repair us.”

Caterina quickly stood up angrily. “Me?” she bellowed. “You’re the one who tried to hit me!”

Waspinator got up and transformed to beast mode. “Well cat-bot moved out of way.”

“Well how was I supposed to know that this was a cave?” Caterina gave a heavy sigh and sat in the corner. “Now I’m stuck in a stupid cave with not one, but two Preda-creeps.”

*****

Claw Jaw was using the computer scanners to find Caterina. She should have been back at base megacycles ago but didn’t return or even contact them. Taurus entered the room.

“Still no sign of her?” Taurus asked.

“Not a single fur or whisker, Taurus.” Claw Jaw stated. “Could she’ve been under a Pred attack?”

“It’s possible, but she would’ve contacted us if she were.”

“I’ll wait another megacycle,” Claw Jaw said. “If she doesn’t contact us by then, we’ll search for her.”

“I’ll let Bone Crusher know.”

Taurus left the room as Claw Jaw started to scan the area again.

*****

Megatron was watching a re-play from Scorpinok’s cyberbees and noticed Terrorsaur, Waspinator and Caterina fall in a hole on top of a cave.

“Hmmm,” he said. “If I am correct, then that means that Waspinator and Terrisaur actually did something right.”

“You call falling into a cave something right?” Blackarachnia commented.

Megatron turned towards Scorpinok, Inferno and Blackarachnia. “Ah indeed it is. For I believe that Caterina maybe the new, and inexperienced Maximal leader. And without her, the other Maximals will not know what to do.”

“Sounds like the Maximals drew straws to decide who would lead.” Scorpinok muttered.

“Silence.” Megatron said. “With the leader unable to be found, at the cost of two blundering idiots, we should be able to attack the Maximal base…without a problem at all, yesss.”

*****

Caterina was kicking dirt and rock around as she sat in the corner, trapped with a couple of Predacons who couldn’t even win a turtle race. She turned to the flyers and noticed them talking. She tried her best to block out whatever kind on mindless dribble they were saying but couldn’t.

“Waspinator hate being trapped in cave.”

“It’s better than fighting Primal, that’s for sure.”

Caterina’s audio preceptors perked up. She lifted her head and turned to the flyers.

“Terrisaur have good point.”

“Hey! Scrap-for-brains!” Both Terrorsaur and Waspinator turn towards Caterina, who was now standing up.

“What do you mean by ‘Primal’?” she asked. “Who’s name is Primal?”

Terrorsaur and Waspinator exchange glances. This was the first time Caterina said anything after calling them ‘Preda-creeps’.

“What’s it to you?” Terrorsaur replied. Caterina looked up above them.

“Yeah,” Waspinator agreed. “Waspinator not see cat-bot helping us.”

Caterina then looked by the wall and the ground and smirked. “Tell ya what.” She said. “You tell me who this Primal guy is, and I’ll show you a way out I just found.”

Terrorsaur and Waspinator once again exchanged glances.

“Forget it.” Terrorsaur said.

“Fine,” Caterina smirked. “Stay in here with me. See if I care.” Caterina then turned around to walk back to her spot in the corner.

“Wait!” Terrorsaur’s words stopped a smiling Maximal leader in her tracks. Caterina turned around.

“Yesss?”

“Hold on a sec.” Terrorsaur and Waspinator huddled as Caterina whistled and leaned on the wall. After a few seconds, both flyers broke the huddle and faced the Maximal femme bot. Caterina stood up straight.

“We’ve decided that we’ll tell you, but only after you show us the way out.”

“Let me know about this Primal guy first, then, and only then, will I show you.”

“No way!” Terrisaur said. “You’ll just trick us.”

“It’s against the Maximal code to trick anyone.” Caterina then noticed that Terrorsaur and Waspinator weren’t buying it and shrugged. “Fine, don’t believe me.” With that, Caterina sat back down and started to kick more sand.

*****

Taurus and Bone Crusher both entered the room, finding Claw Jaw setting up his weapon.

“Been over an megacycle?”

“Oh yeah.” Claw Jaw said. “We’s got to get our leader lady back!”

Suddenly, there was a missile fire and the base began to shake.

“Apparently, Megatron figured it out before we did.” Taurus said as he grabbed his weapon. “Move out.”

The other two nod and raced out with Taurus.

*****

Outside the base, the Predacons were firing at the base as the shield came online and the only two auto guns began to fire. Taurus, Claw Jaw and Bone Crusher hid behind some stacked up rocks and return fire while nearly getting hit. Claw Jaw actually got a chance to fire and the ink hit Megatron in the optics. Bone Crusher and Taurus turned towards the pink, purple and red squid.

“What?”

All three guys moved out of the way of the following blasts. Taurus ran to the edge of the woods where he was then grabbed by a pair of tongs. Bone Crusher and Claw Jaw could only watch helplessly as their friend was lifted up into the air and thrown towards a tree. A green preying mantas then appeared.

“Mantorr: Terrorize!” With that, the preying mantas now known as Mantorr transformed to robot mode. Megatron was finally able to get the ink out of his optics and noticed the new Predacon just as Tarantulas appeared. Megatron turned to the arachnid.

“Where have you been?” Megatron bellowed.

“I was re-programming the protoform in a stasis pod I found, into the new Predacon, Mantorr.” Tarantulas responded quite calmly.

Megatron then turned to the new Predacon. “Who is your allegiance to? Tarantulas or myself?” There was a long silence before Mantorr answered.

“I, Mantorr am loyal to you Megatron. I shall destroy any enemy in your way.”

“Very well.” Megatron then turned to the remaining two Maximals. “These two have been a pain in my side for the past few weeks. I want you to terminate them.”

“As you command.” Mantorr got into a ready position and began his attack.

*****

Caterina was still sitting in the same spot. She had given Terrorsaur and Waspinator an option and she was getting nowhere. So instead, she decided to buy her time until they either died or the flyers finally caved, which ever came first.

“Ok.”

Caterina looked up at Terrisaur and Waspinator.

“We’ll go first.”

A triumphant smile came over the Maximal’s face as she sat up.

“But cat-bot has to keep bargain.” Waspinator added.

“Sure.” Caterina said. “I’m a Maximal, right?”

“His name isn’t Primal though, it’s Optimus Primal.” Terrorsaur began. “He commanded the Maximals on their ship called the ‘Axalon’, where you and your friend’s stasis pods came from.”

“Predacons shot down Maximal’s ship so Maximals do same for us. Had to find beast modes to prevent energon surges.” Waspinator continued. “But one day, Predacons play dead and Maximals steal parts from Predacon base to repair own ship.”

“We were planning on stealing the Axalon from the Maximals but the traitor, DinoBot found out and went to alert the Maximals.” Terrorsaur added. “And to keep things short, Optimus got left behind and the other Maximals, and DinoBot, returned to our home, Cybertron.”

“Cybertron…” Caterina had been so caught up with trying to prove that she wasn’t leader material that she had forgot that she and her friends weren’t on Cybertron. She decided that it was time to quit acting like a child and try to get out before she gets stuck with two Predacons in this stupid cave forever—if they would tolerate her for that long.

“Alright,” Terrorsaur said, snapping Caterina out of her daze. “We told you about Primal, now you have to show us the way outta here!”

“Yes.” Waspinator said. “Maximal promised.”

“Ok.” Caterina said. “But if it doesn’t work, you can’t go ballistic on me.” Caterina walked over to the wall of the cave. “Ok, Terrorsaur, you fly up to the wall.”

Terrorsaur reluctantly flew up to the wall. Caterina then turned to Waspinator.

“Now you, lay on the ground.”

Waspinator looked at her suspiciously.

“You wanna get out or not?”

Waspinator then laid down on the ground. Caterina then jumped on Waspinator then flew up, and bounced off Terrorsaur and out through the hole she came out of.

“Thanks boys.”

“HEY!” Terrorsaur yelled. “You said it was against you’re code to trick us!”

“Yeah.” Waspinator said. “Cat-bot did say that.”

“But I didn’t trick you.” Caterina said. “This was the way out. I just had to go first ‘cuz I’m no flyer.”

Terrisaur growled as Caterina jumped down from the hill, transformed and ran.

*****

Bone Crusher hit the wall as Claw Jaw fired his weapon to defend himself. Mantorr merely laughed as he walked closely towards the squid, picked him up and threw him over to Bone Crusher. Taurus got up, dodged Mantorr’s attack and slammed him to the ground. Megatron growled as he began to charge his weapon and fired it at the Maximals. All three of them scattered. Bone Crusher came up from behind Megatron, grabbed his dino-head laser and threw Megatron down to the ground. Taurus fired at the other Predacons, along with Claw Jaw.

Megatron: Predacons! Retreat!

The Predacons then got up and left the area. Then, out of the bushes, Caterina arrived in beast mode.

“What have you guys been up to?”

“Long story.” Taurus said. “Where have you been?”

“Stuck in a cave with the village idiots and going completely insane.” Caterina answered. “Guess we’re all pretty good.”

“I guess.” Claw Jaw said. “But Megs has a new playmate on his side.”

“And there’s no telling what would happen if Megatron gained all the other stasis pods here.” Taurus added.

“It’s obvious we’d have a whole bunch of Preds around us, that’s what would happen.” Bone Crusher pointed out.

“Hey guys.” Caterina said. “It’s obvious that there’s probably gonna be a way better Maximal for the job, so how about we have no leader until we find that right bot, huh?”

The other three Maximals exchange glances and then turned to Caterina. “NAW!”

All three Maximals headed back to base, leaving Caterina with her jaw hanging.

“But…hey…wait!” Caterina protested. “I…I’m no good at this! I mean…I got trapped for megacycles with a bird brain and a…an idiot!” The other Maximals kept going towards the base, while ignoring Caterina who was still ranting. “Hey…how about…you strip me of my commanding powers…and I tell you some really important info I found…Hey come on! No fair! At least wait up!”

With that, Caterina raced back to base as the other three began to laugh.