Hello, you lucky people! (I think "lucky's" the word I want...) Miss Special here, in case you couldn't tell. I have officially finished the latest installment of "Angel's Saga". Here it is:
The Test
By: Miss Special
"Are you sure about this? What if you're wrong?" Rhinox questioned Optimus. They, Dinobot, and Rattrap were in the control room, gathered around the table in the center.
"I'm pretty sure I'm right. And anyway, we'll never know unless we do this," Optimus answered.
"True," said Dinobot. "But do we need to know? Some things are better left a mystery."
"I don't want this to blow up into something we can't handle."
"Well, if that's settled," Rhinox said, "How much do we tell her?"
"Very little."
"Ignorance is bliss?" Rattrap ventured.
"For now." Optimus stood up and headed for Angel's quarters.
"And now I shall tell all of you my diabolical scheme, yessss. Just before I kill you, that is!" The rock, stick, and mud Megatron laughed evilly.
"Oh, no you don't! We still have our secret weapon!" the rock, stick, and mud Optimus answered.
"And what might that be?" Megatron sounded confident.
"We have Angel!"
Megatron laughed. "Ha! She's nowhere to be seen! Is she hiding, waiting to get me?" he sneered, mocking fear.
"As a matter of fact, I am!" A black paw picked up a hidden rock, stick, and mud cat-looking thing. The mud cat "pounced" on Megatron, knocking him over.
"Oh, no! I've lost-"
"Angel, could we have a word with you?"
The real panther looked up in surprise. Optimus, Rhinox, and Dinobot had entered her room. She didn't even hear the door open.
Dinobot surveyed the scene. There were rock, stick, and mud figurines all over the place. To the cat they must represent Maximals and Predacons.
"Uh, sure," Angel answered.
"We have a mission for you."
Angel couldn't believe her ears. "Really? You do?... Hey, what's the catch?"
Angel's been listening to Rattrap too much, Optimus thought. "There's no catch."
"Oh! Okay, what do want me to do?" She tried to look confident.
"We need you to infiltrate the Predacon base." Angel's ears went up. "And do something in there."
"What?" This was too good to be true. "Whatever you want, I'll do it."
Rattrap joined in. "We need ya ta blow up Scorpinok's lab."
Angel nearly asked why Rattrap wasn't doing it, but she quickly stopped herself. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, or something like that.
"I'll do it!"
"Good. We'll discuss the details later." Optimus turned to leave.
"Um... Is it an honorable death if you get crushed by a giant foot?"
Optimus and everyone else turned around. "What?"
"Dinobot stepped on himself."
Dinobot lifted up his foot. Sure enough, there were some broken sticks, dirt, and a pebble or two underneath. Rattrap snickered.
"Which one is the vermin?" Dinobot growled. "I'll crush him, too."
"Hey! You try making those without opposable thumbs!"
Optimus sighed. "If you two are going to fight, take it somewhere else. Unless, of course, you want to make Angel new figurines."
Dinobot snarled, "I will not stoop to playing with rocks and mud!" He left, so Rattrap left, too.
“Later,” Optimus reminded Angel. The cat saluted him as best she could before he and Rhinox left to stop a control room brawl. Angel continued her little war.
The Predacon ship never looked so menacing, Angel thought. She’d reviewed maps of the base, gotten a quick bomb tutorial from Rattrap, and a little advice from everyone, and now she was sneaking around back so she could get in undetected. Optimus and the others provided cover fire.
She located the hole she was to enter. Not so bad, so far. So far. She flew through the hole and right inside.
The first thing she noticed was the smell. It smelled like sulfur and dead animals roasting on a fire. Luckily, the it wasn’t overpowering.
She remembered advice Cheetor and Rattrap gave her: use the vent system. She pried off the grate and climbed in. It was surprisingly roomy, but very dark. The dark didn’t hinder Angel in the slightest. Centuries of cat evolution came into play as she used whiskers, nose, eyes, and soft paws to travel around like a shadow. Had she seen herself, she would’ve been proud.
Take a right here... keep going straight.... she took a peek through a vent. She was right over their control room. Not far now. She kept going until she finally reached her point of destination and hopped out.
Wow, this place was a mess. Mechanical devices, cyber bees, vials of goo, and other such materials were strewn about various tabletops. She’d better hurry up.
Angel transformed, put the detonation charges where Rattrap told her, armed them, went to beast mode, and was back in the vents without getting caught. Now she had to get out in the small time she was given. Not too hard.
She quickly returned to the safety of the vent. Wait, there was something wrong. Something didn’t smell right. Couldn’t stop now; the charges wouldn’t wait for her to get out.
The shadow panther walked nose first into a blue spider web. Laughter was heard behind her. Evil maniacal laughter. Tarantulas.
“Look at the little kitty I’ve caught in my web! Hee hee! You’ll make a lovely meal!”
“EEW!!! You don’t wanna eat me! Too much fur and feathers!”
He crawled closer, oblivious to Angel’s claws slicing her way to freedom. “Oh, but it’s worth the trouble. Nice and juicy...” He was getting too close for comfort. Almost out of the web...
He took another step forward, and that was enough for Angel. She pounced (as well as one can pounce in confined quarters) and began a tooth-and-claw assault on the spider.
BOOM!!!! The explosion made the Predacon base shake.
“Hey, Angel’s not out yet!” Cheetor said. “D’you think something’s wrong?”
Optimus didn’t say anything. Everyone was very, very quiet. The Predacons rushed inside their base to investigate.
Moments passed. No sign of the happy black cat.
"Rattrap."
"I'm on it." The rat covertly made his way to Angel's designated exit. He came back, shaking his head.
Silence.
"Let's move out, Maximals," Optimus turned and walked homewards. The others followed.
A light! A light at the end of the tunnel! Head for the light!
Ouch! There was a drop after the light. This wasn't the afterlife, was it? It looked exactly the same as the outside of the Predacon base.
Oh! Of course! The mission! It was complete! Now to report to Optimus!
The mostly fried panther attempted to stand. It was a slow process, one leg at a time. Standing hurt. A lot. Maybe flying would help.
Nope. Feathers were scorched. Existing hurt. This wasn't fun.
Time to walk. One paw in front of the other...
Optimus wasn't where he should be. Did they forget her..?
There he is! He and everyone else were leaving! She couldn't get her legs to run. They were going to leave her behind!
"Optimus, wait up!"
Cheetor stopped.
"Did you hear something?"
"Keep walking," Dinobot said. "You're hearing things. She died honorably. She will have a magnificent funeral."
"No, I'm pretty sure I heard something." He turned around.
"C'mon, kid. No one coulda survived dat explosion."
"There's something coming towards us." Everyone turned around. They hears a faint voice:
"Wait up!" There was a black dot in the distance. It didn't take the Maximals long to figure out who it was.
The Maximals mobbed their way to Angel. Her spirits seemed pretty high even though she was extra-crispy.
"What happened?" Cheetor asked.
"I ran into Tarantulas on my way out. I got past him, but not fast enough."
"Slaggin' spiders an' gettin' fried- our liddle girl's growin' up!"
"I'm little?"
"You may continue this reunion, but I for one am going home." Dinobot turned around.
"Yeah, home sounds pretty good right now." Angel followed suit.
One long stay in the CR chamber later, Angel was back to playing "Beast Wars" in her quarters.
"Hooray, Angel has saved the day again! Three cheers for Angel!" The crude figurines danced.
"Can I play?" Optimus held out a new Dinobot figure.
Angel was surprised only for a moment. "Sure! You can be the bad guys."
"Hey, why do I have to be the bad guys?" He sat down beside her.
"Cuz I wanna win."
"You know we don't always win, don't you?"
"Yeah, but we do, this time. Okay, make Megatron say something."
"I will take over the universe!"
"No, you have to say it right."
Optimus sighed. "I will take over the universe, yeeeeeessss."
"That's better."
The End