11.Nov.06
Moments
In Time
Chapter one
“Raw
Energon, right through your twisted spark!”
It
had snarled back at him at that. So he pushed just that much harder against it,
bringing the improvised blade just that much closer to its exposed spark.
“Take
it!” he yelled pushing even more with each word. “TAKE IT! Right
through you TWISTED spark, you sickening, PIECE OF SLAG!”
Finally.
It
was finally time.
After
all this time…
After
all the pain that was caused…
After
all the suffering he had gone through…
Revenge
and justice was finally here. The retribution of all those lives lost couldn’t
be taken away now. That monster had to face his true punishment now in the
depths of the pits.
Now
at the end of it all…he could die.
It
looked up at him in the optics, realizing what the fallen guardian already knew.
It was the end. He had won, and it knew.
The
game was now over, and it had lost.
It
had been a good game, no denying it. Oh, how so sweet it had been. The fear.
The anger. The bittersweet pain and so many other delicious
emotions it had rung from him… It would gladly have done it again, for never
had it had such a ‘playmate.’
And
who knew? Maybe it would get that chance again?
Rampage
tilted his head back and started laughing. Yes, he would do it again, but this
game must first end.
The
Predacon let go of the Energon shard and Depth charge narrowed his optics for a
brief moment. Then the blade was plunged down…and the world exploded.
…………………………………………………………………………………………
He
was alive.
Oh
sweet Primus no…No, let me die. Please just let me die.
His
systems where coming back online. One by one then more, eight, thirteen, twenty
three, till everything was fully operational again. He could smell the familiar
sent of the critical repair chamber, the hint of sulphur that got into almost
everything thanks to living inside a semi active volcano. He could feel the
ever-present heat in the air, the rock below and in his own large frame.
Depth
Charge refused to come fully online. He didn’t want too, simple as that. The
Maximal’s ruby optics stayed dim and his body was limp in the repair
chamber’s grasp. He didn’t even twitch when he heard the chamber’s door
hiss, releasing the little bit of built up air pressure before opening and
lifting up.
There
was a voice, but the mech couldn’t, or wouldn’t, focus on it.
It
was just a voice. No words. No vocabulary. No recognizable language… Just
different tones and sounds in the eternal darkness.
It
was just a simple voice in the shadows of his mind.
Was
it even real?
He
was sure he hadn’t heard it before. Or had he? So long ago in a past that was
both lovely and painful.
No.
Don’t
think about that. Don’t think about anything…
That
voice again, it was back and he was…moving? Being dragged? Hah, the great,
fallen guardian of Omicron being dragged along like a sack of rusted old parts.
That didn’t sound too off-bat, really.
The
voice was growling at him now, most likely cursing him for not waking even
though he was repaired.
Well
tough luck to that voice and its owner because he wasn’t going to wake up any
time soon if he could help it.
Something
sharp, several sharp things bit into the side of his face and head, forcing him
to come up partly into the land of the living.
“I’m
not going to spend the next who-knows-how-many-millions of years here by myself
and a body that isn’t dead!” Words now accompanied the voice, “WAKE UP
YOU OVER SIZED FISH-STICK!!”
The
sharp things bit into the side of his face again a split second before he was
soundly slapped.
Ruby
red optics flared to life.
Depth
Charge saw a blurry image of a blue and green figure standing (kneeling?) above
him. Oddly, the bright, blood red optics of this other bot was the only thing
that came properly into forces. They were full of a fiery life that he once had
and now didn’t want for himself anymore.
“That’s
it! Up!” the figure moved.
The
ray grunted as a weight settled heavily on to his chest.
“Up!”
Grunt.
“Don’t
you grunt at me mister. Not after all that slag I went though to save your sorry
tail.”
The
Maximal still wasn’t letting himself think too much, but those optics… They
were annoyed, most likely at him and had an almost wild tinge to them. Where had
he seen that before?
“Come
on, up!” He felt two hands rest on his upper chest and the bot leaned forward
so they were optic to red optic.
It’s
alive...
the ray thought almost dully, I was alive like that once so long ago. He
was still neither moving nor speaking. He wasn’t ready to come out of it yet,
he wanted to just go back into recharge or stasis and—
“Oh
no you don’t!”
Slap!
His
optics flared again as metal connected with Transmetal.
Slap!
“Stay
wake!” The bot said, “Or I’ll…I’ll… ahh….I’ll…eat your
tail!”
What
the slag?
Finally,
Depth Charge moved, his brows lowered in a puzzled frown. Eat his…tail? This
bars repeating: what the slag?
“Oh,
you don’t think I will huh? Well…” The blue and green bot sat back, those
red optics of its now full of a kind of mischief.
The
weight moved off of him as the bot left his line of sight and the ray slowly
took in a deep breath, cycling air into his systems to cool them.
Shink!
Wha…?
CHOMP!
“GRAAH!”
Depth Charge jerked upright and lashed his tail behind him as something clamped
down on it. Hard. There was a crash somewhere the left and behind him but
the manta was more interested in the now painful spade shape tail tip.
The
imprints, or puncture marks of four killing fangs were imbedded into it as well
as smaller marks around the main four.
“BWAHAHA-HAH!
I told you I would!” The gleeful cackle belonged to that set of optics
and voice of the other bot.
Depth
Charge turned, letting his tail go as he faced this new mech.
A
blue and green fem-bot smiled at him from where she had been tossed thanks to
his tail. She was on her side, still shaking with near silent laugher at the
ray’s expense. She looked like she had a ‘dragon’ beast mode, the only
reason Depth Charge could tell was because Megatron had had one last he saw, but
this fem-bot was different. The beast mode head was covering and protecting her
chest and, the fore-paws were her feet, dew claws and all. The hind paws were on
her shoulders, a long tail with a claw at the end was lazily draped over her
legs and two large wings were folded onto her back.
Depth
Charge looked this new development over and settled on staring at her face,
there was something familiar about it but he couldn’t place it. Was it the way
that it was framed by both two head-horns and a wild blueish beast mode mane?
“Take
a holo-vid.” She said, “It’ll last longer.”
The
Maximal’s optics flashed and dimmed in a blink.
For
several minute the two just stared at each other, judging power levels and
comparing possible skills. Or at least Depth Charge was, a part of is more
‘normal’ self kicking in and making him do so. There couldn’t be much size
difference between them. Well, in height that is. She was maybe two heads
shorter? The ray knew that he out-weighed her. Easily.
On
the other hand, the fem-bot seemed to be doing nothing more than checking him
out as she propped herself up on a spiked elbow. She gave him a half smile, a
glint of a fang showing.
“Well
aren’t we the pair of the stellar-cycle? One fallen Maximal Guardian and one
exiled Predacon space pirate on a more or less empty world.” She sighed and
looked up at the cavern roof so far above them, “Of course that’s just my
luck, getting stuck with a Guardian of all bots.”
Depth
Charge inhaled sharply as memory reinserted its self.
He
was standing in the main Guardian office talking to friend and partner as he
looked over the hard copies of the latest warnings from Cybertron.
WANTED!
Active
or Deactivated
Predacon
space pirate: Ice Queen.
Last
seen in Cybertron’s outer colonized spaces,
She
is under the charges of grand theft, murder and other illegal activities.
If
seen contact local authorities or nearest Maximal Guardian base.
Reward
offered!
“What
do you think the chances are of a bot reporting her in?” Greave Stone had
asked after glancing at the print out.
Depth
Charge had given a chuckle and shook his head, “If someone did then they
wouldn’t have lived out here on the outskirts of the colonies.”
“HAH!
That’s all too right my friend. Come to think about it I remember some bots
saying that she,” the tanker had waved at the print out, “Picked a fight
with some other pirates that moved in where they shouldn’t have. Help one of
those older colonies doing so I think.”
“Help
them?” The aquatic jet snorted, “I doubt it. ‘Was most likely keeping
territory as those kind of bots do.”
“There
more to ‘those kind of bots’ than you know, my friend.”
Depth
had hadn’t believed the older mech back then. He did now, especially now that
he had gone over that all but none existing line between a ‘normal’ bots and
the ‘out laws’ in his hunt for X. There was more to them, well, most of
them. They had their own set of rules, ethics and ranking systems. Sometimes it
varied but only because one Caption and crew was different from another Caption
and crew.
He
had been surprised at how many good mechs had lived outside the law, as well as
how horrific others could be, like X.
That
was why Depth Charge didn’t react much to the fact that he was sitting near a
space pirate that had killed and stolen. Primus he had liked too, and not just
as a Guardian protecting the peace. There had been mechs that had gotten in the
way of his hunt, somewhere just plain stupid but most deserved it.
“What
the slag,” The large Maximal said as he stood, his voice somewhat rougher than
it ordinarily was from lack of use and recent repairs, “Are you doing here Ice
Queen, and why am I still alive?”
“Oh,
he knows my name. Where was the wanted poster?” The Predacon smiled.
“Omicron.”
“Oh.”
She looked away, humor dieing as she remembered seeing the massacred colony. Her
ship had been one of the first to respond, after all she had refuelled there a
few times and no one there had been rude enough to point out that she was a
pirate. It had seemed fair at the time to go when she and her crew had picked up
the week distress signal.
“Any
one else alive?” The Ray asked looking back over at the Predacon.
“Not
that I’ve found.” Ice Queen sat up, “I got out of my pod, wandered around
till I found this place,” She paused to wave a wing at what was left of the
Maximal ship and the great golden hulk that was the Autobot space craft The
Ark. “Did some poking around and came across some old logs and decided to
play tourist and see my ancestor’s ship the Nemesis, and maybe a way
off this rock. I found you half scrapped instead.”
Depth
Charge looked down at his repaired form, putting two and two together, “You
sure no one else is alive?”
“Are
you talking about all those its-and-bits of pieces of bot that where scattered
around you when I found your sorry tail?”
“Yes.”
“Pretty
sure that guy is dead.” The dragon said a bit sarcastically.
“Are
you sure?” The large Maximal said walking over to the other.
Ice
Queen reached into subspace and tossed something brown colored at the manta bot,
he caught it with one hand.
It
was a chunk of Rampage’s armor.
“Looks
like he wasn’t immortal after all, Guardian.”
“Depth
Charge.” The ray said after a minute. He sub-paced the chunk and looked down
at the blue and green femmie. “I’m not a Guardian… not anymore.”
“Hmm.”
Ice Queen tilted her head then reached up and took the Maximal’s offered hand,
letting herself be pulled up. She quirked an optic ridge up, “So what do we do
now?”
“…I
don’t know.”
“Hmm…weeeeeelllll…
we could-”
“Keep
it ‘PG’ female.”
“Aww,
you’re taking al the fun out of it.”
Depth
Charge grunted, “I don’t do that kind of things with Predacons.”
“…ouch.”
Ice Queen said as the ray turned his back to her and walked off. She shrugged,
“Oh well, can’t blame me for trying. Blah, who’d want to be with a
stiff necked Maxie anyways?”
“I
heard that!”
“Good!” The dragon gave a fanged grin as she made use of a handy human
gesture she’d picked up some time ago with her middle finger when the large
Maximal turned to glare.
---
Queen’s
note: ....I have been bitten by a manta-infected plot bunny. Sweet primus save
me @.@ I have no clue where this is going so…yeah. (spazzes) I CAN WRITE DEPTH
CHARGE AGAIN! (gives hugs and cookies to every one that reads this)
Oh,
and I don’t own Beast Wars. But I claim DC’s tail! n.n