Plays of Shadow

By: Amber Dawn

Chapter 17: Lucky Shot

Disclaimer: I don’t own Beast Wars. Please don’t sue me. I’m poor.

Fleetshade awoke with a start, her optics springing online immediately and her whole body tense. She felt sick and sore, like she’d just recovered from some sort of virus. Which, she realized as she remembered, she had.

She was stuck to something cold and sticky. Twisting around as far as her pounding head would allow, Fleetshade was sickened to discover it was a shining blue cyber-web with small tube-like structures running from the web’s radial lines to a small worktable in front of her. There was what looked like blue fluid – or was it gas? – running through the tubes. But rather than pumping the stuff into the web, it seemed to be pulling it out. Odd.

The room itself looked to be some sort of cavern. The only light came from the various monitors scattered around the space and a dull glow somewhere nearby, like that of stabilized energon. The sound of dripping liquid could be heard from all around.

Tarantulas, she remembered. I must be in his lair.

Fleetshade gave herself a cursory internal scan and could find nothing wrong with her except the dissolving effects of the cyber venom and a distinct lack of energon. In fact, she was leached of the buildup radiation as well! She was defenseless again!

The venom must have drained her, she though as she quickly scanned what little of the cavern she could see. She found no sign of Tarantulas, so she deduced that he was gone for the moment.

Now was her time to escape. She tried struggling, which just tired her more. She tried desperately to find some remnants of energon radiation in her that she could use to blast her way out, but there was nothing. She tried anyway, concentrating on the web behind her.

The web whined slightly and the rush of blue stuff increased a bit, but that was all that happened. She was very tired now, and getting more so by the second. Fighting to maintain consciousness, Fleetshade struggled to think.

So she couldn’t free herself. Time for plan B, she thought wryly. She took a deep breath and went for it.

“Help!” she screamed. “Is anybody there? HEEELP!”

Cheetor flew as fast as his jets could take him, barely keeping up with Optimus. They had just escaped the cave where Ravage said Megatron kept his energon; it had been a trap, and the two Maximals had gotten out just in time.

Oh, there had been energon there, but it had been raw. For the umpteenth time, Cheetor resisted the urge to smack himself: that should have been their first clue that it was a trap. But as if that wasn’t enough, Inferno had shown up and proceeded to torch the cave, causing a massive energon explosion. The only good thing that had come of this mess was that Inferno hadn’t made it out of the cave. Not even a super warrior like the ant-bot could withstand that heavy of a blast; if the concussion didn’t wipe him out, the radiation would soon enough.

Now Cheetor and Optimus were flying full-tilt back to base to warn the others: something about this whole Decepticon thing smelled like bad meat. And in light of everything that had happened, Cheetor was finally telling Optimus about his recurring dream and how he feared for Fleetshade’s life – and theirs. Optimus seemed to take him seriously, and the commander looked worried.

“Better check up on the base,” Optimus muttered once Cheetor had finished, switching on his comlink. “That Decepticon’s still there. If he decides to cause trouble….”

“And see if they found Fleetshade,” Cheetor added nervously. The neutral femme hadn’t been around when they’d returned from capturing Megatron, and Cheetor was getting worried that something might’ve happened to her. The arrow from his dream kept plaguing his thoughts. Optimus nodded, obviously thinking the same thing.

“Optimus to Maximal Base. What is your status? Report.”

There was a brief pause, then Rattrap came on the line.

“Well, I got good news an’ bad news, Fearless Leader.”

Optimus frowned at Cheetor; that didn’t sound good, coming from Rattrap. The Maximal base was in sight now, but something was very wrong….

“All right, what’s the good news?” Optimus asked.

“Well, the good news is we don’t have ta kowtow to that stinkin’ Decepticon any longer.”

Optimus’ optics widened. Cheetor had his own optics focused on the base, thinking he had some idea what the bad news was going to be.

“And the bad news?”

“The bad news is – he’s switched sides!”

Just as Rattrap’s words flowed from Optimus’ comlink, Cheetor saw the Decepticon ship lift off the ground near the Maximal Base and open fire on it. Sentinel snapped up just in time to block a heavy salvo of laser cannon fire, but then the ship turned around – aiming straight toward Cheetor and Optimus!

As the fliers drew closer, they could see the ship looming like a menacing shadow against the dusky skyline. And standing on top of it, laughing maniacally at the looks on the two Maximals’ faceplates, was Megatron.

Cheetor heard Optimus gasp, then yell “Move!”

Cheetor dove into an evasive maneuver just as the ship fired a hug round of laser fire at the spot where they’d been hovering nanoklicks earlier. Cheetor heard Optimus cry out and spun in the air to see his leader falling, his hoverboard having been clipped by a few shots.

“Big Bot!”

Cheetor stooped into a dive, dodging additional blasts from Megatron’s arm cannon, trying to get to Optimus before he hit the ground.

Too late. Optimus ate dirt with a dull thud and Cheetor pulled up, snarling. By now the Decepticon ship was firing on the base again, leaving Megatron to jump down and loom over Optimus, who was up with gun in hand.

Taking advantage of Megatron’s momentary distraction, Cheetor activated his comlink.

“This is Cheetor to Maximal Base. Is somebody there?”

“Cheetor! What is it?” It was Rhinox.

“Have you guys found Fleetshade?” Cheetor asked the scientist while continuing to dodge cannon fire. He was going to have to transform and start returning fire any cycle now, but he had to know about Fleetshade.

“No,” came the answer. “Airazor thinks Tarantulas got her.”

Cheetor almost fell out of the air. Regaining his balance, he growled. “Aw, man, I knew it was a bad idea to leave her alone!”

“Airazor’s gone to get her. Says she knows where Tarantulas’s lair is.”

Cheetor let out a small sigh of relief. Good old Airazor.

Feeling slightly better, the cat-bot thanked Rhinox, switched off his comlink and looked around. Optimus and Megatron were squaring off in the air some way off and the Decepticon ship was still firing at the base. Sentinel was still up, but it was flickering dangerously.

Suddenly, Cheetor’s attention was taken by something rolling along the ground toward them. Rampage! The crab-bot was sneaking up behind Optimus and Megatron. As Cheetor watched, Megatron grabbed Optimus, swinging him right into Rampage’s line of fire.

“Big Bot! Watch out!”

Too late again. Optimus was thoroughly pummeled, then Megatron let go of him. Cheetor snarled as the Maximal leader fell to the ground again.

Not sure what he planned to do, Cheetor dove toward the ground, transforming just as he hit and rolling up with blaster aimed right at Megatron’s big ugly face.

Megatron merely smirked and Cheetor barely dove away in time to dodge a huge blast from the Decepticon ship. This battle was quickly turning against the Maximals.

Rattrap gnawed viciously through the exterior of the Decepticon ship, focused single-handedly on his task. The last sheet of metal peeled away under his gnashing teeth and the spy grinned in triumph. This was it. He transformed to robot mode, fighting to keep his balance as the ship pitched violently, releasing another shot at the base.

The rat-bot was really getting sick of this slag. Seemed every time a ‘bot turned around, Megatron had some plot up his proverbial sleeve.

Not to mention Tarantulas, the stinking spider; this time he’d gone too far. Not only was the arachnid in league with Decepticon scum, but he’d kidnapped Fleetshade. And now he was going to answer for it.

Mind made up, Rattrap leaped into the Decepticon ship and landed with a clank, drawing a pair of acid green eyes from across the room. The rodent-bot had his gun out and aimed before Tarantulas could even turn around.

“Just the ‘bot I wanted to see,” Rattrap drawled. “Step away from the weapon controls, spider.”

Tarantulas cackled. “I don’t think so.”

The arachnid brought his blaster up from behind him and squeezed off a shot, but Rattrap was ready for it. He dove to the side, firing at Tarantulas over his shoulder. The shot hit the Predacon in the arm, causing him to let out a cry of surprise and pain, twisting away a bit.

And exposing the weapons panel.

Rattrap executed a neat roll and came up on one knee, already firing at the console. It exploded in a shower of sparks, causing Tarantulas to let out a frustrated “Ack!”

Examining the destroyed console, Tarantulas snarled and spun on Rattrap.

“You’ll pay for that, you insolent vermin!”

Tarantulas looked ready to fire on him, but Rattrap pulled a bomb out of his wrist compartment and waved it in front of his face.

“Uh, uh, uh, not a good idea, Legs. You detonate dis puppy and we all go down.”

Tarantulas hesitated for just long enough. Rattrap shot the blaster out of the arachnid’s hand and strode up to him in a few quick movements. Before the spider knew what hit him, Rattrap belted him across the face, downing him instantly. Pressing his foot to the Predacon’s throat and aiming his blaster directly at the spider’s spark compartment, Rattrap bore down on Tarantulas as menacingly as his small stature could afford.

“What’d you do wit Fleetshade?” he asked.

Tarantulas wheezed. “You expect me to tell you?”

“I don’t,” Rattrap replied heavily. “But my gun sure do. Now where is she?” He waved said weapon in Tarantulas’ face.

“You really think that will make me talk, you pathetic Maximal? You’re going to blow this ship to smithereens whether I tell you where she is or not. Either way I’m done for. You Maximals must take some sort of sick pleasure from ruining my slagging life!”

Rattrap considered this a moment, then shrugged. “Yep.”

With that, he pulled the trigger. Tarantulas sparked a few times as his body went into stasis lock, then he was still.

Giving the insane Predacon a hard kick for good measure, Rattrap got out the bombs he’d brought with him just as Ravage’s garbled voice came through the damaged comlink on the weapons console.

“Lieutenant…Tarantulas...wrong? The weapons…grids…gone offline. Lieuten-“

But before the Decepticon could even finish his sentence, Rattrap had armed the bombs and was climbing out of the hole he’d made in the roof. He barely had time to leap out before the charges blew and he was flying through the air, back in the direction of the Axalon. He could see the rest of the team, minus Silverbolt and Airazor, assembled there watching the ship go down.

A shrill scream poured from Rattrap’s vocalizer. No matter how he tried he couldn’t seem to silence it. Once he was within hearing range of his teammates, he transformed the wordless cry into the words, “Heads up!” He squeezed his optics shut and waited to hit the ground

But just as he was bracing himself for impact, Rattrap felt himself connect with something hard that gave under his weight. The wind was knocked out of him, but he definitely hadn’t hit the ground. Cracking one optic open, Rattrap saw Rhinox’s face swimming in front of him. The big guy had caught him!

Embarrassed at his position but determined not to lose face, Rattrap smiled and batted his optics, throwing his arms around Rhinox’s shoulders. “My hero,” he sighed dramatically, planting a kiss on the green scientist’s cheek.

“Oh, get down,” Rhinox snorted irritably, dropping the spy roughly to the ground. Nevertheless, Rattrap could see that Rhinox was glad to see he’d made it out alive. That made him feel better, although he was frustrated that he hadn’t got Tarantulas to talk

Rattrap’s instinctually pessimistic processor kept running worst case scenarios through his mind. Much as he hated to admit it, he’d grown rather attached to Fleetshade over the last while, and it would be a shame to lose her. He just hoped Airazor knew what she was doing….

Airazor tore through the sky, stretching her pistons to the limit, milking every thermal and breeze to get her to Tarantulas’ lair quicker. She had no idea what was going on at the Maximal base, and for all she knew the spider-bot could be torturing and killing Fleetshade at this very moment.

As she drew up on the coordinates Blackarachnia had given her, Airazor scanned the terrain for the collapsed cave the she-spider had mentioned.

That had to be it there; that pile of rubble halfway up a cliff. Airazor winged her way over and didn’t even bother to slow down as she transformed, tearing toward the ground with tremendous speed. She hit hard and rolled for a few meters. When she sat up she was dizzy for a nano, but her focus on what she was doing got rid of the vertigo quickly and she stood to have a look around.

It only took a few cycles of snooping for Airazor to find what she was looking for: a small opening between two boulders that was much wider than it looked. It would be impossible to spot if you weren’t looking for it, but Airazor had sharp optics.

Still, she wasn’t stupid enough to think there would be no booby traps.

Sure enough, there was a slight crunching noise and the ground suddenly slipped out from under her feet. She jumped up and hovered just in time to see the soil beneath her crumble into a pit lined with lethal-looking spikes. If she wasn’t a flier, she’d be a goner. But surely Tarantulas would guard against fliers as well….

At the tiny ‘crack’ above her head, Airazor’s body moved before he processor even registered why. Nanoklicks later, a gigantic boulder crashed down from the ceiling. If she had stayed where she was, she’d have been squashed onto the spikes.

Panting a bit from her near-destruction experience, Airazor took a moment to compose herself and lower herself to the ground. She then began the slow trek down the very dark passage, listening with her audios on high and her keen falcon optics in full infrared focus.

Finally, she saw a light ahead. It got steadily brighter and closer, and as Airazor turned a corner it revealed the end of the tunnel. She came out into a dimly-lit cavern complete with huge stalagmites and stalactites rising from the ground and hanging from the ceiling like monstrous teeth. The cave itself was massive, its far reaches fading into shadow. Clustered in the center was a group of monitors and instruments that were giving off some blinking, pulsing light. The real lighting in the cave came from the bluish ambient glow of a nearby energon deposit. Airazor couldn’t see it from where she was, but there must be a fair supply of energon nearby. And judging from the steadiness of the glow, it was stable.

Proceeding into the cavern, Airazor shivered. Besides the dim, spooky lighting, the sound of dripping water echoing from all over the cave gave her a creeping feeling. Her footsteps echoed off the walls, bouncing back to her a few times and giving the illusion of ten sets of feet rather than one. Airazor tensed, constantly on edge as she armed her wrist cannons. Something was wrong here. Being a flier, she really didn’t like dark, enclosed spaces. The fact that this particular dark, enclosed space belonged to Tarantulas only made things worse.

Suddenly, Airazor realized what was wrong with this picture. The dripping water and her own footsteps were the only things she could hear. She strained her audios, but not another sound came through. She paused until the sound of her footsteps died away, then tried again. Still nothing.

Airazor wasn’t liking this. Where was Fleetshade? And better yet, where was Tarantulas?

Then it dawned on her: Tarantulas was in league with that Decepticon! He was probably at the Maximal base, helping Ravage interrogate Megatron. But where had he put Fleetshade?

“Fleetshade!” Airazor called out. Her voice bounced back countless times, compounding Airazor’s worry with every echo that yielded no response.

And then, suddenly, Airazor heard something. Not a loud noise, but something that didn’t fit in with the rest. It sounded like a mumble, or a light moan. Airazor called again and the voice came again, from behind a stalagmite to the Maximal’s left.

Airazor bolted around the pillar of stone and gasped at what she saw: Fleetshade hung limp from one of Tarantulas’s cyber-webs, barely online. The end of each of the web’s radial lines turned into a tube of some kind, leading over to a workbench a few meters away from the web. A large container filled the workbench, almost filled with some sort of blue liquid. Or was it liquid? Maybe it was gas. But Airazor didn’t take any more time to examine it. She rushed over to the cyber-web and watched as Fleetshade activated one optic wearily.

“’Razrrr…?” the deer-bot slurred, obviously finding it difficult to speak. Airazor knew what was happening immediately: that web was sapping Fleetshade’s energon supply, weakening her. Killing her.

“Don’t worry Fleetshade; I’m here now. It’ll be okay,” Airazor assured the powerless girl as she tried to find some way to deactivate the web. There wasn’t exactly a switch she could throw, so she backed up a few feet and aimed her wrist guns at the web.

“Hold on, ‘Shade,” Airazor warned, and fired.

The missiles ricocheted off the web and flew right back toward her! Ducking with a bird-like screech, Airazor re-evaluated the situation. She got up close to the web again and examined how Fleetshade was connected to it. It looked like she was simply stuck to it. So all Airazor had to do was cut her down, right?

So what could cut through cyber webbing? An energon blade, perhaps? “I’ll be right back,” Airazor told Fleetshade. The neutral ’bot didn’t respond.

Airazor rushed over to Tarantulas’s monitors, finding a tool chest without much trouble. She blasted it open and dug around until she found what had to be the hilt of an energon blade. She grabbed it and flicked it on. Yep, it was an energon blade, alright.

Airazor rushed back over to the web and tried inserting the blade into the web near Fleetshade’s wrist. It worked like a charm.

Five cycles later, Airazor was cutting the last of the webbing away from a prone Fleetshade. The deer-femme hadn’t spoken and had barely moved again, and Airazor only hoped she could get her to help in time.

Wait! That energon deposit! Airazor left Fleetshade for a moment and switched on one of her scanners. Her vision was suddenly overlaid with a grid which scanned for the presence of usable energon nearby. It zeroed in on a place right in front of her, seeing through the stalagmites. Airazor took off, twisting and turning around the huge pillars until finally she saw the source of the light in the cave: a huge pile of stable energon cubes, just as she’d suspected.

Gathering up a few, Airazor made her way back to the center of the cave. Fleetshade lay where she’d left her, looking very weak. Airazor dropped the cubes as gently as she could and hauled up Fleetshade’s head, searching for the port she needed. It was there, on the side of the girl’s neck. Flicking open the tiny cover, Airazor pulled out the feeding tubes with the tiny blades on the end that every transformer came equipped with. She dug the blades into the energon cubes and immediately the power started seeping from the cube up the tube and into Fleetshade’s body.

“C’mon, c’mon,” Airazor urged. It was going to slow! But it was going, and that’s what counted.

Airazor couldn’t say how long she sat there, Fleetshade’s head cradled in her lap as the girl absorbed the energy from the first cube, waiting tensely for Tarantulas to return and find them. Once the first cube was depleted, Airazor plugged in the next. After three, Fleetshade raised her head on her own and activated her optics.

“Ai-Airazor?” she stuttered. Airazor could have wept with relief; she’d thought the deer-bot would never wake up!

“Thank Primus,” Airazor muttered.

“What am I – oh.” Fleetshade panicked for a moment, realizing she was plugged into something. When she realized it was an energon cube, she sighed.

“You – you saved me. Again,” Fleetshade murmured. “Thanks.”

Airazor grinned. “Now what kind of femme would I be if I just left you here? I thought you know me better than that, Fleetshade.”

The girl smiled. “I do. How long have I been here?”

“At least five megacycles.”

“Jeez….what’s happening?”

Airazor sighed. “We captured Megatron. Ravage has him now, and I’m assuming that’s where Tarantulas is, too. Blackarachnia and Silverbolt are on their way to the Ark, at least last time I checked. I haven’t heard anything since I came to get you.”

Fleetshade cocked one optic ridge. “Silverbolt?”

Airazor shook her head. “Long story. Rattrap or Cheetor cold tell it better, but that’s for later. Right now we have to get out of here; Tarantulas could be back anytime. Can you walk?”

Fleetshade hesitated a moment. “I don’t think so,” she finally admitted with a sigh.

“Okay.”

Airazor helped Fleetshade unplug herself from the energon cube and hauled her up, leaning the girl against her shoulder. It was like this the two femmes made their way slowly from the cave.

The trek was silent but for Fleetshade’s laboured breathing and Airazor’s grunts of effort from holding the deer-femme up. Finally, they crossed the fallen boulder at the end of the tunnel.

“What’s that?” Fleetshade inquired as the pair stepped over it.

“Never mind,” Airazor told her wryly.

Stepping outside into the now-twilight air, Airazor gently lowered Fleetshade to the ground and activated her comlink.

“This is Airazor to Optimus. Where are you right now?”

There was a long pause. Just as Airazor was starting to get a bad feeling, the Maximal leader’s voice came over the line.

“Optimus here. Have you had any luck finding Fleetshade?”

“She’s here,” Airazor replied, glancing at Fleetshade. The deer-bot had reverted to beast mode and was lying on the ground a few feet away, breathing heavily. “I found her almost drained, hanging from one of Tarantulas’ cyber-webs. I managed to get her functioning and out of there, but she’s still really weak.”

“And my power has been exhausted again,” Fleetshade muttered from where she lay. Airazor repeated this to Optimus, who sighed.

“Unfortunately, we’ve got bigger problems right now. Ravage turned against us. He almost destroyed the base before we could stop him, and now Megatron’s escaped. He’s gone…I don’t know, but I have a hunch he’s going to do something very stupid.”

“Like break into the Ark?” Airazor asked.

Another long pause. “How do you know about that?”

“Long story. If you’re right, he’s going to meet a bit of resistance when he gets there. But they won’t hold him for long, so we should get there as soon as possible. But I can’t just leave Fleetshade here.”

There was the sound of a brief discussion that Airazor couldn’t make out, then Optimus said, “Cheetor says to bring Fleetshade with you.”

“What? Were your logic circuits cut? She can barely walk, and she’s defenseless!”

There was another pause, then Cheetor’s voice came over the line.

“I-I know. Look, Airazor, you gotta trust me. Bring her with you. Don’t leave her there. I think somebody’s out to get her.”

“And how do you figure that, Gearhead?”

“Long story, Birdbrain!”

“Both of you, enough!” cried Optimus. “We have to move out now. Airazor, do you know where to go?”

“Not exactly.”

Optimus gave her some approximate coordinates. “I can’t be more specific than that, I’m afraid. And Cheetor’s right: bring Fleetshade with you. She may indeed be in danger.”

“I’d say she’s in enough danger right now of just going into stasis lock! I can’t possibly –“

“Airazor,” Fleetshade called from behind the bird-bot.

Airazor spun around to face the neutral female. “Yes?”

“Blow up the cave.”

“What! Have you all gone crazy? Blowing up the cave will detonate the energ…hey! You’re right!”

Airazor turned back to her comlink. “Fleetshade may have an idea to help get her power back. We’ll be there as soon as possible. Airazor, over and out.”

Before Optimus or Cheetor could say anything, Airazor switched off her comlink and turned to Fleetshade. “Ready to make some fireworks?”

Fleetshade grinned. “Always.”