Plays of Shadow

By: Amber Dawn

Chapter 2: Fleetshade

Disclaimer: Disclaimer: Beast Wars belongs to Hasbro, not me. Dang.

29-A2V swayed violently and toppled as she felt the last of her strength leave her. The energon buildup within her was completely gone, and with it went the last of the desperate strength she had mustered for her escape. She was left drained and devastated.

What was happening to her? The power to release the energon buildup inside her had been the discovery that had set her and the other slaves free. She had only hoped for it to work once, but now that she had opened the door it seemed to have gained a mind of its own.

She couldn’t control it any more than she could control her raging emotions, and she could only pray that she hadn’t permanently damaged Cheetor and his two companions. They had done nothing to threaten her, but her mind had jumped to conclusions and so had the energy inside her. She hadn’t meant to harm anyone. She hated the idea of harming someone unless they deserved it, having endured so much of that kind of pain herself. But why hadn’t Cheetor told her that there were more of them coming? He hadn’t looked surprised to see those others, so had he truly been tricking her? Who could be trusted?

She didn’t want to think about it anymore.

A2V felt the darkness pressing in on her again. She was exhausted and badly damaged, but she couldn’t let herself rest. There were enemies on this planet: the Maximals and the Predacons.

A2V remembered now where she had heard those names before. They were the infamous warring factions of Cybertron, a distant planet inhabited solely by Transformers. On the peaceful colony of Bedon, A2V’s childhood home, the Great War and the bickering that had come after had been portrayed as a foolish travesty of what being Transformers was all about.

And now it seemed A2V had fallen inadvertently into the middle of it.

Well, one thing was for sure: she wasn’t getting involved. There was no way she was allowing herself to be persuaded into fighting - for either side. It wasn’t that she wouldn’t fight for what she believed in. Her history simply had no part in their ancient dispute and therefore it was wrong for her to be involved in their war. Somebody had told her that a long time ago. Her mother, perhaps.

A2V wondered where her mother was right now, if she was even still alive.

“I’ll find you,” she whispered, fighting her body’s urge to go into stasis. “I’ll find you wherever you are, and we’ll be a family again. This I promise.”

Blackarachnia shifted slightly in her crouch, stretching her eight legs one at a time. She had arrived in time to see the pilot of the downed spacecraft freaking out and blasting Inferno and Quickstrike with a huge energy beam.

The she-spider had decided it was best to watch from a distance, and had hidden herself in some ferns. From this vantage point, she had watched the new femme take out some Maximals as well, then fall to the ground, obviously depleted.

“This new girl’s got some mean firepower,” Blackarachnia muttered to herself, “and what’s more, she doesn’t have a Maximal or Predacon energy signature. How can that be? Unless she’s hiding it. A spy maybe? Hmmm.…”

Blackarachnia’s optics swerved from the fallen form of the small femme to the smoldering remains of the crashed ship. The construction wasn’t familiar to the Predacon, and she took a moment to study it.

It was egg-like in shape, the cockpit a bit more sharply pointed than the aft. Its short, goofy-looking wings had been completely incinerated in the crash, but the main body of the craft looked intact, though scorched. The ship was obviously built to be tough as well as fast. There were no visible weapons. Probably had a transwarp drive. A transport vehicle, Blackarachnia decided.

‘Note to self,’ she thought, ‘be the first one to investigate that thing’s remains once it cools off.’

It was getting lighter out by the second, and looking to the sky Blackarachnia noted that the rain clouds were clearing. It would be a clear, sunny day. Her optics then shifted back to the unmoving form in the clearing ahead.

Who was this girl? She displayed no energy signature or allegiance and piloted a foreign spacecraft. She refused to be taken by either side, and seemed genuinely terrified and confused. She had minimal armor and didn’t appear to have any weaponry other than those bursts of energy. Was she really a spy? If not, then what was she?

Blackarachnia thought back to the girl’s attacks. She obviously harbored a massive amount of energon buildup, but that in itself was odd. All the energon deposits around this area of the planet had been stabilized or destroyed in the recent alien attack. Unless the girl had carried the buildup from wherever she’d come from. But that was impossible! The continuous energy buildup would have surely killed her! Blackarachnia shook her head, bewildered.

Then again, the new femme seemed able to store the energy and fire it off with little or no damage to herself. Blackarachnia had heard of such things happening to ‘bots that had been continuously exposed to large amounts of raw energon over long periods of time. She had thought it just a myth, but if it was true and this mysterious femme held such a power, she wouldn’t need weapons to destroy an entire base!

Blackarachnia stewed over this thought. This new kid could wipe out the Maximals or the Predacons in one fell swoop if she wanted to. She would be a powerful ally or a dangerous enemy. That meant Blackarachnia had to get this girl on her side before Primal or Megatron got to her. And the first step was to get her away from this clearing.

The tiny ‘bot still hadn’t moved since she had collapsed, so Blackarachnia assumed she was in stasis. Taking a deep breath, the she-spider scuttled from the underbrush and into the clearing. Transforming to robot mode as silently as she could, she crossed the distance to the new girl’s prone form.

At close range, Blackarachnia could see clearly the scars and burn marks covering the stranger’s body. The Predacon winced; not all of those scars were fresh. This kid had been sorely abused, and from the looks of it, more than once.

As she crept cautiously closer, Blackarachnia heard the girl mutter something under her breath. The words couldn’t be made out, but they caused the she-spider to freeze in mid-stride. Was the girl still awake, or merely dreaming? Only one way to find out, she thought wryly.

Biting her lower lip nervously and hoping the girl had run out of firepower, Blackarachnia took another step forward and placed a tentative claw on the newcomer’s shoulder.

Immediately, the small femme reacted. She screamed hoarsely and her optics flew wide as she rolled over to see Blackarachnia standing above her. She screamed again and dragged herself backwards along the ground, terrified optics fixed on the spider-bot.

Blackarachnia cringed at the noise the kid was making, but said nothing. Instead, she decided to play it cool, cocking her hip and smiling down at the stranger.

“Do I look that bad?” the she-spider remarked casually. “Granted, I’m not a morning person, but cut a girl a little slack, will ya?”

The newcomer’s optics widened more, if possible, then narrowed.

“You’re a femme!” she blurted. Obviously this made a difference. The girl visibly relaxed, and some of the fear left her expression. Blackarachnia’s smile faded.

“Yes, I’m a femme,” she mocked, “but that doesn’t make me any less dangerous! I could be here to blow your neurons out, and you let your guard down because we’re the same gender? Girl, I don’t know how you’ve survived this long,” Blackarachnia found herself scolding. If this kid was going to make it around here, she had to learn not to trust anybody.

The fear was back in the newcomer’s dark optics.

“Are you going to kill me?” she whispered, barely making a sound.

Taken aback at the sudden sadness in the girl’s optics, Blackarachnia relented. She shook her head.

“Lucky you, I’m not. In fact, I’m here to help you.” The new girl grimaced.

“I’ve heard that before.”

‘Slag,’ Blackarachnia thought, ‘I shouldn’t have used those words.’

“Yeah, well this time it’s true,” she insisted blithely, taking a step forward. She held out a claw to help the girl up.

The kid took it with an annoying amount of trust. Did she not learn? Nobody could this naïve, Blackarachnia thought, not even that Maximal Silverbolt!

She hauled the kid to her feet and introduced herself.

“The name’s Blackarachnia. And you are.…?”

“Ummm...that’s the thing. I don’t remember.”

There was a hesitation there. Instinctually, Blackarachnia knew the girl was lying. But she went along with it.

“That’s a drag,” the spider acknowledged, “I didn’t have one when I got here either. One more thing we have in common.” Blackarachnia accompanied this comment with a guileless grin.

The girl nodded distractedly, looking Blackarachnia over from head to toe.

“So which are you?” she demanded abruptly, “Maximal or Predacon?”

Slightly taken aback by the pointed question, Blackarachnia considered carefully for a cycle before responding.

“Technically, I’m a Predacon. But lately I haven’t been a very good one.” She sighed dramatically. “To tell the truth, I’m not really too impressed with either side.” There. That was generic enough. Let the kid find her own meaning in it.

The newcomer considered this. “Then you won’t force me into getting reprogrammed?”

“Absolutely not.”

Another pause, then a nod. “Okay. One more thing. What’s with all this organic armor you ‘bots have? I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

“What, this old thing?” Blackarachnia commented, examining the ‘leg’ machine guns mounted on her arms. “It’s a side effect of a feature we had to use in order to protect us from this planet’s energon fields. See? Beast Mode!”

The familiar grinding of gears was heard as Blackarachnia reverted to her spider form. The new girl gasped and took a few steps backward.

“We each took on an alternate mode that resembles a local life form in order to protect us from radiation,” Blackarachnia explained, raising a dainty leg for emphasis, “but I guess you don’t have that problem, do you? What is your alt mode, anyway?” She stopped to consider. “Or do you even have one?”

Again, the girl paused before responding. She obviously wasn’t used to lying, Blackarachnia realized with some amusement. Well, that would have to be her first lesson.

“I- I think I did at one point,” the small femme stammered, “but I don’t remember what it is. I haven’t needed one for a long time.”

Pushing aside her curiosity as to why and where a ‘bot wouldn’t require an alternate mode, Blackarachnia transformed back into robot mode and looked the newcomer over carefully.

“You need a beast form too,” she decided, but the girl shook her head.

“No, I don’t. You said it yourself; I’m not affected by energon radiation.”

“Not to protect you from energon radiation,” Blackarachnia shot back, being painfully blunt, “To protect you from the rest of the ‘bots on this crazy planet. They’ll be after you, you know. This is war, and when you refuse to take sides in a war, you become a target.”

The newcomer’s eyes widened with terror. Blackarachnia hated to use the fear card so quickly, but it was necessary to get the kid to listen. And it was true.

“But,” the spider-bot continued, taking advantage of the kid’s fear, “you don’t have an energy signature, and if you were able to blend in with the local wildlife you’d be virtually undetectable. What do you think?”

The small femme seemed to be fighting some internal battle. Finally, she nodded.

“Do it.”

The she-spider nodded briskly. “Good,” she said, “Just hold on a sec while I scan for you…Computer! Scan area for life forms.”

“Acknowledged. Complying.”

A beam of green light shot out of Blackarachnia’s chest and spread, sweeping over the surrounding forest.

“Life form detected,” her internal computer stated tonelessly.

Blackarachnia strode forward and took the newcomer’s small hand in her claw. The kid tried to pull away, but Blackarachnia held her firm. The spider had never done this before, and she hoped it worked.

‘I’m going to need to access your core,” she said softly. “Just for a few nanos.”

The girl hesitated. In the end, fear of the unknown enemy overcame her nervousness about Blackarachnia.

“Okay.”

“Good girl,” the spider enthused. “Now look at me.”

The girl, whom Blackarachnia had considered small, barely had to look up to make optic contact. This shocked the she-spider. She realized the newcomer just appeared smaller because she was so obviously exhausted and terrified. The Predacon femme wondered for the first time how much younger this girl was than herself.

“Computer,” Blackarachnia ordered, “transfer data and instructions.”

“Complying.”

Blackarachnia’s optics suddenly turned bright green and a beam of light shot from them, connecting with the new girl’s dark brown ones. The life form’s DNA signature and the beast mode program were instantly transferred. When it was done, Blackarachnia stepped back, triumphant.

Standing before the spider-bot, trembling on her four spindly legs, was a young doe. The deer gasped and looked down at herself, then took a few wobbly steps forward.

“Dear Primus!” the newcomer exclaimed. Blackarachnia wasn’t sure if it was the continued use or the new programming that cleared the croak from the girl’s voice, turning it high and melodious, but it was a pleasant change. The kid also seemed to have a slight accent, a tiny hint of a lilt.

Blackarachnia smiled. “It’s perfect for you. Now let’s get out of here before reinforcements arrive to take care of these.”

She gestured to the fallen Maximals and Predacons before leading the way out of the clearing.

Megatron, the esteemed leader of the Predacons and intergalactic fugitive, slammed his fist into his command console in frustration. The screen cracked, but held.

Pressing the comm. button on his control chair, Megatron tried once again to contact Quickstrike. Upon receiving the same static he had for almost ten cycles, he tried Inferno. Static once again met his audio sensors and he snarled.

Some time ago, Tarantulas had received half a report from Quickstrike. The fuzor had reported the fallen spaceship – and its pilot – to have survived the crash. He had also mentioned that the pilot didn’t appear to have an allegiance, and had been halfway through suggesting he bring her in for reprogramming when the link cut out. A few nanos later, the entire scanner image of Sector Gamma had erupted into static. Tarantulas, the treacherous creature, hadn’t bothered to mention this to anyone until Megatron had noticed the blank spot on the long range scanners almost a megacycle later.

Megatron had tried a few times to regain radio contact, but there was some sort of interference. The Predacon leader assumed the two units were offline. And then there was the interference itself to wonder about. The last time something like this had happened, it had been due to heavy energon radiation. But that shouldn’t be happening now, when all the area’s energon had been either stabilized or destroyed.

And now, because of this odd anomaly, Megatron had no way of knowing if the Maximals had made it to the crash site yet. Which meant he had to hurry.

The Predacon leader felt familiar rage boiling up, but he simmered it and took a deep breath before summoning Waspinator and Tarantulas to him. Why, oh why did he have to be surrounded by idiots?

Within a few nanoklicks, Waspinator’s buzzing could be heard. As soon as the insect-bot came into sight, he was followed by the appearance of Tarantulas zooming forward on a hover board.

Much as Megatron despised having to work with the arachnid, it was necessary for the moment. The Predacon leader simply didn’t have the numbers to get rid of the scheming spider just yet. But as soon as he had this new female within his ranks….

Megatron entertained himself for a few nanos imagining what he would do to Tarantulas when the time came. But then his troops were upon him. Waspinator stood at attention in midair, awaiting his orders. Tarantulas merely stood slumped on his hover board, arms crossed across his transmetal chest.

“What do you want now?” the arachnid snapped. “I’m busy!”

‘I’m sure,’ Megatron thought dryly before choosing to ignore the scientist’s rudeness. He clenched his tyrannosaurus head instead, imagining Tarantulas’ throat between its jaws. But time enough for that later. Right now he had to move fast, before the Maximals figured out what was going on.

“I have an assignment for the both of you,” Megatron stated, shooting Tarantulas a warning look. “I have so far been unable to contact Quickstrike and Inferno. I want you two to go to the last coordinates they reported from and search for the pilot of the crashed ship. Bring her back here alive, preferably with minimal damage. Oh, and do try to find Quickstrike and Inferno while you’re at it, yesss.”

Waspinator saluted and flew off without a word. Thank Primus for small miracles, Megatron thought. He didn’t have the patience for the insect’s bumbling right now.

Megatron looked down and saw that Tarantulas was still there, muttering to himself. He had taken to doing this lately, and it irritated the Predacon leader no end.

“What are you waiting for?” Megatron bellowed. “Get going! The sooner we have a new soldier, the better off we’ll be!”

As Tarantulas hovered off, still mouthing silently to himself, Megatron allowed himself a small smile.

“The better off I’ll be, yesss. But, sadly, the worse for you.”

With that, Megatron punched the comm. button on his console again, this time on a different frequency. Blackarachnia had been ordered back to base megacycles ago, and she was still nowhere to be found. The scanners weren’t picking up her energy signature, and there had been no radio contact.

“Megatron to Blackarachnia,” Megatron snapped into his comlink. “Where the Pit are you?”

A2V paused and leaned over the puddle made by the night’s rain, examining her new reflection. This animal, Blackarachnia told her, was a deer. It was lithe and swift, small and graceful. It was also amazingly agile and had an excellent sense of smell and hearing as well as fast reflexes. It was perfect.

Blackarachnia, in robot mode, paused up ahead and turned back. When she saw what A2V was doing, she smiled and backtracked to stand beside the doe.

“Have you thought of a name?” the spider asked.

A2V shook her head. She knew she had had a name of her own long ago, but she couldn’t remember it.

“Hmmm…well, around here most of us base our names on our beast modes,” Blackarachnia supplied. “Maybe we can find something that way. C’mon, let’s keep moving. The further you are from that clearing, the better.”

A2V nodded distractedly. She hadn’t wanted to leave the ship, but Blackarachnia had insisted that she would take care of it. A2V had to get away as quickly as possible, the spider had said, and then they could worry about the ship.

The pair kept walking, trudging slowly uphill through the jungle. For a few cycles neither spoke, each caught up in her own thoughts.

“I’ve got it!” Blackarachnia cried suddenly, causing A2V to shriek and jump a few feet in the air.

“I’ve got it! You’re a deer, right? You’re fast and intelligent, and you blend in with the shadows. So what do you think of…Fleetshade?”

“Fleetshade.” A2V tried it out. It sounded – right. It was perfect!

Beaming, she said it again. “Fleetshade. Yes. That’s me.”

Blackarachnia smiled. “Well, Fleetshade, -“

Both femmes jumped when a strange crackling sound started coming from Blackarachnia. Fearing some new attack, Fleetshade danced backwards on her nimble legs.

“Slag,” Blackarachnia grumbled, “That’s my communicator. Ole Grapeface is probably wondering why I’m not back yet. Gimme a nano.”

Before Fleetshade could ask who ‘Ole Grapeface’ was, the she-spider had turned her back and was trying to speak into the communicator on her arm. The only response was static. Fleetshade remembered the ‘bot called Quickstrike using a similar device, and that it hadn’t led to anything good. She watched warily as Blackarachnia let out a string of curses.

“Your blasts must have created an energon field,” the spider-bot snarled, her anger not directed at Fleetshade but at the device on her arm. “I’m gonna see if I can clear it.”

Without another word, Blackarachnia stalked out of the clearing.

“Oh, no you don’t,” Fleetshade muttered, “I’m not letting you talk to that thing when I’m not there.”

She started forward on her four thin legs, wobbling every so often but pleased with how stealthy her new form was. This was an animal used to hiding from predators. Thus Fleetshade made no sound as she stepped over dripping underbrush and leaped over fallen logs in her pursuit of the Predacon femme.

A few nanoklicks later, Blackarachnia let out an “Aha!” of triumph. Coming up behind her, Fleetshade noticed the spider-bot made no attempt to hide what she was saying. That was a mild comfort, and showed that whatever Blackarachnia had to say, A2V could hear it too.

“Blackarachnia to Megatron. Do you read me?”

The comlink crackled to life, and this time a deep, booming voice could be heard coming from it.

“Finally, a response! Where have you been? I’ve been calling you for the last five cycles!”

“Cool your circuits,” Blackarachnia snapped, rolling her optics. “I ran into some weird energon storm and – “ The she-spider waved her claw to silence Fleetshade as she tried to interrupt. ‘He can hear you,’ Blackarachnia mouthed silently. Optics wide, Fleetshade nodded her understanding and fell silent.

“-And the comlink wasn’t working. What’s up now?”

“That ship you saw. Quickstrike and Inferno found it, and it seems the pilot is alive and functioning. They were about to bring her in when their transmissions stopped and all communication to that Sector was somehow cut off. I have no way of knowing if the Maximals have arrived on the scene, but we can’t let them get to that pilot before we do, nooo. Since you’re fairly close, have a look around. Tarantulas and Waspinator are on their way. If you encounter our pilot, stun her and hold her until they arrive. If you run into any Maximals, dispose of them. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes, Megatron,” Blackarachnia responded in a singsong voice, catching A2V’s optics meaningfully. “I’ll get right on it.”

The comlink clicked off. Blackarachnia raised her optic arches at A2V.

“See? I told you they’d be after you. Megatron is all about control; if he can’t have you, nobody will. He’ll make sure of that.”

“So you…lied to him? You’re not going to bring me in?”

Blackarachnia’s optics flew skyward again. “Of course I’m not, idiot. If I was going to, I would have done so already. But I have to get back to your ship before Tarantulas and Waspinator get there. Don’t worry, it’s in good hands. Err, claws.”

With that, Blackarachnia winked and transformed to beast mode.

“I’ll see you around, kid. Keep out of trouble. And remember, don’t trust anybody.”

“Except for you,” Fleetshade joked. She was really starting to like Blackarachnia.

“Right,” the spider responded. “We’re partners now, and partners trust one another.”

Fleetshade nodded. “That’s right, partner.”

Blackarachnia let out a small laugh and turned, heading back down the hill.

Fleetshade watched until she was out of sight, then yawned; she was exhausted. Surely she could rest now, at least for a while. She was safe. Her new friend had her back.

Bending her knobby deer knees, Fleetshade knelt in the soft moss and laid her head on her forelegs. The sun was fully up now, casting long dawn shadows over the forest and bathing everything in a soft early-morning glow. Fleetshade took a moment to marvel in the novelty of lush green life after the harsh deserts of Marajo before shutting her deer’s eyes and drifting off into a deep sleep.