Redux

Part Two

By: Peppermintwind

Rated TVY7: nothing even remotely squicky here, folks. Enjoy. 

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Disclaimer: Beast Wars and all characters, concepts, and other such stuff all belong to Hasbro. The Makeawish.com concept belongs to Ivyna of ivynajspyder.com. Jarod is from The Pretender and belongs to Turner Network Television. I'm making absolutely no money off of any of this. You wouldn't sue widdle ol' me, would you, guys? *big dewy eyes* 

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Author's Note: If you've been paying attention, you'll notice that I employed a slight perspective shift here - from first person singular to third person omniscient. I realize that this is a mark of bad writing, and I deeply apologize and hope you, dear readers, will find it in your hearts to forgive me and/or read it anyway. (Although if you made it through Part 1, you can't be bothered that much by bad writing in the first place.) 

That said, on with the fic! 

In our last episode, the newly Transformer-ized Natalia sends out a desperate cry for help as the Predacons close in on her home... will the Maximals come in time to prevent (further) disaster? Read on! 

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"Life is what you make it. I made a pony!"

- A dude on a message board I knew once 

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Megatron had been having a grand old time until someone turned out the lights.

By the exclamations of the rest of the Predacons, it was apparent that the same was true for them - an impenetrable darkness had settled over them, blocking all vision. Megatron couldn't even see himself. He tried to orient on the anguished voices of his men, but they were all talking at once so it was nearly impossible to get a lock on any one of them. "Predacons," he yelled finally, "attention!"

They shut up. "That's better," Megatron sighed. "Scorponok, where are you?"

"I'm here." Scorponok's voice was coming from left and behind, and sounded a little panicky. "Leader, what's going on? I can't see."

"Nor can I, no." Megatron frowned. "Computer, full diagnostic on optic sensors."

Megatron's onboard computer was prompt in its reply. "Optic sensors operating at one hundred percent capacity."

"Do tell," he snarled.

If his optics were fine, then this sudden darkness must come from some outside source. No natural phenomenon he knew of could cause it, so that left something manufactured. Which meant -

"You all look really silly, you know that?"

The last piece clicked into place. "Lunarscape," Megatron growled. "Stop this childishness at once!"

"Na-ta-li-a. My name is Natalia. How many times do I have to say it?" Despite the snappish words, her tone remained cheerful. She knew she had the advantage. Slag her. Where was she?

"Wazzpinator cannot zee! New-bot turn lights back on!" wailed Waspinator.

"Shut up, Waspinator!" Terrorsaur hissed.

Another chime of laughter. Megatron froze, orienting himself on that voice. "Just hold still a moment, Waspinator," Lunarscape said again, amid the sound of light footsteps. "Just have to - " Her words were interrupted by the sharp 'clunk' of metal on pavement and Waspinator's dismayed cry of protest.

That was all Megatron needed. He turned, letting instinct and sound rather than sight aim his main weapon, and fired once.

Instantly his vision cleared, and to his great pleasure showed him Lunarscape on the ground, holding a hand to the fresh wound in her belly, letting out her breath in a slow hiss of pain. Waspinator was picking himself up, grumbling something about "New-bot made Wazzpinator fall down again," and brushing at the brand-new scuffs in his paint. The rest of the Predacons were blinking, rubbing at their optics, their body language making it clear that they too were able to see again.

"Well, well." Megatron moved toward her, affecting a swagger of well-earned arrogance. "Our errant recruit returns. Yess. Tell me, Lunarscape, do you defy me because you have defected to the Maximals, or is this foolishness an independent action?"

Natalia picked herself up, slowly, un-subspacing her taser baton. "Kind of both,” she gritted. “And if you call me Lunarscape again, I'll disembowel you with a spork." Her voice made it clear she was in pain. The tight grip on her baton made it clear she was going to fight through it.

"So you have met the Maximals." Megatron regarded his main weapon, as if checking his T-Rex teeth for cavities, then leveled it at the female. Behind him, the clacks and whines of weapons arming told him that the rest of the Predacons were doing the same.

Natalia froze, then gritted her teeth. A bright, broken flash burst from her projector, making Megatron flinch in spite of himself. As the tyrant blinked, trying to clear his vision, Natalia scrambled back to put some distance and a pile of debris between herself and Megatron. A huge hole yawned in the middle of the house across the street from her, the next one down was half collapsed, and each house beyond that was demolished to some degree. Humans - people, Natalia reminded herself firmly - were sending up an unholy racket, screaming and crying and running away. Abruptly Natalia realized exactly what kind of debris she was hiding behind. Bricks - the kind used to face houses in suburbia.

"Jerks," she muttered, then rolled to the side just as her shelter was destroyed in a storm of laserfire.

Her projector damaged, her sole weapon strictly close-quarters-combat, Natalia could do nothing but dodge and seek cover as the Predacons concentrated their fire on her. The former human was much too panicked to note that, by making herself a target, she was effectively sparing the surrounding houses from further destruction - and if she had noticed, dollars to donuts she wouldn't have cared. Survival - or rather, avoidance of any more damage - was the most she could deal with. Vacating a nearly-decapitated tree in favor of another pile of shattered brick, Natalia called over her shoulder, "This isn't really fair, you know! I'm grossly outnumbered!"

"Since when have Predacons cared about fair?" snickered Terrorsaur, pounding blast after blast into her shelter.

"Point." Natalia hissed in disgust as the brickpile collapsed, leaving her exposed to Predacon fire once again. She tried to run, but a lucky shot by Waspinator connected right between her shoulder blades and she dropped with a cry.

Megatron gestured his troops to ceasefire and stalked over to where the diminutive Neutral lay, limbs moving weakly. "Poor, misguided fool," he purred, picking her up by the back of her neck. "Your life ends now." He began to clench his T-rex jaws.

A lightning-bright photon blast hit Megatron in the shoulder, making him drop his prey with a roar of protest. The other Predacons immediately tracked their aim up, following the trajectory of the shot, but found nothing to fire at. Another blast scored on Megatron's chestplate, too near the throat for comfort, and a third hit in the same spot to force him back away from the prone Natalia.

"Primal!" Megatron shouted at the empty sky.

Optimus Primal was on the ground, bent over Natalia. "You get one warning, Megatron," he said, stepping forward to shield her. "Take your men and get out of here."

The Predacons gathered around their leader, weapons trained on the Maximal. "Do you truly think you can outfight all of us?" Megatron demanded, T-rex jaws working meaningfully. "Your end will be no better than hers." He gestured at Natalia, who had recovered enough to lift her head but still lay prostrate.

"I won't be so easy to defeat," Optimus answered evenly. "No offense, Natalia."

"None taken," the girl managed. "Just pound him a little extra for me."

"Will do." Optimus's optics flicked back over the Predacons, then beyond them. "Maximals, attack!"

Megatron whirled. "What!" Several tons of charging rhino hit him like a runaway freight train, sending him flying. Rhinox bellowed and transformed, the famous Chainguns Of Doom spitting ammo almost before all his parts had locked into place. Rattrap, shed from the bigger Maximal's back, transformed and rolled, and came up firing. His shots perforated Tarantulas's armor, making the spiderbot scramble for cover amid yelps of pain. Cheetor and Sagewind wound up back-to-back, harrying the fliers with their respective weapons. Last of all came Dinobot, making a beeline for Scorponok.

Optimus kept an optic on the proceedings as he bent to pick up Natalia. "How're you doing?" he asked.

"I still function," Natalia answered wryly. "Thanks for the rescue."

"You're welcome." As the other Maximals sprayed suppression fire around him, Optimus ran behind one of the more intact houses and set her gently on the porch. "Sit tight. I'll be back for you."

Natalia didn't bother responding. Optimus activated his jets and returned to the battle. 

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Rhinox had his hands full with Megatron, and would have been the first to admit that he couldn't afford distraction. But when Sagewind shrieked, he spared a moment to send a volley of bullets at Terrorsaur, who had her pinned down by laserfire. Megatron rewarded his altruism with a cannon-shot to the back and a cuff across the jaw.

Rhinox staggered, but recovered and leveled his guns at - the spot where Megatron had been. The tyrant was already inside his guard, gripping his collar in his T-rex jaws, charging for a lethal blast of energy. "Die," he hissed.

Rhinox's optics flickered. "You first."

Megatron tensed for an attack from the behemoth, but the blow came from a completely unexpected direction - behind. Megatron cursed - how could he have been so foolish! - and tossed Rhinox aside to face his nemesis.

Optimus landed, red eyes glittering. "It's over, Megatron. You won't terrorize any more innocent people."

"Brave words, Optimus Primal," Megatron snarled. "Yeess. But I doubt you have the metal to back them up."

"Try me."

Megatron charged with a roar. Optimus met him head-on, and the two struggled, each trying to wrestle the other to the ground. Optimus was no slouch at fighting, but Megatron was the more experienced and ultimately that made all the difference. Optimus was forced to one knee by a savage kick just below the knee joint, and then onto his back by a deft twist. Optimus shouted and shifted his grip, trying for a joint lock, but Megatron wrenched himself free and constricted his hold on Optimus's throat. The force of his T-rex jaws alone would have killed a human, but fortunately for Optimus, robots didn't need to breathe and his throat armor was thick enough to avoid collapsing under that immense pressure. Even so, it was a disadvantageous position to find oneself in. Remembering endless programming and drill sessions during his days at the Academy, Optimus thrashed, loosening the tyrant's hold, then arched his back and fired his jets. Both bots went flying, and before Megatron realized what was happening he was smashing into a brick wall. The wall crumbled beneath the impact, as did several important parts of Megatron's anatomy. At long last he lost his grip, and Optimus shot up and away as the purple saurian fell to earth in a shower of brick.

It took a moment before Megatron could gather the presence of mind to get to his feet. Mentally he checked his damage. Broken valves, crushed struts, a shattered circuit board - the list went on. It was all he could do to remain standing. "Primal - you - " he croaked.

Optimus glared down at him. "Have I proved my metal, Megatron?"

The tyrant's face twisted. "This is not over, Primal, no." He turned. "Predacons, retreat!"

With that, he reclaimed his beast mode and galloped away, trailing fuel. Waspinator, missing several parts, was the first to obey, flying drunkenly after his commander. Terrorsaur quickly overtook the other flier. Tarantulas transformed and melted into the shadows, and the scuttling Scorponok brought up the rear.

As Cheetor let out a victory whoop which was quickly stifled, Optimus let himself drift to the ground. "Good work, everyone," he called. "Status?"

"Basically functional," Dinobot gritted. He was leaning against one of the stunted ornamental trees, gripping a shoulder oozing mech fluid. The rest of him wasn't in much better shape, but Optimus knew that the Predacon wouldn't admit that under slow torture.

"Seventy-four percent and climbing," reported Rhinox. He was in beast mode, and his ears and eyes drooped in a way that made Optimus think that the big Maximal had overestimated himself.

"I'm okay," Cheetor piped up. But for a rent thigh plating and some scuffs, he seemed little the worse for wear. "I could take 'em all on by myself if - "

"No need," Optimus interrupted patiently. "Rattrap? Sagewind?"

Sagewind picked herself up and sat heavily on a pile of rubble. "Leather-boy got a few lucky shots," she admitted with a small smile. "Can't move too well."

"Return to beast mode, then." Optimus looked around as Sagewind obeyed. "Where's Rattrap?"

The other Maximals glanced around - indeed, Rattrap was nowhere in sight. "The vermin," Dinobot hissed, "seems to have deserted."

Cheetor bristled. "Hey, you keep your mouth off of him, you - " He was cut off by a yelp of surprise from Sagewind. The jackelope's pile-of-rubble perch was quaking underneath her, shedding small bits of brick and other house flotsam. Sagewind lost her balance and tumbled down the side of the pile, and a minor avalanche followed her to reveal -

"Rattrap!" Cheetor exclaimed.

Rattrap, in beast mode, looked bruised and dirty but just as energetic as ever. "Hey, Sage, careful where yer sittin' next time," he grinned. "And as fer you, Choppuhface - " he grunted, pulling himself free of the rubble - "watch yer voicebox. Dis is one kettle de pot ain't callin' black!"

The Predacon sneered, but his retort was forestalled by a new voice. "Dinobot?"

Natalia's mother stood in the doorjamb of her half-demolished house, looking lost and alone. Dinobot straightened but didn't try to approach the human woman. "Yes?"

Mrs. Wilcox's eyes darted from Maximal to Maximal, from face to face, before alighting again on Dinobot. She took a deep breath and said, more firmly, "Where is my daughter?"

Dinobot fielded the question to Optimus with a cool look in the Maximal leader's direction. "You mean Natalia?" Primal queried.

"Yes. Natalia. Where is she?" Mrs. Wilcox was growing more assertive with each passing moment.

Optimus shook his head. Natalia had mentioned a mother, but it hadn't sunk in... "She's behind that house, resting." He pointed at the house next door to Natalia's. "She's damaged - "

That was all Mrs. Wilcox needed to hear. She flew from the shelter of the doorjamb, past the Maximals who had all but ceased to exist for her. Optimus gave Dinobot a curious look as the human disappeared behind her neighbor's house. "She seemed to know you."

Dinobot shrugged with his uninjured shoulder. "We met. Yesterday."

"Oh." Further thought was severed by an anguished shriek. Still coming down from battle mode, the Maximals reflexively started toward the noise with weapons readied.

Then another voice checked them. "Mom, calm down! I can explain!"

Optimus exchanged rueful glances with the others. "Maybe we had better leave them alone." 

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As the Maximals, less Dinobot and Sagewind who were still in the CR chambers, looked on, a freshly-healed Natalia slowly and carefully explained to her mother exactly who and what she was - a Transformer, a metal-based extraterrestrial life form, with her human body reduced to nothing more than a disguise.

"That's the whole truth," she finished finally, drawing figure eights on the tabletop in the Axalon's control room with a fingertip. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you before, but - it's just really complicated, and I wanted to work it out in my head first before I said anything." It wasn't really the whole truth - as before, the new Transformer had carefully avoided all references to her wish. Natalia had no idea how she would ever explain Makeawish.com to anyone, let alone her mother. Overreacting seemed to be the older woman's default reaction to everything. [And anyway, that morning - the morning of Makeawish - seems too distant a memory to be real. Maybe it never happened,] she told herself. [In any case, it was too late now to make a difference.]

Abruptly Natalia realized that her mother was speaking again, and shook off these thoughts to listen. " - could have at least told your own mother that you've been turned into a - a - what did you say you were again?"

"Transformer," Natalia repeated for the third time. "Alien robots from another planet, that can turn into - other things. Hence the name."

"There's two types," Cheetor added from across the table, seated next to Optimus. "We're all Maximals - besides Dinobot, I mean. We're into protectin' the universe, exploring new worlds, all that good stuff. Those other guys were called Predacons, and they're all bent on galactic conquest - "

"That particular band," Optimus interrupted firmly, "stole an important relic from us and fled through transwarp space - meaning, both space and time. We followed them. Our intention was - and still is - to thwart whatever plans they may have for that artifact."

Mrs. Wilcox rolled her eyes. "Thank you so much for enlightening me. Now please explain why you and these Predacons felt the need to destroy our house!"

Natalia winced, but was saved from having to answer by Optimus chiming in again. "Mrs. Wilcox - that is your name, correct? - I, ah, apologize on behalf of the Maximals for what happened. Unfortunately, we can't control the actions of the Predacons, but I do regret the fact that we were unable to prevent their attack tonight."

"You're darn right you do," Mrs. Wilcox sniffed. "Thanks to you, half the neighborhood is homeless and my daughter is a robot!"

"Mom, it wasn't their fault - " Natalia tried.

"Please try to understand, ma'am - " Optimus added.

"And," interrupted Mrs. Wilcox firmly, standing, "neither I nor my daughter are leaving this ship until you change her back!"

A stunned silence fell like an anvil. Natalia hid her face in her hands with a sick look.

It was Rhinox who spoke, so gently that he didn't even disturb the silence. "That may not be possible, Mrs. Wilcox. We want to know how Natalia came to be just as much as you do, but there's nothing we can do tonight. We've already gleaned as much as we can from her memory banks."

"You've been reading my daughter's mind?" Mrs. Wilcox growled.

Natalia lifted her head. "Mom, it's not like that," she protested. "They were trying to figure out how I - why I'm a Transformer. They're not the bad guys here."

"Rhinox is right, Natalia is right," Optimus said diplomatically, "and you're right, Mrs. Wilcox." He drew himself up. "Natalia's history is something we all want to unearth, but it will take months, perhaps years to find the answers. They may not even be on this planet. Regardless - " he spread his open hands - "until we find your answers, you are more than welcome to stay here as long as you like."

"What?" Mrs. Wilcox looked stunned.

"Aw, fer - mmph." Rattrap was promptly corked up by Rhinox before he could let loose another snarky comment.

Mrs. Wilcox stared blankly at Optimus, then turned to Natalia. "Is he serious?"

Natalia quirked an eyebrow at Optimus. "Are you?" At the Maximal leader's nod, she sighed and sat back in her chair. "Dunno, Mom. Do we have anyplace else to go?"

Mrs. Wilcox stood. "I am not living under the same roof with these - " She broke off, furiously biting her lip.

"You and Dad are still separated, so we can't stay with him," Natalia continued regretfully. "Besides, he's in Canada. On the other hand," she added, turning to Optimus, "can you put us up? I mean, we're human females. We have certain needs."

"The Axalon is equipped to house organic life," Optimus assured her. "It's standard on all exploration ships, as a precaution. In any case, Natalia, I think it's best that you stay as close to us as possible. If you're injured again, we're the only ones who can repair you. And," he added, glancing sidelong at Mrs. Wilcox, "it would be easier for us to discover how you came to be, that way."

"Point," Natalia admitted, as Mrs. Wilcox glanced away.

"You don't have to decide right away," Optimus added gently. "Please, accept our hospitality for a few days at least. You can decide later whether to make it permanent."

Mrs. Wilcox scowled and stood. "It will not," she stated, "be permanent."

"But, Mom - " Natalia began.

"We will stay only until you find a way to change my daughter back," snapped the older woman. "Not a moment longer."

Optimus nodded. "You might be here a while, then. We'll send a crew out with you in the morning to salvage what we can from your house. In the meantime, the resources of the Axalon are at your disposal."

"Good." Mrs. Wilcox sat again, with an air of finality.

Natalia glanced from Optimus to her mother, a bemused look on her face. "I don't know whether to be happy or afraid about all this."

"Be afraid, Pred-chick," Rattrap said darkly, having managed to pry himself out of Rhinox's grip. "Be very afraid." 

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There were scads of empty rooms on the Axalon, but only a few were suitable for human habitation - that is to say, connected to what passed for a toilet. It was a jury-rigged thing, consisting of a hole in the floor connected to a small waste-incinerator located elsewhere in the ship; near the engines, Optimus had told them. The toilet room itself was smaller than a closet. "This is what they call 'equipped to house organic life?' Mrs. Wilcox complained to her daughter, pacing about the quarters the Maximals had afforded her. "No showers, no toilet paper, and a metal bench for a bed?"

Natalia shrugged. "They're robots. What did you expect?"

"Hot water and soap might be nice."

"Just no pleasing some people." Natalia grinned at some private joke that Mrs. Wilcox didn't even try to fathom. "Anyway, we'll just have to rough it for tonight. No big deal. We can get everything we need tomorrow morning."

Mrs. Wilcox sighed and sank onto the bed. "Natalia. Come here."

Natalia came, looking serious. "Are you just upset because I'm a Transformer?"

"Oh, baby." Her mother reached out and pulled Natalia onto her lap. Wrapping her arms around the girl, she sighed, "I'm sorry for being a dragon-lady at you. I could never be upset at you for being what you are, ever. It's just that - it's all so strange. And it raises questions, questions I don't want to think about."

"I know," Natalia whispered.

"We'll get through this, Tallie," Mrs. Wilcox said, the use of her daughter's baby-nickname sealing the promise. "If I have to move heaven and earth, we'll get to the bottom of all this. You and me."

"Absolutely." Natalia turned in her mother's embrace, twining her arms around the older woman's shoulders. "And, Mom - you can trust the Maximals."

Mrs. Wilcox was silent for a moment. "Maybe so, Tallie." 

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Everyone else was already awake when Natalia stumbled into the command room, blearily rubbing her eyes. "G'morning," she mumbled to Dinobot and Cheetor.

Dinobot, standing by the entrance as if on guard, sneered at her. "Again you amaze me with your insistence on sloth."

"Nyah." Natalia stuck out her tongue at the saurian. She wasn't awake enough for more intelligent comebacks. Slumping into a nearby chair, she said, "Where's Mom?"

"She went to get some food," Cheetor told her, looking up from the radar station. "Bigbot and Sagewind are with her."

"Good. 'M hungry."

Cheetor pressed something on his console. "There's energon in one of the storage rooms. Down that hallway - " he pointed - "two doors down on your right."

Natalia quirked her lips in what might have been a grin if it were later in the day. "Wouldn't know what to do with it."

Cheetor halted. "You don't know how to process energon?"

"How would I?"

"It's s'posed to be pre-programmed..." Cheetor shook his head and stood. "Never mind. I'll show you what to do. C'mon."

Natalia didn't move from her seat. "No need. Mom'll be back soon. I'll get my energy the old-fashioned way."

"Gonna have to learn how to take energon sooner or later," the cat pointed out.

"Well, I'm going to opt for later." The human-bot scowled at nothing in particular.

Dinobot stirred. "You refuse knowledge that may mean the difference between survival and starvation? Foolish even for you."

Natalia grinned sourly. "Whaddya mean, 'even for me'? I can be tons more foolish than that."

"I do not doubt it."

A beep sounded on Cheetor's console, staving off Natalia's retort. "Looks like Bigbot and your mother are back," he reported. "And - " he squinted - "there's another human with them."

"Who is it?"

"Dunno." He shrugged. "We'll have a visual in another few nanoclicks."

Just as he'd said, an external camera soon picked up the image of Mrs. Wilcox, accompanied by Optimus, Sagewind, and a balding male human dressed in a tawny suit. He had a thick, bristling black mustache and decidedly Irish features. "Who is that?" Cheetor asked Natalia.

"Umm..." Natalia leaned close the screen, squinting. "I think it's Sheriff McRaleigh. He's the chief of police for the county. I saw his picture in the paper a couple of times."

"So he's like, an authority figure?"

"Yup." Natalia nodded, her blue eyes sharp. "So what's he doing here?" 

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"I appreciate what you're trying to do, Optimus, but the fact remains that you and the Predacons pose a serious hazard to every human in the county," McRaleigh was saying as the entrance elevator slid open.

"I know," Optimus answered gravely, escorting him into the control room. Sagewind and Mrs. Wilcox followed, the former following Optimus and McRaleigh and the latter making a beeline for Natalia with a large McDonald's bag in her hands. "For that, I apologize," Optimus continued. "It was never my intention to bring this skirmish to Earth."

"What's done is done," McRaleigh said irritably. "You're just lucky there haven't been any fatalities yet, Optimus, otherwise both our heads would be on the line. As it is, we're willing to tolerate your presence - but only because the Predacons are unlikely to cooperate with an eviction order."

"Putting it mildly," Optimus observed with a wry grin. "That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about." He turned to Rattrap. "When Rhinox gets back, tell him to take Cheetor, Dinobot, Natalia and her mother to their house for salvage. Mrs. Wilcox will be in charge unless a battle situation arises, in which case Rhinox takes command." Neither Cheetor nor Dinobot looked happy, though for different reasons - Dinobot because the work was beneath him, Cheetor because it sounded boring. Rattrap flipped his boss a casual salute in lieu of a "Sir, yes sir."

Natalia looked up from her Egg McMuffin. "Where is Rhinox?"

"Repairing a hull breach," Optimus told her. "He should be done in a few cycles."

Natalia nodded and Optimus turned back to McRaleigh. "Lets go to my office. We can discuss everything there." 

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Silently, Sagewind followed Optimus and McRaleigh to the commander's office, wrestling bitterly with herself. The jackelope-bot was perfectly content to sink into the background and let Optimus handle talking to the human, but such was a disservice to her diplomatic training. Still, what could she say? What contributions could she make? As commander, Optimus knew more about the Maximals' situation than she did, and her education in human matters was woefully lacking. She sighed, wishing once again that she'd chosen a course of study that didn't require her to talk to people competently.

[If Optimus needs my help,] she decided, [he'll ask. Until then, I'll just observe. Yeah. That sounds good.]

Optimus's office wasn't spacious unless you compared it to the average size of the quarters on the Axalon, which meant it could have passed for a closet with a little imagination and something to cover the window. Nevertheless, it was large enough to accommodate all three individuals with a fair amount of comfort. Optimus took his natural place behind his desk, and Sagewind, lacking direction, settled on a sentry position beside him. That left McRaleigh the rest of the room to pace about in, to gesture and orate to his heart's content. He seemed happy with the arrangement. [Space,] Sagewind immediately filed. [This human likes his space.]

"All right," McRaleigh said as soon as everyone was reasonably settled. "Tell me about the Predacons. Everything you can. I want to know what we're up against."

Optimus hesitated, then complied, though Sagewind noted that he didn't mention exactly why the Axalon's crew had chased the Predacons to Earth in the first place. That was something she'd have to remember. Barring that, Optimus told the human everything he knew, going over the strengths and weaknesses of each Predacon in turn as McRaleigh paced about in time to the Maximal's voice.

"The key to all this is Megatron," Optimus concluded, sitting back. "Each Predacon is a threat, but without Megatron to unite them, they would become relatively easy to subdue. Megatron's leadership - " his tone of voice said tyranny - "and sheer strength make not only him, but anyone under his command a decidedly dangerous force. I don't know what his goal is, or his plans, but I have a few theories."

"Universal domination, right?"

Optimus looked surprised, then smirked. "How'd you guess?"

McRaleigh sighed. "I watch too much bad science fiction. Comes with the territory. I'm no profiler, but from what you've told me this guy's got some sociopathic and megalomaniac tendencies. Add that to the sheer firepower he's packin'... that's one ugly picture you're paintin'." He looked up, pinning Optimus in his sharp green gaze. "The area surrounding that school's been ordered to evacuate, and I suppose you're going to tell me to do the same to the rest of the county."

"It might be your best course of action," Optimus admitted.

"Thought so." McRaleigh turned away, began to pace again. "The government's going to want to get involved in all this, you know. They'll want to establish jurisdiction."

"Jurisdiction?"

McRaleigh grinned sourly. "The right to push you folks around. Immigration, martial law, they'll find some excuse to stick their noses in where they don't belong."

Sagewind's audials jolted. [Okay. This is where I come in - laws and customs. All right, girl, all power to courage circuits...] She opened her mouth.

Unaware of his subordinate's somewhat shaky resolve, Optimus shrugged. "I don't want to involve you humans any more than I have to, but considering the circumstances, they are well within their rights to demand some level of involvement. We'll abide by any decisions they hand down."

Sagewind's courage fled. McRaleigh shrugged. "It's your funeral. Just don't complain to me when they stick you in a wildlife preserve or somethin'. Hell, knowing them, I'll be the one enforcin' it."

"I understand." Optimus nodded. "Anything else?"

"For now, no. Barring the evacuations, we're taking a wait-and-see approach to all this." McRaleigh nodded. "We'll be in touch."

"Likewise." Optimus stood and offered his hand across the table. McRaleigh took it. "A pleasure working with you, Sheriff."

"Say that after we humans get officially involved." McRaleigh grinned, lopsidedly, and for a moment he looked younger than he was. Then he slapped the jaded-police-officer mask back on and turned to leave.

"Um - Sheriff?"

The words startled both McRaleigh and Optimus - barring 'hello', Sagewind hadn't said one word to the human. "Yes?" McRaleigh prompted.

"If it's not too much trouble," the jackelope-bot hedged, "could I get a copy of the federal and local laws on record? Just so we can prepare ourselves to deal with..." She hesitated. How to say this?

"Legal matters?" McRaleigh supplied dryly.

Sagewind nodded gratefully. "Yes, sir."

"Sure thing. I'll have my boys bring it by this afternoon." A wave and a grin, and the human was gone.

When he'd left, Optimus quirked an eyebrow at his young subordinate. "Good work thinking of obtaining legal records. But do you know how to read their language?"

Sagewind started to answer, then halted. "Actually, no. I never managed to get my hands on the translation software."

Optimus grinned. "Get Natalia to help you, then. Dismissed."

"Yes, sir." Sagewind left, weak with relief. Relief, however, began to turn to apprehension as she contemplated what had just happened, and how hard she‘d found it to speak up.

If she was this nervous just asking for legal documents, what would happen when a real crisis arose?... 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

"Megatron, we've got Maximal signatures!" Scorponok announced from his seat at the radar station. "Four signals in grid Aleph!"

Megatron tapped at a console built into his control chair - his 'throne', so to speak. A screen popped up in front of him, one showing four distinct red spots that meant Maximals. "Well, well. The Maximals revisit the scene of last night's confrontation, yes. But what possible business could they have there?" He straightened. "Scorponok, send your cyberbee out to their location. I want to know what our friends are up to, yess."

"But, Megatron, sir..." Scorponok protested. He'd only been able to build one of his cyberbees since they'd come here, and if it got damaged -

Megatron held up a hand to forestall further comment. "I only wish information, Scorponok, not confrontation. Do not defy me."

Scorponok gulped and nodded, then vacated the console for the exit.

Megatron sat back, watching those little blips move. "Most interesting," he murmured. "Computer, identify Maximal signatures."

Beep. "Unit Rhinox. Unit Dinobot. Unit Cheetor. Unit Lunarscape."

"Most interesting indeed, yeesss..."

A squall from outside made the tyrant look up. That hadn't been Scorponok's voice. A cry of surprise... indignation? Megatron jumped down from his throne, landing hard on the metal floor. What was this all about?

The answer came when Scorponok re-entered, forcing an adult male human along with him. It was the human who was making that infernal racket, yelling, complaining, trying to bargain in a nasal voice that set Megatron's teeth on edge. "I found him skulkin' around outside, Megatron," Scorponok reported, shoving the human to the fore. "Whaddya think we should do with him?"

"I told you," the human protested. "I'm here on business! I represent a collection of organizations who are interested in - "

Megatron cut him off. "Spare me your Earthling wiles. I am not interested in anything your pathetic fleshling masters have to offer, no." He raised his hand, about to gesture for Scorponok to kill the human.

He spoke up first. "Even if they're willing to help you defeat the Maximals?"

That stopped the tyrannobot mid-gesture. He glared at the impetuous fleshling, caught tight in Scorponok's grip - rust-colored hair, pale skin slathered with freckles and a face flushed pink from distress, a nondescript blue suit that wore ill on his bony frame, the whole package twitching with nervous energy. His eyes were deep blue, sparking with fury. Megatron frowned. "Release him, Scorponok."

The scorpion-Pred obeyed, dropping the man abruptly. The human straightened his clothing with an air of offended dignity and shot a glare at Scorponok before turning to Megatron. "Now," Megatron said, "what, exactly, is this all about, Mister..."

"Ashby," the man snapped, brushing himself off. "My name is Lowell Ashby. I represent a collection of organizations who are interested in a mutually beneficial - "

"Yes, yes," Megatron interrupted impatiently. "What is this business of helping us defeat the Maximals?"

"That," Ashby sniffed, "is what I came to talk about. The majority of humans on this planet will be on the side of the Maximals, Megatron, and that's a lot of natives - not even you could defeat all of them. I mean, there's what, five of you?" Megatron scowled but otherwise didn't reply. "At the moment, we are willing to insure that there will be no human involvement in this war - on their side, anyway. My superiors... they plan to become very involved, to your ultimate benefit."

"At what price?" the tyrant demanded.

Ashby smiled. "We are a simple people, Sahib. A blueprint here, a piece of technology to dissect there. The scientific advances we could glean from even your smallest and most menial trinkets would represent an improvement in the quality of life for humans everywhere - not to mention more commercial applications." He took a step forward, boldly. "At a later time, we may even be able to negotiate a more intimate partnership, with even greater benefits for both sides."

Megatron leaned forward. "Hmm. Your masters' offer intrigues me, Ashby. Yeess. Tell me more." 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Natalia hovered over Rhinox's shoulder, fidgeting anxiously. "Please don't be damaged, please don't be damaged, please don't be damaged..."

Rhinox replaced the cover on her PC with the air of one long resigned to minor irritations. "You're computer's fine, Natalia."

"Whew." Natalia started to sink into an armchair, but jumped back up when her backside contacted a pile of heavy books. "Yikes. Thanks, Rhinox."

Rhinox shrugged. "No problem. Your monitor will need replacing, though."

Natalia grinned. "Monitors are replaceable. I'll commandeer one of yours if I have to."

He eyed her, half-suspiciously. "I hope you're not serious."

"Maaaaybe." Natalia climbed over a pile of clothes and lifted her beloved computer from Rhinox's lap with a grunt. "Uff. I think that's everything of mine. Everything I need at the Axalon, anyway." Unable to see over the computer well enough to go back over the clothes, Natalia opted for the long route around the living room, a serpentine path created of suitcases and clothing and books and other trappings of human habitation. Rhinox stood to make room for her. "I doubt the car can fit anything else in anyway." She stumbled. "Oop! Don't fall-"

Rhinox reached out to steady her. "Careful."

"Thanks." Natalia favored the big Maximal with a broad grin and trotted out, with no more mishaps. Rhinox watched her go, a sharp look in his eyes. He wasn't really worried about the monitor thing - if no other option was available, he wouldn't begrudge her one of the spares they had in storage. But Natalia herself was an enigma. No faction, no memory, no apparent purpose besides observation. The kind of advanced sensory equipment she had was supposed to still be in development. Half the time you forgot she was anything other than Maximal, but then she'd say or do something that'd jar you into remembering that she was, after all, an Earthling, if not exactly human. And then, every once in awhile, she'd say or do something to make you suspect she knew more about Transformers than she let on.

Generally, Rhinox liked enigmas. But this was too close to him and his friends to treat the puzzle of Natalia's origins like a game.

Cheetor stampeded down the stairs, two large suitcases in tow. "Man, this is ultra gear, Big R," he announced breathlessly. "Two real live humans - well, one and a half. And they're living in the Axalon!"

"Don't go treating them like pets, Cheetor," Rhinox admonished tolerantly.

"Yeah, I know." The catbot grinned. "Natalia says she's going to teach me how to play a human game - um, soccer? I think that's what she called it. Sounds fun, huh? Soccer." He rolled the word around in his mouth.

"Sounds fun. Sounds violent." Rhinox smiled, and fought down an impulse to warn Cheetor of Natalia's fragility. Natalia wasn't fragile. She was a Transformer.

Even if nobody knew why. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Cheetor found Natalia loading her PC into the trunk of the car, a blue Volvo with a dent in the front fender that had been obtained for a very worthy cause - not that the insurance company had cared. "Are we almost done?" the cat asked, handing her his suitcases.

"Yep, I think so." Natalia heaved the first suitcase up and into the trunk. "We'll come back later and put the rest of our stuff in storage."

"Hey, listen," Cheetor said, "I'm real sorry about what happened to your house."

Natalia stepped back to gaze at the building that had been her home for almost a decade. The second floor was completely collapsed, the remains of her bedroom window scattered about the lawn. A hole yawned in the side of the house, and another one turned the dining room into a porch. The garage door was perforated with clean holes. "It's no biggie," the girl shrugged at last. "You couldn't help it."

"Well, yeah, but still."

Natalia stepped back and closed the trunk with an air of finality. "Where'd Dinobot run off to? I haven't seen him since we got here."

Cheetor shrugged, a sour look on his face. "Who knows. Said something about 'securing the perimeter'. Like the Preds are gonna try anything right after we kicked their skidplates last night."

A loud snarl interrupted Natalia's reply, and it was just as well - it was borderline tasteless anyway. The snarl was followed by a crunch, and the protesting squeal of metal on metal, and Dinobot leaped from the wild-growing bushes along the side of the house with a mangled piece of machinery in his jaws.

"Dinner?" Cheetor guessed.

Dinobot spat out his prey and hissed at Cheetor. "Predacon spy technology," he informed them both. "A cyberbee, Scorponok's design. Where is Rhinox?"

Natalia jerked a thumb behind her, eyes wide. "He's inside."

Dinobot growled in acknowledgement and stomped off. Natalia crouched to get a better look at the chewed-up cyberbee. "For a moment," she said regretfully, "I forgot about the Predacons."

"Hey, don't worry about it," Cheetor told her with a grin. "I'll protect you."

"Thanks." Natalia smiled briefly, wryly. "But unless you can make this whole mess not have happened, I don't think you can help."

Cheetor blinked, then grinned sheepishly. "Um... sorry. No can do."

“Well, it was worth a shot.” 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

"Rhinox," Dinobot hissed loudly. "Where are you?"

The living room was a sharp contrast to how he had last seen it - where rubble hadn't spilled in from the outside, there were clothes, books, and myriad other human items. He skirted them carefully, not quite trusting the piles not to jump up and attack him. "Rhinox? We have been compromised. Where are you?"

Rhinox appeared in the doorway to the kitchen. He had to turn sideways to make it through. "We're done here, anyway," he said. "Mrs. Wilcox, is there anything else?"

"No, that's everything." Natalia's mother moved out from behind the big Maximal and took a last sweeping glance at her living room. "I'll deal with the rest of this later," she said finally.

Dinobot turned and headed for the door, thinking unkind thoughts about humans. Rhinox could guess a few of them, by the look on the saurian's face, but Mrs. Wilcox didn't seem to notice so he decided to pretend he didn't, either. He shouldered the bulging duffel bag and followed Dinobot, and Mrs. Wilcox trailed behind.

At the doorway she stopped, looked back. "Anything wrong?" Rhinox asked gently.

"No, nothing." Mrs. Wilcox shook herself and turned away, not quite able to shake the feeling that she would never see her house again. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

"She shoots - she scores! And the crowd goes wild!"

Natalia was no warrior - yet, if Dinobot had any say in the matter - but at the moment she was in her element, and she was unbeatable. The battlefield was an empty lot, the weapon was a soccer ball, and the goal was any point past where Cheetor was standing. Counting the point she'd just made, the score was holding at four to zero.

"Natalia, this isn't fair," Cheetor complained as he trotted off to fetch the bouncing ball. There was a broad grin on his face that belied his words. "You know this game better than I do."

"So?" Natalia shot back. "It's not rocket science." Cheetor dropped the ball in front of him and she set herself - it was her turn to be goalie. "Get the ball past me, without using your hands or arms. What's to know?"

"Hey, my game is speed, not soccer." The cheetah dribbled the ball in a zigzag pattern - despite his complaints, he was actually picking the sport up quite quickly - and made a break for the indistinct 'goal' behind Natalia. The human-bot jumped back a few paces and set herself.

The one advantage a goalie has over a regular player is, of course, that she can use her hands - something that Cheetor in his eagerness forgot to take into account. Three meters and closing from crashing full-on into her, Cheetor punted the ball at just the right angle to take it over Natalia's head by half a meter or more. Natalia leaped, snatched at the ball, fumbled, and at the apex of her jump caught it solidly and landed on her feet like a cat.

Grinning, the girl dropped the ball in front of her and nudged it with her instep. "Getting tired yet?"

Cheetor's face twitched into a smirk of challenge. "I'm just getting started."

Natalia returned his smirk with interest. "Bring it on, Maximal." 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

"Why dontcha go join 'em?"

Rhinox's voice was gentle, querying - a simple question rather than a suggestion or tacit command. Sagewind tore her gaze away from the window where, across the street and half a block down, Cheetor and Natalia could be seen playing. "Looks like one a' those games where ya need an even number a' players. 'Sides, I still gotta sift through all a' this." She waved her hands at the pile of legal documents in front of her. Books and papers, thoughtfully supplied by the local human police forces, dominated half of the table in the Maximals' command room and dwarfed Sagewind's small form. Directly in front of her was an alphabet primer, courtesy of Natalia's mother, and a datapad slowly being filled with the Cybertronian translation of the English texts.

Rhinox chuckled softly. "You've been at that since Sheriff McRaleigh's men delivered those documents. You're too young to be that dedicated."

Sagewind shrugged, grinning sheepishly. "It's innerstin'. 'Sides, it's gotta be done."

Rhinox shook his head. "Suit yourself - but if you don't take a break soon, I'm going to tell Optimus to order you on extended patrol."

"That s'posed t' be a threat? 'Cause I like extended patrol."

Rhinox grinned and turned back to his console, but kept half an optic on the jackelope-Maximal. If Sagewind noticed his attention, she gave no sign. Rhinox wasn't fooled, entirely. He'd been an instructor of sorts on Cybertron, and Sagewind had been one of his students - although 'assistant' or 'gofer' may have been a better term for Sagewind's position. Despite having no real turn for the sciences, Sagewind had been a fast learner and a hard worker, if a little too dependent on Rhinox's guidance and praise. And in the twenty stellar cycles since they'd parted ways, him to pursue a different line of research and her to begin diplomatic training, she hadn't changed a bit.

Neither had he, Rhinox suspected. Twenty orbits around Cybertron's borrowed sun were diddly compared to the average Transformer life span.

The pair worked in silence - comfortably, once Rhinox forgot to keep watching his teammate - for another half an hour or so, during which time Cheetor and Natalia tired of their game and simply rested on the curb, passing the ball back and forth. Sagewind never would have admitted it, but she did want to join them. She just... wouldn't know how to ask. In any case, there really was important work to be done. So she bent to her task, translating each document letter by letter and word by word. Eventually, she grew absorbed, and Cheetor and Natalia were forgotten.

Sagewind was so absorbed, in fact, that she nearly jumped out of her rabbit skin when the comm station buzzed. Rhinox, just as startled but infinitely better at hiding it, shoved his chair away from his workstation and got up to answer it. "Rhinox here."

"Rhinox, we're under attack!" It was Optimus, sounding pained. "Rattrap's down, I'm damaged and we're rapidly losing ground! We need immediate assistance!"

Sagewind stood, twitching with nervous energy. "We read you, Optimus," Rhinox responded, and Sagewind wondered vaguely how he could sound so calm. "Upload your coordinates."

"Sending now."

There was a short pause. "Received," Rhinox announced. "I'll radio the others and join you. Out." He flipped a couple of comm switches. "Cheetor, Dinobot, we have an emergency situation. Optimus and Rattrap are under heavy fire. I'm sending the coordinates now, so get there as fast as you can."

A burst of static sounded through the speaker, followed by Natalia's voice. "How come I'm not invited?"

"You're not a Maximal," Rhinox said bluntly. "It's not your responsibility."

An impatient snort. "Mom and I are currently living with you guys, if you remember. Besides, I wasn't raised to stand around idle when there's work to be done."

Rhinox opened his mouth to reply, paused, and shook his head. "Fine. Meet us there."

"Will do."

Rhinox shut off the comm and sighed tiredly. Then he turned to Sagewind. "Let's go." 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

If Optimus had known anything about human architecture, he would have found some irony in the fact that he was currently waging all-out war against Megatron, Terrorsaur, and Scorponok on an elementary school's playground. Then again, he probably would have also felt vaguely guilty about the whole situation, so his ignorance was for the best.

"Surrender, Primal!" Megatron shouted from atop a slide. "You are outnumbered and outmatched!" The slide was in violation of a couple of laws of physics by holding his weight, but the sheer force of the tyrant's ego managed to compensate for the force of gravity. Terrorsaur, for whom gravity was a non-issue, punctuated his leader's words with a stream of biting red lasers from nine o'clock high. Optimus turned aside, shielding Rattrap's limp beast-mode form with his own and thus earning yet more damage to his back-mounted jets. He growled and returned fire, then retreated behind a jungle gym. [Slag it, if I could fly - ] he thought, then stopped himself. 'What-iffing' would get him nowhere.

Rattrap groaned in his arms. "Optimus?" he whispered hoarsely.

"Just hang on, Rattrap, help is on the way," he told his lieutenant, then added wryly, "It's surviving 'till then that's the problem."

"It's..."

"What is it, Rattrap?"

"It's... like I said before. We're all... gonna die."

An ominous clicking preceded Scorponok's voice from above left - too close. "Exactly what I was thinkin'! Scorponok, terrorize!" Optimus nearly jumped out of his exoskeleton as Scorponok, perched atop the jungle gym, transformed and leveled a missile-laden pincer at him. "Say good night, Maximal."

"Good night!"

Scorponok had barely enough time to register that that shout had come from behind him before Cheetor's shot took him hard right between the shoulder plates. He wobbled and toppled to the ground, revealing to Optimus's view Rhinox, Cheetor, Sagewind, and Natalia all transformed and battle-ready.

"Hi, Bigbot!" Cheetor called cheerfully.

"Perfect timing, Cheetor," Optimus answered.

Cheetor grinned proudly. The next moment he had to leap aside as Terrorsaur strafed the ground where he'd been. As the rest of the Maximals scattered, Cheetor transformed and let out a feline snarl. "Too slow, ugly!" he called to the dactyl-Pred.

Terrorsaur banked and zipped after the cat, screeching insults as he fired again and again. The other Maximals, relatively safe from overhead fire, converged on Optimus. "Should I ask how you got yourself into this?" Rhinox asked wryly, laying down cover fire against Megatron and a recovering Scorponok.

"It's because my name's Optimus," his leader shot back. "We always get the slag missions. Where's Dinobot?"

"Said he was busy." Rhinox shrugged.

Optimus grimaced. "He and I are going to have a long talk. All right - " he winced as Cheetor's pained yowl reached his audials. Terrorsaur's lasers had found their mark at last. "Natalia, go help him."

"Right." Natalia was off like a shot, un-subspacing her baton as she ran. Terrorsaur broke off harrying Cheetor to take potshots at her. His fire cratered the ground under her feet and she yelped, stumbled, then recovered and ran on as if she didn't even notice the Predacon. Her twin tails streamed out behind her like banners, flashing in the sun.

Optimus stared after her for a moment as if seeing her for the first time, then turned a skeptical eye to Rhinox. "You sure it was wise to bring her along?"

"Nope."

"Right." Optimus winced as Megatron's return fire from behind the (slightly bent) slide lanced through a jungle gym support just over his head. The brightly-colored structure creaked ominously. "Sagewind, take Rattrap. As soon as you see an opening, get him out of here. I'll cover you."

Sagewind gulped. "Yessir." She took Rattrap from Optimus, nearly dropped him - the rat was deceptively heavy - and slung him over her shoulder. He stirred, forepaws flexing against her back. "Matrix be with me," Sagewind muttered. Optimus, overhearing, chuckled in rueful agreement.

As Natalia reached Cheetor's side, it occurred to her that, without any sort of ranged weapon, she was horrendously underequipped for this battle. [Well, too late to worry about it now.] "You okay, Cheetor?"

Cheetor, still in beast mode, was on his feet in an instant, pretending he didn't feel the wound in his side. "Yup. Let's shred this Pred."

"Speak for yourself," Natalia muttered, as Terrorsaur's next salvo forced them to leap apart.

Cheetor landed, stumbled and almost fell as a fresh wave of pain lanced through his torso. Terrorsaur wheeled to pursue, shrieking his joy to the skies at finding his prey wounded. Cheetor snarled and applied his remaining strength to speed, trying to outrun the dactyl-Pred in a long arc that would take him back toward Optimus, Rhinox, and Sagewind.

Natalia reached the fence and skidded to a halt, biting her lip. [Now what? If Cheetor leads Terrorsaur to the others, they'll have two directions of fire to worry about. And short of throwing my baton, I can't hit Terrorsaur. I'm going to throttle whoever designed me.] She cast about for inspiration and spotted a garden hose near the side of a building. [Bingo.]

"Cheetor, over here!" Cheetor, startled, risked a glance over his shoulder; Natalia stood against the side of the building, a length of green rubber tubing clutched in both sensory tendrils. "Come this way!"

The cat had no idea what Natalia was planning, but at the moment he was fresh out of ideas. He wheeled, cut to the side as Terrorsaur's fire lanced past his nose, and headed toward Natalia as fast as his cheetah legs would carry him.

Natalia watched Terrorsaur intently as he chased Cheetor up the playground toward her. This would take precise timing to catch the dactyl by surprise, but if it worked - With bare yards between her and the cheetah-Maximal, Natalia reached behind her and gave the hose's spigot two hard spins. The hose spurted to life, dousing Cheetor as he flashed past, and with a grin Natalia constricted her tails' hold on the hose. The result was a thinner but much more forceful jet of water, or more importantly one that could reach much greater distances. Natalia jerked the hose upward and brought it to bear on Terrorsaur.

The dactyl-bot gasped as the jet of cold water hit him from below. "What th-" He stopped in midair. "What do you think," he called to Natalia, grinning, "you're going to soak me to death?"

With a devilish smirk, Natalia dipped the charged point of her baton into the water.

The effect was immediate. "YeeAUGH!" Terrorsaur screeched, or something like it, convulsing in midair as the water-conducted electricity danced across his form in flashes of blue. Pain and damage made him lose control of his jets and he shot into the sky, tumbling end over end, squalling his distress.

Cheetor gave Natalia an appreciative grin. "Way to improvise."

Natalia shut the water off and tossed the hose aside. "Whatever works." She allowed herself a self-satisfied grin as Terrorsaur, his jets still malfunctioning, dropped from the heavens and crashed headlong into the ground.

"Sagewind, go!" The words exploded from Optimus's voice box, startling the jackelope into motion; then she was off and running, Rattrap bouncing at her back. While not nearly as fast as Cheetor, Sagewind was undeniably quick; within a few seconds she was at the fence, shoving Rattrap up before her in her haste to escape. The rat, semi-conscious, clung to Sagewind and mumbled inarticulate curse words. Sagewind growled, got her legs under her and heaved, sending Rattrap up and over the fence. He hit the ground on the other side with a solid thump.

Sagewind winced at the noise. "Sorry," she whispered, gripping the fence above her head. "I git clumsy when I'm nervous." Rattrap, of course, knew this - they'd been shipmates on this mission for weeks - but the explanation seemed warranted. Gritting her teeth, Sagewind braced one foot against the fence, preparing to haul herself up.

An explosion of heat and pain knocked Sagewind back, and she squalled as she flew several meters, hit the dirt and bounced. [Just a stray shot,] she thought as she came to a stop in the red dust. [Gotta get back there and - ]

Sagewind scrambled to her feet and started off in a blind run like a sprinter in a race, determined to finish what she'd started and get Rattrap to safety, but crashed head-on into something unyielding and metal. The femme reeled back and landed hard in the dirt again, then pulled herself to her knees and looked up.

Towering over her like a malevolent volcano, all but blocking out the sun, stood the living incarnation of evil and power, with a glower on his face that could melt stone and send the hardiest soldier to his knees, or so the legends said. The Slagmaker reborn, Megatron himself.

Sagewind froze.

Across the playground, Natalia gave a wordless shout of warning. Optimus, acting on instinct, smoothly pivoted around and drew a bead on Megatron. His first shot went wide, sailing over Sagewind's head - she didn't even notice, as petrified as she was - and his next three drilled into Megatron's chest and shoulder, sending him stumbling aside with a pained roar. The sudden show of pain shook the paralysis from Sagewind's limbs and she scrambled back, transformed, and lit out for the fence.

Megatron snarled, recovered his footing, and returned fire. The beam missed Optimus by six inches and hit Rhinox in the back. The big Maximal dropped his chainguns and crumpled to one knee - giving Scorponok a clear shot on Optimus. The Maximal's optics flicked in his direction, but otherwise Optimus didn't let his attention or his fire waver from Megatron. [Just a few more seconds to give Sagewind a chance, then it won't matter if I - ] Behind him, Scorponok's pincers clacked in preparation to plant a deadly missile in his back.

A feline yowl preceded a barrage of laserfire as Cheetor came to his leader's rescue. Three of the cat's seven shots found their marks in Scorponok's shoulder and side, and he howled and reeled back just as Megatron succumbed to Optimus's own steady stream of fire. Rhinox recovered and added his chainguns to Optimus's wrist blasters, the combination forcing the tyrant into his beast mode. "Retreat!" he roared. "Predacons, retreat!"

Natalia let out a victory whoop as Megatron made his escape through a hole in the fence, Scorponok scuttling along behind. Terrorsaur, still woozy from his fall, stayed where he was until Cheetor's parting blast encouraged him to follow his leader's orders.

The danger past, Optimus finally allowed himself to take a look at his internal diagnostics. Just as quickly he decided he didn't want to know. "Is everyone all right?" he demanded.

Rhinox flexed his injured shoulder with a wince. "Functional."

Natalia claimed her human mode and glanced about to make sure her clothes were in their proper place - she didn't quite trust subspace technology. "I'm not hurt."

"Me either - well, maybe a little," Cheetor admitted.

"Sagewind?" Optimus prompted.

Sagewind, still in beast mode and crouching next to the fence, fixed her gaze steadfastly down to avoid looking at him. "'M okay."

Optimus frowned at her recalcitrance, but decided not to press the issue. "Fine, then. Back to base, everyone, before the Predacons get any more bright ideas." 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

The timidity of the knock at Optimus's door gave him an idea of who was there. "Come," he called.

The door slid open a crack, and one large red optic peeked through as if to assess whether it was safe before going further. Optimus met Sagewind's eye with a cool, expectant gaze. "'M I interruptin' anything?" she drawled softly.

"Nothing important. Come on in." Optimus saved his work on his datapad and slid it aside. He had an idea of what Sagewind was here for, too.

Sagewind approached, hesitated, then stood at attention before Optimus's desk. "I wanted ta apologize fer t'day," she said quickly, as if she wanted to get it out before she changed her mind. "I put you, Rhinox, 'n Rattrap in danger, freezin' the way I did."

Optimus let his optics drop from Sagewind's face for a moment. "Sagewind, is this your first mission with the armed forces?"

"Yessir." Sagewind blinked, unsure where this was going.

"Let me tell you something." Optimus looked up at her again. "This is something I've never shared with anyone else. Not even Rhinox knows this." Sagewind nodded. "Back when I was first commissioned, I was put with a ground patrol on one of our orbital colonies, jointly owned by Cybertron and Earth. Back then there was a lot of unrest between the Terrans and the Maximals, but so far demonstrations had been peaceful." He sat back. "Then one day, a militant Earth-supremacy group attacked the base where we were stationed. They were using smoke bombs, which I had never heard of, much less seen. I couldn't see, my air intakes were clogged, and out of nowhere this human in a scary-looking mask - it was a gas mask, but I didn't know that at the time - anyway, he comes up out of the smoke and starts strafing at my squad with a machine gun."

"So what'd you do?" Sagewind prompted breathlessly.

"I screamed like a glitchmouse," Optimus said gravely, "and ran in the opposite direction."

"You never."

"I did. Crashed blindly into the side of a weapons hangar and was knocked out cold for the rest of the fight." He nodded. "That was my first combat action. The other members of my squad all got citations for bravery, but I wasn't even there for the debriefing - claimed a virus and spent the next solar cycle in my berth feeling sorry for myself." He grinned, a little lopsidedly. "Then my commander dragged me out and told me, basically, to get over it."

"Wow." Sagewind was having a rough time wrapping her mind around the concept of Optimus as a cadet, much less one who ran away from danger. "You didn't get into trouble or anythin'?"

"For panicking, no. For going into stasis because I had panicked, yes." Optimus smiled. "My point is, Sagewind, that even with the best of intentions, these kinds of things happen. Warriors freeze up, they run out of energy, the enemy outsmarts them, or they just plain make bad judgments. It's a part of life, on the battlefield and off. It's also a part of life to learn from these experiences. I know you don't feel good about today, but rather than let it sap your confidence, learn from it. Let it make you stronger."

Sagewind nodded, slowly. "I think I understand. Thanks."

"You're welcome. Just do me one favor."

"Yessir?"

Optimus grinned. "Don't tell anyone about my infamous first combat action, all right?"

That surprised a laugh out of Sagewind. "No problem, sir." She turned to leave.

"Sagewind," Optimus called after her, "if you see Natalia, send her to my office, would you?"

"Yessir." 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Sagewind, fortuitously, ran into Natalia halfway down the hall to the bridge. "Sagewind, good timing," grinned Natalia. "Rhinox said to tell you that you have patrol duty."

"I 'preciate it," Sagewind nodded, then abruptly remembered her own errand. "Oh, Optimus wants t' see you," the jackelope-bot reported, pointing back down the way she'd come. "He's in his office."

Natalia looked surprised. "Why does he want to see me?"

"Dunno." Sagewind shrugged. "Jus' said to send you up there."

"All right. Thanks." Natalia moved past Sagewind and headed for the office.

Sagewind watched her go for a moment, then something occurred to her. "Ah - Natalia, kin I ask you somethin'?"

Natalia turned back. "What is it?"

"Er, th' battle t'day..." Sagewind glanced down. "Were you... scared?"

"Well - " Natalia started, then stopped and frowned. "Come to think of it, I really wasn't."

"At all?"

"Well, maybe a little. In the back of my mind," Natalia admitted. "But while we were fighting - it was like none of that mattered." She shrugged. "I suppose I should have been more scared, honestly, and maybe I would have if I'd thought about it. But all I was really thinking about was... pulling my weight, I guess." She shrugged. "Does that make sense?"

"A little," Sagewind admitted.

That earned a cackle from the human. "Don't worry about it," she assured Sagewind. "Making sense has never been one of my priorities." She skipped off, leaving Sagewind to ponder her words.

[How,] she wondered, [do you 'not think about it?'] 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Tarantulas had set up his macabre shop in the school's furnace room. Despite no one being around to pay the heating bill, the creaky unit still kept the basement at least toasty warm, as well as providing a secondary power source to the scientist's myriad gadgets. His main power and his sensor connections, of course, were brought in from the ship itself via extension cords - yards and yards of extension cords.

The extension cords presented a bit of a hazard to anyone, Predacon or otherwise, who would venture into Tarantulas's domain, made all the more dangerous by the dank light and grimy surfaces. Anyone who made it past all that would undoubtedly make enough noise in the process to alert Tarantulas to their presence, with ample time to conceal whatever he'd been working on if necessary. Until he got ahold of or could build more sophisticated detection equipment, the setup would have to do.

[Truth be told,] the spider mused, pausing his feverish work to glance around his domain for the fifth time, [I rather like the ambience. It seems - appropriate. Perhaps these humans aren't the cringing, weak-minded beings I thought them to be, to create a place like this.]

He chuckled convulsively. [Then again...]

His laugh was abruptly cut off by a high-pitched beep on his sensor console. A jury-rigged thing constructed from pilfered parts of both Maximal and Predacon make, the station could tap into the bridge's communication and radar scanning systems with - he hoped - no one being the wiser; it also had quite a few auxiliary functions he'd developed in response to the unique demands of this planet.

And now, it seemed, a Maximal had blundered into range of the ship's radar. Tarantulas let out another convulsive laugh as he accessed the ship's radar and brought it to bear on the signal. A single red dot pulsed on the console's main screen. "Identify," the arachnid ordered.

"Maximal unit Sagewind," replied the computer calmly.

"Tehehehehehe..." Tarantulas rubbed his claws. A Maximal prisoner to play with, or a tender morsel to drain dry - either way, this new development promised a sensory feast in the spider's near future. Tarantulas set his console under triple password lock and put them in standby, spun on his heel - and slammed into something unyielding and medal that smelled faintly of leather.

"Oof," said Tarantulas.

"Going somewhere?" said the obstacle.

Tarantulas looked up and cringed. "M-Megatron! I was just coming to report to you - "

"I'm sure you were, yes," Megatron said severely. Pulling back from his disloyal subordinate, Megatron stalked to the console and tapped a few buttons. "Access override; voice code, Megatron," he said.

"Acknowledged," said the computer as Tarantulas hissed in annoyance. That was something he'd have to fix...

"Well, well," Megatron purred. "It seems a Maximal has blundered into our domain. Yes... Computer! Identify closest Predacon units to Maximal signature."

Beep. "Unit Terrorsaur. Unit Scorponok."

"Megatron," Tarantulas wheedled, "why pull them away from their patrols? I can just as easily take care of the Maximal. Leave Scorponok and Terrorsaur to more suitable tasks."

"If I didn't know better, Tarantulas," Megatron said airily, "I would think you had an ulterior motive."

"Betray you, mighty Megatron?" Tarantulas's myriad eyes widened. "Perish the thought!"

Megatron glared over his shoulder. "Don't overdo it, spider." He turned back to the console. "Scorponok! Terrorsaur! This is Megatron. I have new orders for you, yes."

Tarantulas gave a disgusted snort and transformed. There was nothing in his lair yet that would brand him a traitor should Megatron happen to stumble on it, and if he wanted to beat Megatron's most loyal lackeys to that Maximal, he had to get a head start. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

A sharp rap on Optimus's door made him start. [That was quicker than expected.] "Come," he called.

Natalia slid open the door and ducked inside. "Sagewind said you wanted to see me?"

"I did." Optimus gestured to a chair standing cattycorner to his desk. "Have a seat. We need to talk about your involvement today."

Natalia blinked. "The assistant principal treatment? I wasn't that much of a problem, was I?"

"Sit, please."

The tone of Optimus's voice forestalled any argument on Natalia's part. She sat, suddenly looking a little nervous.

"Natalia," Optimus began with a sigh, "first of all, I want you to understand that I am grateful for your help today. Your actions helped us all get out of there alive, and that's something I never take for granted. More to the point, you helped us when you didn't have to, and I do thank you for that."

Natalia opened her mouth to speak, but Optimus cut her off. "The problem is, Natalia, that you're a bit of a loose cannon. You seem interested in helping us, but with no faction and no apparent loyalties, I can't just blindly trust that you'll pull your weight when you're needed."

Natalia looked offended. "You guys are giving Mom and me a place to stay. You fought to protect us. What do you take me for?"

"There's such a thing as 'enlightened self-interest,'" the Maximal said dryly. "If the Predacons come to you with a better offer, what's to keep you from taking it?"

"Common sense?"

"This is getting nowhere," Optimus sighed. "Look, Natalia, your loyalties may be perfectly obvious to you, but I can't read your mind. I need reassurance, one way or the other. I need," he finished, "to know where you stand."

Natalia's face firmed. She stood. "My first responsibility," she said evenly, "will always be to my mother."

"That's fine," Optimus nodded, and was about to dismiss her, but Natalia cut him off.

"Beyond that, Optimus, I want you to understand that you can count on me just as much as the Maximals. I owe you, all of you, a debt. I'll repay it any way I can." She nodded. "That much, Optimus Primal, you can trust."

Optimus took Natalia's use of his full name as a measure of her seriousness. "I understand. Thank you." He stood. "I'll do my best to make sure you never have to choose between helping us and protecting your mother. To that end, I want you to know - I need you to know that you can trust us to keep her safe to the best of our ability."

Natalia shook her head. "Let's hope it doesn't come to that."

Optimus was saved from having to formulate a reply by Rhinox’s voice over the intercom. “Optimus to the bridge,” he said, his voice heavy with static and worry. “Right now.”

“We’ll continue this later,” Optimus promised, and was out the door, Natalia hot on his heels. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Rhinox was found hunched over the comm center, trying to boost the power, when Optimus and Natalia charged in. “Right. That’s Scorponok and Terrorsaur on your tail. Where are you, Sagewind?” he rumbled.

“Uh, uh, I dunno - grid system’s damaged and it ain’t tellin’ me anything. Somewhere in quad Theta, I think.” Sagewind’s voice sounded panicked, pained, even with radio interference slurring her words. “Yow! Slaggit - “

Optimus nearly shoved Rhinox out of his chair in his haste to get to the comm. “Hang tight, Sagewind. Help is on the way.”

“Do me a favor an’ hurry!” A surprised squawk, and the signal went dead.

“Sagewind?” Optimus tapped at the console. “Slag.” He straightened. “Who’s closest to Theta Quadrant?”

Rhinox regained his seat with an air of offended dignity. “Cheetor is.”

“Tell him to meet me there. Primejets, on!” Rhinox hurriedly hit the switch that would open the roof hatch just in time to keep Optimus from bonking his head on the ceiling. The Maximals’ leader rocketed from the sudden doorway and was gone.

Natalia and Rhinox had only enough time to exchange arch glances before the comm unit popped again. “Attention, Maximal base - this is Dinobot,” hissed the familiar saurian voice. “I need immediate backup.”

“You’ve got to be kidding,” Natalia said flatly. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Dinobot’s location turned out to be the parking lot of the cheapest strip mall in town - the kind that included two competing dollar stores, a Salvation Army thrift shop, and a little Christmas store that sold ornaments made out of plaster. Normally it would be bustling at this time of day, but the order to evacuate had emptied the area already; the parking lot was nearly empty, the store windows dark and silent. Dinobot was holed up behind a deserted Wendy’s when Rhinox, Natalia, and Rattrap arrived, his optics filled with the green fire of a readied laser blast. “We have a standoff,” he informed them as Natalia and Rattrap dismounted from Rhinox’s back.

“With who?” Rattrap demanded.

Natalia peeked around the corner. The only vehicles she saw were three black minivans, the middle one somehow scored as if by large claws across the door. Humanoid shapes crouched behind them, toting handguns of some kind. “Looks like humans to me. What’d you do now, Dinobot?”

Dinobot snarled at her. “Those humans have a stasis pod.”

Rhinox’s ears went straight up. “They have what?”

“You’re kidding.” Natalia looked closer. Humans in black suits and sunglasses stared back at her but did not fire. “I don’t see any stasis pod.”

“Transform and scan for it, then.”

Natalia cast a glance at Rhinox, who nodded. “Lunarscape, transform,” she said with a shrug, and her body obeyed. “Now, let’s see...” It took a moment of internal fumbling before Natalia remembered how to access her sensory apparatus, but Natalia fancied herself a quick study and the software was up and running within five seconds.

“Nothing… nothing…” Natalia murmured, then paused. “What exactly does a stasis pod look like on sensor scan?” she asked offhandedly.

“Oh fer bootin’ up cold!” Rattrap exploded. “Jest look for somethin’ dat don’t belong!”

“If it were that simple, I wouldn’t have asked,” Natalia snapped. “There’s all kinds of crazy electronics in those vans, and something’s messing with my perception. I can’t tell what’s ours and what’s theirs.”

“Switch to a life filter,” Rhinox advised.

“A what now?”

“You’re not equipped with filters?”

“Not that I know of.”

The Maximal sighed. “Never mind, then. Rhinox, maximize.” Natalia ducked instinctively as Rhinox transformed. “Natalia, are these people connected with your government?”

“Um… possible but not likely.” Natalia twitched her tails thoughtfully. “I think they’d be more pushy if they were.”

“That so?” Rhinox moved to the corner of the building and leaned against it. “Listen!” he shouted. “You have something that belongs to us! All we want is that stasis pod - we don’t want to fight!”

A bullet blasted the brick by Rhinox’s face. Natalia flinched; Rhinox didn’t. “So much for diplomacy,” he muttered.

“We’re all gonna die,” moaned Rattrap. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Grid Theta turned out to consist mostly of a grimy trailer park, a victim of disrepair even before Cybertronian wars had punched fresh holes in walls and roofs. Cheetor was already trading potshots with Scorponok and Terrorsaur when Optimus arrived, using an absolutely godawful-ugly abandoned green sedan as cover. "I don't see Sage anywhere, Bigbot," he told his leader as Optimus landed.

Optimus scanned the terrain briefly before Scorponok's missiles forced him to duck behind the sedan. "Any transmissions from her?"

"Big neg. If those Preds knocked her offline..." Cheetor let the threat hang.

Optimus nodded. "We'll get her back, Cheetor. In the meantime, let’s concentrate on those Predacons."

Cheetor nodded, then had to duck as Terrorsaur flew overhead, raining ammunition down on the two Maximals. Optimus activated his jets and gave chase, shouting for Cheetor to handle Scorponok as he went. Cheetor yowled a confirmation as he reclaimed his beast mode, then was lost to sight and hearing as Optimus followed Terrorsaur into a cloudbank.

Too late, Optimus realized he was at a disadvantage; his sensory system was visual-based and Terrorsaur was more agile in the air. A hoarse screech shook Optimus’s audial systems and he halted in a panic - where was he?

There! Optimus whirled just in time to meet Terrorsaur’s photon blast head-on. Instinct sent an extra pulse of power to his jets, taking him up and out of his opponent’s range before another attack could wreak more serious damage.

“You can’t escape me, Optimus Primal!” Terrorsaur’s challenge made the cloud shake. He was close, judging from the sound - too close. Optimus cut his jets and endured three and a half seconds of freefall, then activated them again and hovered, watching the cloudbank overhead.

There - a flash of red. Optimus fired, strafing the cloud where he was almost certain Terrorsaur was -

The Predacon screeched and dropped, smoke marking his trail through the sky. The moment he was in sight, Optimus let loose three more shots, his aim dead-on now that he could see his target. Two of three hit; the third sailed by the stricken pterosaur-Pred who was already half-offline from injury. Optimus's battle computer changed Terrorsaur's label from "active threat" to "disabled." The Maximal let him fall and swooped down to Cheetor's aid.

Cheetor, however, didn't need it - when Optimus landed, he was astride Scorponok's chest, shoving his quasar blaster in the hapless Predacon's face. "Where is she?" he was demanding.

"Slag off!" Scorponok howled, the lights behind his visor flickering back and forth.

"Where - " Cheetor started to snarl, but was stopped by Optimus's hand on his shoulder.

"Scorponok," he said evenly, "you've got a choice here. Either you tell us where you and Terrorsaur left our friend, or I'll let Cheetor scrap you."

The Predacon second-in-command eyed Optimus suspiciously. There were those who called Scorponok dimwitted, but he knew Maximals, and this one was likely to be lenient with him as long as every one of his useless underlings was salvageable. Cooperation was no crime in this case; still, no need to be polite about it. "Th' little coward went underground soon as she saw us. Last time I saw 'er she was under there." With his chin he gestured to the grimy trailer that the green sedan was parked in front of.

Trusting Cheetor to keep Scorponok in check, Optimus left them both to look for Sagewind. [I don't sense her,] he thought, [which means she may be in stasis lock. Did she drag herself under here and go offline?] At a safe distance from the trailer, Optimus crouched to peer under the raised concrete foundation.

Nothing but cobwebs and dirt met his eyes. Optimus straightened. "She's not here," he announced flatly, his emotions striving in vain to catch up with the facts.

Cheetor yowled at Scorponok, half in rage, half in despair, but even he could see there was no point in interrogating his prisoner. One look at Scorponok's face made it plain that he was just as surprised, and just as clueless on Sagewind's whereabouts, as his Maximal captors. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Somewhere in between the bullets, the bad tuxedoes, and the flying transformations, Natalia came to the conclusion that she was insane.

"It's the only logical explanation," she told Rattrap as he sat under Wendy's all-night drive-through window (currently closed), tending to a bullet-busted elbow. "I'm hallucinating this whole thing. Any minute now I'm going to wake up and find myself in a padded room, wearing a straightjacket and babbling about robots."

Rattrap, busy with his elbow, spared Natalia only a token glare. "Pred-chick," he grumbled, "ya get weirder every day."

"Since you're a hallucination," Natalia said loftily, "I'll let that slide."

Rattrap's only reply was annoyed grunt. Natalia was about to reply, but Rhinox called her over before she could formulate something suitably snarky. She contented herself with a raspberry in Rattrap's direction as she passed him.

"Feel like making yourself useful?" Rhinox asked as Natalia approached his station at the corner of the building.

"Always," Natalia answered through a flash of annoyance.

"See if you can slip behind them and figure out where the stasis pod is. We'll cover your approach."

Natalia peeked around Rhinox's bulky middle to get a look at the opposition; the brief glimpse she got before Rhinox pulled her out of the path of a bullet was daunting enough. "That's... not gonna be easy," Natalia winced.

"Suit yourself." Rhinox gave an easy shrug.

Something in his voice made Natalia's hackles rise. "Did I say I wasn't gonna do it?" she snapped. "Just gonna take some time to work out the logistics and all. I had enough trouble creating an illusion of darkness on five Predacons, and there's at least ten humans out there."

"Uh-huh." Rhinox swung an arm around the corner and let out a short burst of fire from his chainguns.

Natalia waited until he was done before continuing. "It's not like I can go invisible or anything, after all. You know, Rhinox, I have this sneaking suspicion that you don't trust me."

Now Rhinox spared a glance at her. "Optimus trusts you," he pointed out. "That's good enough for me."

"Yeah right. I don't believe that for a second," the girl snorted back. "You're too smart for that."

Rhinox raised an eyebrow at her, his lips quirking in might have almost been a smile. "Rattrap! Dinobot!" he called suddenly. "Natalia needs a diversion. What can you come up with?"

"A diversion?" Rattrap said brightly. "Heh, though you'd nevah ask! Yo, Choppuhface. Those eye-beams o' yours good fer anythin' other then punchin' holes in stuff?"

"If you are referring to tight-beam transmission, Vermin, then that is affirmative, but only over short distances."

"Couldja hit one o' these?" Rattrap tapped his wrist; a compartment opened from his forearm, revealing a rectangular demolition charge.

"Easily," Dinobot sniffed.

"Good. Set yer frequency ta nine-nine-seven-point-three." Rattrap turned to grin at Rhinox. "Diversion, ready ta go!"

"Get ready," Rhinox told Natalia.

"Beast mode," Natalia responded, then as soon as her human form was reclaimed she tossed Rhinox a casual salute. "Ready."

Rhinox nodded. "Now." He stepped around the corner and let loose with both chainguns.

Rattrap activated his charge and lobbed around the other corner, sending it sailing across the parking lot toward their adversaries. A few bullets passed harmlessly around the little box as it descended. "Wait fer it - " he told Dinobot. "Now!"

Dinobot fired. His beam engulfed the incendiary, sent it spinning through the air; a breathless second passed when Natalia thought something had gone wrong. Then it exploded.

"Go, now!" Rhinox's order vaulted Natalia into action. The charge had gone off right above the third minivan, and the blast had crumpled the driver's side and blown away a corner of the middle van's aft end. The men in black were agitatedly trying to get the back door open, but something had crumpled or fused and it wasn't working - and the Maximals' steady stream of fire wasn't helping their concentration. Natalia ran right past them, pigtails flapping, and was never seen.

By luck or divine providence the first minivan was unlocked, at least on the driver's side; Natalia clambered inside and quietly shut the door, her heart (or was it her fuel pump) pounding in her throat. So far, no shouts of anger or discovery. She was safe, for the moment.

[Fine. Let’s see what you’re hiding in here, misters.] Natalia clambered over the seats into the back, which was lined with monitors and consoles, the nature of which Natalia couldn’t begin to guess. All that was academic, in any case; what was lodged in the middle was much more interesting. “Natalia to Rhinox,” she said hoarsely into her commlink. “I think I found it.”

"Natalia, repeat that." Rhinox's voice was urgent over the static and battle-noise. "Did you say you found the stasis pod?"

"Er... make that stasis pods." Natalia prodded the topmost pod with her toe. "There seems to be three of them."

"WHAT?"

Dinobot's voice rose in the background then, agitated; Natalia couldn't make out what he said. "Natalia, get out of there now," Rhinox continued. "They're starting up the engines."

"What? No they're - " The floor thrummed under Natalia's feet, cutting off her denial. "Great." She transformed and considered her options. [Can't go back the way I came in. If I pop out the back real quick - ] She set up an illusion of an empty cargo space in front of the back window and peered through. Suit-clad men stared back at her unseeingly. "Oh, hell. Rhinox, I don't think I can get out of here."

"Try harder." There was a note of panic in Rhinox's voice.

“Um, um…” There was no chance of sneaking out the back. The front... likewise, she realized as the van jerked into motion. “This isn’t good. I’m going to, um…” Natalia’s mind blanked.

Rhinox muttered something Natalia couldn’t catch. “All right, here’s what we do. Natalia, stay out of sight and maintain radio contact. We’ll use you to track them, maybe find out where they got those pods. Dinobot, radio Optimus. Rattrap, you’re with me. Everyone clear?”

“Clear,” Natalia radioed, and heard Rattrap and Dinobot do the same. The chase was on. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Natalia once told Sagewind in a moment of sleepy candor that the first word she says when she wakes up in the morning was a particular bit of foul language pertaining to the human reproductive process. Sagewind couldn't remember the exact word, if indeed Natalia had ever told her in the first place, but she made a mental note to learn it in case she ever found herself waking up in this situation again. She needed a curse word desperately, but none of the ones she could think of bore the appropriate weight.

Upon waking, Sagewind had found herself virtually encased in the kind of webbing that no Earth spider ever dreamt of weaving. She was pinned against a wall, her feet hanging at least half a meter off the ground, fur sticking painfully to the iridescent blue mass that kept her trapped. Diagnostics told her that her transformation circuitry was offline, as were her weapons, and her grappler-horns were nowhere on her person. To make matters worse, as her body fought off the last traces of the paralyzing chemical that had knocked her out, every nerve felt as if it were on fire.

And her head was pounding.

"Well, well, are we awake already?" Sagewind stiffened; the voice had come from above her, but she didn't want to look up. "Somehow I thought my venom would last longer. What a pity."

"Tarantulas," she guessed.

Her captor laughed, a hissing snicker that made her diodes grow cold. Sagewind shut her optics off as Tarantulas descended from the ceiling on a thin blue strand; the same material that now held her fast. "Welcome," the spider breathed, spreading his jointed legs, "to my lair."

"Uh." Sagewind was certain that had Cheetor been in her position, he would have come up with some sort of smart-aleck riposte to that; she herself couldn't think of anything to say for the life of her. She settled on "What do you want?" She tried to make it sound tough and unconcerned, although she was pretty sure it didn't come out that way.

Not that Tarantulas would have been impressed in any case; he was too experienced in the ways of interrogation. "What do I want? Well, let's see." He approached and clambered up the wall to cover Sagewind's body with his own. "Yes… yes, I think you'll do nicely," he hissed, venom dripping from his fangs in a fine spray.

Sagewind flinched away from the stinging liquid. "Do what?"

"Heh." The spider drew back. "The answer is simple: I'm hungry."

Sagewind was so completely caught by surprise that she had no idea what to say. Tarantulas chuckled over his victory and moved up the ceiling. "Don't worry, you've a while to live yet. I still have to placate that overbearing tyrant I work for, you know. But after that…" He let the idea dangle; Sagewind was more than capable of filling in the rest. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Ashby slipped out of the van's passenger seat like an escaping fish and slammed the door shut. Around him, similarly-dressed fellow employees disembarked from their embattled vans. "Wait here," he ordered, voice carrying across the parking lot of what had once been a high school. "I'll radio you when we're ready."

His fellows nodded silently and took up posts around the vans. Ashby suppressed a smile - he could get used to this being-in-charge thing - and hiked up the sidewalk to the main entrance.

The Predacons had done some home-improvement since he'd been here last, Ashby noted. The crumbling front lobby was now kept from total collapse by steel supports - who knows where the aliens had gotten those - and metal security emplacements clung to the walls and ground like barnacles. Ashby paused at the perimeter of their security setup, reached out, and rapped on one of the dome-shaped emplacements with his knuckles.

The machine snapped open like an irate clam and a viewscreen popped out. Ashby was just able to make out Waspinator's visage over the static. "Oh, izz flezshie-bot," the Predacon said. "Wazpinator tell Megatron. Flezshie-bot wait there." The screen went dark.

Ashby huffed and crossed his arms, but had only enough time to think, "I hate to be kept waiting," before Waspinator returned.

"Megatron zay flezshie-bot come in," the wasp reported, then shut the viewscreen down. It retreated back into its emplacement, which closed with a clang.

"Aliens," Ashby muttered, then started off again.

When Ashby finally found his way to the bridge, Megatron was seated casually on his… well, Ashby hesitated to call the beat-up thing a 'throne,' but it was clear that that was exactly the impression Megatron meant to give. "Well, well, if it isn't our favorite human lackey. To what do we owe this unexpected pleasure?" the tyrant purred, inspecting his T-rex head's formidable dentures.

Ashby gritted his teeth. "My employers have picked up a few items for trade. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised." He pulled a Polaroid from his jacket's inside pocket and held it out to Megatron, who snatched it away and studied it intently.

After a moment the saurian's eyebrow ridges shot up. "This is NOT what I think it is."

"What do you think it is?" Ashby asked airily.

Megatron waved the Polaroid. "Correct me if I'm wrong, Ashby, but this appears to be a stasis pod."

"Is that what you call it?" Ashby took the photo back. "Satellite photos indicate that these things are actually of Maximal manufacture, but we were wondering what you'd offer for them."

Megatron's optics narrowed. "I'm sure we can come to some agreement, Ashby."

Above them, unseen, Tarantulas hissed to himself in disappointment. "Business before pleasure… hehehehe." 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

It was simple enough to kidnap one of the humans from outside without his fellows noticing, and even simpler to cart him off underground where they couldn't be observed. "You humans are wriggly creatures, aren't you?" he said to the wide-eyed captive under his arm. "Calm down. I'm not going to hurt you."

Tarantulas's chosen victim was young and still not used to the concept of aliens. "Wh-what do you want?"

"The same thing you want - to trade." Tarantulas spread his arms. "Look - I'm unarmed. Quit shaking." The human's behavior was too much like a prey animal's for Tarantulas's comfort. It was generally considered bad business to eat the person with whom you were trying to negotiate - on most planets, anyway.

The human got himself under control with an effort. "Fine. You want a stasis pod. What do we get?"

"Well, forgive me for saying so, but I highly doubt your technicians will be able to glean one scrap of information from those stasis pods you keep back from Megatron - don't look at me like that," the spider snapped when the human's jaw dropped. "It's painfully obvious. Anyway, I can give you something of much more scientific value than an object which your species lacks the technology to decipher."

"What's that?"

Tarantulas's voice dropped to a whisper. "A Maximal."

"You're not serious."

"Of course I'm serious."

The human drew back. "Won't they get mad at us?"

"Nonsense. The Maximals are convinced of the inherent goodness of organic species." Tarantulas gestured dismissively. "The disappearance of one of their comrades will simply be chalked up to another casualty of war. Courtesy of the evil Predacons, of course."

"Yeah…" The human scratched himself musingly. "How soon can you get the Maximal to us?"

"Right now, if you wish."

Now that the deal was made, Tarantulas's new friend gained some confidence. "It's a pleasure doing business with you." He extended a hand to shake.

Tarantulas took it gingerly in one pincer. "Likewise." 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Natalia almost died of fright when the van's back door sprung open and Tarantulas's visored visage peered in, but as he and two suit-clad humans grabbed the topmost stasis pod and pulled, she belatedly realized that she still had her nobody-here-but-us-dust-bunnies hologram up. [Although I kinda feel sorry for the stasis pods,] she admitted to herself, [better them than me.]

As she watched, Tarantulas bent to examine the pod, nodding his head in approval. "Hmm… this will do. A good specimen, not too much re-entry damage at all. I commend you humans for bringing it this far."

"Uh… yeah."

Tarantulas straightened. "Now let's just load your… tehehe… package and our business will be concluded."

[Package?] Suddenly Lunarscape had a very bad feeling about all this.

A human-sized bundle wrapped in the distinctive blue stickiness of Predacon webbing was slung unceremoniously into the van, landing on the remaining two stasis pods with a loud clank. Natalia craned her head to get a better look, then had to stifle a gasp as the van's doors slammed shut.

The human-form waited until Tarantulas's chuckle faded away before disengaging her hologram. "Sagewind!" she exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

Sagewind, the entire lower part of her face covered in Tarantulas's webbing, could only give her a mournful look in reply. Natalia immediately fell to the task of trying to get it off - trying being the key word. "Yech, this stuff is like tacky glue," she complained. "And it's already gumming up my finger joints - I can only imagine what you feel like, Sage."

"Mmph," Sagewind said encouragingly.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm doing the best I can." Relief, it seemed, made Natalia talkative. "Last I heard, you were in over your head with Terrorsaur and Scorponok - Optimus and Cheetor were on their way to rescue you. I guess Tarantulas got a hold of you while they were distracted. Talk about out of the frying pan and into the fire, huh?" Her fingers got a hold of a good-sized chunk of webbing and pulled strongly and steadily. "I think I got it… I think I got it…"

It snapped in her hand, leaving half still attached to Sagewind's face - which left her just enough face to look supremely annoyed.

"Sorry," Natalia grinned.

"S'okay."

Natalia sighed and bent to her task again. "Well, Rhinox and Rattrap are on their way. Hopefully Dinobot too. And Optimus and Cheetor will no doubt barge to the rescue as soon as they hear about this mess."

"Good," Sagewind grumbled.

"Yep." She paused. "Although I don't know how I'm going to explain this to my mother."

"One thing at a time, N'talia," Sagewind said through the pressure on her face.

"Good point." 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Optimus and Cheetor returned to find the base empty and eerily quiet. "Rhinox?" he called, and waited while his voice's echoes died down. "Rattrap? Natalia? Anyone here?"

"Looks like they booked, Big Bot," Cheetor supplied, his own voice hushed.

"Looks like," the elder Maximal agreed. "That's not like Rhinox." He moved to the console to check the communication logs. "Maybe something came up while we were out - but he should have contacted me."

"Is someone here?" It took a moment for Optimus's processor to place the voice. He got it just as Cheetor said, "Hello, Mrs. Wilcox."

Mrs. Wilcox smiled at the Maximal she'd labeled in her head as "that nice young man" before turning to Optimus. "Have you seen my daughter anywhere?"

"I was just about to ask you the same question," Optimus admitted. "I left her with Rhinox while Cheetor and I answered a distress call." He chose not to tell her for the moment that their jackelope damsel was still, for all they knew, very much in distress. "Any idea where they might have gone?"

Mrs. Wilcox shook her head. "I just got here myself. Traffic was atrocious today." She tapped Cheetor on the shoulder with a fingernail. "Speaking of which, come help me carry the groceries in."

"Oh - uh - " After a questing glance at Optimus, who nodded assent, Cheetor shrugged. "I'm right behind you."

As the Maximal followed the human down the entry hatch, Optimus moved to the abandoned comm console. "Okay, Rhinox, if there's an explanation for this, it'll be here…"

It was there, in the form of Dinobot's distress call, still sitting on the hard drive waiting for the computer's daily memory purge. Optimus listened to it gravely as Cheetor and Mrs. Wilcox passed by, their arms laden with groceries.

On the way back out, Cheetor paused to ask, "Any luck?"

"It seems," Optimus said, straightening, "that Rhinox and the others left in response to a distress call sent by Dinobot. No indication they ever reported back."

"Think they ran into Preds?" By the hard tone in the younger Maximal's voice, he was clearly hoping for an affirmative answer. Anything that could possibly put the hurt on a Predacon, Dinobot notwithstanding, was fine with him.

Optimus, however, refused to indulge him. "I hope not. We've got enough problems for one day."

On cue, Optimus's personal comm beeped. "Dinobot to Optimus Primal," a static-laden voice snarled. "Do you copy?"

Optimus's hand went to his chest as Cheetor looked on. "I copy, Dinobot. What's going on?"

Dinobot told him, and, by sheer luck, Mrs. Wilcox heard every word. The raptor had no soon finished that his audials, not to mention those of Optimus and Cheetor, were pierced by the rising shriek of a mother who had just learned that her offspring had done something dangerously stupid.

"WHAT?" 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Natalia, busily ripping webbing off of Sagewind's shoulder, suddenly paused and straightened.

"Somethin' wrong?" her patient asked.

"Mm… not really," Natalia admitted. "Someone just walked over my grave, I guess."

"What?"

"Never mind." Natalia got back to work. "Come to think of it, that probably wasn't the best turn of phrase I could have used, huh?"

"Wasn't gonna say nothin'," Sagewind answered dryly, then winced as an ill-placed yank took out a patch of her fur. "Ow! Easy there!"

"Sorry." Natalia removed the last of the webbing with considerably more care. "Hey, Sagewind. Can you keep a secret?"

Sagewind, busy rotating her newly-freed arm, paused to look at Natalia. "Wouldn't be in the army if I couldn't."

Natalia nodded, then sank back and wrapped her arms around her knees. "Remember when I told you I wasn't scared before?"

"Yeah."

"Well, now I'm terrified." Natalia grinned sheepishly, then looked away. "This is all spiraling out of control. Humans were never supposed to be involved in this… this…"

"Beast Wars," Sagewind supplied, using the term her leader had coined. "Th' name says it all, don't it?"

"Just about." Natalia sighed. "I have no idea who these people are, or why they're cooperating with the Predacons, but I'm willing to bet it's nothing good. These things never are." She gave Sagewind a sidelong glance. "Humans are a pretty messed-up species, you know. Warlike, irrational, panicky. There's really no telling what they'll do."

"Present company excluded?"

"No, I include myself in that too." She winked. "I'm at least half human."

"I guess." Sagewind sounded doubtful. "Still, whatever they got planned fer those stasis pods, it's gotta be better than bein' reprogrammed into a Predacon."

"I hope you're right, Sage." Natalia stood shakily. "Humans can be beastly sometimes. How are you doing?"

Sagewind reached out and braced herself against the wall, then pushed herself to her feet. Warning signs flashed in the back of her head, but none too bad - yet. "Ever'thing seems t' be in workin' order." She looked up at Natalia. "What now?"

"Now I contact - " Natalia's comm beeped, and she frowned. "Say this for you Maximals, you've got impeccable timing. Natalia here," she added to her comm.

"Natalia, this is Optimus. I've got a lock on your position and we're on our way. Hold tight."

"Hold tight? What are you going to do?"

"We're going to hijack you, that's what." The connection was cut.

Natalia turned glimmering eyes on Sagewind. "Sounds like we're about to be rescued." 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Optimus and Cheetor caught up to Rhinox, Rattrap, and Dinobot at a bridge overlooking the main highway. As Optimus landed, Rattrap gave him a smirk. "Don't look now, fearless leader, but looks like you got a new attachment."

"Don't start, Rattrap," he said warningly as his burden slid from his back.

Said burden gave Rattrap a glance more withering than Primal himself could hope to match. "You," she said coldly, "put my daughter in danger. I intend to get her back."

"Wha?" Rattrap squeaked. "Me put da Pred-chick in - "

Rhinox, the only Maximal still in beast mode, nudged his friend into silence. "With all due respect, Mrs. Wilcox, Natalia insisted on volunteering. She feels strongly about helping us."

"Helping you? Oh, I don't believe this." Mrs. Wilcox threw up her hands. "Am I the only one around here with any common sense at all?"

Behind the fuming Mrs. Wilcox, Optimus gave Rhinox a questioning glance. The rhino-Maximal smiled and shook his head in reply. "According to Natalia's uplink, they should be in view," he said, "right about now."

All eyes turned to the horizon, drenched in the melting sunset. "Any time now," Rattrap singsonged softly.

"Shut up, Rattrap," the others chorused as the van crested the hill. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

"So, did you catch that game last night?"

Earl glanced over at his partner, slouching easily in the passenger's seat. "You don't take a hint, do you?"

Jarod shrugged, a smug smile plastered on his face. "Nothing wrong with trying to make a little conversation."

"Ugh." Earl rolled his eyes. "Lousy newbies - whoa!"

Jarod sat up straight, his sleepy eyes suddenly sharp as arrows. "Looks like our alien friends take exception to us carting their stuff around," he said quietly, watching as the collection of not-quite-human figures grew larger in the front window.

"Well, to hell with them," Earl snarled, and hit the gas. "We're goin' through!"

"Whoa - wait a minute - "

"CHAAAARGE!" 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

"Looks like he wants ta play chicken," Rattrap sneered at the oncoming van.

"Please move out of the way, Mrs. Wilcox," Optimus said calmly, then gave his order. "CHAAARGE!"

Rhinox bellowed, Dinobot roared, Optimus Primal fired his jets and they were off on a breakneck course. Inside the van, Jarod gripped the wheel in both hands and yanked it toward him, ignoring Earl's protesting howl. The van performed a crazy 540 and squealed to a stop just in time to get a rhino-horn to the back bumper that propelled it ten yards back the way it came. The driver's side airbag exploded, slamming Earl back in his seat. As he squawked and fumbled, Jarod kicked his door open and tumbled out, taking his weight in all the right places, then paused to look over his shoulder at the oncoming Maximals. The only glimpse he got was a flash of cobalt metal and white teeth before Cheetor transformed and tackled him into the asphalt.

"Got one!" he announced. "I got one!"

"Great, kid!" Rattrap snapped, clambering in through the door Jarod had just vacated. "Don't get cocky." He reached for Earl, still fighting with the airbag, and just as his digits met the human's elbow, the passenger's side airbag inflated. Rattrap was trapped, squawking, between it and the seat as Earl slipped past Dinobot's claws on the other side and made good his escape.

As he rounded the vehicle's back end, though, the door swung open and hit him square in the face. He dropped like a sack of meat as Natalia hopped out of the van. "Ouch," she commented evaluatively.

"Are you all right, Natalia?" Optimus demanded from his perch in clear air.

"We're fine!"

"We?"

In answer, Sagewind poked her head out and waved. "Th' stasis pods 're fine too," she reported. "We used some of Tarantulas's webbin' to make 'em stable."

"Sage!" Cheetor exclaimed, echoed by the other Maximals.

"Hey, Cheetor." Sage hopped down to stand beside Natalia, a sheepish grin on her face. "Hey, everyone."

"Not the face!" Jarod implored. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

"I can't believe we're even having this conversation," Mrs. Wilcox moaned.

"Neither can I."

The older woman shot a glare at her offspring. "Excuse me, young lady?"

"Mo~om!" For a moment Natalia sounded younger than she was, a kitten imploring its mother under the rough lash of her tongue. "I owe Dinobot. I owe the Maximals. I can't just stand around and do nothing."

"You owe - " Mrs. Wilcox flung herself off of her bed to pace the room she shared with Natalia. "So send them a thank-you card, for heaven's sake!" She turned on her daughter. "But if I ever - ever - catch you putting yourself in danger like that again - "

"I don't have a choice, Mom."

"You're right, you don't have a choice, because you are not - "

"Lunarscape, transform!"

It was not the first time she'd seen the process, but then it had been animals, beasts, splitting into pieces to reveal the mechanoid within; somehow the sight of her own flesh and blood ripping herself apart threatened to make her stomach revolt. She swayed on her feet as Lunarscape - Natalia - snapped the last of her metal joints in place and lifted her head. "Look at me," she commanded unnecessarily, for Mrs. Wilcox's gaze was fixed helplessly on her. "I'm still me, but I'm also something else now. And - " She stopped herself, shook her head, started over. "I have a responsibility now. For the first time in my life I have something worth fighting for. If I hid from that, I'd hate myself." Natalia took a step forward, holding out one pewter hand. "Can't you understand that, Mom?"

Mrs. Wilcox's eyes dropped to the proffered hand. "Go back to the way you were."

"But - "

"Please."

Natalia sighed and dropped her arm. "Beast mode." Human once more, she turned away. "I won't transform in front of you again, Mom, but you and I both know what I can become with just two words."

Mrs. Wilcox gathered herself, gathered the words to bring her daughter back down to Earth and realize just how selfish she was being, but by the time she could work up enough breath to speak Natalia had left the room. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

"Work things out with your mother?" Rhinox asked as Natalia breezed into the bridge.

"Not really," she admitted. "But we'll both get over it." She glanced over his shoulder, wondering if the part of the Transformer brain that seemed to magically understand these randomly-placed readouts would wake up and start working. It was no use - Natalia still had about as much comprehension of whatever Rhinox was doing to his console as she always did. "What're you doing?"

"Recalibrating our atmospheric radar."

Natalia filed that away for later reference. "Oh." She straightened. "Where is everybody?"

"Dinobot and Optimus are with our prisoner. Cheetor and Rattrap are out on patrol. Sagewind's sleeping off the last of that cybervenom. The stasis pods are in hold, waiting for someone to take the locks off so they can scan something."

"And you," Natalia grinned, "are stuck here."

"Yup." Was that a trace of humor in his voice? Natalia thought so.

"Anything I can do to help?"

"Nope, but go see if Optimus could use you. Your knowledge of humans might come in handy."

"Sure." Halfway to the hall, she paused. "Rhinox?"

"Mm."

"Does this mean you trust me now?"

She heard the bigger mech pause behind her. "It's not you I don't trust, Natalia," Rhinox admitted at last. "It's whoever or whatever made you."

"The unknown factor," Natalia sighed, and added mentally, [and I can't tell him. Even if I could tell him about the website, I don't know who made it.] "Well," she said finally, slowly, "thanks for your honesty."

She meant to leave before he could say anything more, but she couldn't help but hear "You're welcome." 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

As it turned out, Dinobot and Optimus did not need Natalia's help. Jarod was singing like the proverbial canary.

"O sole mio..." It might have been opera, in fact probably was, but Natalia was no fit judge of such matters. As she walked into brig, Jarod was belting out the words in a rolling tenor, his eyes closed, left hand grasping a pen which moved with surety over what looked like a pad of yellow paper from his mother's supplies.

"What's going on?" she wondered.

Optimus, standing by the door with an amused grin on his face, told her, "Jarod's agreed to give us information about his employers - " Jarod's song hitched, almost imperceptibly - "former employers, excuse me - in exchange for our protection. We'll be able to use this information to figure out what kind of relationship they have with the Predacons, and if possible get back those protoforms that they haven't handed over to Megatron."

"A futile exercise," Dinobot put in from the other side of the doorjamb, "even if they are recoverable."

Optimus decided to let that one slide, focusing instead on the furiously scribbling man standing before him. He'd long since turned off the energy bars that had kept Jarod imprisoned, despite Dinobot's objections and a nagging feeling that the dark-haired human was more than met the eye. Jarod was tall for a human, about his own height, and had narrow, sleepy eyes and a strong nose and jawline. Like his former colleagues, he was dressed in a dark suit that barely disguised the holster - empty when they'd found him - under his left armpit. As he watched, Jarod brought his song to its closing notes and pocketed the pen. "Done," he announced, looking up to grin at his captive audience. "Oh, hello."

His eyes had lit on Natalia. "Hey," Natalia greeted him as Optimus moved forward to receive the results of his work.

"I'm Jarod. What's your name?"

"Jarod, may I introduce our errant recruit, Natalia?" Optimus put in diplomatically as Natalia scowled good-naturedly. "Natalia, this is Jarod, formerly of Tanabata Industries."

"Charmed," Natalia managed with a nod.

"Likewise." Jarod favored her with another broad, searching grin before turning to Optimus. "This map should get you anywhere you need to go in the compound, and I've included all the security codes. They have cameras and infrared scanners, though, so I don't know how you're planning to get past them."

"Leave that to us," Optimus assured him. "Any ideas where they'll be storing the stasis pods?"

He pulled a frown and craned his head to look at his map in Optimus's hands. "Should be right here - " he pointed - "in the research camp, but once they're ready to work on them they'll be moved to this lab right here - " Optimus and Jarod bent their heads over the map, talking in low voices, gesticulating, two career soldiers in the planning stage of what they did best.

Natalia leaned closer to Dinobot. "Think we should leave them alone?"

Dinobot glanced down at her, as if he'd forgotten she was there. "Perhaps. I do not think we are needed - and I have business to attend to." He said the latter part loud enough for Optimus to hear. The Maximal leader waved him off without even looking up from the map.

Natalia hid a grin. "I think we've been dismissed."

"Hmph." Dinobot turned on his heel and snagged Natalia's shirt with two fingernails as he marched out the door. "Come."

"Ack!" Natalia stumbled and half-trotted after him to keep her shirt from being ripped. "You know, Dinobot, every time you want me to go somewhere with you, it always ends up badly for me."

"Indeed."

"And you don't give a flying cable box."

"Indeed."

"Thought not." 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

After the fifth false start, Scorponok sat back helplessly and in a burst of foul language called down the five worst fates he could imagine on Tarantulas, whose job it was supposed to be to decipher Maximal technology. Scorponok considered himself an able tech-head when it came to building things of his own design - cyberbees, virus canisters, and munitions, just to name a few - but Maximal tech was so idiosyncratic as to be beyond him. "This is impossible," he moaned to himself, swiping a claw across his visor to get rid of the condensation. "I can't even open the slagging thing, much less reprogram it."

Tinny buzzing heralded Waspinator's presence over his head. "Zzcorpion-bot having trouble?" the wasp chortled, clearly delighting in the fact that for once it wasn't going to be him on the wrong end of Megatron's wrath. "Zzcorpion-bot better hurry before Megatron getz even madder!"

Scorponok turned to fix him with a glare. "Go away, Waspinator. You're annoying."

"Wazpinator annoying," the Predacon agreed cheerfully, "but at end of the day, Wazpinator ztill in one piece!"

A huge purple fist came out of nowhere and flattened Waspinator against the far wall. "Report, Scorponok," Megatron ordered.

"Uh - yes. Um - " Scorponok wracked his processor for some good news. "The stasis pods are proving, er, troublesome, but I'm almost finished decoding - "

"You mean you haven't even started reprogramming them yet?"

"It's not my fault!" Scorponok protested, ducking under Megatron's glower. "This is supposed to be Tarantulas's job!"

"Oh, of all the incompetent - " Megatron whirled on Waspinator, who was groggily pulling himself together. "Waspinator, go find Tarantulas!"

"Give Wazpinator nano," he mumbled. "Wazpinator haz headache in - "

"GO!"

Waspinator made a sound like "eep" and zipped off. Scorponok used the distraction to scuttle out of arm's reach of Megatron to the next pod over. "Let's see if you're a little more cooperative - uh oh."

Megatron straightened. "What?"

"This pod's been damaged." Scorponok flipped open the control panel easily and called up a damage readout. "Yeah - looks like a lot of cognitive circuitry is offline."

"Mmnh." Megatron frowned. "The humans' fault, no doubt. How extensive is the damage?"

"I can't tell. The security locks won't let me have any more info." Scorponok shook his head. "On the up side, the security's damaged too, so I'm pretty sure I can switch the chips and get the replication process started on this one."

"Do so." Megatron folded his arms. "We'll decide later whether to keep this new soldier depending on its level of cognizance."

"Yes, Megatron." Scorponok bent studiously to his task, manipulating his pincers with deceptive dexterity, and before long the Maximal social protocol chip had been replaced with that of a Predacon. Scorponok shut the circuitry access panel and fed power into the appropriate channels, and slowly and painfully the DNA scanner antenna emerged from its port and began to rotate, shedding yellow light across the makeshift command room.

There was a certain corner just outside the front door of Natalia's high school known as "The Hill Of Pain." Hapless freshmen were often lured there by promises of great treasure (the nature of which changed according to inclination) before being subjected to the most horrendous torture imaginable, followed by furiously itchy welts that took days to fade as if one's own skin was mocking one for unimaginable stupidity.

The custom was hard on the colony of ants who called the Hill of Pain (better known as a fire ant hill) their home, but nobody thought to ask them.

As luck would have it, a window was broken over the Hill of Pain, as well as a largish section of the wall itself, so the stasis' pods scanning beam got a good long look at a certain colony member who was just poking her head out from the Hill's main entrance, hoping her home would today remain unmolested...

"DNA scan complete. Beginning replication sequence," reported the stasis pod as the antenna slipped back down into its hutch.

"It's working!" Scorponok announced unnecessarily. Megatron gave him an indulgent smile as the stasis pod cracked open. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Waspinator descended to the furnace room with no small amount of trepidation - Tarantulas liked to spring traps on unwary intruders - and searched the walls for some sort of control that would give him some light. "Flezshie-bots have no zense," he muttered, aware he was making entirely too much noise. "Why Wazpinator cannot find lightzz? Flezshie-botz have no zense of ergonomicz. Wazpinator hatezz flezshie-bots..." Fumbling, Waspinator stepped into a discarded bucket and fell over with a squawk. "Ow!"

"Looking for the light switch?"

"Mrrzz." Waspinator drew himself groggily to his hands and knees. "Wazpinator would appreciate it."

A lithe pincer reached out and flicked the light switch to the 'on' position. The room filled with light, and Waspinator winced - he'd forgotten to set his vision filters from "low light" to "bright light" and the sudden inrush of light was painful. "Now Wazpinator juzt get thiz bucket off - eep?"

That voice had been most decidedly female. Waspinator looked up, and up, and up into an unfamiliar golden face with narrow black eyes. "Hey," smirked the newcomer.

"YIIIPE!" Forgetting the bucket on his foot, Waspinator backpedaled and tried to get up, but overbalanced and fell on his tail. "Ow!"

"Ah, I see you've already met Waspinator." Waspinator froze as Tarantulas emerged from a side door to stand over his head. "Waspinator, allow me to introduce you to my new creation - Blackarachnia."

Now that he looked, Waspinator realized he could see the telltale signs of an arachnid beast mode in Blackarachnia's form, although she was definitely shaped differently than Tarantulas was. Waspinator couldn't quite put his finger on the difference, but decided it didn't matter. Trying to recover what was left of his dignity, Waspinator rolled out from under Tarantulas and transformed. "Wazpinator honored to make acquaintanze, but Wazpinator muzt go now - awk!"

He hadn't seen her move, but suddenly Blackarachnia was in front of him, a crossbow loaded and leveled at his head. "Leaving so soon?" she purred.

Waspinator's compound eyes were irresistibly drawn to the point of that crossbow bolt. The tip was glowing a deep red - a sure sign of some sort of cybervenom. "Wazpinator haz important buzinezz... " he gulped.

"I'm sure you do." Blackarachnia's crossbow didn't waver. Waspinator cast a helpless look at Tarantulas, who only shrugged and chortled. Sighing, the wasp braced himself for pain.

A wild scream of rage from aboveground startled all three into opposite corners of the room. "What was - " Blackarachnia gasped.

Tarantulas cocked his head. "Sounds like our leader has gotten himself into a spot of trouble," he commented.

Blackarachnia let her eyes follow her creator's gaze. "I wonder... Beast mode!" Her body folded and stretched into the shape of a lithe black widow spider.

"Wait - Blackarachnia, where are you going?" Tarantulas demanded.

His creation's only answer was a lilting chuckle as she ascended the stairs. After a moment of hesitation and a splutter, Tarantulas followed.

"Zhould have ztayed in bed," Waspinator moaned, sinking to the floor. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Next episode... 

New Maximals, new allies, new Predacons and new foes... and from whence came this mysterious third faction? Natalia struggles to make sense of all these developments as the two aspects of her person - human and Transformer - fight for dominance. 

Meanwhile, Mrs. Wilcox's hair is going gray. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Feedback can be sent to the author either by email, peppermintwindelement@yahoo.com,  or by AIM, SunstoneWEAPON