Blackarachnia tapped her foot impatiently.  "Well?" she asked, no 
longer able to contain herself.

"Well..." began Tarantulas, "I'd think it's alien.  Very much that.  
But a weapon?  Nonononono.  It's more likely some sort of 
transport device."

"Through what?" asked Blackarachnia.  *And tell me something 
productive this time,* she thought to herself.

"Ah.  Well, this is going to sound corny, but... offhand, I'd say 
time and space."

"You're wrong," said Blackarachnia.  "It doesn't sound corny, it 
sounds just plain stupid.  There's nothing in this world or the next 
capable of that."

"Err... the Quintessons did it more than once, I'd like to point 
out..."

"Whatever."

"Anyways," continued Taratulas, excited, "we DO know that 
neutrinos exist, and those things travel so fast they actually travel 
back through time!"

"Get to the point."

"What I'm saying is that if this thing COULD get enough power, 
and it COULD build up enough energy, it could get it moving at 
the right speed so that it could travel through time!  And after 
that, space is small potatoes."

"So you're saying that theoretically, I could travel to the time of 
the dinosaurs on Earth?"

"Theoretically being the operative word.  You see, to actually 
PROJECT enough energy to make the device work, you would 
need a massive power source."

"Like the generator of the Soundwave."

"Right, like the gen..."  Tarantulas looked at her.  "You... ah... 
actually are going to TRY this thing out?"

She raised an eybrow.  "That was the idea," she said, a little 
puzzled by the question.  "Why else would I want to find out 
about it?"

"Scientific curiousity?"

She laughed.  "Thanks, Tarantulas.  It's been a while since I 
heard such a good joke."

Tarantulas sighed.  *Some people will never learn,* he thought.  
Aloud, he said, "Won't Megatron think that something is 
happening when he sees the power for the ship flickering?"

"Of course he'll notice something's going on.  But by that point, I'll 
have been in the past, and made sure that I defeated him, or one 
of his plans went wrong... I'm not sure at the moment.  I'll figure it 
out later."

Tarantulas nodded.  "I take it it'll just be the two of us and your 
little cabal, then?"

"How did you know about my -"

"Face fact, Blackarachnia.  It didn't take a genius to put two and 
two together."

She began to say something, then stopped.  "All right," she said.  
"Have it ready for my departure within three hours."  She turned 
to leave, then, as an afterthough, turned back to Tarantulas and 
said, "You DO know how to control that thing, don't you?"

"Of course I do," said Tarantulas.  Satisfied, Blackarachnia 
turned and left the room.

"I just have to figure it out," muttered Tarantulas to himself.

	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*

The planet that the Axalon and the Soundwave had landed on 
was artificially created.  Therefore, one could expect that things 
like disease, disasters, and the ecosystem were carefully 
maintained by the creators.

However, this did not apply to climate.  Therefore, due to the 
excessive energon levels of the planet, energon storms were 
common.  The simplest description of an energon storm is the 
idea of a storm that lashes out with pure energy, relentlessly.  
Needless to say, most people would prefer to be inside the 
Axalon.

Stormcloud, however, was not one of those people.

"Move the scanner to the left," he said to Skyvine and 
Bonecrusher.  The pair of them nodded, hefted up the large 
device, and moved left with it.  "NO!  That's too far.  Bring it back 
to the right just a little bit."

With a grunt, the pair of Maximals lifted the device and set it 
down a few klicks to the right.  "Not THERE!" exclaimed 
Stormcloud.  "Move a little - a VERY little - to the left."

Skyvine grunted.  "Ya know, Stormcloud," he said indignantly, 
"call me uncooperative, but I'm thinkin' that it'd be nice for ya to 
be frozen by indecision when we AIN'T in the middle o' a freakin' 
energon storm."

"Point noted," said Stormcloud.  "Now, just a little - very, very, 
VERY little - to the left."

Nodding, the other two moved it a nearly inperceptible distance 
from its previous position.  "Perfect," said Stormcloud, hooking 
up a large cord to the device.  "We can now monitor the storm 
from inside the safety of the Axalon."

"Good," said Bonecrusher, heading back for the ship.  Skyvine 
and Stormcloud transformed and followed him.

	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*

Tarantulas finished fiddling with the wires.  "This ought to work 
now," he said.  "Though I'm not entirely sure that it will."

Blackarachnia nodded.  "Perfect.  Now, I want you to send us 
back to the point when I was attacking the Axalon a few weeks 
back."

"But - you were nearly killed then!  Why -" asked Bloodclot, 
confused.

"No, I was nearly killed there," said Drill Bit, wincing from 
remembered pain.

"Exactly the point," said Blackarachnia, waving a claw in the air.  
"If I can travel back in time to then, we can stop Shockwave with 
the help of our past selves.  Then, we - our past selves - will 
crush the Maximals, while we - ourselves - will travel forward to 
now and witness us as the rulers of the Predacons!"

Turning back to Tarantulas, she asked, "Have you set the 
coordinates yet?"

"I think so," he replied.

"You THINK so?" she cried, outraged.  "You said you knew how 
to work this thing!"

"I do!  I just don't know how to work the time/space-travel part of 
it."

"We're all going to die," moaned Manterror.

"Will you shut up?" asked Terrorsaur.

Juliet shrugged.  "What have we really got to lose?"

"Thank you," said Tarantulas, bowing briefly to Juliet.  "Though it 
would have helped if you had Onyx Primal around.  Where is 
your little assassin friend, anyhow?"

Juliet shrugged.  "You know Onyx.  When he doesn't want to be 
found, he can't be."

Tarantulas shrugged, then stood over with the group of 
Predacons.  "It'll send us in a moment."

The twin lenses on the side flickered briefly, then lanced out with 
a pair of pure white beams.  A large white globe grew to 
encompass the eight Predacons standing there, then suddenly 
winked out in a flash of light.  The generator room was empty 
again.

	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*

"Oof!"

Megatron winced as he heard Scorponok slam into Inferno.  
"What in Inferno happened to the power?" he shouted.

A half-second later, the lights came back on.  Scorponok and 
Inferno untangled themselves from each other, then Scorponok 
walked over to the computer console.  "Apparently, sir, there was 
a massive demand for power in the generator room!" shouted 
Scorponok.

"Why are you shouting?"

"Errr... just trying to emphasise the situation, sir."

Megatron nodded.  "Inferno, I want you to go down to the 
generator room and see what is happening in there."

Inferno nodded and saluted.  "At once, my Queen."  He walked 
off, his rotor twirling clockwise.

"Would it be so hard," growled Megatron, "for him to call me 
King?"

	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*

Park's View was, under normal circumstances, a quiet town.  It 
had a normal town hall, a normal economy, and the people there 
were friendly.  Most of them lived there just because, in their own 
words, "It's nice to live in a good old normal town."

Obviously, this meant that all residents that were present were 
signifigantly suprised when eight giant robots suddenly appeared 
in the sky with a flash of light, then slammed into the ground.  By 
the time these robots began to converse, these people would 
already be at their phone, calling family, friends, news stations, 
the police, and probably the Witwickys.

"This," growled Blackarachnia, "is not the Axalon."

Tarantulas scratched behind his head.  "No, it isn't," he said 
sheepishly.

"Nor is it a few weeks ago."

"Ahh... yep, that's true."

"Nor is it the same planet."

"Err... quite."

"CAN'T YOU DO ANYTHING RIGHT?" she bellowed at him.  The 
numerous people at their telephones relocated the call to 
underneath their beds.

Blackarachnia calmed down.  "Sorry, I just needed to get that 
out."

"You not going to hurt Wazzzpinator?" asked Waspinator 
expectantly.

"Not just yet, anyways," she said.  "Where are we?"

"Somewhere you don't want to be," said a red Lambroghini 
Countach, screeching past the eight suprised Predacons and 
transforming.  "The name's Firecracker.  Prepare to get wasted, 
Decepticons."

"We're not Decepticons!" shouted Manterror.  "We're 
Predacons!"

He was cut short as a missile exploded behind him.  "Works for 
me," said Jetifre, his massive jet form streaking past them.  "With 
you all, they would be a 13-member gestalt team by now, 
wouldn't they?"

"What are you babbling about?" asked Bloodclot, firing his 
shoulder cannons.  "We aren't a gestalt team!"

"Yeah.  We're all stupid enough to believe that, aren't we?" 
shouted Sideswipe, slamming into Bloodclot.  Bloodclot stood up 
slowly, but Sideswipe transformed and uppercutted him, 
knocking him down.  Drill Bit tackled Sideswipe, but Sideswipe's 
rocket pack roared to life, sending him and Drill Bit careening into 
the sky.

"L-l-l-look!" shouted Tarantulas, pointing down the street.  "M-m-
more of them!"  He aimed his legs and began to fire.

Grimlock winced as the bullets ricocheted off of him.  "Me 
Grimlock no like you any more!" he shouted.  "Then again, me 
Grimlock no like you before, either!"  He transformed and 
charged into Tarantulas, knocking him over.

Arcee unfolded slightly behind him.  "Don't kill them, Grimlock, 
just disable them!"

She was knocked back as Blackarachnia kicked her hard.  "Be 
quiet, stupid!" hissed Blackarachnia, drawing her launcher from 
subspace.  "You're giving my gender a bad connotation!"

Arcee glanced at Blackarachnia's chest.  "So glad that you 
avoided that pitfall," she said sarcastically, launching herself at 
the female Predacon.  Blackarachnia leaped into the air and 
prepared to fire, but was knocked down as another Autobot 
blasted her.

"Nice try, Decepticon," said Powerglide to Blackarachnia, "but no 
'con has what it takes to beat me!"

He was cut short as Terrorsaur lanced out with a series of blasts.  
"Care to rethink that opinion?" asked Terrorsaur, transforming.  
His twin cannons flipped onto his shoulders and blasted out.

"Get real!" shouted Powerglide, lancing out with his concussion 
bombs.  Arcee leaped down and grabbed Blackarachnia's web 
launcher, then fired at Terrorsaur.  The twin assault sent 
Terrorsaur spinning out of control, and he smashed into the 
ground.

Juliet transformed from serpent mode and brought her arm 
cannons on-line.  "Back off!" she shouted at Arcee and 
Powerglide, lancing out with her arm cannons.  A blast hit 
Arccee, and she fell to the ground, nearly blown in two.

"Are you all right?" Powerglide asked Arcee.  Juliet lanced out 
again and blasted off his arm.  Grimacing, he fired a pair of 
concussion bombs, then dragged Arcee away from the 
battlefield.

Juliet dashed over to Blackarachnia, helping her up.  "I suggest 
we retreat," said Juliet.

"I'm inclined to agree," replied Blackarachnia.

"Aww, don't leave yet!" shouted Doubletake as he and Dragon 
unfolded behind the pait of them.  "We haven't done a dance 
routine!"

"Shut up," snarled Blackarachnia, blasting Doubletake with her 
leg-guns.  Doubletake staggered back, clutching the smoking 
holes in his chest.

He glanced down towards the leaking holes.  "Does this mean 
you won't be my Valentine?" he asked weakly.

"PREDACONS, RETREAT!" screamed Blackarachnia, springing 
into the sky and flying off.  The still-concious members detached 
themselves from their current battles, gathered up their wounded, 
and flew off after her.

Jetfire landed and transformed.  "Who were those guys?" he 
asked.  He glanced at Grimlock, dented all over and badly 
wounded.  "And how did they become so powerful?"

	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*

Nightpounce gaped at the display.  "Err... Stormcloud, you'd 
better come see this," she said into her comm.  "The sensor's 
energy level readings are off the scale!"

"Where?" he asked her.

"Right in the vicinity of the Soundwave."

"I'll be there as soon as I can."

Nightpounce nodded, then turned back to the computer.

Snarl leaned over Nightpounce's shoulder.  "What's up?" he 
asked her.

"Certainly not your IQ," said Bandit, grinning slightly.  Trailblazer, 
sitting nearby, chuckled.

Stormcloud and B'Boom walked in.  "Any idea what's causing the 
erratic readings?" asked Stormcloud.

"High energy levels?" suggested Bandit.

"You think?" snapped Nightpounce at Bandit.  She turned back to 
Stormcloud.  "I'm not sure at the moment.  But it seems to be 
throwing up a lot of anamolies."

"Such as?"

"The cellular decay rate of the flora and fauna in the vicinity is 
erractic.  Some of them seem to have been sped up to an 
incredible pace, while others have been slowed down until they 
almost seem to be going backwards."

"Amazing," whispered Stormcloud.

"I'm a little worried about it, though - the readings seem to be 
showing that it's -"

The only one who would ever know what Nightpounce was going 
to say after that was Nightpounce, because a second later a pure 
white beam lanced out, engulfing the Maximals in the room and 
pulling them out in a small flash.

	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*

Spike licked his lips as the waiter brought him the huge sub.  
"Looks good," he said.

"You aren't actually going to EAT that thing?" asked Carly 
incredulously.

Spike laughed.  "No, Carly, I'm just going to sit around and stare 
at it."

"Spike, that thing is hardly healthy.  You can actually FEEL your 
areteries clog when you eat it."

"That's kind of the idea behind it."  He smirked at her.

She put her head in her hands.  "Sometimes, I don't know why I 
married you."

"Thanks."

They both chuckled.  Spike picked up the sandwich and began to 
take a bite.

"Trouble brewing," said Carly, glancing at the doorway.  Walking 
into Subway was a ten-foot tall red robot, with a large red sigil on 
his chest and a confused expression on his face that somewhat 
mirrored that of the patrons.

"What?  You've never seen an Autobot before?" asked 
Cliffjumper, narrowing his gaze.  "I'm not going to kill anyone - 
that's the Decepticon's department.  I'm just here to see 
someone."

That seemed to satisfy (or at least placate) the customers.  They 
settled back to their eating.  Cliffjumper walked over to Spike's 
table.

Spike sighed.  "What is it now, Cliffjumper?" he asked.

Cliffjumper narrowed his gaze somewhat.  "You know, it hurts me 
that every time I come to see you you assume it's bad news."

"You're right, Cliffjumper.  What brings you here?"

"Bad news."

Spike glared at him.  "You think you're funny, but you're not."

"Hey, I didn't say you were ever wrong.  I just said that it hurt."

Spike groaned.  He could see that yet another perfectly enjoyable 
afternoon was now perfectly shot.  "What's up?"

"Some new Decepticons, calling themselves Predacons, just 
showed up out of nowhere and nearly trashed a bunch of 
Autobots.  The odd thing was that they seemed to transform into 
organics."

"Gotcha.  I'm coming."  He grabbed his sub.  It looked like he 
would be at the Ark for a while - and eating there was not an idea 
he relished.

"Right behind you," said Carly.

Spike looked at her.  "Carly - Daniel's babysitter -"

Carly put her hands on her hips.  "Spike, Hot Rod is watching 
Daniel."

"To be honest, that was the part I was worried about.  Hot Rod is 
not exactly someone I want to watch my two-year-old son."

Cliffjumper motioned for the door.  "Are you coming, or will you 
entertain everyone with your marital bliss for a few more hours?"

Spike nodded and headed after Cliffjumper.

"Honestly, Spike, one of these days I half-expect you to wind up 
being part of an Autobot."

"Yeah, like that's going to happen.  Me as a robot's head?"

They chuckled.

"Irate ten-foot robot here," snapped Cliffjumper.

They walked outside together.  Cliffjumper transformed, and they 
both stepped in as Spike took a large bite of his sandwich.  With 
a slight growling, Cliffjumper took off down the street.

"They'll be back," announced the waiter that had just served 
them.

"How are you so sure?" asked a patron.

"They didn't pay."

	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*

Blackarachnia, meanwhile, was exercising a needed skill for 
every Predacon leader.

"You are an IDIOT!" she bellowed at Tarantulas, smacking him in 
the head.  "No, I take that back.  That's an insult to idiots the 
world over.  You are WORSE than an idiot!  You send us back in 
time, and you don't even know how to GET US BACK?!?!?"

Tarantulas shrugged.  "I figured that we could get your past self 
to -"

"SHUT UP!" she screamed at him, kicking him in the face and 
knocking him over.  "If I want you to have a suggestion, I'LL 
PROGRAM IT INTO YOUR WORTHLESS BRAIN!"

She sat down.  "Sorry," she said.  "I just needed to get out some 
agression, and Waspinator is nowhere to be found."

Tarantulas nodded.  "Er... might I make a suggestion as to where 
we are?"

"Yes," she said.

"Well," he began, "upon our arrival, we landed on a long, asphalt-
paved horizontal surface.  This was the Earth equivalent of a 
road back in the 20th century.  Since cars weren't invented by 
humans until later on in the 20th century, we can assume we are 
fairly well along.

"However, when we first arrived, our assailants considered us to 
be the Decepticons, our ancestors.  The Autobots and 
Decepticons didn't arrive on Earth until 1,984 years after their 
common era began - or, as they would say, 1984.  This further 
puts us along the timeline.

"Furthermore, I noticed that among our assailants were a pair 
named Firecracker and Arcee.  Arcee traveled to Earth from 
Cybertron in 1992.  Firecracker transferred in 1995.  So that puts 
us at least that far along.

"But there's more.  When Manterror said that we were 
Predacons, the large white one - whom I recognized as Jetfire - 
referred to a Decepticon subgroup of the same name.  The 
Predacons, a quintocombiner team, transferred from Cybertron 
in early 1997.  So, I can say with relative certainty we are in the 
United States of America in the year 1997."

"United States of America?" asked Blackarachnia.

"Sort of a pre-United Countries of Earth thing.  It created the 
UCE," replied Tarantulas.

Blackarachnia nodded.  "Interesting," she said.  "But we will have 
to find a way back as soon as possible.  And I want to be back 
instants after we left.  Otherwise, Megatron will get suspicious."

*No more than he already is,* though Tarantulas.

	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*

The Atlantic Ocean is, on a cosmic scale, fairly lousy as far as 
water goes.  However, that is on a cosmic scale.  If you are not 
an omnipotent being, then it can seem quite large.

Especially so if you are dropped in it without warning.

Cybershark felt the water engulf him, and instantly, he reacted.  
He was a Maximal warrior, and therefore was able to fight 
anywhere, but water was his element.  He rocketed forward, 
grabbing Nightpounce and Stormcloud, then swimming to the 
surface.

Nearby, Orcanoch surfaced, holding B'Boom and Snarl, with 
Trailblazer on his shoulder.  "Good," said Cybershark.  "I'm going 
back down to get -"

He was cut short as Bandit swam to the surface, knife clenched 
in her teeth.  Spitting it out, she looked at the two suprised males.  
"What's this, then?" she asked.  "Haven't you ever seen a 
capable female before?"

Cybershark stammered.  "Well - it, ah, isn't that - well it is, but - 
what I mean is - that is to say - to put it bluntly - ah -"

Bandit shook her head.  "Masochists," she muttered.

Orcanoch regained his composure.  "Any idea how we're going to 
get to shore?"

"Not the slightest," replied Cybershark.  "I don't even know which 
way the shore is."

"Halt!" shouted a voice from behind them.  They turned to see a 
small blue and white jet skiff and a small blue and yellow 
hovercraft moving towards them, weapons trained at the 
Maximals.

"Topspin here," said the jetskiff.  "Of the Autobots.  You can 
either surrender now or surrender when you're smoking piles of 
scrap."

"While the latter is extremely unlikely," said Bandit, putting her 
hands behind her head, "I'll concede that the former sounds very 
attractive at the moment."

Topspin's radio crackled on.  "Have you got them?" asked 
Broadside.

"Yeah," replied Topspin.  "They weren't any fun, though.  They 
just up and surrendered.  How do you like that?"

"Just fine!" replied Broadside.  "I'll be by with the others to pick 
them up shortly."

Topspin turned to face the Maximals.  "Don't go anywhere, or 
we'll shoot."

"Where are we going to go?" asked Bandit sarcastically.  "We're 
in the middle of the ocean."

Topspin sighed and shifted a little.  "I'm bored too.  Could you 
just play along, for sanity's sake?"

"No," replied Bandit.  Topspin sighed and shifted again.

	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*

Broadside finally arrived, after what seemed like an eternity.  
"Finally!" said Topspin, transforming and flying up to the deck.  
"They were getting annoying."

Wheeljack aimed a group of tractor beams down towards the 
eight Maximals, uncermoniously bringing them up onto the deck.  
Stormcloud staggered to his feet, and was practically bowled 
over by the sight in front of him.

Standing there was a tall robot, easily three feet taller then the 
robots around him.  His paint sparkled beneath the bright 
afternoon sun.  Beneath his chest, a barely visible blue glow 
could be seen.

"I am Optimus Prime," he said to Stormcloud.  "Who the devil are 
you?"

Stormcloud didn't exactly have a response to that.  He did have a 
response, though.  "Optimus... Prime?  Is it really you?"

"Last time we checked," replied Jazz.

"Could you answer the question?" asked Prowl.

Stormcloud's jaw was practically touching the deck.  "Prowl too?  
Then... what year is it?"

"1997, by Earth reckoning," replied Optimus Prime.  "Why?"

Stormcloud did not reply to that.  "1997... then... the Predacons 
must have traveled... which would mean... and that would 
mean..."

Jazz grabbed Stormcloud's shoulder.  "Look, bro," he said 
calmly.  "I don't mean to seem like I'm ragging on you or nothing, 
but it would be nice if you could quit blowing wind and get down 
to brass tacks, seeing as how you popped up through a type of 
anamoly that we thought we cleared up already."

"Sorry," said Stormcloud apologeticly.  "But I'm from over three 
hundred years in the future.  You can understand how I'm just the 
slightest bit disoriented."

"Three... hundred... years...?" asked Jazz, agape.

"That's what I said," replied Stormcloud.

"Autobot or Decepticon?" growled Ironhide, now rather 
suspicious of the newcomer.

"Maximal," replied Stormcloud.

Ironhide raised an eyebrow.  "Ah've never heard of it," he said.

"Wait three hundred years," said Stormcloud, smirking slightly.  
His smirk disappeared.  "Err... if I'm here..."  He scratched his 
chin.  "You wouldn't happen to have seen others like us, would 
you?"

"Yep," said Ironhide.  "Led bah a female with breasts thaht make 
Dahlly Pahrton blush in inaduhquecy."

"Slag," muttered Stormcloud.

	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*

*It's amazing how many ways you can smash things.*

This was the only coherent thought that Ramjet could - or had 
bothered - to string together as he ripped through another Air 
Force jet.  Most of his other thoughts were along the same lines, 
but they were little more than pure emotions.

"Get away from here!" shouted a fighter pilot at the Decepticons 
as he strafed them ineffectively.  His reply was in the form of 
Starscream blasting his engines, making his plane blossom into 
a pillar of flame.  Much to his credit, he made no sound as he 
died.

"Sorry, little man," said Starscream, a malicous grin on his face 
as he blasted two more fighters.  "But we've got to donate this 
energy to our favorite charity - us!"

"You got that right!" screamed Terradive as he blasted at the 
plant.  Starscream liked the way the new four jets thought.  
Windrazor was unscrupulous, but loyal to Starscream and 
Megatron - the second of which Starscream could do without.  
Afterburner was cool and level-headed.  And Eagle Eye and 
Terradive were brute force with radar and a jet engine.

As Terradive lashed out at the oil rig workers, sending them 
scattering, he heard a loud buzzing behind him.  Turning, he saw 
a large wasp hovering behind him.  "Wazzzpinator and 
companions are going to steal energy.  Back off and we won't 
hurt you."

Terradive did the closest thing a plane can do to raise an 
eyebrow.  "Oh no!" he said in a mocking tone.  "There's a big 
insect behind me!"  Laughing, he rocketed towards Waspinator, 
powering his weapons.

Waspinator shrugged his front two legs.  "Don't say 
Wazzzpinator didn't warn you!" he said as he darted to one side.  
Terradive was shocked as his shots went astray of Waspinator.  
Turning, he prepared to fire again.

"Have fun in ocean!" said Waspinator as he stabbed his stinger 
into Terradive's back.  Terradive jerked forward, twisting in pain.  
Then, his thrusters suddenly cut out, and he plummeted down, 
exploding against the oil rig.

"Who are THEY?" asked Starscream, grabbing Terradive's 
memory module.  He didn't want to have to give Terradive a new 
backup.  Shoving the module into subspace, he aimed his null 
rays at Waspinator and fired in a cone around him.

A missile exploded in his back, and he spun around to see a 
black and gold female hovering there, launcher in hand.  
"Starscream," she hissed.  "I'm going to enjoy this the second 
time even more then the first."

"What are you babbling about?" he asked her, blasting in her 
general direction.  "I have never seen you before in my life."  He 
shot upwards and sprayed at her with laser fire.  She dove and 
twisted to one side.

"Not in your life, no," she replied, blasting at him again.  "In your 
death."

Blackarachnia's grin vaporized as laser blasts pounded into her 
back.  "Don't turn your back on someone who can teleport!" 
shouted Skywarp as he slammed into her with blast after blast.  
Screaming, she rolled away and slashed a claw at him.  It cut 
deep into him, and he fell into the oil rig as well.  He recoiled into 
the air from his collision, then he exploded into a ball of flame.

Starscream grabbed Skywarp's module as well.  This battle was 
not going well at all.  Two of his men were down already, and the 
attackers had only just been engaged.

Windrazor, meanwhile, was spinning furiously to avoid 
Terrorsaur's assault.  Transforming, he dropped in mid-air, 
drawing his laser.  Terrorsaur, unprepared for the sudden 
change, flew past Windrazor.  Aiming, Windrazor lanced out.

Terrorsaur transformed and rocketed upwards, away from 
Windrazor's beam.  Flipping his cannons onto his back, he 
blasted Windrazor.  The body never even hit the oil rig - it 
exploded in mid-air, shards of metal falling into the ocean.

Starscream grabbed the memory module and began to get 
worried.

"You like to ram things, eh?" said Bloodclot to Ramjet.  "You're 
my kind of guy!"  He transformed to robot mode and fired at 
Ramjet, who spun away from the missiles.  Twisting to face 
Bloodlcot, Ramjet rocketed towards him, prepared to cleave him 
in two.

Bloodclot stabbed him blade arms through Ramjet.  Ramjet cried 
out as he lost control of his systems.  Firmly gripping Ramjet, 
Bloodclot hurled him straight at a girder.  Ramjet's body was 
sheared in two as it hit the girder.

Starscream grabbed the module as it slung forward.  Four of his 
troops down.  He shoved the module into subspace and charged 
his null rays.

Eagle Eye and Afterburner lashed out with their weapons at 
Waspinator.  Waspinator transformed and flipped backwards, 
ending up behind the pair of Decepticons.  Loading his missile 
launcher, he blasted Eagle Eye into a fireball.

Afterburner transformed and grabbed the memory module.  
Bringing his rifle on-line, he blasted below Waspinator.  Laughing 
at the laugh of aim that seemed apparent, Waspinator rushed 
forward to slash Afterburner to ribbons.  He was cut short as 
Afterburner punched hole after hole into him.

"I never miss," he said.

Dirge's roaring engines reverberated in Terrorsaur's audio 
receptors.  Aiming his rifle, Terrorsaur blasted twice at Dirge, but 
missed.  Turning again, Dirge was shocked as his wing was 
shattered by the next blast, sending him tumbling downwards.  
Terrorsaur's next shot utterly oblitherated Dirge's body.

Thundercracker's sonic wave crashed into Terrorsaur, 
disorienting him.  Grabbing the module, Thundercracker grabbed 
Terrorsaur by the shoulders, then hurled him at the girders.  
Luckily for him, Terrorsaur only bounced and sank into the 
ocean.

"RETREAT!" shouted Starscream.  Thrust began to fly towards 
him, but Blackarachnia and Bloodclot destroyed his body.  
Starscream grabbed the module, and began to head off.  He did 
not have to wait long before Afterburner and Thundercracker 
were flying shotgun.  The trio of Decepticons shot off away from 
the battlefield.  (Well, it wasn't exactly a field, but you get the gist 
of it.)

"You saved us!" said an estatic rig worker, running towards 
Bloodclot.

"No, we just changed the leadership of the destroyers," replied 
Bloodclot, spearing the human on his blade arm.  The human 
convulsed once, then limply hung there.  Bloodclot glanced 
around.  "Anyone else want to do something stupid?"

The workers shook their heads frenetically.

"Good," said Blackarachnia.  "Now pump me some oil!"

The workers worked the machinery furiously, motivated by either 
awe or fear (probably a synergy of the both).

	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*

"Ah," said Perceptor, looking at the plans that Stormcloud had 
just drawn up.  "You realize, of course, that the plans are rather... 
ah... imaginative, to put it kindly."

Stormcloud grinned, then got up and headed out.  "Think about 
them.  Maybe someday you'll use them for something."

Perceptor looked over the plans.  "Autobot City... has a rather 
good ring to it..."

*He'll learn,* thought Stormcloud, walking down the halls of the 
Ark.  He still wasn't entirely sure about where he should go in the 
ship, but at least the layout bore enough of a resemblance to the 
Axalon to allow him easy movement.  He walked into the small 
room that he and the other Maximals had been given.  "Any 
progress on getting us back, Nightpounce?" asked Stormcloud.

The slender female shook her head.  "Not in the slightest way," 
she replied.  "I've analyzed the energy patterns, broken them 
down into formulas, illustrated them, and even tried rolling 
multicolored dice.  I don't have any idea how to get us back."

"Scratch two geniuses," replied Stormcloud, settling back into his 
recharging bed.  "If I had known it would be more than three 
hundred years until I got to go back to the Axalon..."

"Then what?" asked Nightpounce, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, I would've said good-bye to Vixen, at the very least."

Nighpounce looked at him quizzically.  "You really do care about 
her, don't you?"

"Immensely so."  He leaned back.  "Do you have any idea what 
that's like?"

"I used to," she replied.

He looked at her.  "Who was it?"

She swallowed nervously.  "It's unimportant," she said 
dismissively.

"I doubt that," said Stormcloud, "otherwise you'd tell me."

Nightpounce said nothing, but she was obviously shaken.

Stormcloud thought for a moment.  "It was Primus Trion, wasn't 
it?" he asked her.

She said nothing.

Walking over to her, Stormcloud put his hand on her shoulder.  
"It's all right," he said to her.  "I'm a friend."

She sank her head.  "Yes," she whispered.  "It was Primus 
Trion."

Raising her head again, she looked at Stormcloud.  "I first met 
him before he was leader of the Maximals.  He was ambitious, 
charismatic, romantic - I guess you could say he swept me right 
off of my feet.  We were completely inseperable.

"When Fortress Maximus left the Maximals, Trion took charge, 
keeping me nearby as his science officer.  Even then, he was still 
normal.  We were the command unit at that point, my tactics and 
his drive.

"But as time grew on, we became more and more... distant.  
When we went on this mission, I somewhat hoped to help us get 
back together.  Instead, it just deepened the rift between us.  
Until you killed him."