A Trip Down Memory Junction

The Story of Da Rat

Part One in a Series

By:  Sapphire

"My great grandfather fought in da great war."

"As did mine."

"I am distantly related to Optimus Prime."

"I had a good childhood.  I miss Cybertron."

"I had a horrible childhood."

"Really, Rattrap?"

"Yeah.  I bet Choppuh Face had a bad childhood too."

"You assume correct, vermin."

"Did you have a good childhood, Big Bot?"

"Relatively.  I never stayed with my parents for long.  Barely two years.  I was always busy, always studying."

"Big R, did Rhinox ever tell you about his childhood?"

"Oh yeah.  Rhinox an' I are old friends."

"How did you meet?"

Rattrap sighed and glanced at the catbot.  Optimus, Dinobot, Cheetor and himself were sitting around a table in the Axalon.  A great battle had taken place a few days ago.  It was still hard to believe that Rhinox was dying, and that no one knew how to save him. The poor guy hardly ever left the base, and the one battle he did, he got a very bad hit.  It was enough to instantly send him into stasis lock, and his condition had been deteriorating ever since. He stood quietly now, seemingly peaceful, in the CR Chamber beside them.  The Maximals had suffered a major blow.  Talking about things was an agreed upon idea of releasing some of the anxiety they felt.  Optimus too had known Rhinox a while, but it was Rattrap who was his best friend.

"Well, pussy cat, in order for dat story to really make sense, I gotta talk about myself, an' trust me, you don't wanna hear about MY background."

Optimus smiled.  "I heard all about it, and I still hired you."

Rattrap snorted.  "Because, in spite of my shady past, you knew I was still da best for da job."

"True."

Dinobot rolled his eyes.

"You keep dem eyes still, choppuh face!"

"Aw, RT, please tell me?  We've got nothing else to do."

"Nuh-uh!  Why must *I* spill da beans on my life in front of all you?"

"We'll all do it then," Optimus suggested.

"You expect me to share my past with you Maximals?" Dinobot asked irritably.

"It can't hurt, Dinobot.  Maybe we could understand you better and stop being such a headache to you all the time."

Dinobot folded his arms and looked away.  "I'll think about it."

"I think it's a fair deal," Cheetor said.  "I'll share my past."

Rattrap rolled his eyes this time.  "Easy for you, kiddo!  As ya said, it was a happy one!"

"Now leave him be, Rattrap," Optimus cut in.  "Are you going to tell us your and Rhinox's story or what?"

Rattrap paused a moment.  Finally, he sighed wearily.

"All right, all right.  But Cheets, you ain't nevah gonna look at me da same again, ya know."

Cheetor shrugged.

Rattrap began his story.

"I've been around a while, so I got a lotta past ta get through.  So I'll start when I was a couple a years older dan you, Cheetor.   I was called AJ back den, an' I was livin' in Meta City.  Backstreets, like I was used to.  I'd been sharin' an apartment wid' a girlfriend.

"You slimy piece of slag!  This is all your fault!"

"Noltra, give it a rest, will ya?  You can only slap me SO many times."

Noltra slapped him again.  "Oooh," she mocked, "Don't worry Noltra.  I promise "nuthin' will happen to ya"  Just leave it to ME!"

AJ flinched as her hand connected with his face again.  He didn't believe it was right to hit femmes, but this was ridiculous.

"Would you STOP hittin' me?  It ain't achieving anythin'!"

"Look at me, AJ!  Look at me!" she sobbed.

He looked at her reluctantly.  She was very lime.

"Listen, it was YOU who got yerself covered in yellow metal dye.  I only tried ta help get it off!   I didn't mean for it to go...erm...green."

Noltra nearly had a spark-fit.  "You should never have experimented with that horrible liquid if you weren't sure it was gonna work!  You should have just given me some cash and I would have had the problem solved at the clinic.  But noooo, there are always "cheaper" ways with you, AJ!"

"Noltra!"

"You're cheap, you know that?  What kind of a boyfriend are you anyway?!"

He gave her the sweetest look he could muster.  "A carin' one?"

She slapped him again.  AJ decided it was time to leave.

He stood up from his fetal position on the bed.  "Look, babe, lime don't look so bad on ya!  An' it'll fade...eventually."

"Are you kidding me?" she shrieked.  "Lime clashes HORRIBLY with my purple torso plate!  I look so kitsch!"

AJ shrugged as he took his gun.  He never traveled without it.

"Dat's what ya get from goin' ta parties topless.  You shoulda stayed well clear of Bane's dye rooms.  Ya know what a slob he is!"

"You're a fine one to talk," she growled, eyeing the messy room.  "And I didn't GO there topless.  Everyone was shedding after a while.  It was hot."

AJ opened the door just as a bot walked past.

"AJ!  Close the door!  I'm TOPLESS!"

AJ sighed.  "Again?  You're da most liberal femme I know, Noltra.  I'm gettin' used ta seein' you like dis."

"What?  Green and half-naked?  I hate you!" she snapped and covered herself with her arms.

"Love ya too, baby," he said and then left.

"Sounds like you had a stable relationship," Optimus commented.

"It was more of a love-hate relationship.  Noltra was nice, but I ended up bein' more of a brother dan a boyfriend in da end.  She flirted wid' everyone an' so did I.  We were pretty much jus' roommates.  Which is why she didn't mind so much when I met Vix.  Now DAT was a femme who could---"

"Let's just get on with it," Dinobot interrupted.

"Right.  Well, as I walked down da street dat was da very first time I saw an advertisement for Deep Space Exploration.  Heh, all dose years ago."

"Really?  That IS a long time ago," Optimus remarked.

"Yep.  It prickled my interest a bit, but da idea of actually signin' up came years later.  Anyways, da story ain't far from takin' da Rhinox twist, so listen up."

AJ entered the pub and sank down onto his favourite stool.

"The usual, AJ?" the bartender asked.

"Yeah, da usual."

He let his head fall into his arms that were resting on the bartop.  He was so tired.

He must have dozed, because he was woken to see his drink already ready.

"Here you go, fella," the bartender said sympathetically.  AJ was usually in a good mood, so when he was tired, he had reason to be.

"Danks."

AJ stared down desolately at his drink.  He wasn't depressed, just weary.  Noltra had a point about money.  He needed to make some.  Fixing broken cybercars just wasn't cutting it.  They had machines to do that.  This was Cybertron, for Primus's sake!  It was only the desperately poor who called him in, and thus the pay was not much.

A flash of red caught his eye, and he groggily looked up.  And gaped.

"There she was.  Da new helper at da pub.  Vix - short for a real long name dat even *I* can't remember now.  Tall, red an' orange, bright purple optics, slim figure, low-cut torso plate.  Da works.  It was...erm, 'attraction' at first sight."

"Hey baby.  What's cookin'?"  AJ piped up.

The red femme glanced at him with a teasing smile.

"By the way you're starin' at me, I'd say you are.  Go take a cold shower, punk," she said lightly and smoothly.  She served a femmebot in front of her, to AJ's far right.

"Heh...  A femme wid' attitude.  I like dat."

"Seems a lot of you malebots who come in here do.  I've been here two days and have heard more pick-up lines than curse words," she replied as she busied herself about the counter.

"Bet I got some originals you would'na heard," he challenged.

She laughed briefly and cast him a glance.  "Really.  Try me."

AJ cleared his throat:  "Is it jus' me, or did someone turn an extra light on in dis room."

"Don't work in daytime, that line," she chuckled.

"All right, how about:  "Da Matrix must be a dull place without a spark like you."

"Cute," she said and after that ignored him.  But AJ was persistent and--

---"An' it wasn't long before my charm won her over."

"Charm?  What charm?" Dinobot snorted.

Rattrap chose to let the comment pass.

"So, Vix an' I hooked up.  I gave Noltra my last wages and we said our goodbyes on reasonably good terms.  She only slapped me twice, but at least she was a li'l more teal again, which was her natural colour.  I moved in wid' Vix and we had a great relationship.  It was through her I heard about Rhinox.

Vix sighed and rolled over.  "Where do you get the energy, AJ?  You work ALL day and still come home with enough strength to kiss me into total submission.  You're amazing."

"Aw, you're makin' me blush."

She rolled over again to look at him.  They were lying side by side in the gloom of an equally shabby apartment, but neither cared.  They were both slobs.

"I'm being serious.  You've got so much light in you.  Your energy is wasted fixing cyber cars.  Why don't you get a proper job?  Make some good money.  You've got plenty a skills."

AJ shrugged.  "It's hard ta get a job at da moment.  As it is da unemployment rate is soarin'.  Guess it comes from livin' on a planet where just about everythin' is done by machine."

Vix paused to think.  "Then why don't you get into a position where you can man them?  Or create parts for them?  You don't have to compete with them, that way."

He sighed.  "Maybe.  But how'm I gonna get inta a job like dat?  All dem positions are held by fancy over-qualified scientists an' technicians."

"I know someone who might be able to help," she offered.

"Oh?  Who?"

"My friend Mal.  He's a top scientist at Haxe.  He's always looking for new talent to employ and help him with his inventions.  You've got the mind for it, AJ.  You're smart and inventive."

He bit his lower lip.  "Hmm."

"I still got his contact number.  I used to know him when I lived with my parents at Haxe.  He's such a nice guy."

"Yeah, but isn't Haxe far from here?  I'd have ta move away."

She nodded softly.  "You would, but I guarantee you, it'll be worth it.  You're still young and you shouldn't have to put you future on hold because of some barmaid you met a few months ago."

He touched her face gently.  "Don't run yerself down, Vix.  You're much more dan a barmaid."

She smiled.  "I'm working so I can get enough money to pay for a course in ship-design.  It was Mal who got me a discount on it at Caine University.  I was planning on moving up there, eventually.  Let's face it, this isn't going to be a long-term relationship.  It was never meant to be.  We're going to go our separate ways eventually."

AJ frowned sadly.  "But I'm gonna miss you.  I ain't met nobody like you, who understands me."

She kissed him lightly and patted him on the arm.  "It's okay.  We can keep in touch.  Lemme call Mal tomorrow, see what he's got."

"You sure you're not jus' tryin' ta get rid of me?" he asked suspiciously, but he couldn't mask the playfulness in his tone.

"Of course not!" she laughed, and cuddled him through the night.

"Aw, she sounds like a nice girl, RT," Cheetor said.

"Yes, she does.  You didn't deserve her," Dinobot remarked with a snort.

"Yeah, I didn't.  She called Mal da next day an' sure enough he had a position open on demolition.  Wid' da civil war on in Melontrex, dere was a demand fer arms and bombs, an' I was da guy ta make 'em!"

"You feel proud of that?" Optimus asked a little sarcastically.

"Hey!  It weren't' me doin' da killin'!   I was jus' another hungry, down-an'-out guy who needed da cash.  Dat's how it works."

"Mmm," Optimus mused to himself.

"Anyway, two weeks later I was all packed an' ready ta go when somethin' happened dat very nearly stopped me from goin' an' ever meeting ol' Rhinox."

"Oh no, what?!" Cheetor gasped, obviously engrossed in the story.

"Lemme tell ya!"

"Oh no..."

AJ entered the apartment to those mournful words.  He immediately put his gun on the table and hurried over to the bedroom, where he found Vix sitting with her head in her hands.

"Vix!  What's da matter?"

She glanced up and gave him a look that made him instantly feel uneasy.  It was a mixture of pain and guilt and frustration.

"I..."

He sat down beside her on the bed and put an arm around her.

"You what?"

"SLAG!" she stood up suddenly and threw down a small apparatus he hadn't noticed she'd been holding.  It was a medical scanner.

His eyes widened in horror.

"Primus, Vix!  Are ya sick?"

She spun around to face him.  "Worse!  I'm pregnant!"

"Slag!"

"I knew you'd say that!" she cried out miserably.

AJ panicked.

"What?  Wid'...my kid?  No way...uh...."

"Of course with YOUR kid!  Unlike some scumbags, I don't sleep around when I have a partner!"

"Are you implyin' I'm a scumbag?" he shot back angrily.

"Are you implying I'm a slut?" she retorted.

They glared at each other intensely, before AJ finally averted his gaze.

"Slag....What we gonna do?"

"I don't know," she sighed and flopped back down onto the bed.

"It couldn't have happened at a worse time.  You're leaving tomorrow!"

"I know!  I know!" he said, flustered.

A silence.  Finally, he spoke.

"Well, I'd better call it off wid' Mal, den," he said unhappily.

She looked at him.  "What?  You're staying?" she asked in disbelief.

He frowned and glanced at her.  "Of course I'm stayin'.  I can't leave you alone wid' dis."  A sigh.  "Geez, I'm too young ta be a father."

"And I to be a mother," she replied and looked at her feet.

Neither said a word to each other for the next few megacycles.

"Matrix, Rattrap!  You never told me you had a child!" Optimus exclaimed.

"What a horrible thought," Dinobot said with a shudder.

"What did you do?" Cheetor asked.

Rattrap looked down at the table sadly.   

"Nuthin' really.  I called Rhinox, told him da sitch and prepared ta stay wid' Vix.  But she never had da kid.  Da spark died before it reached maturity.  Pretty common occurrence in dose days.  None of us were gettin' proper nourishment.  Her body was too weak."

"Oh...I'm sorry," Optimus said.

"Yeah," Rattrap said with a thoughtful frown.  "Funny thing was, I was sorry too.  I mean, I was relieved, o' course, but you know, I'd kinda geared myself up fer bein' a dad.  But anyway, after dat I said goodbye to Vix, wished 'er luck and moved ta Haxe City.  Da city o' science."

"So you must be the famous AJ that Vix raved about," Mal said as AJ entered his lab, blinking at all the strange technology and machines and at the cleanliness.  It was so white and sterile.

"Uh, yeah.  Dat's me."

"I'm sorry to hear about your child.  It happens to the best of parents."

AJ shrugged with a subdued smile.  "I don't think I'd have been anythin' along da lines of  'best', but thanks.  So, uh, do you mind explaining ta me what all dis stuff is?  I mean I got a pretty good know-how on techie stuff, but all dis....it's so advanced!"

Mal chuckled.  "It is pretty mind-boggling when you first see it.  But that's not what you'll be working with.  You have your very own lab next to mine, with all the machinery you need to make prototype explosives.  Let me show you the way.

AJ followed the large, green bot with the friendly face as he lumbered to the far end of the lab and opened up the door.  The lab next door was smaller, but it was very nice.  Lots of machinery AJ did recognize, although some of them were new upgrades he'd still need to get to know all over again.  He had long working hours, but the pay was good.  Not great, but that was because he was still a newbie in the labs.  As he proved himself, his salary would increase.

"It's nice!" AJ remarked as he checked out the various machines.  He chuckled.  "An' so clean!"

Mal smiled warmly.  "Make yourself at home here.  You'll be spending a lot of time in this place."

"I'm countin' on it," AJ murmured as he scrutinized an upgrade.

"Well, I'll just leave you be to get settled.  I'll be in the other lab if you need me."

"I liked da big guy immediately.  He was friendly, frank and no-nonsense.  My type a bot.  It wasn't long before we were good friends.  I had it nice.  I was just too stupid ta realize it.  I still got myself inta trouble, even in Haxe.  I befriended some gangsters who I made some extra bucks with by sellin' dem some of my prototypes.  Major illegal, if ya know what I mean."

Dinobot snorted.

"Dey got me into some bad slag, dat lot.  Lotsa illegal tradin' an' marketin' an' such.  Coupla robberies I helped 'em with.  Beat up a coupla kids who got in our way.  We was bad news.  An' what's worse, I got another girlfriend, an' she was high maintenance.  She wanted everythin', an' I did nearly everythin' ta keep her to myself.  I'm ashamed ta say she had me eatin' out da palm of her hand.  But man, she was sexy.  Totally venomous."

"You sure went through a range of girlfriends," Cheetor commented flatly.

Rattrap smirked.  "You're lookin' at a real ladies man, Cheets.  Da dames loved me."

Dinobot's head hit the table wearily.  "Vermin, you are too much."

"Did you SEE that diamond encrusted torso plate at the store, AJ?  Wasn't it just gorgeous!  Those rocks are imported all the way from Earth!"

"Hmm.  It was nice."

"Wouldn't I look stunning in it?" she asked, twirling and winking at him.

"Personally babe, I prefer you wid' no torso plate at all."

"Oh you rascal you!" she laughed and smacked his knee lightly.  She admired herself in the mirror.

"I want it, AJ.  Get it for me," she demanded casually.

"Now Trace, ya know I can't afford dat---"

"Since when did that become a problem for you?  Just steal it!  You said you could break into any building."

"Well, I did, but---"

She turned and faced him, pouting pitifully.  "Pleeeease, AJ.  For me?"

He stared at her unhappily, but eventually he gave in.

"Fine.  I'll do it."

She leapt onto his lap and threw her arms around his neck.

"I knew you would!  You're such a silly guy."  She kissed him passionately.

When he pulled away, he murmured:  "Yeah, real silly."

"So I buckled under da pressure and for one night of good fun, I got my behind bust da next day by da police when I tried ta break in.  Wasn't my fault, really.  I stupidly allowed Trace's dumb brother ta help.  He tripped a wire, an' da police were on us like a pack a wolves.  Man, I got beat up dat night.  An' da prison cells....  Dat was an even worse experience.  I won't go into details.  Let's jus say I was REAL happy when Trace managed to bail me out three days later.  

"You idiot!  How could you get caught!?  You know how much I had to borrow from my uncle to get you out?" Trace hissed as she walked with AJ down the street.

"Fer cryin' out loud, Trace!  It weren't me!  It was yer skidplate-head of a brother dat tripped da slaggin' wire!"

"Don't you talk about my brother like that!"

"But it's da truth!  He's as thick as they come!"

"Why you...!"

"An' dat's where our relationship abruptly ended.  Geez, but she was touchy over her sibling!"

"Probably just as well.  She sounds like bad news," Optimus said.

"She was!  I had her uncle breathin' down my neck fer a year!  But anyway, wid da end of our surprisingly long relationship, came a better future for me.  I'd been workin' ten stellar-cycles fer Haxe Laboratories when I developed a really good bomb which got me a good pay rise an' a recommendation ta da big guys.  At dat stage, Rhinox an' I were real close buddies.  We played poker together, occasionally had a drink at each other's places, but most of da time we chatted fer ages at da lab.  We kept da door open all da time.  Rhinox knew I'd been up to no good all along.  He's a wise bot.  But he never became obtrusive.  Sure, he lectured me once in a while dat what I was doin' was dumb, but he knew I'd figure dat out eventually.  On all da other occasions I got bust, good ol' Rhinox bailed me out.  When we got our assignment at Omicron, we were both glad to be goin' together.

"Omicron?  Isn't that where Rampage was born?" Cheetor queried.

Optimus sighed.  "It was, and it was also where I met Rattrap.  I'd known Rhinox beforehand, from the occasional meeting we had from time to time when our jobs required each other's services.   That was an assignment I'd rather forget.

"But one I must tell nonetheless for da story to reach its endin'," Rattrap said.

Dinobot really perked up at this part of the story.  He was fascinated to hear about the darker side of the so called "Good Guy" Maximals.

"Do you have any idea what dis whole thing is about?" AJ asked Rhinox during the flight to one of Cybertron's moons:  Omicron

Mal rubbed his temples.  "Not really.  They were pretty vague.  All I know is that we're going to have to do an analysis on an experiment there."

"An experiment?  What kinda experiment?" AJ wondered.

Mal sighed:  "A living one."

"We arrived at Omicron and were made ta sign a whole bunch of documents prohibiting us from tellin' anyone about what we were gonna do and what we were gonna see.  I was really curious, but at da same time, I felt really uneasy about da whole thing.  Sure, I was an inventor of sorts, an' a demolition expert, but surely dey didn't need a guy like me to analysis dis 'Living Experiment'.  And one thing I immediately noticed, was dat Omicron was real...empty."

The ship landed and after signing various forms and documents, they were assigned to their cold, undecorated rooms.  Just a recharge bed and a table for their things.  They had a schedule on the door telling them when they were needed.  They were required that night.

AJ met up with Mal in a kind of waiting area, outside of a 'top secret' room.  AJ was shifting on his feet nervously.

"Man, Mal!  Ya gotta know somethin'!  What is dis all about?  I thought Maximals didn't DO live experiments."

"So did I, until a stellar cycle ago."

AJ's eyes lit up with curiosity.  "What did ya find out then?"

Mal scratched the back of his head uncomfortably.  "Nothing much, other than the Maximals were trying to create a..."

AJ stared at him.  "A what?"

Mal leaned closer to AJ and whispered:  "A super warrior."

As if on cue, there was a chilling scream coming from the "top secret" room.  Mal and AJ exchanged nervous glances.

"Right, fellas," came a voice from behind.  They turned to see two bots.  One was orange and black with a Maximal insignia next to an "Omicron" symbol on his chest.  The other Rattrap came to know as Optimus Primal.

The black and orange bot spoke to them:  "I am Bolswic, and I'm in charge of you three.  To my right is Optimus Primal, who will be an observer."

"Hello, Optimus.  Good to see you again," Mal said with a weak smile.  Optimus flashed an equally uneasy smile back.

Bolswic continued:  "Now, I know you two are wondering what's going on with this place."

"Yeah, like why is it so empty?" AJ piped up with a frown.

"You might want to sit down.  I'm going to explain.  Optimus here has already heard."

"So we sat down and heard da story.  Not five days before, da "Experiment" known as Experiment X, had escaped his prison and leveled the entire colony.  Dat's why it was so empty.  It hadn't yet been leaked to da Press, so we was three of only a few bots who knew.  X had been captured within' twelve hours of his escape, but da damage had been done.  Da High Council called an urgent meeting da following day where it was decided X would be protoformed, put in a pod and stuck on board Optimus's Axalon.  Da following day, we was called.  A li'l while after dat, and dere we were, about to...'analyze' X."

"You see," Bolswic explained, "We need you, Dr. Mal, to study a scan of X's form and make some adjustments to a prototype machine that has been designed to put him in protoformial state.   Because he's so powerful and so resistant to the procedure, we need one special machine.  We're almost there, but something's missing, and seeing as you're the best we know of, we've called you in."

"So you want me to adjust the machine that will liquefy him?  Pleasant," Mal said, obviously displeased with the whole situation.

"An' me?" AJ asked, his arms folding and a baleful glare on his face.

"You, my friend, are going to rig a special bomb to the pod, that will implode it should there be an emergency on the flight."

"So much for that," Cheetor snorted with a mirthless smirk.

"Dere was nuthin' wrong wid' my bomb, kiddo.  Pop Op jus' didn't get 'round ta X's pod when we was crashin'.  Everythin' happened too fast."

"It's a mistake I still regret, believe me.  I could have detonated the bomb with the push of a button, but I was worried about the other pods, so I ejected them all at once."

"Not your first error," Dinobot remarked contemptuously.

Optimus did not let that get to him.  "It's true, I've made my fair share of mistakes, Dinobot, but I've done the best I can.  We're still alive, aren't we?"

"That is a stupid question," Dinobot replied coolly.

"Aaaaanyway, gettin' back ta my story..."

AJ and Mal were then led into the "top secret" room, which was not a secret to them anymore, although both wished it still was.  When they entered, they saw a big hall and in the center of it was Experiment X, chained to metal weights.  He was standing with his hands on his knees, panting, exhausted. 

"Man oh man, dat guy is HUGE!"

Mal looked at X grimly.  "He sure is."

They were quickly led away to another room.  The room was small with a one-way mirror looking into the hall, and a large screen with images of X's body scans displayed upon it.  At the back of the room, stretching from one side of it to the other, was a long table with X's pod on it.  AJ put his toolkit down beside the pod and brushed a hand over it.

"So big, and yet so small..."

Mal was listening to Bolswic.  "You've got your instructions and you have three days.  You will be paid a significant amount."

"Somehow that doesn't make me feel better," Mal muttered.

Bolswic turned to leave, but paused just before he left.

"And one more thing, Dr. Mal and his companion."  AJ turned and looked across at the bot, who had his back to them.

"This, experiment, is an insane murderer.  He must be detained.  He killed all but one member of this colony.  I want you both to do the best you can on this project.  It is a very important one."

With that, the shady Bolswic left, and Mal and AJ reluctantly got to work.  It wasn't that they didn't want to get rid of X, it was the whole idea of him that upset them both.  And of course, there was the acidic taste of disappointment in AJ's mouth.  He was for the first time in his life, ashamed of his faction.

"We did our thing in the time limit given to us.  Then da day came when we were to observe da 'sealing' of X in his new cell.  While we were watchin' da workers try and move him, somethin' scary happened."

"Mal...is it just me...or is dat worker lyin' broken on da floor summoning us?"

"GET OVER HERE AND HELP US!!"

Mal gave AJ a look.  "What do you think?"

The two of them hurried over to X, who had thrown just about everyone into the walls.  Mal took hold of one chain while AJ took the other.  X screamed and roared out in anger, but Mal was stronger than all the pathetic little worker bots who were basically just squire scientists.  With AJ's added pull, they managed to get X over to his pod.  By that stage more bots had been deployed to aid them, and after a long struggle and many sedatives, X collapsed into his pod.  It was sealed quickly after.

"I remember watching from the little room Rhinox and Rattrap had worked in.  I was observing something that sent a sickening regret into my spark.  It was so wrong, the whole idea of trying to clone Starscream's spark to create that tortured being.  I'm no fan of Rampage, but he was born into madness from the start," Optimus told Cheetor and Dinobot.

"It seems you Maximals indeed have a darker side," Dinobot couldn't resist commenting.

"It seems you're right," Optimus replied regretfully.

"I know I hated da whole thing," Rattrap sighed.  "When dat guy was sealed, we were sent home wid' a fair amount of cash and death threats if we ever told anyone.  Seein' a thing like X made me all too aware again of da growing malice of da Predacons on Cybertron.  It was that re-realization dat brought me ta askin' Mal for advice on a life-changin' thing."

AJ was silently working on a tiny bomb in Mal's lab, simply because he enjoyed the older bot's company, when he suddenly asked him something.

"Mal?  Do you think it'd be dumb ta sign up fer da 'Reserves'?"

Mal stopped what he was doing and turned around to face his little friend.

"The Reserves?  As in the Maximal Army Police Reserves?"

"Yeah."

He studied AJ's face intently.  "No, but it depends on your reasoning.  Why would you want to?  It's tough training."

AJ harrumphed.  "Can't be tougher dan my childhood.  I beat up more bots when I was three dan I could count.  I had to, to survive.  Well, da reason I ask is, I'm seriously beginning ta feel da growin' discontentment of da Preds.  I got a nasty feelin' a big scale revolt's on its way and, honestly?  Well, I wanna be prepared.  Properly."

Mal raised his eye ridge in surprise.  "You're worried about that?  I mean, obviously there's some tension between the Maximals and Predacons, but there always has been."

"No, it's more dan dat.  I can sense it.  Primus, Mal!  I'm feelin' insecure.  I wanna be able to defend myself if da time ever comes where dere's another war."

Rattrap was acutely aware of Dinobot's piercing gaze.  The Raptor had never paid such close attention to him before.  Rattrap found it rather unsettling, but continued.

"Well, if you really feel that way, AJ, then I say go for it.  Training of any kind is good.  You never know when you might put it to use."

AJ let out a sigh that hinted he'd been pondering this question for days, and to hear Mal give him the go ahead made him feel a lot more confident.

"Thanks, Mal.  Dat's all the advice I needed ta hear."

"Two weeks later I signed up fer da Reserves.  I was put through rigorous trainin', but nuthin' dat I couldn't handle.  I was soon assigned ta 'Special Forces', where I honed my ability as a sniper.  I was an excellent marksman.  I also brushed up on my street-fightin' and learnt some agility moves.  By da time I was finished, I was one tough cookie.  Even Mal said I had a new air  of 'gung-ho' about me."

"Which still hasn't left," Cheetor smirked.

"Yeah, but truth be told, I really did it fer a sense of security.  While I enjoyed da thrill of gunfights an' such, I still preferred ta watch dem dan be in da thick of 'em.  I was reluctant to fight unless da odds were in my favour, an' I knew I could win.  Otherwise, I tried to avoid confrontation."

"Which explains why I literally had to scream at you to help defend me in battle at the beginning of this war," Optimus reminded him.

"So what?  I was only lookin' out fer myself, which is somethin' I'd always done.  It's only since I've had you guys as my first real friends dat I've learnt about lookin' out fer others."

"Aw, I'm so touched, RT," Cheetor mocked good-humouredly.

"Ah, shuddup, an' lemme finish da story."

AJ walked into the lab with his usual arrogant swagger since he'd been at the academy.  He'd always had a slight swagger, but it had become more obvious lately.  Mal couldn't get over how funny it looked to see such a tiny little guy like AJ strut in like he was 007.  Still, he held back on commenting.  He had respect for AJ.  He was genuinely good at what he did.

"I've got some news for you," Mal spoke up as AJ passed him with only a grunt as a greeting.  They were so close now they didn't really greet each other anymore.  They didn't feel any need to.

AJ walked up to his little table, which was becoming a little lab of his own within Mal's lab.  He didn't admit it, but he liked to work alongside his friend.  It was a lonely business, otherwise.

"Hmm?"

Mal decided to cut to the chase.  "You remember Optimus and his ship, the 'Axalon'?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, as you know, its main function is an exploration ship.  Anyway, he's busy putting together a crew for one of his expeditions.  He's asked me to come with."

AJ swiveled around to face Mal, unable to hide his shock.  "And what did ya say?" he asked a little too quickly.

Mal felt a little bit of warmth touch his spark at seeing AJ's concern.  He continued:  "Well, I said yes.  I'm tired of working in this lab.  I want to travel and see new things."

"Oh," AJ said and looked down at his feet.  There was an expectant pause from Mal.  Finally, AJ looked up with a mirthless smile.  "Congratulations on da job offer, Big Green.  I'm...gonna miss you."

Mal chuckled.  "You won't have to if you say yes."

AJ gave him a confused look.  "Say yes to what?"

"Optimus has also asked that you be his chief technician.  He was impressed with your abilities at Omicron."

"Geez!" Aj exclaimed in a mixture of surprise and some delight.  "He was?"

Mal nodded with a warm smile.  "So what do you say?  You wanna 'bust this joint' and 'get outta here'?"

A slow-spreading smile came over AJ's face.  He looked Mal in the eyes and said:  "Oh, yeah."

*      *       *

"And dat was dat.  Rhinox an' I signed up fer da Axalon an' a few weeks later we were outta da lab an' inta space.  Da rest, as dey say, is history."

Cheetor relaxed in his chair with a sigh.  "Wow, what a story. You really do have a lotta history behind you."

Rattrap glanced at the CR chamber wistfully.  "Yeah, we do."

Optimus stretched and looked at Dinobot.

"Mind telling us if there really was an uprising being held?  Because truthfully, I suspected it too, which is why I left Cybertron when I did."

Dinobot folded his arms in defiance.  "Maybe there was, maybe there wasn't.  In any case, we both made decisions to leave the planet.  It seems our fates were inescapably intertwined."

"Yeah, this isn't a trip down memory lane, it's more like memory junction!" Cheetor exclaimed.

"You won't believe how I ended up joining the Axalon," he then added.

Optimus raised an eyebrow.  "You know, you were pretty vague about that when I interviewed you, Cheetor.  How did you end up being on my "Highly recommended" list?"

Cheetor looked at all three of them.  "You really wanna know?"

Rattrap snorted.  "Don't play dat game, kitty.  Whatever yer past is, it ain't got nuthin' on mine."

"Oh I wouldn't be so sure about that.  Do you guys wanna hear?" Cheetor asked.

Dinobot shrugged and Optimus smiled.  "Why not?  It's still touch and go whether Rhinox will pull through.  Either way I'm not resting until he's out of that chamber."

"Me neither," Rattrap added.

"I am a creature of the night.  I too will stay.  I must admit, hearing about your history gave me a new perspective on you, rodent.  Perhaps hearing Cheetor's will improve my thoughts on him."

"Hey!"  Cheetor exclaimed.

Dinobot couldn't hold back a grin.

Optimus sighed and got comfortable.  "Ok Cheetor, what's your story?"

Cheetor leaned closer into the table as if he were about to tell an amazing secret.

"Well, it all started in Xion City...."

Part Two coming soon