8.April.06

A/N: Yea, I've used part of the script here. Well, I liked it better than the actual episode, and it fitted  my storyline.
Disclaimer: Rust and Kittar and the things I've made up are mine. The others are not. It's as simple as that.:)

 Part seven

Deception 

By: Syntia13

Optimus opened his optics with a groan and checked the time. Four mega-cycles to the sunrise. Most of the crew should be recharging, except for an unlucky bot stuck on monitor duty, so what on Cybertron could be making this clamor?
By now he was quite used to being awoken up by all kind of strange noises, from malfunctioning intercoms to gunfire, but what he was hearing now was really too much! With a heavy sigh he went to investigate.

Following the disturbing sounds of metal screeching on metal, he arrived at the corridor leading to Med Bay and hesitated.

This was Kittar's territory. Did he REALLY want to know?

No.
But as a commander of this group, he had to check if one of his crew wasn't being torn to pieces. He bravely went on, to find Kittar dragging a stasis pod.

"Kittar? What are you doing?"

She glanced up at him and continued on her task. "We need more CRs."

They needed more CRs, so she was dragging the biggest stasis pod through the corridors in the middle of the night. There must have been some connection there, no doubt, but it was escaping him at the moment. With an internal sigh he prepared himself for a long and tiring interrogation. Pulling information out of the cat was sometimes harder than getting extra funds from the Science&Research Department.

"What does a pod have to do with CR-Chambers?"
"Parts."
*screech, screech,* protested the pod against the floor.

Ah.

"I see. But we may need the pods in the future, and we have two good chambers already."
Kittar snorted, opening Med Bay door and pulling the pod in. Optimus followed.


It seemed like he wouldn't let her work in peace. Kittar rubbed her face impatiently. Did she have to explain EVERYTHING to them? They. Needed. More. CRs. What was complicated about it?
"You're getting damaged all the time. There's six of you. I can only do this much. We need more CRs."
"Kittar, the possibility that ALL of us will receive severe damage at the same time is negligible."
"But still exists. We really need more CRs," she repeated patiently, waiting for the universe to click into the shape she'd liked. It usually worked.

And that was it. At the point when she was putting on the 'I can wait forever' expression, there was absolutely no way of getting through to her. Optimus gave up. She did have a point, after all. Though he'd have to ask Rhinox about the technical side of it.

And that reminded him...

It's been three days since the probe came and left, and Optimus still hadn't had a chance to speak with Rhinox in private. He didn't want it to look too official, so he waited in hope of catching the technician alone. Now was his chance.

He entered the control room to find it deserted, save for Rhinox, sitting in front of monitor. Finally. He opened his mouth to speak, and just then Rattrap came in, yawning and rubbing his neck.
"Does anyone know what da Pit dat noise was?"
"That would be Kittar on her quest for more equipment."

"Ah," Rattrap commented, losing interest immediately. He glanced at the 'spy's eyes', as he called it. "Anything interestin', Big Green?"

"They'd set up an energon refiner in a hold, and it looks like they're trying to improve it."

"I 'ave asked 'interestin',' Rhinox! Man, I'm bored! I'd never thought spying on Preds would be so dull." He slumped in front of his favorite computer, putting his feet up. "What would I give fer a nice little night club, wit' a proper roulette, an a poker tables, an a crowd of hot femmes!"

Somehow I know I will regret this, Optimus thought, but he spoke anyway. "I doubt any self-respecting femme would consider a casino a good place to start relationship."
"Who says 'bout relationship? An disrespectful is fine with me." He emphasized it with a telling grin. Optimus shook his head, trying to decide if he should be amused, irritated or just relieved that Cheetor wasn't here.
Rhinox rolled his optics. "I've told you thousands times you should change your approach, Rattrap."
"Hey, it's healthier dan yers, Big R!"

"You'll understand it one day." "Doubt it."
That was one of few subjects they could never agree upon. Not that they'd ever really argued about it. They were just demonstrating a mild irritation (Rattrap) and a mild disapproval (Rhinox).
Optimus watched them, wondering how to shoo the rat-bot away. The idea formed in his mind.
"If you're so desperate Rattrap, you can always ask Kittar out."
The small bot sputtered and straightened up in his chair.
"When da sun goes down an da galaxy explodes!"
Primal feigned an innocent amazement. "Why not?"
"Why NOT?!! Are ya kiddin'?"
Optimus made a thoughtful face. "Well, I know that she's sometimes difficult to deal with, but if you'd put your mind to it..."
"Optimus! Are ya-- no, I'm not gonna even think about it, I value my sanity!"
Optimus barely hide a smirk. It looked like it was working. He threw few more teasing remarks, and Rattrap fled, announcing that he was going to be sick.

Rhinox chuckled softly. "Not that I disapprove, but why did you do that, Optimus? You know he hates her."
Optimus was laughing as well, but got serious rather quickly.
For such a predacon-hater, he has a surprisingly... predaconish attitude...  
"I wanted to speak with you alone," he explained. "There's something that bothers me."
The technician raised his optic ridges. "What is it?"
"That day when the probe came, we've had a brief encounter with Rust, and he said something about--"
"Breglay. I know."
Ah. That wasn't exactly what he wanted to ask about, but now that it was mentioned...
"I take it Rattrap told you?" Rhinox nodded. "Well... What IS Breglay?"
"Rattrap's home colony."
"Could you be a little more specific?" "There's not much to tell, really. It used to be a Co-Social mining colony, now it's a... well, I don't know what it is, but it's ruled by Predacons."

A Co-Social. During the last century of war, when it got pretty obvious that the Maximals would win, Predacons, especially civilians, started to surrender, and someone smart pointed out that they could also work for the good guy’s cause. So most of POWs were sent to colonies and bases where they could work and live a pretty normal life amid the Maximals. On some of Co-Socs it worked pretty well, on some it didn't.
Optimus nodded thoughtfully. "Rust mentioned there were no Maximals on Breglay..." "There aren't. Not anymore." "I see..."

So. Rattrap was brought up in a mixed society, that slowly became a predacon society. That would make a lot of things about Rattrap more understandable. Not less annoying, but understandable.

"Thank you for telling me. Now, what else did I-- Ah, yes. Kittar is dismantling a stasis pod to build a CR. Is that possible?"

__________________________________________________________________________


Rhinox carefully peeked in the Med Bay. "Hallo Kittar. I've heard you're working on..." his voice trailed off. Kittar was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the tangle of gutted interiors of three pods. Some of components were scattered on the floor and a table, and behind her back stood something that most probably was the basis for two chambers' frames.
By the looks of it, she was constructing them with absolutely no blueprints, or even a sketch, adding parts as she went. Rhinox's systematic spark shuddered.
"Do you need help?" he asked weakly. The femme looked at him thoughtfully and nodded. She could do it alone, but with an assistant it would go faster. She tapped the side of a pod.
"Take out the LQ-D and extract the nanite-sequencer of it."
She had yet to master the mysteries of social interactions, Rhinox thought, going to the appointed task. Maybe he should try and teach her what the word 'please' meant...
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________


Megatron glanced at the surveillance monitors to make sure that the console he was typing on wasn't visible on them, and sent a text message to the bot who had volunteered to spy on the Maximals' movements.
--Report, Tarantulas-- 
 

Tarantulas blinked at the text that blocked his vision for the moment, then glanced at the screens and opened a private link to the sender.
"The Maximals are sitting at home, watching cable TV."

The purple bot scowled at the quiet, annoying voice in his audios.
--What about Tigatron?-- he typed.
**Hasn't show up so far. I can't follow him and watch the base.**

The spider smirked. Megatron believed he was sitting under a boulder near Axalon somewhere, useful but harmless, while he was in fact sitting in his lair, working on few of his own projects. He was truly a genius. The movement on the screen drew his attention.


**The cats have left Axalon.** After a moment he cackled. **And Dinobot follows them as a babysitter.**
--Where are they heading to?--

**East.**
--I'll have Rust watch their movements. Remain at your station. Megatron out.--
__________________________________________________________________________


"Find out about the cat," Rust murmured thoughtfully, peeking from under the leaves. "Couldn't he be a little more specific?"
Not that he was complaining. Spying on Maxis was fun, especially those three. First the cat and cheetah raced, then tha cheetah received a punch for winning, then they both received a reprimand for immature behavior, then the raptor detected some prey nearby, and the cheetah commented that THIS was truly immature. He then announced that he wouldn't participate in a massacre and departed.
The cat and the raptor went for a hunt. Rust sighed. He wouldn't mind some small pack hunting... But he couldn't very well join, could he? He had to content himself with watching.
Sometime later he sniffed at the sad remains of living beings that the two had left in their wake and helped himself with a mouthful or two, thinking of what to do next. So far he knew that the new Maxi was a femme with a female beast mode, was fast, didn't like to lose and liked to hunt, and was quite good at it.
But while the info was interesting for him, he was sure like that Pit it wouldn't satisfy Megatron. So, he decided--swallowing the last chunk of meat--it was time to do something irresponsible and stupid. Hehehe.

Kittar had found another spider flashlight and stopped to dissect it. Dinobot snarled that he wasn’t interested in wasting time, so she said she could find her way back home, and they parted. Kittar sat cross-legged with the arachnoid in hand and started chipping off its plating, straining her hearing for any signs of hostility from her surroundings.

Rust pricked his ears, and his nostrils quivered. Before he didn't have a chance to look at her properly, so now he was making up for it.
Slender figure, asymmetric face, fiery colors, and an attitude.
Nice, nice, nice, and nice.  
That would place her on ... hhmmhmmhhmm... the forth place on his 'wanted' list.
He sneaked closer, and she suddenly beastmoded, jumping to her feet and glaring in his direction. Rust blinked. Did she detect him? But if so, why did she go in defenseless mode? Weird…

She heard the rustle of leaves and beastmoded. She was feeling much safer, not to mention more comfortable, as a cat. She stared suspiciously at the bushes. A nose poked out of them, shortly followed by a wolf.

"Hi!"
And what was he grinning about? "What do you want?"
He tilted his head. "Megs wants know who you are."
Humph! Was it a disease or something? "My name is Kittar, I'm a cat, and a medic, and I came from the desert, and if I have to repeat it once more, I'll hurt someone!"
He chuckled. "My, you have a temper," he grinned again. "You wouldn't be interested joining us, would you?"

Honestly! She was not going to repeat herself! "Ask something original."
"Ha! OK. Are you single?"
"No."

"Slag. Would I have a chance if I killed him?"

Her fur bristled and tail started sweeping the grass.
"I guess that means 'no'. And guess attacking you won't help much either?"
Her tail was a blur now. But other than that, she was still as a statue. And his nose, quivering in search for a smell of fear, received only irritation. Lots and lots of irritation.
Rust shook in silent laugher. She was definitely peculiar! He moved her to the third place. "You should begin getting nervous right now," he suggested in as serious voice as he could master. "You're alone and I am three times bigger than you."

She just snorted. He would be veeeery sorry if he tried anything.
He leapt suddenly, covering about half the distance between them and stopped, looking at her. What? Was that supposed to scare her?

Rust couldn't help a small laugh, when she raised one paw and inspected her claws, acting as if he wasn't there. He trotted closer in almost dance-like manner. The cat looked at the sky with bored expression. Oh, come on! There were only three meters between them now, she had to do something! He growled experimentally. She yawned. All right, missy, that does it!

Leap, snap-- OW! OWowOWowowwOW!

*HISSSSSSSSSSS!!!!* 
With one blurry eye he found the source of the sound, sited on a branch above. Slag, that was fast! He licked at his bleeding nose, and risked opening the other eye. OW! He closed it hastily.
Note to self: the nose and the eyes are good points to distract an opponent for a few nano-kliks. It may not be serious, but it hurts.
Ok, so now he could terrorize and shoot her, but that would be so... pathetic. And he'd got what he came for anyway. He decided to save what little dignity he still had. "I'm not dating you," he stated sternly. "And thanks for the info." With that he trotted away. A contemptuous *humph* followed him.

__________________________________________________________________________


The base greeted him with drowned-out moans of tormented metal. He followed them out of curiosity, terrorizing and wincing at the brief flare of pain in his chestplate. The screech of metal ended with a loud clang and a passionate comment on Megatron's lineage. Rust sniggered.

*screech*

*screeeeeeech*

Terrorsaur cursed again. He was assigned to preparing the most dilapidated part of the ship for the big show; specifically, he was to make sure that the already existing crack would split the decks all the way down, and that meant removing everything that could prevent it, like reinforcement beams and supports. He'd been fighting with them for the whole past week, praying all the time for the ceiling not to collapse on his head all of a sudden. Now he was almost done, there were just a few more bolts he had to remove. The problem was, they didn't want to cooperate. He should have known, really. The rust was out to get him, in its every form.
"Move it, you slaggin--" Terrorsaur gritted, wrestling with a stubborn nut. He pushed on a wrench harder, and it slipped off the nut, slamming onto his other hand.

"RUSTED HEAP OF SCRAP!"

"Called me?"

"Gak!" Terror whirled and flattened himself against the wall, dropping the wrench. Rust caught it just above the ground, laughing at his private joke and other bot's reaction. "Why you guys keep doing this is beyond me," he stated with an innocent grin, eyeing the nut. "I'm not--" he grunted, loosening the thing and proceeding to unscrew it, "--that scary. Here." He passed the tool and the nut to Terror. "Try and not to hurt yourself." He noticed a dumbfounded expression on the white face, so with a grin he added "That's my job," just before he left.
"Just try, I can kick your sorry skid-plate anytime!" Terrorsaur called after him, when he was sure he wouldn't be heard.

__________________________________________________________________________

"You did what?"
"Asked her," the blue bot repeated with slightly amused voice. He touched gently the fresh scratch marks on his chestplate. "She wasn't too thrilled." He smiled disarmingly at Megatron expression. "We're at war. Whatever works, right?"
Megatron stared at him. He was a patient bot, he really was, but the kid better had something interesting to say... "Well?"
Rust started enumerating with his fingers. "Her name is Kittar, she is a medic, she throws daggers, and she said that she'd come from the desert, so I guess she might have followed mine and Terror's trail." 

Yes, that would make sense... Megatron pondered. "We would have noticed a falling pod, so she must be from one of pods that crashed with us, yess. That leaves three more--"

"Er, two," Rust corrected. "The guy that crashed next to me is dead." He grinned, perfectly aware how Megatron would interpret it. And sure enough, Megatron nodded approvingly. "I would appreciate it if you'd show the same enthusiasm with the other Maximals."
Rust grinned broadly. 
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________

One more bolt. Just - one - more - bolt.
Done! Terrorsaur subspaced the wrench and surveyed his handiwork. If there was anything else that could keep this wall together, he didn't want to know about it! He headed to the control room and almost walked on Waspinator.

"Get out of my way, bug," he growled, pushing the wasp-bot to the wall as he passed by. A nano-klik later a powerful punch to the back send him to the wall. He hissed in surprise. Waspinator fighting back? "Why you little--" he turned, his fist swishing through the air. It stuck in midway, in a hand that wasn't little at all.

"It's past 11:43," Rust announced with a grin as his fist landed on Terror's midtorso.
__________________________________________________________________________

"Hey! Look at that!"
Cheetor's exclamation drew Maximals' attention to the 'spy screens'. On one of them a ball of blows had just rolled into the range of sight. For a moment it looked like the brawl was over already, but then Terrorsaur squirmed and kicked backward, shoving the bigger bot off him.
"Ah, da joys of family life," Rattrap commented, watching the red and blue bot exchanging insults and punches.

"Oh-oh. They're in trouble!" Cheetor pointed to the corner of the screen, where a purple form was visible.

_________________________________________________________________________


Terrorsaur twisted his whole body, putting all the force he could master into a motion that plunged his elbow into a spot just below Rust's neck. The Wolf-bot fell to one knee with a choked grunt, and then jumped to his feet with a roar, and Terrorsaur was sent flying, with a nasty dent in his chest-plate. He hastily activated his jets and hovered, pressing hand to his chest. It felt as it was on fire, indicating damaged air intakes.
"Go to the Pit!" he screeched, retrieving his gun and firing.

Just as he pulled the trigger, a large hand grabbed his throat and the shot was lost somewhere on the ceiling.
"I do hope you have an explanation for your behavior, yess."

Terrorsaur wisely stayed still and silent. For once it wasn't him who was in worse trouble.
Rust with interest inspected the glowing laser launcher, surrounded by a multitude of sharp teeth. "We were just wrestling," he said with a careless, innocent smile.
"With an energy weapon?"

"He cheated."
"As is in the best Predacon traditions, yess," Megatron said with a mysterious half smile. "However, I suggest you two save your energy for the Maximals. Now go back to your duties."
_________________________________________________________________________

"An dat's it? My, I'm disappointed."
"This is unusual. I'm surprised he interfered, if he had no intention of punishing them." Dinobot stared at the screen, frowning. 

"Ah, evah since we 'ave a cable yer carryin' dat sour face around, Chopper-face. What's da matter? Are ya home-sick?"
"If you're going to quarrel again, go outside."
"I will most certainly not lower myself to the level of this rat, Optimus."
"Dat's just because ya'd have to climb up fer a mile, Dino-brain!"

"Out! Side!"
_________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________

It was raining again. With a sigh, Tarantulas decided he'd had to show up at the base, because no one would believe he was sitting under a rock in this weather. He redirected the signal from four arachnoids he'd placed around Axalon to a small screen-pad, and left his lair.
Back in the base, he found Megatron in one of the not-monitored rooms, and handed him the pad along with a smooth lie about installing the cameras while he was out, which earned him a reluctant 'good work'.

"How do you plan to feign our deaths? Even the Maximals won't fall for a simple explosion," he said just for the sake of being annoying. He was sure Megatron hadn't thought of it yet. To his disappointment, the tyrant smiled. "Scorponok is working on it, yess."

***

"So, what exactly are we here for, sarge?" Rust asked, looking around the CR room intrigued.
Waspinator buzzed. "Why Rust calling scorp-ponok sarge?" For a bot who was forcing him to say people's names correctly, Rust was definitely too frivolous with them himself!
The blue bot shrugged. "It's easier to say than Second-in-command. And I've always wanted to call someone sarge. It sounds cool."
"We're here for our parts," Scorponok interjected. "The tank's filters weren't cleaned since we've arrived. There should be lots of--" he was feeling for a catch on tank's side, just above the ground. He found it and opened it with a click, a filter slid out, and all three of them jumped back.

"EWWWWW!!!!"

***

**Megatron, ah, there, ah, there is, ah, problem**
Tarantulas kept the straight face. Barely, but he did. Megatron answered the call with a growl. "What is it, Scorponok?"
**Ah, the parts, ah, organics, ah, are, er, decomposed, ah, badly--**


"It STINKS in here, slaggit!" Rust howled desperately. He was pressing his hands to his lower chestplate, trying without much success to cut off the air income to his beast mode nose. He didn't even want to think what it would be like if he was breathing trough that nose at the moment... Argh! Why did he have to think of that? Staggering and fighting hard the wave of nausea, he ran.
Waspinator watched him go in amazement. The smell was bad, true, but not that bad... "Waspinator thinks Rust hysteric," he muttered quietly. "And Wazzpinator thinks tanks needs to be cleaned more often," he added louder. "And Waspinator thinkzz we need to sort the partzz."
"Well, stop thinking and do it!" Scorponok finally thought of shutting down the robotic smell sensors, and was able to function properly again. He tried to radio Rust, but he only got a bit hysterical **I ain't going back there!** and then the static. All further attempts on contacting him resulted with nothing.

_________________________________________________________________________

The wolf resurfaced after a solar-cycle, looking extremely sheepish and embarrassed. With ears down and tail between his legs he listened to a long reprimand Megatron prepared for him, meekly accepted being appointed to monitor duty for a week as a punishment, whined a bit about the smell, and went to the comm-room. He was greeted there by a scratchy voice asking sarcastically, if poor little puppy needed a hug. A nano-klik later Terrorsaur sped away with a singe and a screech. Apparently, the wolf bot was back to normal.
Er... as close to normal as was possible for him.

_________________________________________________________________________

"Yer dead now, Spots!"
"In your dreams! I'm a master of fists!"
"Ya have no chance wit' me, kiddo!"

Optimus looked at Rhinox exasperatedly. "Do you know of some way to make them stop?" "You could try shutting off the computer..."

Rattrap had finally finished his little upgrade, and introduced to the world 'Beast fighters'. The animation was lousy, as well as the graphics, but the characters were easily recognizable. Right now a mini-Megatron, led by Rattrap, was beating the slag out of Cheetor-driven mini-Dinobot.
"Mega bummer! You're cheating!" 
"Hah!"
_________________________________________________________________________

Two solar cycles.
Two entire mechy solar cycles.
Two entire mechy boring slaggin' solar cycles.
And no one came even near to the comm-room; maybe they'd sensed that Rust was considering soldering someone to the wall just to have some company in his misery.

*AUUUUUUUuuuuuuUUUUUUUUUuUUuuuuuUUU!!!*                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
BEEP **Cease this noise, Rust!**

"But I'm bored! Can I go and DO something?"

**Watch the monitors.**
"But they don't doooo anything!" he whined. "Nothing happens! Even in our base everything is quiet! I want some action!"
**Well then, next time don't abandon an appointed task. Megatron out** 
Rust howled.
_________________________________________________________________________


The tanks' filter had been cleaned, the mangled pieces of armor were separated from oozy organic parts, cleaned, disinfected and cleaned again. Tarantulas picked up a small fragment of blue armor and inspected it critically. "Well, it would look convincing if not for the fact that we only have scraps of armor."
Megatron politely asked, why was that a problem, and Tarantulas with a small cackle reminded him that the Maximals had a medic, and she might notice that there should be some organic parts...

Behind his back, Rust snorted. He only just got freed from the monitors, and was packed with a weeks' worth of wound aggression. "I can get you some organic parts," he said.
Tarantulas glanced at him over his shoulder. "Oh really?" he sneered.
"Yep," Rust confirmed and shot two of his spider legs off.

***

"That lousy wolf should be doing this," Terrorsaur muttered, carrying another box of 'evidence' to Tarantulas's lab. "Why is it me who gets the wo-- gah!"
He turned the corner and bumped into someone, eliciting a yelp of pain. He took a step back and looked the other bot up and down. Well, the laser, fists, and machine guns had obviously been at work.
"Don't tell me, you've walked into a door."
Rust gave him a LOOK. "That's right," he growled. "Here," he dropped something in a box the red bot was holding. "Should look convincing. Oh, wait..." he inspected his forearm, bearing the unmistakable teeth marks, and slammed it against the wall. Terrorsaur jumped, and gaped as Rust proceeded on tearing parts of his armor off. "And this should look even better." The furry gauntlet landed on top of other parts.
Terrorsaur found his voice. "You're mental!"
"Am not!" this time Rust looked really offended. He put his nose up high and stalked off. When he was out of Terror's sight, he clutched at his arm and produced a little 'ow, slag, hurts, slag, ow, ow, hurts, slag, ow, slag' dance. There were times when he really didn't know where to stop... But, slag it, the look on Terror's face was worth it. Whistling quietly, the young bot headed to the CR room.
_________________________________________________________________________


This was it. Everything was prepared. The bomb in between the two bases was planted, small charges with 'corpus delicti' placed, the machines set, and the actors in place. Megatron bent over the refiner.
Lights...
Camera...
Action!
_________________________________________________________________________


Rhinox watched with interest as a small energon crystal started transforming into a cube without a liquid state in between. This looked promising... up to the point when the crystal exploded.
Scorponok threw his claws up. "This is pointless, Megatron!"
Terrorsaur nodded. "I'm risking my neck mining energon, and you keep blowing it up!"

Cheetor abandoned his game. "Wow! The losers are getting hot-headed!"
Dinobot noticed a small movement of Megatron's hand and snarled contemptuously. "Megatron is calling for back-up," he said, pointing at the other screen, where Rust and Tarantulas abandoned whatever they were doing and hurried out of the room.

Rust rushed into the hold just as Terrorsaur, shortly followed by Waspinator, gave up the verbal arguments and resorted to good old violence. The wolf bot jumped in front of his leader and returned fire.
Rhinox held his breath. This just couldn't end well, this couldn't...
He heard Tarantulas's voice shouting a warning just a nano before a flash of blinding light.
The screen went static.
Few nano-kliks later, their base shook.

The Maximals looked at each other in stunned silence, and then rushed to the lift without a word.
_________________________________________________________________________

The rattle of a hoist's engine working on full capacity.
"Faster!"
A thud of something very heavy landing on the ground.
"How much time do we have?"
Clangs of retraced wires.
"Optimus can be here in half a mega-cycle, MOVE!"
A small explosion. The sound of hasty footsteps.
_________________________________________________________________________


The first thing the Maximals saw was a column of dark smoke raising above the predacon base.
The second was the base itself.
Its main part, previously poking at the sky, was now lying on the ground. The smoke was coming from the large crack, running through almost all decks of the ship.

"Wow. This place looks, like, totally slagged!" Cheetor was surveying damages in awe.
"It is."
"No life sings"

"No energy signatures"
Rhinox and Kittar subspaced their detectors and beastmoded.

"Can that be confirmed?" a little harsher than usual voice asked.
"Hey! Are ya tryin' to insult dem, smelly-scales?" Rattrap blurted, taking a defensive stance just in case.
But Dinobot's gaze was locked on the trashed ship, and strangely absent. He seemed not to even have heard the offensive words.

Optimus could only guess what was going on behind those reptilian eyes. The thought of it added a grim tone to his voice, when he spoke.
"There's only one way to make sure. Let's move."

 _________________________________________________________________________

"Still no signatures. But the shields are active."
All except Kittar maximized, looking around. The control room looked almost untouched, only in one corner the wall had gave way. Rattrap rummaged in there and pulled out a small, slightly bent bar. "All right! Let's pillage and plunder, mates!" he said cheerfully, striking a pose a'la Starwelder from "Space pirates". Rhinox couldn't help a small smile. There was just something irresistibly comical in Starwelder's lines being said in Rattrap's strong accent. The small bot loved that movie, and had used to quote it a lot, especially when he was in a good mood... or when he wanted to hide that he was feeling uneasy.

Optimus frowned at the rat's frivolity. Didn't he realize it wasn't time for stupid jokes?
"We're only here for space-drive parts. This is still a predacon ship, even if uninhabited. It still can be dangerous."

Rattrap made a face. "Well, ah, so what say we make a Predacon go first?" With two quick steps he was in front of Dinobot, pushing at his chestplate with the tip of his 'sabre'.

Obey me or die, worthless drone!

"Yes, that would be logical," Dinobot said, absentmindedly pushing the bar aside. "I will take point."

Rattrap gaped at the warrior's back. That wasn't in the script!
"Man, I'm pushin' all his hot buttons and I'm gettin' nada!" he complained quietly. "What's wit' him?"
Optimus gritted his teeth. Honestly... "Can't you figure it out?" he murmured, pushing past the small bot to follow the tall one.


Dinobot intended to go straight to the engine room, but the way there led near the hold the fight had taken place in, and somehow he turned right instead of left, and... He stopped dead in a doorway. After a few nanos he moved, letting Optimus in.

"Primus..." was all maximal leader had to say. Behind his back Rattrap swallowed. "Don't let the cats in here," he breathed to the green bot following him.

Too late. A slim, red body already slipped past them, and stopped in the middle of the room.

Kittar looked around, breathing very slowly. She moved to sniff at two spider legs, which, Optimus couldn't help noticing, were the biggest piece of... someone... that could be found in this room. He beat a hasty retreat, almost dragging away surprised Cheetor, before he could see any of this.
Though maybe he should see it... Maybe he should see how the real victory looks like... That was the part me and Leverus never talked about...


Rhinox did what he always did in the past. He turned a little mental switch, shutting emotions off. He really hoped Kittar knew this trick as well. And Dinobot too, he added grudgingly, watching the Predacon picking up a small piece of purple armor.
___________________________________________________________________________

Rattrap snuck through the corridors. Optimus was a bore. A little scavenging couldn't hurt...
"Something is wrong with the bodies," Kittar said behind his back, almost giving him a spark attack.
"Don't do dat!" he protested, turning to face her. "An da wrong thing about... 'da bodies'.... is dat dey aren't dere!"
The cat shook her head. "No. There are no organic parts, except for Tarantulas's legs. And almost no circuitry. Just pieces of armor. It's strange."
"Cat, ya need help. Really. Go an bother someone else wit yer sick interests."

She puffed and went away to find the other person who might listen, but, as it turned out, he wasn't in the mood.
"I want to be left alone, cat," he said before she even opened her mouth. So she just sat down at her hinds and watched raptor's diminishing form, as he slowly walked away in the gathering storm.
___________________________________________________________________________


"Are you sure there wasn't a better place?" the almost pleading tone in Terrorsaur's voice only increased the delight Tarantulas was feeling already. There was a better place. About two thousand better places. Just a few hundred meters behind the wall of this tiny crack was a whole network of wide caves. Watching everyone suffering, cramped and uncomfortable, under the doubtful protection of the widow's signature damping device made this entire affair worthwhile.

And, of course, there was an itsy-bitsy chance that the plan would work. Which would be welcomed, too.
___________________________________________________________________________


Something was missing. Rattrap straightened up and looked around. "Hey, ah, where's Chopper-face?"
"Left."
"Gah!" Rattrap jumped and turned. "Don't DO dat!" Then he registered what she had said. "Whaddaya mean, left?"
"Said he wanted to be left alone and left." Kittar nuzzled against a crate he was about to pick up, and jumped on top of it. Rattrap made a move to push her off, but though better of it. He was more than familiar with her claws by now.
"Even better," he murmured instead, and went to talk to Optimus.


"Yo, Scrape Ape, what are we gonna do with Dinobot?"
Optimus raised optic ridges. "Why should we do anything?"
Rattrap groaned inwardly. Here we go again...

Look, he helped us a bit, and you like him, and you think you know him. You think you can trust him. But you can't! He's a Pred! That didn't change just because he saved you from a few blasts when it was convenient for him! You don't know the Preds! You might have been through the war with them, but I have been through the peace! I've been shot inna back by the  kid next door, I've been ambushed by guys I'd played swirl-ball with only few years back! You can never trust them! The Preds are always PREDS! 

But he'd already said all that, the very first day, and it had no effect on their stupidly stubborn leader, so he just took a deep breath, put his hands together to stop them from curling into fists, and tried a slightly different approach. "Look... He joined us cause he knew we would win, but now that we did, what reason he have to hang out with us any longer?"
"His honor?" Optimus politely offered.

Ugh!
"Optimus! He's a soldier! With enemy gone, who do ya think he's gonna fight?"
Optimus looked away with a slight frown.
Rattrap, I'm sorry about your home colony, I know you have the right to be bitter, but we can't let the past to rule our lives.
"We will worry about this when the time comes. Now gather the others, we've got what we need."

___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________


Tarantulas was devouring something again. How often can one eat, for Primus' sake? And if he would at least kept it to himself, but no. The whole area knew that the spider was feasting, and at every crunch, and every munch, and smack and slurp and fllrrlurlulrllrrr Terrorsaur's half-organic stomach was turning inside out.

And then there was Waspinator, who had kept a broken tip of Terrorsaur's own wing, and was screech, screechy, screeeeech happily drawing with it on the rock wall.

And then there was Rust, lying sprawled on the ground, occupying a lot of the precious little space they had, and licking at his wounds, slurp, smack, slurp.  

And then there was Megatron, occupying even MORE space, and breathing, and with every swoosh of inhaled air the room Terrorsaur had was getting fractionally smaller, and he would have sworn it wasn't getting any bigger with the swish of exhalation.

And then there was--

drip, flop, drip, flop....
--something disgusting dripping on his wing!

"Stop slobbering on me!!!"
"I'm feasting!" Tarantulas snapped, turning a little to glance at him, pushing Waspinator in the process, which resulted in the wasp dropping his scribbler.
"Tarantulas fat enough already!" he exclaimed, annoyed, punching at spider's abdomen.

Tarantulas turned again, and, being in a good mood (the whole network of caverns!) he started an insult-push-insult war rather than poisoning the offender on the spot.

One of Terrorsaur's eye began to twitch, when shrill voices filled the air. Where had those two been when the voice-boxes were being given out? Where were they when there were processors? And why did they have to be so close? Why were the walls so close?

"I can't stand it anymore! Let me out!!!" He realized that he was screaming and flopping madly, bashing into the walls, when an impact with Megatron’s enormous head crashed him back to the ground.

Megatron wasn't the happiest of bots himself, and he would gladly tear someone to pieces at the moment, but, having his movements severely limited, he settled for using his head as a battering ram and putting all frustration he felt into forceful "NO ONE LEAVES!"

"I can bite his head off if you wish," came from beside him.
Rust lifted his head, and shot the dactyl bot a hateful and hungry look. "And tear his wings off, and gut him, and eat his fluid pump..."

Terrorsaur gulped.
'Forgetting' to lower his weapon settings seemed to be a good idea at the time. Only afterwards he realized that, since Waspinator was using his stinger, and Scorponok missiles, Rust knew perfectly well whom to thank for fusion blasts wounds. If his ranting was any indicator, he wasn't going to forget about it in a hurry.

"...munch on his liver, and paint the room with his energon, and use his spark as a flashlight!"

The last one caused everyone to stop and take a while to process the concept.
Interesting threat, Megatron decided.

Interesting idea, thought Tarantulas.

The rest of Predacons filed it under 'EWWW!!!'
___________________________________________________________________________


The repairs were almost finished, and Optimus called everybody in. Tigatron entered the ship uneasily. True, he'd spent few hours in it before, but now he was aware that he wouldn't be leaving it for at least fortnight, and after that he will be on a totally technological planet, of which he had no memories. This... this just didn't feel right. This planet, wild and pure, was his home. Yet he didn't truly belong here. Tigatron sighed. He would have to learn to live on his future home, he decided.
And just then Dinobot came in, only to bid them farewell, and tiger's thoughts spun again.

A soft sound of someone landing on the lowered lift caused Dinobot to turn around.
"Good hunting."

He nodded. "And to you too," he said walking away.
The red cat watched him go, a tip of her tail twitching. "Lift up," she finally said, rubbing at her muzzle.

In the control room she came nose to nose with a big surprised tiger. (Well, technically, it was nose to chest, due to the size difference, but you know what I mean.) She looked at him questioningly. He opened his mouth as if he was about to say something, but then he just turned and walked away, looking slightly embarrassed. Kittar shrugged. People were weird.  
___________________________________________________________________________


"Tarantulas, what is the situation?" Megatron's voice was sharper than he intended. He didn't mind the enclosed space all that much, and he could suffer his troops' proximity, but what he couldn't stand was the helplessness his beast mode inflicted of him. A tyrannosaur may be intimidating when all you can see is its open jaw approaching at high speed, but when it tries to manipulate a small object with those puny arms - weeeeell, it's simply hilarious. Especially if it tries to see this object.
That's why Tarantulas was the one watching the miniature screen-pad.
"They are all inside except for Dinobot. He'd left almost mega-cycle ago and hasn’t returned yet. Surely they won't leave without him?"
Megatron started to respond, and suddenly his eyes went wide. He wouldn't-- Of course he would! It would be just like him! And that meant...
"Predacons, prepare to attack!"
___________________________________________________________________________


A lone raptor traversed the plains. Looking at its trail from above, one would clearly see that it was leading straight to the Predacons' former base. And further on its path, was a narrow crack in the ground.

___________________________________________________________________________

"Well, lets do it."
Rhinox nodded and pushed the starter, holding his breath. He'd done what he could with the engines, but he wasn't a wonder-worker. There were about two hundred things that could go wrong...

___________________________________________________________________________


Dinobot snarled when he realized where he was going, but didn't change the course. There was no reason not to go there, after all. He raised his head and froze. For a moment he was sure he was hallucinating, but then Megatron spotted him as well, and shot.
Dinobot shook off the shock, and his hand jumped to his comlink.
"Dinobot to Maximal base!"
___________________________________________________________________________


The engines roared to life, creating strong electromagnetic field, which cut off the radio connection.
"What? What was that?" Cheetor looked at the radio.
"What is it, Cheetor?"
"I don't know, I thought I heard something... Ah, it's probably nothing."
___________________________________________________________________________

Dinobot growled, covering behind a rock. The empty plain suddenly swarmed with Predacons. Everyone was there, he had no chance beating them alone, and he couldn't contact the Maximals. They didn't even know! What if Megatron reached the ship before they took off?
A warrior never runs from battle.
But he had to warn them.
Making up his mind, Dinobot beastmoded and ran.
___________________________________________________________________________

The engines were charging slowly. Rattrap rubbed his hands. "Cybertron, I'm comin'!" He beamed at the nearest person, who happened to be Tigatron. "Man, yer gonna love dis place! I'll take ya to da best joints, I' tellin' ya, dere is dat sweet little hole in da wall, where ya'll meet--"

Rhinox glanced at them with a smile. Poor Tigatron would need a rescue team... The movement on the screen behind the rat's back drew his attention, and his smile suddenly vanished.
"Dinobot!"
Rattrap waved his hand dismissively. "Nah, he ain't gonna be dere."
Rhinox ignored him. "Optimus!" he shouted over his shoulder.


Dinobot was approaching the base, the sound of his own fluid pomp pounding in his ears. He was surprised that the Predacons hadn’t shot so far. He risked a glance back. Ah, Megatron probably ordered them in beast modes to avoid energon surges. But so close to the Axalon, they will surely--
A pain flared in his back, and he fell to the ground
--terrorize and start fighting.
With a pained growl, Dinobot transformed himself and rolled, shooting laser at his pursuers.  Above the sound of firepower, he heard the roar of charging engines. The Axalon was ready to launch. Good, he only needed to stop Megatron for a little while... He dimly heard the voice of Optimus shouting for cover fire. They were coming for him?
No, you fools! Take off and get out of here! 


Rust growled. He was way behind the others, and it looked like he would miss the battle and commandeering the ship, and it was all that lousy flyer's fault. Slag it! Well, he could at least play sniper... He terrorized, crouched and took aim. Optimus was flying, covering behind a shield, and he knew what the shields were for, but Cheetor didn't. With a snigger Rust sent a few shots at kid's exposed side.


Cheetor yelped and fell to his knees. The heavy shield slipped from his grasp, and leaned on his shoulder.

The interesting thing about battle shields is that they are designed to disperse energy and fusion shots, and to deflect lasers. When the shield is positioned vertically, laser goes back to the sender. But when volley of Megatron's shots narrowly missed Dinobot and hit Cheetor's shield, it was leaned at an angle of about 45.

It was a trick the ancient Egyptian architects would have been proud of.
The shots seared vertically up the lift shaft.
Tigatron, preparing to jump down managed to shield himself, laser shots rebounded again, and went straight into the shields' rack, and from there, they went everywhere.
"Duck!" Rattrap screamed an unnecessary warning, throwing himself to the floor. Out of the corner of his optic he saw Tigatron disappearing in the shaft. Stupid feline!

"Cheetor, Cheetor! Are you all right?"
Wincing, the young transformer looked up into a green, worried face. "Yea, I'm ready to pounce," he gasped, scrambling to his feet. "Lets go help Optimus."


Up in the control room the last of the blasts died away, and Rattrap got to his feet. "Dat was stupid," he murmured, coughing and waving the dust away. "Ain't nobody worth gettin' yer pelt punctured over. Right, ol' buddy?" There was no response. Rattrap turned. "Rhinox? RHINOX!" The green bot grunted, clutching at the shorting wound in his chest, and tried to smile reassuringly. "I'll survive..."
Rattrap didn't hear him. He didn't notice Kittar rushing to Rhinox's side either. All he saw were the dark alleys, and then just red. "DOSE SLAGGIN' PREDS! Dey ain't gettin' away wit' it dis time!"


His legs didn't want to support him. For the third time he tried to get up, and for the third time he collapsed. He was not going to die lying down! With a growl, Dinobot jerked himself up. "Give my regards to the Pit!" he heard a cackle behind his back, and the next nano he received a missile in the back. The explosion tossed him almost all the way to Axalon. He landed at someone's feet. That someone was spitting mad.
"Slag it! NOBODY picks on Chopper-face but ME!"


The red fog cleared slowly. Rattrap looked at his own blaster, at badly damaged Tarantulas at the other side of a front sight, and at Dinobot at his feet.
"Am I NUTS? What the heck am I doin'?"

"Dying, mouse!" Tarantulas was really pissed of. That rat had messed with him for the last time! He raised all his weapons--

--and got literally blown away, as a low rattle of chain gun sounded from the side.
"Rhi--?" Rattrap started, tuning, and then his jaw hit the ground.
"In!" Kittar shouted from above Rhinox's gun she was barely holding.
Well, he certainly wasn't going to argue about that. Rattrap grabbed Dinobot's neck and started dragging him to the lift. The lift, which, he noticed with alarm, wasn't touching the ground anymore. The Axalon was taking off!


"NO!" Megatron was furious. "Scorponok, make me an entrance!" he roared, running towards the raising ship. That was an old command, and Scorponok almost smiled sadly launching four missiles in a row. The explosion breached the hull, and Megatron leapt, grabbing for the edge of the hole.


Nice, boss! Rust grinned. But you'll be alone with three, no, four Maxis up there, we can't have that, can we... He took aim.


"Come back 'ere, ya stupidos! Da ship is leavin'!"
Kittar was the only one who followed the advice. She abandoned the chain gun and jumped on the lift. Once there, she immediately started welding Dinobot's wounds. Rattrap was about to snap something about workaholizm, when she suddenly screamed and fell off the platform. "Whatta--?" he looked down after her with wide optics, and the shot meant for him hit the ship instead. Slag! He flattened himself next to Dinobot, searching frantically for the shooter. There, on the plain, few flashes of energy. He adjusted his vision and growled. That slaggin' wolf! He started shooting in Predacon's direction and kept doing that until the lift pulled inside the ship.


Rhinox managed to reach the chair in front of the space drive console, and was clicking the switches when the lift opened. He glanced at it and smiled weakly. "You made it."
"Yea, can ya believe it? An' with Chopper-face, too!"
The mentioned bot moaned from the floor level. "You should have left me behind," he managed. Rattrap grabbed him with a growl. "Listen, pal, Optimus an da cats are still down dere, an it's yer fault, so show some decency an shut up!" He was so busy shaking the startled warrior, that he didn't hear the corridor door opening, or the footsteps, until something grabbed him from behind, almost crushing him. "I advise you to do the same, mouse!"

Megatron grinned a horrifying grin. He'd won. Of three Maximals present, two were almost scrapped, and the third was fighting for the air in his grasp. The victory was sweet. There was nothing that could spoil this moment... except the whine of a whirling chain gun. He turned around and looked into a pair of red optics, which were the only part of Rhinox's face visible above the barrel of his gun.

"Leave - him - ALONE!" the bot growled, pulling the trigger.

On the ground there was a ceasefire going at the moment. Optimus joined Cheetor and Tigatron and they formed a little shelter of their shields around wincing Kittar, while Scorponok ordered the Predacons to fall back. There was no point in continuing the fight anyway, now that everything was in Megatron's hands.


Megaton's hand closed around the lift's edge, and he roared in helpless fury. One moment he was standing victorious on the bridge of Maximals' ship, the next one of Rhinox's shots forced him into the lift, and Rattrap kindly activated it, dropping a little souvenir after him. It went off, shoving the Predacon over the platform and he barely managed to grab it. But his hold was slipping rapidly, and--

"Slag you all!" he roared, falling.

He barely missed the cliff’s edge and plummeted into the river. A few nanos later, something blue hit the water surface nearby.

Where is he? Where the slag is he? The radar' scrapped, &^%&*$ it all! Don't panic, think! A spark! Where is his spark? There!
Rust hurled himself through the water and made a grab. His fingers closed on a metal arm, and he pulled the limp body to the shore.

Active? Yes, still active. Phew...

"You're one lucky bastard, you know that?" he choked out. Slag, speaking hurt. Inhaling water definitely hadn't been a good idea. Shakily he reached for his comlink. "Sarge, I've found Megs. Floaters will be needed." He ended the transmission with their coordinates, blinked a few times, and passed out.
___________________________________________________________________________

Rattrap sighed. "Well, at least we're gettin-- what was dat?!"
If he were a human, Rhinox would have paled. "The space drive’s broke! The power lines must have been damaged somewhere!"
"Meanin'?" Rattrap asked a bit hysterically, and the next nano the floor escaped from under him and he answered the question himself. "We're goin' down! Do something!"


Four pairs of optics stared in horror at the falling ship. "They're gonna crash!"
Optimus jumped to the air. "I'll try to get them out!"


"We're all gonna dieeee!" Rattrap stared fixedly at the rapidly nearing rocks.
Rhinox closed his optics and tried to focus. There had to be something they could do...
"Rattrap! The front brakes! Activate it! And the stabilizers!"
"Wha-? Right!" The small bot jumped to the console and slammed his fist on the buttons. The ship jerked violently, as a maneuver jets came on line, pushing it up and to the side. Rattrap cursed and slammed his hands on the control pads. Slag, slag, slag, that was Cheetor's job, not his! How did it go? Fingers for thrusters, thumbs for the power?
Yes! Biting his lips, he focused on navigating the ship and stabilizing it. He almost jumped at the sudden jerk. "Wha-? What happened?" He looked at the monitors and blinked. "I've landed!"
"That was impressive," someone said weakly behind him. Rattrap glanced over his shoulder. When did he get here?
"We don't take hitchhikers, push off."
Optimus threw his head back and laughed with relief.  
___________________________________________________________________________

There were so many things he could have awoken to. He could have woken up dead. He could have woken up in a CR-tank. He could have woken up in CR-chamber. He could have even have woke up in a torture chamber. So why oh why did he have to wake up to this?
"... ya lead-headed overgrown iguana! It's yer fault I ain't kicking back to Cybertron right now!"
"I've done the planet a favor," he murmured, too tired to think of a proper insult. He tried to sit up.
"Don't move!" Kittar puffed, pushing him back. "I'm almost done."
"Ya are done? No, sista, he is done - he is SO done for I almost pity 'im!"
"Was that supposed to be a threat, mouse?"
"Ya bet, Lizard-lips! I'm gonna show ya exactly how velociraptors got extinct!"

Optimus shook his head and laughed. Home, trashed and battered, but still sweet, home...

___________________________________________________________________________