5.Nov.08

Things Are Changing

          Author's note: my story starts the day before "Bad Spark", so, midway through season two. The Predacons have a new recruit, Spittor, Tigatron and Airazor are still alive and back with the Maximals, and the quantum surge did not knock the stasis pods out of orbit.

I do not own Beast Wars or any mentioned characters, whether they were a character in the show or a toy, other than Ravencranste.

Rating is pg-13 for some sexual references.

***

          It was a peaceful morning on Earth, or, as peaceful as it could be in the middle of the Beast Wars. In his new lair, Tarantulas' sensors went off. They were detecting a new stasis pod! Luckily for him, Tarantulas' sensors were much better than Megatron's or the Maximal's, so they wouldn't know about the pod for another couple of megacycles. That was just enough time for him to turn the protoform inside into a Predacon, loyal to him, of course. "Beast mode!" he shouted as he transformed into a large transmetal tarantula. With that, he activated his motorcycle mode and sped off toward the pod.

***

          A megacycle later, at the Maximal base, their own sensors were alerting them to the pod's presence. Optimus Primal looked at the estimated coordinates and sighed. "Neutral territory" he said to himself. "It's gonna be a race".

          "Cheetor and Silverbolt, you're with me. Rhinox, Dinobot and Rattrap, man the base. Maximals, move out!" he shouted as he and Cheetor reverted to flight mode, and Silverbolt to beast mode, and they flew off towards the pod.

***

          Similar sensors were going off at the Predacon base. Megatron growled from his throne and pressed the base-wide intercom button. "All units, report to the control room, immediately"!

          Once they were all assembled, he said, "Inferno, Waspinator, with me to the pod. Blackarachnia, you, Quickstrike, and Spittor will man the base. Predacons, move out"! With that, Megatron reverted to flight mode, Inferno activated his thrusters, and Waspinator reverted to beast mode, and they flew for the pod.

***

          When Tarantulas got to the pod, he transformed to robot mode and cackled delightedly. Not a Maximal or Predacon anywhere in sight! So, he opened the pods computer and reprogrammed it to be a fuzor. Then he pulled two cages from a storage compartment on his back. One held a Tasmanian devil, the other a raven. Tarantulas once again cackled. They were both such fierce creatures, and in his preferred color, black. He set them free and activated the pods scanners. The scanning sequence went off without a hitch. Now all that was left was to add his specially designed shell program.

          Tarantulas opened the hard drive and used a special pair of pliers to remove the Maximal shell program. He then prepared to place his in its place. Right when he was about to, missile fire hit the ground next to him, and he flew backwards. Tarantulas looked up and saw the insufferable fuzor, Silverbolt hovering above him. "Step away from that pod, Tarantulas" he said, "that protoform is Maximal property!" "You know what they say, fuzor: first come, first served!" followed by his signature cackle. He then started walking towards the pod, when someone said "get away from that pod, Tarantulas!" It was Optimus Primal.

          "Optimus Primal, MAXIMIZE!" "Cheetor, MAXIMIZE!" they both said as they landed on the ground with a thud. Optimus whipped out his pistol and started firing on Tarantulas. "Careful, Optimus" he said, "you might damage the pod!" "Well, I'm guessing you don't want that to happen, either, so step away from that pod!" "As will you, Primal, Yeeeeeeesssssssssssssssssssssss." Optimus turned around to see Megatron, with Waspinator and Inferno.

          Megatron charged up his weapon and said, "Step away from the pod, Primal, or say goodbye to your precious comrade". Optimus sighed and looked from the pod to Megatron. Then, with no warning whatsoever, he pulled out his pistol and shot Megatron. Megatron flew back and hit a tree. He stood up and said, "You'll regret that, Primal. Predacons, attack"! With that, the Predacons started firing on the Maximals.

          As their battle raged on, neither the Maximals nor the Predacons noticed the protoform waking up. However, Tarantulas did. He howled in rage knowing that it was not loyal to him. Then, the sleek form of its beast mode shot out of the pod. The new fuzor had a beast mode much like Silverbolt's, with a Tasmanian devil's body, the wings and tail feathers of a raven, with its front legs being Tasmanian devil legs, and raven's legs in back. Its wing and tail feathers were sleek and shined metallic black, like chrome, proof of its partial transmetalization. Seeing the fighting going on, she sighed. This would not do.

          "Ravencranste, transform!" she said in a voice as smooth as velvet, but with a dark resonation to it. Her transformation was elegant and swift. Her arms came up and out of her neck, with the Tasmanian devil's head on one arm, and connected to her beast mode wings. Her tail feathers slid up high on her back, just beneath her shoulders. Tail feathers slid down her arms until she had a row of feathers on each arm. Her beast mode shoulders became shoulder pads. Ravencranste's bird legs unlocked and slid farther down and her Tasmanian devil legs bent forward to meet them, taking her beast mode stomach with her. Her Tasmanian devil legs formed her upper legs, and her raven legs formed her lower legs.

          She was a primarily dark blue bot, with black where her beast mode parts were. Her face was dark blue, and her optics were black. They curved and slanted much like Blackarachnia's. Behind her slender mouth were sharp fangs. She had black feathers framing her head, and two hung down like earrings. Her arms and hands were dark blue. She had curved and pointed fingers, which were very sharp. Two silver claws extended over her hand from her wrist on each arm. On her left arm, between the two claws, was her Tasmanian devil head. She had a torso plate made of feathers that covered all but the bottom of her breasts, and on her belly were six deep, long red scars. She had boosters in her feet that allowed her to hover.

          She looked down at the fighting and sighed. It had to come to this. The silver claws on her left arm flipped back and locked into place. She pulled back the mouth on her Tasmanian devil head, revealing it as a cannon and loading it at the same time. Ravencranste aimed for the center of the battlefield, and fired.

***

          Optimus Primal fired his twin cannons at the Predacons furiously, firing hundreds of rounds a nanoclick. To his right, Cheetor fired lasers from his hands, which were made of his beast mode head, and to his left, Silverbolt fired feather missiles from his wing-mounted launchers. He didn't' notice the protoform emerging from the pod until she shot down at them. That's when he finally looked up.

          Ravencranste looked at all of them and said, "My name is Ravencranste. I will align myself to neither Maximal nor Predacon. Any attempt to do so by you will be ignored, and any troops you send to convert me will be sent back with severe damage. Goodbye". With that, she left.

          "We're goin' after her, right big bot?" "Yes Cheetor, but not yet. She needs some time." That's when Optimus' comlink crackled to life. "Hey transmonkey. This is Rattrap reportin'. We got ourselves anoda stasis pod comin' down in grid xalphi. You want I should go after it?" "That's okay, Rattrap. We're close enough to go ourselves." "You got it boss monkey."

***

          A half a megacycle later, a new stasis pod hissed to life. And from it, came… another Tasmanian devil?! "Welcome, my new Maximal comrade. I am Optimus Primal" Optimus said. "What's your name?" "The name's Snarl, Optimus. Mucho thanks for bringin' me online". "It's the least we could do. Welcome to the Maximals." 

***

          Later, at the Predacon base, Megatron was seething with anger over losing the pod. Then, he got an idea. "Quickstrike, Blackarachnia, report to me immediately." When they did, he said, "I want you two to track down this new femmebot and… how should I say… 'convince' her to join the Predacons". "Whatever you command, Megatron". "You got it, boss-bot." "Well then, get going. I'm putting my faith in you Blackarachnia. Don't let me down", he said. Then, as they were leaving, to himself, he said, "treacherous arachnid"."Insufferable saurian"

***

          At the Maximal base, Optimus had called in Airazor. "I want you to find her, and let her know that she's welcome here anytime, whether it's to join us or just to use the CR chamber. Understood?" "You got it". "Good. Now move out!"

***

          Blackarachnia and Quickstrike were walking through the forest to find Ravencranste. Blackarachnia was about to blow her slaggin' head off! That's when she got an idea. "Quickstrike, I think I saw something in the bushes over there. I'm sure a big, tuff bot like you wouldn't be afraid to go check it out." "Anything for you, sugarbot" he said dreamily. So, Quickstrike starting rummaging around in the bushes. "Well, dang sugarbot, I don't see nothing". "Oh, really?" she replied. "Cause you know what I see"? "What, sugarbot?" he asked as he started to turn towards her. Blackarachnia pulled out her missile launcher and loaded it. "Slagged fuzor". "Really? Where? Is it that tinhorn Silverbwaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!" he shouted as Blackarachnia fired on him. "That takes care of one annoyance" she said delightedly.

***

          Ravencranste was hunting joyfully. Her prey stopped to graze, so she leaped down and killed it with a swift bite to the neck. She was enjoying her meal when she smelled something. "Ravencranste, robot mode" she said. She transformed and loaded her cannon. Then she whipped around and aimed it at some bushes. "Come out little spider, wherever you are". So, Blackarachnia stepped out of the bushes in beast mode. "You got me. Blackarachnia, TERRORIZE!" she said as she transformed. "I told your leader that if he sent anyone after me, they'd be slagged. Now, what do you want"? "I'm not here to convert you. I'm just here to talk".

"Go ahead, spider. We'll see how well you can when I blow your head to slag." said a new bot. She was a femme bot, mostly black, with green optics and beast parts of a bird. She was holding her fist to Blackarachnia's head. Her wrist was dart-loaded.

          Ravencranste pointed her cannon at the new bot and said, "Put your weapon down. Nobody gets slagged. Who are you?" The femme bot reluctantly put her weapon down. "I'm Airazor. I'm with the Maximals. I'm not gonna convert you, I'm just here to offer you use of our CR chamber if you need it."

"Good to know. What do you want, spider"? "Look, fuzor, I figure, we're both in tight spots. I'm stuck with a group of dope-heads who don't know the front end of a gun from the back. I also can't turn my back without getting harassed. You, on the other hand, are stuck in the middle of a war that you want no part of. So, I propose an alliance. Between the three of us. We'll always have each other's backs. What do you think?" "Well", Ravencranste replied, "I like the idea. But first, I feel I should tell you my story." "Go ahead", replied Airazor, "I myself would like to know more about you".

          "Okay", Ravencranste said, "Here we go. When my protoform was brought online, it was as a Predacon. I was a Predacon. I lived a normal Predacon life, until I found a chance to make myself more powerful. I signed on as a test subject. One of many test subjects that Predacon scientists planned on using to try and replicate the mutant indestructible spark ofStarscream. They did tests on me for months, until; finally, they gave me a final one. They locked me in a room with a savage beast. They wanted to see how much damage I could take. When the beast gave me these", she said, indicating the ugly red scars on her belly. "I was dying. The scientists decided I was valuable enough to let live. So, they saved my life. After that, I went into invasive recon training. When I was done, they sent me in as one of many moles on Maximal exploration ships. I was put on yours. My mission was to replace the maximal protoform I was supposed to be transferred into with a Predacon one. That way, if I landed on a planet with energon, they could find me. After I got to know the other crew members, I realized how much better life would be as a Maximal. So, I never switched the protoforms. What I realized, though, is that the experiments done to me gave my spark healing powers. So, I was put into a Maximal protoform. Next thing I knew, I woke up here. That's where my story ends".

          "Interesting" Blackarachnia mused. "So, as to our alliance, are you in?" she asked as he but her hand in the middle of them. "I'm in" said Airazor, as she added her fist to Blackarachnia's. "As am I" replied Ravencranste. She also put her fist in. So, the only three femmebots in the Beast Wars stood in a circle and smiled over their newly formed alliance…