Rewritten in the Stars
By Onyxfang 2008
"Let the trails lead where they may. I will follow."
--Tigatron's personal mantra.
*
I'm back again I know we all missed me.
I'm so so sick
Can't handle it
Yeah I talk s***
Just deal with it.
So ill cash my cheques and place my bets
and hope ill always win
Even if I don't I'm f***** Because
I live a life of sin
But it's alright
I don't give a damn!
I don't play your rules I make my own
Tonight ill do what I want
Cuz I can
You know I'm rare
You stop and stare
You think I care
I don't !
You can try and try you can't be me !
~Pink, Cuz I Can
*
It has been said something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world. - Chaos Theory
***
There were seven stasis pods left in orbit when the Quantum Surge stuck, and it all but destroyed two of them. But hers crashed long before that, if the truth be told. During a meteoroid shower that pepper the Earth far from either base in the in what would one day be the southeast corner of Germany but was now just a far distant region of Pangaea in the midst of separation. Blissfully unconscious the silvery pod hurtled to the Earth like a comet, caught up in a mass of space debris which battered the protective shell as it streaked down out of orbit, gaining a fiery tail in the process.
It crashed down undetected into a world of murky swamps, steaming bayous, and petrified, gnarled tree forests, sinking into the muck until it vanished. Had it not been for the pod's resilient scanning program and a number of fossils preserved at the bottom of the muck, a key part of our story might well have ended here, but preserved in the mud were the remains of a Jurassic period genus of long-tailed pterosaurs. A mere seven inches of length from beak tip to the end of long tail stiffened with ligaments which ended in a diamond-shaped vane, this small predator had long sense breathed it's last, yet in the placement of it's final resting grounds, its preserved bones and impressions of soft wing and tail tissue gave the chance of new life.
The scanning probe sought through the mud and water, replicating and reforming the life within the pod. Green eyes opened to darkness and felt a surge of panic, for this new beast mode required breath, oxygen just as its basis had. The new beast warrior had been born prematurely buried alive, her life sustaining pod now threatening to become a coffin.
Then her breath started to come fast, horrified...using up what little air she has. Her sharp bestial talons clawed with no result as she tried to open the hatch against the weight of the mud. Not strong enough. Need to transform! In the confines of the pod it almost impossible, for a moment as her servos ground against one another, she was certain she would be stuck in an even more helpless half transformed state, but she was just small enough to shift into robot mode. There was little chance for relief as her armor settled into place. She pounded frantically on the sides, trying to scream but no sound came out. Her optics were wide, green like those of her beast mode, terrified. She continued pounding, banging on the inner lid mere inches from her face. Then strained against it, grunting with exertion as the seal opened a crack and murky, black as night water mixed with mud flooded in. She let out her last breath in a gasp as she realized she may have just brought about her end nanoclicks sooner than before.
Above the water which churned with bubbled being released, frogs croaked and alligators on the bank sides watched with cold reptilian eyes. Suddenly a hand burst out from below, then another hand, then a head and shoulders. She gasped for air, tilting her head back and letting out a shrill birdlike cry of terror and triumph before pulling herself up onto the grass, lying there panting. From the night's edge many eyes watched her, mostly predatory, though none sentient. She was utterly alone. She looked around at the dark forest, very fearfully, shivering.
***
Life is fickled, be you Maximal or Predacon. The spiders knew this perhaps better than any other bot in the Beast Wars, and well that should, for in a way they embodied it. Existence is an unseen spider web, glittering with possibilities like raindrops caught in the filaments. For each possibility there exists another word, another relative different from our own. They are shadowed pathways obscured in mist and we only discover what lies beyond the mist by making a choice. With this choice, we close off what might have been, what alternate persona we might have had, had we taken the opposite fork in the pathway, but there exists another who took that path in our stead and lived a different life for it. Seldom does one slip through the veil separating this reality from the next, and for those who have not seen it, they forever insist such things can never be, but for all their denials, these all these alternate universes and the personas of ourselves within do, indeed, exist…
For a moment he had fully considered getting on the platform. In fact, his processor had already set his exostruction in the motions of doing just that. Then he hesitated. And the universe in which he lived was altered for it.
Terrorsaur had never been a deep thinker. He was one for action, not planning, which most often resulted in him getting shot out of the sky despite his prevailing cowardess and early retreat instincts. But now he stopped, his optics dimming, because everything felt…off-kilter. As if something monumental had just occurred, though he couldn't put a finger on what exactly. He lapsed into a moment of contemplation, swaying slightly, Megatron's roaring for him to take his station seeming to come from another lifetime, another reality altogether. He wasn't simply being purposefully rebellious and defiant as usual, but it was more as if his feet were glued to the deckplates.
He stood frozen as moon which was not a moon rained down shooting stars of energy that passed through the shields and ship's hull, passed through him as if he did not even exist! ~Maybe I don't exist…not the me that used to…~ he thought in a vaguely dreamlike state, only offhandedly aware that a light, a power was suffusing his body, that the other three bots in the command center, Megatron, Waspinator and Scorponok, were all reacting with panic. Then he knew no more.
***
"My aching head…" Terrorsaur groaned as he came too, looking up at an odd angle at the command console. He was laying on his back, which was not an entirely comfortable position since his beast mode head folded back onto it and was not pressing up painfully, the sharp beak digging in. He rolled onto his side with a groan and moved to touch his helmeted head with one hand, then paused, because the hand that came up was not his own. Or at least, not the one he was used to with five perfectly formed black digits. This hand was bigger, bulkier with deep purple in color with metallic green claws, only two fingers, and a thumb. In fact his entire arm was bulkier. Looking down he found his exostructure's coloring hard changed remarkably, all the soft leathery beast mode sections replaced by shining impressive armor. His beast mode face now folded onto his chest whereas the discomfort he felt on his back was from upgraded jetpack. His legs were a deep onyx hue with golden yellow trim and talons.
Mystified as he was, Terrorsaur's thoughts were torn away from admiring his new transmetal form by the sputtering sounds of Waspinator as the insect pulled himself out of the CR Tank, dripping gleaming green fluid on the lower deck. "Terrorzaur? Whaaaat happened?" The wasp buzzed disorientedly.
He opened his mouth to reply but was cut short as Scorponok let out a despairing wail. Not yet trusting his new wings and jetpack, Terrorsaur clamored to his feet and located his hover pad, moving it near to where the Scorpion, in robot mode, crouched by the edge of the platform, overlooking the lava.
Like himself, Scorponok had undergone several changes. His armor, no longer a dull leathery gray, was now pitch black and reflected the flickering damaged lights. Bits of red accents, as bright as Terrorsaur's former beast mode, gleamed like wet organic blood , were visible on his claws, tail, (which seemed larger and more imposing) and face as well as hints of silver. Scorponok had never had much of a battle edge but his fellow Predacons, taking in his new form, had to admit he now looked like a form to be reckoned with.
At first Terrorsaur couldn't decide just what had the Second in Command's software in a snarl until he noticed the gouged grooves dug into the deck plating ending at the edge as if something had frantically been trying to sink claws or teeth into the steel before toppling over the edge into the inferno below. Suddenly it struck him that there was no bellowing voice ordering him to issue a damage report. Could it be…?
"Megatron iz destroyed?!" Waspinator buzzed in puzzlement and disbelief, voicing what all three Predacons were thinking.
"He fell…" Scorponok wheezed, obviously in shock, though his head snapped up and his now red optic band narrowed in fury when Terrorsaur let out a whoop of triumph.
"Wazzzpinator doezzz not believe it!"
"You better believe it, Bug-Breath! Megatron is melted down to a puddle of worthless.." Terrorsaur let out a squawk of surprise as Scorponok tackled him and slammed a massive claw into his face, almost denting it inward. The two transmetal Predacons struggled rolling precariously close to the edge of the deck as they traded blows and gritted out insults before Waspinator finally managed to pull Scorponok off. The transmetal scorpion clicked his claws rapidly, nearly frantically, on the verge of a panicked breakdown. His entire existence had been radically altered. If Terrorsaur had liked Scorponok at all, he might have felt sorry for him. But of course, he didn't.
"You idiot! Megatron is or leader, without him we're doomed!"
"WAS our leader, shell-head," he spat back, wipe a drop of mech-fluid from his lower lip,"Now *I'M* your leader!" The two Predacons stared at him in stunned silent before Scorponok could force his vocalize to work proper once more.
"You!?" Scorponok sputtered out in something like a scornful laugh, "Who in the Pit would follow you?!"
Considering his past failures, it was a fair question and might have faltered the dactyl's confidence some, had the others been there to echo it. But they weren't. Unperturbed, Terrorsaur glanced at Waspinator with a knowing smirk, "Let's put it to a vote, shall we? All in favor of our second in command assuming control, raise your hands...or claws..." Only Scorponok responded, glowering at Waspinator as he looked from one to the other and kept his hands at his sides. Terrorsaur snickered, "All in favor of ME assuming command?" He raised his own hand and after a moment of hesitation so did Waspinator, "SEE?"
"That's not even a fair vote. The spiders and Inferno aren't here…"
"You really want one of the spiders throwing in their bid for leader?" Terrorsaur shot back and he could tell by Scorponok's expression the idea was even less appealing than following the scarlet flyer. "I thought as much. However with yours, Inferno's and Waspinator's support they won't have much choice other than to accept me, now will they?"
Scorponok muttered darkly under his breath but if he were entirely realistic, Terrorsaur would likely gain support from Inferno with his smooth talking before Scorponok could, and he stood little chance against the ant for sheer power and brutality, transmetal armor aside. Anything was better than following Tarantulas or Blackarachnia…wasn't it?
"As Second in Command…" he started.
"Which you're not anymore," Terrorsaur cut him off, smirking gleefully as Scorponok's jaw almost hit the floor. But if there was one thing he had learned from Megatron, it was always choose a second in command who is both dumber than yourself and loyal to you. And there was only one bot in this entire dust ball that could truly be said to be loyal to Terrorsaur, the same one who had spent countless mega cycles recovering his pieces after Airazor had blasted from the sky upon her appearance in the Beast Wars, "Waspinator is the new Second in Command."
The wasp clapped his hands childishly and giggled as Scorponok's mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water. Though he was greatly enjoying the site of it, Terrorsaur turned his back on both of them and strolled self-importantly to the command chair, seating himself in it with a grand flourish, "Now, get me a damage report. I want to know what repairs are necessary when we return…"
"Return from where?!" Scorponok finally wheezed out, still not fully recovered from the shock of his demotion.
"The Maximal base, of course! With Optimus Primal gone we will retrieve our comrades, secure victory, and destroy the Maximals once and for all!"
To Be Continued…
***
Author's Note: Hey guys! Any input would be well appreciated and enjoyed. This is Onyxfang, AKA Onyx Night/ Laserbeak. I have previously written a beast wars series almost ten years ago now, starring my OC, Laserbeak or Lase, as she is fondly know to my friends, but to be blunt, looking back on it, it was sentimental slag of the worst sort with not nearly enough action and far, far too much mush. I'd like to think I've developed quite a bit as a writer since then.
The idea of making Terrorsaur leader came to me a while back because he has always been my favorite Predacon and because, if truth be told, I was very inspired by the amazing writing of two close friends, Taratron and Shockbox, who both have their own incredible series set during the Beast Wars.
The idea for an alternate universe created by a minute change is not a new on. If you have seen the episode, "Code of a Hero", the one that always makes me sob like a baby, you may recall that as the Predacons invade the valley in which the proto-humans are evolving, Rampage crushes a butterfly. Ray Bradbury, author of "Something Wicked This Way Comes", also wrote a short story "A Sound of Thunder", in which a time traveler whom journeys to the past on a safari to hunt dinosaurs inadvertently steps on a butterfly, thus dramatically altering the future of humanity. It is also reminiscent of the Butterfly Effect, a principle of chaos theory which holds that a single small change can eventually lead to vast changes.
My last note is concerning Laserbeak. She originally based off the repaint action figure of Terrorsaur (Lazorbeak), but over time she's become quite different and very much her own character. She has nothing to do with the ancient Decepticon, Laserbeak. Her beast mode has since been altered from a pterodactyl to a rhamphorhyncus which better suits her small size. She maintains her softness, but has developed a new edge with time to befit her place as a Predacon. As Taratron once said "Nice Predacon=Corpse". If you want to use her in art or fan fiction please ask my permission and credit me with her creation. That's all for now!