Hostile Territory

Written by: Okami

Chapter 1: Despair

~

All your insults and your curses

Make me feel like I'm not a person
And I feel like I am nothing

But you made me so do something

Lyrics: For You_Staind

~

Authors Note: I do not own Robots in Disguise. I do however own Alana and Suzuki, therefore they can not be used anywhere other than this fanfic without my permission.

Helpful Hints:

****** - Means a change in scenery, or from Autobots to Decepticons

~~~ - Means a change in point of view but the same scenery

* * - Indicates a comlink conversation

P.S.- This is a side fanfic so please don't get upset if it takes awhile for me to load another chapter. Enjoy and send in reviews, both good and bad. (I always like critics who give constructive criticism) J

******

The sun shone brightly down upon the land, brightening up the once shadowed desert. Cactuses grew from the rocky ground, gathering any liquid available to them. Tiny spiders and scorpions scampered among rocks and brush, avoiding the rays of the relentless sun.

X-Brawn sighed contently as the desert scenery passed him by. Being an Autobot took a lot out of the robot and sometimes he needed to get away from it all and enjoy himself, which is exactly what he planned to do.

~~~

Kelly hummed along with a song on the radio, glad to be getting away from civilization for a while. She was especially glad to get away from a particular blue sports car that seemed to have a serious mental problem. I wonder why that weird guy keeps talking to my sports car anyway, she wondered. Well, I don't need to worry about that right now since I'm not driving it. Turning up the volume to the radio, Kelly put some more pressure on the gas and continued on her peaceful drive; not really going anywhere in particular.

******

Skybyte chuckled to himself as he observed the factory below him. He crouched upon a large cliff overlooking an oil plant, a perfect place to gather energy for Gigatron. The oil plant seemed to sit on a stairway of stone. First was the cliff Skybyte was crouched on, below that was the oil plant, then there was another cliff.

"Yes. I will steal all the energy from this puny plant and then Gigatron will have to like me more than that Decepticon Scourge," the Predacon said aloud, grinning broadly.

"Uh…Skybyte? Who are you talking to?" Slapper asked, interrupting his commander's thoughts.

The Predacon leader seemed flustered for a moment before scolding Slapper, threatening to fire upon the latter if he asked any more stupid questions.

"All right, you all know the plan. Now, attack!" Skybyte ordered, jumping from the cliff and nearly tumbled down towards the oil plant.

DarkScream, Slapper, and GasSkunk looked at each other with confused expressions and sweat drops.

"What plan?" they asked each other.

GasSkunk shrugged and ran down the cliff side, his two companions trailing after him in their robot modes as well.

******

"Optimus! The Predacons are attacking an oil plant near Houston, Texas!" Tai's high-pitched voice echoed through the Autobot headquarters' corridors.

"Send the Autobot brothers; I'll join them as soon as I can," Prime commanded, turning from Teletran 1's main computer to take the spacebridge.

"Right. Autobot headquarters calling Autobot brothers, come in Autobot brothers. We have a battle protocol. Predacons are attacking an oil plant in Houston, Texas," the hologram called, pulling up the three Autobot's faces on a view screen.

"Ah, come on Tai. Can't someone else rasle them Preds this just once," the eldest Autobot brother complained, not pleased with having to fight on his 'vacation'.

"It is our responsibility to protect the humans and stop Gigatron from gathering energy," Prowl's tenor voice stated. "Therefore it is also our duty to do anything in our power to-"

"All right! All right! I'll meet you guys there! Just quite your yakin'," X-Brawn interrupted quickly, sighing mentally at his brother's police talk. Dropping Kelly off at a nearby trading post, he hastily sped off towards the Houston oil factory.

******

Smoke from burning buildings billowed into the air, blocking the sun and its light from the factory. Fire licked the large containers of oil, threatening to ignite the contents of the precise cylinders.

A rather large man covered his face with his sleeve as he ran, coughing violently from the smoke in his throat. He ran, or rather waddled, away from his office and the giant robots attacking it. Spotting a familiar dark green haired teenager, his brow furrowed in disgust.

"This is all your fault!" the man bellowed, raising a chunky fist at the girl. "You are always bringing me bad luck!"

The teenage girl of about 17 glared at the man, her ice-purple eyes flashing with anger. "This is not my fault and you know it!" she yelled back, dodging some falling pieces of metal. "You always blame me for everything that goes wrong!"

"That's because everything that is wrong deals with you!" the man countered, pausing to cough into his sleeve.

The female clenched her fists so tightly her knuckles turned white. "That's it! I've had with you and your attitude problem!" she roared. "You may be my uncle but that doesn't mean I have to take this from you!"

"If you leave now then consider yourself no longer a part of my family!" the man screamed.

"Good! I never liked your family anyway!" The girl turned on her heel and dashed away from her uncle and out of the burning plant.

"Wha-wait! Don't leave me! Alana!" He started after his niece when one of the oil barrels near him exploded, knocking him unconscious. When he regained consciousness, Alana was no where to be seen. Good riddance, he thought bitterly to himself. She was a pain in my ass ever since she arrived on my doorstep.

******

X-Brawn followed the coordinates given to him by Tai and soon came upon a burning factory. Three Predacons could be seen from outside the perimeter gates gathering oil barrels to power their base.

"This place is hotter than a bar-be-q in summer time," he said aloud to himself. "X-Brawn transform!" He dashed for the Preds with his gun drawn, shouting in the process,

"Halt varmints! Unhand those barrels of oil!"

The Predacons looked up, startled, and almost dropped a few oil canisters. Upon seeing only one Autobot standing in their way, grins spread across their robotic faces.

"Right Laser!" Slapper cried, tensing his right arm as the laser beam erupted from his shoulder.

"Left Laser!" GasSkunk hollered, follow Slapper only with his left arm.

"Center Laser!" DarkScream shouted, puffing out his chest to accentuate the blast.

X-Brawn attempted to dodge the blasts but received a blow to his chest plate by two of the attacks. He grunted, stumbled, then fired his own attack.

Unfortunately, he was off by a micrometer and ignited five oil barrels. The shock wave knocked all robots into the air and almost off the cliff beside the oil plant.

"Nice shot," DarkScream commented smugly, rising to his feet.

"You're almost as good as us," Slapper added, looking at the burning factory.

"Re-reach f-for the sk-sky," X-Brawn gasped, clutching an open wound on his arm. He attempted to raise his weapon for an attack, but the injury to his arm sparked and crackled, making his gun inaccessible.

Well, well. What have we here?" Skybyte snickered, flying over from the other side of the plant. Landing in front of a kneeling X-Brawn, he smirked down at the injured Autobot.

Come on guys, X-Brawn pleaded silently. Where are you?

"Say bye-bye X-Brawn," the Predacon second in command snickered, stepping back to join his comrades.

"Right Laser!"

"Center Laser!"

"Left Laser!"

"Tsunami Blaster!"

X-Brawn watched with wide optics as the four attacks flew at him. His energon level was nearly depleted and his circuits refused to respond, leaving him no choice but to take the blow head on. He cried out in pain as one of the lasers bit into his injured arm, slicing already tender circuits. The attack sent the Autobot flying backwards and over the cliff. The last thing X-Brawn remembered before going off line was a falling sensation then being plunged into ice-cold water.