The following takes place after the Season 3 Episode Proving Grounds.

Beast Wars

Pathways

King Of The Jungle

The Ark was quiet. Magma bubbled below as it always did, the price of bedding down in an active volcano, but more often than not ones sound wave receptors would adapt to filter it out, as if it were just static. Rattrap leaned back in his control chair starring smugly at an empty scanning grid, "Well, that's jus' Prime." He quipped to himself, chuckling feverishly for a few seconds before returning to rest. "A bot could just fall into to stasis lock wit' the lack a action around here lately."

Truth be told Megatron hadn't stirred from his base in almost a stellar cycle, scouts had been racing here there and everywhere but for the spark of him Rattrap couldn't figure out why, which was exactly why the cat kid, Cheetor was out on a wide patrol. Rattrap's comm link buzzed and he answered promptly, "Maximal base, bed, oil bath and a warm Recovery chamber all under one roof, how can I help?"

"Funny guy." the cat bot answered, "I got nothing from grid alpha to my current position, you got anything on the base scanners?" He asked.

Rattrap sighed, for all the good Cheetor did he couldn't just let some nice cosy R&R slide by, "All quiet on all fronts." Rattrap summarised, "So how 'bout you get your rear in gear, get back here, so I can get back to the oil bath o' my dreams?"

"Negative." Cheetor responded, "I'm gonna sweep a few more grids and then you can get back to your oil bath, ya overgrown house mouse." Rattrap's face tightened into a sneer.

"We are what we are," The rodent transmetal mused, "An' I'm slaggin' tired, get!?" With that he cut the comm conversation short. It didn't do well for a single Maximal to be out alone for so long, just because a viper hadn't struck, didn't mean it wasn't coiled.

Across the prehistoric Earth's rugged landscape hurtled a single lithe figure, met fluid and bio-technical tissues tensing and relaxing in a set computerised sequence, optimising land speed. Cheetor's transmetal two form had allowed him even greater prowess in the field of searching and scouting, he was in effect a transmetal missile, but then again he was a formidable adversary. No doubt he was the Maximal's greatest weapon with the possible exception of Optimus Primal. "That overgrown door mouse," the cat groaned to himself, "I oughta pop 'im one soon as I get back to base."

Far above the atmosphere rippled, air roared around a falling projectile, the metal it was composed of glowed white hot from the strain of busting through Earth's stratosphere. Below, Cheetor craned his neck upward and growled, "Maximise!" He yelled, shifting instantaneously into his robot form. "Slag! That's gotta be a stasis pod, but how? They were all knocked down in the trans-warp explosion." Cheetor recalled the event well, Rhinox's scans had confirmed that all the Maximal protoforms had dropped out of orbit, it was possible that it had come from Cybertron, but no stasis pod could've drifted that far on its own.

"Cheetor to base." The cat said hurriedly as he activated his comm link, "There's somethin' comin' outta the sky! Looks like a stasis pod. Get Optimus out here quickly." He heard the somewhat reluctant rodent sigh over the connection.

"You crossed ya wires kitty cat? Dunno if you remember but Bolt was the last protoform to come droppin' outta the skies and there ain't no more Maxie pods up there." Rattrap groaned, "I think you need to log some sessions in the R-Chamber 'fore you go wandering off on some wild pod chase."

"Just do it!" Cheetor responded bitterly before shooting off toward the horizon.

Rattrap sighed yet again, rolling his chair back to the scanners, still nothing, "Looks like the kitty kiddy has some fused circuits or somethin'." He jeered, spinning one finger by the side of his head. Behind him he heard the sound of shifting metal and quickly span around. Silverbolt. "Gee, were your ears burnin' Bolt?" Rattrap asked.

"To what you're referring I have no idea, I just awoke and thought I could make myself useful." The fuzor replied, Rattrap cocked his head a little, he'd always found Bolt's altruistic and heroic nature somewhat of a puzzle, usually he put it down to circuit stress owing to the manner in which Bolt had arrived on Earth, but sometimes he sounded almost like an Autobot.

"Yeah well I guess you can bird-dog. Puss in boots says he saw a stasis pod droppin' down from the heavens an' I think he's gone loco, but he asked for back up and with the boss monkey tryin' to bring Depth Charge in its no go on that front, so you want to--?" To Rattrap's surprise Silverbolt was already heading for the exit. "Eh, yeah, sic 'em boy."

The stasis pod arched toward the planet below, where Cheetor dashed to intercept it. Within the pod internal systems came online, a mechanical voice buzzed within the pod's main chamber. "Anomaly traversed, unit Omicron Four detected below. WARNING: Unit Protoform X, detected, recommend caution." The pod dropped from the sky, plunging into the jungle below. The Maximal following halted at the jungle boarder, looked behind him, seeing figures on the horizon he darted into the mess of foliage.

Different shades of green zipped by as Cheetor reverted back into Beast Mode, his sensors fixed firmly on the pod's Maximal signature. Those two back there were most likely Waspinator and Inferno, "Can't let them get there first." Cheetor panted, re-establishing his lock on the pod he triggered the rocket fixed on his back.

"Oh, Waspinator sees cat bot, Waspinator slag cat bot."

Inferno hovered up at Waspinator's side, knocking down his weapon and causing the other Predacon to miss Cheetor by a mile. "Foolish drone." Inferno thundered, "I will divert the Maximal, you secure the pod for the royalty. Do not act until I get there, I cannot abide your bumbling any longer, go!" The ant based Pred flew off in pursuit of the lone Maximal.

"Waspinator never get to have any fun." The wasp moaned, "Waspinator slag kitty bot alone." Drawing his gun again the Predacon sighted along the barrel over Inferno's shoulder, "Waspinator get big reward."

"Alternatively." A bold voice bellowed from behind him, "You can get put in stasis lock and wake up in an R-Chamber. Silverbolt, Maximise!" The fuzor flashed into view, aiming both wing mounted missiles toward the insectoid transformer, both fired off, swiftly converging on their target and blowing it out of the sky. Some way ahead, Inferno heard the explosion and turned back to see Waspinator's flaming form crashing into Terra firma.

"Useless drone." The ant yelled, drawing his own side arm he fired a barrage of missiles toward Silverbolt, the fuzor ducked and weaved against the setting sun, his shining steel plating glistening in the fading light. But no flyer is invincible as is common knowledge and soon Silverbolt's prone form had joined that of his enemy upon the ground. Circuitry sparked in his torso, exposed by the explosion which had felled him, "Damage extensive." A voice buzzed inside his head, "Stasis lock imminent."

"Negative." Bolt replied, struggling to rise to his feet, "Override command. I must help my comrade." Spreading his wings he found that they would not carry him, so reverting to beast mode to commence the few automatic repairs that he could he limped on toward the waiting jungle.

Deep within the green mass, the second generation transmetal thundered onward, root and branch providing no obstacle until at last he came to a clearing, which had, it seemed, been only then blown out of the canopy and sure enough there at its epicentre... was an empty stasis pod. "What?" the cat panted, "Operational, but how? Optimus?" His eyes cast around wildly for any sign of a friendly face, not a thing stirred within the jungle, even the countless insects beneath his feet seemed to have fallen silent. And then all of a sudden the world flashed white and he was in the air, transforming into his robot mode he swiftly drew his weapon and upon landing swept the barrel about madly, praying and hoping for a target.

But there was nothing. But then, from the dense trees he heard a noise, a faint hum, his eyes locked to where it had come from as something appeared, as if materializing from out of the ether. Green and silver plating formed a majority of its body, a lizard like head formed its chest plate, red eyes glinting in the now almost faded light. In its right hand it held a coiled whip which appeared almost tongue like but which ran with what appeared to be an Energon current and on its other forearm there was a single smoking barrel.

"Well that's just great." Cheetor said to himself. The creature lunged forward, lashing at the young Maximal with its whip, Cheetor leapt over the weapon and shifted into beast mode, crashing on top of the other bot. "Who are you?" He demanded.

"I might ask you." The creature responded, its voice was masculine, somewhat gritty, but with a haunting quality, as if when it spoke it echoed all around, regardless of surroundings. "You're no transformer I've met, you're with X aren't you?"

"X?" Cheetor questioned, somewhat stunned and dumbstruck, "Protoform X? You mean Rampage?" The crab soldier had become infamous among the Maximal ranks, for all their combined power only Depth Charge truly had the ferocity to take Rampage on toe to toe. Even then the Maximals had gained few victories over the psychotic protoform.

"You do know him then." The stranger gasped, flipping Cheetor onto his back and pinning his front paws down, "Where is he? How many more of you are there here?"

Cheetor gasped as he was forcibly pinned, seeing no other option he decided he'd better buy some time 'til his reinforcements turned up. "If you mean Transformers then there are plenty, but there are seven of us Maximals. What's it to you?" The stranger's eyes widened.

"You're a Maximal? Then I did make it, this is Earth." Standing back up the stranger held out a hand which Cheetor gladly took to pull him to his feet, he observed they were about the same height, although Cheetor was of a wider build in robot mode, perhaps an advantage should things turn ugly again. "Sorry pussy cat, thought you were a Pred, but it looks like my scanners aren't what they used to be." As if on cue a voice buzzed out from his on board computer, "Maximal energy signal detected, subject has sustained critical damage, Predacon signature detected nearby."

"Looks like we'll have to pick this up later." Cheetor observed, "If my buds in trouble I gotta go." The stranger nodded and shifted into beast mode. A chameleon, that explained the weird invisibility at least. This form seemed half way between a basic beast mode and a transmetal, what appeared to be an armoured cable formed the creatures spine and ran down each of the four limbs, the tail's tip had a blade in place and the tongue within the beast's mouth buzzed with Energon, it also bore a small serrated horn on its nose which appeared to be more for decoration than attack.

"Let's go get your pal, puss." Cheetor rolled his eyes and allowed the other Maximal to hop on his back, he was surprisingly light, more so than what Cheetor had expected. Thinking it unimportant he galloped onward, taking the stranger with him, he didn't quite trust him yet, but if there was a Maximal in danger then he didn't have much of a choice. They broke swiftly from the tree line and the chameleon craned his neck down to whisper into Cheetor's ear, "I'm gonna get off here, see if whatever jumped your buddy's still around." The small weight was lifted from Cheetor's shoulders as the bot leapt off, casting his eyes forward the young Maximal saw a prone silver figure close by.

"Bolt! Aw man!" Pushing himself, Cheetor closed the gap in a few short moments, Bolt had lost conciousness, there was extensive damage but the fuzor wasn't quite stasis locked. "Who did this to you Bolt buddy?" Cheetor questioned, not expecting an answer, however the ground flashed beside him and he was again flung skyward, landing roughly on his back, he rolled his eyes and looked up only to find Inferno's gun trained on him, he reached for his own weapon but the Predacon merely tightened the grip on his own and wagged hi finger at Cheetor.

The cat bot sighed, but suddenly a glowing coil wrapped around the ant's wrist, pulling the cross-hairs away from the young Maximal. "Oo ont ant oo oo at." A voice sounded from nearby, standing not far away was the strange chameleon in plain view, not understanding what he had said Inferno cocked his head, the lizard bot sighed, "I aid.. uh, Aximize!" The tongue disconnected and the transformer swiftly shifted into his robot form, catching the Energon whip in his palm, "I said, you don't want to do that." Inferno tried to wretch his arm free, but the other Maximal simply detached his weapon and blew Inferno to the ground with his wrist blaster. "I warned you bug face!"

Shifting back to beast mode, Inferno kicked Waspinator with one of his legs, waking him and plunged his head down, digging his way out of the situation, the wasp quickly followed. "Scrap metal." The chameleon remarked.

"That was off the hook!" Cheetor exclaimed, "Make sure you slag 'im next time for me though. Uh, can you help me get Bolt here back to our base?"

"It'd be my pleasure." The stranger answered. Cheetor transformed and hoisted Bolt's prone figure between the two of them, looking across at the newcomer he realised something.

"Hey, I don't even know you're name."

As the trio travelled off into the sunset the chameleon starred off into the distance, watching the Sol star dip below the horizon he looked back and said, "Chamelecon."