A/N
This story is inspired by a set of comics written by antubis0 on Deviantart. As such, the baseline for the story is hers. The characters belong to Hasbro. I do not have her permission to write this, as I am not in possession of a Deviantart account, nor do I know anyone who does. If you do have one please, ask her for me...
If you haven't read her comics, this is the basics of the story: (SPOILER ALERT!)
Optimus Prime and Megatron's mother is being chased by hunters. To save her cubs lives, she hides her pups in a tree, and tells them to stay put.
Megatron becomes hungry so he leaves the safety of the hiding place, much to the dismay of his brother. When outside, Megatron comes across Shockwave, who was running away, after having murdered several wolves in Sentinel's pack... Shockwave convinces Megatron to join him, so he abandons his brother. Optimus is found by Sentinel, Ironhide and Ratchet and he joins their pack. Etc... There is a massive battle in which Sentinel gets 'killed' so Optimus becomes leader.
In the following comic 'Human Curse' we learn that sentinel survived that battle because he was found by N.E.S.T wildlife rescue. He returns to the his pack, and then betrays Optimus and 'kills' Ironhide. Etc.. There is another battle between Shockwave, Megatron and Optimus, during a forest fire. Sentinel gets killed. Optimus wins the battle and they all retreat because of said fire... It turns out that Ironhide also got rescued by N.E.S.T and in the final scene Ironhide and Ratchet are reunited. In a separate comic she did an 'Epilogue', depicting Ironhide's stay in the rescue centre. In the final scene of that Lennox and Epps are in front of a computer, looking at Ironhide's family tree.
This fic is basically me continuing where antubis0 left off so it's a fanfic of a fanfic.
"Normal speech"
''Speech when somebody is reciting it, for example when Ironhide tells a story.''
Thoughts
Location where the the story takes place, or POV.
Name of chapter
Chapter 1
N.E.S.T wildlife rescue centre, somewhere in Poland.
"William, are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Robert Epps asked pointing to a computer screen displaying Ironhide and the pup's family tree.
"What are you thinking?" Another man who was standing nearby answered. "Well do you think we could put a radio collar on Black?"
"I thought we were already going to do that, Rob."
"Well yeah" Epps said getting up "But that's not what I meant."
"What did you mean, then?"
Well, urm.. maybe a collar with a camera?"
"But we can't afford that!"
"Yes we can, if we call in the television networks!"
"Pardon me, Rob but what if they discover something bad?"
"Like what?"
"Well, I don't know, say the wolves are dangerous, say that when it gets out local farmers would want them culled, what would we do then?"
"I didn't think of that." Epps frowned. "Look, let's just focus on getting Black better, then we can think of the future."
Ironhide
He couldn't believe what he saw today, that human, Lennox, brought a pup to him, and it looked just like him and Ratch! He needed to see it again! But he still wasn't strong enough, the humans had been nice to him, but he had to get out.
Sentinel must have been one crazy wolf 'cos he told a load of lies the filthy, lying, mongrel! The humans had restrained him, but only because he fought back, they had hurt him, but it was just like his Ratchet liking a sore wound. They gave him a sedative, but only so he wouldn't feel the pain.
They fed him, and at first he was apprehensive of it, the carcass smelling old and rotten, but he spoke to the two grey wolves next door and he said he would never get out if he didn't build his strength up. So he ate it and soon got used to the weird flavour.
Ironhide had bandages right across his back end stretching from his shoulder, to his fur-less tail. He hated 'em but there was no way he could get them off, because he had a weird white cone thing on his head, preventing him from licking his wounds and it aggravated him.
At about four o'clock in the morning, he started growling, whining and scraping at the blasted thing to get it off. His activities woke up all the other animals, including the deer, who upon hearing a dire wolf scattered in panic, stampeding all around the building, waking up Lennox who came down to see what the brouhaha was about.
Seeing Black, as he had named him, trying to get his collar off, he approached the dire wolf and spoke softly to it:
"Black, I know you want to lick your wounds but, believe me that would only make them worse."
The wolf, stopped his whining, put his ears forward, and looked at the human with the most pitful expression he could manage.
"Black, stop that! You know I can't resist those puppy-eyes!"
With a resigned sigh and a muttered "Fine, you win." Lennox grabbed a stray piece of meat, slipped the latch and stepped inside the cage. You are mad, he thought, alone, inside a cage with a healthy more-than-capable-of-killing-you wolf the size of a bear!
He chucked the piece of meat to the side, then got to work, unclasping the white collar, then easing it off the wolve's head. The man was so concentrated that he didn't notice that the wolf wasn't eating, in fact Ironhide was staring at the man and as soon as the collar was off, he leaped at him, pinning him to the ground.
"William Lennox knew that there was no backing out of this, he was dead, he should've paid more attention to Black, but for some reason he trusted him.
Never, ever trust a wild animal! He scolded himself. Never! But it's too late now, I've already made my fatal mistake. Lennox cowered, resigning himself to his fate, he could feel the wolve's warm breath on his neck. Not long now,brace yourself...
But instead of the sicking crunch of his neck being broken, Lennox heard the wolf speak in a deep, slight English accent:
"Thank you, Human, Lennox I believe?"
The gob-smacked man nodded, totally confused.
"Good, when can these bandages be removed?"
"Er...as soon as your burns are healed, but that may take some time, and your..uh...fur might never grow back."
The wolf didn't look surprised at what the man had said, he just smiled? and replied:
"Who is that pup you brought me earlier today?"
"Err..." William was surprised, when he occasionally thought what the animals would say if they talked, he never imagined a question like that, but he replied anyway.
"We err..found him, in the forest, alone and weak and shivering. His mother's carcass was found a few meters away, covered in blood, leaking out from various wounds, there was blood littering the sight and some of it wasn't hers."
The wolf tilted his head in a silent question.
"There was another body present, a red, black and grey wolf, the one who escaped this rescue centre a few weeks ago."
The wolf's demeanour suddenly changed, it went from inquisitive to deadly. His tail went up, his ears plastered back and his mouth open wide in a terrifying snarl.
"Sentinel!"
"Whoa! Easy there, calm down. What's the matter?"
"Traitor!" The wolf snarled as he leapt off Lennox, and ran towards the corner of his cage in one smooth motion.
Lennox sat up, his gaze riveted to the beast shaking with anger barely a meter away. The wolf got his anger under control, then looked at Lennox softly uttering a question
"Was he dead?"
"Who, the wolf? Yes I believe so, are you alright?"
"No." the wolf replied silently, averting his gaze, then laying on his side with a pained "oof".
"Years ago, I lost my mate and pups in a forest-fire."
"I'm sorry for your loss." The man said, feeling guilty.
"I was devastated, so I left my pack, and kept vigil by their bodies. I have no idea how long I was there, but when Ratchet found me, I was weak and emaciated. It turned out he left our pack, not long after I had, and spent the last month looking for me. We had been best friends from birth, him and I. Little did I know, for him, I was more. He laid with me, and, after reliving our best times together, he admitted that he loved me."
Lennox' eyes went wide, but the old wolf continued as if he didn't notice.
"One thing lead to another, and I realised I loved him. He brought me back from the dead, gave me a reason to live, I suppose. He convinced me to hunt with him, so little by little, bit by bit, I regained my former splendour.
One day when Ratchet and I were stalking a herd of elk, we realised we weren't alone. So I, Ironhide the Fearless-"
"Ironhide? Is that your name?"
"Yes.
I, Ironhide the Fearless and Ratchet the Fierce, hunted the hunter. We ran up to it, tails held high, eyes blazing and ears back, ready for the ensuing fight. We pinned the intruder, and I was just about to start interrogating him when I was tackled to the ground by a big, red, black and grey wolf, snarling as he commanded me to back off. I wasn't having any of it, how dare he, a complete stranger, order me around! We were just about to fight each other, when I heard the pained whimper of my mate, Ratchet.
''Ironhide, stop, please! Don't do this, we can talk ourselves out of this...this situation. Listen to me, Ironhide please. I'm begging you...''
I heard him so I dropped to an inoffensive stance and waited for my opponent to do the same, then I spoke:
''Stranger, myself and my mate wish you no harm. We simply need to know why you were stalking us instead of the prey.''
''Grrrr, Then why attack Hound?!'' my opponent snarled.
''As I have already stated, we didn't mean him harm, we simply wanted to interrogate him.''
''Really, then tell me, Ironhide why are you being so formal?''the wolf said, how on earth did he know my name?
I didn't know why I was being formal, so I glanced at Ratchet searchingly and he angled his body in certain way that meant ''he. Prime.''
When I finally understood what Ratch meant, I was shocked: This wolf in front of me, who I tried to attack was a Prime?! Then, I had second thoughts-"
"Err...Ironhide?"
"Yes."
"If you don't mind me asking, what is a Prime?"
"A Prime, Mr Lennox, is like an alpha, but a bit..more?"
"What?"
"I don't know, in human terms probably our equivalent to royalty."
Lennox couldn't believe it, not only did wolves speak, but they were also intelligent enough have their own society. Of course he knew about alphas, omegas and betas, but he couldn't work out when Ironhide could have heard about human dynamics. So he asked it..no him, since it..he had feelings and emotions.
"Tell me more about your pack dynamics."
"Grr, I was coming to it, but you interrupted me!" the wolf growled, putting his ears back.
"Sorry."
"I was having second thoughts about respecting this Prime, after all he did attack me.
''Why were you stalking us?!'' I snarled at the Prime.
'''Well, I've been stalking you for some time actually, you've been trespassing on our territory for about a week, now. My pack needs strong, young hunters like you, as after the battle of the Primes, many wolves like yourselves were seriously injured, or killed.''
''You were involved in the battle of the Primes?!''
''Yes, in fact my father was the son of one of the original thirteen.''
''So, he got killed when the Fallen decided to take over the forest?''
''Yes. Unfortunately. When the thirteenth prime turned against his brothers wishes to share their territories with the grey wolve's.''
''Wasn't he going to kill them all, to make his territory bigger?''
''Yes but the other Primes wouldn't allow that, so they banished the thirteenth prime and he became forever know as the Fallen...''
''So how did the Fallen defeat your father and the other Primes?''
"Ironhide?" Lennox interrupted
"What?"
"Why did your demeanour change from threatening, to inquisitive?"
"Because, human I was a youngling, teenager if you wish. And, as such as soon as another wolf started telling a story, would revert back to being a pup."
Lennox nodded, gesturing for the wolf to continue.
...TBC...
A/N #2
This is my first ever fic and as such I apologise if the writing is a little bit shaky. I'm a very young writer so my vocabulary is not as advanced as I would like it to be. Also English isn't my first language so any feedback, even negative is welcomed. Updates will be slow going, with school and such, but if I leave this story for over a month, please PM me get me back on track. If you have any issues understanding this story, I very strongly recommend reading Before Beginning, Beginning, Bumblebee, Riverbank and Human Curse. Also the ''Epilogue'' that I mentioned which is in a folder called: ''Zwierzozwierza'' where you will also find all her drawing of the wolves, and more spin-off comics.