Prisoner Of Destiny

by Shebakoby

A Guardian Force awakens on Earth, and discovers that she is meant to protect someone with a very special destiny.

This is a story involving a character-a winged Mountain Lion-that I created nearly 2 years prior to the arrival of Transformers to our shores. However, she has since "developed" into a member of my favorite warrior robots-The Decepticons. This is how she "appears" in the Transformers World (in MY Universe, anyway).

Contains some elements of various Final Fantasy games (VI through IX).

Final Fantasy RPG games are property of SquareSoft and Square Publishing LLC. Transformers of course is property of Hasbro and whoever else. No copyright infringement is intended by usage.

Prisoner of Destiny

The Quintessons had lost Cybertron to their slaves many millions of years ago, but they had not forgotten that every day they were a step closer to gaining their revenge. A secret experiment that had begun on Cybertron-carried out by Mara-Al-Utha, who became a powerful sorcerer as a result of his discoveries-was still in progress. Mara-Al-Utha had discovered a way of changing an ordinary Autobot or Decepticon into an organic creature. The form that was chosen had to be carefully selected, and after much research and deliberation it had been decided that an infusion of DNA of a feline and an avian species-together with a mutagenic formula-would produce the best results. You see, at first the Quintessons had the idea of producing tireless slaves. Mara-Al-Utha believed that magic was the answer. But the plan, although unsuccessful in that regard, proved to be their undoing. The creatures they created were too powerful-and their descendants-often "ordinary" robots, also had unusual powers. It was this mistake that caused the Quintesson High Command to banish Mara-Al-Utha shortly before the exodus from Cybertron.

However, just before Megatron rose to power, the Quintessons had managed to find and capture one of the organic Transformers. She was only a cub at the time, and they conducted another experiment-an experiment they thought had failed. They had planned on raising her themselves, in order to use in the future against the Transformers. But, they made an error in an attempt to make her more powerful. The matter in her body went out of phase. Mara-Al-Utha was temporarily retrieved in order to fix the problem. He read a spell from an ancient text, causing her to vanish altogether. When questioned about what he had done, he simply stated that he had sent her to another place, another time, in another body...

Perceptor was outside Autobot H.Q., staring up at the sky in 'microscope' mode. He was letting Spike and Bumblebee use him like an observatory telescope. Suddenly, what appeared to be a spectacular meteor shower soon lit up the sky.

"That's strange," Perceptor commented, "This is not one of the scheduled meteor showers. It's not the right time for either the Perseids, or the Orionids..."

"Who cares, Perceptor! It's beautiful!" Spike interrupted.

The next night, there was an identical shower. In fact, there was a meteor shower every night that week. This was starting to concern Perceptor, who thought it was rather fishy. No Earth telescopes had picked up these 'meteors' prior to their arrival. Surely, something had to be wrong.

Later the next morning, Beachcomber came in at top speed. "Optimus! You'll never guess what I found!"

"What is it, Beachcomber?" Prime inquired.

"A meteorite-and it's SOLID CYBERTONIUM!" Beachcomber exclaimed.

Perceptor came out of his lab.

"Perceptor," Prime continued, "Beachcomber found a meteorite that is 100% Cybertonium."

"But Cybertonium isn't found in meteors!" Perceptor exclaimed.

A week after the last meteor bombardment, something strange was happening to a human-but only one human. A strange metamorphosis began, and when it was complete, there lay a large, tawny catlike creature with feathered wings-many times the size of a human and with the coloring, markings, and characteristic long, thick, heavy tail of a mountain lion. The transformation had exhausted her, but when she awoke, she quickly became aware of her new form. Her thoughts raced, her previous memories as a human were pushed aside; she searched her mind for any memory...any memory at all.

Then it came to her-her name.

"My name...my name is...Sheba..."

Perceptor discovered that Earth's atmosphere was practically flooded with Cybertonium. The significance of this was unknown at the time.

"Do you think the Decepticons are somehow responsible?" Spike had asked Prime.

"For some reason, I don't think so," Prime had told him, "For it would be as much to our advantage as to theirs."

Speaking of which, this sudden influx of Cybertonium had not gone unnoticed by Megatron. He thought maybe the Autobots were responsible-in order to avoid having to get any more Cybertonium from Cybertron. But there were more important matters to attend to. It was time to do some more raiding.

"Decepticons, prepare for attack!" he shouted, amid a chorus of "YAY!"s.

The Decepticons chose to attack a large Hydroelectric dam. They had nearly all the energon cubes they needed when the Autobots finally arrived. Skywarp, Thundercracker, and Starscream took to the air. Rumble and Frenzy activated their piledrivers and knocked a few Autobots into a crack in the earth.

"I'll get those flyin' garbage cans!" Ironhide fumed. He aimed his pistol at one of the jets. It was a lucky shot-it caught Starscream directly in the left afterburner.

"EEEEYIII!" Starscream hollered as he went down. On his way to the ground, laser blasts from two other Autobot weapons found their mark.

Sheba had been desperately avoiding human contact. It would never do to have a bunch of eager beaver Earth scientists trying to see what made her tick. Suddenly-at the exact moment Starscream hit the ground-Sheba felt a strange sensation. It was as if she was being pulled somewhere else. The scenery faded, and seconds later she found herself at the edge of the battlefield. Immediately she saw Starscream-wounded, and probably knocked out. Several Autobots were advancing towards him. Her instincts kicked in. She charged down the hillside like a golden rocket, spread her wings, and sailed into the air. From there, she executed a flawless power-dive, knocking over the Autobot that was closest to Starscream. She recovered with a back-flip-landing perfectly on all fours. She stared at the Autobot-an astonished Ironhide-and growled savagely.

"What is goin' on?" Ironhide exclaimed.

Something in Sheba 'clicked'-a lost battle command, perhaps-and she knew what to do. "THUNDARA!" A circle of green energy emanated from the ground around her, followed by several bluish-tinged white energy orbes that rose up and circled around her. Suddenly, Ironhide was struck by a powerful energy bolt from the sky.

"Hey! WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA?" Ironhide shouted.

The other Autobots gaped in surprise. They had never before seen a magic attack (with, of course, the exception of Spike, Warpath, and Hoist), and were even more shocked that an organic creature was attacking them. The Decepticons, too, were surprised. Everybody stopped fighting and stared. Sheba turned briefly towards the stricken Starscream.

"CURAGA!" The same green energy circle and blue-white energy orbs appeared, and then several bluish-purple energy balls appeared out of nowhere around Starscream, circled him, and were absorbed. He got up. Sheba then unleashed her next attack on the Autobots-"THUNDER STORM!"

Seconds later, green orbs with red centers appeared in a circle around her, and spun out in all directions. Starscream then felt the strange sensation of being moved to another place. A large, birdlike creature emerged from lightning that had suddenly appeared. It appeared to be attacking the Autobots with an electrical storm. Once it had completed its attack, it vanished. As it did so, Starscream became aware of what was going on.

Megatron was watching this battle with some interest. He was amazed at the power of this creature, but something in the back of his mind told him he knew what it was.

"Autobots, let's get out of here!" Optimus Prime called, "That creature is TOO STRONG!"

As the dumbfounded Decepticons watched in almost a catatonic state, preventing them from pursuing the Autobots, Starscream turned to look at the creature that had just saved his life. But she had mysteriously vanished, as suddenly as she had come.

The Decepticons returned to base-having managed to save most of the energon cubes-and already there was talk about the strange creature that had appeared. Thrust, Ramjet, Dirge, and Blitzwing had not been at the battle and were amazed as Thundercracker and Skywarp related the details.

"So, the Autobots had just shot down Starscream, when outta nowhere this organic cat-thing comes and body-slams Ironhide. I thought that an organic creature would be injured in a collision with an Autobot, but the impact didn't seem to faze it," Skywarp explained.

"HER," Megatron corrected as he walked by.

"What?" Skywarp wondered.

"That creature was a female," Megatron told him.

"Well, mighty Megatron, do you have any useful information, like what else that creature is?" Starscream remarked.

"She's a Decepticon."

"SAY WHAT?!" Thundercracker, Skywarp, and Starscream all shouted at once.

"But that's impossible!" Rumble stated, "That thing is ORGANIC!"

Spike and Bumblebee were hanging out inside Autobot Headquarters when Prime and the others returned.

"I'm calling a meeting," Prime told everyone, "I'll give everyone enough time to get here-this is very important."

Once all the Autobots were assembled, Optimus Prime addressed them with concern in his voice.

"Autobots," he began, "We have a new problem." Then he recounted the events of the last battle they'd had with the Decepticons. He went over to Teletraan 1 and put up some pictures on the screen that the Sky-spy had taken. It showed the strange creature, and it was apparently defending Starscream.

"But what on Earth is it?" Sparkplug asked.

"My worst fear," Optimus Prime said, "It is a Decepticon that can use Magic."

"THAT THING is a DECEPTICON?!" Spike exclaimed, "How is that possible? It's NOT A ROBOT!"

"Things aren't always what they seem, Spike," Prime informed him, "You should know that by now."

Back at Decepticon Headquarters, Megatron prepared to leave with Soundwave and the cassettes. His destination: the Space Bridge to Cybertron.

"Welcome to Cybertron, Megatron," Shockwave said as he greeted his leader, "To what do I owe the honor of this visit?"

"A most strange occurrence on Earth," Megatron began, "An Organic Decepticon appeared-but she only did so after Starscream was shot down. She then proceeded to drive off the Autobots and heal Starscream before vanishing into thin air."

"Hmmm," Shockwave mused, "A Guardian Force..."

"A WHAT?" Frenzy wanted to know.

"Legend has it that strange experiments were carried out on some of our ancestors," Shockwave told him, "They were changed into organic beings, but they still possess the ability to become robotic. They have incredible power, and some of them were chosen as Guardians to protect the lives of Autobots or Decepticons that have a very special destiny."

"And this creature was clearly protecting Starscream," Soundwave added.

"But this can't be Starscream's Guardian! She was captured by alien forces millions of years ago!" Megatron exclaimed.

"Maybe she found a way to escape," Shockwave said.

"And if indeed this IS Starscream's Guardian, then that means I KNOW the name of this Decepticon," Megatron stated, "It's Sheba."

"So how come we're discussing this up here on Cybertron instead of at our headquarters on Earth?" Rumble asked.

"Because we must keep this information from Starscream as long as we can, which would be an impossible task back at our base with those gossiping idiots around," Megatron said firmly.

"So what're ya gonna do?" Frenzy wondered.

"Nothing...yet," Megatron replied, "We'll wait and see how this plays out. Until then, NO ONE is to tell Starscream that he has a Guardian. Understood?"

"So, what exactly can you tell us about this organic Decepticon?" Spike asked Optimus Prime.

"Not much, I'm afraid," Prime replied, "I will tell you what I know about their kind in general. It seems that our ancestors-also the ancestors of the Decepticons-were subjected to some bizarre experiments. Someone discovered a way to transform a robotic body into an organic one. The creatures that resulted can shift between an organic and a robotic form, and they have powers that I believe are magic-based. Some were appointed as Guardians for certain Transformers. And this one seems to be focusing on defending Starscream. That concerns me greatly."

"Yeah, that bugs me too," Spike stated, "I mean, why would anyone want to protect Starscream?"

"I don't have the answer to that, Spike," Prime sighed.

Starscream's thoughts were in a turmoil. He was remembering his most recent battle, and the one nagging question that wouldn't go away was WHY DID THAT CREATURE HELP HIM? He had been barely conscious when she appeared, and he only had a vague recollection of Sheba using a take-down attack on his old nemesis Ironhide, and the subsequent Thundara spell. He did, however, feel extremely strange when she had cast Curaga on him to heal his wounds. When she had summoned that strange bird to attack the Autobots, he felt like he was in a secure place where nobody could attack him. And when the Autobots had basically fled with their lives-well, he'd never seen anything like it. This creature had handled the Autobots better than Devastator, Menasor, or Bruticus ever could have. Starscream decided that he needed to find out who she was and why she was doing this. But where was he to start looking? She had appeared and disappeared, it seemed, into thin air.

After the battle, Sheba found herself being teleported to a new area that she didn't recognize. She decided to do some exploring. After a few hours of recon, she discovered that she was very close to Autobot Headquarters. But why THIS spot? Sheba wondered to herself. She headed back to the place where she first materialized, and found a nice, warm cave to spend the night in. Exhausted, she flopped down on the sandy floor of the cave and fell asleep.

Suddenly, Sheba saw images, but they were not in their usual colors. There was a permeating darkness that lent a reddish tinge to everything. It seemed that all the Decepticon Jets, as well as the Triple-Changers, Rumble, Frenzy, and Soundwave were motionless greyish statues. Far away on a mountaintop stood a strange figure cloaked in darkness. An energy pulse emanated from it like a shockwave, and when it reached the images of the Decepticons, they crumbled.

"NOOOOOOOOOO! ROWRROWRRROWRRRRR!!!" Sheba screamed.

She woke up, panting. It was only a dream, wasn't it? Or was it a warning?

"Great Cybertron, WHAT WAS THAT?!" Sideswipe exclaimed.

"Sounded like a mountain lion's scream," Sparkplug told him.

Upon awakening from her strange and rather disturbing dream, Sheba realized that the pangs of hunger were gnawing at her insides. Well, it had been over a whole day since she'd eaten anything. She exited the cave and went into the forest. After wandering around for awhile, she realized that she was still basically the size of a Decepticon Jet and didn't have any hope of sneaking up on anything. After wishing pretty hard that she was the size of an ordinary mountain lion, she realized that she could use her magic to shrink herself. She cast the Mini spell and it promptly shrank her to the desired height. Then, she took to the air, scanning the ground for anything she could grab. It wasn't long before she spotted a whitetail buck, which she swooped down on so quickly it didn't know what hit it. Once she'd had her fill, she re-cast Mini to bring herself back to normal size.

Several battles took place between the Autobots and the Decepticons after this, but Sheba did not make an appearance. Later, however, there was one raid that Megatron was not in attendance for, so Starscream was in command. During the course of this raid the Autobots showed up, as they always did, led by Optimus Prime. Upon Prime's arrival, Starscream immediately challenged him. There were two reasons for this: one, he wanted to prove that he could handle Optimus Prime, and therefore be worthy of Leadership; and secondly, he wondered if that creature would appear again, should Prime prove to be more than he could handle.

This battle really went on longer than it should have; in any other case Starscream would have retreated within minutes. Prime did manage to get in a few good blasts that caught the Decepticon right in the shoulder. Starscream held his shoulder, obviously in great pain. Immediately, Sheba appeared. She faced Prime, and growled. Prime just stood there.

OKAY, HE'S NOT TAKING THE HINT, Sheba thought, and pounced on him with a bloodcurling yowl. She managed to pin Prime's arms against his sides with her powerful forelimbs while she tore at his shoulder with her almost diamond-hard, razor-sharp teeth. Then, she rolled suddenly, pitching Optimus Prime off to the side, causing him to crash into some of the other Autobots.

"Oh no," Optimus said, as he got up.

"Oh no, what?" Prowl asked.

"Look," Prime told him. For once again, a circle of strange, green orbs with red cores spun out from around Sheba, and she momentarily vanished. Four beams of ice seemed to come from the four corners of the Earth and come together at a focal point on the ground. A large chunk of ice then burst up through the ground at that spot, containing a bluish-white-and barely clothed-female humanoid form-the Guardian Force Shiva. Her eyes opened, she shattered the ice that contained her, and drew back her right hand. A ball of yellow and blue energy gathered in that hand, and then Shiva threw the energy ball forward towards the Autobots. They found themselves encased in ice, which automatically shattered. Fortunately for the Autobots, Shiva was not at a very high level, or the damage could have been much worse. Once Shiva had vanished, Sheba cast a Curaga spell on Starscream.

Optimus Prime knew he had to act fast. "Autobots, RETREAT!" he ordered, and soon every Autobot was high-tailing it for Headquarters. Once the Autobots had gone, Sheba also disappeared.

Megatron was not surprised to hear that Sheba had once again appeared, considering the circumstances, but he tried to let on that he was. There was even more talk about it at the Decepticon base because this was the first time that Thrust, Ramjet, and Blitzwing had seen Sheba for themselves. Even then, none of them could believe that an organic creature could defeat Optimus Prime.

"So she defeated Optimus Prime, did she?" Megatron commented, "This is most interesting."

"I couldn't believe it myself," Starscream said, "Even though I saw the whole thing with my own optical sensors!"

"That cat-thing DEFEATED OPTIMUS PRIME?" Windcharger burst out, after hearing the bad news.

"She's stronger than I ever imagined. It was my fault-I underestimated her," Prime said sadly.

"Can you imagine what would happen if old Megatron got control of her and used her to help him conquer the Universe?!" Ratchet fumed.

"Or worse," Powerglide added, "If Starscream ever found a way to get her to help HIM conquer the Universe!"

"I don't even want to think about that possibility," Prime said quietly.

"Soundwave, eject Laserbeak," Megatron ordered.

"Laserbeak, prepare for flight. Operation-recon," Soundwave said.

When Laserbeak came out and transformed, he settled on Megatron's outstretched arm.

"Your orders are to find that organic Decepticon and report the co-ordinates of her location to me. Make sure that she does not spot you," Megatron told Laserbeak, who immediately headed for the lift and was soon flying out over the ocean.

Since Laserbeak certainly didn't have any idea where to start looking for Sheba, he simply took the route he was most familiar with-the path to the Autobot Volcano. That was due to force of habit, most likely, but Laserbeak did not realize how lucky that was. He soon spotted Sheba, lying in the sun-and fortunately for Laserbeak-fast asleep. He turned back before the noise of his approach could wake her.

Back at Decepticon Headquarters, Laserbeak reported the location where he found Sheba. Megatron wanted to speak to her, but was uncertain how he would be received. Above all, he wanted to get her attention. So he cooked up a plan and ordered his warriors to accompany him. He didn't tell them where they were going.

Megatron led the Decepticons to the area where Laserbeak had spotted Sheba. He guess that she had to be nearby-and then he saw her, just coming out of her cave. Megatron acted quickly.

"SOUNDWAVE!" he called out as he transformed, and landed in Soundwave's hand.

"STARSCREAM'S THE TARGET, SOUNDWAVE!" Megatron shouted, loudly enough for Sheba to hear. All the Decepticons stared at Megatron like he'd lost his mind. Starscream was in a panic.

"N-n-no, Megatron! What are you doing?!" Starscream hollered.

"Testing a theory," Megatron said, but no sooner had he spoken than Sheba arrived, leaping right over the heads of the speechless Decepticons. She had not needed to be teleported this time. When she'd heard Megatron's command to Soundwave, she had rushed towards them. She quickly swatted Megatron out of Soundwave's hands. To his credit, Megatron had the presence of mind to transform as he spun through the air. Sheba was so angry that she cast the most powerful spell she had in stock-Ultima.

Megatron groaned when the Ultima hit. But Sheba was not done with him yet. She cast two more Ultima spells in rapid succession.

After the third Ultima, Megatron realized that another hit would knock him out. He had to do something.

"SHEBA! I SURRENDER! PLEASE, STOP THIS!" Megatron shouted desperately.

She stopped.

"HOW DO YOU KNOW MY NAME?!" Sheba demanded.

"I can't tell you that," Megatron replied, "at least, not yet."

"And what was the meaning of THAT STUNT YOU JUST PULLED? I SHOULD MELT YOU WHERE YOU STAND JUST FOR THAT!" Sheba growled.

"I had to get your attention somehow," Megatron told her, "I need to speak with you-in private."

Starscream breathed a sigh of relief.

"Why should I?" Sheba asked, with a hint of hostility in her voice.

"I am sure you are confused by the events of the past few weeks," Megatron said, "Please, come with me and maybe I can answer some of your questions."

"Come with you? Where?" Sheba inquired.

"Why, to Decepticon Headquarters, of course. I believe we have much to discuss and I want no outside interruptions," Megatron informed her.

Sheba sat and looked thoughtful. "Hmmm...oh, alright," she conceded.

"Excellent. Just follow us," Megatron told her.

"Are you sure she can keep up?" Skywarp asked Megatron-the tone of his voice indicating that he didn't think so.

Sheba sprang into the air the minute the Decepticons took off. To the surprise of Skywarp and the others she could match their cruising speed, and without too much effort.

A few hours later, Sheba and the Decepticons reached the Undersea Base. Megatron set the others to various meaningless tasks in order to keep them from eavesdropping on his discussion with Sheba. Starscream wasn't at all pleased at being excluded, but he figured he'd try to talk to her by himself-later. It bothered him that Megatron was getting to her before he could.

Megatron only allowed Soundwave to be present during the discussion. He began by acknowledging that Sheba was a Decepticon and asking how she'd come to be on Earth. She didn't know. But she did tell him of her vague memory of having a human body for a period of time. How that happened was also a mystery to her.

"Why are you attacking anyone that attacks Starscream?" Megatron asked Sheba.

"First of all, I only attack those that pose a serious and immediate threat to his life," Sheba replied, "And as to why, well, I don't really know, myself. It's a feeling, an instinct. I can't explain it."

"Interesting," Megatron mused.

"Now it's my turn to start asking questions," Sheba said, "Like, first of all, what do you know about me and how do you know it?"

"I am the Decepticon Leader. I know everything," Megatron told her, "And I know that you were chosen to be Starscream's Guardian. I never understood why a Guardian was chosen for him in the first place."

"Who chose me?" Sheba wondered.

"That I cannot say," Megatron stated, "But you were chosen when both you and Starscream were very young."

"It is said that Guardians are chosen by Magic," Soundwave volunteered.

"Yes," Megatron realized, "And while we're on the subject of magic, I see that you are extremely powerful-more so that either myself or Optimus Prime. I could certainly use your help in getting rid of those accursed Autobots."

"That's not part of my programming," Sheba told him.

"But you are an organic creature. Your programming shouldn't be so rigid," Megatron pointed out.

"I'm not sure that's a good idea," Sheba stated.

"At least consider it," Megatron urged.

"I can't make up my mind right now," Sheba told him.

"Then let Megatron think for you," Megatron suggested.

Sheba shot him a look that would have melted lead.

Megatron began thinking hard. What did he have to do to get Sheba to join forces with him? She had mentioned having a human body, and the humans were sentimental fools, just like the Autobots. Perhaps he would have to use kindness. Yes, that was the ticket. Be so nice to her that she couldn't possibly refuse. But first, Megatron wanted to see the full extent of Sheba's powers.

"Before you make your decision, there is something I want you to do," Megatron said.

"And that would be...?" Sheba inquired.

"I want to test your powers with a little contest," he offered.

"What sort of contest?"

"Try to defeat Devastator."

"Are you serious?"

"Well, unless you're afraid..."

Sheba bristled. "Bring him on!"

Megatron summoned the Constructicons, and told them to meet him in a remote location where the contest was to be held. Of course, he didn't tell Scrapper what was going on, so naturally the Constructicon had assumed that this was to be the site of yet another scheme. Then, Megatron tried to get the Stunticons to come as well. Motormaster bluntly refused-they were having another demolition derby. However, Megatron figured on getting the Combaticons to come-once the battle with Devastator was over.

The other Decepticons were excited by the prospect of seeing Sheba in a one-on-one against Devastator. Thundercracker, Dirge, Ramjet, Thrust, Skywarp, and Blitzwing were all frantically making bets on who would win.

"My money's on Devastator," Dirge stated.

"NO WAY! If she can flatten Prime..." Rumble piped up.

"Shaddup squirt, you're underage," Skywarp snapped.

As it turned out, most of the bets did go on Devastator, with Sheba being given 99-1 odds. Starscream did not participate in the gambling-he considered it a waste of energon. His most immediate concern was that if Devastator DID defeat Sheba-then what? Would she be destroyed? He tried not to think of it.

Megatron had chosen well-the contest was to take place in a deserted location that had a few hills, but was otherwise mostly flat. Megatron and the Decepticons arrived soon after the Constructicons did.

"Megatron," Scrapper began, "What are your orders?"

"Transform and merge into Devastator."

"Constructicons, transform-phase one!" Scrapper ordered, and they did so.

"Now transform-phase two! MERGE!" Scrapper continued.

Pretty soon, Devastator was complete.

Megatron turned to Sheba.

"Anytime you're ready," he told her.

Sheba stepped forward and faced Devastator. A circle of green energy emanated around her, and blue-white orbs rose up from the ground and circled her in a sort of spiral pattern. Suddenly, a black mist enveloped Devastator's head-and there were some bright purple flashes from inside the mist.

"AAGGGGHHHH...CAN'T SEE..." Devastator bellowed. He took a swipe at the spot where Sheba had been standing, but she had wisely gone a few feet to the right. The green energy circle appeared again-indicating that Sheba was casting another spell. A wide red beam shot out from Sheba and totally encompassed Devastator. It looked like his very molecules were being pushed back with the blast. Now he looked odd, almost as though he'd been sunburned; a residual reddish-purple glow remained on him. Sheba knew that this indicated that Devastator's Vitality was now at zero and consequently he had no defense at all against physical or Guardian Force attacks. All this time Devastator was swinging wildly, in hopes of getting in a lucky hit. Finally he did hit her-it was a backhander, and it knocked her several hundred feet away. Most of the Decepticons thought the battle was over right then and there. However, Sheba surprised everyone by getting up. Suddenly, orange energy beams shot up in a circle around her. Seconds later, a hot, yellow beam shot out of her mouth and hit Devastator dead center. He fell over instantly and hit the ground without so much as a groan.

The crowd of Decepticons was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Sheba cst Curaga on herself while Megatron went over to the fallen Devastator. He still hadn't moved.

"Is he dead?" Dirge called out.

"Nah, just knocked out," Sheba replied, "Here." She went over to Devastator and cast Life. He stirred, and promptly separated into individual Constructicons. They all moaned as they got up.

"Ohhh, what happened?" Long Haul complained.

"That flesh creature just beat us," Hook told him.

"I'm very impressed," Megatron said to Sheba, "Would you mind trying that on Bruticus for me?"

"Sure," Sheba agreed.

Starscream had stared in complete amazement when Devastator was felled by Sheba's Limit Break attack. He hadn't thought it possible; when the Autobots ever defeated Devastator it had been through some clever, underhanded ploy. Now someone that wasn't even in a robotic form had beaten Devastator head-on. She really IS powerful, Starscream thought to himself.

The Combaticons were set to arrive in a few minutes, so of course bets were going to be placed on the outcome of the next battle. However, there was a new twist-now that Sheba had beaten Devastator, most of the guys were out a LOT of energon. But now they had a reasonable idea of who would win this round. Only Thundercracker and Skywarp had had any faith in Sheba's abilities, and had subsequently won their bets. The other guys wanted to win back some of what they lost, but were uncertain as to how, until Sheba walked over to them.

"You guys wanna win your money back this time?" she asked.

"YEAH!" they all shouted.

"Gentlemen, I give you your pigeon-Swindle! Now's your chance to shaft him for a change," Sheba suggested, "You all bet on me, and I betcha Swindle will bet on himself-I mean, Bruticus-and you'll clean him out. But first, we've got to make this look good."

Sheba then cast Cura on each of the battered Constructicons. This healed them enough so it didn't look as though she'd just put them through a laser-powered trash compactor.

The Combaticons arrived just then. Swindle was called over to the "betting pool" by Blitzwing. Sheba was standing right there.

"I betcha this kitty-cat can lick Bruticus!" Blitzwing declared.

"Oh, you do, do ya?" Swindle said, as a grin spread across his face, "Tell ya what, I'll give you 1000-to-1 odds. There's no way that flesh creature can stand up to us!"

"Yeah, well, I'm betting on her," Thrust said.

"Me too," Ramjet added.

Swindle laughed. "Suckers!" he scoffed.

"Hey, don't laugh! She-" Scavenger began, but Dirge grabbed him from behind and put a hand over the Constructicon's face plate.

"SHUT UP!" Dirge hissed in Scavenger's audio receptors, "You'll ruin EVERYTHING!"

"I'll be a pleasure taking ALL your energon," Swindle gloated.

"So let me get this straight," Onslaught was saying to Megatron, "You want us to form Bruticus and fight this flying feline? Surely you're not serious."

"What's the matter," Megatron asked, "Do you think you won't win?"

"I'm just saying it won't be much of a challenge," Onslaught stated, "However, COMBATICONS-MERGE AND FORM BRUTICUS!"

"Oh-gotta go!" Swindle said, and hurried back towards the other Combaticons.

Once Bruticus had formed, he faced Sheba on the battlefield. She'd already decided on using a different strategy than the one she used on Devastator.

Bruticus tried grabbing her, but she was too quick-all he ended up grabbing was empty air. Sheba immediately summoned Doomtrain. The red-centered green orbs appeared and spun out in all directions, then Sheba disappeared. Bruticus had mometarily wondered where she'd got to when suddenly he found himself in the path of a ghostly locomotive. It hit him, causing about 3500 HP of damage and put him in Confuse, Berserk, Slow, Blind, and Vitality Zero. The next action Bruticus took was to attack himself, which cancelled out the Confuse status effect. That didn't matter much, however, as he still couldn't see and was in a blind rage as a result of the Berserk status effect. This meant he was unable to take any action other than a physical attack, without thinking it through. Sheba took the time she had to summon another GF-Cerberus. The background seemed to melt away during the summon, revealing a dark, firey land behind a black iron gate. A three-headed dog with leathery, furless skin came out through the gate, threw back its heads, and howled. A beam emanated from each head, and when Cerberus vanished, the beams came back down and were absorbed by Sheba. This put her in Double and Triple. As a result, she cast Triple Meteor at her next turn. This took off quite a bit of damage. Next, Sheba summoned Leviathan, Ifrit, and Diablos. Bruticus still couldn't lay a hand on her. Finally, Sheba had enough of this game and summoned her strongest GF-Eden. That took off a good 51,900 HP off of Bruticus. He fell backwards with a groan, separating into the Combaticons.

"This is embarrassing," Blast-Off whined, "Beaten, by of all things, a mere flesh creature!"

"Oh, but Sheba is no mere flesh creature," Megatron told them, "She is in fact a Decepticon."

"Well, gee, Megatron, where ya been hidin' her?" Brawl said, "If she can do that to us, imagine what she could do against the Autobots!"

Swindle found himself surrounded by a group of smirking Jets.

"Time to pay up, Swindle," Skywarp demanded.

"Hey, hey, guys, take it easy," Swindle stammered, "I'll pay you pretty soon."

Megatron wanted to see how Sheba would fare against Menasor, so the next thing the Decepticons did was go out in search of the Stunticons. It didn't take long to find them-they just had to follow the path of destruction that Motormaster and the others had left in their wake. The Stunticons were just putting the finishing touches on a totally levelled scrapyard. Megatron landed right next to Motormaster.

"Stunticons," Megatron began, "I have a little proposition for you."

"Oh, and what's that?" Motormaster asked.

Just then, Sheba landed, right in front of Motormaster.

"Merge into Menasor," Megatron said, "and we will see if Sheba here can beat you."

Motormaster took one look at her and burst out laughing. Soon the other Stunticons started laughing as well.

"Well, is Menasor going to fight me, or not?" Sheba said crossly.

"It's your funeral," Motormaster replied, once the laughter had subsided, "Very well-STUNTICONS-MERGE AND FORM MENASOR!"

The giant robot towered over Sheba.

"Good joke! Menasor crush flesh-creature!" Menasor stated.

Sheba reared up, and her paws began glowing. When the light faded, her forelimbs looked a lot more like those of a human. Menasor brought the full force of his hand down on her. However, something stopped his hand just before he thought he'd crush her. Sheba was using her arms to keep Menasor's hand above her head. No matter how hard he pushed down, he could not crush her. He tried closing his fist around her, but she got out from under him before he could do so. She grabbed his hand and threw him against one of the nearby hills, which nearly obliterated the hill. Menasor got up, furious.

"Not funny! Menasor NOT LAUGH!" He lunged towards her, but she caught him by the torso and flew high into the air. Once Sheba had carried Menasor about 30,000 feet, she used a seismic toss attack. Menasor plummeted to the ground. As he hit terra firma, he separated into the Stunticons. Once he'd done so, Sheba reverted to her quadruped form.

"How did that happen?" Deadend exclaimed.

"Okay, so Megatron's pet isn't such a pushover after all," Motormaster sighed.

Sheba charged and knocked Motormaster over. Her nose was nearly touching his.

"I AM NOT MEGATRON'S PET!" she hissed.

"Okay, okay, no need to overreact," Motormaster said nervously.

Megatron invited Sheba to return to Decepticon Headquarters with him and the others. Since she really didn't have anything to do anyway, she accepted the invitation. Megatron then basically gave her the run of the place.

"You may go anywhere you wish," he had told her. So, Sheba wandered aimlessly, until she heard some of the other Decepticons talking.

"Did you see how she took care of Menasor?" Thrust was saying, "She's something else!"

"I wish she'd been around sooner," Thundercracker added, "We sure could have used her help against the Dinobots."

"Or even against Omega Supreme!" Ramjet exclaimed.

"Geez, I'm flattered," Sheba said as she approached.

Dead silence.

"What's the matter? Don't worry, I won't bite," she continued, sensing nervousness in the others.

"Better be nice to her, or Megatron'll have our heads," Thundercracker whispered to the others. He gingerly approached Sheba, but his knees were knocking. Slowly he reached out a hand towards her. Sheba responded by pushing her forehead into his hand and purring.

Thundercracker then got the hint-she wanted to be stroked. He ran his fingers through her soft, shiny fur. Sheba lay down, enjoying the attention. Thundercracker was amazed that something that strong could also be so gentle.

"Gee, if I knew it'd be that easy..." Skywarp said, as he too came over and started patting her.

Astrotrain and Reflector had been away for about six weeks-out in Space, seeing if any of the Asteroids in the belt were of any value. Now they returned.

"Well, Astrotrain, Reflector? What did you find?" Megatron asked as they came out of the elevator.

"Not much," Astrotrain said in disgust.

"There was nothing of any value in the asteroids that is worth the effort to extract it," Reflector confirmed.

Blitzwing walked into the control room. "Hey, Astrotrain! Too bad you weren't here-you missed a great show!"

"What kind of show?" Astrotrain inquired.

Just then, Sheba entered, with Thrust, Ramjet, Dirge, Skywarp, and Thundercracker.

"SHE beat Devastator!" Blitzwing exclaimed, pointing to Sheba.

"WHAT?!" Astrotrain sputtered, "That's not possible!"

"That isn't all," Blitzwing continued, "She beat Bruticus AND Menasor, too! ALL IN THE SAME DAY! Oh, and I forgot-she defeated the Autobots TWICE. The second time, she whipped Optimus Prime!"

"Megatron, what's going on?" Astrotrain wanted to know.

"Astrotrain, Reflector, allow me to intoduce Sheba," Megatron replied, "She is a rare kind of Decepticon that can use magic and has the ability to take an organic form."

"And what's this I hear about Devastator getting defeated?" Astrotrain added.

"A simple test of her powers, nothing more," Megatron assured him.

"Oh," Astrotrain said.

"We all bet against Bruticus-and cleaned out Swindle in the process!" Thrust told him.

"I sure would have liked to have seen the look on Swindle's face," Astrotrain said.

This whole time, Starscream had been in his quarters, deep in thought. He still hadn't had a chance to speak with Sheba, and it appeared that Megatron was trying to win her favor. What if Megatron had already poisoned her against him? That was all too likely a possibility. He got up and headed for the control room to see if he could get Sheba alone.

Once the excitement of the day's events had died down, Megatron turned his attention to Sheba. "Have you made a decision yet?" he asked her.

"Not yet," Sheba replied, "I think I'll head back to my cave-I need some time alone to think about your offer."

"As you wish," Megatron said, "I don't want to put too much pressure on you."

Starscream heard this from the hallway. Quickly he ducked into a storage room.

Megatron passed by, to attend to other business. Starscream came out of the storage room and went into the control room, just in time to see Sheba get on the elevator. He made up his mind to follow her, and got on the elevator the minute it came back down.

Sheba returned to her cave with a lot on her mind. She was suspicious of the kindness that Megatron had shown her, simply because of the fact that she knew that Megatron's schemes operated on many different levels. She was certain that what Megatron was doing was designed not only to lure her into the ranks of the Decepticons, but there was the possibility that he was also attempting to drive a wedge between her and Starscream. Her thoughts were interrupted by a noise outside. She went out of her cave, and saw Starscream standing there.

"So there you are," he said crossly.

"Hey, what's with the hostility?" Sheba snapped back, "Oh, I get it-you think Megatron is trying to turn me against you. That is what you're thinking, isn't it? Well, relax, your name never came up."

"So then why was Megatron having all those secret conversations with you?" Starscream demanded.

"He wants me to join the Decepticons," Sheba replied, "Considering my powers, I don't blame him. He acts like he's known me from before, but I don't remember anything."

"If you do join with us, what will you do if Megatron orders you to destroy me?" Starscream's voice got a tiny bit shriller as he asked that question.

"Starscream, I can't do that! I'm your Guardian!" Sheba exclaimed, "I'm sworn to protect you no matter what. If Megatron ever tries to give me an order like that, rest assured HE'LL be the one getting blasted, not you."

Starscream now appeared to be preoccupied.

"It's strange," he began, "But I feel as if we've known each other before, a long time ago. It's not a memory or anything; it's just a feeling I have."

"Now that you mention it, I feel that way, too," Sheba told him.

"So, how did it happen that you became my Guardian?" Starscream wondered.

"I don't remember," Sheba informed him, "Must be for a pretty important reason, though."

"How did you get here-on Earth, I mean?" Starscream pressed further.

"Don't know," Sheba stated.

"When you appeared and drove away the Autobots, how did you know I needed help?"

"Something dragged me there-I was teleported by an unknown force. When I saw that you were in trouble, I had this terrible feeling in my gut-my instincts took over. But I think there's more to it than just instinct. If anything ever happened to you, I don't know what I would do."

"What do you mean by that?" Starscream wanted to know.

"Let me put it this way-you want to rule the Universe, right? And you like fighting. Well, what if the Universe was gone, and every living thing in it, but you were still around-in an empty void? Nobody to fight, nobody to rule over and 'robot around'-what would be going through your mind?" she told him.

"I never really thought of it that way before," Starscream replied, "I-I..." His voice trailed off as he suddenly comprehended the significance of what Sheba had just said.

Sheba stood up and turned towards the cave. "Sooooo tired," she murmured.

"Of course," Starscream realized, "You must be exhausted after your battle with Menasor."

"You'd probably better head back before Megatron finds out you're gone," Sheba advised, "Or you might have a lot of explaining to do."

"Are you coming back to our base anytime soon?" Starscream asked her.

"We'll see. Goodnight," Sheba yawned, and headed into the cave.

Starscream watched her go, then took to the air and returned to Decepticon Headquarters.

"I'm tellin' ya, she FLATTENED Menasor!" Powerglide told a disbelieving group of Autobots.

"Yeah, right!" Brawn snorted.

Optimus Prime came by. "What's going on here?" he asked.

"Powerglide's telling stories," Gears stated.

"Yeah, real whoppers," Sunstreaker added, "Imagine, an organic flying pussycat taking out Devastator, Bruticus, AND Menasor! It's just too much."

"Is that true, Powerglide?" Optimus wanted to know.

"Saw it with my own optical sensors," Powerglide replied, "And let me tell you, I almost couldn't believe it either!"

"Tell me everything," Optimus said, "And don't leave out the slightest detail!"

Powerglide then told everyone how he'd been on a basic recon flight when he spotted the battle. He was just in time to see Devastator defeated by Sheba's Light Pillar beam. Careful to keep out of sight, he also witnessed the battle between Sheba and Bruticus-noting that Sheba was mainly using Guardian Force summons to win that fight. But what surprised him-and the others, when he told them-was the fact that Menasor was pounded with purely physical attacks; Sheba had used no magic against him whatsoever.

It wasn't just the fact that Sheba had defeated all three Decepticon Gestalts in one day that bothered Optimus Prime, but that she had done so with relative ease.

"This means she could take out Omega Supreme, Superion, and Defensor without breaking a sweat!" Huffer exclaimed, "Oh, WE'RE DOOMED!"

"Do you think we should try to destroy her?" Spike asked.

"Killing a Guardian isn't an option," Optimus Prime informed him, "Even if it could be done, I fear there would be grave consequences. Guardians are chosen for a reason-even if we don't understand why. It is not for us to second-guess an Entity whose will is beyond even my comprehension. If we kill that Guardian, we may be forced to deal with powers that are greater than all of us."

"Well, what do we do, Prime?" Huffer whined.

"I don't know...yet," Prime replied.

Sheba woke up in the middle of the night. It was that dream again-the one with the reddish-dark motionless images of the Decepticons in a dark world, and a strange force causing their destruction. Only this time, Sheba felt as if she were there-she felt the destructive force as it passed by and smashed the images. It was too much for her.

Spike sat bolt upright in bed. A loud, yet distant sound had awakened him.

"Oh. It's just a mountain lion," he said to himself.

Megatron was pacing in the control room. "I MUST find a way to convince Sheba to join us," he said.

"Well, she IS a big cat, isn't she?" Rumble volunteered.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Astrotrain wondered.

"Well, Frenzy and I were watching TV once, and it was about cats-the BIG kind, and they said cats don't recognize authority, so humans train them by rewarding them with food," Rumble replied, "And I understand their favorite food is fish."

"An excellent idea!" Megatron exclaimed. "She's probably still asleep now, but when she wakes up she'll probably be hungry. Rumble-go catch the biggest fish you can carry and take it to her."

"Sure thing," Rumble agreed, and he got on the lift. Once he was outside, he plunged into the ocean in search of a good-sized fish. He soon spotted a hefty-looking salmon, and grabbed it. It soon slipped from his grasp, so he pulled out one of his laser pistols and shot it in the head. In no time he was back in the air-with the salmon-heading for Sheba's cave.

Kickback, Shrapnel, and Bombshell were happily chomping on some acreage when they spotted Rumble flying overhead.

"What's that shrimp doing with a fish the size of himself?" Bombshell commented.

"Let's find out," Kickback suggested, and the three of them took off after them.

They made sure Rumble didn't notice that they were following him, and landed in a spot where they could see Rumble walking up to a cave.

"Hey! Sheba!" Rumble called out, "It's me-Rumble." Sheba poked her nose out of her cave and yawned.

"Oh, Rumble," Sheba said sleepily, "Yeah, I knew it had to be either you or Frenzy."

"I-I brought you something," Rumble stammered, and held out the salmon.

"Breakfast? Gee, thanks!" Sheba purred. Rumble laid the fish at her feet. Sheba cast Mini to shrink herself, and started eating.

"Hey, what is that thing?" Kickback asked Shrapnel.

"I don't know...know," Shrapnel stated, "It looks like a mutated earth creature-I believe the humans call it mountain lion or something...something."

"But with wings like a bird?" Kickback exclaimed.

"Hey! The shrimp just gave it some food!" Bombshell fumed.

"Megatron never did that for us," Kickback sulked.

"Oh yes he did-remember what happened with the Nova Power Core? And the Robot Plants?" Bombshell reminded him.

Sheba stopped chowing down long enough to rub her face against Rumble's cheek. She was purring so loudly that the three Insecticons could hear. Rumble stroked her neck for awhile, then remembered something.

"Gee, I gotta get back," he said, as he took to the air, "See ya around."

Kickback was now definitely jealous; both of the fact that the Decepticons were giving food to a stranger-an organic one at that-and that the stranger was apparently very friendly with the Decepticons. Sheba was now totally focused on eating, and did not see Kickback approaching. Quickly he snatched the fish right out from under her nose, and flew off. She realized what had just happened, cast Mini to return to full size, and chased him. He tried to outmaneuver her in the air, but she was an even more accomplished aerial acrobat than he was. She slammed into him, forcing him to drop her fish. Then she did a power dive, caught the fish, and swallowed the whole thing on the spot before resuming her pursuit. He returned to robot mode just as she knocked him to the ground.

"HELP!" Kickback cried out. Shrapnel and Bombshell both transformed to robot mode and ran to assist him. Bombshell tried firing a cerebro shell-but Sheba ducked just in time, and cast Tornado. The three Insecticons were spun around in the air for a bit, then fell in a heap on the ground.

"A small sample of what will happen to the next guy that tries stealing my breakfast-or lunch, or dinner...oh, you get the idea!" Sheba growled.

"Why is Megatron giving YOU anything, let alone food?" Bombshell wanted to know.

"Probably because I'm strong enough to take out Devastator, Bruticus, and Menasor all in the same day," Sheba replied, "Oh, you haven't heard?" The Insecticons stood there with incredulous looks on their faces.

"Well, if you don't believe me, I think Laserbeak has a real nice tape of the whole thing," she added.

"WHAT ARE YOU...are you?" Shrapnel asked.

"I'm a Decepticon-just like you."

"No way!" Kickback contradicted.

"Okay then," Sheba began, and she started glowing. Soon she was too white-hot to look at. When the light subsided, the Insecticons could not believe their optical sensors-they were now looking at a golden-colored robotic mountain lion with jet-wings and an unmistakable Decepticon insignia on each wing. Sheba leaped into the air, and transformed into a fighter plane-identical to the kind Starscream and the others turn into. She flew a circle, transformed again, and landed.

"There-do you believe me NOW?" she asked, grinning.

"Working for Megatron is highly overrated...overrated," Shrapnel told her.

"Well, I'm not working for Megatron," Sheba stated, "I'm Starscream's Guardian Force."

"You're joking!" Kickback said.

"I'm definitely NOT joking," she insisted.

She was interrupted by Megatron, who had just arrived with Soundwave.

"I see you have met our six-legged allies," Megatron remarked, "And, Shrapnel, I must request that you treat Sheba with some respect. Any Decepticon that can single-handedly defeat Optimus Prime and the rest of the Autobots certainly deserves at least that much."

"She defeated Optimus Prime...Prime?" Shrapnel exclaimed.

Megatron admired Sheba's robot form. "So, you finally decided to try out your robotic body," he said, "Don't you like it better than your organic one?"

"It has its advantages," Sheba admitted, "But fur is softer than metal." She began glowing again, and returned to her organic form. "So what brings you here?" she continued.

"Looking for the Insecticons," Megatron told her, "So I could tell them that if they treat you disrespectfully, you have my authorization to squash them like the bugs they are."

"W-we wouldn't dream of it!" Bombshell said, trembling.

"Oh, and watch out for Bombshell's cerebro shells," Megatron advised.

"Way ahead of you on that one," Sheba assured him.

Megatron and Soundwave left. Sheba then pounced on Kickback.

He was scared at first, but Sheba started licking his face.

"Awww, come on, you've got nothing to worry about," Sheba said, "As long as you don't steal from me ever again."

Sheba and the Insecticons became fast friends, and she would occasionally let them chase her. It was funny to see the three Insecticons try to keep up with her, and sometimes she actually let them catch her. And when they did catch her, she turned the tables and play-wrestled them to the ground. She would then start licking their faces. To the Insecticons, it was like playing with a thunderstorm.

Megatron decided it was time to raid another power plant. After assembling his warriors, an idea came into his head. So, rather than heading directly for the power plant, Megatron first went to Sheba's cave. She was sitting just outside of it, giving herself a good wash.

"Greetings," Megatron said as he landed, "I was wondering if you would like to join us on our raid? The Autobots won't be able to stop us with you around."

"Oh...well, since I'm bored anyway, sure, why not," Sheba replied, "Just a second." She began to glow with a white-hot light, and when the light faded, she was now in her robotic form. The other Decepticons cheered when they saw that Sheba could become a robot, especially now that they could see the distinct Decepticon insignia on her wings. She leapt into the air and transformed into jet mode.

"So, she REALLY IS one of us!" Thundercracker exclaimed.

"Decepticons, scramble!" Megatron ordered, and they all headed into the sky.

While the Decepticons were busy filling energon cubes, Sheba hung back, watching out for Autobots. When she spotted them approaching, she attacked them in jet mode.

"Hey, what the...?" Sunstreaker exclaimed, as the golden jet strafed him.

"I've never seen THAT one before," Sideswipe stated.

"Autobots-TRANSFORM!" Optimus Prime commanded.

"A new Decepticon? Where'd he come from?" Spike wanted to know.

Sheba had enough of aerial combat, so she transformed and landed right in front of the Autobots.

"Not 'he' Spike, 'she,'" Optimus Prime corrected.

"You mean this is that creature that keeps showing up to protect Starscream?" Ironhide said.

"Affirmative," Optimus Prime replied.

Sheba cast Tornado on the group of Autobots. However, it didn't do near as much damage as it had when she'd used it on the Insecticons. She then guessed that while her robot form afforded her more protection from weapons and lack of air, her MagicPower wasn't nearly as high as it had been when she was organic. She quickly reverted to her organic form, then re-cast Tornado. THAT'S MORE LIKE IT, she thought to herself, as the spell did easily three times more damage than the previous attempt. Suddenly, she was aware of something grabbing her tail. She quickly cast Death. A black warp-hole opened in the ground, and the Grim Reaper himself appeared and swung his deathsycthe. It hit something, and immediately Mirage appeared, and fell flat on his face-he'd been K.O.'ed.

"MIRAGE!" Jazz cried out.

"Jazz-go get Mirage! I'll deal with HER!" Prime shouted. He charged at Sheba, firing his laser rifle. She sprang into the air to avoid the laser blasts, then used a take-down attack on Optimus. Meanwhile, Jazz rushed to Mirage, picked him up, and carried him to Ratchet. Ratchet transformed, Jazz put Mirage inside, and then they both returned to Autobot Headquarters at top speed. When Prime saw that Mirage had been taken care of, he ordered a retreat.

Sheba went inside the power plant after sending the Autobots packing.

"That's strange, the Autobots should have been here by now," Megatron was saying.

"Oh, yeah, they've been and gone already," Sheba said nonchalantly.

"And you didn't save any for us?" Rumble complained.

"Ahhh, you'll get your chance," Sheba assured him.

"What's wrong with Mirage?" Spike wanted to know. He, Perceptor, Ratchet, and Wheeljack were all trying to do something to revive the fallen Autobot.

"I'm not sure," Ratchet stated, "He's alive, but it's like he's in a coma or something."

Perceptor thought for awhile. "So the creature cast some kind of spell on him while he was invisible..." he mused.

"Yeah-I think it was Death. I saw the Grim Reaper hack Mirage with his scythe," Spike told him.

"Hey!" Wheeljack exclaimed, "I think I've got the answer! There's a weird kind of potion that I brought over from Cybertron. I found it when Bumblebee and I were searching for energy." He rushed into his lab, and soon returned with a strange container that had an emblem that resembled a fiery bird. There was writing on the bottle as well.

"Phoenix Down potion," Wheeljack read, "Any story I ever heard about the Phoenix is that it has a resurrection power." He used the potion on Mirage, who immediately sat up.

"What happened to me?" he groaned.

"That Decepticon creature attacked you with a Death spell," Ratchet informed him.

"I guess that'll teach me to grab her tail," Mirage joked.

"We must do something to stop this creature," Optimus Prime said as he walked into the room.

"But how? She can use magic! She's unstoppable!" Ratchet protested.

"Maybe not," Spike volunteered.

"What are you talking about, Spike?" Mirage wondered.

"She has an organic form. When scientists want to neutralize an animal so they can study it, they use a tranquilizer to immobilize it. It makes the animal fall asleep so it can't attack them," Spike explained.

"And if we could formulate a tranquilizer strong enough to knock out that Guardian, she won't be able to help the Decepticons," Optimus Prime realized, "We could stop her without harming her."

"I'll get to work on it right away," Perceptor said.

Sheba returned to her cave after the raid. She spent several days in idleness, until Megatron showed up again to request her presence at yet another fuel-run. This time, it was an oil-field. When the Autobots arrived, Sheba alerted the others rather than having all the fun herself. In the middle of the battle, which the Decepticons were winning, Sheba was casting Death with impunity. Several Autobots were now unable to battle. Spike and Bumblebee were nowhere to be seen. They had taken up position as a sniper team-waiting for the right moment to use Perceptor's new tranquilizer gun.

"It's now or never, Bumblebee!" Spike shouted, as Sheba felled Bluestreak with a Death spell.

"Here goes!" Bumblebee said nervously. He fired the tranquilizer gun. The dart hit Sheba in one of her back legs. Furious, she wheeled around to see who had done that. However, she immediately began blacking out. In desperation, she summoned Leviathan. The Sea Serpent GF's Tsunami attack pushed back the Autobots. When Sheba reappeared, she suddenly keeled over.

"NOOOOOOOO!" Starscream shrieked, as he saw her fall. He flew towards her, fiercely driving off any Autobots that dared approach her with twin blasts from his shoulder-mounted lasers. He landed, and tried to wake her.

"Sheba! Wake up!" he pleaded. No response.

"YOU AUTOBOTS WILL PAY FOR THIS!" he screamed at the top of his lungs.

Finally, Megatron, who had been going one-on-one with Optimus Prime, noticed what had just happened. "SHEBA-NO!" he cried, and broke away from Prime.

"So her name is Sheba," Prime said to himself.

Megatron rushed over to where Starscream and Sheba were.

"What happened?" he asked Starscream.

"I don't know-she just collapsed!" Starscream wailed.

"DECEPTICONS-WE'VE LOST THE ADVANTAGE! RETURN TO BASE!" Megatron called out. When the Decepticons heard Megatron-and saw Starscream picking up a totally unconscious Sheba and preparing to carry her, they obeyed.

After the Decepticons had fled the oil field, Optimus Prime transformed so that the currently inoperative Autobots could be loaded up and taken back to base.

"Let me guess," Sparkplug said, as Bluestreak, Tracks, Smokescreen, Huffer, and Sideswipe were unloaded from Prime's trailer, "It was that Decepticon Guardian again."

"We did manage to knock her out with the tranquilizer," Spike said, "But Starscream prevented anybody from going near her."

"You honestly thought they'd leave HER behind?" Optimus said.

"Well, why not—that's standard Decepticon Operating Procedure," Bumblebee pointed out.

"She's different," Optimus Prime told him, "When I was fighting Megatron, he suddenly noticed that the tranquilizer had put the Guardian out of commission. He called her name, and ran to her."

"Who is she?" Spike asked.

"Her name is Sheba."

Spike went up to Teletraan 1 and typed in search parameters for the name 'Sheba-designation-Guardian.'

Finally, Teletraan 1 spat out some info. "Sheba-Guardian chosen to protect the Decepticon known as Starscream. Was selected shortly before the beginning of Megatron's initiation of hostilities between the Decepticons and the Autobots. Believed to have been abducted by unknown alien forces when she was still very young. No further data available."

"Hmmm..." Optimus Prime said, "Then how did she come to be on Earth?"

Perceptor, Wheeljack, and Ratchet were attending to the Autobots that had been struck down with Sheba's Death spell. "We need more of that potion," Wheeljack said, "Perceptor-do you think we can use the matter replicator?"

"Of course. Good thing we got it working finally," Perceptor replied.

So, Perceptor replicated a large quantity of the Phoenix Down potion to use on their friends. Soon the five inoperable Autobots were up and around, and none the worse for their experience.

"So, what's it like getting hit with a Death spell?" Bumblebee asked Bluestreak.

"Man, it was weird!" Bluestreak exclaimed, "I felt the blade cut into my body, even though it didn't leave a mark-then I felt really cold, and I fell down and couldn't move. I could still see what was going on around me, though."

Sheba was taken back to the Undersea Base. Starscream carried her to the repair bay. Megatron came in with Soundwave, Astrotrain, and Thundercracker.

"Put her somewhere where she'll be comfortable," Megatron told Starscream.

After Starscream had put her on an exam table, Megatron noticed the tranquilizer dart.

"What's this?" he remarked, as he pulled it out, "Soundwave, analyze the contents of this at once."

"As you command, Megatron," Soundwave replied. He took the dart and went to the computer.

'Is she...dead?" Thundercracker wondered.

"No, she's still breathing," Megatron told him.

The silence that followed was broken by Soundwave.

"Megatron-analysis complete. Substance contains Carfentanil-a chemical compound formulated to make large organic lifeforms temporarily unconscious. Cyber-sedatives also detected. Estimated time to wear off-one hour."

Sheba awoke with a severe headache. She tried opening her eyes, but everything was all blurry and mixed-up. When she attempted to get up, her muscles were like Jell-o. A hand was softly stroking her head and neck. Automatically she began purring.

"Don't try to move yet," a voice said. She took awhile to realize that it was Megatron who was speaking. She lay still for a while longer, and found that her eyes were starting to see things normally. Starscream, Megatron, and the others were standing beside her.

"You gave us quite a scare," Megatron told her, "This never would have happened, had you been in your robotic form."

Sheba tried to get up again, but another wave of dizziness swept over her. She'd almost made it to the edge of the exam table, and would have fallen, if it weren't for Starscream's quick reflexes. He caught her just in time.

"Look-maybe we should put her on the floor," he suggested, "At least she can't fall off of it." He took her and put her on the ground in an out-of-the-way place in the room.

"Oh, am I going to be sore," Sheba complained.

"I'll go see if Swindle can get you something soft to lay down on," Thundercracker offered.

"Good idea," Sheba moaned.

Skywarp, Dirge, and Blitzwing rushed into the room just then.

"Is she okay?" Skywarp wanted to know.

"She'll be fine," Megatron assured everyone, "It seems the Autobots used some sort of chemical to knock her out."

"Tranquilizer," Sheba corrected, "It makes animals and people fall asleep."

Thundercracker went out, and soon came back with Swindle.

"Oh boy, this is going to be a challenge," Swindle said, "I don't think they make cardboard boxes with ragged old blankets in them THAT big. But I'll see what I can do."

As it turned out, it didn't take Swindle that long to find something suitable. He had in his possession several very large cloth tarpaulins-the kind used for covering indoor antique aircraft-which he jury-rigged as a pillow on the spot, with some help from Mixmaster, who was able to concoct some artificial polyester-like fibrefill. Fortunately, it turned out to be large enough, and Sheba purred with contentment after being placed on it. Several of the Decepticons then took turns stroking her. There was something about patting her that they LIKED-they couldn't put their fingers on it. Was it the silky-softness of her fur? Or was it the way the purring sounds she made seemed to resonate deep within them? Whatever it was, it made them feel DIFFERENT, and that translated into a somewhat collective fondness for her.

Sheba soon drifted off to sleep. She began to dream-and the dream was almost exactly like all the dreams she'd had since she appeared in this form. There was the dark, reddened landscape-a wasteland, really-with grey images (tinted with red by the lighting) of the Decepticons. But something was different. In all the other dreams, there had been no image of Megatron. But there was in this dream. In fact, there other were additional images-Devastator, Menasor, Bruticus, and Reflector. The same dark, shadowy cloaked figure stood-as it had before-on the edge of a high cliff overlooking the images. Glowing eyes appeared under its hood, and a pulse of energy emanated from it-as it had so many times before. The impact shattered all the images, and caused excruciating pain when it hit Sheba. But then the scenery melted away. Sheba found herself in what appeared to be another world. The scenery was rather indistinct; but she thought it was probably because this was a dream and things tend to be all muddled up in dreams. Something appeared before her. It was a winged mountain lion, much like herself, only this one appeared a bit older and larger. She sensed immense power-power that she could only dream of having herself-emanating from this creature. Then it spoke.

"Sheba, chosen Guardian of Starscream-I have come to bring you a warning," he said.

"WHO ARE YOU??" Sheba exclaimed.

"I am Elder Prime-the First of all the Organic Transformers and Elector of the Guardians. I did not send you to protect Starscream so that you could destroy the Autobots."

"What?" Sheba was taken aback.

"You are not to kill any Autobots," Elder Prime said sternly, "If you do, you will be sealing the Decepticons' doom as well. Furthermore, I will be forced to seal your powers. With great power comes great responsibility."

"But how am I to protect Starscream then?" Sheba protested.

"I didn't say you couldn't attack the Autobots," Elder Prime stated, "You may do so to fulfill your duty as Starscream's protector, in self-defence, or to assist your friends in times of need. But I repeat-you yourself are not to cause the death of ANY Autobot."

"This is because I cast all those Death spells today, isn't it?" Sheba stated.

"Partly. The effects of the Death spell are reversible-but you knew that. I felt I needed to warn you before Megatron could tempt you to eliminate the Autobots."

"Just out of curiosity-why was I chosen to protect Starscream?" Sheba wanted to know.

"When the time comes, you will find out," Elder Prime replied, "However, I will tell you that only the strongest of our kind are ever chosen as Guardians. You are more powerful than you realize. Remember this."

Sheba had the sensation that she was starting to wake up. But before she was fully awake, it seemed that Elder Prime whispered one last thing: "BEWARE THE CHAOS-BRINGER." An immense dark force seemed to envelop her, attempting to probe her mind, it seemed. An intense anger and hatred for this dark force erupted in Sheba's emotional center. She woke up, filling the entire base with her yowls of rage.

"Who appoints Guardians?" Spike asked Optimus Prime.

"It is said they are chosen by Elder Prime," Optimus replied.

"Elder Prime? But I thought he was only a legend," Huffer stated.

"Elder Prime is no legend," Optimus assured him, "He is said to have been the first Transformer to be changed into an organic. It was he who created the shell of the Matrix and filled it with Wisdom. He is the wisest of all Transformers, past or present."

"But why would he be helping the Decepticons by giving one of them a guardian?" Spike wondered.

"It is said that Elder Prime is neither Autobot nor Decepticon," Prime informed him, "Whatever his reasons are, I can't fathom them."

Chaos was the order of the day in the Decepticons' Undersea base, as too many tried to get through the door of the repair bay all at the same time. Everyone had gone to see why Sheba was suddenly making so much noise.

"Hey, quit shoving," Thrust snapped.

"Me? What about you?" Ramjet retorted.

Megatron arrived on the scene. "All right, all right, EVERYBODY GETBACK," he ordered. It was amazing how quickly the way to the repair bay was cleared. Megatron, followed by Soundwave, the cassettes, and an over-anxious Starscream, went in first. Megatron glanced back at the others. "ONE AT A TIME!" he insisted.

Starscream ran ahead to where Sheba was. "What happened?" he asked.

"Terrible dream," she murmured.

"What sort of dream?" Starscream wanted to know.

"I was told I wasn't allowed to destroy the Autobots," she replied.

"That's a nightmare, all right!" Skywarp commented.

"Oh really?" Megatron said, "And who told you that?"

"He said he was the one who appointed me as Starscream's Guardian. He called himself Elder Prime," Sheba told him, "He said if I killed any Autobots that I would pretty much be stripped of my powers."

"ELDER PRIME?" Megatron exclaimed, "That was NO ORDINARY DREAM!"

"Can't destroy the Autobots, eh? That's a tough break!" Thundercracker stated.

Starscream was furious. "How on Earth are you supposed to protect me if you can't destroy the Autobots?" he fumed.

"He said I could still attack them and knock them out," Sheba explained, "I'm just forbidden to finish them off."

"Wait a minute-Elder Prime sounds like an Autobot's name," Astrotrain protested.

"Not so," Megatron said, "Elder Prime existed prior to the separation between Decepticons and Autobots."

"Yeah, I guess I'd wake up screaming, too, if someone told me I couldn't destroy the Autobots," Rumble sympathized.

"That wasn't what got me," Sheba told him, "Before I woke up, I felt this powerful, evil presence. It felt like whatever it was tried to read my thoughts or something. Total invasion of privacy attempt. While it was trying to get into MY mind, I could sense its mind, and what I sensed nearly drove me mad." A fierce glow appeared in her eyes when she said that.

"You can still help us, can't you-even without being able to destroy the Autobots?" Megatron asked her.

"I'll have to wait and see," Sheba replied, "Having my powers sealed is something I can't afford to have happen to me. Starscream, your life is far too important to me to risk losing my powers over some stupid Autobots. You do understand that, don't you?" She gazed into Starscream's eyes.

"Well, if destroying Autobots costs you your powers, then I guess there really isn't anything more to discuss," Starscream said, "I imagine protecting me would be nearly impossible without them. Very well-I won't hold that against you."

Sheba got up and stretched. She started to head for the door.

"Where are you going?" Megatron asked.

"Outside, of course. I need to get something to eat," Sheba told him.

"If you convert to your robotic form, we could give you some energon," Megatron pointed out.

"Oh. Never tried that stuff before. Okay," Sheba said, and transformed herself into a robot. Someone brought her an energon cube. She chewed a hole in it and began to lap it up. "Hmmm...not bad," she commented. Once she'd finished the energon, she changed back into a 'flesh creature.'

"Why do you insist on staying in that form?" Megatron asked, mystified.

"Well, for starters, it's more comfortable, and it's easier to get something to eat," Sheba replied, "Plus my MagicPower is about three times as strong as it is in my robot mode."

"That's probably something I'll never understand about you," Megatron remarked, shaking his head.

Sheba shrugged. "Oh well, you know what they say-dif'rent strokes for dif'rent folks."

Later in the day, Sheba grew restless. "I NEED TO GO OUTSIDE!" she stated, "There's NOTHING TO DO around here!" She decided to go back to her den, and perhaps even see what the Insecticons were up to.

"Wait," Megatron said, "If you insist on going out as a flesh creature, then someone should accompany you in case the Autobots try to do something foolish again."

"I don't mind," Sheba told him, "Okay, who wants to come with?"

"I will," Frenzy volunteered.

"But can you carry her if she's knocked out again?" Megatron asked.

"I'd go, but I have too much work to do here," Starscream said apologetically.

"Not anymore," Megatron said, "It can wait."

Starscream was flabbergasted. "Why...thank you, Megatron!" he said.

So, the three of them headed out of the base. Sheba offered to let Frenzy ride on her back. He accepted, since it would give him the opportunity to see things without actually having to concentrate on where he was going.

"So exactly what did you have in mind?" Starscream asked Sheba.

"Oh, not much," she replied, "I need some exercise, so I was thinking of chasing Shrapnel and them around for a bit."

Suddenly a voice called, "HEY, WAIT FOR ME!"

Sheba realized who it was. "Rumble?" She slowed down a bit so he could catch up.

"You get to ride on her back? LUCKY!" Rumble told Frenzy.

"There's room for you, too, if you want," Sheba offered, "By the way, how did you get out of doing your chores?"

"I sneaked out," Rumble whispered.

"You WHAT?" Starscream exclaimed.

"Nothing," Rumble said innocently.

Sheba spotted the Insecticons, and decided to have some fun with them. She landed some distance away, and Rumble and Frenzy slid off her back.

"You guys stay here for a bit," she told Starscream and the other two, "Watch this."

She cast Vanish on herself, and crept soundlessly through the trees. The Insecticons were in robot mode, relaxing against some trees.

"Boy, am I FULL," Bombshell stated. Sheba cast Thunder on a nearby tree.

"What was that...that?" Shrapnel exclaimed, and walked towards the tree-which was now in flames. This was the moment Sheba had been waiting for. She got behind Shrapnel, and grabbed around his ankles with both paws-causing him to fall flat on his face. He tried to get up, but Sheba had draped herself all over him. She cast Dispel so that Shrapnel and the others could see her.

"Hi. Miss me?" Sheba grinned.

"Oh, it's you...you," Shrapnel said, relieved. He reached out his hand and started scratching under her chin. The flaming tree was starting to look like it would get out of hand, so Sheba cast Water to put the fire out.

"So watcha been up to?" Sheba wanted to know.

"Oh-the usual," Bombshell replied.

"I see. Stuffing your faces 'til they turn blue, right?" Sheba laughed.

Starscream, Rumble and Frenzy hurried over. They looked worried.

"What's with you guys?" Sheba inquired.

"Those blasted Dinobots are headed this way!" Starscream told her.

"Dinobots, eh? Insecticons, transform, and destroy...destroy!" Shrapnel ordered.

Grimlock, Slag, Sludge, Snarl, and Swoop were out looking for something to occupy them. "Me Grimlock say me smell Decepticons," Grimlock informed the others.

"Me Swoop SEE Decepticons!" Swoop added.

Slag was very happy with that information. "Good! We melt them down!"

Sheba spread her huge wings, and headed in the direction of the Dinobots. Starscream and the two cassettes were not far behind, but she soon overtook the Insecticons, and passed them. The Dinobots took no notice of her until she landed in front of them, with Rumble, Frenzy, and Starscream beside her.

"What THAT?" Sludge wondered, when he saw Sheba.

"Don't know-but it with Decepticons, so we TRASH!" Grimlock announced. He used his Fire Breath attack on Sheba. Nothing happened-she seemed to have absorbed the attack.

"Why my fire not work?" Grimlock wondered.

"Grimlock SUCK at using Fire! Me Slag SHOW HOW TO USE FIRE GOODLY!" Slag taunted. He directed his best Flamethrower attack at Sheba. That also was absorbed.

Sheba summoned Cerberus, then cast Triple Meltdown-one each on Slag, Grimlock, and Snarl. The Insecticons finally arrived. Shrapnel tried using a grenade against Sludge, but it was to no avail.

"Attack the Dinobots that look like they have a sunburn!" Sheba told everyone.

Starscream fired his null ray at Slag, and was surprised to see the big Triceratops go down.

"I remember you doing that to Devastator," Starscream said, "What exactly was that?"

"It's called a Meltdown spell, and it causes the Vitality Zero status effect-which totally eliminates an enemy's resistance to physical and Guardian Force attacks," Sheba replied, then she cast Double Meltdown on Swoop and Sludge, "Their armor will do them NO GOOD this time!"

Rumble and Frenzy discovered that their Quake attack was a lot more useful now. Shrapnel fired another grenade, and found that it actually did some damage this time.

Kickback hauled down Swoop, and Bombshell used some non-cerebro shells to push back Snarl. Grimlock had enough of this, and charged at Sheba. She used a take-down attack to knock him to the ground. This surprised Grimlock, who was used to being able to fling opponents here and there with relative ease.

Once the null ray had worn off of Slag, Sheba used her own Fire Beam attack on him. Then, to have a little fun, she cast Triple Confuse on Snarl, Grimlock, and Sludge. This set them to attacking themselves (and each other). However, once anybody under the Confuse effect is hit with a physical attack, the effect is cancelled out.

"Hey! Why you Grimlock attack me Snarl?" Snarl growled, and swatted Grimlock with his tail. Grimlock seemed to snap out of it then.

"Oh. Sorry-me not know why." Grimlock said.

This got the Insecticons laughing out loud.

"Hey Grimlock!" Sheba called out, "Are you SMART?"

"Yes me Grimlock SMART!" Grimlock said indignantly.

"Then go back to Autobot Headquarters! Otherwise, YOU'RE DUMB!" Sheba told him.

"Me Grimlock NOT DUMB! Come, Dinobots, we go!" Grimlock ordered, and the Dinobots lumbered back towards the Volcano.

Shrapnel, Kickback, and Bombshell laughed until their sides ached.

"How is it that the Dinobots' fire didn't harm you?" Starscream wondered.

"I junctioned Fira and Firaga to my Elemental Defense," Sheba explained, "The combination of junctioning those two spells enables me to absorb a small amount of the attack as Hit Points."

"And how do I get an ability like that?" Starscream wanted to know.

"You have to have a Guardian Force junctioned that has the Elemental-Defense ability," Sheba replied, "One of these days I'll teach you all about it."

Wheeljack was busy working on another project with Spike and Chip when the Dinobots came back. "Good grief, what happened to you guys?" Wheeljack exclaimed.

"We find Decepticons," Sludge stated.

"But you guys always beat the Decepticons!" Chip protested.

"Not just Decepticons," Grimlock informed them, "Flesh creature there, too. Big flying Cat. She big as a Decepticon."

"Oh, no, don't tell me you ran into Sheba," Spike moaned.

"Who's Sheba?" Chip asked, mystified.

"You're not going to believe this, but she's a Decepticon," Spike told him, "She's basically a giant mountain lion with wings, and she has an organic mode. And apparently, she was chosen by somebody or other to be STARSCREAM'S GUARDIAN. She appeared less than a month ago, and has been helping Megatron ever since."

"How was she able to defeat the Dinobots?" Chip wondered.

"She can use some pretty powerful Magic," Wheeljack said, "Powerglide even saw her take out Devastator like he was nothing."

"That doesn't sound good," Chip stated.

"Are you sure it was a good idea sending Starscream out with Sheba?" Soundwave asked Megatron.

"Well, after all, she is HIS Guardian," Megatron replied, "I don't think he'll let anything happen to her."

That wasn't exactly what Soundwave meant, but he said no more about it.

Starscream, Rumble, and Frenzy sat down and watched while Sheba playfully chased the Insecticons. To her, the most fun was trying to catch Kickback while he was in grasshopper mode-it gave her the opportunity to stretch her leg muscles by leaping repeatedly in order to keep up. Finally she did catch him. He returned to robot mode the minute she had him, and she wrestled him down. He laughed when she started licking his face. "Hey! That tickles!" he said.

Starscream let out an audible sigh. Sheba noticed, got off of Kickback, and trotted over to him.

"Wassa matter?" she asked.

"Oh, nothing," he told her.

A mischievous glimmer appeared in her eyes momentarily, and quickly she grabbed one of his shoulder-mounted lasers in her mouth and took off.

"HEY!" Starscream shouted, "Come back here with that!"

Sheba stopped, still holding the weapon in her mouth, but she was slightly crouched and her tail was swinging back and forth rapidly-a pose that practically screamed 'CHASE ME'. The minute Starscream got up, Sheba spread her wings and flew into the air. Starscream, initially angered by this incident, gave chase. This of course, was exactly what Sheba wanted. She led him high into the sky, then suddenly plummeted almost to the ground, turning periodic aerial somersaults, twists, and barrel-rolls with a finesse and gracefullness that would put the best Decepticon flyer to shame. Then she skimmed along the ground-with Starscream still in hot pursuit-and did another lap in the air before landing and continuing on foot. She tripped-on purpose-allowing Starscream to catch her. She dropped his weapon, twisted herself around, grabbed him with her paws, and gleefully wrestled him down. In no time Starscream was flat on his back, and Sheba had him in a bear-hug while eagerly licking his face. He started laughing because her rough tongue tickled his face plates. "Hey, cut that out; that tickles!" he said. So, Sheba began nuzzling her face against his, and was now purring happily. Something about her purring was affecting him-since she was lying right on top of him, the vibrations seemed to reach every part of his body. He couldn't describe the feeling it gave him, other than it made him feel good. He certainly wasn't angry with her now. All she had wanted was to get him off his aft; and being in a playful mood, she certainly enjoyed the chase-and he did too, once he'd figured out what she was up to. He found it rather exhilirating.

Sheba suddenly realized she was thirsty, so she got off of Starscream and headed for a nearby stream. Starscream sat up, picked up his weapon, and put it back on his arm.

The Insecticons' stomachs were growling, so they headed off to raid some more acreage.

"That was fun...fun," Shrapnel said to Sheba before he left.

Sheba stopped lapping water for a second. "Oh yeah, we should definitely do that again sometime," she agreed, "Takes the edge off the boredom, doesn't it?" She finished her drink, then wandered back over to Rumble, Frenzy, and Starscream.

It was starting to get dark out, and the two cassettes wanted to head back to base. Sheba however, wanted to sleep in her cave and no amount of rationalizing would persuade her otherwise. Starscream turned to Rumble and Frenzy.

"You two can go," he told them, "Tell Megatron I'll stay with her."

"Okay," Rumble said, and he and Frenzy took to the air.

Sheba headed towards her cave, with Starscream walking beside her.

When they reached the den, Sheba went inside and immediately flopped down. She was asleep in no time. Starscream sat outside for a few hours, gazing aimlessly into the night sky. Suddenly, a loud noise startled him.

"ROWRRRROWRROWRROWWWWRRRRR!"

Starscream jumped to his feet, and realized the sound had come from inside the cave. He quickly went in, and went over to Sheba. She was wide awake, panting furiously, and there was a faint but furious glow in her eyes. Her tail was puffed out like a bottle brush, and a growl erupted from her.

"What's wrong?" Starscream wondered.

"A dream," she said.

"Another nightmare?" he asked, "Tell me about it."

"I-I...can't. It's too horrible," she protested.

"Try me," he said reassuringly.

Sheba caught her breath, and finally relented.

"Destruction," she said flatly, "I saw the entire Decepticon Forces obliterated."

"How?"

"It's in this vast wasteland, and everything is tinged with red light. I see grey images of all of you, standing motionless, as if stuck in time. A strange cloaked figure is standing on a far-off cliff, and a pulse of energy emanates from that figure and destroys the images. The energy pulse hits me, too, and it feels like it's killing me. Oh-I can't bear to see my friends destroyed...especially not like this. I feel so helpless to stop it..." Sheba broke down completely at that point. Before he realized what he was doing, Starscream bent down and held Sheba in his arms. Comforting someone was certainly not something he was used to doing, but something in the back of his mind compelled him to do so now.

"You're right, that is horrible," Starscream commented. He tried soothing her by stroking her softly, as Megatron had done when Sheba was recovering from the tranquilizer that the Autobots had used on her. Pretty soon purrs were replacing sobs. Sheba's emotions were starting to settle down. She began to relax completely.

"That's better," Starscream told her.

"I keep having this dream," Sheba continued, "And each night I have it, it gets worse. I feel that something terrible is going to happen to you-something that I may be powerless to prevent."

"Oh, don't worry about it," Starscream said softly, "I'm sure you can handle whatever happens-if this dream ends up becoming reality, which I doubt it will. Dreams don't always mean things are going to happen. Sometimes it's only about things that we're afraid will happen, but never really do. It's probably your subconscious fears coming to the surface, nothing more."

"Gettin' philosophical on me, are ya?" Sheba murmured sleepily, "That's not like you-I think." Soon she was fast asleep again.

"Did everybody hear that noise again last night?" Sparkplug wondered aloud.

"Yeah, it kinda gave me the surges," Bumblebee replied.

"Wasn't it just a mountain lion?" Spike asked.

"But we've never heard a mountain lion around here before," Sparkplug said, "I mean, if there WERE mountain lions around, we'd have heard them before now, wouldn't we?"

"Yeah, that's kinda funny," Jazz remarked, "Ever since we've been here, we've never heard that sound before until..."

"Until that Guardian showed up to help the Decepticons!" Optimus Prime interrupted, as a thought suddenly struck him, "In which case, SHE MAY BE IN THIS AREA! Send out survey teams at once! If that creature is around here, we have to find out for sure!"

Sheba awakened that morning and noticed something warm beside her. It was Starscream-he'd fallen asleep right next to her. She got up and went outside for a drink. He was still asleep when she got back. She gently nuzzled him awake.

"Oh-did I fall asleep?" he asked, as he looked around.

"Did you ever!" Sheba laughed.

Sheba wanted to catch something to eat, but Starscream persuaded her to return to Decepticon Headquarters with him and have some energon instead. Not long after they left, Cliffjumper, Brawn, Sunstreaker, Trailbreaker, and Bumblebee entered the area. Spike, who had been riding with Bumblebee, noticed something and asked everyone to stop for a bit. He got out of Bumblebee, and pointed at something on the ground. Bumblebee and the others transformed. A set of giant cat paw-prints was clearly visible in the dirt, along with a set of footprints that clearly belonged to a Decepticon Jet.

"Look at the size of those paw-prints!" Spike exclaimed.

"They're bigger than my hand!" Sunstreaker exclaimed.

Bumblebee decided to use his radio. "Bumblebee to Optimus Prime! Come in, Optimus!"

"Optimus here," came Prime's voice over Bumblebee's radio, "Go ahead, Bumblebee."

"Optimus, we just found a set of giant tracks," Bumblebee stated, "It looks like that Guardian was here, along with one of the Decepticons."

"Any sign of Decepticon activity?" Prime asked.

"Negative," Bumblebee stated, "Just the prints."

"Then leave the area immediately. Sheba is far too dangerous to be approached, especially if Starscream is with her. Return to base and give me a full report."

There was a general uneasiness at Autobot Headquarters, now that it seemed certain that Sheba was in the area on a regular basis.

"What are we going to do?" Ironhide asked.

"Well, since she hasn't actually attacked our base, I don't know if we really need to do anything," Prime responded, "But that could change at any moment."

"What should we do if we see her?" Spike asked.

"Definitely DO NOT approach her. Try to make sure she doesn't detect you. If she does detect you, RUN. Above all, DO NOT fight her. Attempting to battle her is only an exercise in futility, as we have all seen."

Sheba and Starscream returned to the Undersea Base, and several of the Decepticons that were on duty in the control room at the time immediately went over to Sheba. "Been hoggin' her all to yourself, eh, Screamer?" Skywarp teased.

Starscream ignored him.

"I'll go get some energon for you," Starscream said to Sheba, "But you have to be in your robotic form in order to ingest it."

"Yeah, I know," Sheba told him.

"Not yet!" Skywarp protested, "Don't change until he actually brings you the energon!"

"Oh. Okay," Sheba agreed.

Skywarp claimed dibs on stroking Sheba first; then Blitzwing, Thrust, and Hook got their turns before Starscream returned with the energon. She changed to her robotic form and lapped up the energon. Megatron and Soundwave entered the control room.

"Ah, so I see you have returned," Megatron remarked.

"Well, Starscream can be pretty convincing," Sheba stated.

"I see..." Megatron mused, "Anyway, I was wondering if you would do something for me."

"Something? What sort of 'something'?" Sheba wanted to know.

"Sneak into Autobot Headquarters and cause a little chaos," Megatron said, "I know you are forbidden to destroy them, but that doesn't mean you can't have a little fun."

"Oh, I see-do it because I CAN," she realized, "Can I bring Reflector or Laserbeak along for some footage? I'm sure you want pictures of something like that."

"That won't be necessary," Megatron laughed, "I'd rather you went in alone-you probably work better that way."

Sheba agreed, considering that she was bored anyway and was wondering what to do with her day besides sleep.

So, later that day, Sheba went to Autobot Headquarters. She cast Vanish on herself before she was in range so she wouldn't be detected, then went right in through the front door. She passed several unsuspecting Autobots on her way in, and nearly gave herself away because the temptation to start laughing was almost unbearable. Now, what to do next? Sheba walked into the main control room. Her huge padded paws made no noise. She found some tools next to the computer, and grabbed one of them. Then she carried it off to some Autobot's room, left it there, then went back to do the same with the rest of the tools. Nobody saw her do this. Sparkplug came to get his tools and discovered they were gone.

"Hey, did anybody see my tool set?" he asked, "It was there a minute ago."

"No," Wheeljack stated.

"Well any idea who walked off with my tools?" Sparkplug wondered.

"I didn't see anybody take them," Ratchet replied, as he worked on Teletraan 1.

"Well they didn't just get up and walk away, now, did they?" Sparkplug fumed.

Sheba chuckled softly to herself and went to see what kind of mischief she could get into next.

"Is something funny?" Sparkplug asked Ratchet.

"No."

"I coulda sworn I heard somebody snickering," Sparkplug said, with an accusatory tone.

Perceptor's lab was the next target, and luckily he wasn't even in there. Sheba got into all his little experiments, and soon found the tranquilizer. She switched it with plain dyed water, in case they ever tried to knock her out again. Then she took the tranquilizer with her, and used it to adulterate several stacks of energon cubes that she found in a storage room. Then, she took one of Perceptor's vials, and planted it in Brawn and Gears' room.

Sparkplug searched the entire control room, in a futile attempt to find his wayward tools.

"Look, I'm sure you just misplaced them," Ratchet said.

"I LEFT THEM RIGHTHERE!" Sparkplug was starting to raise his voice.

"No need to get touchy," Ratchet snorted.

Optimus Prime, Spike, Red Alert, Bumblebee, and Brawn came into the control room.

"Spike, did you see my tool set?" Sparkplug asked.

"No, dad, I've been gone all day," Spike told him.

Wheeljack's lab was even more fun than Perceptor's lab-mainly because of all the failed experimental devices that Wheeljack insisted on keeping for posterity. Sheba switched a few things from a working device (which was easy to find because Wheeljack was now in the habit of putting stuff that didn't work in a separate space) with parts from something that didn't work. Then she re-wired a couple of devices (although she wasn't sure HOW it was that she suddenly knew what she was doing) so they'd either be grossly over-powered, or do something totally contrary to what Wheeljack had originally intended, or even a little of both.

Since Sparkplug was getting more short-tempered by the minute, Optimus and the others offered to assist him in locating the missing tools. Of course, it soon became apparent that they weren't in the control room at all, so everyone split up and started looking in other rooms. Ciffjumper noticed that the door to the room that Mirage shared with Hound was wide open. Right in the middle of the room were Sparkplug's tools! He grabbed them and returned to the control room.

"I think Mirage was trying to play a practical joke," Cliffjumper said, as he gave Sparkplug his tools back.

"Why, where'd you find them?" Sparkplug asked.

"In Mirage and Hound's room!" Cliffjumper stated, "That's why nobody saw them taken-because Mirage can make himself INVISIBLE!"

Coincidentally enough, Mirage just entered the room.

"Ah-ha!" Cliffjumper called out, "There's the culprit now!"

"What are you talking about, Cliffjumper?" Mirage asked, puzzled.

"Very funny, Mirage. We found Sparkplug's tools in YOUR room."

"But I didn't take them. I've been out on patrol until now," Mirage protested.

"But you're the only one that can go invisible," Sparkplug told him.

The argument was temporarily suspended when Perceptor stormed in.

"This is an outrage!" he fumed, in an uncharacteristically bad temper.

Prime and the others came back in.

"What's wrong, Perceptor?" Optimus asked, "It isn't like you to get angry like this."

"SOMEONE was in my laboratory, and that SOMEONE tampered with some VERY DELICATE EXPERIMENTS! And to add insult to injury, they took a sample of something I'm currently working on! I MUST FIND IT!" Perceptor exclaimed.

Not five seconds later, Wheeljack-who had gone to see if Sparkplug's tools were in his lab-came back, mad as a hornet.

"All right, that's it! Who was messing with my stuff?" he demanded.

Gears was right behind him. He was holding up a vial of something.

"Hey, can anybody tell me what this is?" he wondered.

"MY SAMPLE!" Perceptor exclaimed, "Where did you find it?"

"It was just lying on the floor in mine and Brawn's room," Gears replied.

"Brawn! I should have known!" Perceptor said crossly.

"What? No way!" Brawn objected, "I have no idea how that got in my room!"

Over at the Undersea Base, the Decepticons were watching the events as they unfolded at Autobot H.Q.-courtesy of Laserbeak and Buzzsaw. Most of them were laughing so hard they were practically rolling on the floor. Shrapnel, Bombshell, and Kickback were munching on popcorn.

"Hey, where'd that stuff come from?" Skywarp asked Kickback.

Kickback shrugged. "Sheba got it for us," he stated.

"How on Earth did she manage to get THAT MUCH?"

Sheba shook her head in dismay at Jazz and Blaster's collection of Earth Music. Scorpions?! Whitesnake?! Billy Idol?! Bon Jovi?! POISON?! NOW,REALLY! I'm surprised they've got ANY cool stuff at all! Bon Jovi had, what, TWO good songs? Here, let's put in some PROPER music...

"Man, am I starved," Bluestreak sighed. He and Prowl, Warpath, Powerglide, and Seaspray had just come in from a routine patrol. They went to get some energon from a storage room. Usually the Autobots used recharge chambers, but these energon cubes had been swiped from the Decepticons little by little by the female Autobots on Cybertron, who sent some back to Earth via Omega Supreme, and they needed to be used up. They each unwittingly chose a cube from one of the stacks that Sheba had poured the tranquilizer into.

Jazz and Blaster came back from town, just in time to catch Wheeljack getting really steamed over the mess-up of his lab. Blaster wanted to calm everybody down with some music, so he went and got what he thought was a Poison album (the one with "Nothin' but a Good Time" on it-one of their best songs, which isn't saying MUCH). He started playing it, expecting to hear Nothin' but a Good Time..., but instead got the techno-beat of Duran Duran's View To A Kill.

"Hey, man, that ain't right," Blaster began, "Someone switched tapes on me."

"It's an improvement, I think," Hoist stated, as he walked in. He was followed by Bluestreak and the others.

Suddenly, Bluestreak's face looked rather ashen. "I don't feel so..." he started, but keeled over before he could finish speaking. Seconds later, the same thing happened to Prowl, then Powerglide, then Warpath, then Seaspray.

Ratchet, Wheeljack, and Hoist rushed over to their now-unconscious comrades.

"They're still functioning," Wheeljack reported, "It's like they're asleep or something."

"Oh no," Perceptor said, "Don't tell me whoever got into my experiments also got into the tranquilizer!"

"Why would your tranquilizer have any effect on a robot?" Spike wanted to know.

"I specifically formulated it to affect either robots or organic life forms, in case that Guardian chose to use her robotic form," Perceptor explained, "However, I never got to test it on robots."

"Well, I'd say it works," Ratchet stated.

"Wait a minute," Optimus Prime interrupted, "First Sparkplug's tools mysteriously disappear, then reappear in Mirage's room. Then, Perceptor and Wheeljack's labs are vandalized. Now someone managed to get Bluestreak and the others to ingest Perceptor's tranquilizer without realizing it. WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?!"

"But what about my tapes?" Blaster added.

"Nobody cares about your stupid tapes," Gears growled.

"That's enough, Gears," Optimus reprimanded, "What I'm saying is there's someone here in our base-someone that can become invisible, and I'm sure it wasn't Mirage."

"Then who was it?" Sparkplug inquired.

"I'm guessing it's that Guardian," Optimus Prime replied, "Although it escapes me why she'd simply play a bunch of practical jokes rather than wipe us out."

"Maybe because the Decepticons haven't figured out how to pirate Comedy Central yet," Huffer joked.

"But if it is the Guardian, how do we stop her?" Spike asked.

Sheba, still invisible, poked her nose back into the control room just then. Geez, took them long enough to figure it out, she thought, Oh well, guess the party's over. Then her eyes locked on something she was sure Megatron would like to have-there were an assortment of disks on one of the counters by Teletraan 1. She went over to them, and found one marked "Solar Power Tower Plans-Hoist and Grapple." She grabbed it in her mouth, but in her haste she knocked several of the other disks to the floor. The noise alerted the Autobots in the room.

"That's HER!" Optimus Prime shouted, "We have to get back whatever she just took!"

Sheba very much wanted to be chased, so she decided to cast Dispel on herself as soon as she reached the door out of the Control Room. The next thing the Autobots saw was a green circle of energy rise up from the ground, with several blue-white orbs that twisted in a circular pattern as they went up-then a purple forcefield appeared, and shattered. There stood Sheba, with the disk in her mouth. She darted out the door with several Autobots in hot pursuit. In the hallway, she leaped right over an astonished Inferno, who had come to see what the commotion was about. Several of the fastest Autobots-Mirage, Jazz, Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, and Tracks-decided running wasn't going to cut it, so they transformed. Just as they thought they had caught up to Sheba, they reached the exit. Sheba spread her wings and was airborne in no time. Tracks decided to try to catch her in the air. Sheba circled around, cast Demi on Tracks (taking off a quarter of his HP), and headed back towards the Decepticon Undersea Base.

"Boy, that was some great entertainment," Thrust commented, as Sheba came off the elevator.

"Oh yeah, I really had them going for a minute there," Sheba said, grinning. She went up to Megatron, and presented him with the disk she stole from the Autobots.

"Hmmm...the Solar Power Tower plans, eh?" he though aloud.

"Ahhh, well, I figured Grapple's smart enough to make new plans and he didn't really need this thing," Sheba told him.

"How thoughtful of you," Megatron stated.

Sheba went to the center of the room and flopped onto her side.

Several of the Decepticons went over to pet her. Dirge insisted on being first. "Awww, come on you guys, I hardly ever get to," he complained.

Sheba revelled in all the attention. The other Decepticons stuck around nearby, because they found the sound of her purrs soothing.

"Soundwave, what is it about Sheba's purring that is so...addictive?" Megatron asked.

"Frequency at which Sheba purrs stimulates our Automatic Repair systems," Soundwave replied.

"Oh, so it helps us heal faster?" Megatron wondered.

"Affirmative."

The Insecticons were getting ready to leave.

"Oh, Sheba, thanks for the...the-what is that white stuff called?" Kickback said.

"Popcorn," Sheba reminded him, "With lots of evil fattening butter."

"It was delicious...delicious," Shrapnel commented.

"Yeah, well, can you get us some more sometime?" Kickback added.

"Alright, but only for special occasions," Sheba told him, "I'll see what I can do."

After awhile, Megatron reminded the other Decepticons that they had duties to perform, so they all reluctantly went about their assignments. Sheba decided to go back to her cave to sleep, after all, it was getting pretty late. Megatron didn't object, since Sheba had taken care of Perceptor's tranquilizer-at least, for now.

Powerglide and Seaspray were the first to awaken from the comatose state that they had been under, thanks to tranquilizer-laced energon. Then, Warpath, Prowl, and Bluestreak also slowly began to come around. Optimus Prime was relieved.

"Powerglide, can you get up?" Ratchet asked.

"Nope."

"Why not?"

"Because every time I try, the room starts to act funny-goin' around in circles and jumping up and down," Powerglide informed him.

"Owwww, bang, boom, what happened?" Warpath moaned.

"You accidentally ingested energon that had been laced with tranquilizer," Perceptor stated.

"Ohhhh, what a headache," Seaspray complained.

"Well, no permanent damage done," Perceptor assured them.

"This has gone too far," Optimus said presently, "Perceptor, I need to find out more about that Guardian."

"Ah, there's cat hair all over the place," Sparkplug said in disgust.

"Wait, that's it!" Spike exclaimed, "Perceptor could probably do at least a DNA test of the Guardian's hair, right?"

"Why, yes, of course," Perceptor replied, "I'll see what I can come up with." He collected several strands of fur that were lying on the floor, then took them into his lab. A few hours later, he burst from his lab with some stunning results.

"Prime! This is unbelievable!" he shouted, "There is something strange here!"

"What is it?" Prime asked.

"I found traces of shadow DNA in the sample," Perceptor reported.

"Shadow DNA? What's that?" Spike wanted to know.

"It's very rare," Perceptor explained, "But shadow DNA is one of many processes used to change one kind of life form into another. The process is reversed by 'stripping away' the false, or shadow DNA away from the original code. And the shadow DNA in this sample is HUMAN."

"HUMAN?!" Optimus Prime was shocked.

"And the substance that was able to reactivate the original code, and thus deactivate the shadow DNA, is Cybertonium," Perceptor continued.

"Do you realize what this means, Perceptor?" Optimus said earnestly.

"What?" Perceptor asked reflexively.

"It means I may be able to REASON with her!"

"Surely you're not serious," Perceptor protested.

"I have to try," Optimus insisted, "It may be our only chance!"

Sheba returned to her den, and soon fell asleep. However, she had the same nightmare she'd had on many previous occasions-a dark, reddened world, and images of all the Decepticons getting destroyed by a strange distant force that was concealed under a hooded cloak on a faraway clifftop. She woke up, screaming the way ordinary pumas do when they are angry and frightened at the same time.

"ROWRRRROWWWROWWWWRRR!"

"That's the sound I've been waiting to hear!" Optimus Prime said to himself. He had been sitting outside, and jumped to his feet when he heard the noise. He ascertained the direction that the sound was coming from, transformed, and rolled for it.

Sheba suddenly awakened, as she always did after that nightmare. She was vaguely aware of the sound of a vehicle approaching. She dashed out of her cave and charged up the hillside to get a better view. Two headlights were visible. AN AUTOBOT!

Sheba began uttering a low warning growl, and gradually built up to a snarl. She watched as the Autobot passed her cave, then stopped. It was Optimus Prime. He transformed, and looked around warily.

"Sheba-I know you're out there!" Optimus called out.

Not a second later, he felt a sudden impact-and got knocked to the ground. Powerful paws grabbed him and threw him against the side of the hill. Optimus looked up to see Sheba glaring at him. Her green-gold eyes gleamed in the dark. She was growling savagely, her fur was all on end, and her tail was switching back and forth rapidly.

"I only came here to talk," Prime began.

"Too bad, because I don't want to hear it," Sheba snapped, still growling. She cast Thundaga on him, taking off about 7000 HP.

"I don't want to fight you-but you leave me no choice!" Prime stated.

He tried shooting her with his laser rifle. She dodged it easily, then counterattacked with a Firaga spell.

"Please, you MUST listen!" Prime pleaded, "YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING!"

Sheba became enraged when she heard that. "EXCUSE ME?!" she spat, with every ounce of contempt she had.

"I KNOW that you were human at some point," Optimus told her, "If you continue to assist the Decepticons, they will lay waste to this world and enslave or destroy all the inhabitants!"

"Not my problem," Sheba retorted, "My one and only concern is that Starscream continues to function. Nothing else matters."

"But protecting a Decepticon makes NO SENSE!" Optimus argued.

Sheba drew herself into a huff. "I was appointed by Elder Prime himself! Are you questioning his wisdom?!"

"But protecting Starscream? That's just WRONG!" Optimus told her.

Sheba at once became more furious with Optimus Prime than she'd ever been in her life. She flew at his face, clawing and snarling. Optimus felt five deep gashes on his faceplates that ran from 'ear' to chin.

"YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!" Sheba cried out, "I MUST protect Starscream! I-I..." her voice trailed off. Then she regained her composure. "If YOU, or any Autobot ever harms him, I swear it will take weeks just to find all your separate components!"

"Ah. I DO understand," Optimus Prime said quietly. The fire in Sheba's eyes told him everything he needed to know. He transformed, and headed back to base. Sheba had no desire to pursue, since she felt she'd made her point. All she wanted to do now was sleep...

Despite the fact that it was the wee hours of the morning, quite a few Autobots had stayed up to see what would come of Prime's attempt to 'reason' with the Guardian. Spike could not sleep and was also waiting for Optimus' return.

"Optimus!" Ironhide said, "You look lucky to be functional!"

"That's a nasty scratch," Ratchet said sympathetically.

"She was holding back," Optimus told him, "She could have destroyed me right then and there, and yet chose not to."

"So, what did she say?" Prowl asked.

"Not much," Prime replied, "But it's clear that there is more to her than we previously thought. It seems she doesn't just see herself as Starscream's protector-I believe she is enamored with him. To her, it doesn't matter if the entire planet is destroyed, as long as Starscream remains alive. She got VERY emotional when she as much threatened to tear me limb from limb if I ever did anything to harm Starscream."

"Guardians falling in love with their charges...that's not unheard of," Perceptor mused.

"But she's a Decepticon," Spike stated, "I thought they didn't think of anything but hate, conquest, war, and destruction."

"The problem is finding out what she is really thinking," Optimus said, "It's really too bad we can't read her mind."

"So then I guess this means that if we want to avoid the Guardian's wrath, we have to pull our punches when it comes to Starscream," Prowl sighed.

Perceptor spoke up. "Well, I did some research while you were gone, Prime," he said, "The sudden influx of Cybertonium into Earth's atmosphere seems to roughly coincide with the appearance of the Guardian. When I discovered the presence of the shadow DNA, and Cybertonium, I checked the Cybertonium in the fur samples against the Cybertonium in the meteorite that Beachcomber brought in. They were identical in composition, so I think it is reasonable to assume that the Cybertonium meteors at least partially explains her sudden appearance on Earth. How she got from Cybertron to Earth is a complete mystery, however. This much I do know-someone had to have known she was here, and deliberately sent the Cybertonium via meteors in order to restore her to her true form."

"But who would have turned her into a human in the first place, and most importantly, WHY?" Optimus Prime asked.

"Finding the answer to that question will be extremely difficult, if not impossible," Perceptor told him.

"I was only asking a rhetorical question, Perceptor," Optimus sighed.

"Oh."

Ramjet was chasing after Powerglide the next afternoon. He'd almost caught up to him, too.

"I have you now, Autobot!" Ramjet gloated.

"We'll see about that!" Powerglide argued, and flew quite low over a hill. When Ramjet followed, Superion's fist came out of nowhere and suddenly connected with his nosecone.

"Ooooof!" Ramjet groaned, as if he'd had his wind knocked out of him. He landed on the ground right side up, but found he was unable to restart his engines or transform.

Superion separated back into the Aerialbots.

"You want we should give him some more?" Skydive asked Silverbolt.

"Nahhh, he's not going anywhere," Silverbolt said, "Let's head back and report to Prime."

Sheba had just finished chowing down on a deer, when she noticed a whisp of what looked like smoke over the top of the trees. She quickly rinsed her paws and face off in the stream. Washing in the usual way-with her tongue-would have taken too long. She cast Mini to return to normal size, and flew off to investigate. She soon spotted Ramjet lying on the ground in jet mode. The whisp of smoke was coming from one of his engines.

She landed right next to him. There were some Cura spells in her stocked Magic inventory that needed using up, so she put herself in Triple and cast Triple Cura on him.

Ramjet discovered that he was now able to transform. "Oh, Sheba, it's you," he said, with some surprise in his voice. He sat up and began to stroke Sheba's neck and back. She purred in appreciation.

"What happened?" Sheba wanted to know.

"Superion happened, that's what," Ramjet told her.

"Well, at least you landed 'shiny-side-up'," she commented, "What was Superion doing bothering one single Decepticon Jet?"

"Umm, I was sort of chasing Powerglide when it happened."

"Oh, I see-he led you into a trap," Sheba realized, "So how come you're out here by yourself? Why didn't at least Thrust or Dirge come along with?"

"They had other things to do," Ramjet explained, "They're helping the Constructicons expand our headquarters...oh, wait, I wasn't supposed to..."

"You weren't supposed to what?" Sheba pressed.

"It was supposed to be a surprise," Ramjet sighed, "But I guess I blew it."

"Nah. I don't know exactly what is going on from what you told me," Sheba assured him, "By the way, whose idea was it to make whatever-it-is a surprise?"

"Megatron's," Ramjet replied.

"So how come Starscream's not out here?"

"Starscream's busy, too."

"Well," Sheba stated, "I guess you'd better keep me occupied so I don't find out what the surprise is until it's ready."

"Oh yeah, that's what Megatron sent me to do anyway," Ramjet said sheepishly, "But then I saw Powerglide and forgot everything else."

"Well, what to do..." Sheba thought aloud, "Oh, I know! Try to knock me out of the sky like you do with Powerglide and them." She rose into the air with a few flaps of her powerful wings.

"Are you sure?" Ramjet wondered, "I hit pretty hard, you know."

"Ahhh, just transform and try to catch me, will ya?" Sheba told him.

Ramjet transformed, and did his level best to try to crash into her in mid-air. However, she was far too good at getting out of the way at the last minute. After numerous failed attempts, Sheba turned the tables and plowed into Ramjet. The force of the impact sent him spiralling to the ground. He transformed after he hit the ground, and Sheba landed right on his back. She reached around and began licking his face.

"Not bad for a flesh creature," Ramjet admitted, "Hey, what's that tongue of yours made of? Sandpaper?"

"No, it's not sandpaper; it's more like having a hairbrush for a tongue," Sheba informed him, "The roughness comes in real handy-like when I'm trying to straighten out my fur and get all the dirt out of it."

"You have to use your tongue to clean yourself? That's gross!" Ramjet exclaimed.

"Well, I AM a CAT," Sheba shrugged.

Megatron and Starscream were overseeing the work on the Decepticon Headquarters that was supposed to be a 'surprise.'

"How come we're not gonna tell her about it yet?" Rumble wanted to know.

"Because I know how her mind works," Megatron explained, "You see, I would prefer that she spend most of her time here, at our headquarters. However, simply demanding that she do so will actually have the opposite effect. This way, she'll have a reason to spend more of her time here, and the fact that it's going to be a surprise for her will activate a desirable emotional response, so that she'll WANT to be here more."

"How clever," Starscream remarked, "But I don't see why you sent Ramjet to keep her busy. He'll probably crash into something on the way there and forget that the whole thing's supposed to be a secret."

"Well, I had a very good reason for not sending YOU," Megatron told him.

"And what's that?" Starscream wanted to know. The tone of his voice indicated he felt some kind of insult was headed his way.

"Sheba has a weak telepathic link to you that gets stronger when you are in close proximity," Megatron told him, "If you had been the one to keep her occupied, she would have sensed what was going on."

"Telepathic link?!" Starscream asked, puzzled.

"It's part of having a Guardian. That was how she was able to know when you were in danger. You may not be aware of it, but Soundwave was able to detect it," Megatron stated.

"But wouldn't she be sensing what's going on NOW?" Starscream wondered.

"At this distance, she would only sense something if there was a serious risk to your life," Megatron said, "Things that are not of life-and-death importance would not even register."

Sheba lay on her back in the soft grass, staring up at the sky.

"What are you doing?" Ramjet asked.

"Just relaxing," Sheba replied, "You should try it. For clearing the tension out, nothing beats lying on your back on a nice sunny day."

"If you say so," Ramjet said. He had been sitting down, so he just lay back and stretched out on the springy turf. There were several clouds floating across the sky.

"That cloud there kinda looks like a dragon," Sheba commented.

"Oh really? Which one?"

Sheba pointed out the general direction with her paw.

"Oh. Yeah, you're right," Ramjet told her, "I actually saw a REAL LIVE DRAGON."

"No fooling?"

"Yeah-me, Starscream, Rumble, and Ravage travelled back in time to when the humans dressed up like robots."

"Oh, back in the Dark Ages, you mean," Sheba said, "I bet you got to see horses for the first time in your life."

"Horses?"

"They're a four-legged animal that eats grass and humans ride on their backs."

"Oh, I know what those are now. When I first saw humans riding horses, I thought they were one entity," Ramjet remembered, "I was wondering why they came apart so easy."

"So what about the dragon?" Sheba wanted to know.

"Well, we were out of energy, but the two Autobots that followed us-Hoist and Warpath-ended up getting power from a Magician. They took us back to the Mound where the time-machine was, and the Dragon blocked our way. It was really big-almost as tall as Devastator-and it was breathing fire hot enough to smelt us all. Starscream was terrified of it," Ramjet chuckled at that last comment.

"I don't blame him," Sheba stated, "You were scared, too, weren't you?"

"Yeah," Ramjet admitted, "But don't tell anyone!"

Sheba squinted at something in the sky. Her long-distance vision soon focused in on what it was.

"Awww, no," Sheba said in disgust.

"What's wrong?" Ramjet wondered.

"The Aerialbots are headed this way," she told him, "Just when I was getting comfortable, too." She rolled over, got up, and stretched.

"C'mon, Ramjet, we have a score to settle with these guys! And don't worry-if they form Superion, they've HAD IT!"

"This is where we left Ramjet, but I don't see him anywhere," Slingshot said. He and the other Aerialbots had come to take Ramjet prisoner, since they thought he was still incapacitated.

"There's no way he could have left on his own," Silverbolt stated, "Not after the pounding we gave him."

"Then where'd he go?" Fireflight wondered.

Ramjet and Sheba stepped from behind some trees.

"Right here," Ramjet announced, "GO GET 'EM, SHEBA!" That was meant to be more of an encouragement than an actual order.

Sheba charged forward, snarling, and leaped onto Silverbolt. She raked his shoulders with her claws and then grabbed him, rolling sideways and hurling him into Air Raid. The other Aerialbots were uncertain about what to do, since Sheba was in 'flesh creature' mode, and Optimus had warned them never to harm organic life forms. Finally Slingshot tried blasting her with his laser pistol. It didn't do that much damage, but it did make her mad.

A green circle of energy rose up from the ground in a wavy pattern, along with some blue-tinged white orbs that twisted around in a circular pattern, then some green energy in the form of a ring flowed down over Sheba-a Cura spell. Seconds later, she cast another spell-Blizzaga. A huge chunk of ice materialized over Slingshot, then shattered, taking off about 2300 HP.

"What was that?!" Skydive exclaimed.

"It looked like Magic," Silverbolt told him.

Several green orbs with red cores appeared around Sheba. They spun around her, then flew off in all directions. Sheba and Ramjet disappeared, and the sky immediately became filled with dark clouds, even though it had previously been clear and sunny. Suddenly a huge, purple-and grey dragon-Bahamut-descended from out of the clouds. It braked itself with its enormous wings, hovering in place. Several bolts of blue-white energy came from its mouth, followed by a bright, fiery finishing blast. It hit all the Aerialbots, causing about 6100 HP of damage to each of them.

"Aerialbots, transform and merge into SUPERION!" Silverbolt called out in a panic.

"Heh, heh, heh," Ramjet snickered. He had a pretty good idea of what was going to happen next.

Once Superion was complete, he aimed a punch at Sheba, but she jumped out of the way.

"TIME TO CALL IN THE HEAVY HITTERS!" Sheba called out, "DARK MESSENGER!"

Once again the green-red orbs appeared, and Sheba and Ramjet disappeared. A flock of bats converged at a central point above Superion, and began to form a black, shiny, sticky-oily orb. A hideous, black-and red humanoid demon shape emerged from the bottom of the orb-the GF Diablos. He spread his wings, and stuck one arm up into the black orb. Orange energy beams emanated from Diablos through his arm into the orb, then he pulled it down towards Superion. The orb stretched a bit, almost like a liquified form of silly-putty, as Diablos hurled it. It seemed to crush Superion under its weight, and that's what it was actually doing, since Dark Messenger is a Gravity attack. The attack took off 9999 HP from Superion. Diablos did a backwards mid-air somersault, separating back into individual bats which then flew away. Sheba was not done yet-she summoned one more GF. The scenery changed to outer space, and a creature that can only be described as bizarre appeared-the GF Eden. It fired a beam that seemed to carry Superion to the core of the next galaxy. There was a huge explosion, and Superion found himself on Earth once again. The attack had taken off 34,800 HP. He could not take much more of this.

"Aerialbots, separate," he said.

"Let's get out of here!" Silverbolt called out, and soon the Aerialbots were headed back to Autobot Headquarters.

"You sure showed them, didn't you?" Ramjet laughed, "By the way, what happened to us while those monsters were attacking the Aerialbots? It felt weird-like I was transported to another place, even though I could see what was happening."

"Well, during the summoning process, just before a Guardian Force appears, any damage that would have gone to you is taken by the GF instead," Sheba told him, "And when the GF appears, the summoner and any allies are temporarily sent to the GF's dimension so they can be shielded from accidentally incurring any damage from the attack. However, even in the Other Place, you can see what's going on in the battle. There are some GFs that don't send you to the protective dimension because their powers are meant to affect the summoner. The GF Carbuncle is a good example. It casts Ruby Light, which is a group Reflect spell. Since you have to be there in order to benefit from it, you aren't sent to the Other Place during Carbuncle's summon."

"Reflect? What's that?" Ramjet wondered.

"Here, let me demonstrate," Sheba began, and cast Reflect on herself.

She then cast Cura, which bounced off a forcefield around her. The spell automatically went to Ramjet, restoring about 1200 of his HP.

"Oh, I see-it reflects Magic," he realized.

"Yeah, but you have to be careful," Sheba advised, "Some spells-like Meteor, Ultima, and Tornado-cannot be Reflected. And Dispel will destroy a Reflect forcefield. Using Curative magic while you're in Reflect can be tricky, too. Sometimes it helps to cast Reflect on your opponents, too-that way you can bounce Curative Magic back to yourself. The only problem with that is once a spell is Reflected, the targeting is completely random. A Reflected Cure spell might not go to the one who needs it the most. And a spell, once Reflected off of you, doesn't get Reflected again if the enemy also has Reflect enabled, so you can bounce attack spells off your Reflect forcefield."

"Can you teach me how to use Magic?" Ramjet asked.

"Someday I will," Sheba promised.

"And what was that weird thing that sent the Aerialbots running? I've never seen anything like it before!"

"Oh, that was the Guardian Force Eden," Sheba informed him, "Sure, Eden's appearance boggles the mind to say the least, but at least it gets the job done."

The Aerialbots had returned to base, and told everyone they saw what had happened.

"All of a sudden, there was Ramjet, with this big feathered pussycat," Slingshot was saying, "I couldn't figure how it was that Ramjet was able to transform and walk around. He said, 'GO GET 'EM, SHEBA!' and that cat-thing he was with tore into Silverbolt."

"Well, that explains it," Ratchet stated, "Sheba can use Magic. She probably healed Ramjet with a spell."

Silverbolt fingered the scratches on his shoulders. "I don't understand how she was able to tear through METAL."

"Well, anyway, then she summoned this dragon to attack us. It hit us pretty hard, so we formed Superion. Then we got attacked by two more monsters-a Demon and some other thing that looked really bizarre. The last monster did a LOT of damage, so we had to separate and get the heck out of there," Slingshot finished.

"Hey, wait a minute," Spike said, "I thought Sheba was Starscream's Guardian. What was she doing helping Ramjet?"

"Did she come when you first attacked Ramjet?" Optimus Prime asked.

"No," Silverbolt said.

"Then she probably just stumbled upon him while he was injured, and decided to help him as a friend," Prime stated.

"You think she's FRIENDS with the other Decepticons?" Spike exclaimed.

"It IS a possibility," Optimus said, "We know so little about her."

Several more hours passed, and Sheba spent most of the time sharing what she knew about Guardian Forces and Magic in general with Ramjet. Since he'd actually seen a human Wizard use Magic, it was easy enough for him to understand the concept. What particularly intrigued him was the so-called Forbidden Magic-Ultima and Meteor. Those were the two most powerful Stocked spells, and as such, were extremely difficult to come by. It was much easier to find a monster or a draw point to draw these spells from, rather than try to manufacture them through Bahamut's Forbid-Mag-RF [Forbidden Magic Refinement] Ability. The items needed tended to be extremely rare, and most often were better off used for something else. But in order to use this kind of Magic, a Guardian Force must be junctioned. Sheba explained as best she could about the Junctioning process and all it entailed, but Ramjet found that particular aspect rather confusing. Even more of a bother (in Ramjet's opinion) was the fact of Guardian Force compatibility. If a GF has a low compatibility with the person it's junctioned to, it will take longer for the GF to appear when summoned. That gives an enemy more time to try to defeat the GF before it appears and attacks. And to make matters worse, the more GFs a person has junctioned, the harder it is to keep good compatibility with ALL of them.

Sheba was interrupted by a message being received on Ramjet's radio.

"Ramjet, return to base," came Megatron's voice, "And bring Sheba with you-it is urgent that I speak with her."

"Acknowledged," Ramjet answered, "We'll be right there."

"So I guess this is when I get to find out why Megatron wanted to keep me busy," Sheba said, grinning.

When Sheba and Ramjet reached the Undersea Base, they were greeted by Thrust.

"Megatron wants to see you," Thrust told Sheba, "This way." He led Sheba and Ramjet down the corridor. Soon they came to a section that looked like there'd been fresh construction and renovation done on it. Further ahead, there was a new area that appeared to have been added on recently. Megatron, Starscream, and Dirge were standing in front of the entrance.

"So what did you want to see me about?" Sheba asked, as she approached.

"Your new quarters," Megatron stated.

"You built me my own room?" Sheba gaped.

"Come have a look," Megatron invited.

Sheba went through the passageway to the next room, and could not believe her optical sensors. Most of the other Decepticons were in there, waiting to see what her reaction would be. The room was HUGE-large enough for Devastator to stand up and walk around in. There were some platform and shelf-like projections sticking out of the wall-some of which were stairs that led to an overhead loft that took up only about a third of the ceiling-area. In the room itself, there was a computer with an enormous screen. It was capable of playing videotapes and also of receiving television and satellite broadcasts. There was also a large wooden scratching post, several secret passages to other parts of the base (that a Decepticon Jet COULD get through if he went on his hands and knees), and ample space and plug-ins for any appliance she might want to have. On the floor in one of the corners was the mattress that Swindle and Mixmaster had made for her-as well as a drinking-water fountain. She turned it on and tasted the water.

"How on earth did you get FRESH water?" she asked, amazed.

"Hook and Scavenger put together a reverse-osmosis water purifier," Megatron replied.

There were several cupboards, and when Sheba opened them out of curiousity, she found they were well stocked with rather large packages of Snack Food.

"Whoa-who went to Costco?" she exclaimed.

"Oh, I did that-sort of," Swindle answered, as he checked out the computer, "Megatron got Shrapnel to give me some ideas on what to get."

There was a room off to the side, and when she opened it, it was a bathroom-complete with a bath-tub and a 'porcelain god' made out of stainless steel.

"Boy, you thought of EVERYTHING," Sheba stated.

"I always do," Megatron said, "Well, what do you think?"

"I don't know what to say," she said wistfully, "This is all so unexpected."

"Do you LIKE it?" Scavenger asked anxiously.

"I LOVE it!" Sheba replied, "But I'm curious-how come you made it so big?"

"Simple," Megatron told her, "I thought the others might become envious, so I had it made this large so that you could have all the company you want without leaving anyone out. I figured they would be much more accepting of your new room if they could share in its benefits."

"So, like, if I wanted to have everyone in here to watch movies one night, I could?" Sheba inquired.

"It would be allowed-provided that there is nothing of major importance that might take precedence," Megatron replied.

This show of generosity was blowing Sheba's mind. This isn't like him...IS IT? she wondered to herself. She went over the whole place two more times to make sure she wasn't dreaming. Then she went to the mattress in the corner and lay down on it. She shut her eyes and began purring. She felt like she was melting into a puddle of sheer joy.

"I thought it would be to your liking," Megatron said, as he came over to her.

"Gee, it's like you want me to stay here," Sheba commented.

"Well, the thought had crossed my mind," Megatron admitted, letting the slightest hint of a smile appear on his face, "I trust Ramjet kept you sufficiently entertained?"

Sheba laughed. "Yeah. We ran into the Aerialbots."

"She tore a strip off Silverbolt, so they formed Superion. Even then, they still got their afterburners kicked," Ramjet added enthusiastically.

Some of the other Decepticons wanted to pet Sheba all at the same time, and started arguing.

"HOLD IT," came a familiar high-pitched voice behind them, "As she is MY Guardian, I get to pet her first."

"Whatever you say, Screamer," Skywarp said, rather disappointedly-but he was not about to question Starscream's authority.

Sheba taught the others how to play rock-paper-scissors to determine the order the rest of them could pet her in. Then she curled back up on her mattress and purred contentedly as Starscream stroked her. Each Decepticon eventually got the opportunity to pet her, but halfway through she drifted off into a deep and dreamless sleep.

When she awoke the next morning, she saw an unexpected sight-several Decepticons were still there-lying on the floor, fast asleep.

"What is this, Jonestown?" Sheba said aloud. She walked over to the nearest one-Astrotrain, and nudged him.

"Hey-wake up, sleepy-head," she told him.

Astrotrain awoke with a start. "Ohhhh-what am I doing here? Oh yeah, I remember-I never left."

Sheba went over to Thundercracker next. He was a heavy sleeper, and it took a few nudges before he was fully awake.

"Been sleeping on the floor, have I? Won't do that again-most uncomfortable..." Thundercracker moaned.

In addition to Thundercracker and Astrotrain, Sheba had to awaken Ramjet, Hook, Swindle, Long Haul, Dirge, Scavenger, Blitzwing, Scrapper, and Thrust. There wasn't much time for socializing, because as soon as Thrust was awake, Megatron called for everyone to assemble in the main control room.

"The female Autobots have been stealing our energon on Cybertron," Megatron informed them, "Shockwave tells me that they seem to do so on specific days, and calculates that the next attempt will be made today. I want to prevent them from succeeding. Sheba, this is where you come in. I want to you to go to Cybertron and thwart the efforts of Elita 1's raiding party."

"Me? Go to Cybertron?" Sheba said nervously.

"It is your home planet," Megatron reminded her, "I'm sure you want to see it again after all these years. Besides, you have not yet had the opportunity to meet Shockwave."

"Won't he be suspicious of me because I'm a 'flesh creature'?" Sheba wondered.

"Not at all," Megatron told her, "He is familiar with organic Transformers."

"So when are we leaving?" Astrotrain asked.

"Sorry to disappoint you, but I'm only sending Sheba," Megatron replied, "This is one mission I think she can handle by herself."

Shockwave stood in front of the door to the Space Bridge, waiting for its latest passenger. The door opened, and Sheba stepped into the room.

"Welcome to Cybertron," Shockwave said politely, "I've been expecting you."

Sheba looked around the room. It was a little more cluttered than Decepticon Headquarters on Earth, mostly because of the Sentinel Drones that were in the process of being repaired.

"Let me show you the energon storage rooms," Shockwave added, "If you see how the corridors and rooms are laid out, you may be better able to formulate a plan."

"Sure," Sheba said.

Moonracer, Firestar, and Chromia were headed towards the Decepticons' Headquarters on Cybertron.

"You know, this really isn't any fun anymore," Moonracer complained, "Those Sentinels are absolutely no competition."

"Don't forget, we may end up having to deal with Shockwave," Chromia reminded her.

"Ahhh, who cares about dealing with Shockwave?" Moonracer continued, "Big deal."

The three female Autobots transformed, blasted a hole in the wall, and headed right for the storage room. They got inside, and Chromia got Firestar to go back to vehicle mode so she and Moonracer could load her up with cubes.

Suddenly Moonracer shrieked. Chromia turned to see that a huge chunk of ice had surrounded Moonracer, and then shattered.

"What was THAT?!" Moonracer demanded.

"I don't know-AGHHH!" Chromia shouted. She had good reason to cry out-she was struck by an enormous lightning bolt. Firestar panicked and transformed.

"Are we under attack?" she called out.

"I don't see any enemies," Chromia replied.

Out of nowhere, a black energy ball appeared around Firestar, first expanding, then contracting. It took off a quarter of her Hit Points.

"Chromia to Elita 1! Come in!" Chromia called out over her radio.

"Elita 1 here." came the response.

"Elita, there's SOMETHING in here with us, but we can't see it!" Chromia reported, "Whatever it is, it's using really strange attacks."

"What sort of attacks?" Elita 1 wanted to know.

"I just got FROZEN!" Moonracer stated.

"I got hit with a lightning bolt-INDOORS!" Chromia said.

"I felt like I was being crushed under my own weight," Firestar added.

"Get out of there NOW. Elita 1 out."

"You heard her, girls-LET'S ROLL!" Chromia ordered. The three of them bolted, heading back out the way they came.

"So what was that you were saying about this not being any fun?" Firestar asked Moonracer.

"Forget I even said that," Moonracer told her.

Sheba cast Dispel on herself once the female Autobots had gone, shattering the Vanish forcefield. Vanish was a Magitek spell-rather than a stocked/GF-Junctionable spell-and the Magitek spells Sheba had already learned was still pretty limited. The ones she already knew (Fire, Ice, Bolt, Poison, Vanish, Life, Antidote, Cure, Fire 2, Ice 2, Bolt 2, Cure 2, Scan, Warp, Safe, Shell, and Float) were not used if there was a stocked spell with the same effect, since these spells actually used Magic Points. Sheba could always draw more stocked spells, even during a fight, but the only way she could restore her Magic Points at this point was by sleeping. And in the middle of a battle-since she as yet had no access to items that could restore MP-she could quickly run out of options if she relied solely on the Magitek spells.

"So they ran off empty-handed, did they?" Shockwave commented, as he entered the room.

"Yeah," Sheba replied, "I wonder how they'll try to explain how they were chased off by something they couldn't see."

"Are you going to follow them?" Shockwave asked.

"Not yet," Sheba told him, "If I do so now, they'll try to lead me away from their base. I can sniff them out later, when they've been in their headquarters for awhile. They left a trail for me to follow and don't even know it."

"I suppose that's a more logical approach," Shockwave admitted.

"What sort of creature can make itself invisible and attack with Magic?" Moonracer wondered.

"An Organic Transformer," Elita 1 told her. Chromia and the others had returned to their base, and were explaining the situation to their commander.

"But I thought there weren't any of those left on Cybertron," Chromia stated, "Besides, I thought they were forbidden from participating in the War."

"It's the only reasonable explanation," Elita 1 told her, "No other Transformer, except Mirage, can become invisible-and that ability is a holdover from the fact that some of our ancestors included the Organic Transformers. My Special Power has the same origin."

"So how come we don't use magic like they can?" Firestar questioned.

"Quite simply, the MagicPower of most ordinary Transformers is quite low. With that in mind, we can certainly rule out the even remote possiblity that it could theoretically have been Mirage in there. Even with the power of our Organic ancestors flowing through our circuits, on our own we only have a very limited capacity to use Magic-certainly not enough to use in place of our normal weapons. Full-scale Magic use requires a great deal of energy that we can ill afford to spare. Therefore it is often only used in the most dire circumstances, and is usually concentrated into one single special ability in certain Transformers. My Special Power is one of the most dangerous abilities to use-it takes up so much power that it drains my life-force."

"But I don't think Mirage is risking his life every time he becomes invisible," Moonracer commented.

"Or Skywarp when he teleports," Firestar added.

"Stopping Time itself is a much more serious thing than merely changing position or making oneself invisible," Chromia pointed out.

"Well, if it IS an Organic Transformer, why would it be helping the Decepticons?" Moonracer asked.

"I don't know," Elita 1 replied.

Sheba allowed several hours to pass before going outside. She stepped out into the Cybertronian Twilight-an Eternal Twilight, it seemed to her-looked around her, and sniffed the air. The trail was still warm. She would have no trouble locating the female Autobots. For a moment, she gazed at the horizon, and a flood of emotions welled up within her chest. It all seemed so strange, and yet, so...familiar. She snapped herself out of it momentarily to concentrate on the task at hand. She put her nose to the ground, and began the search.

"Hey, what's that on the scanner?" one of the generic female Autobots said suddenly.

"Put it on visual," Elita 1 ordered.

The viewscreen showed Sheba approaching. She was still following her nose, and she was within several hundred yards of the entrance to the base. She stopped and uttered a low growl. She could sense something other than the scent of the female Autobots. It felt like the power that emanates from a Magic-user.

"Everybody stay down here," Elita 1 requested, "I'm going to the surface." She headed for the 'back door.'

"I hope she knows what she's doing," Moonracer said.

Sheba pawed at the rubble surrounding the area where the scent trail ended, hoping to uncover the base's entrance.

"Halt," a voice commanded.

Sheba turned to see Elita 1, weapon aimed.

"Who are you?" the female Autobot demanded.

"I don't feel like telling you," Sheba snapped back.

You WERE the one that attacked my raiding party at Decepticon Headquarters, were you not?" the slightly built pink female continued.

"Maybe I was, maybe I wasn't," Sheba retorted, "What's it to you?" She was easily twice Elita 1's size, if not more, and was annoyed by the fact that the leader of the female Autobots was acting as if she had some kind of chance against her.

"We NEED that energon," Elita 1 said matter-of-factly.

"Well Megatron's getting a little tired of you stealing from him," Sheba growled.

"Are you Megatron's mate?" Elita 1 asked.

"No," Sheba matter-of-factly. She was insulted that Elita 1 could even insinuate such a thing, and it showed in her tone of voice. Having grown tired of this idle chatter, she cast Scan on Elita 1.

"Now, for even bringing up the idea that Megatron has any interest in me other than professionally, I challenge you to a battle!" Sheba began, "And DON'T EVEN THINK of wasting your energy on your Special Power. It won't have any effect!"

"How did you know about my Special Power?" Elita 1 wanted to know.

"A Scan spell is a wonderful thing," Sheba told her.

Sheba had 100 Reflect and 97 Esuna junctioned to her status-defense stats-providing at least 44% protection against the Stop status effect that Elita 1's Special Power caused. But what she really wanted was the Stop spell. She found out that she could draw it from Elita 1. A green ring of translucent energy rose up from the ground around Sheba, followed by blue-tinged white orbs that twisted around her in a spiral pattern. The next thing Elita 1 knew, some purple-tinged white orbs were being sucked from her and getting absorbed by Sheba.

"What did you just do?!" Elita 1 gasped.

"I just took 9 Stop spells from you," Sheba gloated. Seconds later, the green energy and orbs appeared again, but this time a clock face appeared above Elita 1. The hands on it slowed down until they stopped, then the clock seemed to shatter. Elita 1 discovered that she could not move. Sheba took the opportunity to draw as many Stop spells as she could carry (maximum 100), then drew out a few Esuna and Dispel spells to replenish her somewhat depleted inventory. Once the Stop effect had worn off, Elita 1 tried to attack Sheba with her laser pistol. Sheba counterattacked with a Firaga spell. That took off about 800 HP off of Elita 1. Well, the Scan spell did tell her that Elita had a rather high Spirit stat-indicating a better-than-usual resistance to Magic attacks. So, Sheba cast Demi next. That took off a quarter of Elita's current HP. She cast Demi three more times, then decided to leave.

"I've had enough of this-you aren't even remotely a challenge," Sheba snarled, "Oh, by the way, thanks for the Stop spells." She pointed her tail straight up, with her nose in the air in a gesture of contempt, and headed back to Shockwave's base.

"What happened to you, Elita?" Moonracer wondered.

"That creature used a Gravity-based spell," Elita 1 replied, "And she was able to draw Magic from me."

"Are you going to let Optimus and the others know about this?" Chromia asked.

"I'm going to contact him now," Elita 1 replied.

"WHAT?" Optimus Prime exclaimed, "Sheba was on Cybertron?!" He was at the monitor, talking to Elita 1.

"So, you are familiar with that creature," Elita 1 assumed.

"Yes," Optimus Prime sighed, "She was chosen to be the Guardian of Starscream."

"A Guardian? For a DECEPTICON?!" Elita 1 questioned.

"I don't understand it, either," Optimus sympathized.

Sheba spent some time exploring on Cybertron before heading back to Earth over the space bridge. Only Megatron and Soundwave were in the control room.

"Shockwave tells me you were successful in preventing the female Autobots from stealing any energon," Megatron told her as she came back in, "I must congratulate you on a mission well done."

"Elita 1 asked a most curious question," Sheba began, "She wondered if I was your mate."

Megatron chuckled softly to himself.

"What's so funny?" Sheba demanded.

"I would take you for myself, if it were allowed," he said absently.

"Allowed? What exactly do you mean by that?"

Megatron was quiet for a moment, as if pausing to choose his next words carefully.

"You need not concern yourself," he assured her.

As Megatron had hoped, Sheba now began spending a lot more time at Decepticon Headquarters. That would keep her out of the reach of both the Autobots, and the flesh creatures. Although the humans were weak, they did invent things that Megatron thought were worth plundering-and since they knew how to make tranquilizer drugs, he wanted to make sure they didn't get a chance to use them on Sheba. The less contact Sheba had with the humans, the better. He worried all the more because of the fact that Sheba preffered to walk around in 'flesh creature' mode-although there were plenty of ways to render a Decepticon unconscious-because he thought she was more vulnerable in that form.

"I say, Dinsmore, it's good to see you again," Lord Chumleigh exclaimed.

"Absolutely, sir," the butler agreed, "How did you manage to get out so soon?"

"Ahhh, the Prime Minister appointed some very 'understanding' Judges since I was imprisoned," Lord Chumleigh informed him, "Convincing them that I was 'rehabilitated' was simplicity itself. Those gullible fools."

"Indeed, sir," Dinsmore commented.

"So you did as I asked, then, Dinsmore?"

"Of course, sir. I hired that construction company to build you the new Compound in America-using the plans you drew up. The head chap scratched his head a bit when he saw them, but a five hundred pound bonus took care of that. Oh, by the way, sir, did you see the reports about a strange new creature that's been seen with the Decepticons?"

"Ah, yes," Chumleigh said in anticipation, "That one will be a greater prize than even Optimus Prime. She must be an extremely rare specimen. I MUST have her. Find all the reports about her and pay particular attention to how she behaves. It is essential that I find a way to lure her to me."

"Our plane to New York leaves in a few hours, sir," Dinsmore reminded him.

"Excellent. Well, hurry up, then," Chumleigh chided.

There was plenty of time to study Sheba's actions on the plane ride-somehow someone had seen her protect Starscream on numerous occasions, captured it on film for posterity, and sent it to the media.

"Didn't see that one when you tried to take Optimus Prime," Dinsmore realized.

"No matter," Chumleigh told him, "It's perfectly obvious that she is in love with the Decepticon. Look at this picture-can't you see the fire in her eyes?" He showed Dinsmore a photograph that some human hacked off of the Autobot's computer-taken by the Sky-spy when Sheba had first appeared.

"I say, sir-doesn't this creature use Magic?" Dinsmore said suddenly.

Lord Chumleigh laughed. "If she does, she will doom her friend," he said.

"One problem, sir," Dinsmore continued, "When THAT PARTICULAR Decepticon is in danger, it seems this creature always appears out of thin air-and always at the spot where she is needed. She won't be going through your elaborate set-up of traps, then."

"BLAST!" Chumleigh exclaimed, "Oh, well, we'll have to find another way. Hello, what's this?" He spotted a photograph of Sheba playing with the Insecticons in the latest National Geographic Magazine. Apparently one of their researchers that was supposed to be studying frogs had gotten bored and decided that doing an article about the Insecticons would be more interesting. There were several good photographs-most taken with telephoto lenses from far away-but one picture clearly showed Sheba licking Shrapnel's face.

"They were having a romp-how delightful," Chumleigh said, "Well, that settles it. Those Insecticons will be the bait for my trap."

"Look, Shrapnel," Bombshell said. A small airplane banked suddenly above the Insecticons, and something was falling out of the open side of it. Kickback felt a clunk on the head as an object hit him. Some more objects fell, and when the Insecticons investigated, it was several large sacks of grain.

"The humans must have dropped it," Kickback commented.

"Who cares-it's a FREE MEAL!" Bombshell stated.

Shrapnel tore into the nearest sack and began gorging himself.

"Mmm-Delicious...delicious," he told the others.

Between the three of them, they finished all the grain in pretty short order.

But, about half an hour later, Shrapnel returned to robot mode.

"I feel strange...strange," he said slowly, and fell over senseless.

The other two noticed a similar reaction. Kickback fell unconscious before he could even transform.

"It worked!" Dinsmore said gleefully, as he watched from the air. Chumleigh had hired a large logging helicopter specially for the occasion-it would be the easiest way to transport the sleeping Insecticons.

Shrapnel awoke to find himself shackled. He strained against his bonds, but could not break them. Lord Chumleigh came by.

"Oh, you're awake; that's splendid," the old man gloated, "All the better."

"LET ME OUT OF THESE CHAINS, HUMAN-OR YOU WON'T LIVE TO REGRET IT..regret it..." Shrapnel shrieked.

"Temper, temper," Chumleigh said, "You will make an excellent trophy when I'm finished with you."

"BUT I DON'T WANT TO BE A TROPHY...trophy..." Shrapnel protested.

Chumleigh ignored him. "Now to check on my other guests," he said.

Kickback was in a large room filled with large metal stalactites. The minute he was awake, the ones that were above him suddenly fell. He jumped to get out of the way. It was a good thing he did-they exploded when they hit the ground. The holes in the ceiling where the stalactites had fallen from were quickly filled with replacements, and now the ones that were currently over Kickback's head began to come down. Pretty soon all he was doing was jumping out from under falling, exploding stalactite-bombs. There was no time to transform-only time to jump, and jump again immediately after that. Chumleigh watched this on the viewscreen with an evil grin on his face. "I wonder how long he can keep that up," he mused.

Bombshell was in robot mode, so when he woke up he tried firing his weapons. It was no good-Lord Chumleigh had wisely deactivated them all, even his precious Cerebro Shells. And to make matters worse, he was apparently being forced to hold a huge, heavy lead ball over his head.

"Ah, yes, now I'm ready to lure that flying feline friend of yours here," Chumleigh stated as he approached.

"You want SHEBA?" Bombshell questioned.

"Oh, so the creature has a name," Lord Chumleigh realized, "Now kindly be a sport and beg for her to come when I contact her, won't you?"

"I say, sir," Dinsmore spoke up, "Maybe we need to catch more-in case these aren't enough. They say the Decepticons and the Insecticons aren't always on the best of terms."

"Perhaps you're right," Chumleigh thought, "Very well-we shall attempt to take at least one more Decepticon. That will be our insurance policy."

Thrust was out on his own, patrolling for Autobots. He thought he caught a glimpse of one of them-Tracks-just below him. He banked sharply, and headed downward, guns blazing. But something strange happened. At least four of the blasts hit Tracks, but there was no obvious damage. "Huh?" Thrust exclaimed, but no sooner had he said that than a huge energy net was flung upon him, dragging him down. Tracks seemed to disappear. It had only been a hologram, then-and not really Tracks after all. Thrust transformed, but could not free himself. A sudden jolt passed through his body, and he fell unconscious to the ground.

Thrust awoke, feeling rather groggy. He found he was in a room, chained to the wall-right next to Shrapnel. He could just make out the voices of two people.

"Oh, splendid! Excellent work, Dinsmore!" Chumleigh crowed.

"Merely a trifle, sir," Dinsmore replied.

"Why am I here, human?" Thrust demanded, "What is the meaning of this?"

"He wants to capture Sheba...Sheba," Shrapnel volunteered.

"Wonderful," Thrust muttered in disgust, "I hope she makes mincemeat out of this flesh creature."

"Megatron-incoming transmission," Soundwave reported.

"Well, put it through," Megatron said impatiently, as he approached the monitor.

Lord Chumleigh appeared on the screen.

"YOU!" Megatron snorted in recognition.

"Oh no, not that guy!" Blitzwing moaned.

"What do you want, human?" Megatron growled.

"You must be Megatron," Chumleigh said formally, "But the one I wish to speak to is that flying feline of yours, ah, what's her name again Dinsmore?"

"Sheba, sir," Dinsmore reminded Chumleigh, off the monitor.

"Ah yes," Chumleigh realized, "I wish to speak with Sheba, if you please."

Sheba entered the room just then.

"It's for you," Megatron told her, pointing towards the monitor.

She went up to the monitor, and put her paws on the console so she could look Chumleigh straight in the eye.

"Hey, aren't you that guy that stole a Russian plane, and captured a bunch of Autobots awhile back?" she wondered.

"The same," Chumleigh told her.

"Well how come you're not in a Siberian Gulag freezing your assets off?"

Chumleigh laughed. "The British Ambassador to the Soviet Union owed me a favor," he related, "He was able to arrange for me to be deported to England to serve my sentence there. After that, all I had to do was take their inane 'sensitivity' classes and pretend that I'd seen the light. The hearts of the judges on the Supreme Court bleed so much that they must need several daily transfusions to stay alive."

Sheba couldn't help grinning at Chumleigh's cheap attempt at humor.

"Well, anyway," Chumleigh continued, "I think you should come to my place."

"Why's that?" Sheba wanted to know.

The monitor's image changed to Kickback-who was still trying to evade the bombs being dropped above his head. Then it showed Bombshell, Shrapnel, and Thrust.

"So you see," Chumleigh stated, "If you do not come, I will be forced to dispose of them in a rather nasty way."

Sheba uttered a low growl. "Alright," she agreed, "Where's this place of yours located?"

"I will transmit the co-ordinates shortly," Chumleigh said, "But COME ALONE. If anyone else is spotted with you, your comrades are doomed. I look forward to meeting you in person. Oh, and here are the co-ordinates. If you do not enter the area at exactly the spot that I have requested, your friends' lives will be suddenly cut short. Cheerio."

The monitor spat out directions to Chumleigh's hideout, then went blank. Sheba let out a sound that was as close to a roar as a puma can get.

"If it were just the Insecticons, I'd say forget about it and good riddance," Megatron stated, "But they have Thrust. I cannot afford to lose him."

Blitzwing stared at Sheba. "You're really thinking of going out there?"

"Yup," Sheba said.

"Be careful-this may be a flesh creature, but he's tricky," Blitzwing cautioned.

"Clever or not, he's no match for my magic," Sheba reminded him.

"All the same, keep your optic sensors peeled," Blitzwing urged, "I'd wish what he did to me on my worst enemy, but I sure don't wish it on you."

"Ahhh, what are you worried about, Blitzwing?" Starscream said confidently, "If she can take out Devastator, Menasor, and Bruticus, I'm sure she'll have no trouble against this human."

Sheba headed for the tower elevator. "I'll try to be back in time to catch "Law and dis-Order," she said before she left.

"Sheba!" Blitzwing called out, as she got on the lift, "Do me a favor."

"What?"

"The human-get him for me!"

"We'll see," Sheba replied.

The Chumleigh compound was huge-it encompassed over a hundred acres-and had several different topographical features. Part of it was like a desert, another was like a jungle, another still was like a futuristic city. It really wasn't all that different from Chumleigh's old base. Sheba landed exactly where she had been instructed to. There was a large gate in front of her. It swung open. She went a few yards, and growled fiercely. Several large, mechanical hounds were charging at her from all directions.

"This is no problem," she said to herself, as she swatted the nearest one. The impact of her paw on the robotic dog sent it flying into two of its fellows. The three of them got back up and resumed their attack. She spun around to nail two others that had gotten too close, then kicked a third one, pinning it into the gate. She jumped on several, tearing and biting ferociously. Pretty soon, all the robot-dogs were unable to function-she'd clawed them up pretty good and their circuits were shorting-so she then proceeded down the path towards Chumleigh's castle.

"Did you see that, Dinsmore? Magnificent!" Chumleigh exclaimed.

"Weren't you expecting her to run from those dogs?" Dinsmore asked.

"It was a possibility," Chumleigh told him, "But in some cases a Cat will stand and fight rather than run away. She must be able to override her instincts to a certain extent. Ah, now she's coming up to the next obstacle."

A rebuild of Chumleigh's old robotic scorpion confronted Sheba in the desert. It had a monitor screen instead of a head, and Chumleigh's face was on the screen. She snarled at it.

"En Garde!" came Chumleigh's challenge through the scorpion's audio system.

A circle of green, wavy energy, along with several blue-white orbs, rose up around Sheba. Immediately the scorpion was hit with a powerful Thundaga spell. That took off about 2300 HP off the machine.

"Uh, uh, uh, no Magic if you please, Miss Sheba," Chumleigh reprimanded, "Or I will be forced to prematurely dispose of your friends."

Sheba growled in displeasure. How dare this creature tell her she couldn't use Magic? On the other hand, defeating this monstrosity would be easy even without her Magic.

"Fine," she said reluctantly.

"Oh, and that includes your Summoned Monsters," Chumleigh added hastily, "Oh, yes, I know about them."

"What about my Limit Breaks? Strictly speaking, they're NOT Magic," Sheba wanted to know.

"Agreed-you may use your Limit Break attacks," Chumleigh told her.

Sheba grinned to herself. Although she now wasn't allowed to access her Limit Breaks through Magic via the Aura Spell, she could use them if her Hit Points were in the critical range. Perhaps Chumleigh hadn't considered this.

The robot scorpion advanced towards Sheba, attempting to hit her with its laser-stinger on the end of its tail. She grabbed the middle of its tail in both paws and bit down hard. An electric current passed through her, and she pulled away. That had taken off about 600 HP off the scorpion, but the electric shock had taken 1500 HP off of Sheba.

"Ha-ha, not so easy now, is it?" Chumleigh gloated.

An idea popped into Sheba's head-a brilliant one. She once again grabbed the scorpion's tail-careful to avoid the robot's pincers-and chomped down on it. Only this time, she didn't let go for a long time. Finally she released her grip, and with a swing of its tail the scorpion flung her several feet away. She got up, panting, but was soon starting to laugh uncontrollably.

"I say, what's so amusing?" Chumleigh wondered.

A blast of orange light beams shot up around Sheba. A yellow-white, hot Light Pillar beam came out of her mouth and fried the scorpion beyond repair on the spot.

"BLAST!" Chumleigh stormed. He pounded the console with his fist.

"Well you DID say she could use those kinds of attacks, sir," Dinsmore told him.

"Yes, I did," Chumleigh replied, "But they will do her no good against her next challenge."

Sheba proceeded through the jungle. She stopped and noticed a rustling in the vegetation in front of her. Several cobras slithered into view, and immediately flared their hoods and assumed an attack stance.

"Snakes?! Why did it have to be SNAKES?!" Sheba complained. Then she remembered something-her wings were like a bird's, not a bat's. There are birds that take on poisonous snakes by using their wings as shields. After all, if the snake did strike the wing-unless it was at the very top where the actual flesh-and-bone was-it would hit nothing but feathers, which do not conduct venom. Sheba approached the snakes in a sideways maneuver, stretching out her wings as targets to the cobras. Several of them attempted to strike, but got nowhere. As each snake struck, Sheba was able to grab it on the back-strike and chew its head off. Soon all the snakes were headless and writhing on the ground-like a scene out of Friday the 13th. Carefully she made her way through the rest of the jungle, avoiding the pitfall traps and snares that Chumleigh had placed there. They were temptingly baited with small, live animals, but Sheba knew better. Despite Chumleigh's best efforts, human scent was still detectable on the traps.

"Pitfall traps? SNARES?!" Sheba called out, "Oh comeON! I've watched far too many 'nature shows' to fall for such pathetic, primitive tricks." She felt a hind paw catch against some very thin wire just as she said that.

"OH, NO!" Sheba exclaimed, and froze. She now saw the wire, attached to two Claymore mines that were facing her on each side. If she moved her hind leg, they would explode. She wondered if they were the kind that were filled with nails. She looked around for anything that could be of use to her, and reached for a branch that was just over her head. After dragging it down, she chewed off a length of it and sharpened one end. Then, carefully, she reached back and drove it into the ground, just in the right position to hold the wire in position while she got her leg out from behind it. But the branch wouldn't hold for long, so the minute Sheba got her foot free, she gathered up all her strength under her and leaped for her life. Two seconds later, the branch gave way, causing the Claymores to go off. The force of the blast sent Sheba tumbling to the ground, but she picked herself up, apparently none the worse for wear.

"Don't tell me," Chumleigh said to Dinsmore, "She's been watching TOO MUCH of those blasted Rambo movies. Or Arnold Schwarzenegger movies like Commando or Predator."

"Undoubtedly, sir-or maybe even that old MacGyver show," Dinsmore replied.

"Don't remind me," Chumleigh stated.

"This is strange," Spike said to his dad, while reading a newspaper, "It says here that Lord Chumleigh got out of jail recently."

"WHAT?!" Optimus Prime exclaimed.

"Isn't that guy the one that tried to take your head off?" Sparkplug asked.

"Yes," Optimus Prime replied, "How on earth did he manage to get out of prison?"

Spike read further down the page. "Time off for good behavior," he said blankly.

"I wonder what he's up to nowadays," Tracks commented.

"Probably no good, as usual," Grapple snorted.

"I say sir, have you given up completely on acquiring the head of Optimus Prime?" Dinsmore wondered.

"Of course not," Chumleigh retorted, "Now that Sheba is within my grasp, I shall attempt to take them both. Of course, I won't need to capture anyone from the Autobots this time. The old chap was pretty steamed at me last time we met. He'll probably come purely for revenge. Speaking of which, I shall contact him now."

"Chumleigh!" Optimus Prime fumed, as he saw the familiar figure in the monitor, "What do you want this time?"

"Why, a chance at revenge, old chap," Chumleigh offered, "Surely you remember what I did to your friends. Don't you want to come and settle the score?"

"I thought the Law had taken care of that," Optimus stated sourly.

"Ah, the Law. Justice is blind, they say. And, if you know how to work the system, it can be stupid, too," Chumleigh told him.

"I'm coming-just don't take any Autobots," Prime said.

Sheba found herself caught in a sticky web that had suddenly been dropped on her from above. It took her a long time to get loose. Her claws could easily tear through the webbing, but the stickiness made the separate fragments adhere to one another-making just as big a mess as before. A large robotic spider attacked her, attempting to bite her in order to inject her with its venom. By now, she was mobile enough to use her claws on the spider. She managed to tear it up enough to render it non-functional. Half an hour later, she finally was able to lick all the webbing out of her fur.

Optimus Prime drove through the main gate, and headed for Chumleigh's castle. Fortunately for him, Sheba had taken care of the most dangerous traps and obstacles already. He got into the futuristic city section, and spotted Sheba. She was just licking the last of the spider-webbing from a front paw. She noticed him, put her paw down, faced him, and snarled. Optimus halted, and transformed. The two of them circled, eyeing each other suspiciously.

"Well, go on then, fight," came Chumleigh's voice over a nearby loudspeaker.

Optimus blasted the loudspeaker with his laser rifle.

"What are YOU doing here?" Prime asked Sheba.

"None of your business," she hissed.

"Let me put this another way," Prime added, "If I find out you're HELPING Chumleigh..."

"Helping HIM?!" Sheba spat, "WHAT-EVER! Maybe he thinks I'll make a nice throw rug." She turned and headed for the castle.

"Wait!" Optimus shouted. He tried following her, but she wheeled around and scratched his face.

"You can have what's left of him when I'M DONE," she snarled.

"So I guess they WON'T fight," Chumleigh sighed, "Oh, no matter. I'll get them both anyhow."

Sheba reached the castle, and soon found the room where Kickback was being held. She wrenched the doors off with her powerful paws.

"Kickback, c'mon! Open space! Let's go!" she called out. Kickback leaped through the open door, and transformed. Right after that, he collapsed in exhaustion.

"On my back," Sheba urged, and Kickback weakly pulled himself up so Sheba could carry him. She darted down the hall towards the main room. Suddenly, she felt a sharp pain in her shoulder. She looked and saw a dart sticking out of her skin.

"Oh NO, not again," Sheba moaned. She knew she had to slow down or the tranquilizer would circulate a lot more quickly. She staggered through the door to the control room.

"Ah, so you finally made it," Chumleigh gloated, "It seems I have you now."

"Not yet, you don't," Sheba hissed. She sprang forward, ripping the chains off of Shrapnel and Thrust before Chumleigh could do anything.

In fact, the minute the two Decepticons were loose, he fled to the next room.

"Thrust! Take me back to headquarters-Optimus Prime is coming!" Sheba called out, before collapsing into unconsciousness.

Thrust picked up Sheba and carried her back to Decepticon Headquarters. Shrapnel released Bombshell, who wanted to go after Chumleigh, but then Prime showed up-having defeated all the remaining traps in the castle. Since their weapons weren't working, Shrapnel and Bombshell helped Kickback escape instead.

"Curses; foiled again!" Chumleigh swore, as Optimus Prime towered over him.

"Chumleigh-YOU'RE GOING BACK TO PRISON!"

"Oh good, she's finally waking up," Thundercracker said. He and Starscream had been keeping an eye on her, ever since Thrust had brought her in.

"Ohhhhh," Sheba moaned, as she lay on her mattress in her room, "What a headache. It feels like I'm on the Tilt-a-Whirl."

"The WHAT?" Starscream wondered.

"Some kind of amusement park ride," Sheba told him, "You go around in a circle while you go around in a circle."

"That didn't make any sense," Starscream stated.

"It would if you've ever been on it," Sheba informed him.

Thundercracker chuckled to himself. Skywarp came in with Blitzwing and Ramjet.

"Got hit by a tranquilizer again, did ya?" Skywarp commented.

"Too bad-I guess that robbed you of your chance to get that human," Blitzwing sighed, "What a rip."

"Oh well, better luck next time," Ramjet said.

Megatron walked into the room. "So how'd it go?" he asked.

"Not too bad. The only real downer was the tranquilizer. I woulda had him if it weren't for that," Sheba told him.

"How many times must I tell you-" Megatron began, but Sheba interrupted him.

"Yeah, yeah, 'this wouldn't have happened if I was in my robotic form'-well, there ARE ways of knocking out robots, too, aren't there?" she pointed out.

"So you're saying it wouldn't have made any difference what form you were in," Megatron mused.

"Pretty much," Sheba replied, "Hey, I wonder what the Autobots are gonna do with Chumleigh."

"Not much, if I know Optimus Prime," Megatron stated.

"No! You CAN'T! You WOULDN'T!" Chumleigh wailed. He was at Autobot Headquarters, waiting to be transported to prison by FBI agents.

"I can, and I will," Optimus Prime said sternly.

"But pressing charges on that stuff that happened SO LONG AGO? Surely you're not serious!"

"There's no statute of limitations on Kidnapping," Optimus Prime stated, "And that's FEDERAL charges. No chance of parole for YOU."

One morning, Starscream discovered that Sheba had gone out without telling anyone. He figured that she'd gone back to her cave for some reason or other, so he decided to go there and see what she was up to. Just as he was getting on the lift, Skywarp and Thundercracker came into the Control Room.

"Hey, Screamer, where ya goin'?" Skywarp asked.

"If you must know, I'm going to see what Sheba's doing," Starscream replied impatiently.

Thundercracker and Skywarp exchanged amused glances, and then they proceeded to get on the elevator as well.

"WHERE do you think YOU'RE GOING?" Starscream objected.

"Awww, come on. We wanna hang out with her, too," Skywarp pleaded,

"It's not fair that everyone else gets all the fun."

Starscream sighed heavily. "Oh, ALRIGHT," he conceded.

Sheba's tail twitched rapidly as she stalked her prey-a large mule deer with a small rack of fuzz-covered antlers. She had shrunk herself down to the size of an ordinary puma. The deer lifted its head momentarily as it noticed the sound of Jets flying overhead. It soon returned to eating grass, however.

"Hey, there she is! What's she doing?" Skywarp said. The three Decepticons landed nearby-but Starscream made certain that their presence did not scare off the buck.

"Hunting," Starscream informed him, "Just keep quiet and watch."

Sheba was now totally focused on catching her prey. She crept toward it soundlessly, stopping every few feet to make sure that she wasn't detected. Soon Sheba was only a few yards from her quarry. Suddenly, she sprang with a burst of speed that totally overwhelmed the buck. In no time flat, Sheba had her target by the back of the neck, easily crushing its spinal cord in her powerful jaws. The deer did not struggle any more after that. Only then did Starscream and the others approach.

"Wow, that was amazing!" Skywarp commented, "It's too bad you can't pull that stunt on an unsuspecting Autobot."

"So what are you going to do with it now?" Thundercracker wanted to know.

"Eat it, of course," Sheba told him.

"I don't understand," Thundercracker said, "We've got energon back at base. Why would you want to re-fuel on THIS?"

Sheba began laughing. "Silly! It tastes different from energon. And there's nothing quite like eating something you've actually had to chase after and bring down yourself."

After Sheba had consumed her fill of the carcass and cleaned herself off, she flopped down on her side and let the others pet her. The sound of her purrs was soothing. After awhile, though, Skywarp sighed.

"Gettin' bored already?" Sheba asked.

"Well, I thought we were going to do something interesting today," he replied.

"Oh, okay," Sheba told him, "As a matter of fact, I think I have just the thing." She cast Warp on everybody. The scenery shifted-almost like ripples in a pool-and soon they were in very unfamiliar surroundings.

"Where are we?" Skywarp wondered.

"Just a little place I know about," Sheba said offhandedly, "It's the perfect location for me to teach you how to use Magic."

"You're going to teach us how to use Magic?" Thundercracker exclaimed, "THAT'S GREAT!"

"Okay, good," Sheba said, "Now the first thing we need to do is junction each of you to a GF. We'll start you out using one each so you can get used to it. Hmmm..." She used her abilities to check the compatability of each of her GFs to Starscream, Thundercracker, and Skywarp.

"Um, what's a GF?" Skywarp wanted to know.

"A Guardian Force. It's a powerful entity that shares its powers with you when you Junction it-including the ability to use Magic," Sheba replied, "You can also summon them to attack the enemy for you if you need to use something stronger than your Stocked spells. Okay, let's see-Starscream, it looks like the GF you're most compatible with is Quezacoatl. That's a Thunder Elemental GF. His Thunder Storm attack works REALLY well against machines and Water elemental creatures. Thundercracker-you're most compatible with Ifrit. He's a Fire Elemental GF, and his Hell Fire attack works wonders against Ice-elemental based enemies. Skywarp, you get Diablos. His Dark Messenger is a Gravity-based attack. The amount of damage Diablos' attack causes is based on his level. For example, when he's at Level 10, he can take off 10% of an opponent's HP. When Diablos reaches Level 100, he can take 100% of an opponent's HP-but regardless of his level, his attack can only ever take off up to 9999 HP."

When each of the Jets got junctioned to their new GF, they each claimed that it felt weird. Sheba helped each of them set their abilities, including the Draw command.

"What's that for?" Thundercracker asked.

"It enables you to actually take a certain amount of spells from an enemy, and stock them," Sheba explained, "And the most you can hold of each kind of spell is 100 uses. Your maximum limit is 32 different types of spells, so sometimes it's good to refine obsolete spells like Fire into more powerful ones like Fira. But, since you're beginners, I'll have to start you off with the basics. When we go into a battle, don't try to defeat the monsters right away. Take the time to Draw some spells out. At first, this'll be a slow business because your MagicPower is pretty low right now. Later on, when you stock some spells, you can junction some of them to boost your Stats. Once you've drawn all the spells you can from a monster, you can either blast it, use Magic to beat it, or Summon your GF to finish the job for you. Summoning a GF is the most preferable of the three options because the more often you summon, the more compatible you and your GF become."

"What's this compatibility got to do with anything?" Starscream wondered.

"Compatibility determines how quickly a GF will appear once you summon it. The higher the compatibility, the faster the GF will appear. In between the time that you've summoned, and the time the GF appears, any damage directed at you will be taken by your GF. If the GF takes too long to appear, it may lose all HP and thus be defeated. A defeated GF must be revived before it can be summoned again, but they cannot be revived during a battle. So, be careful. Well, are we ready now?"

"Sure," Starscream replied. So, he and Skywarp and Thundercracker followed Sheba as she wandered around looking for random encounters. Suddenly, they were attacked. The monsters were unlike anything Starscream had ever seen. "WHAT ARE THOSE?" he asked.

Sheba cast a Scan spell on the nearest monster.

Bite Bug

Weak against Ice

HP 175/175

Not a very strong enemy

Stay calm and attack precisely

"You can draw Scan and Fire from these monsters, so get at it!" Sheba told everyone.

It was Thundercracker's turn after Sheba cast the Scan spell. He concentrated on what he wanted to do, and several blue-white orbs rose up in a circle around him, accompanied by a ring of wavy green energy. Several purple orbs seemed to be sucked out of one of the Bite Bugs-leaving temporary trails of purple-blue energy-and were absorbed into Thundercracker. He had received 4 Scan spells. Next it was Skywarp's turn. Blue-white orbs circled around him as they floated up above a ring of wavy-green energy. Purple orbs came out of the nearest Bite Bug and were absorbed into Skywarp. He had received 5 Fire spells. When Starscream took his turn, he drew Magic and got 8 Scan spells.

"Not bad for a rookie," Sheba told him, "Your Magic Power must be pretty high naturally." It took awhile, but finally everyone had 100 uses each of Fire and Scan. Now it was time to finish these bugs off. Skywarp summoned Diablos. He and the others disappeared, and the sky became dark with thousands of bats. These bats converged at a single point above the Bite Bugs, and when they did so, they merged into a black, sticky, shiny, oily-looking semiliquid ball. A huge, semi-humanoid black-and-red creature-with huge bat wings, a long skinny tail, and a hideous horned head-seemed to slowly emerge from the bottom of the orb. Drops like oil dripped off it as it came out, and as it spread its wings all the 'oil' seemed to be shaken off. Diablos immediately stuck one of its arms up into the black orb, and orange energy beams from his arm emanated into the orb. He then threw the black ball-which seemed to stretch it out a little, like silly-putty-and it crushed the Bite Bugs under its weight. Since Diablos was at Level 35, the attack had taken off 35% of the monsters' HP.

When his Guardian Force vanished, Skywarp and the others simultaneously reappeared. Starscream then summoned Quezacotl. Storm clouds instantaneously appeared overhead, and a bolt of lightning struck the ground where Starscream and the others had been standing. A huge, greenish-yellow featureless bird shape appeared from where the lightning bolt had struck the ground. Electrical energy came from its head, surrounding the monsters. This caused an enormously wide blast of lightning to hit the monsters, causing 1471 HP of damage to each Bite Bug. That was more than enough to finish them off. Starscream and the others then reappeared. The battle didn't give them that many experience points, but Sheba assured the others that they'd gain a lot more XP from fighting much stronger monsters.

"What happened to us when the GFs were summoned? It felt like I was being teleported," Skywarp said.

"Well, you were teleported," Sheba told him, "Any time you summon a GF that uses an attack rather than a support ability, you get temporarily transported to the Dimension that the GF comes from. It's something the GF does to keep you from being accidentally affected by the attack. The only exception to this rule that I know about is Cerberus, who still puts you in the protective dimension during his Summon even though his Triple Rockets is a Support Ability, not an attack. It affects you when you reappear."

"Weird," Thundercracker stated, "Cool, but weird."

"Okay, follow me," Sheba instructed, and she led the three Jets across the plain. Suddenly, they were attacked again. There were two identical monsters-and they looked even more bizarre than the ones they'd just defeated. Each of the monsters had a single central purple, gem-like eye, were mottled white-purple-and-blue, had two fins shaped rather like penguins' flippers, coming out of each side of the top of their heads, and six "ribs" attached below the eye to a spiny tail that ended in a heavy, barbed spike. This gave the monsters a rather skeletal appearance. They hovered a few feet off the ground with little flutters of their fins. Sparkles of green energy emanated from one of the strange monsters, and immediately a chunk of ice materialized over Skywarp and fell on him, taking off 53 HP.

"What was THAT?" he exclaimed.

"Congratulations-you are the first Decepticon to feel the effects of a Blizzard spell," Sheba told him.

"I wanna know what that thing is!" Thundercracker stated, and cast Scan.

Glacial Eye

A floating monster that uses Ice magic

When running low on HP, uses Vampire to suck HP from opponents.

Lv. 20

HP 400/400

Very weak against Fire

No effect: Ice, Earth

"ALL-RIGHT! It's weak against FIRE!" Thundercracker crowed.

"Not so fast," Sheba reminded him, "You should try to draw spells from it first. Like that Blizzard spell that one of those Glacial Eyes just tossed at Skywarp."

"Didn't hurt that much," Skywarp said nonchalantly.

"Well, that's because a Glacial Eye's MagicPower isn't very strong, especially at its current level," Sheba stated, "If you tried casting the same spell, you'd probably do a lot more damage. Oh, and have you figured out that you can immediately cast a spell that you've drawn? That's especially helpful if an enemy is carrying Cure magic and you don't want to deplete your own stock. The only downside is direct casting a drawn spell relies on the Monster's Magic Power, not yours, to determine damage or the amount of healing."

"Oh," Skywarp said. He discovered that the monsters were carrying Cure, Blizzard, and Scan magic, so he decided to draw and cast Cure on himself. From then on, everybody was madly stocking Cure and Blizzard spells and topping up their supply of Scan. All this time, the two Glacial Eyes either cast Blizzard (taking HP off in only double digits) or attacked by using their spiky tails as hammers (taking off even less HP than Blizzard). Then, when everybody was maxed out of the amount of those particular spells, Thundercracker summoned Ifrit. The party disappeared, and a huge ball of fire appeared. It dissipated, and a huge, brown humanoid Lion with long, black curved horns that were at least three-quarters the length of his body and a large red mane emerged from the flames. Ifrit roared, and rose up into the air. Underneath him, a big ball of fire materialized and also rose up with him. High above the Glacial Eyes, Ifrit slammed the fireball in a hammerblow with his fists, sending it back down towards the monsters. When it hit, it took 3250 HP off the Glacial Eyes-defeating them.

"Okay, now that we've all got a nice variety of spells, it's time to learn how to junction them," Sheba told everyone, "Quezacotl comes with a Vitality Junction already in place, Diablos has the Magic Junction, and Ifrit has a Strength Junction. Play around with the different spells and see which one raises your stats the most."

Starscream discovered that Cure magic was the best to junction to Vitality of the spells that he had right now. Skywarp picked Blizzard to Junction with his Magic stat, although it woudn't have made any difference if he'd picked Thunder or Fire; and Thundercracker junctioned Fire to his Strength stats.

"Oh, and I forgot to mention," Sheba added, "It helps a little bit with compatibility if you use spells that are associated with a GF's powers. For example, anyone Junctioned to Diablos would be able to raise compatibility slightly by using the Demi spell on a fairly regular basis. Of course, you guys haven't run across any monsters carrying Demi magic yet, but that will come when you're ready for them."

"Hey, what's this on the ground?" Thundercracker wondered. He went over to where the monsters had been and bent down to look at something. Sheba and the other two came over. Thundercracker picked up what appeared to be a long, sharp canine tooth.

"Oh, that's a Vampire Fang item," Sheba said.

"I think one of the monsters dropped it," Thundercracker stated.

"Absolutely right," Sheba told him, "Sometimes when you defeat monsters, they leave items behind. Some items are more rare than others. You can also Steal items from monsters during the battle. Both Bahamut and Diablos have these abilities, but I don't think Diablos has learned the Mug ability yet. I think he needs like 50 more Ability Points in order to learn it."

"And then I'm gonna be a lean, mean, stealin' machine," Skywarp stated, grinning.

Sheba took to the air now, and led the others to a mountain with a large communications tower on the mainland.

"What are we doing here?" Starscream wanted to know.

"You'll see soon enough," Sheba assured him. She walked up the path towards the tower. Two big snakes crawled out of the bush and attacked them.

"Those are strange looking snakes," Skywarp stated. He cast Scan.

Anacondaur

A large venomous snake that uses Squeeze attacks. Use caution when its HP are low; it spits poisonous fluid

Lv. 21

HP 2457/2457

Weak vs. Ice

Strong vs. Fire

Absorbs Poison

"So it's at Level 21, is it?" Sheba said, "Good-that means it's carrying Fira and Cura spells-which are far more powerful than Fire or Cure."

While everyone was stocking up on spells, the Anacondaurs took turns using their squeeze attacks, which didn't do very much damage. However, Starscream was not a happy camper when they did it to him. "UGH, GET THIS THING OFF ME!" He needn't have worried, though, as the snake let go soon after attacking. When Sheba and the others had finally sucked out all the Fira and Cura they could carry, Skywarp summoned Diablos, and then Starscream summoned Quezacotl. That was enough to finish the Anacondaurs off.

"Hey, they dropped something," Skywarp realized, and picked something off the ground.

It was a small grey stone fragment.

"That's an M-Stone Piece," Sheba informed him, "It can be used in a variety of ways-including the manufacture of Stockable Spells. They can even be used to modify certain kinds of weapons. So hang onto it, it might come in handy later." On the way to the top of the hill, there were several more random encounters with Anacondaurs, some of which yielded such spoils as Venom Fangs and Dragon Skin. Sheba was particularly pleased to get the Dragon Skin, as it was a difficult item to find.

"What's so great about an old piece of a Dragon's Hide?" Thundercracker snorted.

"Well for one thing, it's a GF Compatibility Item," Sheba told him, "Also, it's useful for making into other items, as well as modifying weapons and manufacturing Reflect spells."

"Oh," Thundercracker said sheepishly. He was amazed at how much Sheba knew about all this stuff.

They finally reached the top of the hill.

"Well, here we are. Now what?" Starscream asked.

As if in answer to his question, a huge, legless winged monster-with clawed hands and a grotesque chin that jutted out far beyond its nose-swooped down on them. Before Sheba and the three Jets could do anything, it blew a tornado-like wind from its mouth that caught them up and spun them around. When the monster's Storm Breath attack had finally dissipated, the four of them fell to the ground. The attack had taken off several hundred HP off of each of them.

"OW, that hurt!" Skywarp complained.

Sheba quickly cast Scan.

Elvoret

A monster that lives in the abandoned Dollet Communication Tower. No one knows where it came from.

Level 11

HP 3523/3523

Immune to Poison

Strong vs. Magic attacks (high Spirit)

Starscream attempted a Draw. "Hey, what's this?" he wondered, "It says that I can draw Thunder, Cure, Double, and Siren. What's Siren?"

"Draw it and find out," Sheba replied.

Starscream concentrated, and several blue-white orbs rose up in a circular-spiral pattern around him along with a ring of green energy. Five or six orbs of bluish-purple energy were sucked from Elvoret and absorbed into Starscream.

"OH!" Starscream exclaimed, "Siren is a Guardian Force!"

"Excellent," Sheba told him, "Now if I were you I'd stock up on Double and Thunder. That's two spells you don't have yet."

While Starscream and the others worked on drawing all the Double and Thunder from Elvoret as they could, Sheba acted as a medic, drawing out Cure and casting it when necessary-Elvoret's Storm Breath seemed quite effective against them. The monster also attacked with Thunder, which did significant damage. At one point, Thundercracker's HP hit the Critical range.

"Hey, what's happening to me?" Thundercracker asked. All of a sudden, orange beams shot up in a circle around him. The next thing he knew, a blast of fire spouted from one of his arm mounted lasers, hitting Elvoret and taking off about 700 HP.

"Well, whaddaya know," Sheba remarked, "It seems your Limit Break is the ability to use Blue Magic. That was the Flamethrower attack, if I'm not mistaken."

"Too bad it's the only one I've got," Thundercracker sighed.

"Oh, you can learn more—but I'm not sure how your particular brand of Blue Magic works. Usually it works by learning it by being attacked by an enemy that uses the ability on you, but there is another way. Some items give the ability to cast a particular Blue magic spell when absorbed," Sheba informed him, "Okay, everybody got all the spells they want?"

"Yep," Skywarp announced.

"So do I," Starscream added.

"I'm done Drawing," Thundercracker stated.

"Okay good, now pummel that thing with your GFs!" Sheba said.

Thundercracker summoned Ifrit, and the Hell Fire attack took off 1200 HP. Then Skywarp summoned Diablos, and Starscream summoned Quezacotl right afterwards. Elvoret still wasn't KO'd, so Sheba summoned Shiva. The Diamond Dust attack took off 1345 HP and finished off Elvoret.

The spoils of the battle with Elvoret included a G-Returner potion-which would restore a K.O.'ed GF. As for the newly-acquired GF, Sheba thought that Thundercracker should be the one to junction Siren. The reason for this was the fact that Thundercracker had the lowest MagicPower of the group, and Siren had an existing Magic-Junction which could be used to boost that particular stat. So, Thundercracker got Siren, and then junctioned Double to his Magic stats. The others also adjusted their Junctions, because they now had some more powerful magic to boost their stats with. Next, Sheba took them to the entrance to Tower itself. Just inside the doorway was an unusual phenomenon-several strands of purple light beams rose up in a continuous, circular-spiral pattern.

"I've never seen anything like it before," Starscream announced, "What is it?"

"That, Starscream, is your first encounter with a Draw Point," Sheba replied.

"Draw point?" Starscream wondered.

"It's a special place where you can draw spells from. Go ahead, try it. Pretend this is a monster that you're trying to draw Magic from."

Starscream activated the Draw command, and the beams shifted, rose above him, and seemed to almost pour something into him. He received 7 Blind spells.

Sheba now led the three Seekers to a forest just south of the Communication Tower. Before long, they were attacked by a strange, green, plantlike creature. It had the jump on them, and it scattered pollen on them that had a strange effect.

"I feel like I'm being slowed down," Skywarp complained.

Sheba cast Scan.

Ochu

Likes to live in forests. Attacks with tentacles and status-changing attacks.

Level 20

HP 4000/4000

Weak vs. Fire & Ice/ Immune to Earth

Thundercracker drew from the monster, and discovered new spells-Blind, Silence, and Confuse. While he and the others busied themselves with stocking the new spells, the Ochu did a strange thing. It seemed to suck a glowing purple orb out of Starscream.

"HEY! IT TOOK A SCAN SPELL!" Starscream exclaimed.

"That's the Ochu's 'Drink Magic' attack," Sheba informed him, "It'll do that now and then."

After another round of Drawing magic, the Ochu swatted Sheba with its tentacle, taking off 150 HP. She growled, but did nothing-as the others weren't quite finished drawing out spells yet. As soon as everyone was done drawing out as many spells as they could hold, Thundercracker summoned Ifrit. The Hell Fire attack did 7600 HP worth of damage, easily beating the Ochu.

The Ochu had dropped no items, but that didn't matter. Sheba showed Thundercracker how to junction Blind to his Status-Attack, which he now had thanks to his junction with Siren.

"I noticed something weird," Thundercracker commented, "After I junctioned Double to my Magic stats, I was able to draw more spells out at a time. Like, before, I was getting three or four-now I'm getting seven or eight at a crack."

"Oh yeah, well your Magic Power certainly makes a difference when it comes to how many spells you can draw from a target with each attempt. Sometimes a Draw will even fail if you're Magic Power is really low, and especially if you're attempting to obtain pretty high-level spells," Sheba told him.

Sheba took them through the forest for a while longer, during which time they encountered such things as Funguar, Cockatrice, Wendigo, and Anacondaurs. Of course, they even ran into the occasional Ochu. The Cockatrice monsters supplied Thundara and Break, the Funguars had the Confuse, Silence, and Sleep spells, and the Wendigos had Protect and Berserk. Skywarp even drew out Break from a Cockatrice to immediately cast on a Funguar, and was thrilled with the results.

"Hey, that reminds me of that Immobilizer the Autobots invented," he said.

That reminded Sheba that they needed a certain spell in particular-one to cure negative status ailments. It was right about then that Starscream complained, "When are we going to start fighting some machines? These flesh creatures are hardly a challenge."

"Oh, so you want to fight machines, do ya?" Sheba said, grinning, "Okay, come with me."

There was a desert not far from the forest, and in the desert was a strange building. Sheba blasted a hole in it and led the others inside. Immediately they were attacked by some primitive-looking robots. There were two of them, and they were yellowish with huge heads and what looked like boxing-gloves for hands. Starscream cast Scan.

GIM47N

An older type of Galbadian weapon. Has a laser cannon, but mostly punches using the steel orbs on both hands.

Level 23

HP 745/745

Weak vs. Thunder, Earth, and Water

Immune to Poison

"I wonder what the 'GIM' stands for in 'GIM47N'," Skywarp wondered.

"Galbadian Idiot Machine would be my guess," Sheba told him, as she dodged a punch from the one on the left.

Both the GIM47Ns were carrying Esuna and Life, and Starscream, Skywarp and Thundercracker wasted no time filling up on these spells. Then Starscream finished the monsters off with a Quezacotl summon. But that was not the only kind of robot floating around the place. Another battle ensued, this time with a kind of machine that was sleeker, and less clunky. This time it was Skywarp's turn first, so he cast Scan.

GIM52A

A machine made by Galbadia to support soldiers. Attacks with magic and missiles. The most advanced models used.

Level 25

HP 3100/3100

Weak vs. Thunder, Earth and Water

Immune to Poison

The GIM52A they were facing now had Slow, Haste, and Dispel ripe for the Drawing. Sheba drew out Haste and cast it on the others to speed up the time between turns. The robot mostly tried knocking into them, but at one point it flung several missiles at Starscream. This took off most of his HP. Sheba quickly cast Cure on him. The robot kept doing this on each of its subsequent turns. Eventually, the missiles hit Sheba. Her HP went into the critical range, and she found herself able to access her Limit Break. She chose Light Pillar Beam, and fired it. The GIM52A was instantly defeated.

"Hey, it dropped something," Thundercracker stated. He went over and recovered the item. It was a Missile.

"You can try to use that to learn a new Blue Magic ability," Sheba told him.

Thundercracker concentrated, and the Missile glowed brightly, then seemed to be absorbed into him.

"Okay, good, now it's time to get out of here," Sheba told everyone.

She led them back through the gaping hole in the building.

"All this action is great, but it's wearing me out," Skywarp complained.

"One more battle," Sheba said, and led them to the coastline.

"Starscream-equip Quezacotl's Card ability. Just kick out the Draw ability, you won't be needing it."

Starscream did as Sheba asked. They were then attacked by something very strange-all they could see were three fins sticking out of the ground. Skywarp cast Scan.

Fastitocalon-F

A fish that swims in the ground

Only the fin can be seen

One theory says that it may be a shark

Level 25

HP 978/978

Sheba cast Thunder on the Fastitocalon-F that was on the far right. That took off 700 HP, and suddenly it popped out of the ground, fully exposed. It was yellow with reddish orange fins and in shape resembled a tropical fish, like an Angel fish, but it had teeth like a piranha.

"Now-use the Card ability!" Sheba told Starscream.

Starscream did so, and several multicolored beams rose up from the ground and surrounded the Fastitocalon-F. Seconds later, the fish-monster was gone and a card with a picture of the monster floated into Starscream's hand.

"Now, all you need to do is whittle down these monsters' HP until it's weak enough to be turned into a Card," Sheba instructed.

Thundercracker cast Thundara on the next Fastitocalon-F. That took off 840 HP. Starscream was then easily able to turn it into a card. But when Skywarp cast Thunder on the last remaining monster, it sprang from the sand-and it looked a lot different than the other two had. For one thing, it was a LOT bigger. Its head was huge and seemed armor-plated, and its front fins were long and lined with spines on the edges.

"WHOA, WHAT'S THAT?" Skywarp exclaimed, as the monster came over and bit him.

Sheba cast Scan.

Fastitocalon

A fish that swims in the ground

Only the fin can be seen

One theory says that it may be a shark

Level 23/23

HP 817/817

"Isn't that what those other things were?" Thundercracker wondered.

"Not exactly," Sheba told him, "Those were Fastitocalon-F's. This is a Fastitocalon. It's a mature version of the other two, I think."

Eventually they whittled down the Fastitocalon's HP using Blizzard spells-Sheba didn't want to take a chance of knocking it out. Starscream used the Card ability just as it reached 140 HP. Finally, the Fastitocalon Card was in their possession. And at last, Diablos had gained enough ability points to learn Mug.

"Now what's so great about these cards?" Starscream wanted to know.

"Access Quezacotl's Card Mod ability and I'll show you," Sheba replied.

"Hmmm...one Fastitocalon card will make one Water Crystal," Starscream said.

"Do it," Sheba told him.

The Card glowed brightly and transformed into a crystal. "You can use this to learn Blue Magic: Aqua Breath," Sheba said to Thundercracker. So, Thundercracker absorbed the item and learned Aqua Breath.

Sheba thought they'd had more than enough excitement for one day, so she reclaimed her GFs that she'd lent out and teleported everyone back to Earth. When they got back to headquarters, Thundercracker and Skywarp couldn't stop talking about the events of that day.

"She taught you MAGIC?" Blitzwing exclaimed.

"Yep," Thundercracker said.

"What was it like?" Ramjet wanted to know.

"It was great!" Skywarp said enthusiastically, "I just wish we could use it to lay the smackdown on a few Autobots!"

"Do you think Sheba will let you use it against the Autobots?" Rumble asked.

"Probably not," Thundercracker sighed, "She took back her GFs just before we got back. We can't use Magic without them. Still, it was a blast while it lasted."

"Hey, when are you going to teach Magic to the rest of us?" Blitzwing asked Sheba.

"Oh, probably pretty soon," Sheba said, yawning. She was tired, so she headed for her room. Starscream followed her for a bit.

"Why do you suppose I have a greater MagicPower statistic than the others?" Starscream wanted to know.

"Offhand, I couldn't tell you, but it seems to me that it's like you were born to use Magic," Sheba said with a shrug.

"BORN to use Magic?" Starscream echoed, with amazement in his voice. He shook his head and went to his own quarters to sleep it off.

Sheba was so tired that she just flopped down on the floor the minute she entered her room, and was asleep almost immediately. She had that dream again-the one with the grey images of the Decepticons, motionless as if frozen in time, in a barren wastleland tinted red by the dull light. A pulse of energy, emanating from a hooded creature standing on the edge of a far-off cliff, swept towards the images and destroyed them. Sheba felt like she was there and it felt like she was getting blasted to bits. She woke up.

"ROWRROWRRROWRRRR!"

The sound of Sheba's roar echoed throughout the base. A few minutes later, the door to Sheba's quarters opened, and Megatron stepped into the room.

"Let me guess-you had another bad dream," he commented.

"Yep," Sheba replied.

The Decepticon Leader bent down and began stroking Sheba to calm her. Automatically she began purring. Megatron continued petting her until she was asleep, which he could ascertain by the fact that she was no longer purring. Then he returned to his own quarters.

When Sheba awoke the next morning, she was vaguely wondering why Megatron had been in her quarters after she'd awoken from that nightmare. She changed to her robotic form, and then headed for a fuel storage room. She took an energon cube back to her quarters and started lapping the contents up.

Blitzwing came into her room. "Energon for breakfast, eh?" he said.

"Mm-hmm," Sheba said between licks.

Blitzwing waited until she was finished drinking all the energon from the cube.

"So I hear you took Starscream and the others out to a place where you taught them how to use Magic," he began.

"And you want to learn some, too, I suppose," Sheba stated.

"Well, of course," Blitzwing said.

"To make the trip worthwhile I'll need to drag one more person along with," Sheba told him.

"Hmm," Blitzwing said thoughtfully. He had secretly hoped she'd take just him. "Do we have to?" he asked.

"Well, it'll make fighting the monsters a LOT easier," Sheba pointed out, "Some of those monsters have pretty debilitating attacks, and it helps to have more people to either attack or act as a medic."

"Well I guess we could take Astrotrain as well," Blitzwing said.

"And I'll get Starscream to come too, because he needs the practice," Sheba announced, "Besides, I am his guardian."

Blitzwing sighed. Personally, he found Starscream to be annoying, but Sheba had a point-this was her trip, and if she decided to bring him along, there wasn't much Blitzwing could say about it. His desire to learn Magic was a lot stronger than any personal enmity he had against Starscream.

"You want to do WHAT?!" Starscream exclaimed.

"You heard me," Sheba told him, "I'm going to teach the Triple-Changers how to use Magic."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Starscream asked her.

"Don't worry about it," Sheba told him, "They won't be able to use it without Guardian Forces, and I always take those back after the training session is over."

Astrotrain looked hesitantly at his fellow Triple-changer.

"C'mon, Astrotrain, it'll be great!" Blitzwing urged, "We'll get to learn how to do the kind of attacks that Sheba uses. And you've seen how she mopped the floor with the Autobots using those powers of hers."

"Yeah, but," Astrotrain said, with a hint of protest in his voice.

"But nothing!" Blitzwing told him, "Don't you want to be powerful like Sheba?"

"I don't suppose ANY of us could be as powerful as her," Astrotrain stated, "Not even Megatron."

"Well at least give it a try. There's no harm in that."

Astrotrain sighed, and finally gave in. "Oh, alright," he agreed.

Sheba transported the group-Starscream, Blitzwing, and the reluctant Astrotrain-to the same world as she'd taken Starscream, Thundercracker, and Skywarp the day before. Then she assigned GFs. Starscream got Quezacotl, Blitzwing got Pandemona, and Astrotrain got Cerberus. After doling out a few spells for the purposes of Junctioning, Sheba led Starscream and the Triple-Changers over the plains near a large city where all the train tracks seemed to converge. After wandering around there for a bit, they were attacked by two strange flying creatures that had two wings on each side of their bodies. The wings were leathery like a bat or pterodactyl's and each monster had a head like a vulture. It was Starscream's turn first, so he cast Scan.

Thrustaevis

A flying monster found on the Galbadian Continent. Usually swoops down to attack enemies, but also bites and causes wind gusts when it's angry.

Level 21

HP 709/709

Weak vs. wind

Immune to Earth

The Thrustaevis on the right grabbed onto Astrotrain and bit him several times, doing only 88 HP worth of damage. That made Astrotrain furious.

"All right, that's IT! I'm blowing this thing away," he stated. He fired his Ionic Displacer pistol, but the monster easily dodged the blast.

"Patience, Astrotrain," Sheba told him, "Make sure you draw all the spells that you can carry first."

Sheba had Diablos junctioned, so she mugged the first Thrustaevis, slashing with her claws and taking 2 Shear Feathers in the process. The attack did 1100 HP of damage, and that Thrustaevis was K.O.'ed. That left one to draw spells from.

Blitzwing was getting the hang of drawing out Magic. He started out by getting all the Aero spells he could carry, then moved on to Blizzara, Float, and Scan. It was taking longer for him to stock spells than it was for Starscream or Astrotrain, since Pandemona has no Magic Junction ability to raise a person's Magic Power stats.

Finally, after everyone got all the spells they wanted, Sheba got Astrotrain to summon Cerberus. This would serve to raise Astrotrain's compatibility with the GF. When he did so, several large green orbs with red cores spun around him in a circular pattern before scattering in all directions. He and the others disappeared, indicating that the GF had transported the group temporarily to the protective dimension. The background seemed to melt away, revealing the black gates of Hades. Cerberus charged through the gate the minute it opened, and howled. Three beams, one from each of its heads, rose into the air. Cerberus vanished, revealing the party, and Cerberus' beams fell back down to earth, putting everyone in Double and Triple. Then Starscream summoned Quezacotl. The giant, vaguely bird-shaped form emerged as a huge bolt of lightning struck the ground. It shot electrical energy from its 'head', causing a massive surge of lightning to come down from the sky and blast the remaining Thrustaevis. The Thunder Storm attack did 7535 HP of damage to that last monster, easily defeating it.

Astrotrain stood there in awe. "That was incredible," he said, almost as if he was in a daze, "I almost feel as if I got a little stronger."

Sheba cast Scan on him. "Ah," she realized, "you went up a Level. Naturally you'll feel it when you gain enough experience to level-up. See, these little trips into Magic-Land have more than one purpose. Learning to use Magic is only a very small part of it. Since you never seem to win very many battles against the Autobots, it doesn't look like you've gained very much experience to level you up. But out here where you can actually win, it's a different story."

"Oh," Astrotrain remarked.

Sheba continued to lead the other three around the Galbadian Continent, battling Wendigos, Thrustaevis, Funguars, and Cockatrices. Blitzwing also gained a level as well as the battles went on. When Sheba grew tired of battling those, she took the others to some cliffs in the area just outside Winhill. Immediately they were attacked by two strange reptilian creatures. Sheba cast Scan.

Grendel

A smaller type of dragon, sometimes appearing in groups of two. May be more dangerous than other dragons.

Level 30

HP 7250/7250

Weak vs. Earth, Wind, & Holy

The Grendel on the right attacked by using Tail Blade-doing a backwards somersault towards Starscream, which enabled the creature to slash him with the razor-sharp underside of its tail. That took off 1400 HP off.

Both Grendels were carrying Blizzara, which Blitzwing and the others were eager to stock up on. However, the two Grendels' Tail Blade attacks were very powerful and something needed to be done to disable them. After Astrotrain drew out 5 Blizzara spells from the Grendel on the left, Sheba cast Blind on it. The next time it attacked, it missed completely. Starscream cast Blind on the other Grendel immediately after that. Only when the Grendels used their Breath attacks did Sheba and the others have to use Cure or Cura to heal up. Pretty soon everyone had stocked all the available Magic. Sheba got Astrotrain to summon Cerberus, then Sheba cast double Zombie on the Grendels. She then got Starscream and Blitzwing to skip their turns, then cast double Life. Both monsters were defeated.

"Wow, that was neat! How did you defeat them so easily?" Blitzwing wanted to know.

"Any monster that is under the Zombie status effect reacts to Curative magic as if it was undead," Sheba explained, "It's kinda like casting Death on a living monster. Undead creatures are damaged by Cure magic or items and totally knocked out by Life Magic or items. It's a pretty cheap way to win, but it's also a great desperation tactic."

"I'll have to remember that," Starscream remarked.

Sheba took them to a few more battles before returning everybody to Headquarters. In that time, both Starscream and Blitzwing gained a level. And Astrotrain had lost most of the reservations he had about this whole magic business, to the point of being very disappointed that Sheba was taking back the Guardian Force she'd lent out to him.

"Do you have to?" he complained.

"Yes. I have to," Sheba said firmly, "You don't have enough experience to be running around this world with Guardian Force abilities still junctioned. That could cause more problems than you even know."

"Are you sure?" Astrotrain persisted.

"Trust me."

"Oh, alright," Astrotrain sighed.

Thrust was walking down one of the outer corridors of the base when a pulsating green light caught his optics from outside one of the windows. He went right up to the window and stared into the briny depths that surrounded the sunken starship. The light was coming from a crevice only a few hundred meters from where he was standing.

"I wonder what that is," Thrust wondered to himself. He tried to estimate the location of the source of the light, and then he hurried to the docking tower. Once he'd exited the base, he dived into the water and soon found the crevice where he once again saw the green glowing light. Thrust reached in and his fingers closed around a smooth, round object. It was about the size of a baseball. He drew it out and examined it-it turned out to be a green crystal orb that seemed to possess a great deal of energy. His sensors couldn't fully analyze the object, so he put it into an empty space in his arm-mounted laser to store it. The minute he did that, he felt a strange sensation. He shrugged it off and returned to headquarters.

"Where have you been?" Starscream demanded, as Thrust showed up dripping wet in the control room.

"Just outside," Thrust snapped.

Starscream was going to press the issue, but Megatron walked in and demanded everyone's attention.

"Thrust, Ramjet, Dirge! Go to the Solar Power Plant and secure its energy for us!" Megatron ordered.

"All right! Some action!" Thrust said.

Ramjet and the others were about halfway through making energon cubes when the Autobots showed up. Prime was in the lead, and he had brought along Ironhide, Prowl, Jazz, and Blaster.

Quickly the Decepticons got their weapons ready.

"FREEZE, AUTOBOTS!" Thrust shouted, and motioned towards them. And a very odd thing happened. Several concentric green circles appeared on the ground around the dark red Conehead, and the light stretched up almost to Thrust's knees. White particles like snow appeared in the air around the Autobots. The particles converged on Optimus Prime, and seconds later, a huge chunk of ice materialized around him in a bright purple flash. The ice spread on the ground a bit, then it all shattered with a blue energy-ring pulsing out around where the ice had been, roughly at Optimus Prime's chest level.

"AAAAA!" Prime screamed. The attack had taken off 1200 HP, and Prime was now unable to move; as if he had been frozen in time. All the Autobots stopped what they were doing and stared in amazement. Dirge and Ramjet looked at Thrust with their jaws agape. Thrust stared at his hand, even more puzzled as to what had just happened.

"W-w-w-was that...MAGIC?!" Dirge stammered.

"Sure looked like it," Ramjet replied.

Suddenly it dawned on Thrust-the ice had appeared when he'd said 'freeze.' Perhaps doing so again would get the same results.

"OPTIMUS!" Ironhide called out, "Why you dirty decepticreep! I'll...AAAAA!" He was interrupted by a Freeze spell being cast on him, which took off 1439 HP.

Emboldened, Thrust began casting Freeze again. This time it hit Jazz, and in addition to causing 1525 HP worth of damage, Jazz discovered that he could not move. Because of that, he couldn't even get off a sound-and-light show.

"AH, HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I'M INVINCIBLE! TAKE THAT, AUTOBOTS!" Thrust gloated. But when he went to cast Freeze once again, although the green concentric circles appeared, the ice did not.

"Hey, what's going on?" Thrust hollered in protest.

Prowl and the others noticed, and took the opportunity to fight back. By this time, Optimus was able to move again. The odds were now tipped back in the Autobots' favor. Thrust discovered the hard way that he couldn't take as many hits as he used to be able to. Ramjet and Dirge had to drag him out of there, unconscious, without any energon cubes for their trouble.

"What a complete disaster," Dirge snorted, on the way back to headquarters.

When they got back to base, Dirge and Ramjet were still carrying Thrust. He'd been knocked out.

"What in the universe...?! I sent you on a simple energy-gathering mission, and you come back with nothing to show for it?" Megatron growled.

"It wasn't my fault," Ramjet protested, "Something really strange happened."

"Explain." Megatron demanded.

"It looked like Thrust was using magic," Dirge stated, then he told Megatron what had happened during the battle.

"Magic?! How?" Megatron shouted.

"I don't know," Ramjet replied.

Megatron turned to Soundwave, who had been standing there listening intently. "Send Laserbeak to fetch Sheba," he ordered.

The dark blue cassette-commander pushed the button on his shoulder to eject the red cassette vulture. "Laserbeak, prepare for flight. Operation, retrieval." Laserbeak cawed and flew off. Moments later he returned, Sheba following behind.

Megatron glared at Sheba when she walked into the control room. "Perhaps you'd care to explain how Thrust managed to use magic today," he said crossly.

Sheba's eyes went wide and her jaw dropped nearly to the floor.

"WHAT?!" she exclaimed.

"I know you've been teaching some of the Decepticons how to use magic," Megatron continued.

"But not Thrust. Not yet, anyway," Sheba stated, "He shouldn't be able to. He hasn't got any Guardian Forces junctioned. If he used magic, it wasn't from me. By the way, where is he?"

"In the repair bay. He hasn't moved since Dirge and Ramjet brought him in," Megatron replied.

"Well let's go and see him," Sheba said.

Thrust was lying unconscious on an exam table. Sheba cast Full-Life on him to revive him. He sat up and moaned.

"Ohhhh, what happened?" he asked.

"Explain yourself, Thrust," Megatron demanded angrily, "How is it that you were able to use Magic?"

Thrust gulped nervously. "I-I'm not sure," he said.

"Is somebody going to tell me what happened?" Sheba cut in.

Megatron told her what Dirge and Ramjet had relayed to him earlier.

"Green concentric circles, huh? And ice that causes people to stop moving? Sounds familiar," Sheba mused. She sensed a power source emanating from one of Thrust's shoulder-mounted lasers.

"Alright, open it up," Sheba said, "Show me what's in there, and hand it over."

Thrust sighed, then opened the storage compartment in his weapon. He took out the green orb and gave it to Sheba.

"Ahh, just as I thought. Thrust found a Contain Materia orb," Sheba realized.

"Materia?" Megatron asked, puzzled.

"It's another way to use Magic," Sheba explained, "Where did you get this?"

"Outside headquarters. It was just sitting in a hole on the ocean floor," Thrust told her, "And how come it stopped working all of a sudden?"

Sheba cast Scan, and discovered that Thrust's maximum hit points were a little lower than they ought to be. She also found out that he had 0 Magic Points.

"You ran out of Magic Points," Sheba informed Thrust flatly, "Without Magic Points, you can't cast spells." She turned to Megatron.

"We better get everybody in here," she said, "There's a lesson in all this that needs to be learned, and the sooner the better."

Once all the Decepticons were assembled, and had been told what had happened to Thrust in the latest battle with the Autobots, Sheba took charge.

"Alright everybody, this is probably the best example of why I don't let you guys run around using Magic unsupervised," she began, "What happened to Thrust wouldn't have occurred if he knew what he was doing. Magic is very dangerous in inexperienced hands. Thrust didn't realize that green Magic Materia takes off a certain percentage of maximum Hit Points, or that using the Materia Freeze Spell uses up Magic Points. And he had no way of replenishing those Magic Points during the battle. That's most of what got him into trouble. The minute he ran out of Magic Points, the Autobots regained their advantage. But there's more to it than that. The energy of Materia carries other risks. Not so much the orbs themselves, but if one of you stumbled across raw Mako energy and tried to absorb it, you could wind up crazy, dead, or both. So from now on, I want all of you to promise me that if you discover something strange-especially if it could have something to do with Magic-that you leave it alone and come get me. That is for your own safety. There are a lot of things out there that are powerful, but it won't do you very much good if it ends up killing you." She gazed intently at her audience.

Megatron spoke up. "Anyone who disregards this advice will be in more trouble than he ever dreamed," he informed everyone sternly. His crimson optics lit up brightly with a warning flash, to drive the point home.

"Thrust was using magic?!" Spike exclaimed.

"Yes," Optimus Prime told him, "And the strange part is that Sheba wasn't there. But if the Decepticons have gained the ability to use Magic, we have a lot more to worry about."

"He wasn't using it for very long though," Prowl stated.

"Yeah, that was odd. It was like he ran out of power or something," Blaster commented.

"I dunno, you guys. Sheba never seems to run out of power. Why do you suppose it happened to Thrust?" Jazz wondered.

"I don't have the answer to that right now," Prime said, "But maybe someday we will."

The other Decepticons were a lot more wary about Magic since Thrust's mistake. Even Starscream seemed a little edgy about it now. Sheba had to reassure them all that as long as she was there to supervise and instruct, there would be no problems-or at least, she was fully capable of handling any problems that could forseeably arise. What happened to Thrust was unlikely to occurr again, so long as they trusted Sheba instead of trying to acquire magical powers on their own. And Megatron had plainly-and publicly-told Thrust that if he ever used Magic without Sheba's supervision ever again, he'd be dismantled and put in storage.

"Sheba, I need to speak with you privately," Megatron requested. He led her into a room that was mostly used for interrogations.

"Gee, you were pretty rough on him," Sheba said, referring to the rather stern lecture that Megatron had given to Thrust.

"And with good reason," Megatron told her.

"Which is?" Sheba wanted to know.

"Thrust is not the only Decepticon that's ever found a way to use Magic against the Autobots," Megatron stated, "Long ago, a similar mistake was made."

"What do you mean?"

"It was many years ago on Cybertron, at the start of the War," Megatron replied. "One of the Decepticons had access to a very powerful attack spell, and he used it in a critical battle against the Autobots. At first, the advantage was clearly ours. But, as the fighting continued, the continuous casting of that spell quickly depleted the spellcaster's Magic Points. No sooner had that happened, than Guardian Robots showed up and decimated our forces. There wasn't even enough Magic Points left over to cast a simple Life spell on even one of the fallen Decepticon warriors. The battle was lost, and many Decepticons were either destroyed, or captured by the Autobots that day."

"What happened to the guy that was casting all the magic? What spell was he using?" Sheba asked. Then she noticed the downcast look on Megatron's face. "That magic user...that was you, wasn't it?"

Megatron sighed heavily. "Yes, it was I. Normally, I find an advantage and exploit it to the fullest against our foes. Because of the nature of the spell I was using, nobody suspected that I was using Magic, but I soon learned that this wasn't quite as simple as I had anticipated. That night, Elder Prime came to me in a dream and warned me that never again was I to use Magic attacks against the Autobots. He said that if I continued to use Magic, that the Autobots too would start using it. If that were to be the case then the Matrix would tip the odds in the Autobots' favor and it would be a war I could never win. But there is another reason I called you in here Sheba-to give you this." He handed Sheba a green translucent stone that had a red core. It was a magicite shard.

Sheba took it and examined it closely.

"Phoenix? Then the spell you used...was Fire3?"

Megatron nodded.

"How come you're giving me this?" Sheba asked.

"I only just recently learned all the spells from it," Megatron explained, "And it seems you might need to learn them."

"Oh. Yeah, and Life3 is going to be really handy once I learn it," Sheba said, "Hey, wait a minute! Your spontaneous resurrections after everyone thinks you're dead-that reeks of Life3!"

"That is true," Megatron stated, "And the restorative spells are the only ones that I dare use. Everybody thinks I am almost completely indestructible. Nobody suspects Magic when I reawaken after presumably being deactivated."

"Heh, nobody except me. I thought it was pretty obvious," Sheba grinned, "But anyway, where did you get magicite?"

Megatron sighed. "It was given to me by an old friend a long time ago," he told her. The tone of his voice was uncharacteristically sorrowful.

"Painful memory, eh? I better not go there then," Sheba commented, "Ok, are you all finished?"

"Yes," Megatron replied.

"Good, because it's almost time for "Make it so"," Sheba told him, and hurried out.

Megatron stood there, alone, completely confused. "Make it so?"

Soundwave was sent with Starscream, Thundercracker, and Skywarp to get some energon cubes. This time they managed to get away with some, and nobody used any Magic. As well, Starscream's presence made the Autobots apprehensive; the last thing they needed was to be thumped on by his Guardian Force.

"You should have seen those pathetic Autobots attempt to stop us," Starscream chuckled, once they were in the control room, "It's like they weren't even trying anymore."

"Heh. I wouldn't be trying either, if it meant Sheba would come and kick my afterburner halfway across the planet," Thundercracker snickered.

"I'd never thought I'd be saying this, but we should have Starscream along on every mission. We can't lose," Skywarp said gleefully, as he dropped his load of energon cubes unceremoniously on the floor.

Prime and his crew rolled in to Autobot Headquarters., looking rather ashamed of themselves.

"Prime, what happened?" Huffer wanted to know.

"We couldn't do anything. Starscream was there," Prime told him, "If we had attacked him, Sheba would have appeared."

"Well you were able to stop the Decepticons last time," Spike said.

"We got lucky last time," Ironhide snorted.

"If this goes on for much longer, we will no longer be able to keep the Decepticons from getting the energy they need to fully take over Cybertron," Optimus Prime realized.