Beast Wars and all related belong to Hasbro. The story, its original contents and ideas, and any original characters belong to the author and cannot be used or reprinted without the author's permission.

Disclaimer: No money, no rights, no life. I own all original characters unless otherwise specified.

Dedications: Like usual, the story is dedicated to the writers for their excellent work. It's also dedicated to all the voice actors, especially Campbell Lane, for bringing these wonderful characters (especially my favorites) to life.

Author's Note: This was part of a story trade with Omicron Ice Queen. Random colony, random victim, ravenous Rampage.

Transformers Spotlight:
Protoform X
Joshin Yasha (joshinyasha yahoo dot com)

And only two remained . . .

Through all the running, the screaming, the agonizingly delicious slurps of precious mech-fluid and spark energy, the behemoth had gone to extraneous lengths to prevent the early demise of one citizen in particular. By working his way around the colony Elek, he had severed the tunnels that lead out of the city and off the island. After they were caved in and cut off from outside contact, the population of Maximal surveyors and scientists were casually devoured in their frenzy to escape the planet.

Even their unintentional schisms had undone them - all betraying one another in a vain vie for freedom, and as each had abandoned the other, the creature had been there to collect the sparks of the wayward and weary. It had gobbled them up one after the other, but it was all down to her, the lone human foreigner who had evaded him until now.

She trembled in reflex to the silence broken only by the falling rubble and the weight of gravity taking its toll upon unstable structures. The latest beam that she had scurried across gave out despite her petite form, tumbling to the milky soil of the alien planet and crashing against dismembered buildings and other things.

Putting her back to the wall, Bridge bit back the distressed caterwaul building inside her. So many thoughts viciously tore at her like shrapnel grenades, proposing any number of ways that she could die.

Had it heard her?

Had she evaded it?

Was there anyway for her to escape?

Were the evacuation ships still functional?

Too many questions, not enough answers, and that last thunderclap in the distance warned her of the coming electrical storms prevalent to the planet. The storms triggered her memory and twisted her focus to the west. Under normal circumstances, the lightning sphere would convey the strikes unto itself, collect the energy, and use it to empower the once proud survey colony. Yet now, when Bridge looked where she expected to find her pillar, her totem, there was only dilapidation and ruin.

Her stomach flipped in her belly, igniting vertigo throughout her body that mutated into nausea. Never had the sight of the bodies triggered it, nor had the metallic scent of the mech-fluid pouring from the limbs and empty carcasses of her friends enticed the sensation only when she saw the destroyed marker of her safety did she become abandoned and crippled.

"Oh, god," she wheezed, throat running dry and squealing the end of her words. The lilt in her tone reflected the vapid change in the atmosphere. The first lightning strike blanketed the distance, its grid-like pattern throwing a mile-wide net from skyline to surface.

Bridge's face paled in the flash, discoloured by the onset of her predicament. If luck reached out to her, maybe the lightning would kill her before the monster could-

She could just make out the taunt of the cruel beast trampling through the ruined building. "The chase has been thrilling," he said, voice distorted in its echo, "but there's no place left to run."

He was right, she thought. Whether she succumbed to the beast or waited for the storm, she had nowhere to hide, nowhere to be safe from nature or the neurotic demon.

"Why not rest a while? It's no fun for me if you're too tired to scream."

Bridge swallowed in reflex, finding herself at a loss for words. The beast was on the other side of the wall now, face nuzzled against the panel directly behind the human so that his voice would reverberate unimpeded.

"I will make it so memorable for you once we begin . . ." he promised.

The second net of electricity wove trenches in the former colony, a testament to the ever evolving strength of the planet. The storm itself had moved overhead, gathering itself in a mass of orange and gunmetal grey as it made ready the next lightning grid. Bridge felt the last bit of air draw from her lungs as the storm reached its critical turning point.

"I can smell you," he said, foot falls evolving into a crescendo as he rounded the corner into view, his silhouette eclipsing the erratic fires in the distance. The spikes that were mounted to his pauldrons raised and twitched in anticipation. "So terrified, so frail, so . . . sapid."

Her mouth worked, only there was nothing to pass between her parted lips, not even air.

He flicked his tongue across silvery, stained lips and ended with a maniacal grin. "Time to play."

Her throat was too raw to scream.

"Time to die."