Blackbird flew over the landscape in his jet mode. He was doing
different aerial maneuvers to avoid buildings and just to show off.
He spotted a car underneath him, the transformed and landed in front of
its way. It stopped just inches from hitting him.
"Can still stop on a dime, I see," he said.
"And I see you still like to goof off," it replied, then transformed
into a tall female.
"You like it."
"I know."
He walked over, put his arms around, and kissed her. They stood
there for a minute, holding each other. Then, the ground started
to tremble. They looked up and saw Unicron, in his planet mode.
His mouth lit up and then there was a bright flash.
"STARFIRE!" Blackbird screamed, then fell down.
He looked around and saw he was in his Maximal body again.
"What?" he asked to no one.
"Are you O.K.?" Nightfox asked.
"Nightfox? What happened?"
"You kind of zoned out for a second, then fell down screaming."
"Oh."
"Here, let me help you up."
She put out her hand and Blackbird was to take it, when he felt the
ground shake. Darkbird popped out of the ground and grabbed Blackbird.
"Hahahahahaha! You will never be with her!" Darkbird said, in
a demonic voice.
"NO! I killed you!" Blackbird cried.
"Yes, and now you must join me in the Void! Hahahahahaha!"
"NOOO!" Blackbird screamed, sitting up in his bed. He placed
a hand over his face. Just a dream, he reassured himself.
Just a dream. Sleeping. What a trip.
He got up and went over to a device in the corner. He pressed
a few buttons and the machine produced a cup and then filled it with the
Cybertron version of coffee. He took a sip of it and twitched.
Ugh. Well, that will get ya up, he thought to himself.
He left his quarters and walked around for awhile. He eventually
walked into the command room where he found Rhinox, looking over the monitors.
"Hey Rhinox," he said, trying not to sound as tired as he was.
"Pulling night duty, uh?"
"Yep," Rhinox replied. "What are you doing up?"
Blackbird took a sip of his drink, then replied, "Can't sleep."
"Bad dreams?"
"Weird ones, anyways." He took another sip. "Guess I'm
just not use to sleeping."
"It takes awhile."
Rhinox leaned back a little and yawned.
"Speaking of sleep, it looks like you could use some," Blackbird noted.
"Yeah, night shift isn't easy."
"Well heck, I don't think I'll be able to sleep anytime soon so, if
you want, I can take over for you."
"Sure Thanks."
"Don't mention it."
Rhinox got out of the chair and Blackbird sat down. He placed
his "coffee" on the control panel and tried to keep it from tipping over.
"Sentinel should alert you of any Pred activity," Rhinox said.
"Alright," Blackbird replied.
"Well, goodnight."
" 'Goodnight old man, goodnight.'"
Rhinox turned and left. As he started walking down the corridor
he heard Blackbird start to sign. He paused for a moment to listen.
" 'I'm having trouble trying sleep
My counting sheep are running out.'"
Rhinox continued down the hall.
I wonder how many songs he has in his head, he thought to himself.
I could find a way to extract them. I'll worry about it later.
Right now I need to sleep.
Aww man, that's the fourth time this month! he thought. I really need ta talk ta Optimus about takin' me off early morin' shift. And I need ta talk ta Rhinox about buildin' me a new alarm. Although he's getting pretty pissed about it. Eh. Speakin' of Rhinox, time ta let off his shift.
He got up and walked to command room. He was surprised to see Blackbird instead of Rhinox.
The kid must've takin' Rhinox's for him, he reasoned.
He walked over to the console and saw that Blackbird was resting his head on it, asleep. He also noticed the cup of "coffee" sitting there. He picked up the cup and saw there was a little left.
Can't let it go to waste, he thought, then chugged it. Ugh. It's cold. Oh well, time to get to work.
He grabbed Blackbird's shoulder and began to shake him a little.
"Hey Blackbird, time ta wake up."
Blackbird was still asleep.
"Come on kid, wake up," Rattrap say again, shaking Blackbird harder.
He was still asleep though.
"HEY BIRD BRAIN!!" Rattrap yelled into Blackbird's ear.
"AAHH! WHAT?!" Blackbird screamed. He looked over and saw Rattrap. "Rattrap man, what're you doing here?"
Right now I'm wakin' you up."
"Oh yeah. Oops."
"Eh, don't worry about. I do it sometimes too." Rattrap noticed Blackbird rubbing his temples. "You still seem a little tried kid. Maybe you should go back to bed."
"Your right. Well, see ya."
Blackbird turned and left, making slight growling nosies.
"Kinda sounds like the Chopperface," Rattrap mumbled to himself.
"Hey buddy," Cheetor said, with his usual enthusiasm.
"Hey," Blackbird responded, a little less enthusiastic. He looked around the room. "So, where's everybody else at?"
"Let's see; Airazor and Tigatron are on patrol, Optimus and Rhinox are researching something in the science lab, and Rattrap and Dinobot are in the training room."
"Uh, those two fighting? Won't they kill each other?"
"Well, Silverbolt's watching them, so I don't think that's a problem."
"What about Nightfox?"
"Right here," she answered.
Blackbird and Cheetor turned around and saw Nightfox standing on the table in her beast mode.
"Didn't hear you come in," Blackbird said.
"Beast forms, gotta love 'em."
She stepped off the table and transformed. She pulled up a chair and sat next to the table, then typed in a sequence. A chess board appeared.
"What's that?" Blackbird asked.
"Holo-chess," she replied. "Care to play a game?"
"Sure."
He sat down at the opposite end of the table and moved a piece.
"As you can see," Rhinox started, "the Preds devised a way to incorporate a weapon system into their beast modes."
He pulled up another image. This one was of Drillbit.
"This one seems to have that power too," Rhinox continued. "Fortunately, it only seems to be those two."
"Thank Primus for small faovors," Optimus remarked. "But even so, two is bad enough. And if they find a way to work the process on their other warriors…"
"We're in deep slag," Rhinox interjected.
"Right. So, do you have any suggestions?"
"Well, I'm trying to work out how they did it, but so far I keep coming up with dead ends."
"Well, keep at it. I'm sure you'll the answer eventually."
"Yeah, but right now I have to reprogram Sentinel to somehow differentiate between Blackbird and Darkbird."
"But why? From Blackbird's report Darkbird shouldn't be a problem anymore."
"That doesn't mean the Preds won't try it again. They still have the technology. This is just to be on the safe side."
"Good thinking."
"I guess I'd better get to work."
"No rest for the weary," Optimus chuckled.
"It's still your move," Nightfox reminded him.
"It's been his move for ten minutes," Cheetor remarked.
"Hey, that's an exaggeration! It's only been five," Blackbird said.
"Well, is it too much to ask for you to move a piece without taking two megacycles?" Nightfox pleaded.
"I'm thinking!!"
Blackbird picked up a piece and it.
"There! Happy?!"
"Yes," Nightfox said cheerfully. She moved a piece. "Checkmate."
"WHAT?!?!"
Blackbird looked at the board and then after a few minutes of incoherent rambles, he managed to spit out, " 'Choking on my own rage here!'"
Nightfox smiled then said, "Let's see, that's six games in a row."
Blackbird started slamming his head on the table. Rattrap walked in and saw him.
"What's his problem?" he asked.
Blackbird rested his head on the table and looked at Rattrap.
" 'I'm kicking my ass! Do ya mind?!' Blackbird yelled. He slammed his head the table again and got up. "Dinobot still in the training room?"
Rattrap nodded.
"Good, I'm going down there."
He walked out of the room, rubbing his head.
"You have impressive swordsman ship," Dinobot complemented.
"Thanks. I learned a lot from Springer," Blackbird said.
Dinobot broke free and swung again, knocking the sword out of Blackbird's hand. Dinobot then tripped him and held his sword at Blackbird's throat.
"Apparently not enough," Dinobot said.
He drew his sword back and walked out of the room.
"This is not my day," Blackbird mumbled.
"So, can you make it?" Blackbird asked.
"I suppose, but why would you want something like this?"
"Well, I thought it would be a good weapon against the Preds."
"Uh huh. Would this have anything to do with you losing to Dinobot?"
"You heard about that?"
"Word gets around."
"So anyway, can you do it?"
Rhinox looked at the plans again. They weren't really plans, more like descriptions Blackbird had written. He called it an "energon saber." It was a concentrated beam of energon housed in a handle. When you'd press the center button, the "blade" would extend. Simple enough.
"I guess, but I've got too much work to do to help you settle a personal grudge."
"Come on man. You still owe me."
"For what?"
"Remember, I took over your watch last night."
Rhinox sighed. "Alright. Come back in twenty cycles and it should be done."
Blackbird exited the room and Rhinox shook his head.
"Well," he began, "you made the challenge. Why do you not attack."
"Because it would be better for you to attack me."
"But you are unarmed. It would be dishonorable to attack you."
"Honor shonor. Look, no one here is going think anything less of you or your honor. 'JUST DO IT!!'"
"Very well."
Dinobot held his sword above his head, gave a battle cry, and at Blackbird. Blackbird simple stood there. When he was close enough, Dinobot brought down his sword. Blackbird press a button on the devise and a beam extended. He brought up his energon saber to meet Dinobot's sword. The beam cut through the sword flawlessly. The was a clang sound as the top part of the sword hit the floor.
Dinbot looked at his in surprise. He threw down the piece he was holding and brought out his rotor weapon. Blackbird let the weapon hit the saber. The two blades went spinning in different directions. One piece stuck into the wall and the other hit the floor.
Enraged by the loss of both his weapons, Dinobot began firing his eye beams furiously. Blackbird was able to deflect the beams with his saber. Otpimus, Rhinox, Rattrap watched as the beams reflected off the "blade."
Must've have made it better than I thought, Rhinox thought.
Dinobot fired again. This time the blast deflected back and hit him in the stomach, cause to hunch over in pain. Blackbird walked over to Dinobot and put the blade next to Dinobot's head. He looked up at Blackbird.
"Care to try it again?" Blackbird asked, with a simile.
"O.K., that's enough," Optimus said walking in between the two.
Blackbird pressed the button again and the beam retracted. Dinobot stood up and began to walk out of the room.
"Geez, I didn't think I did that much to him," Blackbird said.
"He'll be find," Optimus reassured. "Right now, I want to talk about that weapon."
"Pretty cool, uh? Rhinox help me make it."
"He did?"
Optimus turned and looked at Rhinox, who simply shrugged.
"Well anyway, next you have an idea for a weapon, run by me first, okay?"
"Alright."
Blackbird turned and started to leave, when Rattrap caught up to him.
"Hey kid! I was wrong about you. Anyone who can show up ol' Chopperface like that is O.K. in my book," Rattrap said.
Blackbird chuckled. The two continue to walk down the hall, trading insults about Dinobot.
"Come in," she said.
The slid open and Blackbird stepped in.
"Hey," she said.
"Hey," he said back. "Uh, look, I came to apologize about the outburst I had earlier. Guess I don't take losing well."
"Yeah, I heard about what you did to Dinobot."
"Eh," Blackbird shrugged.
"I'm glad you didn't do that to me."
"Yeah. Well, I'll see you later."
He turned and started to leave, when Nightfox stopped him.
"Um, there's something I need to talk to you about," she said.
"What?"
"When I helped you fight Darkbird…well…"
"What?"
"I heard some of the things he said, and I wonder why he mentioned my name?"
"Well…um…that's because he knew how I…uh…felt about you."
"What do you mean?"
"Well…that is…I…kind of…care about you."
"You do?"
"Yeah. I guess I've just been afraid to tell you. Wait a minute! I did tell you, kind of, and you left."
"Well…you surprised me. I panicked."
"It's not your fault. 'What would a girl like you want with a gargoyle like me.'"
"Your wrong. I do care about you. I guess I didn't want to compete with Starfire's memory."
"I appreciate the concern, but I realized I can't dwell on the past. I'm gonna have to face the future. And I was wondering if you'd like to help me face it."
Nightfox leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek.
"I'd be happy to," she whispered into his ear.
"Thanks," Blackbird said with a wide smile on his face.
Well, let's see, he thought. I got a new weapon, I showed up Dinobot, and I told Nightfox how I feel about her. The good news is that she feels the same way about me. " 'I didn't even have to use my A-K
I have to say
Today was a good day,'" he sang.
He chuckled to himself about singing that line.