Difficult Relationships PART 1 OF 7

by Laserbeak

There is a time when man needs somebody to talk to,

Someone to talk to, somebody who'll always be there,

All alone,

Nothing seems to matter,

So alone,

Doesn't get much better,

Can't explain,

Something that your feeling,

For the very first time.

There was a time when you needed someone to

hold on to,

Someone to hold you,

Somebody who's always sincere,

All alone,

Suddenly you see her,

So alone,

No, you can't believe her,

Can't explain,

Something that you're feeling,

For the very first time.

Then along comes a woman,

There's a change in the way that you're feelin' tonight,

Then along comes a woman,

And you know that it's right.

____ copyrighted by Chicago

***

A colony of stasis pods floated among the stars, unborn warriors. Suddenly one was sucked into the Earth's atmosphere and plummeted towards the planet, the dormant Maximal remaining unaware of her future and the challenges she would face. What awaits her, life or death?

Predacon Base, day...

Monitor duty! What in the Pit could possibly be as boring as sitting in front of a map grid for several megacycles watching for Maximal energy signatures? Fortunately as far as Pred technology went, the Darkside had it all, including killer surround sound!

Terrorsaur turned the volume control to MAX as he reclined in one of the command chairs, propping his taloned heels on the console. The nearly auditory disabling tunes of Toxic Matter blared through the ship's 7000 amp. speakers. He wouldn't have dared to pull this stunt when the others were hanging around. Nobody else cared for his taste in music (He only listened to Cybertronian bands that were rated the loudest and wildest), but he didn't really care. They had no taste. They were all at least a century old, well, maybe Waspinator and Scorponok weren't, but still, with an old fossil like Megatron in charge who could have any fun around this place?

He yawned and slouched in the hover seat, mouthing the lyrics, although most were screams or odd sounds he couldn't phantom how to make.

Boriiiiing! ~If I were leader things would be a lot more exciting around here. And we wouldn't be worrying about a handful of do-gooder Maxies.~

Just then the console's main screen lit up and the computer's alarm went off. Terrorsaur sat up so fast he nearly fell out of his chair.

"UNNATURAL OBJECT APPROACHING ORBIT."

"Identify," he snapped, his normally shrill voice even more so with sheer eagerness.

"OBJECT IDENTIFIED AS MAXIMAL STASIS POD."

His grin widened."closest estimate of landing coordinates?"

"COORIDINATES 4,4,12. GRID SIGMA," the computer drawled in it's monotonous voice.

"My personal fav hunting grounds!" the pterodactyl boasted, smirking in pleasant surprise. And the others were all attacking the Maximal base! Which left the pod totally to him! He could reprogram it as a Predacon loyal only to him, a bot to follow him in his rebellion against Megatron. Finally he would have his own lieutenant!

"Beast Mode," he chuckled with mischievous glee, transforming to his namesake and jetting out of the Darkside at top speed.

The silvery pod lay in a dusty canyon among a pile of shattered rocks, gleaming in the late afternoon sun. The protoform inside lay motionless, unaware of her surroundings and of the future ahead of her as she rested in blissful unconsciousness.

Squawking to himself, Terrorsaur touched down next to the pod, returning to robot mode. The area was rich with energon. He'd have to work fast to save the new Predacon before it's spark was extinguished or he was forced to revert to beast mode.

As he stepped up to the pod's console momentary doubt gripped him. Computers were his specialty but he'd never actually reprogrammed an actual protoform before. What if he screwed up and it blasted his head off or scanned it's beast mode wrong and came out half sardine, half worm or something?

The bot shimmered in it's comatose, untainted by life, pure and characterless. He wondered what it would be like, male or female? Hopefully not another Blackarachnia or Inferno. The ant-bot was a looney, always spouting his "Defend the Royalty" slag. And the she-spider, she was competition for leadership of the Predacons and that he could do without more of.

After typing in what he hoped was were the right codes a Maximal behavior chip was ejected. He sighed in relief and pulled the chip free crushing it . Luck was with him. It wouldn't be another incident like Airazor at least. Just thinking about that chick shorted his circuits! That hot-shot fem-flyer had caused him more pain than all the other Maxies combined. He'd relish the day he could stomp out her spark. Personally. A bloody grin appeared on his face as he imagined pointing his blaster at her head and caving it in with one shot.

~That would teach her to mess with me! Blasted woman. Why do all the females on this planet have to be witches? What I'd give for just one attractive, halfway decent tempered femme...~

He shook the thought off, fishing around inside his wrist compartment until he found the green Predacon behavior chip, the yellow bug-like symbol on it glinting. He inserted the it into the console and waited for a confirming click to announce it's acceptance.

"REPROGRAMMING NOT ACCEPTIBLE. PROTOFORM SCANNING FOR BEAST MODE."

"Slag!" he snapped, typing hurriedly as he tried to intervene before the protoform became a Maximal. Then the computer's voice stopped him cold.

"NO COMPATIBLE LIFEFORMS IN RANGE."

***

The Predacon attack had broken off a few cycles ago, but Optimus Primal had no intention of heading back to base just yet.

Rhinox had given him the location of a falling stasis pod and he had to get to it before Megatron did. He couldn't allow another of his fellow Maximals to be unwillingly turned to the ways of evil. Bad enough they'd lost Blackarachnia and Inferno. Optimus didn't blame the two for their actions. Protoforms were governed by programming just as any newborn spark was. Which made it all the more urgent to get there soon.

One thing that Optimus would later learn was that while a protoform was indeed influenced by it's programming a bot's choices were it's own. There could be an evil Maximal just as there could be a good Predacon. Dinobot was proof enough of that, was he not? After all, he had always been a Pred, but one of honor and dignity. He would no more strike down a lesser opponent than he would have shot himself in the foot. That was one of the things Optimus respected most about Dinobot. He might not have been quite so proud of his greatest warrior if he could have seen him at that cycle.

The halls of the Axalon rang with insults.

"Cheeze-Breath!"

"Snake-Tongue!"

"Flea-Factory!"

"Scale-Belly!"

"You sniveling little Paramecium!!!"

"I know you are, but what am I?"

"Oh will you two GROW UP!" Airazor snapped turning to face the bickering Rattrap and Dinobot. She and Tigatron were visiting the Maximal base, but already she longed for the peace of the wilderness. All she'd heard for the past megacycle was childish name-calling being shouted throughout the ship. In unison they turned to the female and pointed at one another.

"HE STARTED IT!"

She rolled her green optics in frustration. It was true what they said: women never admitted their age but men never acted it .The love/hate relationship the rat and the raptor shared was usually amusing but right now it was just annoying. And it had started again.

"You stinking, plague infested pest!"

"Oh yeah? Well I'm rubber, yer glue. What ever ya say bounces of me and sticks ta you!"

"I refuse to listen to your immature prattle any more ,Vermin. I am retiring to my quarters, you Trash Consuming Bacterium."

"Trash Consuming Bacterium,"the rodent repeated, mirth shining in his black eyes.

Dinobot glared at him as he realized what the rat's new approach was. "Don't even think it, Vermin," he hissed.

"Don't even think it, Vermin," Rattrap smirked back.

"Stop that!"

"Stop that!"

"Why, I should.."

"Why, I should.."

Dinobot seethed in rage, then a crafty gleam entered his slit-pupiled eyes and he sneered smugly,"Rattrap is an idiot."

"Rattrap is an idiot. Hey! Why, you slaggin'..!"

But Dinobot was already slinking did the hall to his room, his low chuckles trailing behind him. Rattrap scowled in anger at being tricked. He hated it when the lizard got the better of him, but there was always next time.

"You two are really something," Airazor commented,"If I didn't know better I'd think you were life-long enemies instead of best friends."

"Best FRIENDS?! What the heck er you talkin' about, Bird-Lady?"

She blinked in surprise. She had expected for him to deny it, but not so hostilely. The rat acted like she'd just directed some tremendous insult towards his mother.

Rattrap himself was shocked. Him? Friends with a Pred?NO way! No slaggin' way. A voice from his past whispered like a ghost,~Once a Pred, always a Pred.~

~Throttle..~

Rage suddenly clouded his mind and he whirled on the female, eyes flashing,"Let's get this straight, Sister. I ain't no friend ta no slaggin' Pred, got it?" He stalked out the control room, leaving a very startled Airazor to ponder over what had happened.

***

"NO COMPATIBLE LIFEFORMS IN RANGE," reported the pod's computer in a dull tone. Terrorsaur felt his spark sink in it's cavity. If the pod couldn't find a beast mode for it's occupant the protoform would surely die and soon. He was now faced with a greater delima. He couldn't get the pod back to base alone and if he did save it it would only be a maudlin Maximal. Still, something seemed...wrong about letting this life die, this life which had never had a chance to be.

Cursing himself for his own weakness, he made a split decision and typed in an override code, ordering the pod's scanner to overlook his mechnical half and reverted to beast mode. The pod emitted a green force field that passed over him as it searched for lifeforms once more.

"FORM SELECTED."

The pod hissed as it cracked open and a flapping noise reached his auditory sensors as the new warrior emerged, perching on it's edge as the smoke cleared.

Terrorsaur nearly choked. Never in his life had he seen anything so utterly beautiful. The bot was a slender lavender female of his own species!Bright red tiger stripes high-lighted her chest, back and forehead. She was smaller than him, not quite Waspinator's size but a bit larger than the rodent Maximal, Rattrap. She stretched a pair of deep violet wings and squawked to him in greeting, her brilliant green eyes flashing and full of intelligence.

"I am Laserbeak, aerial attack expert. Who are you?"

"Terrorsaur. I gave you your beast mode," he stated quickly, eager to impress her, forgetting instantly they were on opposing sides. His eyes rapidly absorbed her streamlined, slick form. By the Inferno, she was amazing!

"Then I owe you my life,"she replied, smiling.

"It was nothing," he said in sudden, very un-Terrorsaur-like modesty, his fluid pump hammering in his chest. "I mean, nothing short of spectacular," he added, his usual ego taking over. He was after all, the future leader of the Predacons.(In his opinion, anyway.)

Suddenly a voice rang out,"Optimus Primal, MAXIMIZE!"

"Slag it!," he hissed, spinning to face the Maximal commander and gulped when he found himself looking up the business end of a wrist mounted blaster.

Optimus had been more than a bit concerned when he'd seen the stasis pod fall. When he reached the landing site and found Terrorsaur there ahead of him and the pod empty that concern turned to anger and alarm.

"Where is the protoform?" he demanded coldly.

Terrorsaur gave a strangled squeak of fear, but before he could answer there was a whoosh and a high-pitched screech, then Optimus was looking down a two foot long beak into a pair of fierce green eyes set in a spear-shaped face. Another pterodactyl! The lavender she-dactyl openned her beak, revealing rows of needle-like teeth. She hissed loudly flapping her leathery wings.

Terrorsaur gaped in surprise. She was protecting him! She risked a quick glance at him and snapped,"Go, I'll hold him."

Never one to argue with a way out of getting blasted, Terrorsaur beat a hasty retreat. He hoped Optimus would realize she was a Maximal, but he could do no more for her and he had to look out his own spark.

Optimus and Laserbeak eyed each other uneasily, neither willing to take the first shot. As she scrutinized her opponent, Laser abruptly noticed the red fox-like symbol on his armor and all of the defiance went out of her stance.

"You are...a Maximal?"

"I'm Optimus Primal, the Maximal Commander of this planet," he agreed, seeing she too displayed the Maximal insignia.

"But..the other of my kind.."she stammered in confusion.

"Was a Predacon," he finished for her.

"He helped me," she said softly, shaking her didn't understand any of this. Where she was, who or what she was. Why would a Predacon save her if she was a Maximal?

"That puzzles me as well. But we can worry about that later. The base is a long way off and the others will be eager to meet you."

She nodded slowly, following him as they rose above the jungle. This would take some getting used to.

***

"I don't like it, Boss Monkey, not one bit," Rattrap grumbled, watching Laserbeak with skeptical eyes as she conversed with Cheetor and Tigatron.

"For once, I agree with the Vermin," Dinobot growled,"You should at least have Rhinox verify her programming. She could be a clone or a Predacon spy." He hissed the last word, drawing out the "S" on spy.

Optimus frowned,"Why are you two so intent on finding some fault with her?"

"Fearless Leader, just look at her! She's a femme leather-puss. She practically screams lousy, schemin', no-good Pred...like someone else in da close proximity."

"Watch it, Vermin, or she will not be the only one screaming!" Dinobot snarled, snapping his teeth near the rodent's throat.

"Oh yeah? I'd like ta see ya try, Lizard-Butt."

"Is that a challenge, Cheeze-Lips?"

Optimus sighed and shook his head. Even though the arguments between rat and the Velociraptor were entertaining they grew tiresome after awhile. He left the two to their dispute and turned back to the problem at hand. Laserbeak. Even then he knew she would cause several conflicts in the future, but he couldn't begin to phantom the changes that would soon be set in motion.

***

Terrorsaur reclined lazily on his bunk. He'd just gotten out of the CR chanber after reporting to Megatron. Reporting was a term he preferred to use as opposed to saying he'd showered the Predacon leader with a very elaborate list of excuses for deserting his post, which still hadn't saved him from a sound thrashing. Still, it had been worth it, just to meet her.

"Laserbeak," he said aloud, letting the name roll off his metallic tongue. He liked the taste of it and the ring of it in his audio sensors. He could have never imagined anything so beautiful.

Being a Predacon, and a rather violence-prone one at that, Terrorsaur had no way of knowing he was smitten. If his roommate and fellow flier, Waspinator, had been there he would also have been confused by the pterodactyl's lovesick face and glassy optics. Inferno, Scorponok, Tarantulas, and Blackarachnia would have laughed until they blew a gasket. Megatron would have had a fluid pump attack. Meanwhile, Terrorsaur himself was baffled. He had never cared about anyone before, and Laserbeak WAS a Maximal. He sighed. He needed to think about this awhile, sleep on it maybe.

***

Have you ever, had someone

Steal your heart away?

You'd give anything to make them

Feel the same__Brandy. Have You Ever

______________________________________________________________________

Author's Note:Well, so begins my story. Laserbeak's name and beast mode design are taken from the repaint action figure of Terrorsaur. I changed her sex and character for the story, encase I confused you. Part 2 is coming soon and it will have a bit more action. I hope you like it so E-mail me to tell me what you think at . 2001

Author's Note Updated: This is so OLD!!! Oh My Sweet Primus, so old and so bad but cute. It's part of my history so I had to repost it. Apologize and I know I'm gonna get Mary-Sue commented to death, which I understand, but I reposted this for the sake of nostagia. This is the first series I ever wrote. If you'd like to see a MUCH better version check out Onyxfang and look up "ReWritten In the Stars". In the mean time, if you enjoy fluff, read the rest of this fic and the ones in the series and let me know what you think, huh? pretty please with sugar on top? (defends the sugar from Waspinator) Does anyone else remember an incident back on talon's BWTF board where waspinator was last seen chasing down a sugar truck down the freeway covered in toilet paper for some reason? That still makes me laugh, the mental image. Ah, memories! On with the fluffy romance! 2009