Chapter 2
Airazor and Skyhunter flew back to the Ark's cavern. Airazor started to fill Skyhunter in on what they were doing on Earth and what they were up against, or what she thought they were up against. Airazor expected him to complain at their situation, like Rattrap would, being caught up in a fight when they were merely an exploration team. On top of all that, he had a scraped memory chip, so he doesn't even remember anything before his awakening. But he didn't say a thing against it, he just accepted it. Eventually, Airazor ran out of things to discuss, so they started to fly in silence.
"It's beautiful up here," Skyhunter suddenly commented. Airazor looked above her and saw Skyhunter looking down. "It's so full of life. Is it like this on Cybertron too?"
Airazor realized what Skyhunter was talking about and looked down too. "Honestly, I don't know," Airazor said, looking down at the passing landscape. "I actually can here the same way as you. No recollection of anything before this."
"That's too bad," said Skyhunter. "But, this place is great, it's so full of life," he repeated.
'Finally someone who I can relate to,' thought Airazor. No one has ever been able see the Earth as she has. Sure Tigatron had the same love of Earth like herself, one of the reasons she loved him so much, but Skyhunter was up in the sky with her, seeing things that others like Tigatron could not from the ground.
They flew the rest of the way back in silence, taking in the scenery. When they arrived, they saw Tigatron, Dinobot, Depthcharge, and someone new walking towards the entrance. Skyhunter and Airazor flew over them, waving as best they could while staying in the air. The group on the ground saw them and waved back.
"Are those the others you told me about?" asked Skyhunter.
Airazor nodded. "The white one with black stripes is Tigatron; he was the first protoform to be found by the other Maximals. The other white one is Dinobot; he was originally a Predacon but turned traitor and joined our side."
"Predacon? You mean the ones we're supposed to fight?" asked Skyhunter.
"Yeah," Airazor nodded.
"He's sort of creepy looking," Skyhunter said nervously.
"Join the club," said Airazor, nodding, "Though he didn't always look like that. I still don't know what happened to him."
"And the other two?" asked Skyhunter, landing in front of the cavern's entrance.
"The blue one is Depthcharge but I don't know the last one," Airazor said, landing next to Skyhunter. "There were two other pods besides yours that fell to Earth."
"Two others?" Skyhunter wondered, "but there's only one you didn't know, where's the other one?"
Airazor opened her beak to reply, thought about it and closed it. "I don't know," she finally said, "Maybe they couldn't get to it?"
Skyhunter shrugged. "So how do we change back out of these forms?" he asked.
"It's a voice command again," explained Airazor, "Say it like this: Airazor, Maximize!" She transformed into her robot form. "Except with your name."
Skyhunter nodded. "Skyhunter, Maximize!" he said, changing into his robot form too.
The four other Maximals caught up to Skyhunter and Airazor.
"What happened to the other stasis pod?" asked Airazor.
Dinobot gave a heavy sigh. "Depthcharge claims that he saw Tarantulas take off with it," he said.
"I saw the slaggin' spider lug the pod out of the water and take off with it," said Depthcharge. "Naturally I gave chase but Quickstrike got me from behind."
"On the bright side, we got two out of the three pods, right?" said Tigatron.
"So, assuming that Waspinator is still with them, we have six fighters while he has only five," said Dinobot.
"We are not sure what the enemy is capable of," said the unknown Maximal, wisely. "Even if we have more people, they may still be able overpower us."
"Excellent point," Tigatron said.
Airazor looked the new Maximal up and down. Slightly taller than Airazor, with a tanish color in her armor, and having the form of a lioness, the Maximal looked like she would much rather not fight if it could be helped, like a certain gorilla Airazor knew.
The Maximal saw Skyhunter looking down at her with a puzzled look on his face, she held out a hand. "My name is Lio," she said, "You must be the other rescued protofrom."
"Skyhunter," Skyhunter nodded, taking the hand offered to him. "How did you know I was the other rescued protoform?"
"Well, Tigatron described Airazor with great detail," said Lio, causing Airazor to look embarrassed and Tigatron to look away from the others, "I figured that you couldn't be her."
"Why don't we move this conversation inside?" suggested Depthcharge, walking past the rest and through the metal doors.
The others followed. Depthcharge took Tigatron, Lio, Skyhunter, and Dinobot around the base, and assigning them different tasks, depending on their abilities. They found out that Lio was more of a scientist than anything else and that Skyhunter was extremely well with handling technology, though both said that they will fight if necessary. While the tour was underway, Airazor retreated to Cheetor's quarters again and lied down on the recharging bed. She decided that she would have to accept that they were left on Earth until the other Maximals realized that they were still on Earth and come back to get them. Just then, she heard a knock on the door.
She looked up. "Come in," she said to the closed door.
Skyhunter walked in. "You ok? You disappeared on us," he said, as Airazor sat up.
"Yeah, well… I guess I'm still thinking about the others that left," she said, swinging her legs off the bed.
Skyhunter nodded. "It's always sad to know that your friends left you with out even saying a goodbye."
"Though I really don't think I can blame them," said Airazor, looking up at Skyhunter, who was standing in front of her. "After all, they thought that Tigatron and I were scraped." Skyhunter made a noise of sympathy. "Well, it's best if we don't worry about that and worry about what's going on now, don't you think." Skyhunter gave a small nod. "So, do you remember anything at all before now?" Skyhunter thought for a moment. Then he shook his head. "Shame."
Suddenly, Tigatron stuck his head in. "Hey, Airazor," he said. "Depthcharge feels that we should keep someone monitoring the cameras during the night. Who knows what that scheming spider could be up to? He says that you should take first shift and Skyhunter the second," he said, with a nod to Skyhunter.
They both nodded and Tigatron left to his quarters.
There was a short silence in the room. Then Airazor finally stood up. "Well, better head on up then, shouldn't I?" she said, stretching slightly.
"Do you want someone to stay with you?" Skyhunter said, holding the door open for Airazor.
"No, I'll be fine," she said, stepping though the doorway. "Besides, you'll have to stay up during the second shift, you'll need you're energy."
"I've been sleeping for who knows how long in that stasis pod," Skyhunter said, throwing his arms up in the air for emphasis. Then in a softer tone, "I'm fine, don't worry about me."
Airazor thought about it for a cycle. She glanced at Tigatron's door. "Alright, I guess I could use the company," she said.
Skyhunter smiled, and they went up in the elevator.
It was a rather quiet night. Skyhunter had left for a little in the middle of Airazor's shift and came back with you cups of steaming beverages.
"I have no clue what these are but they smell really good," he said, handing one to Airazor.
Airazor laughed, her feet propped up on the console. "Should we have you test it first?" she asked. She accepted the cup from Skyhunter. "Don't worry. I'm sure it's eatable." She took a sip of the beverage. Her face light up and she gave a soft sigh of content. "It's delicious. Try it."
Skyhunter took a sip of his own beverage. "Wow, you're right. This is good"
"I bet this is what Rattrap used to keep himself awake," said Airazor.
"That or he just never stayed up," said Skyhunter, with a small laugh.
Airazor laughed too. "That's believable," she said, taking another sip of her drink.
Skyhunter sat down on another console and turned it on.
"What cha doing?" asked Airazor, looking over at Skyhunter.
"Just seeing if there was anything that's on these computers," said Skyhunter, going through file after file of information. He spotted an unfinished program. He looked at the file name. "Sentinel? What the heck is that?"
"It's the security system that Rhinox created," said Airazor. "I don't know why he would want to recreate it."
"Maybe it was destroyed or stole by those Predacons," Skyhunter shrugged. "I think I could finish it from here…"
Skyhunter started to type on the console and stayed silent for the rest of Airazor's shift. When the time had come to switch, Skyhunter looked over at Airazor and found her asleep in her chair. Skyhunter laughed softly and stood up. He went to the central console and pressed a few buttons, causing Airazor's chair to shift over slightly and the chair that he had occupied to move over next to Airazor's. Skyhunter sat down in his own chair, watching over the monitors. Airazor gave a soft moan and fell lightly onto Skyhunter's shoulder, breathing softly. Skyhunter laughed again and began his shift.
Hello people, Chibifurby here. I need to ask for your help here. What is considered as a cycle, megacycle, nanocycle, etc.? If anyone knows, please tell me. It'll help me not to get people confused by using the wrong term. Thanks all.
