A/N: We don't own Transformers or Beast Wars in any way other than our original characters.
Base
The situation was dire indeed. In the midst of a grassy field which should have remained undisturbed by any conflict other than the natural struggles of the native fauna, three stranded Maximals now stood back to back in a triangular formation, poised to defend themselves from the incoming threat of three advancing Predacons.
Hovering through the use of the thruster pack he wore, Starscream couldn't suppress his grin as he took aim at the prey below him.
"Well Maximals, seems we have you right where we want you," The Predacon leader taunted.
"He's hardly got us outnumbered, we could probably fight our way out," Otto-bot whispered.
"We're not resorting to that unless it becomes our last option," Leos hissed back, lowering his own weapon as he turned his gaze up to Starscream.
Before any more could be said by the tallest of the Maximals, Starscream's weapons blazed with plasma energy and fired off, striking the ground at his feet. Leos attempted to draw back, only to jostle the other two behind him.
"Leos, they aren't going to listen to reason," Slyswift warned as Starscream took aim for another shot.
"Fry Maximals!" The Predacon shouted. "Quickchange, Medmoth, open fire!"
"Scatter!" Leos ordered.
Three flashes of laser energy emitted from around the Maximals. Slyswift dashed to her right, taking aim toward Medmoth who was hovering on her multicolored wings above. She fired a volley of her own, sending the streaks of light blazing past her target.
"What, one kick to the tailpipe wasn't enough dearie?" Medmoth snarled as she adjusted her aim toward the coyote transformer.
Otto had rolled to the left, and found himself optic-to-optic with Quickchange. The Predacon brought back the tail-cannon that was hooked to his arm and brought down the heavy weapon in a crushing blow. Otto was forced to duck to the side again to avoid being smashed.
"Slippery one, aren't you?" Quickchange growled as his target dashed back several feet.
"And proud of it," Otto responded, holding up his gun. "Taste plasma, Pred!"
Leos found himself finally able to jump back away from the threat that was Starscream, just in time to avoid having his chest perforated by the flier's double blasters. Leos quickly held up his own weapon, a targeting sight projecting itself onto Starscream's chest and brining the Predacon to a halt in his barrage.
"It doesn't have to go like this, let's just put down the weapons and talk…" Leos shouted up to his adversary.
Starscream sneered as he responded, "Okay then, you drop your weapon…And we'll talk about my victory!"
Leos ducked back as another series of plasma bolts struck around him, sending clouds of dust into the air. He raised his head and gun once more, only to discover that Starscream no longer fell into his line of sight.
Spinning around, Leos struggled to see through the dust as it fell away. Slyswift was still keeping Medmoth occupied, the insect robot was being forced to dart left and right like a shooting gallery target to avoid having her wings clipped. As Slyswift took aim for another shot though, arcs of blue energy began to crackle over her body, causing her to cringe in pain and almost drop her gun.
"Slyswift!" Leos shouted.
"I'll be fine…" Slyswift called back. "Beast mode!"
With a whir and clank of gears and moving parts, the femme transformer was replaced by a female coyote, an event which did not go unnoticed by Medmoth.
"My turn now?" Medmoth asked, her own weapon blazing with energy forcing the canine to dash out of the way.
"Stop right there!" Leos warned, holding up his own weapon toward Medmoth.
"You won't get anywhere with that toy…" A voice shouted from above.
Leos looked up just in time to be clobbered right in the face by Starscream as the flier swooped down from above. The Maximal grunted in pain as he was sent flying backward by the blow and crashed to the ground with a resounding thud.
"…Unless you really plan to fire it," Starscream finished as he un-holstered his pistols again.
"May I assist you Lord Starscream?" Medmoth asked.
"How about you keep your aim over here insect?" Slyswift suddenly chimed in.
Medmoth spun back to her original target and fired, but the coyote jumped several feet to the side and evaded the blast.
"Wow, I bet you couldn't the broad side of a space cruiser if you standing inside it!" Slyswift taunted.
"Why I otta…" Medmoth hissed.
Slyswift dashed off, Medmoth in hot pursuit with her weapon spitting out more blasts of energy. Starscream just shrugged as he landed, and began making his way to Leos.
"Well, more fun for me then," He said as he slowly stalked toward the stunned Maximal.
Otto, in the meantime, had been exchanging shots with Quickchange. Neither one had managed to land a successful blow yet however. In fact, all that they're shots had managed to do so far was kick up quite a bit of dirt and smoke as the misfires hit the ground around their feet.
"This is getting no where fast," Otto thought as he took a moment to look to the others. "Oh great…Come on, gotta be something we can do here…"
Slyswift and Medmoth had moved considerably closer to where Otto was hiding, and the otter transformer could see Leos sprawled on the ground with Starscream closing in on him, weapons drawn.
Briefly, an image flashed into the mind of Otto-bot. For a moment, he saw not only the battle in front of him, but the picture of two academy students, pinned down by training drones came to mind, almost superimposing itself over the goings on around him. He shook his head, and the image vanished just as Medmoth and Slyswift moved into a position almost exactly like the image he had just seen.
"Maybe…" He thought.
Otto spun his aim back to Quickchange and squeezed the trigger. A burst of laser slammed into Quickchange's shoulder, sending the Predacon sprawling to the ground in pain.
"Beast mode!" Otto shouted as he dashed away from his fallen enemy and headed straight on toward Slyswift.
"What the…" Slyswift started to ask.
Before she could continue, Otto had jumped, landed on her back, and sprang off causing her to stumble and face plant onto the ground. Slyswift spat out a mouthful of grass and turned around just in time to see Otto curl up and slam into Medmoth like a large fuzzy ball. Both Cybertronians hit the ground, Medmoth's wings crumpling beneath her and she let out a cry of frustration and pain while Otto scrambled off of her and ran right toward the fallen Leos.
Starscream was oblivious to the incoming Maximal. All he could see as the one that lay on the ground before him. He happily planted one clawed foot on Leos' chest plate, and aimed both his weapons at the robot's head as his prey's optics flickered on again.
"Seems this is the end of the line," Starscream grinned.
"You don't know the half of it!" Otto suddenly shouted, dashing between Starscream's legs and sending the Predacon off balance and causing him to spin on one leg in a struggle to avoid falling over.
Leos started to push himself up, but Otto scrambled over his chest keeping him down as he stopped just behind the taller Maximal's head. Leos seemed confused as Otto flashed him a grin and mouthed the words 'stay down.'
"Otto-bot, Maximize!" The otter transformer yelled as he shifted back to his battle-ready robot form and un-holstered his gun once more.
Looking out at the havoc he had caused, Otto smiled. For a moment, he could see three drones in front of him, the two in the back taking aim just as the one closest to him began to spin into the line of fire…
Slyswift gasped as she realized exactly what was about to happen as Medmoth and Quickchange pulled the triggers of their weapon at the exact same moment the Starscream regained his footing.
Leos winced as he heard Otto's weapon discharge just he could see Starscream's face once more, this time with a look of anger, then shock and pain.
Three shots hit the Predacon simultaneously. One right on the chest plate, fired by Otto. The other two in the back, courtesy of his own minions. Medmoth and Quickchange both lowered their weapons, realizing what they had just done as Starscream toppled over to the side.
"Well…That could have been planned better…" Quickchange admitted.
"Starscream…?" Medmoth asked, looking worried.
The flier rolled over, his body shuddering and sparking from his fresh blaster holes as he struggled to his feet. Otto took aim again, only for Leos to suddenly jump into his line of view.
"That's enough, Otto, stand down," Leos ordered. "We're aren't here to fight."
"Hey, they started it," Otto pointed out, casting an accusing glare at Starscream.
"Beast mode…" Starscream gasped out weakly.
Another whir and clank of gears filled the plains as the red, gray and blue robot was replaced by a like colored archopteryx. Flapping his wings with great difficulty, he managed to get into the air just as Medmoth swooped over and assisted him in his ascent.
"Predacons…Transform and retreat!" Starscream ordered.
"You aren't going any…" Otto started.
Leos grabbed Otto's arm with his massive hand, suppressing the smaller robot's grip on the trigger and forcing the limb down. Medmoth and Starscream flew off into the distance, while Quickchange dove into the tall grass, adopting his anole disguise as he did, and vanished.
"What was that for?" Otto shouted, wrenching his arm loose from Leos' grip. "We could have slagged 'em and then we wouldn't need to worry about 'em anymore!"
"That isn't the Maximal way Otto," Leos retorted, looking over his shoulder to the slack jawed coyote behind him. "Are you okay Slyswift?"
"By Primus that actually worked?" She shouted, staring at Otto. "You have to completely out of your processor!"
"Yeah, my combat instructor said that a lot," Otto nodded.
"I can't believe I'm hearing this," Leos thought, shaking his head in dismay.
"Well, the danger has passed for now at least," Leos sighed as he began moving. "Better transform and head out. We should try to find a safe place to get some recharge in before it gets dark around here."
With that said, Leos swiftly fell to all fours as he his cave-lion disguise once more covered his body. Otto followed suit and shifted back into the shape of a large otter before clambering up onto Slyswift's back, causing her to grunt in dissatisfaction.
"You're a bit heavy for me," She complained, looking at the mustelid with some disdain.
"Hey, I just saved all our cans back there," Otto pointed out.
"In the most reckless and potentially self-destructive way possible," Leos interrupted.
"Hey, I didn't see you doing much big cat," Otto responded.
Leos said nothing, but quickly moved forward and snapped up Otto in his powerful jaws. The Maximal let out a shout of fright before realizing that he was not being eaten, but was hanging by the nape of his neck from the jaws of Leo's.
"Hey, what's the big idea?" Otto shouted, flailing his stubby limbs in a feeble attempt to get free as Leos began walking again.
"I think that's your free ride," Slyswift chuckled as she fell into pace behind the wildcat.
"According to my records that's the method in which adult felines carry very young or misbehaving younglings," The armband chimed in.
"Who asked you?" Slyswift and Otto both shouted at once.
Leos just rolled his eyes and continued walking.
In the meantime, Starscream was rather impressed with how quickly his own team had managed to escape from the sight of the Maximals. At least he would have been if it weren't for the fact that he had suffered a highly humiliating defeat and was now being carted around in one of the empty stasis pods by an irate Quickchange who was grumbling every step of the way.
"Medmoth, you're supposed to be a field medic! Can't you fix Starscream and get him off my back?" Quickchange shouted up to the moth hovering overhead.
"Nothing would please me more than to get our leader back on his feet," Medmoth called back down. "But I would need time to prepare my medical tools, assess the damage, prepare Starscream for repairs, actually perform the repairs…"
"During which time, the energon levels on this planet could easily fry our circuits," Starscream groaned. "So we'll find shelter from the energon radiation first, then Medmoth can get to work."
"Look around us Starscream! Where on this Primus forsaken little backwards mudball do you expect us to find energon shielding!?" Quickchange shouted, dumping the pod off his back and sending Starscream tumbling out of it onto the ground with a rather undignified yelp.
As Medmoth landed to do all she could to comfort Starscream, Quickchange began to storm off, making very sure to clamber on top of the largest rock he could find in the area and stamp all over it with his scaly feet. He was so lost in anger that he never noticed a small section of the stone collapse inward slightly…
"ARGH!!" Quickchange suddenly screamed, causing Medmoth and Starscream both to look in the direction the anole had started off in.
The was no sign of Quickchange, only a large hole in the ground with a rock sitting next to it.
"Was that hole always there?" Starscream wondered.
"I don't believe so," Medmoth answered a shake of her head.
"Help me over to it," Starscream ordered, holding up one wing.
Most holes have a bottom, and this one was no exception. Quickchange was currently lying stunned at the bottom of it, but mercifully a soft cushion of moss and dead plant matter had broken his fall. As the lizard Predacon attempt to regain his senses, a small machine, shaped rather like a tiny spider with a lighted crystal where its head would have gone. The smaller machine walked up to Quickchange and scaled to the top of his head, where it began to blink happily as though proud of its accomplishment.
"Oooh…Did anyone get the ID tag for that truck?" Quickchange moaned, reaching up to rub his head and pulling his claws back as he felt something warm come into contact with it. "Huh?"
Grabbing whatever it was between his claws, Quickchange pulled the glowing spiderbot from the top of his noggin and stared at it. It was shuffling its tiny feet as fast as it could in midair, trying to get free, its light now off as though it meant to hide itself.
"Quickchange, you better be functional down there!" Starscream's voice echoed from above. "If anything scraps you, it's going to be me for that little stunt you just pulled!"
"Like that's an incentive for me to respond…" Quickchange muttered to himself, the light blinking as though in agreement.
"Medmoth, you do have a light of some kind, right?" Starscream's voice asked.
"I could use my laser pistol, it makes light," Medmoth answered.
"Wow, she's crazy…" Quickchange realized.
"That'll work," Starscream agreed.
"Fully functional sir!" Quickchange shouted up, very quickly and an octave higher than his usual voice.
"I see…Hold off on the laser idea Medmoth…What's down there?" Starscream called back down. "This hole seems to perfectly shaped and too deep to have formed naturally."
"I was just about to find that out for myself," Quickchange responded. "You two rest up there and I'll call back if I find anything."
"Keep you radio frequencies up, I want hear everything you hear," Starscream's voice suddenly spoke almost as though he were right next to the lizard.
"Understood sir," Quickchange nodded, before directing his attention to his internal computer. "Status please?"
"Sensor indicate no internal structural damage. Minor core temperature drop, detected." The internal system declared.
"Right, this stupid beast mode of mine has no internal heating…" Quickchange realized.
He paused as he felt warmth radiating from the top of his head again, and crossed his eyes to look up. The small spider light had wriggled free at last and was once more glowing on the top of his cranium.
"Energon radiation in this area are significantly lower than the outside," The internal finished.
"What!?" Starscream suddenly shouted over the radio. "Does that chamber down there have energon shielding?"
"No source for it located as of yet, but the reading seems promising," Quickchange confirmed, nursing his sore audio ports. "Perhaps if you and Medmoth…"
Quickchange looked up to the top of the hole, and screamed before running to the side as one of the stasis pods suddenly crashed to the ground where he had been standing.
"I'm one step ahead of you, we're sending the stasis pods down and will be following shortly," Starscream explained.
"A little warning would have been…" Quickchange growled.
CRASH!
Quickchange groaned in pain as he found himself pinned underneath the second pod. The light had manged to jump off in time to avoid being smashed itself, and was crawling on top of the prone anole's scaly hand, shining its light on his dazed face.
"I'm beginning to really hate this job…" Quickchange thought as he managed to push what was left of the pod off of himself and moved the light back to its former perch.
"Uh…" Ottobot moaned, sprawling out over Leos' back. "I'm runnin' on empty over here…And I'm tired…"
"We know," Slyswift sighed, before pausing in her tracks. "And how can you be tired? You've been riding this whole time."
"Come on you two, we're all getting a little low on our energy reserves," Leos mediated.
"A little low? I haven't had a decent refueling since I woke up!" Otto whined. "And not all of us have fuel tanks the size of my head, thank you very much."
"I don't see any other use for that space," Slyswift grumbled under her breath.
"I heard that!" Otto snapped.
"I said knock it off, and that applies to the both of you," Leos said firmly, casting a glare at the two younger bots.
"I'm gonna scout ahead, I'll stay in radio contact," Slyswift said with a frustrated sigh.
"Now wait just a minute young lady, it could be dangerous without the…" The field scanner started.
Slyswift clamped her teeth around the talkative device and dropped it to the ground before darting off. Otto jumped off Leos' back and plodded over to the armband, gently picking it up in his webbed paws.
"Why I never!" The field huffed indignantly. "I mean she's pulled some nasty tricks but that was just plain old rude. You'd think she doesn't want me around!"
"Gee I wonder why?" Otto muttered sarcastically. "Say, you haven't to pick on any energon deposits nearby, have you?
"Oh sure, plenty of them. But unfortunately they're all BYOP," The scanner answered.
"BYOP?" Otto asked.
"Bring your own processor, this stuff is majorly unstable…And roughly five miles underground," was the explanation that sent Otto into a prone state in the grass.
"We're all gonna die, aren't we?" He moaned.
"No Otto, we're not going to die," Leos reassured the otter as he scooped him onto his back again. "Now come on, we'd better catch up with Sly…"
"Guys, you might want to see this!" Slyswift's suddenly crackled over the radio.
"Did you find energon?" Otto asked.
"Just get over here, okay?" Slyswift responded. "The scanner can follow my signal."
"Oh, so now you want me around," the scanner responded. "Well maybe I don't want to find you…"
"Activating override authorization theta-two-nine-gamma-epsilon," Slyswift ordered.
"Oh man, I hate OA theta-two…" The scanner whined before a series of buzzes and beeps cut it off. "Owner located, please proceed due east. Approximate travel time, two cycles."
"I'm almost positive that was not a preprogrammed code in your scanner," Leos said over the radio.
"No, that's the standard override I put in for when I was sick of it back talking me." Slyswift answered, the smirk apparent in her voice.
True to the scanner's word, it didn't take long for Leos to find their canine companion. By this time, Otto was once more laying on the lion's back like a sack of potatoes, and only lifted his head when he felt his ride come to a stop.
"What is this?" Leos wondered.
He was referring to what looked like the top of two large metal doors with an odd rounded lens just visible over the peak of a mountain of gravel, boulders, and other bits of stone debris. Slyswift was sitting on one of the higher rocks, still inspecting her find.
"I don't know what it is. That's why I called you guys here," She sighed and swept some pebbles away from the top of the pile with her paws. "Whatever it is, it has Maximal characters written on it. But nothing else about it makes sense…From what I can see it looks like it was pieced together from salvage and scrap metal"
"Well we're not gonna dig it up are we? 'Cause we're all running on fumes as is and even if we do manage to uncover this, we won't get much farther afterwards," Otto whined from Leos' back. "What we could really use is a place that's energon shielded and a good cube or two of the stable stuff. This pile of scrap metal doesn't help us get either!"
Otto laid out perfectly flat as Sly sighed again, "Look, we're all tired but this is the closest thing we have to a promising lead about how we got here…"
Turning she began to dig more at the rock pile with vigor, shedding a lot of the smaller debris and sending them pelting down to the two below. Otto got of Leos' back with a grunt as he turned his gaze up to Slyswift and began waving his paws to try and get her attention.
"Hello! Ground control to stubborn pup!" Otto jeered as the coyote braced her weight and began to shove on a boulder twice her height, her paws slipping in vain as it failed to budge. "Give it up!"
Slyswift had stopped for a moment, panting but when she heard Otto she cast him a glare before renewing her struggle. Otto shook his head and moved to the side, somewhat fearful that the boulder was going to be rolling his way. Leos looked between both of his young companions
"I would say Otto has a point…Both of them are young and worried, and they appear to deal with this in different ways. And now that Slyswift has seen a problem she can solve, she's going to work herself into stasis solving it because she can't change the true problem…" Leos noted before shaking his head out from his involuntarily psycho-analysis.
"And now you have Leos doing that 'stare into space thing' again," Otto complained.
"Now you listen," Slyswift began, moving away from the boulder so as to get a better look at Otto.
Before she could try to chew her comrade out, the large rock finally decided to slip itself free and began to tumble toward the otter. Otto let out a yelp of fright and scrambled to safety as the rock plowed to the ground where he had been standing only moments before.
"You did that on purpose!" Otto shouted.
"Did not, why would I want you to have a real reason to complain?" Slyswift argued.
"That's enough out of both of you! Slyswift, stand aside…" Leos roared. "Leos, maximize!"
Slyswift leapt from the pile just as the lion shifted back to his ten-foot-tall robot stated. He swiftly pulled out his massive gun and with three well placed shots vaporized the boulders at the bottom of the pile. Otto and Slyswift ran behind their large companion as the rest of the rocks tumbled to the side revealing a pair of massive doors at least forty-feet from ground to top.
"Wow that's a big door," Otto gasped.
"Hey, that barely took any energy at all," Slyswift grinned.
"Shut up," Otto retorted.
"Make me," Slyswift retorted.
"Don't start you two," Leos ordered.
"Yes sir," Slyswift and Ottobot both answered in unison.
The trio of Predacons were carefully picking their way along the dark underground passage, the path ahead illuminated by Quickchange's new "headlight" which was casually dimming and brightening in an organized pattern.
"Can't you do anything to get the new friend of yours to stop flashing like that?" Starscream asked, still in beast mode he was leaning against Medmoth (in her robot mode) for support as they walked along.
"For one thing, it isn't my 'friend,'" Quickchange hissed, the light dimming and letting out a pathetic whine. "And secondly, I don't even how it works myself. Don't forget that it found me."
"What about those ones?" Medmoth asked, coming to a stop.
Quickchange and Starscream both looked up, their jaws going slack. The passage had opened into a larger cavern, this one with several metallic constructs laying at various angles all across the ground. A few lab benches with glass shards scattered over their surface, a file cabinet of some kind with a Predacon insignia on it, and a computer leaning against the far wall were only a few of the features they noticed.
What really stood out were the hundred or so spider-lights crawling all about the floor, walls, and ceiling in various stages of disrepair. Many were traveling in aimless circles, a few merely stood in place shining their light as thought trying to burn a hole in the floor, and one was even walking repeatedly into the wall.
"What are they?" Medmoth asked.
"Off hand, I'd guess flashlight drones created to provided light down here," Quickchange stated as he walked over to the computer. "Hmm…I could probably get something out of this…"
Reaching one claw up, Quickchange pressed the power switch on the machine only for it to tilt threateningly away from him and grind against the wall more. Other than that, there was no reaction from the machine.
"I'd wager whatever power source this place used burned out a while ago," Medmoth pointed out.
"Then what are the lights powered with?" Starscream asked.
"I'm more concerned with who made this place," Quickchange stated as he shifted into his robotic form, careful to leave his tail weapon attached to his back this time as he started to gingerly pry off a panel from the computer. "If I can get into this, I might be able to do something to at least get some info."
"Why does this feel familiar?" Starscream wondered as his vision blurred slightly. "Could it have something to do with that Tarantulus?"
Starscream couldn't believe his good fortune. Despite his less-than-ideal body the assault on the Maximal headquarters had gone off relatively smoothly. It would seem the body of this Waspinator had some hidden potential that its original owner had failed to access.
Now, the current Megatron had left him in charge of the Maximal base. The poor fool had no idea what he'd be in for when he got back. While waiting for that happy moment, Starscream had busied himself examining the computer files in the science lab, quenching his curiosity about how far ahead technology had moved since the Great War.
"Looks like things are going well, eh Starscream?" A sultry voice asked.
The wandering spirit looked up from his work, and smiled as he recognized the black and gold femme known as Blackarachnia. The spare legs of her beast mode were folded up behind her, creating interesting shadows on the wall.
"Hmm…To what do I owe the pleasure of your company this time?" Starscream wondered.
"I just thought that you might want to come up with a contingency plan in case things go wrong," The spider lady said as she moved closer.
"Excuse me?" Starscream asked.
"Sure, everyone in the Predacon base has one for when Megatron goes on the warpath," Blackarachnia explained. "Waspinator tends to hide in the C.R. tank he's going to be bathing in anyway, Scorpinok just agrees with whatever he says, and Tarantulus has all sorts of little hidey-holes set up that he ducks into till things die down."
"What's wrong with him?" Quickchange asked, looking up from the computer he was tampering in.
"I'm not sure," Medmoth fretted as she eased Starscream onto his back on a cleared lab bench. "He's been like for the past ten cycles. I'm going to try and repair him before his condition deteriorates any further."
"Yeah, you do that," Quickchange nodded.
The Maximals had been spending quite a bit of time trying to open the massive doors they had found. Despite the size and strength of Leos' robot mode, however, they had made no progress in that endeavor, and now the lion-bot was in his beast mode again trying to recover.
"Well we found doors that we can't open," Otto whined. "What a wonderful waste of both time and energon."
"Now's not a good time to be negative, Otto," Leos stated.
"No, this seems the perfect time to be negative," Otto retorted, sitting up from the pile of rocks he had set up and leaned against while watching Leos. "In case you have noticed, most of us are running on fumes here!"
"If we could crack the code for this access panel…" Slyswift suggested.
"Access panel?" The other two asked, turning to their companion.
The coyote was standing on two boulders that had remained on top of one another, pressing her front paws against the wall to brace herself as she stood on her hind legs. In front of her muzzle, set into the stone wall, was an aged looking number pad, so tested by the passage of time that the buttons were blank and smooth.
"I'll just bet this opens the door," She smiled.
"Yeah, now all we need is an Autobot to reach the panel…Oh and to give us the code 'cause we don't know it!" Otto shouted, slumping back to the ground after his outburst.
"Hey, my field scanner could probably crack it if I can figure out how to plug it in," Slyswift stated. "And I think I've figured out how to do it too…"
A series of musical beeps suddenly chimed in, startling the femme so badly that she almost tumbled from her perch.
"Good morning everyone!" Cheered the field scanner as its lights blinked green. "Nice to see I'm up and running again…With a rather large chunk of time missing from my memory banks…Say, you didn't use that self-styled override code on me again, did you?"
"Perish the thought," Slyswift said in a falsely sweet voice as she regained her balance. "You must be running low on energy like the rest of us. Now, you feel up to a little code cracking?"
"I'd be happy to, once we've received clearance from your superiors to use it," The field scanner stated in its incessantly happy voice. "As you know, it's only authorized for emergency rescue into sealed or coded off areas."
"But this is an emergency!" Otto shouted right before he found himself pinned under Leos' paw.
"Otto, panicking isn't going to help anyone," Leos advised. "But he has a point, it's vital that we get inside. This is our best chance at the moment to find fuel before we go into stasis."
"I'd love to help guys, but without the proper authorization…" The device beeped.
"I've got your authorization right here," Slyswift growled. "Activating override authorization theta-two-nine…"
"Okay, okay! I'll do it!" The scanner shouted in a frightened voice. "Hey wait a minute…You did use that code on me again, didn't you? When the council on Cybertron finds about this when they review my records…"
Slyswift ignored her "assistant's" idle threat as she fell to all fours on top of the boulder again.
"Slyswift, maximize," She declared.
In just a moment, the coyote had shifted into her white and grey robot form, the trio of bands snapping around the lower half of her face as she removed the scanner, flicked the top open, and pulled out a few wires. She swiftly pried open the access panel, and began connecting the wires, finishing just as blue electricity began to course over her body.
As she leapt back down, she shifted back to beast mode, landing on all fours in front of Leos and Otto.
"That should do it," She panted.
"That was quite impressive, very fast," Leos nodded.
"Could you get off of me now?" Otto grunted from under the lion's paw.
As Leos lifted his foot, allowing Otto to squirm free, the scanner began to speak up once again.
"Activating decoding software…acti…ae.a..d.ka.ie..aclilaqkne.a…." The scanner burbled out.
All three gave one another worried looks as smoke and sparks began to pour from the small armband.
"Allyourbasearebelongtous…ajklea.vl.a.e.a..c.Iamsinistar….ie..q.q.e.ci……e.a.a.d.f" The device continued. "enoerallatahtyadehtllitniamerlliwtios…."
With a final popping noise and a shower of sparks, the field scanner flew away from its resting position on top of the access panel and landed at Slyswift's feet with a crack of metal on stone.
"It wasn't supposed to do that, was it?" Otto asked.
"I'm kind of hoping it was," Slyswift muttered as she attached the remains of the field scanner back to her front leg. "Guess I have something to do in my spare time now."
Before the conversation could continue, a grinding noise was heard emanating from the doors in front of them. Slowly, the massive portal opened up until it was just wide enough for the three of them to get inside.
"Hooray!" Otto cheered, pumping his webbed paws into the air.
CRASH!
The doors slammed shut once again with surprising speed given the time they had needed to open. Otto looked dejected, until the grinding started up again, indicating the doors opening once more.
"Alri…" Otto began before Slyswift clapped his muzzle shut.
"You wanna jinx it or something?" She scolded.
"We'll have to jump in on the count of three," Leos instructed. "One…"
"Two…" Slyswift continued, poising to leap.
"Three!" Otto shouted, sending himself and his comrades springing forward.
All three managed to get beyond the doors, and scrambled over the threshold just as they massive slabs of metal slammed shut again behind them. A most discouraging sizzling noise could be heard, followed by the smell of smoke which indicated the doors were not going to open again.
"I really hope this place has a back entrance," Otto muttered in the darkness that surrounded the three.
"Stay put, I'll look around," Slyswift said, her optics glowing blue in the darkness around them.
The pair of blue lights began to move away, and Otto's own eyes started after her.
"Slyswift, maybe you shouldn't go off on your own," Leos cautioned.
"Yeah, at least let me…" Otto chimed in.
CLANG!
Otto's optics suddenly sparked and shut off as they slumped lower to the ground.
"Ooh…Mind telling what just fused my jaw together?" Otto groaned as Leos cautiously moved closer.
Running one paw over through the darkness in front of him, Leos could feel the edge of a metal construct in front of him. Gently moving his other paw forward a bit, he nudged Otto and helped him back up.
"I think I found something!" Slyswift's voice suddenly called from farther away.
A series of clicks and clattering noises could be heard, and the chamber was suddenly flooded with light. Leos covered his optics, giving them a moment to adjust before looking around.
The area looked somewhat the bridge of an abandoned spacecraft. Computer terminals lined the walls, inert and covered in ages of dust and grime. Slyswift was breathing a sigh of relief as she stepped away from a series of switches and buttons set into the wall and looked around. Otto let out a low whistle at the sight of everything around them.
"Okay, not too shabby," Otto admitted. "Any word on energon shielding in here?"
"Energon levels decreasing to safe levels. Use of robot mode in this area, acceptable," Otto's internal computer chimed in.
"Forget I asked then," Otto stated.
Back at the Predacon's new base, Quickchange let out a triumphant shout as he closed up the panel of the computer he had been tampering with.
"Finally got it up and running," He grinned, looking back to Medmoth and Starscream.
Starscream had been moved into a sitting position, with Medmoth carefully closing up his chest panel.
"And I've finished repairs here too," She declared.
"Well, this has been a full day hasn't it?" Starscream asked, his optics flickering on as pulled himself to his feet. "Excellent work, the both of you…"
Starscream shook his head violently, and snapped himself to attention.
"Now, Quickchange, can you tell me what exactly we've learned about this place?" Starscream queried.
"Not much aside from the fact that it has energon shielding," Quickchange answered as green letters and numbers began to crawl their way along the computer screen. "I was just about to ascertain what this place may have been used for."
"It was a laboratory hideaway for one of our fellow Predacons," Starscream explained, moving around the lab and opening up several cabinets and drawers as though looking for something. "I'd wager that we could find an energon processor somewhere in here. Medmoth and I will search for it, you try to get any info you can out of that computer."
"One step ahead of you," Quickchange confirmed, turning toward the screen.
The reptilian robot's optics shut off for a moment, before blazing back to life a vivid green. The light shone out of his eyes, aimed directly into the computer's screen. Slowly, more words and data began to appear on the monitor.
"Hm…triply encoded, very complex…Whoever did this was a coding genius," Quickchange said with a tone of admiration before glancing around his surroundings and seeing several of the spider lights gathering around his feet. "Or, they were clinically insane…Maybe both even. Oh, what's this?"
The data appearing on the computer began to change, showing what looked like a rather detailed map of the cavern. One spot in particular was marked with a blue cross. His curiosity thoroughly piqued, Quickchange pointed at the cross and watched as the map zoomed in on it.
Behind him, near where Starscream and Medmoth were attempting to turn over one of the fallen filing cabinets, the ground began to shift somewhat. Starscream looked over his shoulder, then turned back to his work with a shrug.
"Oh ho, very impressive coding," Quickchange muttered under his breath. "Let's see how it likes…This!"
A pulse of green energy shot from the hacker's eyes into the machine before him. Everyone of the working spider light immediately ran away from him and crawled onto the walls where they began flashing red and green in time with an overly cheery melody that one of them began to beep out.
"Okay, this is needlessly aggravating," Starscream growled as he released his grip on the cabinet.
Medmoth narrowly having her feet crushed by the heavy furniture as it slipped from her grasp.
"Just what are you doing?" Starscream shouted over the music.
"Trying to open up a secret vault I managed to find," Quickchange answered. "Oh, and you might want to take a few steps to the left.
Starscream grumbled a bit moved to the side, only for a pair of round doors to suddenly swing upward from the floor. Dirt and gravel were flung every which way, and one of the doors clobbered Starscream on the way up.
"Your other left," Quickchange said, trying to restrain his laughter as his leader got back up.
From the hole left by the doors rose a large metal tube with a Predacon insignia glowing on it. Medmoth and Starscream both stepped away from the strange object as it split open to reveal a metal box with several compartments marked on it. It stood about two-feet tall, and was about one-foot in depth and width. The entire device sat on a large shelving unit that took up the rest of the space that had been inside the tube. Sitting on the shelves were several boxes of black metal, one of which Starscream carefully pulled down and opened.
"Processed energon," He smiled as his face was illuminated by a blue glow from within the box.
"And an energon processor to boot," Medmoth said jubilantly as she looked over the taller box. "Seems we hit the jackpot."
"They don't know the half of it," Quickchange smiled to himself as he noticed another blue cross on the screen, this one significantly deeper inside the cave. "No rush in telling them about this one."
"Okay, next focus point," Starscream ordered, looking around at the still blinking lights. "Quickchange, find a way to control these things."
"Right away, sir," Quickchange nodded as his glowing eyes connected to the computer again.
"Well, here's a welcome sight," Leos commented.
The trio of Maximals had entered a chamber just a few doors away from the entrance. Inside was a pair of towers roughly twice the size of the ones the Predacons had just discovered. An opening in the wall on the far side of the room showed a lounge of sorts, with a few tables and seats set up.
Otto ran up to the towers and latched onto one in as big a hug as his stubby limbs could get around it.
"Finally! We're saved!" He sobbed out.
"Do you energon processor want to be alone for a while, or can I get started here?" Slyswift chuckled as she moved around the towers and smiled as she spotted a wall lined with several cubes of metal.
"Must have been a big group," She mentioned as she shifted to her robotic form again, taking one of the cubes in hand and turning it over to look at the letters etched on the sides. "Plenty of different flavoring agents, and a whole lot of energon to process."
"I'll take some rust with of engine grease," Otto requested, raising one paw.
Slyswift paused for a moment, and shook her head. Leos silently repeated Otto's order and stuck his tongue out in disgust. Neither motions went unnoticed by the otter as Slyswift moved to the top of the processor with the requested crystals.
"What, I can't enjoy some unique tastes?" He asked.
"This thing seems pretty old," Slyswift muttered as she loaded the cubes in and began flipping a few switches. "Weird though…It looks like a newer model then I what have at home."
"So it's a got a dent or two and a little dust, it'll still work, right?" Otto asked.
The machine began to hum and buzz as Slyswift pressed a few more buttons. The entire contraption rattled a bit, lights flickering along the side, before a whistle sounded and from the side of the towers popped a glowing crystal cube. Otto grinned as he quickly shifted into his own bot mode, this time leaving his weapon holstered as he scooped up the crystal and tilted it into his mouth. Glowing blue energy seemed to pour from the crystal into Otto, who breathed a sigh of relief as the shine diffused through his whole body.
"Not bad," He commented as he looked up toward Slyswift. "A bit stronger and it'd make some pretty good high-grade."
"Yeah, like you're old enough to have high-grade," Slyswift said as she jumped back down to the floor level and began looking over the other cubes of flavors.
"Hey, what's that supposed to…" Otto started to retort.
"I don't suppose that there's any battery acid flavoring?" Leos interrupted, trying to cut off the argument.
"Actually, there is," Slyswift nodded as she gathered the crystals. "Ooh, copper. Whoever stocked this place has good taste, at least."
"Copper? Boring," Otto chimed in. "Why not live a little? I got some great mixing recipes I can teach ya."
"If most of them involve rust and/or engine grease, I'd rather not know," Slyswift warned as she moved back to the top of the machine, loading in the supplies. "So, think we should look around some more?"
"We'll finish refueling first," Leos declared as the machine began to churn out more energon as Slyswift worked with it. "Chances are there could be danger here though, so we're all going to stick together, got it?"
"Huh?" Otto asked, looking away from the door that he was about to exit. "Sorry, I was just gonna look around…"
Leos just rolled his optics before transforming back to his ten-foot robot form and taking up the energon cube that Slyswift had cooked up.
"Hmm, I hope I made yours big enough Leos," Slyswift said as she took her energon and downed it in one gulp. "I forgot how tall you actually are."
"It's fine, I have surprisingly good fuel efficiency," Leos assured her as the last of the energon glow faded from his body. "Now, let's take a look around."
"Way ahead of you!" Otto's voice shouted from the hallway outside. "And I think I found something too."
Heading back out into the hall outside the processor's chamber, Leos and Slyswift made their way toward where Otto's voice had come from, only for him to walk brazenly from a door a bit further down. He smiled as he held up a disk, waving it over his head to the other two.
"I'll bet we'll find some answers on this," He said.
"How much you wanna bet all he found was some music files?" Slyswift whispered to Leos.
"I wouldn't think his luck's that bad, remember the battle earlier?" Leos pointed out. "Let's check out that disk on the main computer back at the entrance…If it still works that is."
"You got it big cat," Otto nodded as the trio headed back toward the entrance chamber.
The computer was located around a round table (which seemed substantially beat up as though it had fallen off a cliff at some point.) While the machine was covered with cobwebs and dirt, it didn't take long to remove the worst of the debris. Otto grinned as he flicked the power switch, the display making a worrying banging and popping noise before flickering on to a green operating system screen.
"Alright, now we're getting somewhere," Leos smiled as Otto popped in the disk.
Slyswift's fingers flew over the keyboard as she punched in a few commands. A whirring noise from the disk drive indicated the computer was attempting to read the data, and the green screen gave way to a static filled blur.
"Otto, was that disk scratched or anything?" Slyswift asked.
"Umm…I didn't really check," Otto admitted, looking sheepish for a moment.
"Great, guess I'll try and recover the data," She muttered, the static vanishing and replaced with a downloading screen.
Only a few moments passed before the downloading screen vanished, and the feedback started again. This time a face could clearly be seen, this one belonging to a blue robot with orange fins on the sides of his head and a metal gray mouth. His green optics were staring intently into the camera, rather like a general about to give orders to his troops.
Regrettably, only the hiss of static could be heard from the disk, and Slyswift sighed as a menu opened at the top of the screen.
"The data must have been corrupted when the disk was damaged," She muttered. "Come on…"
"…Maximals…" The video said, a voice finally breaking in over the static.
"Thank you, think I know what I'm doing here now," Slyswift grinned. "Give me…Ten cycles and I'll bet I can at least help us get the general idea of the message here."
"Ten cycles?" Otto challenged. "Heck, I'll give you twenty and a little dance if you can fix it that fast."
Slyswift looked at Otto, then just shrugged and said, "Okay, you're on."
"At least they're motivated," Leos thought as he looked toward another terminal on the other side of the chamber. "Maybe I should take a look at what else is on these computers."
All the spider lights back at the Predacon base were shuffling about, crawling over the walls and ceiling as they made their way out into other parts of the cave.
"Yes!" Quickchange cheered, the beams of green energy fading from his optics (though they still glowed a bit brighter). "I've finally figured these things out."
"Congratulations Lord of the Lights," Medmoth said with a sarcastic sigh.
"I can't believe someone actually managed to create these things to respond to mental commands, it's intriguing," Quickchange wondered aloud.
"It also seems to have given you a little brain-mouth thing there," Starscream pointed out. "But you can at least help us with checking the rest of this place out now, right?"
"Of course, why do you think I sent the lights all over the place," Quickchange smirked. "It was simple matter of changing the frequency…"
"Didn't ask for an explanation, let's finish checking this place out," Starscream interrupted.
Leos looked up from the computer he had been working on as the sound of metal feet tapping incessantly against the ground drew his attention.
"You don't need to do that, amusing as it is," Slyswift said, trying not to laugh.
Leos looked over to Otto, who was doing some manner of strange tap dance around the central table.
"Hey, I always keep my word, embarrassing as it might be," Otto declared as he spun on his heel.
"I take it you've repaired the recording?" Leos guessed, walking back over to Slyswift.
"As much as it can be. It's still pretty garbled, but I think we can get the gist of it," Slyswift nodded as she punched in some commands.
"Then let's see what we're dealing with here," Leos ordered.
The screen was filled with fuzzy static for a second, then the face of the blue and orange robot filled the screen once more, his voice fading in and out through a light hiss of interference.
This is a mes…………….Maximals still present on Earth. I….Optimus Primal, current leader of the Maximal ……………………p..net. Duri………r research operation, our ship was called u……….t a group of rogue Predacons …………………………Cybertron. We wer………………….sing through a trans-warp field, and landed…………………………… It's been quite some time, but ……………………………….. cap…. all active Predacons, and are prepar……………………………….ybertron to face……... Unfor…………………………….too dangerous to ……………………….all remaining stasis pods at this mo…... ……ve recovered ten, but t………………………………….remain, if you find this message, know this: We …l..return for you. Stay in this base ……………………………………………………………... We w… ……..n. Prime, out.
"Thank you Slyswift…I think…" Leos sighed, rubbing his head.
"I thought I did better than that…" Slyswift muttered, going back over the data.
"THEY DITCHED US!" Otto shouted at the top of his vocal processor, causing Slyswift to yelp in surprise and tumble from her seat.
"We don't know that for certain," Leos countered.
"Oh yeah? Check the time stamp on that video, and compare it to the internal clock on the computer you were working on," Otto demanded, pointing to the screen Leos had been working at.
Leos glance between the two, noting the dates and comparing them. His optics shone with realization as the situation dawned on him.
"One-and-a-half million stellar cycles…" He gasped out.
Slyswift's shoulders slumped as she took in the situation. Otto continued ranting and stomping about the other side of the room, while Leos sat lost in thought.
"Maybe they just haven't gotten around to it yet?" Slyswift offered hopefully.
"Hello! They said 'trans-warp' that means time travel," Otto countered. "How can you be that late when you can time travel!?"
"Otto, calm down," Leos commanded.
"I am calm!" Otto insisted, throwing his hands up.
"No, you're really not, and you're upsetting everyone else," Leos said calmly.
"By which you mean Slyswift because we were ditch…" Otto started shouting.
Slyswift shoved down the talkative bot where he immediately found himself under Leos' foot again. Slyswift set to work on the computer, while Leos kept a gentle pressure on Otto's chest plate.
"We must have missed something…" Slyswift muttered frantically as she typed.
Slyswift stopped typing as she felt Leos's hand on her shoulder. She looked up to the larger Maximal as he gently reached past her and closed the video's window on the screen.
"It's okay Slyswift, I think we've heard enough," He said calmly. "Whether we were stranded here intentionally or not isn't a concern right now."
"HOW CAN YOU SAY…" Otto started to yell before a warning press from Leos's foot got him to shut up again.
"We have to assess the situation. We're trapped on an unfamiliar world, with no one but ourselves to rely on," Leos stated, crossing his arms. "Rescue may come, but we can't count on it. For the time being, we are our own best chance of getting home."
"And how, pray tell, are we supposed to do that," Otto questioned, the strain in his voice clear. "Blow up some energon deposits? That'll get us home…In pieces!"
"There was a way onto this planet, there's a way off," Leos stated.
"You don't mean the Axilon, do you?" Slyswift asked. "That's probably how they left…"
"Then we'll find another way," Leos assured her. "I'm not sure how yet, but we'll get off this world by any means necessary. But only if we keep our cool and work together, understand?"
Otto and Slyswift both fell silent. Leos moved his foot, allowing the smaller robot to get back up while Slyswift stood up from her computer.
"Eh…I guess I'm okay with it," Otto grumbled. "Just none of that 'we're all parts of a greater whole' speech alright? And…Sorry for losing my cool…"
"Ditto," Slyswift nodded, looking slightly ashamed of herself.
"There, glad we worked that…" Leos began.
"I vote Leos to be in charge!" Otto declared, raising one hand.
"Second it!" Slyswift responded quickly.
"What? But wait, I'm not a…" Leos began to protest, raising one hand.
"Hey, you've been leading so far haven't you?" Otto pointed out.
"And you're the senior crew member around here," Slyswift agreed. "Or at least you act like one."
"I…Very well then," Leos sighed, shaking his head.
"Great, so we'll just call you "Leos Prime' then," Otto grinned.
"Just Leos, please," The lion transformer requested.
"Whatever you say Boss Cat," Otto shrugged. "So, first orders?"
Leos looked around and thought for moment, taking in the doors that they hadn't explored yet and the vast amounts of rubble that still littered the ground.
"I suppose we should focus on exploring and cleaning up this base," Leos decided. "It'll serve as the center of our operations for the time being. Each of us should check a different area to cover the most ground."
"Got it," Slyswift and Otto both called out, darting past him down two separate corridors.
"This will prove to be interesting," Leos thought to himself as he began his own exploration.
"Okay, I think we've just about finished here," Starscream muttered as they entered the final chamber.
"Quite a complex setup down here," Medmoth commented. "Medical supplies, research equipment, a CR tank and spare fluid…"
"Not to mention the variety of inventions, all encoded so they're next to impossible for us to access," Quickchange pointed out as one of the lights blinked on his head like a miner's helmet. "Perhaps I should go back to trying to decode the files."
The three Predacons stopped talking as they looked around the room they had entered. It was a rather simple looking rest area, a metal cot to serve as a bed, an array of screens along one wall (all of them off, and two shattered), plus yet another table with a few interesting gizmos and a strange, multi-colored cube gathering dust in the corner.
"Guess this is the room of whoever owned the place," Starscream observed as he took a seat and leaned back on the bed. "Ooh, not bad. I could get used to this."
"And just where are Medmoth and myself supposed to sleep?" Quickchange asked, his thoughts turning toward the weapon mounted on his back.
"There was a secondary recharge station near the CR tank," Medmoth pointed out. "But that's mine."
"Why don't you camp out near the computer?" Starscream suggested. "You can recharge from its power cells between energon doses, and build your own recharge berth when you have the free time."
"Oh sure, why not just hook my processor into it and then decode things while I'm off line?" Quickchange grumbled sarcastically before pausing. "Actually that might not be a bad idea…"
"Good, you get on that," Starscream ordered. "Now, we've had a rather full day, especially me being shot at…"
Medmoth and Quickchange both winced, the venom apparent in Starscream's voice.
"So let's get some rest. Consider yourselves off duty for the next few megacycles," Starscream finished.
Neither of the other two were quite sure of what to do. Starscream cast a glare at them that simply stated 'Leave now' and both of his underlings scurried from the room.
"Ahh…Peace and quiet…" Starscream sighed as he leaned back. "I'll need to put an end to that soon enough, but might as well enjoy it while it lasts."
"Well, I found a couple of personnel quarters," Otto reported as he opened up another metal door to reveal a featureless room with nothing but a metal cot in it. "Saw a big one with a desk in it, and computer…I call dibs."
"Shouldn't Leos have first choice if he's in charge?" Slyswift's voice asked form the radio, the sounds of tinkering filtering through with it.
"Right, good point," Otto admitted as he opened another room up. "Hey, can I have this one where the wall to the next room fell down then? It's almost like having two rooms…"
"I don't mind if Leos doesn't," Slyswift declared, her voice straining. "I'm probably gonna be recharging…In…Here…Ahh!"
A loud clang echoed through the base and over the radio.
"I'm okay!" Slyswift assured Otto as he began running down the hall toward her location. "No damage…Aw slag!"
"What's wrong?" Otto asked as he ran up to a pair of doors from which the crash had sounded and burst through them.
Slyswift was in the middle of the room, leaning over a metal container roughly half her height. On the far wall of the room was a pair of large chambers, one of which had its door dangling off at a haphazard angle.
"Wow, you're fast," Slyswift commented as she noticed Otto.
"Yeah…So what have we got here?" Otto wondered looking into the container.
A clear liquid sloshed around inside, with tiny beads of silvery metal floating in it. Slyswift sighed as she gestured to the chambers on the other side of the room.
"Any idea what those are?" She asked.
"CR chambers?" Otto asked, sounding excited.
"Yep, got it in one," Slyswift congratulated him, taking a dusty beaker and scooping some of the liquid from the container into it. "Know what this is?"
Otto looked at the fluid before shrugging, "I don't know, water with some decorations?"
"Nope, this is the CR fluid from the chamber there," Slyswift answered.
"No way, CR fluid is thick and silvery and pours slower than dirty oil," Otto retorted.
"When it's cold, yeah. But this stuff hasn't been in the best conditions," Slyswift pointed out.
"But they wouldn't let those CR chambers out until they tested them for temperature control and extremes," Otto pointed out.
"First, I think we're a little past the warranty by now since it's been over a million stellar cycles," Slyswift pointed out. "Second, you might want to look in there."
She gestured to a door across from where Otto had entered. He walked over and carefully opened it up…
And fell back expelling ash and soot from his air intake valve as a blast of heat and smoke caught him in the face. Looking beyond, Otto could see a faint red glow and pools of molten rock scattered in the distance inside the cavern beyond.
"Lava…We're in a volcano!" Otto realized between chokes.
"Yup, not exactly prime storage conditions," Slyswift pointed out as she looked around. "Can you help me look?"
"For what?" Otto asked, rubbing his optics.
"We might be able to find a cold storage area with a few spare tanks of fluid," Slyswift explained. "We might be able to find something we can use…"
"Did you maybe think to check there?" Otto asked, pointing up above the chambers.
Glancing up, Slyswift could see a pair of large storage cabinets covered in frost and ice. The cold covering had started to thaw a bit, but it was being rather stubborn.
"Yeah, but I can't reach up there," Slyswift admitted. "I was hoping to find another spot."
Otto-bot smiled and quickly climbed on top of the broken chamber. He reached up with both hands toward the cabinet.
"You're gonna fall like I did, be careful!" Slyswift warned.
Otto managed to get both hands on the door and yank it open. He smiled at Slyswift…
CRASH, BANG, BOOM!
"Told you so," Slyswift chuckled as she knelt next to her fallen comrade. "You okay?"
"I'll be fine, just get the drawer off of me..Oh, and you're welcome by the way," Otto muttered sarcastically.
It took a bit of effort, but Otto was extricated from under the drawer just as Leos dashed into the room. A look of panic was etched on his face, but Otto waved him off.
"I'm good boss bot, nothing I can't buff out myself," Otto assured him.
"Oh, good," Leos nodded. "Hey, you…"
"Darn, Otto this stuff is no good," Slyswift interrupted as she looked into a fresh container covered with frost.
"What, that stuff is dang cold," Otto argued, ignoring Leos as he turned to the coyote transformer.
"The stuff is dang frozen," Slyswift pointed out, copying Otto's phrasing.
"So then just stick it in the volcano for a bit," Otto suggested.
"Then we'd have stuff like the first tank," Slyswift muttered. "But maybe if I pour the first tank through this one…"
"We can thaw out this one…" Otto caught on.
"And the cold from this will restabilize the first!" Slyswift smiled.
"Great, will you two listen to me for a moment!" Leos shouted.
"Oh, hi Leos," Slyswift greeted their new leader. "Didn't see you there, sorry."
"Apologies later, come with me now," Leos ordered.
"What's got your tail in a knot?" Otto asked as they followed Leos out of the room.
The lead Maximal led the other two through several rooms and stopped as he reached a rather barren one with a damaged terminal on the side of a large door.
"Now listen you two, no matter what you must not touch anything through this door, understand?" Leos asked.
"Leos, you're starting to worry me," Slyswift fretted. "What's so important?"
In answer, Leos grabbed the two halves of the door and pulled, managing to strain them open. He led Otto and Slyswift through, in to another volcanic chamber. This one sported a line of stalagmites between them and several pools of lava, with thin paths between the molten rock. A little way in, Leos stopped and pointed directly ahead.
Otto's jaw dropped almost to the floor, and Slyswift's optics grew wide.
A large, yellow, box-shaped ship sat on the far edge of a lava pool. Cybertronian lettering was barely visible on the side facing them, and a pair of mounted turrets were scanning over the lava.
"It's not gonna shoot is it?" Slyswift asked.
"That…that…that…that…" Otto stammered out.
"Slyswift, you know what you're seeing here, right?" Leos asked, seemingly shocked at Slyswift's reaction.
"Yeah…But I know that one, it's not possible and two," Slyswift stated as she pointed at the turret. "That weapon was made to stop Decepticons and would blow us to scrap if it hit us."
"That's the ARK…" Otto finally choked out.
"Exactly," Leos nodded.
"Why is it here?" Otto asked.
Slyswift winced as she remembered what her now broken scanner had pointed out earlier, "I think I owe my scanner an apology now…If that's the ARK then we're on primitive Earth."
"And that means that our ancestors, the Autobots and Decepticons that fought the Great War are on board," Leos nodded.
"Maybe we should go in and check on them…" Otto suggested.
"No, we can't risk that," Leos commanded. "If we have travelled to the past, then that means stepping in there would risk changing the future."
"Maybe we're in the future and that's the ARK as it was left on Earth?" Otto asked.
"Except isn't the original ARK the centerpiece of the Cybertropolis History Museum?" Slyswift pointed out. "The big display that basically screams 'We're what's left of Iacon?'"
All three were silent, staring at the chunk of history before them.
"But…Maybe it wouldn't hurt to make sure the heat hasn't gotten to them," Slyswift suggested, picturing the CR fluid.
"Teletran One will take care of that just before the Great War starts," Leos said, recalling the history. "But for now, we need to make sure the Predacons don't find out about this."
"Yeah, I don't wanna think about what'll happen if they get their claws in there!" Otto worried.
"We'll need to take them off the planet once we find a way back to Cybertron," Leos confirmed.
"Yeah we'll…Wait a minute," Otto paused, shaking his head. "Uh uh, no way, I'm not sharing a ship with the Preds…"
"You'd rather leave them here to mess with our past?" Leos asked.
Otto glanced back to the historical ship and shook his head silently.
"So how exactly would we convince them to come back with us?" Slyswift asked.
"We'll need to talk it out with them," Leos declared. "I'm sure we can make them see reason…"
Back at the Predacon base, Starscream strutted his way past Quickchange's computer, where the green bot was tinkering with the wiring. He paused and banged one fist down on top of a lab table, drawing the coding expert's attention and brining Memdoth running in from the next chamber.
"Now then," He smiled. "How shall we begin planning to destroy the Maximal threat?"
Elsewhere, a pair of purple eyes looked down on the blue planet and narrowed in interest.
"Let the Beast Wars begin again," Thought the voice that accompanied the eyes.