The rush to find and gather the stasis pods that fell to Earth when the Vok began their attack on the planet had sent both sides into a frenzy. While Ruby left Rhinox, Rattrap, Cheetor, Airazor and Tigatron to it, the Transmetal flying squirrel silently followed Dinobot as he slowly trekked his way across the landscape toward the Darkside. Honestly, she wanted to go with the others and say good-bye before Tigatron and Airazor left on their scouting mission of the planet, but she felt that she had to make sure Dinobot remained unharmed.
Crouching down to hide among the rocks, Dinobot, in beast mode, was observing Megatron and Inferno leaving the Predacon base and the single moon in the night sky, Ruby, in her own beast mode, was hoping that the signature dampening device she had been working on for nearly a mega-solar cycle would be successful in keeping her hidden. The fact that Dinobot had not detected her yet bode well. Taking a moment herself to gaze up at the single beautiful glowing orb in the sky, she was caught unaware as a defense turret came online and began to shoot at Dinobot. Ruby barely had time to duck down as the saurian based fighter dove for cover very close to her. Hiding in the shadow of the rocks, she watched as the Velociraptor shielded his head from the falling debris caused by the blasts. When it was safe and he began to look around she swore he had seen her when he did a double take. Staying as still as possible she watched as he stalked closer to her. It took everything to not breathe a sigh of relief when he paused before a bubbling mud pit, transformed, waded into the muck, and began to splatter the substance onto himself. Now completely covered in mud Dinobot slowly crept out of his hiding spot.
Creeping out from her hiding spot, she watched carefully as he moved with a patience that belied his temperament as the turret swept the area. Ruby realized that she had exposed herself too much when the turret was facing her now. Staring down the twin barrels of the gun she waited for it to strike, but as it began to move again in its sweep she closed her eyes and thanked the All Spark that her signal dampening device worked.
Quick steps regressing away from her and towards the turret drew her attention back to the other Maximal. Dinobot was using the mud to cover his own signature, making his way to stand right before the weapon. The Transmetal flying squirrel had to smile as Dinobot gave a battle cry and destroyed the threat with one blow. He had solved the problem she had been contemplating for so long with such a simple solution, though she had no real desire to run around covered in mud all the time. With the threat of detection gone she watched as the saurian warrior made his way into the Darkside. Ruby sighed as she curled up a bit beside the pile of rocks she observed from, there was nothing for her to do but wait for his exit from the ship.
The Vehicon patrols had tripled since Rhinox's last attempt to gather Energon. They began to swarm in the tunnels which made his attempt to find a new sheltering place more and more difficult. He knew that being caught was only a matter of time, but he intended to prolong it for as long as possible. Having to hide from passing patrols made his journey slower than he wished, but the lone Maximal bid his time. Rushing about rarely did any good and usually was only a waste of energy and time.
As he continued, Rhinox found himself deeper and deeper into the older parts of Cybertron. Idly noting that the area was slowly succumbing to the eons of neglect, he was unprepared as the walkway he had been traversing on gave way. With a yell of surprise, the aged rhinoceros and the cart he had been pulling behind him fell into the darkness below.
Coming to an unknown amount of time later, Rhinox groaned as he gained his quadruped feet, giving a hiss as pain shot through his right hind leg. Resting on his left hand side, Rhinox knew that he wouldn't be able to do anything for a while. "Computer, begin repair cycle."
"Repair cycle commencing," the male Maximal computer voice acknowledged. As his internal systems began their work Rhinox waited, trying to glean what he could in the darkness that surrounded him.
With how fast Dinobot ran out of the Predacon base Ruby had her work cut out for her to not only try to keep up with him, but to remain undetected. She for one was glad that he was heading back to Maximal territory; not finding hiding on Predacon ground to be particularly enjoyable. Megatron, her Megatron, could be lurking anywhere in the shadowy landscape, waiting to strike out at the one who foiled his schemes the most.
A storm had begun move over them as she watched the saurian based fighter rush up the rocks that had formed a natural, but steep, staircase and she gave a deep sigh. Rushing to stay with him had been hard enough, but now he had to go mountain climbing! With a curt nod she followed as quietly as she could, leery of being so high up while lighting and thunder began to crash around her. Carefully picking her place she watched as Dinobot looked over his prize.
"To be," he finally snarled after what seemed to be hours of pacing, "or not to be: that is the question. These disks I hold; are they are a record of what will be or only of what may? For if the future is indeed immutably foretold; then my demise is but moments from that conformation for I… I could not live if not the master of my fate."
Ruby carefully peeked out at him from around her rock; watching him pace and contemplate the Golden Disks in his hands. Her spark ached for him, for his confusion, for the hard and painful choices he would be facing.
"But …if the future can be changed, as her very existence here suggests, if these disks record merely one path of all the myriad ways the cosmos might conform, then their power is infinite and yet still limited for they can be used but once, and in that change be rendered fiction forever more."
The storm around them seemed to feed off of or feel the same way Dinobot did at the moment, making her cower a bit as a bolt struck as he yelled up to the sky above. "I could destroy them," Dinobot held the disks above his head as if offering for the savage skies above to do so for him, "but… no, t'would be a coward's answer. I will note the truth instead, then t'will be either them… or me… that face oblivion." Marching over to one of the lose rocks on the mountain top, Dinobot lifted it with ease with one hand and placed one of the disks under it with the other. "Until then," he let the rock drop down.
Ruby eased behind her hiding rock as Dinobot passed by her, ducking a bit further behind it when he stopped and seemed to glance over his shoulder in her direction before simply starting down the stone steps. Counting to one hundred first, the Transmetal flying squirrel scurried out of her hiding place over to where Dinobot dropped the disk. There was nothing to keep Megatron from retrieving it and giving it back to himself here, especially if he knew where Dinobot would hide it. It was just too risky to leave where it was.
Quietly transforming, Ruby had to use both hands and quite a bit of force to even lift the rock up. With it tilted up enough to reach it, she discovered another problem. How could she get the disk out if she was putting all of her effort into lifting the rock? Trying to look around her arm and the rock, Ruby frowned a bit and rolled her optics. She really needed to think this stuff through more thoroughly first before diving into it head on. Putting all her weight on her left foot, Ruby tried to nudge the disk out from its hiding place with her right. The stupid thing was heavier than she thought it would be and took several kicks and nudging her toes under it to flip it out before the rock fell lose from her hands with a loud thud.
The disk rolled a bit on its edge before dropping to the side. Letting out a cycle of air from her systems Ruby marched over to the disk and picked it up, having to use both hands to do so, and looked it over. Thanks to working so much with humans she had learned a language or two. The writing was in English, 'The Sounds of Earth' inscribed in the center rings of the disk. "So how am I going to get you back to the base in a timely manner?"
Her only choice was to fly, but there was no way to hold it while doing so. It was just an idle thought that came to mind, but it was her best, and possibly only, option. Going into beast mode Ruby utilized her rodent form's natural pockets. The way a squirrel's cheeks expanded so that they could carry food for long distances and still utilize their paws was the perfect plan, and even Ruby herself was surprised at how easily the disk fit. Sure, she probably looked silly with her cheeks in an unmistakable disk like shape and the thing tasted absolutely awful, but there was no going back.
With a running leap, Ruby dove off of the edge of the mountain top and began to glide before parts of the top of her patagium folded up to expose little rocket motors that actually let her fly. Between the storm's wind currents and the resistance the disk in her cheeks gave, she had quite a wild and non-too-straight flight back to the Axalon.
Megatron growled as he looked down upon the Maximal's ship. Carefully watching whom all came and went was giving him his best estimate of exactly when he could strike. He had to laugh to himself as Cheetor had taken off from the base without even looking in his direction. Soon Rattrap and Dinobot would join the Transmetal feline in their pathetic attempt to keep his forces from destroying them. While they all played around, the tarnished dragon would strike at the very heart of the Maximals, not only taking out their base of operations, but killing Rhinox and preventing the return of Optimus Primal.
He had to growl as that traitor, Dinobot, came into view. Glaring down at him, Megatron saw exactly what he carried. The Golden Disk the aliens had left on the planet. "My, my, you have been busy Dinobot, yeess. You left for my base sooner that I had originally thought, stolen my prizes right from under me, and now return home with yours. Of course this means that I can't destroy the Maximal base but," the dragon gave a helpless shrug, "two out of three is acceptable in this case, yeess."
As Dinobot entered the ship, Megatron turned to climb down from his perch and begin the walk around to the back of the ship. A fireball to the ship's engines, the loss of power, and not only will he disrupt the undoubtedly delicate process Rhinox had done to pull Optimus Primal back from the All Spark, but he would not even risk being seen by his past self in the process.
Rattrap, for one, sorely missed Optimus. The Boss Monkey hadn't been scrapped for two solar cycles and things already felt like they were falling apart. Rhinox had left him in charge of everything while he did a mind trip into whatever he went looking for and it seemed to the Transmetal rat that the only one that would ever listen to him was Cheetor. The kid had the enthusiasm, but for some reason it came across to Rattrap that the cat was lacking a few data cells when he got his upgrade.
Tigatron and Airazor had left to go hunting for more stasis pods, the pair better suited for the job than the rest of them wanted to admit. There was also the attraction the two seemed to have been developing since that flying island incident. Fine, let the two lovers have their time, Rattrap thought to himself, and speaking of 'Lovers', where the Pit did Dinobot and Ruby run off to?!
The last thing he wanted to admit was that Dinobot actually won that battle, having Ruby chose the former Predacon over him, but the facts were hard to ignore. The pair had just disappeared before the rest of them even left the ship to check for downed stasis pods and only Primus knew where they were at now and what exactly they were doing.
Rattrap sighed. "Useta be de dames came ta me," he told the practically comatose Rhinox. "I think I'm losin' my touch." His lamenting came to an abrupt halt when the communication station behind him crackled to life.
"This is Cheetor, code one emergency" the scout's voice shouted of out the speaker, making Rattrap rush to the console.
"Oh sure, like things weren't bad enough," the rodent quipped as he dropped his head. "Well, whatta ya done now?"
"Ran into a Pred-nest in Delta quadrant," Cheetor began to report. "Couple of new nasties plus Megs himself. They're on my tail!"
Great! This was exactly what Rattrap wanted to hear. Not! "Oh, pussycat you really know how to jiggle my joystick…" he mumbled under his breath. "Ok! We'll lay out the welcome mat!" After preparing the defenses, he rushed over to the only other one in the base, knowing that they would need that huge brain of Rhinox's to save them once again from the sharp teeth of defeat. "Yo! Rhinox, sorry ta interrupt yer nap, but… uh…"
The computer interrupted what he was going to say with its dire warning. "Danger. Unit Rhinox's core consciousness has extended beyond measurable limits. Any disturbance will result in permanent loss of spark."
If it wouldn't have disturbed it, Rattrap would have beaten his head into the device that Rhinox was currently strapped to. "Oh sure, now there's some great timin' for ya." The lift opening up behind him drew his attention away from the engineer.
"What is happening?" Dinobot demanded, emphasizing with his right hand to draw attention away from his left as he hid the Golden Disk behind is back. "Sentinel is on alert."
"Hey, Chopper face," Rattrap was elated to see the former Predacon and see him alone, but cleared his throat to attempt to give a sterner tone as if asserting his authority. "Hey, where you been? Out savin' the universe or somethin'? And where's Ruby?"
"Possibly, yes," Dinobot growled a bit as he stepped closer to the much smaller Maximal as he answered the first two questions. With a press of a button on his torso the saurian warrior activated the stash of weapons he kept on hand on the bridge, the compartment lowering between him and the rodent. As it was doing so he answered the last question shot at him by the smelly commander-in-charge, "Ruby was not with me." It was true, Dinobot had not directly seen her, his scanners not detected her, but he could feel her nearby as if watching him. Normally he would have been upset if any of the others were spying on him, especially Rattrap, but given the nature of her personal mission he found it slightly endearing that she would try to protect him. He would have laughed at the idea of such a tiny female protecting him but doing so would no doubt give the rodent before him the wrong impression.
By Rattrap's tone there was something serious going on and heavy weaponry would quite possibly be needed. On the other hand with Rattrap there Dinobot was not able to head directly to his quarters to hide the Golden Disk so he would utilize the storage space that Primal had given him to do so. With the weapon's rack as a safety divider Dinobot peeked around the edge at the rodent in the room. "Now, what is the emergency?" Back behind the bizarre curtain he placed the disk high up and began to grab what weapons he thought would be necessary as Rattrap updated him.
"Oh! Well, nuthin' much," the rodent whined. "Let's see! Rhinox is off chasing comets with his mind, 'nd uh, Cheetor's bringin' a squad of Pred's home ta play. Of course, if dey hit dis place, uh, Big Green here goes permanently offline."
The thicker Rattrap laid on the trouble the bigger the guns and ammunition Dinobot grabbed. After strapping on two strips of ammunition, two blasters on his hips, and holding an impressive BFG he grabbed another blaster from his stash and let the storage compartment lift back into the ceiling. "Well then, we must take the fight to the enemy."
Rattrap lightly caught the gun Dinobot tossed at him and chambered it into activity with a smirk before joining the much larger Maximal on the lift. As soon as it touched down the Transmetal rodent was leaping free of the platform, transforming into his beast mode before gaining his wheels and taking off, kicking up a bunch of rocks and dirt aimed right at Dinobot, aggravating the larger Maximal at the amount of disrespect the rodent still showed him. With a growl Dinobot ran on foot after Rattrap. The plan was simple; keep Megatron and his followers from getting to the Axalon until Rhinox returned from his dream walk. The one thought in the back of his processor was that he hoped Ruby was safe in whatever she was doing.
Ruby clung to the side of the Axalon as she attempted to open her window. It was really no small feat with the weighty disk still tucked into the pockets of her cheeks, making her head want to fall backwards with gravity and pull her from the metallic structure she clung to. As the window finally pushed to the side, the Transmetal squirrel pulled herself up more to just let her front half flop onto the window sill, the Golden Disk's weight doing most of the effort for her on that part. Unfortunately her rear half still stuck out of the window and she couldn't spit out the disk how she was.
Grunting, she kicked her hind legs up to try to grip the opening to try and push herself in, failing and flailing more than she really thought she should have. She swore she could hear laughter over her plight, but continued her struggle despite feeling absolutely mortified over the whole debacle. With one last grunt her hind claws gripped the opening and she pulled her back half up.
Overbalanced and unable to correct herself before she fell tail over head, Ruby grunted as she landed on her back. A quick scramble to her stomach she pulled the disk free from the pockets of her cheeks and shivered. The thing still tasted like mud and she wasn't sure how many scrubs it would take to get the taste out of her mouth. A quick shift to her bi-ped mode and Ruby managed to shove the disk into one of the compartments underneath her sleeping berth. Now it was just to find out where the others were and what was happening.
Exiting her room, the strangest member of the Maximal's crew quickly and calmly made her way to the bridge. The lift motor had just finished its cycle as she took in Rhinox laying on some odd contraption in the middle of the command center, the cables from the device that ran down the hallway beginning to emit a strange purple floating light. Ruby suddenly felt gut punched. This was happening now?
Her grand-sparker was searching for Optimus Primal's spark in the Matrix. This was one of the most critical times that she swore she was never going to leave his side on when she arrived all those deca-solar cycles ago. This one event that made Rhinox the most venerable. Sentinel's alert to its area scan drew her attention to the screen. With a rush she ran over to the station and took in the image on the screen. There was that odd blip, the one that kept showing up when her Megatron got too close to the Axalon, that appeared near the rear of the ship. It didn't surprise her that the systems detected him easier now since they had been calibrated to pick up the Transmetal shift with the Cybertronian systems, though his Transmetal-2 state still confused the computer.
She refused to let the fear that gripped her spark seize her as she ran to the back of the ship. Megatron didn't intend to go after Dinobot today as he went to retrieve the Golden Disks from the Darkside. Why should he have? He would have known where the former Predacon would have hidden them away and could fetch them at any time. No, her enemy had the most heinous plan that would devastate the Maximals the most. While Dinobot, Rattrap, and Cheetor were busy keeping the Predacons at bay and Airazor and Tigatron were scouting the changes of the planet the Megatron from the future was going to attack the Axalon, killing Rhinox and preventing the return of Optimus Primal. A triple blow to the Maximal cause in this war and a guarantee win for the Predacons.
Even if he had gone to a point where Primal would be able to return, Ruby wasn't sure that she would survive past his spark loss to continue to aid the others in his absence. Her grand-sparker had as much to do with the survival of the Maximals as the rest of them.
As she accessed turrets on the back of the ship to open them up and access the roof she did her best to shake off the fear. There was no what if to this battle before her. She had to succeed or they all died.
Author's Note: I don't own the show.
Anyone see Anonymous-BW FanGirl in the last couple of months? She's been very quiet and I'll admit it has me a bit worried.
