Spark of a Predacon

Chapter 3:

Huntress of the Skies

When the two Predacons returned to the fortress, the female felt her spark suddenly sink. When the male gently dropped her at the top of the tower, she lowered her body with her belly touching the ground and her chin pressing against the cold hard floor. Her optics remained peeled to the floor, unable to look at her masters in the optic. How could she when she had failed on the first hunt? She was nothing but useless.

The male landed a short distance away as the Creator approached them. And just like before, his expression was unreadable. No one could read the single optic in his head. She flinched with pain as he pressed a clawed hand to her injured back to examine the damage.

"So, it would seem the reptiles have failed," sneered the small, winged silver mech.

Wait, she could understand them now? She shifted her gaze to the male and the expression on his maw was more than enough to convince her that he too knew what was being said.

"It would appear to be so," hummed the larger fanged mech. He strolled up to them, red optics narrowing at the sight of the female's condition. "The Predacons were meant to hunt down the Autobots and bring them here to me. Why did they fail?"

The Creator said nothing as he pulled something out from his subspace pocket and pressed it to her back. She bared her fangs and snarled in discomfort. She could've sworn she heard a slight growl coming from her companion, but no one paid any heed to it. The Creator looked back at him and showed in his servo what it was: it was some sort of healing gel. The pain in her back had subsided to no more than a mere sting. She would heal with time, but she might possibly get some scarring.

"I wish I knew, my lord," the Creator replied once he had finished dabbing her back. "Logic would dictate that the Autobots may have had help, help that was more than enough to send the both of them flying back to us with their claws empty."

The larger mech's optics contorted into a deep frown. "They were beaten by a mere Autobot?"

The Creator shook his head. "Negative, my lord," he replied. "Only the female came back with most of the damage on her frame. The male had remained untouched. It would seem that whatever it was that had injured her was enough to get the male to retrieve her and retreat."

She lowered her head even further to the ground when the large master stormed up to them, clawed hands turning into fists. Something hard connected with her face and she found herself flying and landing roughly on her side, aggravating her injured back. A squeal of pain erupted from her mouth and she found herself unable to get back up. A hard, flat object pressed against her back and she howled with agony.

"You cost the hunt by your sheer stupidity!" the voice of the master snarled above her.

She struggled to escape the hold the master had of her, but he continued to press down on her back. Why wasn't the Creator helping her? What had she done to deserve this?! She had known from the start that her failure would cause punishment, but never like this! She shrieked as more pressure was applied to her back and she thrashed wildly, claws and teeth scraping against the force that held her down. Her tail swiped but it didn't seem to have any effect on him either!

She was far too weak to even resist any further and her vision started to blacken from the pain.

Then, the pressure was lifted off her and the pain stopped. A roar deafened her audio receptors and a shadow stood over her, blocking out the moonlight above her. Wings shielded her from view and something warm curled around her terrified frame. From the corner of her optics, she realised that it was her friend who had pushed the master off of her and he was hovering over her protectively.

He roared again, louder this time. The spikes on his head bristled with fury, the mandibles on his jaws clicked with his hisses and roars.

The master that he had pushed off was getting back to his feet, a trail of energon was dripping from the corner of his lips and three claw marks glowed in the moonlight on his chest panels.

"Seems like the Predacons have grown attached to each other," the small silver mech whispered to the Creator.

"Indeed," the Creator agreed.

"I should have them both executed for their failure, Shockwave," the large master growled as he used a claw to wipe the energon from his mouth. "But seeing as how they may still prove useful to us…"

The male hissed as he drew closer and his tail curled even tighter around her frame. She shivered with fear, but the reassuring form of her friend was enough to put her processor at ease. She didn't understand what was going. What was the master saying? Why was he so mad at their failure? Why did he attack her like that? Had she done something wrong to deserve such atrocities? It only added more fuel to the fire of her confusion and she felt her armour rattle with fear, fear for herself… and fear for her friend.

"Shockwave," the large mech growled and she opened her optics and looked up in confusion, "send the female off to hunt down the Autobots. If she is to prove that she is capable of working alongside us, she must destroy them." He pointed a claw at her and she flinched under his gaze. "Have the male stay behind. We may have more of use for him."

The Creator bowed. "Yes, my lord."

The leader then turned to the small silver mech. "Starscream, you will be in charge of the male Predacon's… training."

The silver mech, whom he had identified as Starscream, rubbed his claws together. "Oh, it would be a pleasure, my master."

The Creator approached the two Predacons and pried the male off the female. He took out another canister filled with blue energon and presented it to her. Confusion swept over her and she sniffed it. Her friend tried to lean over and sniff it too, but the Creator pushed him back. Why didn't he want him to come with her? Had he done something wrong?

She tried to voice her question to the Creator, but he simply looked at her as though her words didn't make much sense. She lowered her hackles and did as she was told, sniffing the contents of the energon. It didn't smell like the one they had been tracking before. It smelt different this time. Her sense of smell wasn't as good as her friend's, but deep down, if she was to prove that she was capable of standing alongside her creator… she would have to track down the Cybertronians on her own.

Once she had enough of the scent, she spread her wings in preparation for flight, but the male quickly stopped her with a soft growl and she paused. He leaned closer to her and pressed a cheek to hers, his mandibles clicking softly as they brushed against her metallic skin. She knew what he was trying to say: come back safely.

She gently licked his muzzle in response and took off to the sky. Looking back would only make the leaving more difficult, so she forced herself to fly onward. But her audio receptors managed to pick up the distressed roars as she vanished into the fading darkness of the dawn.

She didn't know how long she was flying for, but scent of her target only seemed to grow fainter. She cursed herself for having such a weak sense of smell, it only added more to her frustration. She felt oddly empty without her Predacon companion, but she shifted to a glide, allowing the wind currents to carry her as far as it would blow.

Now that she was alone, she couldn't help but gaze down at the land below her. Colours of gold, brown, and green dotted the landscape, not unlike anything she had seen before. She guessed that the brown and gold belonged to the ground, but she wasn't sure what the green was. She had never seen green before, not like the green on that Cybertronian that had been carrying the tiny organic. It seemed to move with the wind, and her sensors picked up traces of strange scents that smelt both sweet and earthly.

Perhaps one day she could get a closer look at whatever was making those strange smells, but for now she had to concentrate on finding the owner of the energon scent. She soon realised she was getting further and further from the tower, but she didn't let it stop her.

She had been so busy searching that she hadn't noticed the sound of buzzing.

Her proximity sensors blared with warning and she whipped her head over her shoulder, optics widening at the strange things that had been following her for quite some time. Slag, why hadn't she noticed anything until now?

She stopped and turned to hover in front of whatever these strange looking birds were.

The birds seemed to hover like her, but their wings weren't flapping. She thought she spotted two small creatures similar to the organic that had been in the arms of the green Cybertronian, but she shook it off. She threw her head back and roared to them, but it only seemed to fall on deaf audio receptors, puzzling her.

After a few intense seconds, the wings of the birds seemed to change and long tubes appeared beneath them. She blinked quizzically, but the answer to her question immediately dawned upon her. The backs of the tubes turned to fire and they flew toward her.

Screeching, she flapped to try and get out of the tubes' path, but they seemed to follow her wherever she went. She screeched in alarm for her companion, but she suddenly remembered he was not with her.

She was on her own.

One of the tubes impacted her body and the burning of pain coursed through her chassis. She screamed in agony and flapped away, the smoke and flames licking off her frame and slowly burning away at her wing membranes. She flew harder, but the buzzing of the birds told her that they were chasing her. The burning of the fire at her skin only added to her confusion and anger.

No matter how far she flew, they followed her. Another tube slammed into her back, worsening her condition from before. If she was going to go down, she was going to go down fighting like a true Predacon!

She opened her wings and banked to the right, the birds still flying straight where she had been before. Her talons raked sliced against a passing bird and its wing whistled right past her head. The bird's nose tilted downward, smoke billowing from its missing wing, and it plummeted to the ground below. She roared with triumph, but the pelting of bullets on her back caused her to angle out of the way with the second bird zooming straight past her head.

Furious, she gathered the coldness in her chest and shot a stream of ice at the bird, but it was too quick. It missed the target, but she was not fazed by her misjudgement. The bird came around again, supposedly determined to avenge its fallen brother. More bullets stung her skin, but she shook it off and flew straight at it, talons outstretched. She slammed into it with a loud crash and started to tear into its chassis. She threw her head down and took a mouthful of metal, her teeth pulling and a chunk of metal and wire came out with it. Black liquid splattered against her blue chassis, but she ignored it.

She was wining!

She released hold of the bird and it fell just like its comrade. She roared excitedly, allowing the wind to carry it far and wide. The world would know that she had a right to live like every other being!

But her triumph was short-lived.

Something hard slammed against her and the unforgiveable sense of pain washed over her, blinding her to the danger that she was in. She tried to flap her wings, but she realised she couldn't. She was angled down and then pushed to the ground below her. She struggled to escape her holder, but whoever it was that had her was stronger than she. She snaked her head around and bit at whoever had her, but the strength of the unknown did not waver in the slightest. The more she struggled, the faster she seemed to fall.

Then, whatever the thing was that had a hold of her suddenly let go and she impacted the ground. She roared with agony.

Her head lolled to the side, but from the corner of her optics, she saw a large figure step over her. The figure was large, larger than her master, but not as large as her companion. It leaned over her, blue optics seeming to narrow at her. She hissed angrily, but blackness soon enveloped her vision, and she knew no more.

Dun, dun duuuuuuun! Cliffhanger! Mwahahahaha!