Tarantulas' Log
Supplemental

It may not have been much, but the spare parts that I've obtained from that pachyderm Maximal proved useful. It's curious though, why hadn't she, much less her stasis pod, been picked up by our sensors. From the sound of things, not even the Maximals know of her existence... yet.

It makes one wonder if the Maximals were to find out about her location, would she give them as warm of a greeting as she gave me? I did promise not to tell my fellow Predicons of her location nor of her very existence. *chortle* I never gave the same promise concerning the Maximals.


"It makes a bot wonder, don't it?" Rattrap maintained a steady speed for Rhinox to keep up at. "Why would Ol' Spider Legs give us the location of a possible new Maximal? Somethin' stinks about his message and his higher-than-average dodginess in giving details."

"Mm-hmm." Rhinox agreed with Rattrap's comment. "Let's just hope there was some modicum of truth in his message."

"Yeah... I still can't help feeling that it's a trap, though. It isn't so much as what he's told us, it's what he didn't mention. Why would he just willingly give up on a stasis pod?"

"Hmm." Rhinox had wondered about that as well. If Tarantulas couldn't have retrieved the stasis pod because of the resulting new Maximal protecting it from him, then what could, or rather would, the Maximal do to its unknown comrades?

"Here we go..." Eletron was in her robot form behind one of the younger herd members that was having a hard time getting out of the opposite side of a nearby river that had an embankment that was a little too high for the younger elephant to get over. The young one's mother was helping from the front end with wrapping her trunk around one of her child's front legs. With cooperation, Eletron and the mother elephant was able to get the young one out and onto solid ground.

"Stay on solid ground for a good long while, would you?" Eletron sat down on the embankment with a sigh of relief. "I can't always be here to help you get stuck."

Ever since her encounter with Tarantulas, Eletron occasionally replayed the incident in her mind and wondered if the slagging Predicon would keep his word to not inform other Predicons of her very existence. Shaking her head, she once again filed that thought away. It had been several solar cycles since then and there were no signs of trouble. After a few more nano-cycles, Eletron stood and reverted to her beast form.

Relative silence had set around the herd outside of a few distant bird calls and a few of the herd members confirming for themselves that the mother and child were all right. The matriarch of the herd - the one that Eletron had personally named Chaitanya - headed straight to the Maximal after having her turn to check on the young elephant. Butting heads and gently touching Eletron's neck in a form of thanks, Chaitanya let out a nearly silent rumble in communication. The touching moment was interrupted by an uneasy feeling followed with a slight vibration that seemed to slowly and steadily get bigger as if something was coming closer to the herd.

Whatever or whoever was the cause of the vibration didn't seem - much less began to sound - natural. At least not half natural. Eletron was beginning to differentiate two distinct vibrating sounds - one which felt like some heavy quadruped at top speed, the other mechanical. This led to only one conclusion to Eletron.

"Predicons. I should have known he was a liar."

Eletron took a few steps backward to be closer to the herd while staying on constant alert. As the two newcomers came within range, several elephants in the herd began to lowly trumpet their concern. The rhinoceros they could handle. The freaky robotic looking rat on the other hand? That just wasn't right. Not that Eletron completely understood why the herd had an aversion to rodents, but if the herd had a problem, then Eletron had a problem. As most of the herd stepped a bit further away from the newcomers, Eletron stood her ground.

Slowing to a halt, the rhinoceros looked around while his companion switched from his wheeled mode to his transmetal rat feet.

"Well?"

"The scanners say the new Maximal is here, but since Tarantulas didn't give..." the conversation was stopped abruptly as Eletron trumpeted and used her trunk to raise the smaller newcomer by his neck.

"I knew I couldn't trust that Predicon to keep his auditory circuits muted. This time I'm not giving you Predicons a chance to return in one piece!"

Eletron placed the transmetal rodent at the tip of one of her tusks and applied a bit of pressure.

"Wh-woah! I ain't no stinkin' Pred!" Rattrap rasped in disgust while attempting to free his neck from the pachyderm's trunk.

"Drop him." Eletron's attention was torn between throttling Rattrap and getting a good look at Rhinox. Rhinox waited for several more tense nano-kliks before adding, "I know he doesn't have the most trustworthy of faces..."

"Hey!" Rattrap rasped as he continued to struggle.

Rhinox continued as if Rattrap didn't interupt. "...but I promise we are not Predicons. Please, just drop him."

That had taken her aback. Something about this Maximal just seemed to have an effect on her. No doubt that she could probably throw him a lot further than she could trust him, but Eletron released Rattrap as if he was the most disgusting thing imaginable. Rattrap fell onto his back and awkwardly rolled upright. The fact that the bigger newcomer had not switched modes and attacked gave her more to think about and process. Eletron wanted to know what was going on, but since Rattrap's presence affected the herd's piece of mind, she started shooing them away.

"Meet me down the river around the outcrop of boulders. I need to calm my herd before we can talk." The last part was directed mostly towards Rhinox, but she kept an eye on Rattrap. Abruptly turning, Eletron left the two befuddled Maximals.

"Let's go." Rhinox motioned his head in the direction that Eletron mentioned.

"Man... Now I know why Tarantulas sent us out here." Rattrap whined. Shuddering, he added, "Who could blame him? Crazy fem-bot."

"Rattrap!" Rhinox was getting annoyed with Rattrap's gripping as they walked around the river bend.

"Yeah, yeah. I know," Rattrap said with a defeated sigh. Not even needing the phrase said, he knew to shut up or at least to quit complaining. "Well, I probably should get some more scanning done while we wait. Rattrap, maximize!"

Pulling out a portable scanner as soon as he transitioned into robot mode, Rattrap made a quick sweep of the immediate area.

"Yup. The stasis pod's still around here too. I'm surprised that that stinkin' Pred hadn't taken it lock, stock and barrel."

"That's because I made him an offer he couldn't refuse," Eletron stated as she arrived.

"Gah!" Rattrap nearly dropped the scanner as he clutched at his chest plate with his free hand. He hadn't heard the new Maximal arrive right behind him. "What... How... Where..."

"Not very articulate, are you, Pip-squeak?" Eletron eyed the Maximal. "The saying is to speak softly and carry a big stick. In cases like this, the speaking is more of a way of walking and in case you haven't noticed, I practically AM the big stick."

Eletron roughly nudged Rattrap on the back of his head with her trunk. Rhinox gave a nearly imperceptible wry grin.

"Now, some names and explanations are in order. The name's Eletron."

"Rhinox. This is Rattrap." Rhinox replied before Rattrap had the chance to dig himself into a deeper grave.

"Apparently, we were looking for you." Rattrap virtually gritted his gears before grumbling, "though now I wish we didn't."

"Rattrap!" Rhinox's buttons were being pushed to their limits.

"Yeah, yeah. Shut up, Rattrap." The smaller Maximal shook his head and gave a defeated sigh. "Look, we got off on the wrong foot here. Tarantulas was probably expecting us to annihilate each other upon first sight."

Eletron ruminated on the thought for a few moments.

"Eletron, Maximize!"

"Rhinox, Maximize!"

After the bigger Maximals transitioned into their respective robot modes, Eletron folded her arms in front of her chest plate and took a long look at her new companions. Rhinox and Rattrap weren't sure what Eletron was going to do next.

"Let's say for the sake of the moment, that we're on the same side of the... Beast Wars, was it?"

Rhinox nodded in confirmation.

"What took you so long to find me?"

"Look, it's not that we weren't looking, alright? We're a few Maximals short as it is and apparently they haven't been able to make their way in this direction to find you. A lot has been happening lately, what with the Preds constantly making their mark on our defenses and all." It was really hard for Rattrap to keep his cool.

"I'm not sure how long you've been online, but if it's been some time, even before Tarantulas found you... chances are that you and your stasis pod didn't show up on either of the ship's sensors. It was dumb luck that he out of all of the Predicons found you," Rhinox added.

"D'you think the boss monkey'll mind having some extra large company milling around," Rattrap asked Rhinox rhetorically with heavy sarcasm.

"It's all up to you." Rhinox attempted to ignore the diminutive Maximal. "It wouldn't be a bad thing to know who your fellow Maximals are so that our first contact won't have to be repeated. Besides, as soon as you meet the rest of us, you could come right back here."

"You... Have a point." Eletron sighed in concession. "I'm going to need a few cycles to let my herd know I'll be gone a while."

"Okay." Rhinox nodded with some understanding before all three Maximals reverted to their respective beast modes and Eletron walked away.

Rattrap opened his mouth to gripe again but thought better of it with a hard stare from Rhinox.

"Why don't you head back to base and fill everyone in on the situation," Rhinox suggested to Rattrap. Hopefully, it'll make talking with Eletron easier without him around.

"Yeah, whatever." Rattrap shook his head and transitioned to roady mode. He still couldn't make heads or tails of their new comrade. "Maximum burn!"

As Rattrap raced off, Rhinox went to check on Eletron and her herd.


Silence permeated the air after Eletron had attempted to explain why she was taking a short trip and promising to be back with the herd as soon as she possibly could. She could only hope that what she said was true and that the herd had understood her words, if not her intentions.

A calm low rumble from one of the elephants alerted Eletron to Rhinox's approach. She then realized that Rhinox was alone since the herd wasn't on high alert like they were when Rattrap first showed up.

"Let's go." Eletron swung her trunk to indicate that Rhinox should take the lead.

They didn't get very far when they realized that the herd was actually following them.

"Ho, boy..." Eletron sighed and turned to the herd. "Look, I know I'm a part of this herd, but I'm going somewhere for a bit that is most likely not safe for everybody. Especially the young ones."

The matriarch of the herd, Chaitanya as Eletron named her, stepped forward and touched Eletron's shoulder with her trunk. Chaitanya's low rumble and gentle yet firm glance indicated that they were coming along whether Eletron liked it or not. Eletron wasn't sure what to make of it but sighed while nodding.

"I'm going to LOVE the look on Rattrap's face when we get there." Eletron laughed lightly as she turned and they all headed towards the Maximal base.