Chapter 3

The next time Airazor woke up, she found herself in Cheetor's room.

"How did I get here?" Airazor asked aloud.

"Skyhunter carried you here after his shift," said a voice from her right.

She looked around to see Tigatron sitting next to the bed.

"You slept for half a solar cycle, have a good sleep?" asked Tigatron.

"Pretty good," said Airazor, stretching out. "Where's… Skyhunter?"

"Out on recon," Tigatron said simply.

"So early?" Airazor said in surprise. "But he had monitor duty. Wouldn't he be too tired?"

"He said that he should try and be more useful and more often," said Tigatron.

"But if he doesn't even take care of himself, how will he be of any use to anyone?" asked Airazor.

Tigatron shrugged. "Who knows what that guy's thinking," he said.

"Well, at least his' helping out, so let's give the guy a break," suggested Airazor.

"He and Lio both," nodded Tigatron. "They're both doing everything they can think of to help."

"It's more than what Rattrap did," laughed Airazor.

"All too true," said Tigatron.

"Yo, we gotta move people," Depthcharge said, coming in to the room. "Skyhunter's found two another pods. And what's worse, Tarantulas has five other Predacons with him and are gaining on him."

"We got to help him," cried Airazor, "As far as we know, he's probably has had no previous training combat."

"Not only that, he has six Predacons on his tail," said Tigatron.

"Let's move it then!" said Depthcharge.

Dinobot, Tigatron, Airazor, Depthcharge, and Lio all charged towards Skyhunter's position. When they reached his location, a large fight had already begun. They found Quickstrike, Scorponok, and Terrorsaur on the gound, all in stasis lock.

"Terrorsaur? Scorponok? Didn't they disappear after the quantum surge?" asked Tigatron.

"Knowing Tarantulas, he probably dug them up again," said Dinobot.

"But Skyhunter doing all this damage? Not even an experienced fighter could fight six enemies, take out three, and stay in the fight," said Depthcharge.

"That's doesn't matter, we got to help him," said Airazor.

"She's right," replied Lio, "No matter how well he faired, he will need help."

"Let's stop standing around, then," said Dinobot.

They all raced forward, towards the fight.

They saw Skyhunter in the air, fighting off a transformed Inferno, a transmetal. On the ground, another Maximal and a new Predacon were fighting. Skyhunter saw the others.

"Go after Tatantulas," he shouted, "He took a couple of mechanical dinosaurs towards the second pod."

"The Transmetal Velociraptors?" asked Dinobot.

"Must be, let's go," said Depthcharge.

"But, Skyhunter…" called Airazor.

"We can't worry about that! We have to get to that pod, now let's go!" shouted Depthcharge, he, Lio, Tigatron, and Dinobot already running off.

"Go!" shouted Skyhunter, "Howl and I can take care of these two!"

Airazor hesitated for a moment, nodded, and was about to fly off when the new Predacon broke away from the new Maximal, Howl, and headed for Airazor.

"Look out!" shouted Howl.

The Predacon flew up and made a clean hit on Airazor's back with a long blade, knocking her out, before being tackled to the ground by Howl.

"Airazor," Tigatron and Skyhunter both shouted, as Airazor began to fall.

"She'll be alright, keep going!" shouted Depthcharge to Tigatron.

"But-"

"That's an order!" Depthcharge interrupted.

As Tigatron ran off, Airazor fell at a rapid pace. Angered, Skyhunter launched a last round of missiles, which were ejected from his extended wings, at Inferno, knocking him into stasis lock. He raced after Airazor's falling body. He managed to catch her just before she hit the floor. He sighed with relief.

"If she hit the ground at that height, there's no telling what could have happened," muttered Skyhunter, as Howl knocked the last Predacon into stasis lock.

"What do we do now?" asked Howl, extremely damaged with her left arm completely non-functional.

Skyhunter didn't look much better than Howl. "We better head back and hope the others can make it back with the pod," he said, walking back to their base.

Half a megacycle later, Depthcharge and the others returned with a new Maximal, Hopper, in the form of a Kangaroo.

"Hiyamates, miname'sHopper. What'syours?" He said all of this extremely fast and in an Australian accent and extended his hand.

"Skyhunter," Skyhunter took Hopper's outstretched hand. "It's always good to see new faces.

"You understood that?" asked Howl, who was sitting next to Skyhunter.

"He said seven words. How hard could that be to understand?" asked Skyhunter.

"He said it faster than Rattrap could gobble up a wad of chesse," said Airazor.

All three of them were pretty much patched up.

"Airazor!" Tigatron came through the door at that time. "Are you ok?" he asked, placing a hand on her shoulder.

Airazor nodded. "I'm fine," she said, placing her hand on Tigatron. "Though, if Skyhunter didn't catch me like he did, I don't think that I would've made it."

"And you wanted us to just move on?!" Tigatron shouted at Depthcharge.

"Look, our main priority is to retrieve those pods before Tarantulas does," said Depthcharge, standing his ground.

"So, that's worth the life of a fellow Maximal?!" Tigatron continued to shout, grasping Depthcharge's shoulders.

Depthcharge calmly swatted Tigatron's hands away. "If we can't even obtain a single pod because we worry about others, we might as well just surrender," said Depthcharge. "Who knows how many more pods are in Earth's orbit, but if Tarantulas get his hands on any more, he may be able to overpower us. Remember this, those who can't even complete a mission, are nothing put trash, a waste of space."

"You're absolutely right," Skyhunter suddenly said. Everyone in the room stared at Skyhunter, even Depthcharge. "Those who can't even complete simple retrieval missions are nothing but trash." Tigatron, Lio, and Hopper looked at Skyhunter in shook, Airazor looked hurt, and Howl looked at him in disbelief. Skyhunter stood up. "But, those who don't even look out for their, comrades, their friends, their…loved ones, they're even worse than trash."

"GET IT THROUGH YOUR PROCESSORS!" shouted Depthcharge.

"NO YOU GET IT THOUGH YOUR PROCESSOR, CAPTIAN MINNOW!" Skyhunter shouted back. "If you're willing to sacrifice your comrades just to achieve victory, then you've got the wrong team. We will complete the missions at hand and have no need for losing one in the process. If there is no other alternative, we'll just have to fail the mission then. It does not matter how many Tarantulas gets, we will just have to change them back when this is all over."

"You think that it's that easy?! THIS IS WAR! I am most experienced in this type of stuff, I know what is to be expected. Sacrifices will be needed. Oh, and change the Predacons back did you say? That's laughable. Do you really think Tarantulas will make it so easy that we can just turn them back?!"

"No, I honestly don't, but if we must sacrifice our one of our own to achieve victory, we are no better than them! This 'war' will be pointless killing."

Depthcharge glared at Skyhunter for several clicks. "Get out of my sight!"

Skyhunter snorted, turned around, and left, going down the elevator shaft. As soon as the elevator reappeared, Howl ran over to it and went down after Skyhunter. Depthcharge looked at the descending elevator in disgust, turn around, and stalked off. Hopper opened his mouth to say something but Lio placed a hand on his shoulder. Hopper looked up and Lio shook her head. Hopper closed his mouth. Lio nodded towards the cavern's entrance, Hopper nodded, and they both left. Dinobot just sighed and left. All that was left were Tigatron and Airazor. They stayed there in silence for a few cycles.

"Maybe Depthcharge is right," mumbled Airazor, suddenly. "Maybe I am just a waste of space."

"No you're not," said Tigatron, wrapping his arms around Airazor.

"I was no use out there," said Airazor, heavily. "Taken out in one hit. If that continues to happen, I'll just get in the way."

"Airazor…" Tigatron was at a lost for words, too saddened to see Airazor like that to think of something to say.

"I think I'll just go to bed now," Airazor muttered.

She got up before Tigatron could reply and went down the elevator. When she reached the bottom, she saw Howl standing outside one of the quarters, leaning against the wall.

"Is Skyhunter in there?" Airazor asked. Howl nodded. "I'm just going to go say thanks and good night…"

Airazor walked up to the door and was about to knock, when Howl suddenly pulled her away from the door. Just as Airazor was out of the door way, the door opened and a chair flew out.

"Didn't hit anyone did I?" asked Skyhunter from inside the room.

"You almost hit Airazor," said Howl, calmly.

"Tell her I'm sorry…" said Skyhunter.

"Tell her yourself, she's right here," said Howl.

Skyhunter said nothing, and Howl let Airazor enter the room. Airazor looked around to see the place a mess. The desk was overturned, various metal pieces lining the floor, and the recharging bed was thrown to the opposite side of the room.

"You ok?" asked Airazor, tentatively.

"Yeah," Skyhunter said, panting slightly. "Just in a bad mood right now."

"I can tell," said Airazor, looking around the room again.

Skyhunter picked up the thrown bed and placed it in its original corner before sitting back down on it. He let out a sigh, placing his head in his hands, elbows on his knees.

"God I must have sounded stupid," mumbled Skyhunter, "I don't even know most things about this team. I could be completely wrong and just made a fool out of myself."

"No, you were completely right, and Depthcharge is just being himself," said Airazor, sitting down next to Skyhunter. "Don't let it bother you."

"Yeah but-"

"Don't worry about it," said Airazor, cutting him off. "You know, I haven't even thanked you for saving me."

"Not needed," Skyhunter said, head still sitting in his hands.

"Don't worry about it," Airazor repeated, Wrapping her arms around Skyhunter's chest. "You did what you thought was right, and I thank you for that."

Skyhunter smiled, placing a hand on Airazor. Howl, who was still outside, smiled to herself and walked off to her own room. Airazor placed a soft kiss on Skyhunter's cheek, said goodnight and thanks again, and left the room.