It was a bright, sunny day, a perfectly gorgeous day to have the window open. It made her task easier to handle at least. Ruby sighed as she carefully scooped up the broken clay flower pots that did not survive the Predacon infestation of the base, grateful that she had packed away her chess set before the worst of the Energon powered electrical storm had hit. After the storm had passed, damaging the base in the process, the flying squirrel had to check the cave that she and Dinobot had left the Megatron from the future in. The storm had apparently aided the tarnished tyrant in his escape, which ended her little respite. When she had returned to the Axalon the Predacons were already in their full attack and Primal gave the order for the Maximals to retreat.
In her brief contact with the historic Decepticon Starscream Ruby had found the Con lack luster, disappointing, and easy to manipulate. Everything her grand-sparker had told her he'd be. She couldn't help but feel sorry for poor Waspinator though.
Using her tail as a broom, the Maximal femme was able to get the dirt from the broken flower pots cleaned up. Some of her plants were salvageable, but were nowhere near what had originally filled her quaint chamber. Dumping the dirt out the window, Ruby had to look around as she enjoyed the breeze. Just a little ways down towards the back of the ship she caught Dinobot and Rattrap out tending to a recently growing problem. Smirking, she crossed her arms and rested with them on the window sill as she watched them bicker back and forth while they chopped away at the problem. Their constant bickering was probably what got those two the job in the first place.
Uncle Rattrap had said that he and Dinobot would argue from time to time, but she was beginning to believe that was an understatement. The rodent made every dig he could to get the saurian to react and in return the saurian would put the rodent in his place, or at least attempt to. With his size and strength, Ruby knew that if Dinobot really wanted to punish Rattrap he could. She had a feeling that he did all this bickering to make sure that he didn't become too comfortable with the Maximals.
As Rattrap began to lament about his current line of work, hacking away at the vines with one of the blades he borrowed from Primal, he also began to stir the anger of Dinobot, who at this point was already sick of the rodent's complaints. Trying to take the higher road in the argument, the warrior began to verbally pound the lesson into the infiltrator's head that strategically it was prudent to prune the wayward produce.
Ruby had to stifle her giggles with a hand over her mouth as Dinobot bent over to gather up what he had recently mowed, giving Rattrap a sizable opening. Unable to resist, the wily rodent teed one of the large bean pods into the target provided. This naturally sent the saurian into a savage tizzy as he soared through the air to pounce his prey. As she watched the two, Ruby couldn't help but laugh and shake her head.
Her mirth ended abruptly at the laser shot that began to surround the pair down below, making her jerk upright and run out of the room. As she reached the loading ramp, she found Rhinox already there, the ramp lowering. Quickly she jumped down onto the platform, her weaponry securing up around her wrists as she and her grand-sparker shared a nod. As the lift began to clear the opening below, Ruby knelt down in front of the engineer and opened fire with him as he began to give cover for the two bickering Maximals. As the shells piled up around them, Ruby couldn't believe the pair as they still continued their personal fight even though the Preds were aiming at them, despite Rhinox's constant orders to return to the base. Personally Ruby decided that she was going to cash in quite a few of those night monitoring duties for this.
The Maximals were so focused on the Pred flyers, or their own argument, that no one noticed Tarantulas creeping closer, using their distraction to his full advantage. Aiming with his latest weapon, the mad scientist sent the projectile flying towards them. Dinobot saw it first, making him drop Rattrap in the surprise, but it clipped him on the side of the head and knocked him to the ground.
Ruby saw the projectile out of the corner of her eye, but had no time to warn anyone as it came closer. It latched onto her grand-sparker's face; the six little legs locking it into place as the system force fed its contents into its captor. She felt more than saw Rhinox flying backwards as it hit him. "No!" she screamed in panic as she let her weaponry retract as she ran to his side as he struggled with the thing attached to his face, gargling as he fought with it.
"Rhinox!" Rattrap screamed in horror as he ran to his friend.
In anger Dinobot focused his full fury on Tarantulas, since the spider had openly revealed his location as he watched the progress of his latest device. The spider, who was unprepared for the assault to be directed on him, was shot several times, bouncing like a rubber ball.
As he took in the situation, Rattrap attempted to reassure the downed Maximal, "Hang on big guy." At seeing Ruby in near hysterics as she tried pulling the arms of the device free from around Rhinox's face, the infiltrator called to Dinobot to aid him. "Hey! Give me a hand here!" Not waiting for the saurian, Rattrap leapt onto Rhinox's torso and pulled with all of his might to dislodge the device. With a lot of effort it came free, sending the rodent flying backwards.
When Sentinel went online the lift began to rise back into the ship. Ruby pulled Rhinox's head into her lap as she waited for the painfully slow lift to stop. She was never told any of this. Surely if this really happened to him Rhinox would have told her. Did her foe somehow manage to plan out an attack and utilize the Predacons on the planet to do it?
"Why couldn't you two just get in the ship like he told you?" she snapped when Rattrap tried to put his hand on her shoulder in a supportive manner. As the smaller Maximal jerked away, she shot Dinobot a glare that made him take a couple steps back, his eyes shifting around as he felt the weight of the guilt she rightfully placed on him.
When the lift finally stopped they were greeted by Optimus and Cheetor, who were waiting for them at Rattrap's call. Each of the male Maximals grabbed one of Rhionx's appendages to carry the much larger Maximal to the CR chamber, which Ruby ran ahead to prepare.
As the computer ran its scans Ruby waited right next to Rattrap at the CR chamber door, looking in on their ill friend. She kept fidgeting, having to hold onto her arms to keep from hitting something or someone, specifically the bot next to her. When Primal commanded the computer to give him the status of his crew member they all focused on the holographic image.
"Unit has been infected with an Energon discharge virus of unknown type," the monotone male voice began. "If unchecked, his system will begin to spontaneously discharge Energon reserves until depleted."
"Can you cure it?" Primal inquired.
Before the system could respond loud gasps of breath began to come from the CR chamber, making everyone focus intently on the door before the chamber's occupant let out a huge sneeze. The Energon backed explosion of air from Rhinox sent the top flying, the walls falling away without the top to keep them in place. Ruby had just barely missed being hit by the door as she rushed to Rhinox's side as he sniffled in the after affects.
"Ah, never mind," Primal sighed, taking mental note of the damage as he realized the chamber was now useless.
Things were calm for a moment before the infected Maximal began to have a discharge fit, sending bolts of Energon every which way and his comrades diving for cover. Ruby, who was still at his side, had ducked down beside him and covered her head to avoid being hit by his arms. When the table was blown away, the rest of the Maximals losing their cover, Cheetor recalled what Rhinox had suggested the last time there was a problem with their Energon.
"Quick!" he shouted, "go to beast mode."
With a roar, Rhinox shifted forms and let out a sigh of relief as his insides seemed to settle. "Whew, that's better." Ruby began to brush her hand soothingly down his side since she was the only other Maximal that had not been hiding under the table. As it began to look like the shift to beast mode was holding the worst of it off, the others began to relax from their crouched positions on the floor.
"Heh, yeah!" Rattrap smiled down at the scout, giving him a thumb up of approval. "Great thinkin' Spots!" But, alas, the problem was not completely solved by such a simple solution, evident by the next sneeze that sent an Energon bolt into the lift's glass door.
As the others began to discuss what to do about the issue, Ruby stayed by her grand-sparker's side as she continued to soothe him and swearing to throw Megatron's little scheme back in his scaly face. When Primal began to issue orders, she was privately relieved that he let her stay. Dinobot and Rattrap, on the other hand, were not pleased to be assigned to work together on yet another mission. As they began to try to counter the order Ruby sent them a look that shut both of them up instantly. She was quite mad at both of them for what had happened and wasn't afraid to let them know it.
Dinobot looked at the tiny Maximal femme as she reined in her anger with a patience that it seemed up to this point that Rhinox was the only one capable of. It appeared that the gentle giant had a feisty little sparkling that thought the universe of him and, having finally realized the glaringly obvious, knew that there would be the inferno to pay if they failed to get the counter-virus in time. With a grunt, both he and Rattrap headed to the lift with the broken door and departed the ship.
Cheetor and Optimus quickly replaced the table, leading Rhinox over to it to give him a more comfortable place to rest. Now in robot mode, the engineer groaned as he let his body relax. Feeling a pair of tiny hands take a hold of his own left one, Rhinox smiled weakly at Ruby as she knelt on the table next to him. "I'll be ok," he promised her.
"I hope so," she said, trying to smile. "Just rest. We'll take care of you."
The comm-channels were kept open to stay in touch with Dinobot and Rattrap as they headed out after Tarantulas, the three still on the base rather annoyed at the fact that the pair had not gotten a click away from the base before they started to bicker again.
"Sheesh, and they call me the immature one," Cheetor grumbled. "Hey, Optimus," he turned from his station to look at his commanding officer, "are you sure it was a good idea sending those two out together?"
"To be honest?" Primal already sounded resigned to having to listen to the bickering. "No, but their squabbling has caused problems before. They'll either learn to work together or destroy each other." His little speech was interrupted by another blast of Energon from Rhinox, aimed right at the ceiling overhead, making both Primal and Ruby shield themselves from falling debris. As he looked up at the damage, he bluntly spoke his mind. "Right now I don't really care which."
It was a slow process but Megatron was finally able to dig himself out of the pile of rock that those two despicable Maximals had trapped him under. Thanks to the damage that Energon storm did to the mountain side, the one he recalled that brought that traitorous Starscream temporarily into his fold, he was able to break free. The only fortunate thing that happened during his forced break was that his beast mode had a chance to complete its repairs.
When he first saw Ruby and Dinobot at the cave entrance, the smaller Maximal was trying to keep the Predacon traitor from entering. Knowing the former Predacon extremely well Megatron knew Dinobot wouldn't let the tiny femme deter him, and he walked right into the dragon's lair. In a rage he attacked the pair, his anger over the last encounter with Ruby blinding him to the caution he needed in such a small space. He recalled that not only did they trap him under the rubble but themselves as well. No doubt they had also escaped by now.
Crawling over the mountainous terrain Megatron was swearing revenge now on all of the Maximals, even if it cost him his element of surprise. Upon cresting over the last mountain top that overlooked the Axalon the huge dragon gave a vicious smile down upon his prey.
"You Maximals don't stand a chance against me in this powerful form, nooo," he sneered down at them, "not when I'm a powerful Transmetal enhanced by the spark of the original Megatron. First things first, I will expose you, Ruby, for what you really are. Then I will begin to rip each and every one of those you came to save to shreds right in front of your very optics, oh yeeesss. Starting with your precious grand-sparker! And when you're weeping over your losses I will rip you apart piece by fluffy little piece; past the point of you begging for me to stop. Then, when there's only the minimum for you to survive, I will drop your mangled body off as a gift to myself so you can watch me win the Beast Wars. Then you will adorn the front of my victory ship as a herald to the fate that awaits all Maximals!"
As his processor ran through all the terrible things he was going to do each of the Maximals that made up the Axalon's crew an echoing sneeze followed by a huge Energon bolt that headed straight for him. Dropping to the rocks, Megatron stared wide eyed and slack jawed at the ship that it had originated from. He remembered the Energon discharge virus that he had Tarantulas infect Rhinox with, and the 'end' result of it. Quickly leaping down from his perch Megatron went in search of another cave to hide in; there was no way he was going anywhere near that humiliation again, nooo.
The remaining Maximals on the ship had taken refuge in the Stasis Pod storage bay, a room that was of little use for its original intent and had less in it to damage. As Primal and Cheetor took to the safety behind crates and blast shields, working on the system that was keeping their engineer powered directly from the ship's systems and a plan of action to save him, Ruby stayed by Rhinox's side. Looking out at his dear friend, who was in beast mode and groaning after sending another shot of Energon through the ship's hull, and the little femme next to him; Primal had to admire her courage. She stayed by Rhinox's side despite the possibility of being hit, even evading a few bolts in the process. Her loyalty was without question as he watched Ruby double check the jumper cables they had attached to Rhinox's feet before she moved back up to soothe her hand over his head.
They had listened as she told stories to the sick Maximal, both tales she had heard from her human friends and old Cybertronian stories about the Great War and the Autobot heroes of that era. It kept Rhinox as relaxed as possible, which in turn kept the virus from spreading as quickly through his system. It appeared to Primal that Rhniox's future trust in this young femme had been well placed.
As Cheetor gave him an update on both the energy storage of the ship and the lack of contact with Dinobot and Rattrap, the Maximal leader came to a hard conclusion. "Better call Tigatron and Airazor," he said on a sigh. "We may have to take our complaints to Megatron himself."
As soon as the two other Maximal were detected by Sentinel, Cheetor and Optimus rushed to meet them outside the base. Ruby did her best to keep Rhinox resting, but he was too insistent on joining the others. She had to smile though; he was trying his best to not let it bother him. They made it to the lift and out of the ship without any more holes blown into the hull.
"Wait, I'm coming, too," Rhinox said weakly, almost losing his balance as the lift suddenly stopped.
"Hey, hang on brute buddy," the young scout told him gently. "You're a little under the weather, aren't'cha?"
"Hey!" the engineer protested the best he could, "if I'm going to wreck the wallpaper, I might as well do it on Pred turf." He had walked closer to the others, but it was still obvious that he was extremely weak as he fell forward.
Primal being the closest caught his friend easily. "You're power cells are dangerously low, Rhinox. Better convert to beast mode and eat something. It'll keep your energy up." Optimus tried to smile hopefully, recalling that their beast systems could utilize food in the same fashion as the organics they were scanned from.
"Good idea," the engineer agreed, swiftly transforming.
As Primal issued orders to the others, Ruby, who was now in beast form as well, stayed behind to keep an eye on Rhinox while he ate. The bean vines, being the closest source of food, began to disappear to the ravenous appetite of a very hungry Maximal. The flying squirrel had grabbed a bean and began to nibble on as she watched the rhino devour his meal with a renewed gusto. Soon, once his digestive system was full, they pair headed off to find the others, all the while leaving a scorch mark across the landscape.
Airazor, who had flown ahead of the others, had spotted a majority of the Preds all quickly making their way to an underground area. Adjusting her optic sensors, she began her scan for energy signatures, both friend and foe. The Preds had seemed to all gather in one spot, all meandering around a tiny area as if waiting. In the tunnels leading to the chamber they were crowded into were two Maximal signatures matching Dinobot and Rattrap, with them was a single Pred signature. Using the wind currents, she turned to rendezvous with Optimus as he approached.
Transforming into his beast mode, Primal listened to her report. "It seems that the Predacons are attempting to ambush Rattrap and Dinobot."
"It'll take a few cycles for them to reach the Pred nest," Airazor said, "but surely they'll be expecting some sort of trap."
"I know Rattrap would be," the gorilla agreed, "and hopefully Dinobot would heed him. If not…" Primal drew off with a sign. Turning to survey the area, the Maximal leader frowned. "Let's scan the surrounding tunnels for the thinnest rock wall to where the Predicons are lying in wait and try to nip this problem in the bud. We'll have the others meet us there."
Ruby and Rhinox arrived as quickly as they could, transforming as the others did. The plan was to wait for Rhinox to let off a bolt, hopefully aiming at the rock that was between them and the Preds, and ambush the ambush before the trap sprung on Dinobot and Rattrap. They didn't have to wait long before Rhinox let out another powerful sneeze, obliterating the rock wall before them.
As the dust cleared, Primal ordered, "Nobody move!" But any triumph in their explosive entrance came to a screeching halt as Rattrap pushed his way past the Predacons he just finished disarming.
"Hehey! Scrape Ape!" the Maximal spy greeted his commander with a bit of a saunter to his step. "Nice of ya ta show, but, uh, we've already been here, done that."
"Situation," Dinobot even saluted Primal, snubbing Megatron in the process, "under control."
"I think not, nooo, for I still have," Megatron stated firmly, surprising the Maximals as he held up his dinosaur-headed hand, the container with the glowing green liquid in it firmly in its jaws, "the counter virus. And unless you immediately convert to beast mode and surrender your green comrade will soon go offline," he gave the container a squeeze to drive his point in further, "permanently."
Ruby's hands tightened into fists at her side, the glare she gave the Predacon leader enough to make even Unicron's Energon run cold. Despite it being this Megatron behind the scheme, the flying squirrel had no qualms in scrapping him here and now simply because he pulled such a stunt. She heard Rhinox and Optimus discuss the next play, Primal insisting that saving his friend's life was worth any cost before he gave the order to the others to transform.
The nano-cycles ticked by slowly as they waited in beast mode for Megaton to begin his gloating. Right as the purple tyrant began, all attention turned to Rhinox. Optimus and Ruby checked on him as his stomach began to make the oddest gurgling sounds.
"What's wrong?" Primal asked.
"Wild bean vines," Rhinox groaned, "hard to digest." He managed to get up to all fours and slowly start to turn himself around.
"Do not turn your back on me, Maximal scum!" Megatron demanded, angered by this insolent behavior from the ill Maximal.
All the other Maximals gave the rhinoceros plenty of room as he finished the 180 degree turn, all worried about the strange noises that were coming from him. Optimus had pulled Ruby back with him, fearful of what might happen.
"Oh no," the Predacon leader had a sinking feeling in the pit of his Energon pump, "not that!" Megatron's screams were blasted out of existence by the worst smelling Energon bomb known to Cybertron. The parts of Tarantulas' lab that were behind the gassy Maximal were nearly a total loss with no Predacon in sight.
"Oh!" Primal groaned, waving his hand in front of his nose to keep his olfactory system from over loading, "that did it. Let's go!"
Still beside Primal, Ruby was tensed up, every single strand of her fur frizzed and standing on end, her claws gripping the rocks below her as she coughed and twitched. Now she understood why her grand-sparker never told her this particular story. Maybe beast modes weren't all they were cracked up to be after all.
The Maximals wasted no time in retreating from the site of their victory, all wishing for the fresh air as opposed to the blue-smoggy stench around them; Rattrap passing the counter virus to Airazor to carry home. For once in their lives they all were glad that the Axalon was so far away, long enough they hoped it gave their fur time to air out. They all flanked Rhinox during their return trip; no one dared walk in front or behind him as he was now letting out smaller poofs of Energon gas from both ends.
Once back at the base they promptly set up the counter virus so that it would get to working on ridding Rhinox of the discharge virus and took turns washing the smell off. Fortunately since they were all in beast mode the stench only stuck to those parts. Those who weren't cleaning were working on the repairs.
Ruby made it onto the bridge right as Dinobot and Rattrap were starting in on yet another fight, shaking her head slowly at the pair before moving over to check on Rhinox before getting to work on replacing the station screens. Everyone on the bridge stopped what they were doing as Rhinox suddenly began to gasp for breath again. He gave several sneezes that sent him spinning around in his chair and eventually out of it.
With a helpless shrug from the floor, Rhinox said the only thing that could come to mind about sending them all into a panic. "Sorry."
"It could have been worse," Cheetor reminded them, "right?"
Optimus, Rattrap, and Ruby had to laugh as they realized that the scout was right. It could have been worse.
Ruby helped Rhinox back into his seat, smiling at him as she whispered, "This was an adventure I never expected."
Author's Note: I do not own the show. Thank you for reading!
Y'all knew I couldn't pass this one up, right?
