Disclaimer: I don't own Beast Wars and all that. ;_;
A/N : :D I'm back! :D
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Beast Wars: Deep Impact
Rebel in Command, Part 2
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"Quickstrike! You lag behind! You are not injured, nor are you laden with heavy materials, so pick up your pace!!" Inferno yelled into the forest ahead of him.
Quickstrike barely heard, trying to balance the tiny trinkets in his strange hands as he mounted the hill. They were coming to the opening of the forest where the ground turned warm and the smell of sulfur was more apparent. These plants probably thrived on the volcanic refuse in the dirt over here, which was likely why the forest was so thick, even near the end of it. Not that Quickstrike cared or was even thinking of it. Instead, he was cursing the roots he kept tripped over, his loping gait interrupted every few steps. Inferno didn't have this problem – he burned, stomped, crashed, or simply stepped over the offending limbs in his determined stride.
A determined stride that was abruptly halted at the top of the hill.
Quickstrike could hear an exclaimed name come from the ant in surprise and wonder and something else, before the red bot grew angry and his voice carried louder.
"Traitors!" he claimed for all the trees to hear.
Quickstrike neared the top, curious. What he found was a slender red flyer, hands on hips and looking proud, with Rampage and Tarantulas flanking him.
"That's right, Inferno. I'm back and I'm taking over! Hehe," the bot smirked. "Since Megatron went and got himself caught or something, I announce myself Leader of the Predacons!"
"Well, this guy sure got big dreams, don't he, Inferno? Shoot," Quickstrike chuckled, amused. Inferno didn't answer a moment, a look of indecision on his face. Rampage's optics narrowed in thought.
Terrorsaur squinted at the Fuzor.
"The slag is that thing?" he asked, genuinely confused.
Quickstrike went blank.
"What? This?" he asked, holding up a piece of Rattrap's armor.
"No. You. What are you? You look like a … like a … "
"Like a what?" Quickstrike countered, optics angrily defensive.
"A Fuzor," Tarantulas intervened.
"…A what?" Terrorsaur asked, optic ridge raised.
"A Fuzor. It's a transformer with two beast modes mashed into one," Tarantulas defined.
"Oh. Well, anyway, we got somewhere to go and I'll extend the invitation once – you wanna join my side and blow stuff up, or keep following this 'Depth Charge' and pick daisies all day?" the flyer asked, smarmy again.
Quickstrike thought for a moment. Just a moment.
"Blow stuff up?" he inquired, his voice shaking a little with battlelust as his mech fluid pumped with excitement. "Like, a fight? A real one? No pickin' up after Maximals and all that? We can just…run around and fight the Maximals again!?"
Terrorsaur blinked.
"Uhh, yeah, sure. Exactly. But following my orders."
Quickstrike nodded quickly, dropping the stash of parts on the ground and whooping and he went to stand next to Tarantulas.
"What about you, Inferno?" Terrorsaur asked the ant, who still looked contemplative. The two of them were never exactly on common ground and Terrorsaur often tried to take command from Inferno on missions, although Inferno obviously thought no one was in charge but Megatron no matter where he was or who he was with. Even so, Inferno was a Predacon and without Megatron or another 'rightful' leader, he'd still be a Pred right?
"No. I… No," Inferno replied hesitantly, looking around him for something no one could see. With effort, a march in place and quick shakes of his head, he gathered his usual enthusiasm together and activated his propulsion system, hovering upwards. "I will report this to the Royalty! You are all traitors to our colony and so you will pay!!" he shouted and with a wave of fire the others ducked away from, he was gone.
Well that was disappointing. Terrorsaur considered going after him but his self preservation instincts kicked in and he decided he'd rather not. He had enough of fire, thanks.
"Alright, so while he goes in search of Depth Charge, we're heading out to find our new base!" Terrorsaur announced.
Tarantulas nodded calmly.
"And we leave all my equipment behind?"
"We'll come back for it later. I know you've got other stuff hidden in weird places."
With a slow blink, Tarantulas wrote that down now too, chuckling darkly.
With that, the small group was off through the woods, heading away from their 'new' enemy's base and looking for a nice spot to settle in.
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"But Wazpinator like squishy worshipperz! Worshipperz like Wazpinator!"
With grunts and angry looks, the various hominids before him herded him backwards towards a tree. They surrounded him, brandishing various primitive weapons and advancing slowly.
Waspinator thought he'd been happy. He was being worshipped and everyone loved him! He threw one little rock out of boredom and hit one of them by accident and all of a sudden they hated him! He didn't mean to! And they were supposed to be his servants, his followers, his army! They betrayed him! This was so unfair!
"Why Universe hate Wazpinator!?" he asked pathetically as he backed into a log.
Wait, no…it wasn't a log. It was a bent tree, the top held down by male hominids. What the - ?
"Wait! Stop! Wazpinator is leader! Fleshy-bots do what Wazpinator sayz!!"
The crowd roared and a few males came forward, pressing against him and touching him with their soft hands. They backed him onto the tree. Most of them were shorter than him, and if Waspinator had been braver, more aggressive, he could have easily knocked them back and even wiped them out. But he wasn't and, instead, was unwillingly set upon the tree-turned-catapult and vaulted over the forest, away from the hominid settlement, figuratively launched back into the misery he had thought he'd left behind.
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Inferno flew as fast as his systems would let him into the colder climate of the northern regions. They had to be around here somewhere…
He had been very confused back there. Terrorsaur was dead. Megatron had said so after the takeover of Maximal base failed and Optimus came back despite being at the heart of the quantum surge. His ex-Leader had been so adamant, even cutting the ant off when Inferno suggested that they scan the lava to be sure. Inferno had grieved, in a quiet way, at the time, before resuming his duties. They were fellow soldiers, fellow Predacons, other members of his colony and they perished when disaster struck. They deserved to be remembered and honored. At the same time, he'd thought that fellow colonists worked, fought, and died all the time and it shouldn't affect him. But that was besides the point here.
The Royalty had said they were gone and he believed him… But Terrorsaur…he was back? That meant Megatron was wrong. But since Megatron was hardly ever wrong, maybe his Queen had let the two fall to their deaths and either assumed their fate or was glad to be rid of them. Either way, it was very 'un-Queenly' and, once again, Life threw a metaphorical wrench into his twisted logic's gears. Luckily, he'd recovered enough back there to remember his new loyalty and he was now in search of the elusive Maximals. He hadn't realized they'd flown this far north.
THERE!!!
His keen, and somewhat obsessed, optics honed in on a wide, teal shape looming out of the low level clouds before him. Tigatron and Airazor were there too, it seemed, and none seemed to have spotted him.
He rushed over, arm waving about and yelling incoherently, but a cloud passed in front of him and in a split moment he felt pain and vertigo as he spun towards the ground.
"INFERNO!?" Depth Charge shouted over the sound of rushing wind before the heap crashed into the cool, moist, grassy slopes below. The crate was tipped over and the parts spilled out and rolled down the hill while Airazor was tossed into a tree and Tigatron was launched over the hill and conked his head on a log. Inferno was pinned under Depth Charge who was still in flight mode. He was shivering lightly and his frame was freezing from the winds but the look on his ray face did not project discomfort from temperature.
"What. The. Slag. Inferno?" the larger bot glared. He felt fine but – oh wait, of course he was uninjured. He growled. Transforming, he stepped back, the quiver in his fins faintly noticeable.
Inferno saluted from where he was in the dirt before standing as well.
"Royalty! Terrorsaur has returned and has taken Rampage, Tarantulas, and the Fuzor as his new army. They plan to destroy us after they find a new base!"
"Terrorsaur!?" Tigatron and Airazor exclaimed in unison.
"Who?" Depth Charge asked impatiently, left optic twitching from aggravation.
"Terrorsaur. A traitorous flyer who tried to overthrow Megatron a few times in order to gain power he thought was rightfully his or something," Airazor breathed out quickly, untangling a twig from some metal feathers on her helm. "He was bad news. Not the best flyer, but deadly enough, and unexpectedly smart sometimes. How'd he come back?"
Inferno glanced at her.
"Unknown! The Fuzor and I were returning to base, as per your orders," he gestured to Depth Charge with respect and the ray lifted his optics skyward, "when we happened upon them in the forest close to the lava pits. It seems Terrorsaur has some…upgrades to his frame. He looks different, but not Transmetal. They might have come from the labs but the flyer mentioned they had somewhere to go! Quickstrike went with him."
Depth Charge and the other two thought a moment.
"Perhaps locating more troops or a new base…" Tigatron offered.
The manta nodded slowly and looked south, anger in his optics.
He knew what this meant.
If they went out to quell this 'uprising'…he might have to actually assert himself as Leader, make it clear to all of them who was 'Boss.' But he didn't want to. He couldn't lead again! It wasn't his job anymore! On the other hand, he had to or else this might turn into a whole other war…and he'd be 'leader' of three bots who already decided they'd follow him anyway… And – ugh! There were so many solid, logical reasons he should take leadership, especially his own opinion that he certainly wouldn't follow any of these morons, and if he wanted anything done he'd have to do it himself. What better way to do that than run the show himself and have the others help him instead of getting in his way? They'd get in his way anyway, but at least they might do what he said, right? And yet, all his reasons not to were based on regret and his unwillingness to change or take authority. And such emotional opinions should be below him. Emotions should drive a person while logic and routine shaped a person and their actions. Before, he was driven by anger and hate and regret, but always had his own routine, his own rule book, and thought quite logically that X – Rampage, was far too dangerous to live and no matter the politics behind his sentence someone had to step up to the plate and rid the Universe of that thing. And now….he had to make a new routine, a routine that meant that others were his responsibility. Again. If he didn't, though, as much as he didn't want to, they could perish or something worse.
He sighed roughly.
Was this really a big deal? Why couldn't they handle it? They were three capable beings, strong warriors, and two of them already had a steady dynamic and all three had past experience with this Terrorsaur. They didn't need a leader to take down some punk! He'd come along if they really needed but otherwise they were on their own!
Idiots. They were all idiots!
His fists clenched and he was about to tell them to go fix it themselves when a thought struck him. He should have thought of it sooner and it didn't make sense to him why he hadn't.
"Rampage is with them," he half asked, half stated, his optics spacey. Something was tugging at him, something daring him to come after it. A beckoning. A challenge to take what was his, if he had the mechanical guts to take it. It pulled, tiny and barely noticeable, but increasingly frustratingly, at his Spark. Was Rampage baiting him? To be leader? Why would he want…what was his plan?
Inferno nodded his affirmation.
"He seemed willing to follow the flyer's command, my Queen."
Depth Charge roared and turned, kicking a heavy piece of computer debris and sending it whirling into its fellow pieces that littered the ground.
"SLAG!"
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Terrorsaur flew at a low altitude so as to not draw unwanted attention, gliding just above the forest's treetop.
He was in Beast mode and liking it much better than what it was before. He was still a pteranodon, but with some mods. He thought maybe he was supposed to look more realistic, but why he hadn't looked "realistic" before, already, was beyond him. He was mostly the same in look and color, but his wings were more slender in shape and more powerful. Rather than a weak, leafy flap, he had strong, effortless strokes and glided effortlessly on the wind. He was faster and could turn quickly, a flying scissor slicing the air. The other main change to this form was that his beak was the same color as his body, and was smooth. However, just on the inside of the beak were long rows of teensy, but very sharp teeth made to tear into prey. The beak was straight and lined up almost perfectly with his crest. He felt better balanced and the beast mode actually felt more comfortable. It made him more confident, feel less vulnerable, in this upgraded form. Technically, it wasn't that big of a difference, merely a feeling of 'better quality', like eating lobster after some crayfish. But to him the difference was vast, simply because he was quickly forgetting what his old body had been like.
They weren't really that far from the Maximal's cave now. They'd found evidence of hominid remains in the area and Rampage insisted that the small group was entering human territory. While they weren't exactly a threat, Terrorsaur was unwilling to mess with timelines and all that until he was sure what effect he'd want it to have on what and who and when. The ground looked cracked a while ago, as if from battle, and they'd found a two more battlegrounds in this forest too, from the Beast Wars. But the forest was just starting to get denser and Terrorsaur wasn't sure he wanted a base among the trees. For some reason, he liked the idea of cliffs…
"Hey! Uh, Boss," Quickstrike called from below, also in Beast Mode and in a slightly weakisg tone. It suddenly occurred to him while walking along and somehow actually thinking over things recently how he called whoever was in charge 'Boss' and wasn't sure he liked recycling it so much. It almost felt traitorous to hop from one leader to the next and adopt a term for them so readily … but what was he? A puppy with chicken wings? Noooo. He shook it off and continued, "Why didn't we stay behind and ambush 'em when they got to the cave?"
Terrorsaur blanched and circled around to hover over the group. He'd thought of that but hadn't noticed it as an option. He mentally slapped himself. That was exactly why Megatron could make such a fool of him before. Terrorsaur was often on the right track to power by sensing opportunities, but didn't see the right options unless they were shoved in his face.
"Uh, it's better to regroup somewhere first. Establish a place to fall back on if things go wrong."
Quickstrike went quiet a moment to ponder that over. Rampage was the next to speak, though his words didn't register quite as fast as the scorpion's.
"Incoming," the crustacean drawled, pointing a claw skyward.
Terrorsaur blinked sluggishly before looking up, a bit confused. He saw a greenish speck above and heard a distinct buzzing.
He narrowed his eyes….
And there was Waspinator, falling out of the sky at a good clip. Terrorsaur dodged at the last moment with a loud squawk and Waspinator whizzed past, head slamming into a tree. With a small 'squirk!' he went limp.
Silence reigned for about 2 nanoclicks.
"Where did he come from?" Tarantulas hissed crossly from atop a boulder. He'd never been fond of the bug. The Pits be opened and unleashed upon the world if Waspinator joined the group.
Rampage pointed upwards again.
"I know THAT!" Tarantulas shot. To be honest, he was slightly surprised at the bug's reappearance. Guess he'd just assumed Waspinator was either finally dead or taken by the Maximals too or something. He never really thought he'd survive. Hmph. He probably should have known better, considering the insect's penchant for pulling himself together after the most violent explosions somehow. . .
"I scanned him with the humans. Guess they threw him out," Rampage noted to Terrorsaur indifferently, the smaller mech in front of him transforming to robot mode.
"I ain't surprised," Quickstrike intoned seriously. "He's always been a little off in the head ther'. They musta grown tired of 'im."
"Waspinator? Are you functional?" Terrorsaur inquired, kicking the insect square in the aft. The bot yelped and pulled himself free.
"Wazpinator recognize voice… Terrorbot return! Pterodactyl-bot lives and comes to join Predacons again!?" the wasp exclaimed, looking happy for some reason.
"Kinda. I'm here to rule the Predacons. And since Megatron's not here, I can lead without him interfering!" the red flyer replied, smiling at noticing the other's surprise. "You wanna join under my leadership, Waspinator?"
The yellow jacket peered around at the assembly who were watching.
The crab blinked.
He jumped up fearfully.
"Crabbot dangerous! Crabbot destroy all without Megatron!" Waspinator yelled feverishly. He backed into a tree and flew up to a high branch, ready to blast off if necessary. Rampage scowled darkly and readied himself to shoot the nuisance. He was having fun with someone who didn't know what he was or where he was from. Slag it all if some little coward couldn't keep his mandibles shut. However, Terrorsaur had already heard the claim. He looked Rampage over and back up at Waspinator, who was unwilling to run, but equally reluctant to stick around.
"Dangerous, huh?" he repeated softly, optics narrowing. "Well… good thing! He'll be useful! Besides, I'm leader. He can't kill anyone without consequences." Rampage smiled to himself, pleased. "We're trying to win here. Come down and join us, Waspinator! With five of us against four, we can turn around right now and go beat the Maximals with numbers!"
"With one being the difference?" Rampage piped, head cocked.
"KYAHHHhhahahahha! Waspinator being that one!" Tarantulas cackled and Quickstrike let out a laugh too. Waspinator's wings drooped.
Terrorsaur smirked but told his fellow flyer, "Eh, ignore them. We have more important things to do right now!"
Waspinator nodded angrily. "Yesss! More important things than being stupid slobs to poor Wazpinator! Wazpinator better than all Predacons combined! Wazpinator deserves respect from fellow Predacons!"
"Better than all of us?" Quickstrike grinned, "You can't last two cycles on the field before ya get blown to smithereens!"
Waspinator's glare intensified.
"Wazpinator apparently the only bot here not blown up when Beast Wars end!" he exclaimed haughtily and the others stopped their chortling.
Except Rampage, who snorted. He was right after all.
Terrorsaur took his chance to intervene.
"Alright, alright! Stop your banter and get moving! We have to go back now and arrange an attack!" Terrorsaur said determinedly, transforming again and waving a wing.
The group turned, a couple grumbles from Tarantulas to accompany them, and they headed back the way they came. Not all were disappointed, however.
Rampage was contemplating the consequences of this… 'exercise' and how he could manipulate it in his favor. Depth Charge…. How would he respond to this coup? Rampage had made a deal with him, and this could strike a blow at their tenuous agreement. But what if he played the Shadow? What if he made this about teaching the ray a lesson rather than a fun little experi – activity he had decided to go along with? He'd thought of it before, one of the reasons he went along in the first place, but now he had to bother to mull it over. Depth Charge should be Leader, in his opinion. Perhaps this romp around the woods could be Depth Charge's last and only chance to obtain and defend a leadership position so as to maintain a sense of balance in the group? Dynamics-wise? If he didn't, the Predacons outnumbered the Maximals by count as well as thought. Collectively, the Predacons might steer whoever took leadership towards possible disaster without the respect a leader should have. Or split them up...
If the raybot didn't take leadership now, then what was there to stop anyone else from rising up tomorrow and trying for leadership? What was Depth Charge's word compared to anyone else's if he wasn't the top dog? Besides, there was no way Depth Charge was going to follow anyone else in the 'team.'
The crab snorted again.
Imagining any of the others as leader was just wrong. They lacked a sense of presence, in attitude and body. They weren't tall and powerful with a bad attitude and long stellar cycles of experience - not to mention a sheer clarity, and yet confusion and passion, of spark. No one else could sense it, but Depth Charge's spark was certainly unique. He'd always found it so…intriguing and easy to single out. Especially now.
Suddenly, something about having Depth Charge tethered to him in some mysterious way pleased him. He smirked nastily to himself.
Depth Charge's spark was his.
He'd said so before, even told Megatron, though he wasn't sure Megatron knew how much it meant to him, or what it meant at all, or he'd surely use it against him. He knew back then that they were fated to fight to the death and he pulled Depth Charge along with him. He played his game and Depth Charge played with him. His playmate. His friend.
But now that was taken a step further. Now, the mech was actually tied to him. He STILL didn't exactly know how or why, but it was interesting. No, more than that. In a way, it was thrilling and pleasing to know that no matter what, Depth Charge would be with him. And always! Since Depth Charge could now heal as he could! The manta didn't want it that way, and for some odd reason, that made Rampage…sad…but whether he liked it didn't matter. He chuckled. Depth Charge was his now.
He scuttled along, the others moving quietly around him, save for the occasional brief argument when someone bumped into someone else or similar nonsense.
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Author's Discussion: =3
Dear Primus, I am so sorry this came out so late. X_X RL kinda did me in. xD I had things to do and places to go. I also…well…I got stuck. -_-' I meant for this to be longer and include the battle, but it wasn't working, even after several rewrites. 9_9 So I cut it short and pasted it into the next chapter. XD
Hm, let's see, what to discuss. A couple things with notes attached…
I've read this chapter so many times, I have no idea what the quality this time around is. To me, it's almost "filler"-like, but it has important smallish events too. There's a lot of character interaction throughout it rather than events so, as usual, the action will happen next chapter. n_n Here we see Terrorsaur interact with Quickstrike for the first time. I'm not sure what their future relationship will be like, tbh, since I never meant for Quickstrike to come back. We'll just have to see. :3
Waspinator is back now! :D I don't think he'll stick around for long. As cowardishlike as he is, he now know where he stands and he might stick by his word about not being bossed around anymore. :/ As such, he's a little finicky right now.
Some people might be wondering if I mean for Waspy and Terrorsaur to get together. I do not have plans for that to happen. I, so far, only mean for DC and Page to get together eventually, but if other things develop on the side, then I may have to go back and offer up more warnings in my first chapter. XD Those two seemed to get along well in the show, but I dunno about a romance or even how deep their 'friendship' goes. n_n Some input on this matter would help, since yall are reading it, lol. Ideas are formulating in my head, but knowing what you might like would help shape them.
Inferno crashing into DC, lol, was a last minute addition. While the event is a little random and might seem unfunny, it could be symbolic that the Maximals take a fall before rising stronger or something. OR it's like back when DC means to help the Maximals but runs into SB and Rattrap and they all fall and fail the mission. T_T Not one of his shining moments. -_-' But it is reminiscent of that, mostly, to me. :D Noe he has the chance to make it right. Clingingto the fact that he saved someone's lie won't get him off the hook this time.
We also see a little more about DC and Page's bond here too. DC is starting to more accurately read Rampage, though he has a long way to go. His forgetting about Rampage also signifies that for once he'd see the bigger picture first before his own agenda. :D On Rampage's end, I decided to expand on his feelings about Depth Charge. To him, I figure, Depth Charge has always been his. I remember in Feral Scream, Depth Charge is caught and Megatron says something about like destroying him or something, then Quickstriek pipes up and is like "Ohh! Let's scarp 'im boss!" or something and then Rampage (LOL HIS line I remember a little more clearly. XD ) is like, "No! His spark belongs to me! –something- MINE!" I thought he growled again at the end, but I was watching the episode again and after his line he says, "MINE!" I was quite pleased with this discovery. n_n He also monologues from afar to Cheetor in Deep Metal, saying, "This game isn't for you, kitty." OR something to that effect (Why can't I remember the lines right now? Probably my headache. -_-) and a few other instances like this. He's possessive of his only friend, you see. :3
SOOO, I added his thoughts in to reinstate his possessive feelings towards him. Some might be thinking, Where is she going with this?
Well, I think this possessiveness would form the basis of his initial feelings for DC. The feelings have to start somewhere right? :33 And most likely, it's not DC. He's not the one without social restraints to hold him back from feeling things or whatever. BUT DON'T WORRY – I'm not going to just speed things up out of the blue. I want it to start meaningfully, something to happen that would act as the catalyst for either to start giving the other a chance. Neither is going to change so easy.
Oh! Also, we saw Quickstrike's more reasonable half, perhaps a streak of honor there we never saw? AKA..a little bit of Silverbolt? Their pods, afterall, scanned each other or shared data and blah, right? And Quickstrike, despite his lust or battle, seemed to get along with his fellow Fuzor decently, for what is was worth right? :D Hm…I wonder what I can do with that… lol! Not going OOC, of course, but something. Hmm…. And Rampage's interruption of the word "experiment" was on purpose, obviously. In the middle of writing that word, I caught myself and thought how ironic it was that Rampage hates Scientists, how I write him, and he likely doesn't want to be like them, but as intelligent and inquisitive as he is, he has to experiment to get answers, perhaps even torturing others to satisfy curiosity about something. . . I'm babbling but forgive me – head ache. I also hope you get my point cuz I'm running out of energy to elaborate, heh.
Well, I think that's all for now! 8D THANKS to all my reviewers and I hope to hear from all of you out there who don't review. It really does help drive a good story. :D I don't claim this to be excellent, but I think I'm doing a good job so far and would love to hear what I can do to keep it good. :D So drop me a line! :33 Thanks again!
Now to post this… Lol!
Til next time! :jumps into next chapter:
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