interLUDE

By THE Xenomorph

Disclaimer: I own only Perfection and Wraith.

DigitalMan and K2 are © My close friend.

Everything else is copyrighted to their correct owner.

Universe: Spliced-Verse (Misfit-Verse, Evil Dead, Mask TMNT Planeteers, Beast Wars, Jurassic Park)

Settling in with a traitor?

"Grimlock not like this detail…" Grimlock muttered as he served up block of Energon to Rhinox.

"Relax tin-grin, at least you get to hold the best for yourself." Rattrap smiled as he scooped a few cubes into his mouth.

"Grimlock miss not having to eat." Grimlock sighed.

"Aw, come on." Rattrap tried to give Grimlock a few blocks.

"Grimlock miss his friends." Grimlock moaned.

"By Primus don't you go emo on me." Rattrap snapped.

"Hey Ratty." Pandora smiled as she came up to the small preparation area that the Maximals called their kitchen. "What's good today?"

"Grimlock make special cube dish." Grimlock pointed to a pile of oddly cut polygons that were anything but cubes. "Grimlock learning."

"Grimlock sucks." Pandora said as she picked up a few of the machine processed Energon cubes.

"Hey…" Grimlock sounded hurt. "Panda-bot need to keep mouth shut or Grimlock gonna show here how he beat original Megatron."

A buzzing laugh told Pandora that Waspinator had heard the comeback and was enjoying the show, so she did what she felt was best and slammed he launch tray over Waspinator's head sending him into dreamland.

"Whoa hey!" Rattrap jumped on the large panda-bot and held her down as best he could. "Leave stinger-butt alone, he was jus' laughin'!"

"Yeah he was laughing at me!" Pandora growled. Suddenly she felt herself lift off the ground and looked over her shoulder to see Grimlock lifting her effortlessly in the air. "Hey put me down!"

"Nope, you go talk with Optimus, he tell you what you do to make it all right." Grimlock snarled as he walked out of the small kitchen with Pandora in hand.

"Oh my…" Dinobot smiled as he moed out of the way of Grimlock and the wriggling Pandora. "What did you do this time Pandora?"

"Nothing!" Pandora was flailing around madly.

"Hey Choppa-butt, help me take buzz-fer-brains to the med-bay." Rattrap sighed as he struggled to pull the unconscious Waspinator.

"Again?" Dinobot rolled his eyes. "From being blown up to flattened at every turn…"

"Yeah, well it doesn't help dat Pendora has got da tempa of a nest of rabid raccoons." Rattrap chuckled

As Dinobot and Rattrap drug Waspinator into the med bay they were surprised by two things. One they had guests, Misfits and X-Men. Secondly there was a new Maximal sitting on the table. Thirdly there was a large cannon next to the maximal. He wasn't to tall, only slightly smaller than Rattrap, with a head similar Silverbolt's except there were not points, just rounded surfaces. He had a slight "burglar's mask" over his eyes as brown fur lined his body.

"Hi." The Maximal waved, he had a very child-like voice. "I'm Sly."

"He chose his own name as usual." Xavier sighed. "I just don't know how usual it is for a Maximal to play a video game for hours on end before choosing a name."

"I'm almost afraid ta ask, but what video game?" Rattrap asked.

"Sly Cooper and the Theivious Racconus!" Sly shouted.

"Cheetor's going to be disappointed, he won't be the second youngest one here anymore." Dinobot grinned, but a gleefully screaming Cheetor raced by after hearing the good news.

"Umm…" Sly raised his hand.

"Yes Sly." Rattrap said sarcastically, "Do you have a question?"

"Yeah." Sly nodded. "Where's Trinity and Spyder, they promised me a game of tag."

"One second…" Rattrap turned back to watch the door with Dinobot. "Twenty says Pandora's with'em."

"Forty says they've already got him half done." Dinobot smiled.

"You're on." Rattrap said.

"What's going on?" Sly asked.

"Sssh." Rattrap motioned for Sly to be quiet.

A few seconds later Cheetor came screaming back down the hall half covered in pink hair rollers and nail polish. Trinity were chasing after him and not far behind them was Pandora with Spyder riding on her back.

"GET THEM AWAY FROM MEEEEEE!" Cheetor screeched as he ran down the halls.

"Ahhh, the joys of childhood." Rattrap sighed reminiscently as he handed a few golden cards over to Dinobot. "It was worth it just to see that."

"Why was he running away and screaming?" Sly asked.

"Trinity." The entire room echoed.

"But Trinity's nice." Sly said with a confused look.

"Well they were the ones who found him." Hawk said.

"Where?" Rattrap asked.

"Freddy went to visit some relatives and they found him there." Hawk explained with a wince.

"Which relatives?" Dinobot asked although he really did not want to know the answer.

"The circus performers he left." Hawk winced.

"So Sly was in a circus?" Rattrap chuckled.

"No, he was following them and stealing their food." Hawk explained further. "And no one believed them when they claimed it was a giant raccoon staling their food, except Freddy."

"And Toad." Sly offered.

"Oh, but of course." Dinobot gave a half snarl-chuckle.

"Oh, Dinobot, Rina is outside if you want to talk with her." Xavier snapped to attention. "And please tell her to stop directing her thoughts of strangling Toad towards me." Dinobot merely chuckled as he left.

"So, yer a raccoon." Rattrap said. "Well when Doc. Sting-butt gets up we'll get you all checked up ok kiddo."

"Sounds good." Sly looked around. "Why do I have a big gun?"

"You gotta be kiddin' me." Rattrap looked at his human friends. "You guys didn't tell him?"

"Given his mental age we thought it best one of you explains it." Xavier explained. "Optimus was supposed to do that after reprimanding Pandora but I get the feeling he's a bit pre-occupied."

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And indeed Optimus was pre occupied and with a very serious matter.

"Are you sure about this Rhinox?" Optimus asked.

"No doubt about it." Rhinox sighed some one's been sending encrypted messages to the Predacon base and it only started after the baseball game."

"That was almost a week ago." Optimus sighed. "What information has been leaked?"

"Daily schedules, including patrol and communication logs." Rhinox brought up a screen. "There's a problem though."

"You mean besides the fact that we might have a spy or an infestation of bugs?" Optimus asked darkly.

"Our communications are being sent to other coordinates." Rhinox punched up a few of the coordinates on his screen. "F.O.H. Headquarters, Hydra bases and base I can't get a read on."

"Not good." Optimus sighed. "Can we track the next few transmissions?"

"Yeah, but we'll need to let them pass to figure out whose sending them." Rhinox said.

"Do it." Optimus said.

"False information or not?" Rhinox asked.

"We can't let the leak catch on…" Optimus said. "I'll let Dinobot, Rattrap, Silverbolt, Cheetor and Depth Charge know."

"Why not the others, it's probably one of Tarantulas' spy bugs." Rhinox said.

"I don't doubt it, but we can't take the risk, some of those transmissions were highly classified." Optimus said.

"Understood." Rhinox nodded with a depressed sigh. "I'll keep an eye out for odd behavior."

"Thanks old friend." Optimus sighed, "Now if you'll excuse me I have to tell a young bot that we're in the middle of a war."

"Good luck." Rhinox sighed yet again. "What a time to come online."

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"So…" Sly had finished talking with Optimus and was sitting on a canyon, both were watching the sunset.

"Yes." Optimus said, "I don't expect you to fight if you feel you can't handle it, but you will need to contribute in some way."

"It's not that." Sly said, "I kind of expected to have to fight."

"Then what's wrong?" Optimus asked.

"Why do they want to hurt humans?" Sly asked.

"Because they're angry and the humans can't fight back." Optimus said. "As for Magneto and his mutants, they want to rule the world."

"And those things…" Sly asked.

"The Heartless?" Optimus asked. "It's just what they do."

Sly looked like some had just told him everyone he knew and cared for was dead. "W-why?"

"I don't know." Optimus said. "But we have to help our friends, and they have promised to help us."

"I won't let them hurt my friends." Sly said. "I'll do whatever it takes."

"I'm glad to hear that." Optimus said, but he did not look happy and Sly saw it.

"No you aren't." Sly said. "It's because I don't know how to fight, right?"

"No…" Optimus said, "I just don't want you to become to obsessed with fighting."

"I just want to protect my friends." Sly sighed.

"I know, and when you're ready, you'll be able to." Optimus said with a real smile.

"So who's going to teach me?" Sly asked. "Maybe Dinobot he looks like a great fighter and Rina was talking about how he's teaching her…"

"Ahhh…" Optimus waved his hands in denial. "I think maybe Silverbolt or one of the others would be best. Maybe even Rattrap."

"Rattrap?" Sly gave a disgusted look. ""But he smells like cheese."

"Hey…" Perfection appeared. "Don't rag on the cheese it's sacred kiddo."

"Uh…Ok…" Sly was absolutely terrified.

"Cute kid." Perfection winked and then vanished.

"Who was that weirdo?" Sly asked.

"That was Perfection." Optimus sighed. "And no you won't get used to him."

"Why does he do that?" Sly asked as he and Optimus began to walk back to the base.

"Because he can." Optimus sighed.

"Is that the only reason?" Sly asked.

"Yeah pretty much." Optimus said.

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From a window in the base Cheetor watched as Optimus and Sly came walking back in. A frown adorned his furred face and he carried himself with a sense of anger.

"What's the matter tabby?" Black Arachnia asked as he pushed past her angrily.

"Nothing." Cheetor snarled.

Then Black Arachnia spotted Optimus helping Sly up a large incline. "Ah, jealous?"

"Why should I be jealous, Sly's a good kid and he needs a mentor." Cheetor growled.

"So I guess the fact that Optimus has taken a shine to him like he took to you has nothing to do with it." Black Arachnia smirked.

"Don't go there." Cheetor growled, a feral tone accompanied his angered voice. After a few seconds of surprised silence Cheetor left in a huff of anger.

"What got into your litter box tabby?" Black Arachnia wondered aloud.