If you're wondering what it may look like, it's kind of like a precursor robot (Jak and Daxter) but black and thicker, like Demon ( tigressa101/art/Demon-Remastered-683351853) just quadrupedal.
Unlike the other stories, this story takes place before Bumblebee and his team meet the monster so no one knows what it is yet.
A frisbee was thrown in the air, flying almost five yards before large jaws caught it midair.
"Good dog, Sydney!" A girl shouted.
The metal dog, a large Minicon, whooped and howled happily bringing the frisbee back. He wagged his tail and barked as the girl whipped her arm, sending the frisbee flying towards the tree line at the edge of the farm. It was an impressive throw and Sydney ran after it. The frisbee hit the ground on its side and rolled into the trees. Sydney followed it in.
The frisbee bounced after rolling over a few embedded roots, and Sydney watched it wondering where it would land. It hit a dark shaded tree trunk or rock, bouncing back a little before settling. The canine thought nothing of it and came to retrieve the disk when a splatter of something slimy hit a root to the side behind him. The dog gave a whine of curiosity, sniffing the air and finding a mixture of unknown scents lingering. Before the Minicon went to investigate, it tried to grab the frisbee only to take notice the frisbee didn't hit a trunk or rock, it was a claw and two others spread out made a foot.
Sydney peered up with a whimper, not even bothering picking up the frisbee, and backed away. The canopy was shrouded by a silhouette as black as night with fainted greenish striped designs riddled across its body but the lack of light made it hard to make out. A low growl emitted from the shadow with the light of the canopy barely revealing it as it seemed to look down upon him. More glops of slime trickles down as bright green optics and a mouth full of unpleasant teeth were visible.
All Sydney could do was stare.
The girl waited for her dog to return. With nothing but the rustling of trees in the wind, she was growing concerned. An odd bark emitted from the trees, and she could only assume he got caught in a tree trunk again or maybe crawled underneath a root and got stuck. She sighed and wandered near the tree line calling the Minicon by name. When no reply came, concern turned to outright fear.
"Sydney, here boy!"
A crunching noise was heard and she smiled until the footsteps came slowly, too big to be a Minicon's. She backed away from the tree line as a shadow dwarfed her and a four-clawed servo hit the ground causing a mark in the grass. As this large creature emerged from the trees, the girl could only stare in terror. Once out in the open, it lifted its torso up enough to remove its servos from the ground and took a bipedal stance similar to a t-rex, shaking excess leaves off it.
The girl heard another crunch and saw the lower half of Sydney stick out of its mouth with Energon dripping from its jaws. The creature lifted its head to engulf most of the remainder of the Minicon with another cracking noise to where only a leg stuck out. It then saw the girl and gave a rumble before eating Sydney completely.
The predator had to be well over sixty feet. It stomped closer and lowered its helm to be eye to eye with the human child. She could see its green optics it was thinking, debating what to do with her. It's white slit pupils widened at first indicating its curiosity but then they contracted and it bellowed in her face, showing off its massive sharp teeth.
The girl didn't even have a chance to run, only a brief scream was heard when it lunged forward.
"A 9-year-old girl from Mississippi and her Minicon companion have been reported as missing. Local authorities fear the worst as large odd dinosaur-like footprints have been found near her farm in Alcorn County on the outskirts of Corinth. Investigators, human and Cybertronian, are baffled as no species of Predacon or Dracon fit the design. This comes just days after a Seeker living in Jackson, Tennessee was found half-eaten, upper body completely gone with similar prints at the scene. Two Junkion off-roaders in Nashville went missing as well nearly a week ago with similar prints found at the scene with only a few remains of the bodies recovered near a woodland area. Many other reports have been filed mapping the trajectory of the creature that appears to have surfaced near South Carolina. It's killing spree has dragged it through North Carolina, Virgina, Kentucky, Tennesse, and now Mississippi for the past month and a half. Tupelo has been notified as being a big hot spot for its next possible feeding frenzy.
"Kanjian species are being looked at with the only prints similar being that of a Kanjian Ridgeback dragon but the spacing of toes and the length of the foot don't match we've been told. We appear to be looking at a new creature and a deadly one at that. A warning has been issued across the Southern and low Eastern coast states to be on high alert and report any new or unknown types of animal-based Transformers not normally found in the region. We'll be keeping track of this story until the culprit has been found. More follow-ups tomorrow at 11."
Cat switched off the TV and gave her sisters and eerie look. "Well, that's terrifying. I wonder what it could be?"
Cade smirked, "My money is on a Dinobot gone rogue."
"Nah, I think it's a new species, a hybrid or something mutated," Chris said.
"Cybertronian mutations don't occur naturally. That's something forced so if its Cybertronian and mutated, who the hell made it and where can I find them?" Snarled Cade.
"My bet is maybe it's something that has already been existing but was never seen until now like maybe it was in stasis for years and awoke finally," Cat replied.
Max entered the room and smirked, "Interesting theories but I think it comes down between Cat and Chris for the closest possible answer."
Cade scoffed, "Aw, my Dinobot theory not good enough for you?"
Ignoring her, Max tapped his fingers on the recliner Cat sat in and he stared at the blank TV when something hit him, a small little fact the news reporter had pointed out. "Chris, Cat, I think you two may be both right."
The two girls in question looked at each other as Max walked out and headed to his library. They followed and saw him rummage through his section of Cybertronian information, everything from documented lore to recent data and facts.
"Where is it? Where is it? Aha! Yes!"
Being a Guardian for so many years beyond the normal lifespan of a human led to many discoveries and data retrieval he couldn't have gotten otherwise. The Allspark also helped with a few missing links for that matter. He had documented well over one hundred thousand different species of Cybertronian wildlife and habitants including creatures of legend and fabled monsters of old either from actually seeing them to finding information from ancient data cylinders left by Cybertronians as old as the original Thirteen Primes themselves.
Tossing the book onto the table, he went to the Kanjian section and picked out a book with the knowledge of all the known dragon types. He sat at his reading desk and flipped through the Kanjian one that contained insights from Tigressa's Razorback tiger-dragon kin to the monstrous Ridgeback, Kronos' large dragon species as well as his sons'.
"What are you looking for?" Chris asked.
"That reporter mentioned the closest foot structure found was to a Ridgeback dragon's but it was still different. That made me think and your guesses helped place a theory I developed. Cat, you mentioned it being an already existing species. Chris, you said it may be a new species. What if both are correct? What if it's a new species but it was already in existence long before anybody here was around? Nobody from today including the current generations of Cybertron have ever met it so naturally, they would claim its new when in reality, it precedes them."
"Not following," Cat said skeptically. Cade nodded in agreement.
Max flipped to the Ridgeback details before quickly flipping through the Cybertronian book to a chapter of inscriptions and drawings of the Primes while alive. Most of it was speculation but some of it was confirmed by the Allspark. He traced along the dialogue of one particular page of creatures that existed around the time of the Thirteen that no longer were found on Cybertron. In the middle of said page, a black reptilian-like creature with markings the same color as its background was photographed from a wall description found in the catacombs under Iacon. Then he looked at the schematics and photos of a Ridgeback.
"You remember Darwin's Theory of Evolution?"
The girls half-nodded, half-groaned to themselves trying to recall the entire theory by memory.
Max smirked, "Not easy to remember all of it but one of its definitive traits is that it proposes that several species can evolve from a common ancestor to fit their diverse environments appropriately, and he used this to declare why so many finches were exactly the same among the Galapagos Islands but had different features like beak sizes and feather colors."
"How does that have to do with-?"
"Kanjis and Cybertron hold similar species, as do Velocitron, Aquatron, and Junkion. They look different, have different traits, but why do you think that is? Like everything else, they evolved over time. The Thirteen Primes led to the creation of a new style of Transformer which no longer needed evolution like we humans did to develop into what we are now. Instead, The Allspark and the Well contributed to Cybertron's growing populace but kept the reproductive features they were designed with just in case. However, before the Primes led to the Cybertronian-dominated Cybertron we know of now, Primus' planet was home to other species and wildlife.
"Many of the original species are gone but not everything. If you look at Kanjis and Aquatron, they have techno-organics and their various species look similar to what can be found on Cybertron, especially back then. Now look at this picture of a Ridgeback from Kanjis and this creature right here found on a Cybertronian mural. Don't they look similar?"
The girls studied both images and Cade gasped, "The bodies kind of look the same! The structure of the snout but the mural only depicts it on four legs. Ridgebacks don't walk as quadrupeds."
Max nodded, "Exactly, why do you think that is? Look, no one on Cybertron who had access to these archives ever could figure out what this creature was but its description made it out as some type of dragon and it disappeared when the Thirteen Primes came into power. It was said to be a predator and it hunted anything that moved. There are a few mentions of the Primes doing something with the creatures but the ancient Cybertronian to modern to English translation got cut off, probably because the words used didn't have a direct modern Cybertronian or English counterpart.
"If this Cybertronian Predator looks like a Ridgeback, that may be confirmation that they are related. Millions of years ago, I mean way back when Kanjis was still developing and Primus probably was moving around as a god, the two worlds must have met and the ancestor of both the Ridgeback and Predator were roaming on Kanjis. Well, a hand can become a mountain for any creature if pressed onto a surface like that of a planet, so some of them must have climbed aboard when Primus interacted with the planet. Primus pulls away and the ancestors were separated. Given time and separation, both species ended up evolving.
"The Ridgeback became like our ancestors, learned to walk more on two legs rather than four through the uneven terrain Kanjis had, developed vocal cords capable of speech, processor storage grew, and that was that. The Predator must have evolved during Primus' years as a planet. Cybertron doesn't have rugged terrain so there was no challenge to the body to interchange to keep balance so it never developed that ability to stand upright so it stayed mostly quadrupedal. Its vocal cords are unknown but given it seems to be hunting and not talking to anyone before attacking, it may not have the capability of speech. It may be intelligent as it knows how to keep out of sight and not get caught despite being larger than most species on Earth. The question of why it's on Earth now and not on its home planet is jarring."
Chris said, "So like the finches, it evolved different from its Ridgeback counterpart. And it disappeared after the Primes arrived? Maybe they killed the Predators off but one survived?"
Cade frowned, "I don't think that's likely because it says here in rough translation that the Primes were having a lot of trouble containing it and the entire species was killing more and more of their populace faster than the Well of Allsparks was producing new sparks. There's also a greyish colored version on the other page and something that remarks about Solus Prime and the Apex Armor."
That made Max quickly scan the details and he was stunned as he read it. "The black ones were larger than the grey and the grey were all believed to be mechs. The black ones were femmes. That's not like Ridgebacks who are all black with similar markings. That's an odd evolutionary trait. Femme Predators were the pack leaders and I'm not sure if I'm reading this right but it says Solus Prime created the Apex Armor out of a grey Predator shell, one that was...already dead. So, she didn't kill a Cybertronian Predator but because it was already deceased, she used its hide to create the most indestructible armor ever forged. Then that means..."
Cat kneaded her temples in frustration, "It means that the Predator is indestructible on the outside. Nothing can bring it down except maybe another Predator. There's no way the Primes could be able to kill off the entire species...so where did they go?"
The Guardian thought hard on that. Then he remembered something mundane about all Transformers species. With a laugh, he simply said, "Stasis."
"Wha...?" Chris mumbled.
"Stasis," he repeated. "All Transformers can be put into forced stasis using certain techniques and ulterior devices regardless how powerful the species is. The Primes must have used something to put the Predators into stasis lock and while they were out, they put them in pods to keep them asleep and launched them into space in all manner of directions to get them off world. One of them landed on Earth and remained in stasis until its pod was opened."
Cade scoffed, "I wonder which idiot did that?"
"Chances are it landed in an ice-cold environment or hit the water and sank millions of years ago when the Earth was entirely different. Someone fetched it out after finding it and screwed up, letting loose a whole new breed of Cybertronian. It's killing spree started in South Carolina so I assume that's where it awoke just recently. It hasn't eaten in millions of years or so; it's making up for lost time."
The girls looked distraught at him and Chris sighed, "So, what do we do?"
Max shrugged and clasped his hands together on the desk, "For once, I don't know. If we're dealing with something we can't destroy or contain, I can try bringing it to the Devil's Den but then it will be rampaging on Zeliria and killing everything and everyone there. We have no choice but to alert the Autobots, get Bumblebee and the Allspark to help us."
Max got up and paced in front of a window before peering out of it. "We're dealing with a creature of Cybertronian lore like no other. It's one thing to fight the likes of Springtrap or Tamatoa because I can get them to chase me instead but this thing is out to hunt Cybertronians just like it did in its heyday. Warn the Autobots, warn every Cybertronian within the next thousand miles in North and South America that their worst enemy is back."
The girls saluted and quickly ran off. Max only glared at the books, specifically the mural photographed depicting the creature in its prime. Smaller bots were depicted running away from it under the sun. He could only hope that he was wrong about it being the real Predator for if it did return, there was no telling how many lives it was going to take.
AN: I have a plan for this species, a monstrous predator back before the Thirteen Primes lived on Cybertron and they were the ultimate predator. How will Bumblebee deal with this creature? Who knows, but it will be a deadly encounter.