Author's Note: Thanks to my friend Niteflite for helping me write this story!
The Newcomers
"Optimus, I've detected
a stasis pod," Rhinox said.
"Who's closest?"
asked Optimus, moving toward Rhinox.
"Flyby and
Cheetor," replied Rhinox.
"Send them to retrieve
it," Optimus said.
____________________________________________________________________
"Do you remember
anything about being a human?" Cheetor asked.
"I'm remembering more
than I used to. I think I was in my school's music program. Other than that, I
can't remember anything," Flyby replied.
~Flyby, Cheetor, do you read
me?~ came Rhinox's voice over Flyby com unit.
"We're here,"
replied Flyby.
~Optimus wants you to check
out a stasis pod just north of you before the Preds do.~
"Roger that, Big
Green," replied Flyby.
~What?~
"Never mind, human thing." Turning to Cheetor, she said,
"Come on Cheets, let's go."
____________________________________________________________________
"I see it!" Flyby called down to Cheetor. "No signs
of any Pred activity, either."
"Where?"
"Just ahead of us, a
little to your right," replied Flyby.
"I see it!" he
called up. They transformed and walked up to the pod.
"Looks like the beast
form has already been chosen," Flyby observed.
"Replication process
complete. Protoform may emerge," said the pod's computer. They stood back
as the pod opened, revealing a red vixen.
"Hi, who are you?"
the vixen asked in a female voice (obviously).
"I'm Flyby."
"And I'm Cheetor."
"I'm Starvix,"
said the vixen. "Where's the base?"
"Prepare to be awed and
amazed. The base is the Ark," proclaimed Flyby.
"Let's get going,"
said Cheetor, going into beast mode. And with a loud "mroow," he was
off.
"What's the matter with
his beast mode?" asked Starvix.
"I don't know for sure
myself. I think it's called transmetal," Flyby replied. "C'mon, I'll
take you back to head quarters." She took off and went into beast mode.
____________________________________________________________________
Flyby was giving Starvix a
tour of the base. Luckily, they hadn't met up with Rattrap yet. Rhinox and
Optimus had been in the command room when they had entered the base.
"This is where all the
personal quarters are. That one can be yours," said Flyby.
FLASH! "Honestly,
Clara, do you expect to get in the orchestra?" FLASH! Classical music was
playing. Wait! I'm playing part of it.
"Are you alright?"
Starvix asked Flyby, shaking her from her trance.
"Yeah. I was just
having a flashback," she replied.
Optimus' voice came over
Flyby's com unit just then. ~Flyby, take Starvix to retrieve a pod at
coordinates 6-9-5.~
"Okay, we're on our
way," Flyby said into her com. Then to Starvix, "Let's go!"
____________________________________________________________________
"Do you see the
pod?" Starvix asked Flyby.
"Yeah, it's dead
ahead," replied Flyby.
After a couple of minutes,
they came to the meadow where the pod sat. Flyby landed next to Starvix and the
two females transformed.
Flyby walked up to the pod's
computer and typed in a code. A scanner rose from the pod. "Scanning for
compatible life forms." After a moment, the scanner retracted and the
computer said, "Compatible life form found. Beginning replication process."
After a minute, the pod's
lid opened and out stepped a lemur.
"Hello, ladies. Who
might you be?" the lemur asked in a polite, yet flirting, tone.
"I'm Flyby, and this is
Starvix."
"The name's Leemoun.
Maybe I should transform. Leemoun, maximize!"
Starvix's eye's nearly
popped out of her head, they were so wide. Man,
he is handsome, she thought.
Flyby noticed Starvix's
reaction. Hmm, she thought to herself
with a smile, maybe if those two get
together, they could fall in love.
"Let's head back to H.
Q.," Flyby suggested.
""H. Q.?"
Starvix and Leemoun asked in unison.
"H. Q. is the human
initials for head quarters," Flyby explained.
"Oh."
The three went into beast
mode and started toward the base.
____________________________________________________________________
Starvix was giving Leemoun a
tour of the base. Flyby was with them incase Starvix forgot anything. Flyby
said that 'bots sometimes learn things better if they had to teach it to
someone else.
"In there is where the
ancient Autobots and Decepticons are in stasis. We can't go in
because only Blackarachnia
and Optimus have the access codes," Starvix was saying.
"Why does Blackarachnia
have the codes? Does Optimus trust her more than anyone else?"
"I honestly don't
know," she replied.
"I do," Flyby
said. "Back when BA was a Predacon, which was before the three of us came
out of stasis, she had downloaded the access codes to her databanks, then
destroyed the information. Then, the day before I came out of stasis, she
downloaded the codes to Optimus 'cause they were doing something to her that
had never been done before and she could have died from the operation."
"Neat story. Could you
tell us more details?" Starvix asked.
"Not 'til you've
finished the tour," she replied with a grin.
____________________________________________________________________
Flyby managed to catch
Starvix alone. It had been a few hour since Starvix had finished the tour.
"I saw the way your
eyes went wide when the new guy transformed," Flyby was saying, "You
wanna try a relationship with him?"
"Yeah, but how could
you guess?"
"Your body language
said it all. Don't worry, I'm not trying to catch him, so he's all yours.
Here's some advice: take it slow. Start as plain friends."
"Okay. Thanks for the
advice."