I don't own transformers in any of it's incarations, past or present.
Depth Charge glided effortlessly through the water as he scanned for anything unusual. Sure, this was just the patrol assignment Optimus had handed him, but if he actually saw anything, he would likely ignore it and go on with his ulterior motive -- finding X. Even in manta ray from, the thought of Rampage brought a noticeable cringe to his face. He would get that bastard, he was sure of it.
Depth Charge regarded all of this as he soared through the blue waters. Then, he felt a certain vibe in the water, and he knew right away that it was X! Suddenly, his comm started to beep.
"Yeah, what do you want?" Depth Charge replied, his voice tinged with a readiness for battle.
"A strange anomaly was detected underwater about a mile east of your current position," Rhinox's voice crackled over the comm, "go and check it out."
"I'm on it." Depth Charge replied. He decided to comply with orders this time merely because he figured good chances that the Preds had already detected this, too and would therefore have sent Rampage to the anomaly.
***
Within a minute, Depth Charge had reached the anomaly. He stopped and scanned the immediate area. As he had thought, Rampage had been here. Depth Charge looked around and saw the anomaly. It was a portal about thirty feet across. White light and energy emanated from the thing. Depth Charge felt sure that X had gone through here. Depth Charge mentally summed up all of his anger, guilt, and frustration about what had happened and Rugby's and glided into the portal.
***
Bathers, boardwalk workers, and tourists alike ran away screaming from this abomination that had came from the beach here at Ocean City, Maryland. The creature itself laughed as it fired randomly at people. One person pondered this creature's existence as he fled. How could a creature like this, both organic and mechanical, nearly ten feet tall, humanoid but similar in appearance to a crustacean, have existed this close to a major city and not be found? The person really didn't care at this point, he just wanted to get away from this thing, get to his car and drive back to New York.
***
Depth Charge emerged from the other end of the portal and glided into the blue water. He continued to scan for Rampage. While he was scanning, something in the sand caught his eye. He stopped and transformed into robot form. Depth Charge picked the object up. It was a brownish glass bottle. Depth Charge read the label.
"Miller Lite?" Depth Charge said aloud' "what the hell is this?" Depth Charge searched his datatrax for "Miller Lite." His eyes widened at the answer given by his internal computer:
"Miller Lite: an alcoholic beverage popular amongst humans through the 20th and 21st centuries."
"How could this be here before the humans even evolved?" Depth Charge wondered. The only possible conclusion that he could think of was that the anomaly he had gone through was some kind of time warp! He checked his chronometer and it told him that it was summer 2000! In that case, he had to get back to his own time fast; but first, he would find X.
***
The last of the people had fled. Rampage though about how pitiful it was when those human police forces showed up. It only took blasting one of their cars to send them fleeing in terror. Rampage chuckled to himself as he surveyed the boardwalk. Stupid little humans with their souvenir shops and their department stores. They were worse than Tarantulas! Suddenly, like a tsunami of adrenaline in his twisted, half spark, Rampage felt a presence he knew all too well. He cackled to himself as he took out his gun and hid behind a group of pay toilets.
***
Depth Charge emerged from the water to find an abandoned beach. Blankets, bottles of lotion, a beach ball, surf boards, etc. lay strewn all around him. Something had scared these people good. Depth Charge had a good idea as to what it was. Suddenly, several shots rang out and struck him dead in the chest. Depth Charge barely had time to yell as he flew into one of those big sand sculptures that the humans had made. He looked up to see X step out from behind some pay toilets.
"Ha, looks like this is the end for you, fish boy!" Rampage taunted.
"I wouldn't bet on it, X!" Depth Charge yelled back. Ignoring the tremendous pain in his chest, and the urge to find a CR chamber, Depth Charge jumped to his feet and punctuated his statement with several blasts from his shark-gun. The shots hit Rampage in the stomach, sending him flying for blocks until he slammed against the roller coaster with a resounding bong!
Rampage got to his feet, and rushed at Depth Charge, knocking him down. The two grappled on the boardwalk for several minutes. Depth Charge managed to get on top of Rampage and proceeded to pommel him with blows. Rampage kicked him off and stood up. Depth Charge leaped at him. Rampage spun and landed a spinning back kick followed up by a front thrust kick that would put Blackarchnia to shame. As Depth Charge staggered back, Rampage knocked him down with a forearm strike to Depth Charge's face.
"Looks like you're going to meet up with your 'friends' from Rugby's Starbase, fish boy; you'll meet them in the pit!"
"That's one place you'll be going to in a minute, X" Depth Charge snarled in return. Depth Charge got up and shot out several discs from his chest. Rampage dodged them easily. Rampage was too damn fast!
Depth Charge fell into a fetal position and waited for Rampage to get close to him. Rampage cackled and stalked up to Depth Charge, advising him to let his fear and hatred consume him. Depth Charge reached into subspace and drew out his sword. Just as Rampage was on top of him, he lashed out with a stab aimed for Rampage's spark. Rampage backpedaled just enough to avoid being impaled, but Depth Charge's attack still managed to cut a deep gash into Rampages left shoulder. Rampage backed off and prepared to attack when something on his right wrist started beeping. Depth Charge halted his attack in confusion. Rampage check his computer, then a look of fright actually managed to find its way onto his twisted features.
"I'll be seeing you later, fins." Rampage spat. With that, the transformed into tank mode and rolled into the water. Depth Charge sat back against a storefront, wondering about this abrupt change of pace. After a few seconds, he suddenly realized why.
"Oh slag!" he yelled as he dove into the water.
***
The trip back was uneventful. Upon returning to his own time, the portal closed behind him. Rampage was nowhere to be found. Depth Charge himself needed the CR chamber. He though about how interesting this one would be to report as he swam toward the Ark…
Meanwhile, back in the year 2000…
Megatron sat in his chair at Deceptibase. He surveyed the five new warriors in front of him.
Soundwave, by his side commanded, "Predacons, identify yourselves."
The rhinoceros spoke first, "GRRRR, I'm Headstrong!"
The lion stepped forward and said, "I'm Razorclaw, leader."
The eagle said, "I guess I'm Divebomb."
The bull said, "YARRRGH, just call me Tantrum!"
Finally the last one spoke up, "RRRR, I'm uh… I'm… " Then a news report caught his attention. Basically it said that a person or creature calling itself Rampage had terrorized beachgoers in Ocean City, Maryland. "YEAH! I'm Rampage!" he finally said.
The End