Behind Enemy Lines --- White Cheetah Sapphire Series

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"Sometimes you have to look past a name to see the person … other times, you don't."

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Disclaimer: Standard issue
Claimer: Same

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Chapter 1

"Sapphire and NightDawn, report to the command room immediately!"
The loud voice of Megatron practically yelled over the com. link.

What a *wonderful* thing to hear first thing in the morning.

So, to avoid having the psycho ant come after me, I jump down off the top bunk ( I share the room with NightDawn, the scientist girl that was on the ship ) and lazily started towards the command room.

When I got there, NightDawn was waiting for me. In my beast mode, I stood out like a sore thumb in this base. Megatron growled when I came in, but I didn't care.

A few snickers could be heard from some of the controls…Quicksilver, his gang, and Quickstrike.

"What do you want Megatron?" i said, yawning and stretching while ignoring the group on monitor duty. I considered ruffling my feathers, but decided against it.

"You and NightDawn are going on an infiltration mission into the maximal base. The two of you are going to put a virus into the main computer, so that we can attack once the virus takes effect. Now go."

NightDawn said nothing, but went to beast mode. Even though I was in beast mode, I didn't start to leave.

"Uh, Megs?"

"WHAT!?" Jeez, someone sure woke up on the wrong side of the recharge bed this morning.

"The virus? Where is it? We kinda need it to do this mission we're on."

Its so easy to make this guy mad its hilarious. Usually, I would be laughing my skid plate off, but I think he would blast me into the Pit if I did.

He made a growling noise, and signaled for one of his predacons to come into the room. Tarantulas came up, holding a disc in his oddly shaped hands.

I transformed to bot mode, and he hesitantly handed me the disk. I went back to beast mode, and headed out to meet up with NightDawn.

"Alright, lets just get this over with." She just nodded, and started walking, heading to the jungle, while I took to the sky.

A thought suddenly struck me.

Neither one of us knows where the maximal base is.

Unless...

Tapping on the com link, I signaled NightDawn.

- Hey NightDawn, you do know where the maximal base is, right? –

A little bit of static came in as she replied; probably because of our distances.

- No... I thought you would, that's why I didn't ask.-

- Great. I just *love* this day so far. How about you?-

- You've got to be joking...I think we might be able to find the maximal base on our own. I heard them say something about it being south and east of the pred base, and its a ship. How hard can it be to find? -

How hard was it? More annoying than anything. It took us almost a half a day to find it.

I land a distance away from the base, NightDawn right behind me. Her black bear beast mode wasn't fast, but a good one for her.

"Maybe only one of us should go in, and the other one stay out here as a back-up. That way, if the one in the base gets caught, the other can get away."

She continued. "I'll stay. It'll probably be easier if you go in, I'd just make to much noise."

I nodded, and turned my stealth mode/ cloaking shield on.

Silently, I looked for a way to get in. Well, there was always the front door, but I doubt they would let me in.
There is an opening in the bottom of the ship, but I would have to fly up to get in -- which of course, I did.

The maximal base is as gloomy as the predacon base is. I stand out much to easily.
The base was eerily quiet. I finally found the control room, and in it, a sleeping, uncautious maximal.

To get by, I would have to knock him out. So, I carefully took out one of my katana, and turned it hilt-first. As the katana went down to make the strike on the short sleeping maximals head...
Something grabbed my wrist!

"What the - !?"

I bolted around, since the bot behind me had my right arm, to stare up at a much larger bot, who seemed to have the same cat mode as I. He was a head taller than me, and had bright yellow
optics ( if you didn't know, mine are sapphire blue, hence my name is Sapphire)

It seemed I had come as the maximals were on there way back, and had caught me here. Blast it with bad timing! And how did he catch me!? I was cloaked and going stealth!

"Whats going one in here?" A giant bot, colored mostly in green and tan, walked through the door, followed by a monkey-looking bot, and three others.

And, at the same time, the rat wakes up.

"What is goin' on in here? And who's the girl?"

"We don't know who she is yet. We do know she was about to send you to the CR Chamber." The cat bot noted.

"How did you manage to get past Sentinel?" A green and yellowish bot wanted to know, using a curious tone of voice, as if it wasn't able to be done or something.

I was about to give him one of my smart remarks, until I spotted the blue-gold-and silver boned looking bot. He was huge! He must be Dinobot – I had heard some of the other preds talking about him.

" What is *snarl* she doing in here? Is she not one of the new predacons that Megatron retrieved from that ship?"

The final member of the group then came in. Or I hope he's the last member. He was mostly silver with yellow highlights, and like me, sported a pair of bird wings on the back. He had odd shaped feet though.

"Cheetor, don't you know it is rude to hold a lady in such a crude manner?"

ohkayy, what is he, a knight in shining armor?

"Dis girl ain't no lady 'Bolt. She's just a stinkin' pred."

Unfortunately true, but not willingly either.

"Do you have a voice, or are you just being stubborn?"

Just plain stubborn.

"What do we do with her Optimus?"

Wow! These guys do have names!

"For now, Cheetor, we keep her in here, maybe she'll talk. Sit her down in one of the chairs."

The rat looked annoyed at this. "Great! Why don't we just have coffee wit' her and gossip 'bout the pred daily life. Good moth'a o' Chedda'!"

Ouch. These guys are rough! True to nature, I struggled, and hard. But of course, I was forced to sit down when the snarling guy came to help the kid.

Before they let go of my aching wrist, Cheetor took my katana; I made myself stay in my seat, and not jump up and grab it back from him. I did however, let him know I was not too happy by glaring and growling.

Optimus, trying to act commanding, walked up and looked down at me.

"Now, we aren't going to hurt you. We just want to know a few things. First off, what is your name?"

Silence. Except for the beeping of the computer.

"Uh, she ain't talking."

"Shut up Rattrap." Optimus sighed. Maybe I should really learn to cooperate with one of these 'head leaders' in this war.

"Now, is there anyone else with you?"

Wrong move. Smart-alec time.

"Well, there's you, and the cat-boy, and the jolly green giant, and the other big guy behind you, the cheddar cheese dude, and the guy back there who acts like a medieval knight. Did I miss anyone?"

I really should get out of the 'annoy every higher-ranking bot than myself' attitude.

"Let me try again: are there any other predacons with you?"

"Why should I tell you?"

"*snarl* we should put her in a stasis lock, and keep her prisoner."

"No Dinobot; you know we don't do those kinds of things."

hmmm, Dinobutt and Optimus don' seem to like each other that much.

Okay NightDawn...where are you?

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NightDawn had hidden in the bushes, a good distance away from the maximal base.

Everything had been quiet, until she noticed a pack of animals - of all different shapes, forms, and coloring - heading toward the base.

"Oh no! Sapphire, Sapphire get out of there! They're all coming in!" The only thing that answered her was static.

"Slaggin' great." She starts to run, back toward the pred base, instead of trying to face off with all the maximals.

-----

"Look, can you just answer one question for us!?"

"Depends on the question."

I've been here for what? NightDawn and I found the base at about midday…I know its been a good while, but there's no way to see outside…oh well. I listened to them ask all these questions while looking around at the ship. If I really wanted to talk, I would be.

I mean, what's with this bot? He's like the thing that would never shut up.

"Do you even have a name? Something we can call you?"

Hmmm….usually that's the first thing you ask a person.

"Sapphire."

"Wh-Sapphire? That's your name?" Haha. I got him.

"Yes, my name is Sapphire."

"Well then. Mind telling us why you came into our base, and tried to knock Rattrap unconscious?"

"Um…no, I'd rather not."

Optimus looked exasperated, Dinobot growled. Cheetor was sitting in beast mode on the floor, The big green guy was checking the monitors, and Rattrap was standing not to far from me, glaring. The other guy … Silverbolt? Was just standing against the wall, watching everything.

"I still think we should put her in stasis lock ; or at least use her as a hostage!"

Optimus glared at him. "Again Dinobot, no. We will not do that."

He then turned to Cheetor. "Take her down to a holding cell for now. We'll try questioning her again tomorrow." The monkey then left the room.

Looking over at Cheetor, I saw him stand as well. I however, stayed seated.

"Well, c'mon."

I shook my head. "Why? I'm comfortable right here." Looking around again, I saw the rat go to the monitors. Dinobot and Silverbolt were still standing where they were.

The other cat groaned. "Look, just… c'mon, ok? You've caused enough trouble today."

"Give me my katana back, and I'll be as obedient as a kitten." I said in an annoyingly sweet voice.

He glared. " Do I have to get Dinobot to help me? And he won't ask nicely."

"Give me my katana."

"No."

"Yes."

"I want it back! Now!"

"No."

I glared daggers at him, and stayed in my seat.

Cheetor groaned, then grabbed me by the arm.
"Come on! Just don't make a fuss about it and lets go!" He tried pulling me to my feet, while I tried pulling away.

Suddenly, I felt another arm pull at my arm, and another pulled Cheetor's arm off mine.

Looking up, I saw it was Silverbolt.

And he wasn't happy…

"Wha-? Bolt, leggo!" Cheetor yelped.

"You are obviously annoying the young lady, Cheetor. Give her back her sword, and she'll cooperate." He turned his animal looking head to me. "Won't you?"

I nodded. "Sure thing … I'm in no hurry to leave."

Reluctantly, Cheetor handed me back my katana. I reached for it, and accepted it with a nod. Slowly, Silverbolt released both of us.

"Now, Cheetor, I believe you were suppose to take her somewhere?" Silverbolt said, turning to leave.

"Yea," the other cheetah turned to me. "Lets go."

I put my katana away in my sub-space pocket as I followed him.

"So … what were you trying to do?"

Cheetor asked, looking over at me. Funny thing is, he was letting me walk freely, as if I were just another maximal.

I glanced over at him, then looked ahead again.

"If I didn't tell your leader, why would I go and tell you?" I sighed, then spoke again.

"Megatron sent me and another pred to put a virus into your system so that they could attack while your shields were down."

He stopped and blinked.

" Are you serious?"

I rolled my optics.

"No, I'm joking."

Why in the slag am I talking so easily!? I shouldn't be telling him this, I should be trying to escape!

He shrugged his shoulders, then motioned for me to step into a small circle.

"Oh no … no. I am not getting in one of those."

Before he could give a retort, the whole ship rocked from being hit by something.

Must be Megs.... took long enough.

Cheetor glared at me, and I just looked confused.

"C'mon, I'm taking you back up to the bridge."

I mock saluted.

"Yes sir." He groaned a bit … did I see a smile? … nah.

We reached the bridge, finally, to hear alarms blaring.

I heard someone tell me to go sit out of the way. I moved off, and surveyed to bridge for a way out.

The only real way out – besides blasting through the wall and possibly falling into the river-canyon, would be the doors.

The problem? The maximals stood between me, and any way out of here.

I guess its time for an explosion...unless I can sneak past them.

I guess sneaking past them would be best, cuz I don't really want to go and blow up their ship for no reason.

I was almost around them and to the lifts, when my wrist was – once again – grabbed.

Twisting around, I sighed. It was Cheetor.

"What is it with you? You just like to keep catching me or what?"

His yellow optics seemed to glow brightly in the dimly lit area. Slaggit! Almost out, and I get caught! Either this guy DOES watch me like a hawk, or I'm slacking off in the sneaky area.

"Why are you trying to leave?"

Duh. Go figure. "Because I want out of here."

He growled a bit, but didn't let me go.

Another blast came, knocking us to the floor. Taking the chance, I twisted my arm away, and backflipped out of his reach.

"Sorry, looks like we'll have to finish this game some other time kitty."

I went to beast mode, and went down the lift. As soon as it was low enough, I jumped off and glided down.

NightDawn and the ant, Inferno, saw me. "Queen! The drone is out of the enemy's base!"

But why am I going back?

To listen to Megatron rant and rave?

....Was I meant to actually be a predacon?

My processor whirls with all the strange thoughts I suddenly have. NightDawn calls, telling me to hurry up and get away from there.

"What in the Pits name were you thinking Sapphire? Did they make you talk or anything? What happened?"

I glanced at the older girl. "I was doing 'my mission', they did not get anything out of me, and other than that, just an ordinary infiltration day." If I could have, I would have crossed my fingers for saying, 'they didn't get anything out of me', but, since I was in Beast Mode, I couldn't.

Besides, its not like my name is that important.

"Well, lets get out of here. Megatron is not happy...with neither one of us."

The shooting from the maximal HQ and the other predacons continued for a while, then eventually died down; due to the predacons retreating - again.

---------Predacon Base

"All I ask is that the two of you go and do this simple task!!! AND YOU CAN'T EVEN DO THAT!!!!"

I sighed. This bot was a total moron; a psychotic one at that. But the psychotic-ness seemed to make him all the more dangerous.

NightDawn stood next to me, head bowed in shame.

"I am sorry sir, but we thought it would be easier if only one of us went ---"

He turned on the girl in his all-out rage. "You THOUGHT!? YOU DO NOT HAVE THE CAPACITY TO THINK! GET OUT OF HERE, THE BOTH OF YOU!!"

Without saying anything, the two of us left the room, and quickly. Megatron, to say the least, scared me when he was like that. I could tell he scared NightDawn too.

Going down the hall, I - more or less - ran straight into Quickstrike. The fuzor seemed to like flirting with any of the femmes he could.

"Hey dere suga' bot, what 're ya up too?"

Sneering, I pushed him out of my way. "None of your slottin' business."

Finally, I reached my room, and jumped up to the top bunk. I was so tired....

Was I meant to be a predacon? Or does Primus have other plans about me...?

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Well, whaddya think peeps? Review plz plz plz!!!

Tune in next time for "In the Raining Mist"