Chapter Five: The Weakest Link
Ramulus happen to be very high on himself as he strolled throughout his old plain on scout patrol. Ha ha! he thought to himself. I have friends…I am a Maximal! Wait…am I supposed to be happy about this?
For his first mission, he really wasn't paying much attention to actually scouting. Mostly he would walk around arrogantly, with his ram's head pointed high in the air. Now that he was officially a member of the Maximal fold, he felt as if he ranked higher than the birds in the trees, the fish in the sea, or even, the rams, gnawing on grass about a hundred yards away.
Ramulus happen to be heading directly toward them, but he had his eyes closed, a side effect of his megalomania. In fact, Ramulus slammed right into the side of one of the rams without even realizing it. "Huh?!" he yelled as he quickly backed away. But that was not satisfactory for the ram. The opposing ram snorted, causing dirt to fly up from the air and into Ramulus's eyes.
"Hey, there, bud," said Ramulus to his friend. "I didn't mean nothin' by it."
Of course, the ram understood none of this. It lowered its head and kicked the ground with its front right leg. "Oh, boy," muttered Ramulus. "I've really done it this time."
Far above Ramulus, perched on the mid-day sky, flew Waspinator, in beast mode at the moment. "Ooooo…" shrieked Waspinator. "Goaty-bot can't see Wassspinator. Wasssspinator has element of surprise!"
And so Waspinator began soaring towards the ground, where Ramulus was still arguing out of a fight with a ram. All he heard was, "WAAAAASSSSPPIIINNNATTTORRRR…..TERRORIZE!" and two shots fired before he was sprawled, spread-eagled on the ground, not moving. "Predacons," commanded Waspinator, "attack!"
Coming up out of the ground about ten meters from Ramulus came a beetle, Scarem, but he had a much different look that before. Instead of a normal beetle, he was a Transmetal 2. His pincers were long, razor-sharp and made out of a blue alloy. His torso was green, and his back was made up of two blue metal plates that came together along what would be his spine, if he was a vertebrate. He had six long, orange legs. His left eye looked like a normal beetle's eye, except red, but it was his left eye that defined him. It was twisted, made up of three small compound eyes, and glaring scarlet. A long scar was slashed through it, leaving an open scab. Upon seeing Ramulus on the ground, temporarily flustered, Scarem opened his pincers away from each other, revealed a crooked smile with orange, scraggly teeth. "Ahhh….my old friend…." He snickered. His voice was a cold one, with a growl to it.
Ramulus managed to turn his head enough to see Scarem. "You!" he shouted. "How…how can you be here?"
Scarem sighed. "Oh, dear old Ramulus, it was the most wonderful feeling…" he growled. "Imagine being on the brink of death, a most wonderful thing in itself, but then having life fueled back into you. It's ecstasy, my friend."
"You…were resurrected?" asked Ramulus.
"Indeed," cried Scarem. "And in the process my master gave me a brand new body to use…and use it I will…to bring about your death. Scarem…terrorize."
His blue metal back plates split, and became shoulderpads. His pincers transformed into arms, and his robot form was revealed. His chest was a green organic texture. A blood-red metal plate lay in the center. His head was the same organic texture, a verdecal color. His eyes were glowing crimson, but neither was like the beast mode's left one. Similar to his former form, he had two nubby horns coming out of the top of his forehead. He had no mouth, simply a ridge of metal plates where his mouth should be, coming up in a rectangle that was taller than wide.
"Say, Ramulus, I think you should have a good look at this new body I sport before you die, eh?" asked Scarem sarcastically. His equivalent to a mouth shook with every word.
Suddenly, Ramulus leapt up from the air and shouted, "Eat slag, you sniveling little bug. Ramulus, maximize!!!"
Scarem was too quick for his tactic. While Ramulus was transforming, Scarem grabbed a laser pistol from behind his back and shot three times at the transforming ram. He flew backwards, away from Scarem and towards Waspinator. When he hit the ground, now in full robot mode, his horned weapon fell out of his hand and several meters from his body.
Waspinator landed to the ground beside Ramulus. "Beety-bot take Waspeenator's orders well. Beety-bot now retreat and let Wassspinator finish him!"
"I don't seem to think that that will happen," said a mysterious voice. Both Waspinator and Scarem turned to see what it was. It was Sonar, now in his new robotic form.
Two wings protruded on his back, both a dark-gray color with light-brown hair scattered on them. His chest was made up of a red plate that came up into three points at the top. His arms were long and had the same texture as his wings. Each arm ended with only two sharp claws, a thumb and a finger that curved over towards the thumb. His legs seemed thin and weak compared with his upper body. His head had two long ears stretching up, doubling the height of his face. His eyes were similar to Scarem's, except glowing green. Unlike Scarem, he had a mouth, full of broken, damaged-to-black teeth. The most noticeable feature of Sonar was his size; while Scarem stood to the height of nearly two meters, Sonar would be lucky to be measured one. He was less than half the height of Ramulus.
Scarem got the message, and blasted Waspinator with his gun. Waspinator was thrown backwards and onto the ground. "Finish the wasp…" cried Scarem and Sonar.
Sonar seemed shocked by this request. In fact, Sonar did nothing but stand there on the ground.
Even Ramulus, now regaining his senses, was wondering exactly what Sonar was planning on doing. "What are you doing?!" shrieked Scarem. "Blast him to scrap!"
But still, Sonar stood there, still. "BAH! Useless bat! Die, wasp, die!"
By the time Scarem had re-aimed his laser pistol at Waspinator, the victim was already in beast mode, flying away because of fear. And Ramulus was left by himself, with just Scarem and Sonar there to finish him.
"Hmm…Ramulus is late with his report."
Rhinox was left with Optimus in the Command Center of the Ark. Just a few solar cycles before, it seemed that the Beast Wars were rapidly coming to an end. But now, it seemed that the road to peace had just been sidetracked by the coming of Ramulus, and the near-destruction of them by the Vok. Rhinox then added to his previous statement, "He was due near ten cycles ago."
"Contact him on his com-link," ordered Optimus, who now stumbled over towards Rhinox's station.
Pressing several buttons on the panel, Rhinox spoke in his clearest tone, "Ramulus, come in. You're late with his report." The only heard on the other end was static.
"Oh, dear," said Optimus. "Looks like we got trouble. Where were his last known coordinates?"
Rhinox typed in a few more characters, and a graphic showing his trail appeared on the screen. "He's still online, remaining still at coordinates 9,4,8. I wonder why he doesn't answer his com-link."
"I'll head over there now, and see what's up. Patch a trail through my scanners so if he moves I'll know where to. Then I'll teach him how to use his com-link right."
"Seeya," said Rhinox, and he continued to type away at the screen.
He continued typing until Optimus had left through the blast doors, and then he pressed a green button in the upper right corner of his panel. The screen estimating all of the units' report times blanked off, and a screen with the words "Predacon Buster 2" written in Cybertronian appeared.
"What would I do without Rattrap?" Rhinox asked himself as he selected his playable character. He had just had Rattrap imput Tigerhawk and Ramulus as playable characters that morning. He began the first level playing as Tigerhawk.
"Ha ha…take that Waspinator slag," he shouted at the screen as he concocted a tornado to sweep Waspinator's screaming carcass away and into the Cyber-junkyard. Suddenly, the screen turned off and appeared Cheetor's face. Rhinox pretended that nothing had ever happened. "What?" he asked, sounding rather annoyed.
"Nothing sighted, Big R," said Cheetor. "I'll be headin' back to base. See you in a nanoclick. Is bigbot there?"
"Nope," answered Rhinox. "Ramulus didn't come in with his first report. He didn't respond on his com-link. Optimus went out to find him and teach him how."
"Gotcha. Be right over."
And the com-link turned off, and Rhinox continued forging pieces of Waspinator into a fake target.
"Why did you not destroy the wasp when you had the chance?" asked Scarem.
Sonar stared straight at his friend, and said nothing.
"Why?"
Nothing.
"Why do you not answer me, bat?" Scarem's eyes began to glow more as more and more anger fueled through his body.
"I…lack a weapon," Sonar finally responded. He sulked his head, down at Ramulus.
Scarem looked serious for a moment, then burst out laughing. He grabbed Sonar's arm to hold himself up. Sonar continued to look serious, but then managed to bring out a chuckle just to fit in. Scarem then tried to get out words. "You…you said…you don't…" (laugh) "have a weapon?" He continued to laugh.
Sonar sighed, wondering why Scarem thought this to be the slightest bit humorous. "No," he simply answered.
As they continued to joke, Ramulus knew he had no opportunity to move, because Scarem (not Sonar) would simply blast him to oblivion. So he continued to wait, looking up at them from his view on the ground. Until finally, a small black cylinder came to them. "Huh?" cried Scarem.
The black cylinder hovered about a meter away, before revealing a hologram of Megatron's head. "Ah, my new troops. I see you have already captured one of them. But also attacked one of my own."
"Yes, my lord," said Scarem. "He was endangering our mission."
Megatron chuckled. "No doubt he was. At any rate, I wish that this Maximal be destroyed immediately and without mercy. According to Waspinator's report, you, Scarem are quite formidable. Now, my new unit Sonar, I wish that you immediately destroy this Maximal."
Like Sonar had already done before to Scarem, he stood there, without any response.
"Do not disobey me, bat," cried Megatron after several millicycles of this. "I wish that the enemy be destroyed quickly. Now do it!"
Scarem answered for Sonar. "I'm afraid, my lord, that Sonar, when created by your great and wonderful technology, lacked any sort of bodily weapon."
Megatron glared at Sonar for a moment, then, like Scarem had, burst into a fit of laughter. "Made…without…a…haha…weapon…" he chuckled.
"So I see. I'm afraid, Sonar, that you are meant to be a Predacon. If fate be it that you lack a weapon, then fate be it. Scarem, I wish that you make Sonar…just go away and never return. I hope you know what that means. Then destroy the Maximal."
And the hologram faded, and the black cylinder flew away. Sonar and Scarem were left staring at each other. For nearly three stellar cycles, they had been with each other, and for two of those, been fighting against Ramulus. They had come to appreciate each other a great deal.
"Brother…" said Sonar, "…please…no…"
Scarem faced a difficult decision. Either he destroy Sonar, and betray his friend, or let Sonar live, and forever be an outcast of the Predacons.
Ramulus was quite happy by all of this. He was left to just lay there, and watch as his eternal enemies had to either betray each other or both of them would be outcasts by Megatron.
"I am loyal to Megatron," said Scarem. Sonar's face then morphed into a great gaspy look, with his eyes wide open. Scarem then sunk his head, and muttered, "But I am also loyal to my friend."
Sonar looked at his friend, and knew that he must be going through a great deal. While Sonar had been resurrected to serve Megatron, he knew that his true loyalties would always lie with his friend, and he prayed that it would be the same case with Scarem.
Finally, after several cycles of this unnatural wait, Scarem finally spoke. "Run," was all he spoke. Until he finally added, "I am programmed to not disobey Megatron. But my spark cannot come to destroy you. Megatron ordered me to make you go away. I can make you do that. Run, Scarem, far away. You are new to these wars, but you must not remain here. Megatron feels as if you are the weakest link to his chain. It is not your fault. Run, and I will dispose of the Maximal. Do you understand?"
Sonar was touched my his friend's kindness. Though both were Predacons, Scarem happen to be quite kind and gentle when it came to his best friend. While darkness filled their sparks, they had a soft spark for each other. "Goodbye, my friend. Beast mode."
Sonar's beast mode was made of the same organic material as Scarem's, except dark gray, with the same brown hair scattered. His bathead was made up of a red metal. His eyes were the same color green.
Sonar looked at his friend, Scarem, and then turned. He never even saw the laser blast before it hit him square in the head.
He fell quickly to the ground, squeaking and squawking because of the pain. Both Ramulus and Scarem looked to see who had set loose the blast, and standing there was a character that Ramulus failed to recognize, but Scarem knew who it was. It was Inferno, in a new Transmetal 2 body.
What was his abdomen split apart to form shoulderpads. His beast mode's torso formed his chest, silver with a red jewel encrusted in the center. An ant's head formed his waist, with two large, strong legs coming out the bottom. His ant's legs were behind the rest of his body, like Tarantulas's were and Blackarachnia's are.
"The royalty will not like this…" he said in his unusual, sneering voice. His mouth was similar to Scarem's, and it also moved up and down when he spoke. "You betray the ROYALTY!"
"Sonar!" cried Scarem. He dashed over as fast as he could to his fallen friend's side. And there, seeing his only companion shriek in pain, hate fueled through Scarem's veins. The only person he could possibly hurt right now was standing there in front of him, with a blaster in his hand.
Ramulus was just now getting up on his feet, now that both Scarem and Sonar had left his side. He could simply dash off at this moment, but he was quite anxious to see what was going to happen. That was when Optimus soared in beside him.
"Monkey?" said Ramulus.
"Yes, Ramulus," answered Optimus. "What's going on here?"
And so Ramulus started from the beginning. As Ramulus spoke, Scarem began his assault on Inferno. Inferno's eyes expanded to a much bigger size as Scarem leaped through the air. Inferno fell to the ground, with Scarem on top of him. "Die, you slaggin' piece of positron!!!" cried Scarem.
"Should we leave them to this?" asked Optimus, looking at Ramulus.
"Well, even though I'm looking forward to see how this is gonna turn out, yeah, we better go. I'll follow on the ground."
The last thing they saw before they turned back happened to be not Scarem on top of Inferno, but Scarem lying on the ground, hurt, and Inferno ripping Sonar limb from limb.
By the time Ramulus and Optimus had returned to the Ark, Rattrap, Cheetor, Depth Charge, Blackarachnia, Silverbolt, and Tigerhawk had all returned from their patrols. Rhinox was the first to ask a question. "So what happened?"
And, for the second time, Ramulus had to explain the entire situation to them, starting from when Waspinator first fired a few shots at him. "..and so Optimus arrived, and we left."
"I've never seen it before," Optimus continued. "I have never seen Predacons act in such an altogether 'kind' manner to each other."
"Well, I have been fighting with them for a long time," said Ramulus. "They have a strange, mutual camaraderie with each other. Scarem is nasty, but he's relatively soft-hearted when it comes to Sonar. Sonar isn't as bad, but he can still be extremely cruel. They both love it. They love being cruel even more when they do it together. They may have been created to serve Megatron, but they live more for each other. It's a weird thing. Of course…I don't like for all of you or anything."
"Of course not," remarked Rattrap.
The Darkside II was in awe when Inferno arrived back with a Sonar's red metal chest-pad and all of Scarem, but incapacitated. Megatron greatly wondered what had gone on. Inferno informed him of the situation.
"I assumed that the two traitors were planning to overthrow the colony. I had to dispose of both of them. I did it for the glory of the royalty. Unfortunately, the beetle you did not ask to be destroyed. I have him here as a gift personally for you, my queen. As for Sonar…I have managed to bring proof of his destruction."
Megatron smiled and grabbed Scarem's body. "No doubt you did what you did with intentions to further…the glory of…the colony." He shuddered.
"Wassspinator happy to see batbot and beety-bot offline, oooo!!"
The Darkside II was nearly 100% complete. It featured chambers for every Predacon, including 2 others, for reasons that Megatron would not speak of. The Command Center could access surveillance monitors for all parts of the base, and the perimeter up to about 1000 meters. They had set up Sentinel. They had managed to reprogram it for a deflector shield that would support a cave base instead of a ship base.
After realizing exactly what had gone on that day, Megatron's temporary happiness faded. "It seems my attempt to create loyalty has quickly disintegrated into something as disgusting as friendship. However, even though his first loyalty is to his friend, Scarem is still one of my troops. Now that Sonar is gone, I shall be his only master."
The sun had set on another awkward day of the Beast Wars. Silverbolt and Blackarachnia were just now patrolling a small perimeter of the Ark before they locked up for the night. As they began to tiredly stagger towards the door to shut down for the night, a sound they heard suddenly made them aware that they weren't the only ones staggering.
They turned, and saw a small robot stumbling towards them. While neither of them knew exactly who this unit was, they had an idea when two of the Ark's autoguns raised up from their hiding place and the computer said, "Predacon unit detected."
They began to fire, Silverbolt, seeing that this unit met them no harm, told Teletran 1 to shut down autoguns.
The combatant lurching towards them had long ears perched on the top of his ugly face. However, the face was even more beat-up by battle. His chest was open, with many power cords and computer chips hanging out. Behind all of this vestige Silverbolt and Blackarachnia could barely manage to see the hint of the dark red spark. The thing about this soldier that caught their attention the most was his size; Blackarachnia was nearly a half meter taller than this creature. By the description, Blackarachnia was the first to say something to it.
"Are you Sonar?"
And the robot collapsed in her arms.
BEAST WARS! More exciting action (Maximize!) with your favorite 3D Transformers (Prime Jets…On!) (Wow…Cool…) On the next exciting adventure of…Beast Wars…with 3D action!
TO BE CONTINUED IN….Uh, I haven't thought of a title yet.
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