Beast Wars and all characters and things related are copyright and trademark of Hasbro and Mainframe Entertainment. This work, however, is the original work of the author.
Note: This story takes place shortly after "The Battle in the Valley".
Beyond Earth, Chapter 3
By TVfan
Prehistoric Earth
Optimus dove down toward the trees below them with Cheetor close behind. Intense laser fire followed from behind them as Megatron fired his tail gun and Ravage fired his ship's main weapons.
"How'd Megabutt talk himself out of that cell?" Cheetor muttered as he avoided a very near miss.
"It's like Rattrap said," Opitmus growled to himself, "You can't trust a 'slagging Decepticon'."
"It isn't your fault," Cheetor replied.
"We're going to pay for it though," Optimus answered as he turned to fire on the ship.
Meanwhile on the ship's bridge, Ravage continued to fire on the two Maximals, even as they descended below the tree line.
"If they think they can escape that way, they are dead wrong," Ravage muttered as the Decepticon changed his ship's weapon settings to begin carpet bombing the forest.
"You won't hit them that way," Rampage pointed out from behind him.
Ravage turned in his chair and backhanded the crab.
"Do not question what I do," Ravage commanded, "Besides, we can drive them into open terrain this way. Which is in about one thousand meters."
"Man dat two timin'…" Rattrap began as he, Dinobot, and Rapther ran to stop Ravage's ship.
"Save your breath for Ravage," Dinobot growled, "We must find his ship first."
"Why didn't they attack with the cloaking field up?" Rapther questioned.
"To make a statement," Dinobot snarled, "Let us know that 'helping us' was never part of Ravage's plan."
Maximal Base
Rhinox sat at the monitors waiting patiently for any word from the patrol teams. Suddenly the radio came to live as Optimus's frenzied voice was heard over it.
"Optimus Primal to Maximal Command Base, come in," Optimus yelled.
"This is Rhinox," the green and brown transformer answered, "What's your status."
"Bad to worse," Optimus replied, "Dinobot and Rattrap were right about Ravage. Him and Megatron are chasing Cheetor and I south by southwest through Gamma Sector."
Rhinox shuffled to a nearby computer screen that showed the location of any nearby Maximal units on its screen.
"Dinobot, Rapther, and Rattrap are headed your way," Rhinox warned, "Be careful who you shoot at, and be sure to warn them."
"Actually they warned us," Optimus interrupted.
"Ah-ha," Rhinox sighed, "Silverbolt is also about two thousand meters away from you in the direction that you're moving."
"And that will mean Blackarachnia as well," Optimus sighed, "We may need her help anyway. Hopefully Silverbolt's ideas about changing her were successful."
Rhinox quietly nodded, "I'm placing base defenses on auto, and I'll be there as fast as I can. Rhinox out."
Rhinox then hurried from the command room, and after stuffing his Gatling guns into his internal weapons compartment, changed to his beast mode and lumbered out of the base.
Elsewhere
"Why are we here?" Silverbolt asked.
"I downloaded the information from the Golden Disks into my own hard drive," Blackarachnia answered, "Well, Megatron's copies anyway. According to their records there is something buried here of great importance."
"Something to help you or the Predicons?" Silverbolt asked.
"Why to help me," Blackarachnia smiled, "I intend to use this to rule the Predicons."
"But why?" Silverbolt asked, "You were a Maximal once. Why involve yourself with Megatron and the Predicons? Why do you even continue to fight us when the war is over?"
"Because, you sap, as I said before," Blackarachnia said harshly, "I like who I am. I won't change that. And you know full well that your bossy monkey won't have me back unless I have my mind erased of who I am."
"No Maximal would do something like that," Silverbolt protested.
"Maximals created Rampage," Blackarachnia pointed out, "Just as Dinobot can be an 'honorable Predicon' there are Maximals who are devilishly evil."
"Optimus isn't like that," Silverbolt said.
Blackarachnia turned and kicked Silverbolt to the ground. The fuzor only looked up at her as she stood over him.
"Listen dog-boy, I don't know why I haven't slagged you yet," Blackarachnia said sternly, "But I haven't. If you want me TO kill you, keep trying to persuade me to join your little Maximal buddies. If not, either go away or shut up and help me."
"I'll help," Silverbolt said weakly.
The Jungle
Cheetor dodged another heavy laser shot fired by Ravage's ship.
"This is getting old quick," Cheetor commented angrily.
"He's driving us," Optimus commented, "Rhinox said that Dinobot and the others are coming are way, but we don't know how long it will take them to get here."
The two transmetals then suddenly flew out of the jungle and into a large open area full of huge boulders. Ravage's ship and Megatron began firing more directly on them and they had to work more to get away.
"Take cover among the rocks!" Optimus ordered, "We can at least fire back from there."
Megatron scowled as Primal and Cheetor took cover among the large boulders of the region. Ravage's ship could no longer provide massive amounts of firepower on them. The stealth technology was still an option, but Megatron had commanded the revived Decepticon to provide enough power to the weapons that any direct hit would be lethal. That took power away from the cloaking technology.
"Circle around their position," Megatron commanded into his radio to Ravage, "All other Predicons prepare for battle."
"What of the weapons power levels?" Ravage asked.
"I want them at full power," Megatron commanded, "I want Optimus Primal and the cat dead by the time this battle is over."
Meanwhile, inside the ship, Rampage and Quickstrike gathered or armed their weapons and moved out to opening cargo ramp at the back of Ravage's ship. Rampage crushed several rocks as the transmetal crab landed on the ground.
"Ya can set me down now," Quickstrike yelled at him from the side.
The crab's optics narrowed at Quickstrike before he threw the fuzor forward several feet.
"Don't tell me what to do," Rampage warned as he pulled out his rocket launcher and began firing at Optimus and Cheetor's position.
Quickstrike soon joined him in firing blasts from the blaster built into his snake head that served as one arms in robot mode. Both Predicons watched the figure of Megatron land opposite them on the other side of Optimus and Cheetor.
At Cheetor and Optimus's position they found themselves being fired on from two sides.
"Great," Cheetor muttered as he tried to fire a round at Quickstrike, "Surrounded and out gunned."
Elsewhere
Silverbolt and Blackarachnia had been removing rocks for several hours straight, and in relative quiet. Silverbolt was mostly trying to figure out a way to get Blackarachnia to join the Maximals. Blackarachnia was intent on finding what was on the other end of the large pile of rocks. Neither noticed the flash of smoke and fire going on to their northeast or the fact that it was starting to get dark.
"Tired already?" Blackarachnia asked, "We're nearing some sort of cavern. These rocks don't go on forever."
"I was just thinking," Silverbolt answered as he threw the rock down into the gorge bellow them.
"Quit thinking and keep working," Blackarachnia insisted.
Silverbolt only sighed and went back to work.
The Battle Zone
Dinobot and his group were the first to emerge from the forest toward the battle zone. The raptor snarled as he saw the situation. Optimus and Cheetor were pinned down among rocks with Ravage's ship circling overhead and firing down on them. Megatron was on one side of the two Maximals and Rampage and Quickstrike were on the other.
"Preds got 'em in a crossfire," Rattrap commented.
"It's the ship that's their real asset," Rapther pointed out, "Quickstrike is not a good fighter. Rattrap could beat him up without his gun."
Dinobot nodded, "We must deal with the ship first. Thankfully Megatron's arrogance has played into our hand. He won't let Ravage power the weapons down to use the cloaking device. Which also means the ship's shields will not withstand much of an attack."
"What's your plan, Lizard lips?" Rattrap asked.
Dinobot pointed at the engine exhaust ports at the rear of Ravage's ship.
"When Ravage makes his next pass, we fire on the engine pods," Dinobot instructed, "My optics lasers and Rattrap's blaster will take out the ship's shields, while Rapther's rockets will destroy the engines. Ravage will lose control and the ship will crash."
"It wasn't like Ravage was gonna take us home anyway," Rattrap chuckled as he pulled out his blaster, "I'm ready."
Dinobot began powering up his optics and yelled, "On three!"
Rapther readied her rocket launchers.
"One!"
Rattrap pointed his gun toward Ravage's ship.
"Two!"
Dinobot turned his head in the same direction as Rattrap's gun.
"Three!"
All three transformers fired in unison. After her first blast, Rapther added a second volley of rockets to follow the others.
Megatron paused his firing to see thin streaks of green laser energy, six rockets, and three laser blast pulses fly through the air. To the Predicon tyrant's surprise, the blasts burned through the shields of Ravages ship, and then six more rockets hit the engines. The ship immediately began smoking and losing altitude. He then turned to see Dinobot, Rapther, and Rattrap charging out of the jungle behind him.
"NO!" Megatron yelled in frustration.
Ravage meanwhile found himself in a much more dangerous situation. Panels displayed warning signs in bright red lights as one propulsion or stabilizer system failed. He tried frantically to boost power, but found he could not.
"Blast Megatron and his 'power the weapons orders'," Ravage cursed as he moved toward the rear of the ship and lifted a large metal box that contained the various pieces of Tarantulus and leaped out of the ship.
Ravage landed somewhat roughly and he could hear Tarantulus mutter something from inside the box. But Ravage felt content to even be alive as his ship flew off and crashed into a nearby rock formation, and then explode.
Megatron growled as his fortune had now gone so sour so quickly. Dinobot, Rapther, and Rattrap had him under heavy fire and he couldn't fire on Optimus or Cheetor without leaving himself open. On the other side, Optimus and Cheetor were now driving Rampage and Quickstrike back, now that Megatron and the stealth ship weren't pinning them down among the rocks.
"Retreat!" Megatron yelled transforming to his vehicle mode, "Retreat!"
Dinobot watched as Megatron took off into the darkening sky and as Quickstrike and Rampage took off. The three newly arrived Maximals joined with Optimus around the same area where Optimus and Cheetor had earlier been pinned down.
"Is that the last of them?" Cheetor asked.
"I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't," Optimus sighed before turning toward Dinobot and the others, "I'm afraid I owe you an apology. I nearly got us all killed."
"You wished to return to Cybertron with your crew," Dinobot answered, "As is the goal of most starship commanders, and you are not at fault. Decepticons are called DECEPTICONS for a reason. Deception is their game."
"Not that I ain't gonna hold ya to this," Rattrap blurted.
Optimus groaned and Dinobot promptly whacked Rattrap in the head. Shortly thereafter, Rhinox came up to the group.
"Well, the gang's all here," Rhinox commented.
"All except Silverbolt," Optimus said, "We should get him."
"He's about a thousand meters in that direction," Rhinox replied pointed.
Elsewhere, Megatron and the Predicons stood in their own small circle.
"I was so close!" Megatron roared blasting a rock with his tail gun.
"And still you managed to lead us to defeat!" Rampage challenged.
Megatron in his own anger produced the energon cage and put immediate pressure on it, bringing Rampage to his knees.
"And I do not need to hear that word from you," Megatron growled.
"Then perhaps you'll hear it from me," Ravage challenged, "Your orders to devote nearly all of my ship's power to its weapons made cloaking impossible and weakened the shields to where our own personal weapons could easily break them. Three Maximals came and broke the ship's shields and then took out my ship. I don't know how much of the original Megatron's plans you're following, but he would not have left our chances of winning so dreadfully thin."
Megatron scowled at the black transmetal. Quickstrike stumbled back six steps, muttering "Uh-oh."
"We are not defeated yet," Megatron warned as he lifted Ravage into the air, "If you question my plans and my orders… plans and orders that come from the ORIGINAL Megatron… I will have you scrapped."
Megatron then looked at the recovering Rampage, "And I'm sure the crab will be more than willing to do so."
"Royalty!" came Inferno's voice from behind and above them.
Megatron's head turned to see the ant and Waspinator come in for a landing.
"I trust you have completed your mission?" Megatron asked.
"Yes, my Queen," Inferno answered, "Both stasis pods have been moved to your secret facility."
"Good," Megatron smiled.
"Also, scanners on Darkside find female spider-bot," Waspinator said in his buzzing voice, "She with unknown Maximal in that direction."
Megatron followed the direction in which Waspinator was pointing and something he remembered from his own training days came back to him. The Predicon leader smiled and dropped Ravage.
"Inferno, you will take this box back to base," Megatron commanded, "Do not open it. There is someone I wish to deal with personally in it."
"At once, my Queen," Inferno bowed and lifted the box before taking off into the sky.
"Having gender problems, Megatron?" Ravage asked.
"The ant is insane," Megatron answered, then turning to Waspinator and producing a small device from inside a compartment in one of his shoulders, "Waspinator, you will take this device to where Blackarachnia is located. Do not press the blue button until I tell you to do so. Report in when you get there."
"Yes, Megatron," Waspinator answered and flew off.
"And what are we gonna do, bossbot?" Quickstrike asked.
"We will follow Waspinator and deal with any of the Maximals who get in our way," Megatron smiled evilly.
Optimus and his group were slowly walking toward the location that Rhinox told them that Silverbolt was at, when suddenly Waspinator streaked across the night sky, miles ahead of them.
"What's he up to?" Cheetor asked, "Haven't they caused us enough trouble?"
"Whatever it is, it can't be good," Rattrap commented.
"And he's headed straight for where Silverbolt is," Optimus said, shifting to his vehicle mode, "Cheetor, come with me. We got to get there as quickly as possible. The rest of you, follow behind me."
Elsewhere
Blackarachnia and Silverbolt had finished moving the rocks to uncover a large cavern. Blackarachnia marveled at the cave itself while Silverbolt gazed out at the night sky.
"What are you looking at?" Blackarachnia asked.
"That star, well… planet really," Silverbolt replied, "It's Venus. It reminds me of you."
Blackarachnia looked at the far off planet and laughed, "Hot, poisonous, and deadly? You're sweet."
"That's not what I meant," Silverbolt began to protest.
"You're still sweet," Blackarachnia smiled, "Come on. We got a little cave exploring to do."
"What do you think is in there?" Silverbolt asked.
"I don't think," Blackarachnia corrected, "I know. And it's for you to find out."
The two transformers walked down the long passageway that the cave formed. As they finally came up to the end of the cavern they found another large pile of rock rubble blocking their path. These rocks were much looser and Blackarachnia could make out light coming through from the other side.
"We're at the end!" Blackarachnia exclaimed, "Now all we need to do…"
Silverbolt pulled her aside.
"I can handle this," Silverbolt interrupted aiming his wings at the rocks and then firing his feather grenades.
The rocks exploded into tiny fragments and dust full from the cave roof as Silverbolt's grenades destroyed the rock wall.
Blackarachnia stepped forward to get out of the dust and coughing asked, "What is it with males and high explosives?"
"A way to show off?" Silverbolt laughed weakly, and was about to continue when he suddenly gasped what he saw.
Laying half buried by rock was a massive golden spaceship, larger by far than the Maximal base, the Axalon, or the Predicon base, the Darkside. Maybe even larger than both bases combined. And unlike the other two bases, this was pretty much in tact.
"By the Matrix, what is that?" Silverbolt gasped.
"That bowser boy," Blackarachnia explained, "Is the ARK!"
"I've only heard legends," Silverbolt said in awe.
"It is more than a legend," Blackarachnia laughed, "Your ancestors, the Autobots, launched this Ark long ago." Blackarachnia paused and then added in a disgusted tone, "Containing their finest heroes."
"But the Ark was attacked by the Decepticons and crashed here," Blackarachnia explained before a large rumbling interrupted them.
"This ground is unstable," Silverbolt noted.
"Well, DUH," Blackarachnia retorted, "It's a volcano. When it explodes, our ancestors inside the Ark will awaken and begin the Great War."
"Then its power is immense," Silverbolt commented stepping toward the ship.
Blackarachnia was about to answer when a buzzing voice interrupted her.
"And it belongs to Megatron!" Waspinator announced firing two shots that knocked Blackarachnia and Silverbolt to ground. The wasp then chuckled at his success, "Oh, Waspinator got them!"
Silverbolt and Blackarachnia watched in shock as Waspinator then activated his com-link to the rest of the Predicons.
"Waspinator to Megatron," Waspinator responded, "Doggybot and spider have entered cave. Waspinator has then covered."
"How reassuring, yes," Megatron's voice echoed over the radio, "Do you remember the device I gave you?"
Blackarachnia's black optics widened as Waspinator pulled a small device out from a hidden compartment. She knew what was in that device.
"Yes," Waspinator answered.
"Press the blue button now," Megatron commanded.
"Waspinator obey," the wasp answered.
"NO!" Blackarachnia yelled as she leaped forward to stop the other Predicon.
But she was too late. Waspinator pressed the button, and just as soon as he did so, the device produced a small energon crystal. The crystal then exploded the device sending blue sparks in all directions. Waspinator, Blackarachnia, and Silverbolt, all in robot mode, began to convulse in waves of pain.
"Energon wave!" Blackarachnia exclaimed.
"Beast mo-," Silverbolt tried to command, but blacked out before hand.
The Maximals…
"I can see Megatron and others," Cheetor commented, "They're going into some sort of cave up ahead. What can that mean Optimus?"
"It means we're in trouble," Optimus answered.
The Cave Entrance
Megatron turned to Ravage, Rampage, and Quickstrike and looked at them directly.
"I will enter the cave and deal with the dog and Miss Arachnia," Megatron commanded, "You will remain out here to make sure no Maximal can gain access."
Rampage readied his weapon, "So long as I get to kill something."
Megatron nodded and entered the cave. After a few steps, Megatron turned and fired his tail gun at the rock ceiling behind him. The cave rumbled and a large pile of rocks fell, blocking the entrance. Megatron only smiled and continued. He found Blackarachnia, Silverbolt, and Waspinator all offline, lying on the ground. The Predicon tyrant removed a small device from inside his chest compartment and pointed it at Blackarachnia and pressed the button. Then Megatron continued toward the Ark.
Blackarachnia awoke to hear Megatron muse, "Ah, the Ark. So this is what your little traitorous mind was thinking of. Very interesting."
Blackarachnia snickered as Megatron was pushed back by the Ark's defensive fields.
"Shame you don't have the access codes from the disk," Blackarachnia commented.
"Oh, but I do," Megatron smiled as he turned to face her, "you downloaded the codes from my datatrax before you destroyed them. Didn't you?"
Megatron lifted his tail gun and began to power it up.
"I'm not going to give it to you," Blackarachnia said defiantly, "And if you kill me, you won't have the information anyway."
"Who said I was targeting you?" Megatron questioned as his tail gun came to full power and aimed at the offline Silverbolt, "Produce the codes or your little Labrador Lancelot will be blown to bits."
Blackarachnia only looked nervously at the offline Maximal.
Outside
Optimus and Cheetor landed to come under fire from Rampage, Quickstrike, and Ravage.
"Prime," Optimus commented, "Just what we need."
Cheetor fired three quick shots, while Optimus tried to target more carefully.
"Be careful Cheetor," Optimus warned, "We don't want to destroy the cave in doom Silverbolt."
"I'm more concerned about us," Cheetor commented as he ducked under a shot fired by Ravage.
Cheetor fired again, and his blasts luckily hit Quickstrike in the chest, blowing the fuzor into the rocks behind him. The others soon arrived behind them. Ravage took several hits from Rhinox's Gatling guns and Rattrap's blaster and fell offline, while Rampage was hit by Dinobot's lasers, Cheetor's blaster, Optimus's blasters, and Rapther's rockets. The large crab soon fell offline as well. As the smoke cleared, the rocks that were piled up in front of the cave entrance had been blown away.
"Lucky the cave didn't collapse," Rapther commented as she looked at the cracks in the rock from all the laser and missile explosions.
"Come on," Optimus waved to the others as he ran in, "We've got to stop Megatron."
Inside
"Kill him," Blackarachnia said calmly, "I don't care. The Maximals are probably close behind you. It'll be a waste of ammunition."
"True," Megatron smiled, as he readied to fire, "But I get to remove myself of one of my little problems."
Megatron fired. The blast hit Silverbolt's wing and blew it clean off, and sent the fuzor back ten feet. Megatron readied his weapon again and aimed for the other wing.
"The code," Megatron commanded coldly.
Blackarachnia turned her head as the sound of Optimus and the other Maximals working their way through another of Megatron's barriers reached her audio sensors.
"The code," Megatron commanded, increasing the power in his tail gun.
Just as Megatron prepared to fire, Blackarachnia finally turned and yelled, "Wait!"
Megatron smiled, "I knew you'd come around."
Outside
Dinobot threw another large rock back toward the entrance as the Maximals continued to work their way through large barriers that Megatron had left in their path. After what seemed like hours of work, they had finally got it thin enough that a blast wouldn't bring the whole cave down on them. Optimus was the one who fired on the barrier. The Maximals then entered the large cavern with a mixed look of shock and surprise.
"The Ark…" Dinobot said slowly.
"It can't be," Cheetor exclaimed.
"We're in for it now," Rattrap pointed out, "If Megabutt's gotten in there with Blackarachnia, they could blow us to bits."
"But the Ark was built for the Autobots," Rapther said, "As cybertronians evolved, we've become smaller but still more powerful. No Predicon or Maximal could operate the controls."
"Not all Autobots or Decepticons were as big as Optimus Prime or the original Megatron," Optimus answered, "We've got to get Megatron out of there before…"
Optimus was cut off as one of the Ark's plasma cannons turned and fired on the Maximals. Optimus and the others dove for cover. As Optimus moved to try and get closer, his foot bumped into the offline body of Silverbolt.
"Silverbolt?!" Optimus exclaimed, and then said weakly, "I told you she was deceiving you."
Dinobot came closer and examined the damage done to the fuzor.
"He is offline from some sort of energon surge," Dinobot reported, "If Blackarachnia were nearby she would have been a victim of the same device. And such a device could only operated by a transformer in its robot mode. Blackarachnia would put herself offline to deal with Silverbolt. Waspinator is over there and in the same condition."
"What are you saying?" Optimus questioned.
"I don't think the spider betrayed him," Dinobot said, "The damage done to his wings was done by an energy weapon, like my optics lasers… or Megatron's tail gun."
Rattrap meanwhile muttered, "It's going to be one tough eviction."
Inside the Ark
Blackarachnia slowly worked the control consoles that were built for the smaller transformers, which were probably killed when the Ark landed. Megatron stood smiling behind her.
"Excellent," Megatron smiled, "That will keep them busy, yes."
Megatron then turned to leave.
"Where are you going?" Blackarachnia asked.
"Optimus is no fool," Megatron answered, "He will find away to break past the ship's defenses in time. I intend to forge a more… permanent solution before he does so."
Outside
"We can't blast through the shield," Rhinox said, "These ships were built to house a tremendous amount of power and use it far more efficiently then anything we have."
"Target the plasma cannon!" Optimus yelled, "Perhaps if we get it to backblast, we can get close enough to get in."
"That takes me and Rhinox out," Rapther growled as she ducked down, "Only energy weapons could do that! We'll move to get the door open once you blow up the gun."
Dinobot the others turned to firing on the powerful cannon. Slowly and surely, the cannon's own fire began to inch backward toward the barrel itself. Soon after, the cannon suddenly exploded from the backblast, and Rhinox and Rapther ran forward to work the door.
Inside the Ark
The Maximal change in tactics caused the weapons console to spark and eventually explode sending Blackarachnia stumbling back.
Meanwhile Megatron was in a different room of the Ark. He had converted to vehicle mode and flew over the stasis locked bodies of large Decepticons and Autobots.
"Ah, to enter here in triumph," Megatron smiled, "Blackarachnia's treachery has once more proved useful, yes. For here is where the Great War will begin, and in a specific future where the Autobots will defeat the Decepticons, causing the Maximals to rule over the Predicons."
Megatron paused in front of a single large Autobot, sitting in a command chair. The Predicon tyrant shifted to his robot mode, but kept his fan jets active.
"But now," Megatron screamed in triumph, "Now time itself will change! Computer, full power to primary weapon!"
Megatron's onboard computer then responded, "Acknowledged."
Outside
It took awhile for Rapther and Rhinox to manage to get the ramp open.
"Dinobot, get Silverbolt to a CR chamber if you can," Optimus commanded, "Rapther, help him. If you run into Blackarachnia, bring her to me. Alive. The rest of you, you're with me. We've got to stop Megatron."
Inside
Megatron hovered over the offline body of the Optimus Prime with his tail gun glowing with power inside it.
"Primary weapon at full power," Megatron's onboard computer announced.
"And now in triumph," Megatron roared, "For the memory of the Decepticons. For the glory of the Predicons. And for the Cybertron that will be mine to rule… I bid you Optimus Prime a hateful farewell."
Megatron fired. The think armor of Optimus Prime was no match for the powered energy from Megatron's tail gun. The blast went straight through the Autobot leader and exploded in the chair behind him. Inside the large Autobot, all systems that were keeping Optimus Prime's spark alive began to fail and the Autobot began to slowly die.
At that moment Optimus Primal, Rattrap, Rhinox, and Cheetor arrived to see the damage done.
"NO!" Optimus yelled.
"Victory is mine!" Megatron screamed in triumph as a spiraling timestorm began to wrap itself around the ship and the Maximals.
To Be Continued…