Minicondawn2
Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Transformers. they belong to
whoever owns them.
Note. Some names like SoundBlaster or Gigatron may be Transformer names from other series. but for purposes of this story, consider them bad Hasbro name reuses for the Beast Machine universe with no direct relationship to their more traditional incarnation.
Chapter 2:
It heard the signal, and awoke. The Minicon plate glowed green and automatically sent an acknowledgement to the signal. Its reply was too weak to be received, but it did not know to take that much distance into account. It projected the recorded robot structure upwards and then warped the stored matter into place, restoring the long dormant minicon to life.
The minicon stood a moment and looked around the blackness that surrounded it. Finally it activated a spotlight to illuminate the room.
It was in a box, smooth formless metal on all sides, including above and below. It experienced a flash of panic, before calming back down.
In order to get out, rational thinking would be needed. It tried pushing on each of the walls, hoping one would push open.
It didn't work.
Panic set in, and the Minicon began throwing itself against the nearest wall, desperate to escape.
****
Rattrap very quietly rolled home in the early hours of the morning. He wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed and catch up on the cycles of sleep he had been too busy to get during the night. Too busy partying, that was. And the one thing he did not want to deal with was Botanica. She would just yell at him again, and he didn't have a good story to tell her. He had already really over used the excuse about needing to party in the face of victory; and she didn't really buy it the first time.
She would certainly blow a leaf if she knew he had spent the entire night talking about old times with an old drinking buddy. Actually she was more of a server than a buddy, and her new techno organic body looked a lot nicer without her torso plates than her old one. There was definitely something attractive about those organic curves.
Of course plant curves were rather nice too, he instinctively thought as he caught a glimpse of her pacing in the next room. Well. he might as well get it over with.
"Uh. Honey pot. I'm, uh, home."
She turned suddenly, causing him to flinch. She was obviously furious, and agitated. Or maybe agitated, and not so furious? He just didn't know how she thought some days.
"There you are," she spat, "Its about time you got home. I'm getting some strange reports, I need you to go investigate the old citadel right away?"
"But-but-I was really hoping to catch some 'Z's. I was up kinda late, you know."
"Yes. I DO know. So, if you don't want to answer a lot of incriminating questions, you will go and investigate the Citadel where the Maximal Elders once led Cybertron before Megatron and the great Reformatting." At that moment, Rattrap knew that if Botanica had laser vision, he would be little more than slagged carbon.
"Yes, Dear. As you wish my Sweet," Rattrap uttered, while kicking his robot mode wheels into overdrive. The dust trail he left behind him slowly settled over the sereneness of their private orchard.
****
Once again Cheetor asked himself what had happened to make people look to him as a leader. Those few moments he had enough free time to dwell on it, he felt insecure. Most of the time he was too busy making decisions that was slowly rebuilding the society of Cybertron. He looked forward to reestablishing some form of the Convoy Council of Maximal Elders, or maybe reestablish the Emmerates to rule things. He had assumed that once all the sparks were restored, the Maximal Elders would once again take their place as leaders of Cybertron, but it wasn't as simple as that. Some of the old Transformer bodies had remained intact, but most of them had been destroyed or used for spare parts for Vehicons, the sparks that would have gone into those bodies lost bodies had apparently been born anew, with completely new personalities and no prior memories. Apparently the Elders and the Tripedicus council had been among the destroyed bodies. Megatron certainly could carry a grudge to extremes.
Aside from that, Cheetor's biggest disappointment was the restoration of Six Lasers Over Cybertron. all the old rides were still there, but the old hover coasters just didn't work the same now that they were partly organic. It had become more of a forest. The architects were trying to devise new ways to create good rides with the new technology, but Cheetor was afraid that by the time they finished he would be too deep in work to ever make it to the park again.
Soundblaster greeted Cheetor as he drew near. Soundblaster was rather tall with a mostly blue color, but no one was sure what he would transform into now that he was techno organic. Apparently Soundblaster was one of the older Transformers and was having a harder time than most achieving the serene concentration needed to transform into his alt mode. He didn't seem to mind staying in robot mode, fortunately. Guess it made a difference that his base mode was his robot mode. Cheetor's base mode was his cheetah form, and it drove him crazy until he finally mastered transforming into his robot mode.
"What do you have for me?" Cheetor asked.
"I picked up this strange signal from Earth." Soundblaster answered.
"Earth? I thought they had forgotten all about us."
"It was not directed at us, it seems to have been a universal SOS call from a ship that crashed there a few million years ago."
"That is one slow signal, radio waves?"
"No. It was a Transwarp signal, a Transformer signal."
"That is odd. I didn't think there were any Transformers left on Earth. I suppose-"
"That's not the strangest part," Soundblaster interrupted. "You see, someone in the old Citadel acknowledged it."
That was strange. Since the Great Reformatting, none of the Transformers on Cybertron had been able to properly communicate between with machinery. With each other and other Techno organic forms, yes, but only Soundblaster had been able to fine-tune his inner scanners to again be able to receive and respond to non-techno organic signals. For someone to be able to acknowledge such a signal meant either someone else had regained the ability, someone had built an illegal transmitter, or there was an alien at the Citadel.
"Ok. Send someone to the space port to see if we can get a ship space worthy, and Ill send someone to check out the Citadel."
Soundblaster walked off to find someone to send to the space port. Well, the ability to send other people to do stuff was a slight advantage to having everyone treat you like a Prime.
Now he needed to send someone to the Citadel. Nightscream and Rattrap would be a good team for that. Why did he always go back to his old friends for the important jobs, he wondered. He went to the communicator on the wall and punched up Nightscream, whose image appeared in the semi organic ooze that was the viewscreen.
"Whats up top cat?" The bat on the screen asked.
"There may be an alien hiding out at the Citadel, I need you and Rattrap to go and check it out."
"Sure thing." Nightscream answered and broke the connection.
Next Cheetor dialed up Rattrap's home. Instead of Rattrap, Botanica answered the line. "Hey, Botanica. Is Rattrap around? I need him for a mission."
"I have already sent him on a mission, Cheetor, perhaps when he gets back from the Citadel."
"The Citadel? That was where I was sending him. why have you sent him there?"
"I am getting strange reports from the plants in that area, and someone needed to investigate."
"What sort of reports did the plants give you? And why didn't you tell me about them?"
"Face it, Cheetor. A lot of your 'Command Staff' are not use to being partly organic themselves. They have made it perfectly clear they do not approve of the 'mumbo jumbo of some plant woman.'"
Cheetor scowled. "We should discuss that later. No one on my staff is going to talk that way about one of my friends, much less a hero of Cybertron." Cheetor broke the connection and walked angrily through the command base. He growled angrily at his lieutenant, Wired, as he passed.
****
"Hey Rattrap, hows it been?" Nightscream called down as he flew over his old friends head.
"Nightscream! What are you doing here?"
"Cheetor wanted us to check out the old Citadel in case some alien is hiding out there."
"An alien? Aw, man. she knew. She really does want to kill me for staying out late. Ohhh. We're gonna die."
"Chill out rat-face. It will be a piece of cake compared to the old days."
"Cool it with the names, Leonardo! I have been up all night and am just not in the mood," Rattrap said as they drew near the Citadel, overgrown with weeds that were not entirely easy to see since they blended in with the now semi-organic walls.
It took them a few moments to locate the door, which hung open. "Wait, stop," Nightscream whispered, as he landed in his robot mode. "I hear something."
Rattrap fell back into his rat beast mode and sniffed the air. "Well, if that isn't the sweetest smell, its oil. I smell Transformer lubrication oil!"
"Wait! Don't rush in, we don't know if it's friendly. And it doesn't necessarily know that we are friendly. All we know is that it's a Transformer."
"Doesn't that mean we should go introduce ourselves then?"
"Yes, but slowly. We don't exactly look like the Transformers it is likely to remember."
"Well, I suppose you got a point there," Rattrap admitted. "But you gotta admit, we would look a little more like Transformers if you would give in and get a haircut."
"Hey, I thought we weren't going to rag on each other!"
"Eh. No. I just said no name-calling. Anyway what do did you hear?"
"Gears mostly. Coming from inside, of course," Nightscream answered.
"I guess that means we have to go inside then."
The two Transformers, now both in robot mode, pulled the techno vines aside and tiptoed into the Citadel. It was brighter than they had remembered it being. The inside of the grand building was lit by glowing florescent flowers that were blooming on weeds that had managed to take root inside the building.
Nightscream turned to Rattrap and asked, "So, where should we check first?"
"Well, lets start with the scariest places first," Rattrap answered, then together they both finished the sentence. "Megatron's throne room."
Slowly, they crept into the old throne room, parts of Megatron's command harness still littered the floor, along with what might have been parts of Tankor.
"Well. Nobody is here." Rattrap said with more hope than conviction in his voice.
"Yeah, but look," Nightscream said, pointing to a fresh hole in the wall. "looks like something got into Megatron's safe."
Rattrap rolled over to examine the fresh hole in the wall. "Nope. Worse, something got out of Megatron's safe."
"Should we ask Cheetor to send us some reinforcements?"
"For what, we still haven't seen anything. I bet its long gone from here by now."
Nightscream transformed into his bat beast mode, and flew to the top of the room, circling the perimeter.
"Woah!" Rattrap shouted as Nightscream suddenly made an attack dive. Losing concentration, Rattrap fell into his Rat mode, and instinctively covered his audio receptors as Nightscream's sonic scream flooded the chamber.
Rattrap opened his eyes to see Nightscream standing over a fallen figure.
****
"Ah, my beloved, you know that I would do anything for you." Silverbolt began in his usually pretentious manner. "But why do you want me to attend this rally?"
"Aw, come on, Bone. I have been hearing a lot about this guy, I think he has a lot of good ideas. Besides, it can't hurt to just listen, can it?"
"Hmmmm." Silverbolt said, not sounding convinced. Logic said that Black Arachnia was right, but still, something felt. off.
"I know what is bothering you, but don't worry. We are a single balanced people now, no Decepticons or Predicons, or Autobot or even Maximal. We are all just Transformers, with good and evil in each of us."
"Yes, my Beloved, but not necessarily good and evil in equal measure. At least let us sit near the back so we can make a discreet exit if the mood should strike us?"
"Ok, ok." Black Arachnia gave in to the compromise.
The auditorium was already filling to capacity, with hundreds of Transformers of various sizes making their way in and vying for seats. Apparently this guy was good at attracting crowds.
Silverbolt's head turned sharply. He could have sworn he had recognized someone in the crowd that simply could not be there. No way. Totally impossible. "Excuse me, Beloved, I shall return in a cycle."
Silverbolt made his way through the crowd, trying to catch up with the impossible face. finally he caught up with him. "Dinobot?"
The figure turned at the name. It was definitely Dinobot. He snarled. "What do you want?"
"Its me, Silverbolt. I know my appearance has changed somewhat, but we fought together in the Beast Wars."
"Ha, you are deranged," the techno organic Dinobot answered. "I have never seen you before, I only recently came online. I certainly bare no resemblance to the traitor you so fondly remember." Dinobot turned his back on Silverbolt, and immediately lost himself within the crowd.
"What is it?" Black Arachnia asked when she saw Silverbolt's troubled face.
"It was. Dinobot," Silverbolt answered.
"Dinobot?!? He must have more lives than Optimus."
"It was his face, his voice, even the meaner aspects of his personality. but he didn't know me."
"He must have been reborn when Cybertron was reformatted by Optimus."
"But none of the other sparks from those who had died came back whole, if anything they came back as completely new Transformers," Silverbolt said.
"It must have been Optimus. he is part of the Oracle now. or is the Oracle him?"
"But why Dinobot? Does that mean that somewhere there is a Rhinox or Depthcharge that just doesn't remember?"
"Maybe." Black Arachnia answered. "Or maybe it was Megatron, he is also part of Cybertron and the Oracle, it could have been a last sick joke of his to restore Dinobot without his more heroic traits."
"We should mention this to Cheetor later then. But for now. I believe the guest of honor has arrived."
A large black colored Transformer took the center stage, holding his hands up in a vain attempt to quiet the applause. He smiled and gave up for a few mili-cycles, then raised his hands to silence the crowd again. The second time the crowd did quiet down.
"Welcome, Cybertronians! Welcome, Friends! I am Gigatron. It has been several months since the Cheetor and the other Heroes of Cybertron liberated us from the soul prisons of the Vehicons. Indeed, we owe them all a great debt of gratitude for reviving us all after we fell victim to the viral plague. but does that automatically mean they are Gods, fit to rule us? Their method of victory has robed many of you of the ability to Transform." There was a rumble of discontent in the crowd.
"What good is a Transformer that cannot Transform, I ask you?!?" Gigatron asked the crowd. "We should be striving for greatness! Instead our self appointed leaders are taking their time, meditating on the new nature of our existence, while most of us are now without housing, or the ability to grow homes for ourselves, while in the old days we would simply build a new dwelling out of good old fashioned and durable metal. Our leaders should be seeing to the needs of our people, not soul searching or growing orchards.
"I'm not saying we should do anything rash. I love and value peace as much as the next Cybertronian, but the time is coming when we will have no choice but to demand that our leaders stop neglecting the peoples needs! And if our self appointed leaders fail to heed our warnings, then we may need to appoint new leadership that will!
"I have been working with a few others to come up with a detailed plan for a future that will allow all of us to prosper."
"He is right," Silverbolt whispered to Black Arachnia, "we have been neglecting the needs of the people. There is much to what Gigatron says."
Black Arachnia turned her head to Silverbolt with a look of disbelief on her face. She could not believe he was dumb enough to fall for the meaningless propaganda Gigatron was spouting. It actually reminded her way too much of Megatron's speeches, or the rallying speeches of the early days of the Decepticons. Well, she always knew that Silverbolt was a naive moron.
****
Cheetor was having the dream again. He hoped it would be different this time. Dreaming of Unicron could not be a good sign. Legend had it that Unicron had finally and ultimately been defeated by Rodimus Prime long before Maximals ever came into being.
The dream began the way his old one did, with Rhinox explaining about Sparks. Then Rhinox collapsed into his own Spark, which died out. The universe shed a tear. Then the burnt out spark joined the Matrix of Leadership where the spark returned to the All-Spark. But not the Oracle.
Cheetor wondered what happened to the Oracle?
"The Oracle is gone," a voice answered. The voice was actually two voices. Megatron and Optimus, not speaking together, but speaking as one entity. "The Oracle was all that remained of this Cybertron's Primus after he fought Unicron."
"Now that Unicron is gone, our story is done, and a new format was required. We are good and evil, the ultimate Yen and Yang. Every good must have an evil. without Unicron a new Balance needed to be formed. We are that Balance. We are Cybertron."
Are you Optimus or Megatron? Is it over?
"It is never over." The voice replied. "Over the eons, Cybertronians would leave their world to colonize another. In order to maintain the Balance, each of these worlds took their own Matrix with them. Each Matrix is Primus. For every Primus, there is Unicron to maintain the Balance."
So, how do Qunitessons fit into the equation?
"Each Matrix is joined to the All-Spark. We are all one, but each has their own test to complete against Chaos and destruction."
Cheetor hated how Gods seemed to be able to ignore direct questions. What are you trying to tell me?
"I am the Balance. Good and Evil. Organic and Technological. We must all find our own balance."
Are you telling me not to get involved with other Transformers? That there is another Unicron and I should not fight him?
"Yes." This time the voice was just Megatrons.
I love you like a father Optimus, as much as I hate Megatron, but I will not worship you, individually or together. I will follow my own vision of right and wrong, where ever that may take me.
"Yes." Said Optimus.
Then together the voices said, "There is Balance, but the struggle continues."
Cheetor woke with a start.
****
"Well," Rattrap said, "He was obviously in there for a while, so I wonder how come he didn't get reformatted with everything else on the planet? At least you didn't kill him."
"Sorry," Nightscream answered. "He kinda surprised me there."
"Ha-ha. Not as much as you surprised him! I wonder what his name is?"
"And what does he transform into?"
"Yeah, that is a good question. Something normal I hope. Ever since we all got Reformatted, the vehicle modes look like something from Jason and the Wheeled Warriors. Plants were never meant to be cars."
"That looks like some sort of access port on his chest, doesn't it Rattrap?"
"Yeah, your right kid. Guess Ill plug in, and see if I can revive him that way." Rattrap brought his tail around and plugged it into the access port on the Minicon's chest.
Rattrap felt he was on fire, as massive amounts of energy fed back into him through his tail. He screamed.
As soon as he could think again, Nightscream yanked Rattrap's tail out of the port. Rattrap collapsed to the floor, while Nightscream sighed. He would just have to wait until one of them woke up.
****
"Cheetor?" Wired asked.
"Yeah, what is it?"
"We found a few ships that are space worthy. We are getting one fueled now. Where are you going?"
"Earth. We are going to answer that distress call." Cheetor answered.
"But, why? What does it have to do with us? Don't we have enough problems of our own here without worrying about some other planet?"
Cheetor turned with a growl and glared at Wired. "Our concern is for everyone's well being, no matter where they are. We will answer that distress call, and we will continue working on the housing and energy problems here too. If we have to we will dig down to the lost city of Iacon and house people there, but I would prefer to maintain the techno balance on Cybertron and grow housing naturally."
Wired smiled in spite of himself. "Naturally, that's a good one."
With another angry growl, Cheetor stormed out of the room.
****
Rattrap finally began moving, and Nightscream was relieved that it was his friend and not the Minicon who woke first.
"Man, what is that thing, some kinda Powermaster?" Rattrap asked.
"I don't know, but I think its starting to come around, also."
The minicon emitted a few warbled beeps.
"Doesn't it speak English?" Nightscream asked.
Rattrap didn't answer; instead he picked a flower off the wall and held it over the Minicon to provide better lighting. The Minicon was about the same height as Rattrap, painted orange with gray highlights, and two gray pipes on his back. "Well, he doesn't have a gun, so lets help him up."
The Minicon looked around dazed as they helped him to his feet, and emitted a few beeps that sounded like gratitude.
"Yeah, uh. We are sorry about earlier. I'm Rattrap, and my excessively vocal friend here is Nightscream. We are Transformers too. we use to be Maximals but we don't use factions anymore." Rattrap pointed to the box stylized M on the Minicon's chest. "What is that symbol for? Oh, and what's your name?"
Neither Rattrap or Nightscream could make heads or tails out of what they could only assume was speech.
Rattrap looked up at the taller Nightscream. "You know the beeps Artoo here is making sounds a lot like the Binar language in that Star Trek Next Gen episode where the ship computer was reprogrammed and they stole the ship."
"You never struck me as a trekkie."
Rattrap turned back to the Minicon, "So, uh, would you be willing to let me download information from you? We seem to have a bit of a language barrier."
He beeped and opened a small panel Rattrap had not noticed before. Rattrap plugged in with his tail. "woah."
****
"I think there is a problem, Cheetor." Black Arachnia began as soon as she found him. She grabbed his arm and began pulling him out into the hall, away from the rest of the command staff. "I went to a rally with Silverbolt to hear Gigatron speak. He is rallying the people against you. I think he wants to take over."
"If he wants to be in charge let him. But anyway he can say whatever he wants."
"Its not what he says that is the problem. its what he really wants that is the problem. He wants power. You can step aside and that wont be the end of it, he will only want more power and more control, and will take it from where ever he can. Idealy at the point of a gun, if you don't do something to stop him now."
"Don't over react, BA. Its nothing, no one will take that kind of talk seriously."
"Are you sure? Silverbolt sure is," Black Arachnia said with concern, but Cheetor wasn't taking it seriously. None of the Primes did, until it was too late. She may have to take matters into her own hands. She decided not to tell him about Dinobot until he was prepared to take things seriously. She would have continued to talk sense into him, but she was interrupted by the arrival of Rattrap, Nightscream and another, fully robotic transformer. She didn't think she would ever see another one of those.
"Hey, Spots!" Rattrap called. "Allow me to introduce you to our new friend, Duster. And I believe you already know Nightscream. He is a Minicon from Cybertron, but I checked the star charts from his memory against ours. His Cybertron is a different one from ours. Apparently the Minicons escaped from Cybertron several million years ago, since Megatron picked this guy up during the Beast Wars. The funny thing is that the Minicons escaped to avoid their enslavement by both the Decepticons and Autobots, who use the Minicons as a sort of Powermaster."
"Decepticons? That's a name I hoped never to hear again." Cheetor said.
"That distress call was from their escape ship. Are we going to help them?" Nightscream asked.
"Of course. A ship is already standing by. Botanica will stay here, but I want you three, myself and Silverbolt to go and investigate the situation, and see what help we can offer."
****
Rattrap and the others were waiting on the ship with Duster, waiting for Silverbolt who had still not arrived. Rattrap was acting as a translator between Duster and the other Transformers who were eager to learn as much as they could about the alternate Transformer culture and history. Cheetor seemed strangely uncomfortable or anxious, but Rattrap simply assumed that it was because the last time Cheetor had been on a ship, all hell had broken loose.
Finally Silverbolt arrived, looking just as smug as usual. "I am sorry I was late, but lets go."
"What kept you, Silverbolt?" Cheetor asked.
"Well, I went down to Polyhex with Gigatron. I actually went to get a present for Rattrap. I know it bothers him that he has no offensive abilities, sooo. I got him this."
Silverbolt threw an object to Rattrap.
"Its. its, a gun! Just like my old one! I thought they had all been destroyed, lost or Reformatted into useless junk!"
"Well, while looking for housing, Gigatron found a store of weapons, which he was eager to share with those who did not have the ability to defend themselves."
Black Arachnia shot Cheetor an urgening look, which he deliberate ignored.
"Lets go." Cheetor said.
****
"It is as you said, Gigatron," Dinobot said, "Cheetor and some of his most trusted advisors have indeed abandoned us to pursue some fool's errand."
Gigatron stood next to him, the two of them gazing up at the jet trail as Cheetor's ship left for space. "Yes, this will help us to advance our cause."
"Are you going to move NOW??"
"No, Dinobot. It is far too early, but who knows how long their mission will last."
To be continued.
[Note: I, personally do not like the new Armada series, I also did not care for Beast Machines, so how did I wind up writing a story that combined the two?? I will admit though, that Armada is improving, the new episodes are not as bad as the earlier episodes, the new ones have achieved the level of crap. I still hope that the series will actually be good by the time it ends. If anyone is interested in borrowing some of my ideas I am using in my story for their own stories, please let me know, I would love to see what you can do.]
Note. Some names like SoundBlaster or Gigatron may be Transformer names from other series. but for purposes of this story, consider them bad Hasbro name reuses for the Beast Machine universe with no direct relationship to their more traditional incarnation.
Chapter 2:
It heard the signal, and awoke. The Minicon plate glowed green and automatically sent an acknowledgement to the signal. Its reply was too weak to be received, but it did not know to take that much distance into account. It projected the recorded robot structure upwards and then warped the stored matter into place, restoring the long dormant minicon to life.
The minicon stood a moment and looked around the blackness that surrounded it. Finally it activated a spotlight to illuminate the room.
It was in a box, smooth formless metal on all sides, including above and below. It experienced a flash of panic, before calming back down.
In order to get out, rational thinking would be needed. It tried pushing on each of the walls, hoping one would push open.
It didn't work.
Panic set in, and the Minicon began throwing itself against the nearest wall, desperate to escape.
****
Rattrap very quietly rolled home in the early hours of the morning. He wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed and catch up on the cycles of sleep he had been too busy to get during the night. Too busy partying, that was. And the one thing he did not want to deal with was Botanica. She would just yell at him again, and he didn't have a good story to tell her. He had already really over used the excuse about needing to party in the face of victory; and she didn't really buy it the first time.
She would certainly blow a leaf if she knew he had spent the entire night talking about old times with an old drinking buddy. Actually she was more of a server than a buddy, and her new techno organic body looked a lot nicer without her torso plates than her old one. There was definitely something attractive about those organic curves.
Of course plant curves were rather nice too, he instinctively thought as he caught a glimpse of her pacing in the next room. Well. he might as well get it over with.
"Uh. Honey pot. I'm, uh, home."
She turned suddenly, causing him to flinch. She was obviously furious, and agitated. Or maybe agitated, and not so furious? He just didn't know how she thought some days.
"There you are," she spat, "Its about time you got home. I'm getting some strange reports, I need you to go investigate the old citadel right away?"
"But-but-I was really hoping to catch some 'Z's. I was up kinda late, you know."
"Yes. I DO know. So, if you don't want to answer a lot of incriminating questions, you will go and investigate the Citadel where the Maximal Elders once led Cybertron before Megatron and the great Reformatting." At that moment, Rattrap knew that if Botanica had laser vision, he would be little more than slagged carbon.
"Yes, Dear. As you wish my Sweet," Rattrap uttered, while kicking his robot mode wheels into overdrive. The dust trail he left behind him slowly settled over the sereneness of their private orchard.
****
Once again Cheetor asked himself what had happened to make people look to him as a leader. Those few moments he had enough free time to dwell on it, he felt insecure. Most of the time he was too busy making decisions that was slowly rebuilding the society of Cybertron. He looked forward to reestablishing some form of the Convoy Council of Maximal Elders, or maybe reestablish the Emmerates to rule things. He had assumed that once all the sparks were restored, the Maximal Elders would once again take their place as leaders of Cybertron, but it wasn't as simple as that. Some of the old Transformer bodies had remained intact, but most of them had been destroyed or used for spare parts for Vehicons, the sparks that would have gone into those bodies lost bodies had apparently been born anew, with completely new personalities and no prior memories. Apparently the Elders and the Tripedicus council had been among the destroyed bodies. Megatron certainly could carry a grudge to extremes.
Aside from that, Cheetor's biggest disappointment was the restoration of Six Lasers Over Cybertron. all the old rides were still there, but the old hover coasters just didn't work the same now that they were partly organic. It had become more of a forest. The architects were trying to devise new ways to create good rides with the new technology, but Cheetor was afraid that by the time they finished he would be too deep in work to ever make it to the park again.
Soundblaster greeted Cheetor as he drew near. Soundblaster was rather tall with a mostly blue color, but no one was sure what he would transform into now that he was techno organic. Apparently Soundblaster was one of the older Transformers and was having a harder time than most achieving the serene concentration needed to transform into his alt mode. He didn't seem to mind staying in robot mode, fortunately. Guess it made a difference that his base mode was his robot mode. Cheetor's base mode was his cheetah form, and it drove him crazy until he finally mastered transforming into his robot mode.
"What do you have for me?" Cheetor asked.
"I picked up this strange signal from Earth." Soundblaster answered.
"Earth? I thought they had forgotten all about us."
"It was not directed at us, it seems to have been a universal SOS call from a ship that crashed there a few million years ago."
"That is one slow signal, radio waves?"
"No. It was a Transwarp signal, a Transformer signal."
"That is odd. I didn't think there were any Transformers left on Earth. I suppose-"
"That's not the strangest part," Soundblaster interrupted. "You see, someone in the old Citadel acknowledged it."
That was strange. Since the Great Reformatting, none of the Transformers on Cybertron had been able to properly communicate between with machinery. With each other and other Techno organic forms, yes, but only Soundblaster had been able to fine-tune his inner scanners to again be able to receive and respond to non-techno organic signals. For someone to be able to acknowledge such a signal meant either someone else had regained the ability, someone had built an illegal transmitter, or there was an alien at the Citadel.
"Ok. Send someone to the space port to see if we can get a ship space worthy, and Ill send someone to check out the Citadel."
Soundblaster walked off to find someone to send to the space port. Well, the ability to send other people to do stuff was a slight advantage to having everyone treat you like a Prime.
Now he needed to send someone to the Citadel. Nightscream and Rattrap would be a good team for that. Why did he always go back to his old friends for the important jobs, he wondered. He went to the communicator on the wall and punched up Nightscream, whose image appeared in the semi organic ooze that was the viewscreen.
"Whats up top cat?" The bat on the screen asked.
"There may be an alien hiding out at the Citadel, I need you and Rattrap to go and check it out."
"Sure thing." Nightscream answered and broke the connection.
Next Cheetor dialed up Rattrap's home. Instead of Rattrap, Botanica answered the line. "Hey, Botanica. Is Rattrap around? I need him for a mission."
"I have already sent him on a mission, Cheetor, perhaps when he gets back from the Citadel."
"The Citadel? That was where I was sending him. why have you sent him there?"
"I am getting strange reports from the plants in that area, and someone needed to investigate."
"What sort of reports did the plants give you? And why didn't you tell me about them?"
"Face it, Cheetor. A lot of your 'Command Staff' are not use to being partly organic themselves. They have made it perfectly clear they do not approve of the 'mumbo jumbo of some plant woman.'"
Cheetor scowled. "We should discuss that later. No one on my staff is going to talk that way about one of my friends, much less a hero of Cybertron." Cheetor broke the connection and walked angrily through the command base. He growled angrily at his lieutenant, Wired, as he passed.
****
"Hey Rattrap, hows it been?" Nightscream called down as he flew over his old friends head.
"Nightscream! What are you doing here?"
"Cheetor wanted us to check out the old Citadel in case some alien is hiding out there."
"An alien? Aw, man. she knew. She really does want to kill me for staying out late. Ohhh. We're gonna die."
"Chill out rat-face. It will be a piece of cake compared to the old days."
"Cool it with the names, Leonardo! I have been up all night and am just not in the mood," Rattrap said as they drew near the Citadel, overgrown with weeds that were not entirely easy to see since they blended in with the now semi-organic walls.
It took them a few moments to locate the door, which hung open. "Wait, stop," Nightscream whispered, as he landed in his robot mode. "I hear something."
Rattrap fell back into his rat beast mode and sniffed the air. "Well, if that isn't the sweetest smell, its oil. I smell Transformer lubrication oil!"
"Wait! Don't rush in, we don't know if it's friendly. And it doesn't necessarily know that we are friendly. All we know is that it's a Transformer."
"Doesn't that mean we should go introduce ourselves then?"
"Yes, but slowly. We don't exactly look like the Transformers it is likely to remember."
"Well, I suppose you got a point there," Rattrap admitted. "But you gotta admit, we would look a little more like Transformers if you would give in and get a haircut."
"Hey, I thought we weren't going to rag on each other!"
"Eh. No. I just said no name-calling. Anyway what do did you hear?"
"Gears mostly. Coming from inside, of course," Nightscream answered.
"I guess that means we have to go inside then."
The two Transformers, now both in robot mode, pulled the techno vines aside and tiptoed into the Citadel. It was brighter than they had remembered it being. The inside of the grand building was lit by glowing florescent flowers that were blooming on weeds that had managed to take root inside the building.
Nightscream turned to Rattrap and asked, "So, where should we check first?"
"Well, lets start with the scariest places first," Rattrap answered, then together they both finished the sentence. "Megatron's throne room."
Slowly, they crept into the old throne room, parts of Megatron's command harness still littered the floor, along with what might have been parts of Tankor.
"Well. Nobody is here." Rattrap said with more hope than conviction in his voice.
"Yeah, but look," Nightscream said, pointing to a fresh hole in the wall. "looks like something got into Megatron's safe."
Rattrap rolled over to examine the fresh hole in the wall. "Nope. Worse, something got out of Megatron's safe."
"Should we ask Cheetor to send us some reinforcements?"
"For what, we still haven't seen anything. I bet its long gone from here by now."
Nightscream transformed into his bat beast mode, and flew to the top of the room, circling the perimeter.
"Woah!" Rattrap shouted as Nightscream suddenly made an attack dive. Losing concentration, Rattrap fell into his Rat mode, and instinctively covered his audio receptors as Nightscream's sonic scream flooded the chamber.
Rattrap opened his eyes to see Nightscream standing over a fallen figure.
****
"Ah, my beloved, you know that I would do anything for you." Silverbolt began in his usually pretentious manner. "But why do you want me to attend this rally?"
"Aw, come on, Bone. I have been hearing a lot about this guy, I think he has a lot of good ideas. Besides, it can't hurt to just listen, can it?"
"Hmmmm." Silverbolt said, not sounding convinced. Logic said that Black Arachnia was right, but still, something felt. off.
"I know what is bothering you, but don't worry. We are a single balanced people now, no Decepticons or Predicons, or Autobot or even Maximal. We are all just Transformers, with good and evil in each of us."
"Yes, my Beloved, but not necessarily good and evil in equal measure. At least let us sit near the back so we can make a discreet exit if the mood should strike us?"
"Ok, ok." Black Arachnia gave in to the compromise.
The auditorium was already filling to capacity, with hundreds of Transformers of various sizes making their way in and vying for seats. Apparently this guy was good at attracting crowds.
Silverbolt's head turned sharply. He could have sworn he had recognized someone in the crowd that simply could not be there. No way. Totally impossible. "Excuse me, Beloved, I shall return in a cycle."
Silverbolt made his way through the crowd, trying to catch up with the impossible face. finally he caught up with him. "Dinobot?"
The figure turned at the name. It was definitely Dinobot. He snarled. "What do you want?"
"Its me, Silverbolt. I know my appearance has changed somewhat, but we fought together in the Beast Wars."
"Ha, you are deranged," the techno organic Dinobot answered. "I have never seen you before, I only recently came online. I certainly bare no resemblance to the traitor you so fondly remember." Dinobot turned his back on Silverbolt, and immediately lost himself within the crowd.
"What is it?" Black Arachnia asked when she saw Silverbolt's troubled face.
"It was. Dinobot," Silverbolt answered.
"Dinobot?!? He must have more lives than Optimus."
"It was his face, his voice, even the meaner aspects of his personality. but he didn't know me."
"He must have been reborn when Cybertron was reformatted by Optimus."
"But none of the other sparks from those who had died came back whole, if anything they came back as completely new Transformers," Silverbolt said.
"It must have been Optimus. he is part of the Oracle now. or is the Oracle him?"
"But why Dinobot? Does that mean that somewhere there is a Rhinox or Depthcharge that just doesn't remember?"
"Maybe." Black Arachnia answered. "Or maybe it was Megatron, he is also part of Cybertron and the Oracle, it could have been a last sick joke of his to restore Dinobot without his more heroic traits."
"We should mention this to Cheetor later then. But for now. I believe the guest of honor has arrived."
A large black colored Transformer took the center stage, holding his hands up in a vain attempt to quiet the applause. He smiled and gave up for a few mili-cycles, then raised his hands to silence the crowd again. The second time the crowd did quiet down.
"Welcome, Cybertronians! Welcome, Friends! I am Gigatron. It has been several months since the Cheetor and the other Heroes of Cybertron liberated us from the soul prisons of the Vehicons. Indeed, we owe them all a great debt of gratitude for reviving us all after we fell victim to the viral plague. but does that automatically mean they are Gods, fit to rule us? Their method of victory has robed many of you of the ability to Transform." There was a rumble of discontent in the crowd.
"What good is a Transformer that cannot Transform, I ask you?!?" Gigatron asked the crowd. "We should be striving for greatness! Instead our self appointed leaders are taking their time, meditating on the new nature of our existence, while most of us are now without housing, or the ability to grow homes for ourselves, while in the old days we would simply build a new dwelling out of good old fashioned and durable metal. Our leaders should be seeing to the needs of our people, not soul searching or growing orchards.
"I'm not saying we should do anything rash. I love and value peace as much as the next Cybertronian, but the time is coming when we will have no choice but to demand that our leaders stop neglecting the peoples needs! And if our self appointed leaders fail to heed our warnings, then we may need to appoint new leadership that will!
"I have been working with a few others to come up with a detailed plan for a future that will allow all of us to prosper."
"He is right," Silverbolt whispered to Black Arachnia, "we have been neglecting the needs of the people. There is much to what Gigatron says."
Black Arachnia turned her head to Silverbolt with a look of disbelief on her face. She could not believe he was dumb enough to fall for the meaningless propaganda Gigatron was spouting. It actually reminded her way too much of Megatron's speeches, or the rallying speeches of the early days of the Decepticons. Well, she always knew that Silverbolt was a naive moron.
****
Cheetor was having the dream again. He hoped it would be different this time. Dreaming of Unicron could not be a good sign. Legend had it that Unicron had finally and ultimately been defeated by Rodimus Prime long before Maximals ever came into being.
The dream began the way his old one did, with Rhinox explaining about Sparks. Then Rhinox collapsed into his own Spark, which died out. The universe shed a tear. Then the burnt out spark joined the Matrix of Leadership where the spark returned to the All-Spark. But not the Oracle.
Cheetor wondered what happened to the Oracle?
"The Oracle is gone," a voice answered. The voice was actually two voices. Megatron and Optimus, not speaking together, but speaking as one entity. "The Oracle was all that remained of this Cybertron's Primus after he fought Unicron."
"Now that Unicron is gone, our story is done, and a new format was required. We are good and evil, the ultimate Yen and Yang. Every good must have an evil. without Unicron a new Balance needed to be formed. We are that Balance. We are Cybertron."
Are you Optimus or Megatron? Is it over?
"It is never over." The voice replied. "Over the eons, Cybertronians would leave their world to colonize another. In order to maintain the Balance, each of these worlds took their own Matrix with them. Each Matrix is Primus. For every Primus, there is Unicron to maintain the Balance."
So, how do Qunitessons fit into the equation?
"Each Matrix is joined to the All-Spark. We are all one, but each has their own test to complete against Chaos and destruction."
Cheetor hated how Gods seemed to be able to ignore direct questions. What are you trying to tell me?
"I am the Balance. Good and Evil. Organic and Technological. We must all find our own balance."
Are you telling me not to get involved with other Transformers? That there is another Unicron and I should not fight him?
"Yes." This time the voice was just Megatrons.
I love you like a father Optimus, as much as I hate Megatron, but I will not worship you, individually or together. I will follow my own vision of right and wrong, where ever that may take me.
"Yes." Said Optimus.
Then together the voices said, "There is Balance, but the struggle continues."
Cheetor woke with a start.
****
"Well," Rattrap said, "He was obviously in there for a while, so I wonder how come he didn't get reformatted with everything else on the planet? At least you didn't kill him."
"Sorry," Nightscream answered. "He kinda surprised me there."
"Ha-ha. Not as much as you surprised him! I wonder what his name is?"
"And what does he transform into?"
"Yeah, that is a good question. Something normal I hope. Ever since we all got Reformatted, the vehicle modes look like something from Jason and the Wheeled Warriors. Plants were never meant to be cars."
"That looks like some sort of access port on his chest, doesn't it Rattrap?"
"Yeah, your right kid. Guess Ill plug in, and see if I can revive him that way." Rattrap brought his tail around and plugged it into the access port on the Minicon's chest.
Rattrap felt he was on fire, as massive amounts of energy fed back into him through his tail. He screamed.
As soon as he could think again, Nightscream yanked Rattrap's tail out of the port. Rattrap collapsed to the floor, while Nightscream sighed. He would just have to wait until one of them woke up.
****
"Cheetor?" Wired asked.
"Yeah, what is it?"
"We found a few ships that are space worthy. We are getting one fueled now. Where are you going?"
"Earth. We are going to answer that distress call." Cheetor answered.
"But, why? What does it have to do with us? Don't we have enough problems of our own here without worrying about some other planet?"
Cheetor turned with a growl and glared at Wired. "Our concern is for everyone's well being, no matter where they are. We will answer that distress call, and we will continue working on the housing and energy problems here too. If we have to we will dig down to the lost city of Iacon and house people there, but I would prefer to maintain the techno balance on Cybertron and grow housing naturally."
Wired smiled in spite of himself. "Naturally, that's a good one."
With another angry growl, Cheetor stormed out of the room.
****
Rattrap finally began moving, and Nightscream was relieved that it was his friend and not the Minicon who woke first.
"Man, what is that thing, some kinda Powermaster?" Rattrap asked.
"I don't know, but I think its starting to come around, also."
The minicon emitted a few warbled beeps.
"Doesn't it speak English?" Nightscream asked.
Rattrap didn't answer; instead he picked a flower off the wall and held it over the Minicon to provide better lighting. The Minicon was about the same height as Rattrap, painted orange with gray highlights, and two gray pipes on his back. "Well, he doesn't have a gun, so lets help him up."
The Minicon looked around dazed as they helped him to his feet, and emitted a few beeps that sounded like gratitude.
"Yeah, uh. We are sorry about earlier. I'm Rattrap, and my excessively vocal friend here is Nightscream. We are Transformers too. we use to be Maximals but we don't use factions anymore." Rattrap pointed to the box stylized M on the Minicon's chest. "What is that symbol for? Oh, and what's your name?"
Neither Rattrap or Nightscream could make heads or tails out of what they could only assume was speech.
Rattrap looked up at the taller Nightscream. "You know the beeps Artoo here is making sounds a lot like the Binar language in that Star Trek Next Gen episode where the ship computer was reprogrammed and they stole the ship."
"You never struck me as a trekkie."
Rattrap turned back to the Minicon, "So, uh, would you be willing to let me download information from you? We seem to have a bit of a language barrier."
He beeped and opened a small panel Rattrap had not noticed before. Rattrap plugged in with his tail. "woah."
****
"I think there is a problem, Cheetor." Black Arachnia began as soon as she found him. She grabbed his arm and began pulling him out into the hall, away from the rest of the command staff. "I went to a rally with Silverbolt to hear Gigatron speak. He is rallying the people against you. I think he wants to take over."
"If he wants to be in charge let him. But anyway he can say whatever he wants."
"Its not what he says that is the problem. its what he really wants that is the problem. He wants power. You can step aside and that wont be the end of it, he will only want more power and more control, and will take it from where ever he can. Idealy at the point of a gun, if you don't do something to stop him now."
"Don't over react, BA. Its nothing, no one will take that kind of talk seriously."
"Are you sure? Silverbolt sure is," Black Arachnia said with concern, but Cheetor wasn't taking it seriously. None of the Primes did, until it was too late. She may have to take matters into her own hands. She decided not to tell him about Dinobot until he was prepared to take things seriously. She would have continued to talk sense into him, but she was interrupted by the arrival of Rattrap, Nightscream and another, fully robotic transformer. She didn't think she would ever see another one of those.
"Hey, Spots!" Rattrap called. "Allow me to introduce you to our new friend, Duster. And I believe you already know Nightscream. He is a Minicon from Cybertron, but I checked the star charts from his memory against ours. His Cybertron is a different one from ours. Apparently the Minicons escaped from Cybertron several million years ago, since Megatron picked this guy up during the Beast Wars. The funny thing is that the Minicons escaped to avoid their enslavement by both the Decepticons and Autobots, who use the Minicons as a sort of Powermaster."
"Decepticons? That's a name I hoped never to hear again." Cheetor said.
"That distress call was from their escape ship. Are we going to help them?" Nightscream asked.
"Of course. A ship is already standing by. Botanica will stay here, but I want you three, myself and Silverbolt to go and investigate the situation, and see what help we can offer."
****
Rattrap and the others were waiting on the ship with Duster, waiting for Silverbolt who had still not arrived. Rattrap was acting as a translator between Duster and the other Transformers who were eager to learn as much as they could about the alternate Transformer culture and history. Cheetor seemed strangely uncomfortable or anxious, but Rattrap simply assumed that it was because the last time Cheetor had been on a ship, all hell had broken loose.
Finally Silverbolt arrived, looking just as smug as usual. "I am sorry I was late, but lets go."
"What kept you, Silverbolt?" Cheetor asked.
"Well, I went down to Polyhex with Gigatron. I actually went to get a present for Rattrap. I know it bothers him that he has no offensive abilities, sooo. I got him this."
Silverbolt threw an object to Rattrap.
"Its. its, a gun! Just like my old one! I thought they had all been destroyed, lost or Reformatted into useless junk!"
"Well, while looking for housing, Gigatron found a store of weapons, which he was eager to share with those who did not have the ability to defend themselves."
Black Arachnia shot Cheetor an urgening look, which he deliberate ignored.
"Lets go." Cheetor said.
****
"It is as you said, Gigatron," Dinobot said, "Cheetor and some of his most trusted advisors have indeed abandoned us to pursue some fool's errand."
Gigatron stood next to him, the two of them gazing up at the jet trail as Cheetor's ship left for space. "Yes, this will help us to advance our cause."
"Are you going to move NOW??"
"No, Dinobot. It is far too early, but who knows how long their mission will last."
To be continued.
[Note: I, personally do not like the new Armada series, I also did not care for Beast Machines, so how did I wind up writing a story that combined the two?? I will admit though, that Armada is improving, the new episodes are not as bad as the earlier episodes, the new ones have achieved the level of crap. I still hope that the series will actually be good by the time it ends. If anyone is interested in borrowing some of my ideas I am using in my story for their own stories, please let me know, I would love to see what you can do.]
