Minicon Dawn Part 7 By isoner

The usual disclaimers go here.

To Cheetor, the visions always came in dreams. This one was no different.

He saw Cybertron, and something was wrong with it. It was too far out of balance, and the planet was screaming out in pain as a result. The techno organic growth had died off at the poles of the planet, leaving them shining silver, while the rest of the planet was more than overgrown, growth so thick that it would become unlivable.

Then Cheetor could see Botanica's pained face superimposed over the planet.

He knew it was the present.

The vision changed to a bizarre representation of the many pasts.

He found himself standing on a ridge looking down at a procession of transformers, all past leaders, walking down a dark tunnel to the bright light of the Matrix. Another transformer was watching from another ridge on the far side, that Cheetor did not exactly recognize. but he knew it was a new form of Waspinator.

Waspinator jumped up and down and waved at Cheetor in a way that seemed decidedly irreverent for a vision. "Yoo-Hoo," Waspinator called, "Cat bot better come home soon."

Then both Waspinator and Cheetor looked down at the procession of dead Transformers, finally he began to recognize some of them. The red silver and blue Optimus Prime who had been able to Transform into an old 20th Century semi truck. He was followed by the red and orange Rodimus Prime. He was followed by Fortress, then Ginrai, and. someone was missing. Where was the legendary swordsman, Star Saber? And why was he only seeing Autobot leaders? After the break in the line walked Fire Convoy. In turn he also saw Leo Convoy, and Big Convoy. a convoy of Convoys. his mind thought with a laugh. Then came Optimus Primal at the end of the line.

Primal. paused and looked up at Cheetor, and then Waspinator. He smiled at them. Cheetor then looked to the matrix light that his old commander was approaching, and discovered that Primal was already there, part of it. They all were.

The vision shifted again, and Cheetor and Waspinator were standing together overlooking a new scene. A possible future. Two groups of techno organic Cybertronians working and living in living housing, and in between them a colony of Minicons.

"So there is a future for them on our world." Cheetor said, as his vision came to an end.

**** Something's up with Megatron, Thrust thought as he made his way through the asteroid field. He just wasn't acting right lately, and he seemed somehow sleazier than he had been before, and now he had been sent on some fool's errand.

He wasn't even looking for a Minicon, but for some rumor or legend that Megatron knew about, although Thrust had never heard it. He thought Megatron was making it up, maybe as a way to isolate and eliminate him. only there was no way Megatron could know about the plans he had been making.

But then, he saw something that couldn't exist naturally. He wasn't even really sure what it was. it was larger than any of the asteroids he had seen, and appeared to be entirely artificial.

If anything it was a mass of roads and tunnels. Apparently this was the place, and he would have to navigate this three dimensional labyrinth in order to fulfill Megatron's orders. And he didn't want to upset Megatron, at least not yet.

He accelerated towards the strange asteroid, and flew into it along the roads.

"Welcome to my Zone Defense!" a voice said, "Welcome to your Doom!"

"Slag." Thrust said.

****

Cheetor awoke to find that Optimus Prime had already arrived. He showed the larger transformer their shuttle, and apologized for not having as equally impressive a tour as the one the Autobots had given them.

They did not revive their discussion on the morals of using Minicons as weapons. Instead they went directly to business. Optimus Prime gave his speech about their Duty to their race, and their self respect. About how they had to act for their own freedom because relying on others to fight for them would just be another form of slavery.

Then Cheetor spoke, describing his world, and his vision of a future where Minicon and Cybertronian lived together in a world of mutual co-existence.

As before, some of the Minicons chose to go with Optimus Prime and his Autobots, while most chose to stick with the Maximals that had saved and protected them for so long.

As before neither Cheetor nor Optimus Prime was completely pleased with the results.

"Well, Prime," Cheetor said, "I guess we are done here for now. We will take this group to our Cybertron, and then we will come back to see if any more want to go with us."

"I hope that when you return we can work together against the Decepticons." Prime said, "But there is one thing you should know before you leave."

"What is it, Prime?" Cheetor asked.

"You mentioned before that you had been on this planet in the past. Based on that, I had Alexis do a search, and I found some things that you might find interesting," Prime said.

The small orange bird/camera, Laserbeak was perched on Optimus' sholder, and began projecting Alexis' results for Cheetor to see.

Cheetor remained silent for a few moments.

Finally Cheetor found his voice again. "Well, guys, I'm afraid that we will be staying on Earth for a few more days."

"Aww man. We're never gonna get out of here," Rattrap said.

****

On Cybertron, Fixit looked up at the rarely heard sound of explosions, as they ripped through the growth outside of Botanica's home. He remained determined to do what he could for the helpless Botanica. Botanica was still in a fetal position, holding her head and trying to repress the pain of an entire planet.

The sound of a jet passed over head, and then circled around, the explosions began again.

Fixit through his body over Botanica's as the ceiling blasted into a hundred different directions.

Debris bounced off his back, and the jet circled back around once more.

He looked up into the now visible sky. It was a black jet with green wings, unlike any he had ever seen before, but as the jet came close it shifted and changed, the nose cone disappearing, and the wings separating so that soon it was not a jet but a giant wasp that closed upon them.

The Wasp drew closer, hovering directly above them, then changed and shifted once more.

Waspinator fell to the ground, and stood before them, looking surprisingly regal.

He didn't say a word to either the stunned Fixit or Botanica. Silently he walked over, and lifted Botanica into his arms.

Keeping her close, Waspinator again took to the sky, flying out of sight, and leaving Fixit behind, feeling very stunned.

****

Earth's Moon.

"What are you doing, Megatron?" Starscream asked, the being who now possessed Megatron's body, keeping up the pretense in case anyone thought to overhear them.

"What do you mean?" The ghost of Starscream asked, using Megatron's mouth and voice.

"I mean sending Thrust out on some fools errand."

"Oh. that. I'm gathering my forces, and calling in some old friends."

"But what about the Minicons?"

"The Minicons are nothing but bargaining pieces. You fools should have defeated the Autobots years ago with or without them, all you needed was competent leadership, and I shall provide that, my lieutenant."

"The Minicons are nothing, are they? Obviously you have never tried one."

"What do you mean?"

"Leader-One. come over hear and powerlink to Megatron!"

The minicon crept out of the shadows, transformed and powerlinked to Megatron's arm.

Starscream's Ghost, within Megatron's body felt a new surge of power like none he had ever experienced before. With power like this. Megatron, or Galvatron, or Shockwave or any of the other Decepticons or Autobots could have stood in his way to ultimate power. With enough, he imagined he would be a match for Unicron himself, he thought with the grim satisfaction that one can only have in hindsight, secure in the knowledge that all of the listed foes were already dead. He laughed.

"You are right. Organize a scouting party at once."

****

Battered, barely functional, and in fact, beaten. Thrust collapsed to the ground. "I'm impressed," the voice said. "You got through my zone defence, survived my long bombs, and made it all the way into my inzone. but you are still going to die. It doesn't matter how many people Galvatron sends after me, he will never have his revenge against me!"

"Wait!" Thrust said in desperation. " I don't know any Galvatron!"

"You don't know /Galvatron/? How is that possible?" The voice asked, then as if talking to itself it added, "How many years has it been?"

"I was sent by my leader, Megatron. He wants you to join our forces!"

"Megatron?" The tan and purple transformer asked. "Very well, I will go with you. For I have many questions for your leader."

****

In the museum that had attracted so much of Alexis' attention, and Cheetor's dread, a group of scientists, accompanied by government agents studied the freshly re-categorized artifacts. Among them were an ancient segmented tribal horn, that it turned out was actually made from an advanced metal alloy well beyond the ability of stone age cavemen to make. Another metal item found near the horn was a ceremonial drum shaped like a hollowed out demon's head.

But the items that were receiving the most attention from the researchers, as well as the most of Cheetor's dread, were two humanoid fossils. In some ways they appeared to be fossilized monsters, one definitely had claws or pincers while the other seemed to have upside down wings.

The most remarkable thing about the two fossils however was discovered by accident. While cleaning them, an assistant accidentally chipped away too much stone, damaging the fossil, but revealing a metal frame beneath that was like new.

On the wall behind them were posted some of the governments most classified information, as blueprint schematics and other information on the old Autobots, Bumblebee and Seaspray were available for reference. They weren't sure yet, but they strongly suspected that the ancient fossils were somehow related.

To be continued.