I know it's taking me forever to update my stories, especially this one, but I'll have you all know I'm not giving up on it. Because THIS story is my baby...my first-born baby to be precise...and I am not gonna give up on it, particularly since now that I am so close to finishing it.
Please enjoy the story, Reviews, Favorites, and Follows are always welcome!
I do NOT own Transformers: Beast Wars! I only own my OC's and head-canon
Stay Beautiful ;)
Chapter 20: Other Victories
This time, my eyes were wide open, and I could see for the first time where I was in my dream, that now seemed as lucid as ever. And surprise-surprise, it was the heart of Nexus Zero, home -or perhaps inter-dimensional outpost- of the Vok. I was completely speechless, something that I found rather odd in a lucid dream. As much as I wanted to yell, laugh, and cry, I could do none of that. It was probably for the better though, wouldn't want to scare whoever would pass my room in the waking world.
I did, however, get to see more of the mysterious place as my dream-self began to move without my volition. I was walking –or rather I was trying to walk, so I seemingly made do with navigating the area via stationary clumps of meteor. And by stationary, I mean they didn't move even as I propelled myself off of them, which was odd, given how the laws of Physics in space were supposed to work. Anyway, I continued my little exploration in complete silence, not seemingly bothered by the prospect that I was in space and not wearing a space suit.
Minutes, or were they hours, seemed to pass as I entered an area well lit up by illuminated gases and distant stars. In one corner I saw a couple of vortexes, and in the other…a Cybertronian figure that was not Tigatron, Airazor, or the fusion of both. And next to him was a stasis pod, cleverly crafted to look of Cybertronian origin. I felt my mouth hang as I heard voices come from the far side of the room, releasing a barely audible "eep" as I ducked behind a puny meteor. Once I had the courage to look out from behind my cover, I could clearly see two Vok. One with green eyes, the other with red eyes, and while they both had unearthly voices, I could very clearly recognize one.
"Such a strange species…" the red-eyed one examined the sparkless body of Trailblazer, intrigued with every detail all while sounding…uncomfortable, "Mechanical…yet they require a life-force"
"Do you find this unsettling? You can refuse if you wish" the green-eyed Vok replied softly, sounding as if he didn't want to upset the younger Vok.
"No, I wish to prove myself…when's the procedure?"
"We can perform it now…"
Whatever was going to come after was ignored as something made me whirl around, a high-pitched yelp escaping me as I was met with the purple gaze of another Vok.
"Why hello, my child"
"Come on, you call that a –oof!" something long, slim, and metallic swiped at Trailblazer, knocking the smug equine right off his feet.
"No, that's a hit~" I grinned, content that I actually landed a blow on my significantly stronger sparring partner. Red optics glistened as they stared down at me, proud at the progress I had made over a span of seven weeks. I mean sure, I had fighting experience before such training, but the level me and Trailblazer were sparring on was quite demanding. The large equine-bot wasn't pulling any punches, and had I not have had my alien enhancements; well…I can name a few instances where Trailblazer might have killed me. Oh well, I needed something to distract me from the unsettling dream I had that particular morning.
"You really love that tail don't you?"
"So very much"
It was the only thing I kept after my 'transformation' weeks ago, because I wanted it as a reminder, to not dare attempt the transformation again. Not when I felt that it wasn't necessary. In fact, aside from Tarantulas, Trailblazer was the only one that had witnessed the change, and he had made it abundantly clear that we had to keep such an incident secret. So hours afterward, when we could have just as easily reported it, we readily chose not to.
So here we were, weeks into our 'special' training and no one had questioned a thing.
"Get 'em Cas!" Cheetor yelled to my left as I crouched for another attack.
"Wipe the floor with him!" BA cheered to my right, the encouragement earning a mock glare from Trailblazer.
"Wow, gee guys I'm really feelin' the love" red optics 'rolled' as they landed on me, "Don't wanna let your fans down ey Cas?" the large black horse-Maximal also crouching, but not to my level. "Ready?"
"Hell yeah"
"Owww" apparently I had let my guard down, if by just a little when Cheetor and (gasp) BA had cheered me on. "This is why confidence kills, remind me to stay humble"
"There's nothing wrong with confidence, it's arrogance that gets ya hurt. And you, young lady, got just a smidgen too cocky" Trailblazer poked me with feather-like gentleness, mindful of the weirdly colored bruise there, not that it stopped me from slapping him. Rhinox sighed deeply as he watched our antics.
"This is the tenth time she's been in here, just what training regiment are you subjecting her to?" the rhino-Maximal's deeper red optics narrowed at Trailblazer.
Sleek black mechanical shoulders shrugged in a movement as fluid as water. "Before she got 'changed' she would always rely on her wits and blaster in confrontations. But afterward, she hasn't been getting many opportunities, and once she would, she wouldn't get to use her newfound advantage to its full potential"
Rhinox had to ponder for a few moments. I know I certainly had to.
"Alright, just…take it easy on her will you?"
Both me and Trailblazer nodded. And although the Maximal engineers words made me relax…their impact on Trailblazer was just about as affective as a BB gun.
"Sure thing, Doc"
My shoulders slumped a little as I realized that Trailblazer's reply was just a false assurance. But I said nothing regarding that as I bid Rhinox good day and left the room, Trailblazer following close behind.
"Hey Cassie"
"If this is about what happened in our little sparring match…"
"It's not" Trailblazer blocked my path in one swift, non-aggressive motion "Have you been experiencing any strange visions or dreams?"
I perked up, curiosity piqued. "Yeah, both actually…I had one this morning, I've been having them. Where is this coming from? Are you getting them too?"
His red optics brightened at my inquiry, evidently excited about such a subject. "Have you had at least one where your point of view wasn't your own?"
I recollected only one instance where a vision was seemingly not from my eyes. "Y-yeah, it was on the same day of the -er- incident…" I lowered my voice, eyes scanning the hallway even though there wasn't the foggiest hint of anyone else being around. "Call me crazy but uh, it seemed like it was from your optics"
As soon as the words left my mouth, Trailblazer kneeled down and hugged me as gently as he could. And before I could offer any kind of response, he spun on his heel and resumed walking, gesturing for me to follow him. "Come on, we got five minutes before both our shifts start"
"Any chance we can swap-"
"Nah"
With puffed cheeks, I followed, not looking forward to monitor duty.
Trailblazer was away with Cheetor and Transmutate on patrol while me, Rattrap, Dinobot, and Rhinox all were at our respected computers. It was a calm atmosphere at first, with the exception of Rattrap and Dinobot bickering every now and again, the only other noises in the room being Rhinox's snoring. And as much as I wanted to do a little slacking myself, the shrill beeping coming from the monitor made me kick it back into high-gear. "Oh son-of-a-!" along with my heart too "I know it's supposed to alert us, but does it honestly need to be loud enough to give us a heart-attack?!"
Dinobot snorted while Rattrap snickered. The rat transformer spun around in his chair all nonchalant. "Well then, if that were da case it wouldn't be doin' its job Ghosty"
"Shut up Rattrap" I replied lackadaisically, slapping him lightly on the shoulder. The rat-Maximal squeaked indignantly, and of course, that woke Rhinox up.
"What's goin' on?!" he groaned, rubbing his faceplates tiredly.
"There appears to be a cosmic anomaly entering the solar system" Dinobot deduced, his presence waltzing closer as he situated himself between me and Rattrap.
"A comet…?" I asked, awkward with the proximity.
With another groan, the rhino transformer lumbered over, taking a good look at the main monitor. His expression quickly morphed into confusion as he looked at one of the other screens as it displayed the energy output. "That's no comet" he corrected factually.
"Odd" Dinobot snarled.
"If it's not a comet, what is it?" Rattrap enquired with one optic ridge raised.
"Something I thought we'd never see again…" Rhinox activated his comm. link "Rhinox to Optimus!"
I heard Dinobot growl under his breath, muttering what sounded like "wretched aliens". I've pretty much forgotten altogether about how the series went, but I feel as if I should have predicted this…
I stifled my sigh and paid close attention to the main screen.
While we were watching the strange cosmic visitor with wide eyes and fluttering hearts, we haven't failed to notice that two more figures had joined in on watching the anomaly. I turned around to give BA and OP a brief 'hello' wave, before spinning around just in time to see the not-comet destroy the Predacon base in one fell swoop…literally.
"Looks like the base falls…for the Preds!" Rattrap laughs triumphantly, holding both palms in the air. Expecting for any one of us high-five him, he stands there awkwardly as we all stare with solemn expressions. "Eeh, what's wrong with you guys? You should be celebratin'! That flyin' hunk of space junk just solved all our problems!"
My shit's-gonna-happen sense is tingling again…
Rhinox shook his head in exasperation, looking back over to the spiking energy readings. "That's no comet, its power readings are off the scale…" red optics, for whatever reason, landed on me "…and they're alien"
"Aw, shit"
I heard OP clear his throat from behind me, which earned snickers from BA, Rattrap, and Dinobot. "…sorry…"
Once they all got their bearings, BA was the first to speak up "They're back, just how Tarantulas always said they'd be"
We all stared back at the main monitor to see TigerHawk (a name I did remember) dispose of Megatron's men by the pair. Barely two minutes passed as this all happened, leaving just him and Megatron standing. As one would expect, Dinobot was enjoying watching the fight, his face too fixed with an enormous grin to speak. All the rest of us had awed expressions as Megatron actually held his own against the powerful being…ever so briefly. We all winced as the red dragon plummeted to the ground, the audio doing wonders to capture that beautiful metallic 'crunching' noise.
"Oh, how the mighty have fallen" I mumbled, something that didn't escape Dinobot's or Rattrap's hearing as both locked amused optics on me. "I don't know whose quote that is; I just know it fits this whole deal rather nicely"
A clawed hand ruffled my hair. I didn't mind, it was too short to obscure my vision no matter how much Dinobot tried to make it so (if y'all are wondering, I let Transmutate cut my hair because I damn well needed a hair cut at some point during the Beast Wars). With a snort, Dinobot's red optics landed back on the screen. "Indeed it does. I wonder how the Vok managed to create such a powerful creature that closely resembles us"
My fingers twitched, my mind consciously wandering to Trailblazer. TigerHawk was formed from the bodies of Tigatron and Airazor…so how the hell did they create the body of Trailblazer? I mentally slapped myself, it was just a dream, probably an amalgamation of being around Trailblazer so much and all the weird alien conspiracies floating around in this damn war…
"Hehe, man oh man, whatever he is, he's makin' circuit salad outta the Preds…so now can we par-tay?"
I almost felt sorry for Rattrap as everyone in the room gave him a dead stare. And in not getting the reaction he wanted, the rat-bot only pouted and mumbled something under his breath.
Optimus sighed, "Rhinox, call Cheetor and his team to these coordinates and tell them not to engage until I get there" the big metal ape's gaze then landed on me and Dinobot, smiling a little at our eager expressions which we absolutely tried not to conceal. "Silverbolt and Depth Charge are too far for radio contact…perhaps you two would like to join up with Cheetor's team for an assist?"
"Sure thing Big Bot" with a small salute, and taking the time to input the designated coordinates into my wrist computer, I skipped towards the cavern's exit with the clicking of Dinobot's beast form right behind me.
"Cassandra!"
I had to leap to the side to avoid being plowed by Dinobot, the raptor's slight agitation clearly seen as I looked over my shoulder toward Rhinox. "No more careless antics, got it?"
Knowing all too well that was the rhino-transformer's way of telling me not to get more beat up than I already was, I smirked and waved goodbye. With another farewell, I clambered onto Dinobot's beast form and we were off.
With a huff, I dismounted the raptor and glared down at my wrist-mounted device, taking slow steps to where Cheetor's team last was. "You know, one would think a big metal horse, bat, and rocket-propelled kittykat would be easy to spot…" I surveyed my surrounding some more, frowning "Where could they've-"
"Gone?"
"EEP!" I must have jumped a good five feet in the air. Gasping, I looked to my left to find a grinning Transmetal-II horse and a chortling raptor. Sure, the only time where one can actually get Dinobot to laugh would be in a moment of total humiliation. Sigh.
"Hehe, sorry Cas, we really couldn't help ourselves…" Transmutate looked bashfully down at the ground "Trailblazer said how easy it was to startle you and-"
With a waving of the wrist, I bent down, taking some time for a breather. "It's cool…" I weakly chuckled (which almost sounded a little wheezy) taking some more time to look around. I realized that team 'Cheetor' was missing its leader. "Where's the kiddo?"
"Kid wanted to scout further ahead…" Trailblazer's horse grin got even wider "That, or me and Muty made him uncomfortable"
"'Muty'?" I drawled, uncertain of just where this was leading. However, Dinobot figured it out rather quickly.
"You two were flirting again weren't you" the raptor snorted, rolling his eyes and shaking his head very slowly.
I found myself blushing instantly. I suppose I should of have seen this coming, is it just Trailblazer or does Transmutate reciprocate such feelings? I shook my head, focus!
"Ah okay, uhm…how long ago was this? Can we catch up from here?"
"Y-yeah, I'll lead the way!" Transmutate flapped her wings, ascending with great speed into the sky…away from the tension that was on the ground. With my blush still present, I hopped back onto Dinobot and we followed the Transmetal flying fox bat, Trailblazer right behind us.
We arrived just in time to see Cheetor break free from a net (Tarantulas' no doubt), the rocket-propelled mutant cheetah taking off feverishly after a couple of lights, putting even more distance between himself and us. Appearing almost like a blurry spotted ghost as he ran along the cliffs.
"Are those…sparks?!" Transmutate gasped out in disbelief.
"Must be, and they're leading him somewhere!" Trailblazer pulled ahead of me and Dinobot, his metallic limbs working effortlessly to chase down Cheetor.
Ten or so minutes passed as me and Dinobot finally caught up to commotion that was happening from within a hollowed out portion of the cliffs. Body on auto-pilot, I hopped off of Dinobot as he helped Cheetor, Trailblazer and Transmutate obliterate swarms (as in the walls of the cave and the ground moved with the little buggers) of arachnoid bots. Kicking off a few myself, I wished to see what was actually happening further in the cave as my companions were busy with the little mechanical pests. My mouth dropping in awe and fear as I saw TigerHawk suspended by a giant, energized web. And as powerful as he (or they) was, he struggled against the draining quality of the adhesive. Tarantulas, you opportunistic piece of slag, I ducked back behind my cover, waiting for Tarantulas to finish his rant before finally deciding to jump back out.
The face he gave me.
"Y-you! W-what are y-you doing here?! H-how did you find me?!" any smugness he previously had disappeared completely as he glared at me, his clawed hands hesitantly shaking over the computer's keyboard as if inputting any commands would spell instant death.
Wow, for once in my life, I'm actually intimidating, I smirked; hand on blaster and other ready to morph into a shield. "Wow Tarantulas, I had a feeling you were into some kinky stuff, but this-" I jerked my head toward TigerHawk "This is something on a whole other level". Despite my relaxed, non-threatening chatter, Tarantulas still watched me with fearful optics. If I play this right…, I took a single step forward, and that was all it took to snap Tarantulas out of his statuesque state.
"D-don't you move!" he suddenly started typing, the massive retractor ray (from what I read about illegal Cybertronian technology) charging in preparation "Or I'll destroy your friend!"
I frowned, catching one particular part of the threat; Friend? He and I know for sure at least two of the Vok are in there…how can he possibly draw such a connection? With a sigh, I decided to call him out. "Uhm…isn't that what you were going to do to him, with or without me being here?"
His yellow visor twitched as one of his clawed hands pulled a tiny lever, my ears just barely catching the sound of something clicking above me as I threw myself forward. Chancing a glance behind me, I saw that it was a net. I am so glad I didn't fall for that, I snapped my focus back on Tarantulas to see him activate the retractor ray, TigerHawk shouting in agony as the Vok within him tried to fight the pull. Growling, I charged Tarantulas with both my hands morphing into claws. The sight made him shout in panic as he then proceeded to dance around the room, pulling and pushing all these hidden levers and buttons as he did so. As I chased him, I had to try my absolute best not to get pinned by any of his bullshit traps.
"You know, for a spider, you act a lot like a chicken" I eventually gave up chasing him, dodging a few more traps as I went to shut down the ray. What I didn't see, was when two ghostly fanged heads evacuated the body of TigerHawk, floating wherever as I logged in the last digit to shut down the horrendous machine. Unfortunately, that seemed to trigger not only a self-destruct sequence, but the rather unpleasant surprise of two clamps extending out of the ground and digging into my ankles. Oh come on! As I struggled with the restraints, Tarantulas approached me with his signature cackle.
"I admit, you gave me quite the scare a month ago, however…" he was right behind me now, leering down with a narrowed yellow visor. "I learn from my mistakes" as he reached out toward the computer, probably wanting to disable the self-destruct, something caught our attention. Two ghostly faces, one with purple eyes the other with green, closed in on us. Their main target revealed to be Tarantulas as they merely phased through the bullets of his shoulder-mounted weapons, and possessed him with little to no difficulty. And being the opportunistic little chickie that I was, I formed a mallet and performed a hay-maker, knocking him (or them) aside twenty feet. As soon as Tarantulas hit the floor, a handful of arachnoids flew into the room, announcing the arrival of my friends as they barreled in with guns/swords drawn. And as happy as I was to see them, the self-destruct sequence was still beeping obnoxiously, the count-down displayed counting lower and lower.
"H-hey guys!"
Everyone went in a mad scramble around the room. Cheetor and Dinobot went to go support an immobile TigerHawk while avoiding any still-active traps, Transmutate flitted to different computers to extract whatever info she could (because damn, she worked fast), and Trailblazer helped me with the clamps. Once done, we actually made a dash to retrieve an unconscious Tarantulas before running to grab a workaholic Transmutate and then sprinting out of the lair with Cheetor and Dinobot hot on our heels with TigerHawk.
Thankfully, we made it a safe distance before that whole section of the cliff exploded and then caved in on itself. And by 'safe', I mean we got knocked down, but not seriously injured. So, getting up, I did a quick head count. Everyone was here, roughed up, but here. As we tended to whatever injuries we could, Optimus eventually showed up…along with a couple of sparks. We all stared in awe as the bright little bulbs entered the husk that was TigerHawk, shortly giving him life. Or should I say 'them' life. As 'they' got their bearings, Cheetor shuffled over to OP, intent on sharing his thoughts on their new (or rather old) friend. All while the rest of us went to go help the massive bot in any way we could, careful not to crowd him (let's just stick with 'him').
"You went through something awfully traumatic…can we help in any way?" I asked softly, while Transmutate took the initiative to treat the metal burns and dings on his armor.
"I…I only remember one of you…" TigerHawk eyed Dinobot, before shifting his weary gaze on us, "I only remember Dinobot…may I ask who you three are…? And them too?" he tilted his head toward where Cheetor and OP were quietly conversing.
"Of course…" I held out my hand, which looked absolutely tiny as TigerHawk took it with utmost gentleness "I'm Cassandra". As he finished shaking my hand as if it were made of glass, he then turned to Transmutate.
"Transmutate" a cerulean colored hand that was almost as fragile as mine reached out, the handshake laughably met with the same hesitant gentleness.
"Trailblazer" the large black metal hand of the horse-transformer was met with more force.
"And you may not recognize them…but those two are Cheetor and Optimus" I kindly shared as the two said bots joined in on the conversation.
"Tigertron, Airazor? You're...home"
TigerHawk blinked, giving a hesitant smile. "Home, yes…this is home, I remember now Optimus, Cheetor…" he looked up at his leader, then all around him "You have changed, things have changed…so many new faces…including mine". He picked up a piece of stray metal "What have I become?"
"Heh, you're TigerHawk now…so, a Maximal I guess" Cheetor added his two cents.
"'TigerHawk'…I like the sound of that"
"It's catchy" Trailblazer supplied, earning a nod from Dinobot and Transmutate as they decided to throw in their own comments.
"Certainly the name of a warrior"
"Fuzor names are always cool…consider me jealous-"
It was there that we all heard the revving of a small but powerful engine, the screeching of wheels making us wince as 'Tarantulas' sped off.
I believe I'm at fault here, I really felt like I was, considering I was the closest one to the slippery bastard. "Yikes…I suppose I should have kept a closer eye on him" I face-palmed, "And to think, I actually wanted to have him around longer, ya know to give us some answers"
OP lumbered over, patting me gently on the back. "There's a lot of questions still to be answered here, for all of us. But for now…" green optics addressed purple ones "Welcome home" as OP attempted a handshake, but was surprisingly (comically) rejected.
"You never get tired of handshakes, huh?"
At that, we all chortled, but Cheetor was the one that got smacked. And since all the others didn't want to try their luck they all transformed and took off (all of them forgetting that I needed a ride, so OP had to give me a lift…but not before he gave me a gentle smack), which was a good call because OP started to chase them too.
The end of this story is almost here folks, and I promise the questions will get much needed answers. ;)