Chapter 18

Danger Rising

The first thing Bulkhead heard when he came back from picking up Miko from college was Tripwire crying out for help…

Immediately he sprang into action and Miko, concerned for her baby bot was ready to go rabid chipmunk on the idiot responsible for hurting him and ran ahead of him into the room were the cries were coming from but she stopped dead in her tracks and no sooner had Bulkhead gotten directly behind her with his blaster pointed into the room did he also stopped dead… For there was Tripwire, currently held tight in Songbirds paws and the femme Predacon was casually grooming him with her tongue.

"Help! She's gonna eat me!" Tripwire squeaked out as he once again tried unsuccessfully to escape the gryphon's grasp but Songbird just calmly adjusted her hold on the little one and continued with her work. On either side of her were Moonrise and Freefall who were watching this situation with a bit of amusement.

"What have you never had a bath before?" Moonrise asked innocently as she tilted her head to the side.

"This isn't a bath!" The young mech whined pathetically. Although truth be told he hated baths no matter what form they took; and after determining that this situation was nothing dangerous Miko and Bulkhead both burst out laughing at this little scene.

Of course Tripwire was less than thrilled at being laughed at. "This isn't funny!"

"Actually it is." Freefall offered up as she stretched her new wings. After being Spark-Born (As Weaver officially coined the term for this newly discovered phenomenon…) and once Ratchet had determined the girls new forms had stabilized they were now free to wander the base. Currently neither of the girls could fly or transform but it would undoubtedly come in time… But for now Freefall was just happy that Moonrise wasn't busy saying 'I told you so' over and over again like she had been less than twenty minutes ago. Oh how she regretted all those years ago trying to tell her younger sister that they weren't actually gryphons and the naïve little girl wouldn't believe her… so she finally got fed up and said that if they ever turned into gryphons she had full permission to say I told you so as much as she wanted… Because as soon as she had stabilized Moonrise had said it over and over and over again…

"Laugh it up girls, you two are next…" Songbird said flatly as she finally finished with Tripwire's little bath. Immediately a look of horror filled both of their faces and they made an attempt to get away, only Songbird quickly caught them both by grabbing them by their tails and dragging them back into her grip. Now resigned to their fates the two grumpy looking little gryphons could only frown as Songbird began grooming them both.

"How you two always get so dirty never fails to baffle me." Songbird muttered after she finished with Freefall, released her and then began focusing on Moony.

"At least we aren't like the Vehicons!" Freefall retorted after she quickly escaped her mother's grip. "No sooner did you get one of those guys clean did two others get dirty!"

"Don't remind me sweetspark." Song grumbled as Moonrise squirmed a little in her grasp. "Eventually I just had to give up on that one. I was fighting a battle that I could never win."

"Wait… you cleaned the Vehicons?" Miko asked raising an eyebrow. Songbird merely nodded as she continued on with her daughter's bath.

"It's a long story…"

(Flashback)

There is the image of Song with one of the Vehicons in her grip and she's grooming him while in the background there are two other Vehicons apparently squabbling with one another right before a fight breaks out and the two eventually end up on the floor pummeling each other and earning an irritated look from the gryphonformer which stopped them both in their tracks.

"…children, mommy is losing her patience…"

Admittedly Song had always strived to keep things clean. Whether it had been her daughter's, or her cave, or now in this case the Vehicons... But soon she discovered that her tongue would wear out long before she managed to get them all clean let alone keep them clean, so to appease her they all agreed to bathe more regularly.

Which ended up being bad news for Megatron because there was never any hot water anymore whenever he went to the wash racks…

"Like I said, that was a battle I could never win…" She grunted finally contend that Moony was clean and she released her youngest before standing up herself and stretching out her massive wings. It was needless to say at this point that Songbird had agreed to the temporary alliance with the Autobot's, her primary reasoning was that she wanted to personally be the one to tear the Cyclops's head off and send him screaming into the black fires of the Pit. Revenge was indeed an excellent motivator… Not to mention that Megatron himself had also become one of the desired targets of her revenge plans and of course Knockout had fulfilled his promise to the Vehicons and informed Songbird that they were loyal to her instead of the warlord they had originally been following. Undoubtedly this would prove to give them an invaluable advantage provided of course that they waited to the right moment to use it. Both Predaking and Songbird knew this well… but in the meantime Song had no choice but to take things somewhat easier, just to make sure that her spark truly did become strong once again. So in thus the Autobot base currently had some new residents…

And no one was taking more advantage of this than Orb Weaver…

To start things off the young techno-organic had scanned an attack helicopter that had been at the base and gained and alt-form (Much to Fowler's dismay because this helicopter now no longer worked due to the scanning and was now little more than a several ton lawn ornament…) and with a little 'help' from Miko she had soon discovered the joys of the Internet, in particularly Youtube. But there had been one thing that had caught her attention as she had browsed the music and videos… DDR… and shortly after Miko explained what it was her optics had lit up and she had disappeared for hours on end and when she finally reappeared she revealed that she had just crafted a very unique DDR machine of her own design. One that Cybertronians could use but it had an extension so that a human could play against a said Cybertronian. Bumblebee could've kissed her as he had always wanted to play this human game… unfortunately in spite of his glee for getting to finally play DDR, he found he was unable to best its creator… in fact Weaver was currently the undisputed Cybertronian champion, second only to Miko who was outright undefeated. However the game had helped resolve one other issue, namely Orb Weavers immense anger towards Arcee. Jack had asked for Miko's help in clearing this up, since he knew that the younger femme's words had stung his partner very deep and she didn't need any more pain in her life… So the ever energetic young woman had covertly set up a little DDR competition between the two hopefully to resolve their issues in a nonviolent sort of manner. (Jack and Miko both had to work particularly hard just to convince Arcee to even play the game in the first place…) And what ended up happening was a grumbling Weaver and a very awkward Arcee competing in several close games with the two tying in every one… until the DDR machine began to fritz out and Arcee barely had time to grab Weaver and Miko up and get out of that hanger before it exploded.

Needless to say Fowler had not been happy with this situation. His exact words being: 'First a toaster, then an attack helicopter and now this?!'

Thankfully Optimus had managed to calm him down, but this development had only ended up getting on everybody's nerves… Except for Arcee, as she couldn't help but find the whole thing to be rather enjoyable… even in spite of the explosion… and she was the only one (with the natural exception of Songbird and Predaking that is…) who spoke up in Orb Weavers defense. The issue was eventually resolved and Weaver was just forbidden from messing with anything else on the base. Something that she begrudgingly agreed to… still Arcee defending her had been a nice gesture and it had been fun playing against her at DDR… so when the she approached Weaver a second time with another apology; a considerably better phrased and far more sincere apology… Weaver showed that, even though she had been extremely angry with the older femme and with very good reasoning; she was willing to forgive… And she accepted it without hesitation. Although admittedly she had somewhat broken the new rule that she wasn't allowed to mess with anything else on the base when she secretly gave the blueprints for building the DDR machine to Bumblebee and Smokescreen so that they and Miko and Raf could continue to play the game. And she still continued to pray that she had ironed out that whole pesky malfunction and exploding bit…

But returning to the situation at hand, Songbird's attention was diverted from her daughters, Bulkhead and Miko when Optimus Prime entered the hangar that they were all currently gathered in.

"Songbird several Vehicons have contacted us via transmission but they refuse to speak to anyone but you. Would you please come with me?" Song's audios immediately perked up at the mentioning of the Vehicons as she undoubtedly still cared about them all very much. So with a quick nod she transformed before following Optimus into the other hanger where Predaking, Ratchet and Ultra Magnus were currently waiting in front of a large monitor with three of the Vehicons crowded around the screen at their end.

"Greg? Mark? Steve? What's going on? What's the matter?" She asked, extremely concerned that they would risk their lives attempting to contact her.

"We don't have much time to talk Songbird. Right now Megatron and Soundwave think that they have determined where Shockwave's secret lab is located and they are dispatching everyone out to that location. Apparently Shockwave managed to get in contact with several of the energon mines before they were notified of his betrayal and ordered the miners within to abandon their posts in order to assist him with something. Long story short we haven't seen or heard from any of them since. All of our remaining miners are now back here on the ship… For the moment anyway; they're supposed to go out and hunt down Shockwave with the rest of us."

"The miners don't know how to fight!" Songbird growled. As she had gotten to know many of the Decepticon miner drones as well as the Eradicons and Vehicons. "Megatron essentially sending them out to be slaughtered!"

"Yeah, saying he's on the warpath is an understatement. By now you should know that he doesn't care about us, were all expendable… But enough of that, we're gonna send you the coordinates to where they think Shockwave is hiding now…" Steve explained in hushed tones and in the background became obvious that many more of the Vehicons rushing around getting ready for their mission.

"And why are you telling her this?" Ultra Magnus demanded finding this whole new development somewhat hard to swallow. Without giving it so much as a second thought Songbird transformed into her gryphon beast form and kicked out with her back legs, promptly sending Magnus flying into a wall. It was no secret that neither she nor Predaking had any tolerance for Magnus whatsoever. So the second that he started questioning the Vehicons since their actions were specifically meant to help them… well, sending him flying was the most benign thing she could do considering her alliance with the Autobots.

"Thank you guys. I really appreciate this."

"We know you want a piece of shockwave after what he did to your daughters." Greg muttered as Steve and Mark had no choice but to start getting ready. "We hope you nail him."

"Oh I assure you, I intend to paint the walls of his lab with his energon life blood!" Songbird hissed just as the screen suddenly went dark indicating that the transmission had been abruptly cut. But mere moment's later detailed coordinates began to upload themselves onto the main screen. With an audible growl, Song turned her attention back to the mechs in the room with her. "Open a groundbridge to this location; I want to get my claws into this fragger before he has a chance to escape again!"

"Indeed… we will open the groundbridge but know that we are going with you as well." Optimus explained calmly just as Ultra Magnus pulled himself out of the wall and while muttering something along the lines of 'I hate these fragging beasts…' he went to gather the rest of the Autobots for their new mission.

"It would be best if you left this task to Songbird and myself. We are better suited for the job." Predaking stated coldly.

"While you are undoubtedly powerful Predaking, I fear that knowing Shockwave's cunning it is highly likely that we may be walking into a trap." Optimus explained but it only earned him an irritated snort from the massive dragonformer.

"I still do not see how you Autobots would be of any use in this situation… unless of course you are willing to offer yourselves up as living shields?" These words only earned him an aggravated sigh from Optimus and an annoyed look from Songbird. As unlike Predaking she truly had no quarrels with any of the Autobot's anymore… The only one she even had originally was with Arcee and when she properly apologized to Orb Weaver Song had also let go of it. And as of right now they were currently allies, Predaking could at least try to get along with them… Sensing Songbirds irritation at him the mech Predacon wisely did not say anything else that could be taken as provoking a fight with his so-called new allies and just began to impatiently wait for the groundbridge to be activated.

It did not take long for the rest of Team Prime (and Knockout as well…) to assemble in the main hangar where Ratchet was busy inputting the newly obtained coordinates into the groundbridge system. Unsurprisingly Songbird tasked Orb Weaver with watching her daughters and making sure that they didn't get into any mischief while she was away… and she also tasked her with keeping herself out of mischief at the same time, namely so that there were no more incidents with any exploding appliances. Still Song had doubts that there would be any real trouble created by her daughters on this occasion as Moony found herself more interested in playing with Tripwire and Paradox. (It should be noted that while Paradox had indeed made a full recovery, the injury had left her with a large amount of scarring on her small chassis that would most likely never properly heal. Knockout found himself to be particularly infuriated that he could do nothing to repair this horrible mutilation of his daughter's appearance.) And Freefall was far more focused on learning how to fly. Within a few more minutes of making some final preparations the groundbridge roared to life and Team Prime along with their Predacon allies disappeared into the glowing green vortex.

"So the Vehicons just called and told everyone where they think Shockwave is hiding?" Miko questioned with a noticeable amount of irritation in her voice, undoubtedly due to the fact that she and the other humans had been forbidden from going on this mission.

"That's how it went… more or less." Knockout gave a half interested answer, clearly his attention was more fixated on Moonrise who had been play fighting with Tripwire, unfortunately for the young Mech Moony's new gryphon body was physically stronger than him and it didn't take her two minutes to pin him and then sit on him… and now she was pleasantly conversing with Paradox.

"Still… If is as smart as everyone says he is a wonder what tipped off his location to the 'Cons?" Jack wondered out loud, initially he was more talking to himself than to anyone else.

"Um… guys." Raf said from his position sitting against the wall and working on his laptop, his voice had suddenly begun sounding quite freaked out. "I think I can answer that question and you're not gonna believe it!" And with that he quickly stood up and ran over to where Miko and Jack were standing and showed them the Youtube video that he had just been watching. There was long a moment of silence before Miko pretty much summed up exactly what was on her cohorts minds.

"Oh you've gotta be kidding me…" She said staring at the screen, hardly able to believe what it was she was seeing…

The groundbridge led to an isolated and mountainous location in Montana…

To Songbird the area was a poor choice on Shockwave's part as the terrain was similar to that of her old territory in Alaska, which meant she knew exactly how to track anything that seemed even a little out of the ordinary. She and Predaking were positioned at the front of the group in their beast forms with Songs optics carefully scanning the ground and the surrounding area for any trace of something that seemed to not belong. It was one of those times that she was grateful for all the years of experience she had with hunting and tracking because if it wasn't for that, she would not have noticed the subtle signs that something massive had recently come through here. But as she continued following the trail something began to trouble her more and more as a strange… and yet sickeningly familiar... scent began to catch on the wind. Predaking started to growl as he began to look around the surrounding area with a bit more urgency.

'You smell it too?' Songbird asked in her beast language deciding it best not to alert the rest of the Autobot's just yet that something was not right.

'Yes but it does not make any sense! Why would Shockwave-?!' Predaking never got a chance to finish that thought as there was a sudden echoing screech split through the air like a lightning strike. Songbird and Predaking's heads snapped up and giving each other a quick glance they tore off in the direction that the sound had come from, leaving the Autobot's trying to follow after the two much faster creatures.

The disturbing sound had come from a section of forest that had been some ways ahead of them. It took virtually no time for both of the Predacons to reach it and once they first fell under the shade of the trees the first thing the noticed was the large amount of energon globs painting the ground with a vivid glowing blue. The screech echoed again but this time it clearly was not just one voice was two. Two pain filled snarling voices that were panicked and screeching… Song suddenly skidded to a halt and flared out her wings to prevent Predaking from advancing any further and indicated that they should approach slower, which they did… But when another audio splitting shriek resounded from just behind a large rock outcropping. No sooner had they rounded this bend did the source of these hellish sounds stop Predaking and Songbird dead in their tracks…

For standing before them were another pair of Predacons…

Very much alive, but that was about the only thing that could be said about these two… Heavy clamps compressed their wings to their bodies rendering them unable to fly and they were bound in massive chains not only wrapped around their bodies but linked the two of them together preventing them from splitting up. It was also apparent there were deep, nasty, painful looking wounds that had been ripped into their mechanical flesh. At this time the dragon looking one of the two was clawing furiously at the clamp that restrained the wings of its more gryphon-like companion. After a moment of startled silence Predaking managed to regain a grip on his lost senses and he cautiously approached these two catching their attention... causing them to freak out and begin snarling and snapping in shows of aggression to try and keep the much larger dragon away.

'Skylynx who are they?! I thought we were the only ones to make it out?!' The gryphon-like one of them addressed it still raging brother.

'Easy, easy…' Songbird said pushing past Predaking and transforming to her bipedal robot form. "Calm down, we're not here to hurt you. Now… let's get those chains off of you." Mimicking Songbirds approach, Predaking also transformed and cautiously approached the two injured Predacon's and seemingly effortlessly he and Song broke the chains that bound them and carefully remove the heavy clamps on their wings. But no sooner had they accomplish this task did the duo make an attempt to fly away… an attempt that failed because Songbird quickly grabbed both of their heads and smacked them together. Dazing them. "Now that wasn't called for was it?"

"So there are more like us?" Predaking observed.

"Well somewhat like us, the one called Skylynx is undoubtedly a dragon but the other is an ursagryph." Songbird corrected her tone filled with cold humor as she placed a servo on each of the two and began to heal their injuries. "A cross between a bear and an eagle… similar to a gryphon but not the same."

"You know what I meant…" P.K grumbled. "But this doesn't make any sense. Why would Shockwave continue to clone Predacon's? I thought that both he and Megatron were trying to eradicate us?"

'He has to keep making Predacon's otherwise there's nothing for 'it' to eat.' The one named Skylynx answered darkly. 'It constantly needs to eat more and more; Darksteel and I were the only ones to get away because the main chain that held us to the cave wall broke. Then we ran like the Unmaker himself was on our tails! We barely got away with our lives!'

"What is 'it'?" Song questioned, not liking the sound of that one bit.

'Monster…' Darksteel muttered and he visibly began to tremble. It was as though just thinking about whatever it was that they had escaped from inspired such terror in virtually crippled him with fear. 'It's a monster that does nothing but eat… and eat… and grow.' He whimpered as he sat down and covered his optics with his paws. In Songbird's opinion he made himself look with nothing but a big, sad, mutant teddy bear… His brother however was far less sympathetic to the scared ursagryph and abruptly pushed him over.

'Get a grip Darksteel!' He snapped angrily. 'We need to get out of here should it actually come looking for us!'

"Wait, can you take us to where this monster is?" Song abruptly asked, stopping Skylynx in his tracks and getting a fearful look from Darksteel.

'Are you mad?! That thing will devour you before you have a chance to blink!' The younger dragon exclaimed flaring his wings out in utter shock at what Songbird wanted. But now it was the femme gryphonformers turn to get a bit impatient.

"Listen… we are here to stop Shockwave and whatever monstrosity he's apparently created. I understand that you're afraid, but all were asking is you take us to wherever this monster is and we will handle the rest. You don't even have to stick around afterwards…" Songbird stated forcefully before she took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Please… please take us there."

There was a tense silence as Darksteel and Skylynx turned away from Songbird and Predaking and seemed to converse quietly between themselves for a few moments. Personally Predaking was heavily considering forcing these two to take him and Song where they needed to go as his beloved companion's words did not seem to be working. But just before he could open his mouth the two younger Predacon's turned around to face them once again, only this time all of Skylynx's aggression had apparently bled out of him and was replaced by the same fear that gripped Darksteel. Clearly hiding is now obvious fear behind aggression wasn't going to help him anymore. 'Fine... we will take you there, but there is no way we are going back in!'

"That's all that we are asking." Song said very gently. "Thank you." And with that she transformed into her beast mode, as did Predaking… and he was honestly grateful that he didn't force them… and with that the group took to the sky…

It was just beginning to turn to dusk when Darksteel and Skylynx landed in front of an old mine entranceway just outside of a human town…

Throughout this entire trip Songbird had taken notice of a terrible stench steadily growing stronger as they had approached this area. The air had become thick, as though heavy with an unknown weight and whatever this horrid stench really was it was starting to cause an unpleasant burning sensation in her vents. It was something that was troubling her. Especially since the closer they seem to come to the source the worse the stench and the burning became…

'Here… this is the place.' Darksteel explained in a hushed voice. 'The monster you're looking for is inside.'

'Does it ever come out?' Predaking inquired.

'No. It never comes outside, because its food is always in there.' Skylynx explained nervously.

'How did you manage to escape?' Songbird asked while quietly inspecting this entrance.

'Like we said, the main chain holding us broke and we ran… it was only through dumb luck that we actually made it outside.' Skylynx again explained and Song merely nodded.

'I believe that you are right about that.' She growled and turned her attention over to Predaking. 'One of the reasons I chose to live in a cave that had many narrow passages, I knew where all the twists and turns were inside of it… and if someone had been following me, or my children, they wouldn't know when the tunnels would suddenly open up and give us room to strike. Fighting anything underground in an area you're not familiar with is like fighting in a coffin with a lid ready to snap closed…'

'The only coffins that there will be required are for Shockwave and whatever abomination he has created.' Predaking commented dryly although he also noted the horrible stench that was coming from within this over glorified hole in the ground… 'Are you ready Song?'

'No… but that has never stopped me before.' She joked morbidly. 'Darksteel, Skylynx, you two wait out here and don't come inside.'

'We won't… and if you're not back by nightfall were leaving.' The dragonformer muttered uncomfortably as he and his brother settled down a few meters away from the entrance.

And without so much as another word…

Songbird and Predaking slipped inside…

Only vaguely aware of what kind of hell that they were now walking into…

Yes I couldn't resist putting in Skylynx and Darksteel, I loved those two idiots in Predacon's Rising and thought that they needed to have a role in my story. And I'm sorry if Darksteel seemed a bit OOC but I was trying to make him somewhat traumatized… And I'm sorry to have to leave it off here but I promise the next update will be getting to the real action! Now as always please remember to Read and Review! And thank you to everyone who has reviewed thus far I really appreciate it! ^_^