So I wanted, for this story, to have a new effect of mystery. A sense of the unknown as no one knows what this mysterious Predacon is or what it looks like, bar Optimus and Blackwolf and Ratchet. Optimus and Ratchet, it makes sense for them to know what it looks like or what it is. Blackwolf however, was around when it was made, IN THIS one-shot. So remember this, Blackwolf and Arcee are both trying to get out. Starscream is still in this, but he's MIA...for now.


(Omega Three)

Optimus slowly walked out of the med-bay, he was feeling, and looking, much better than when he arrived to base with Smokescreen, who had already been repaired.

Ultra Magnus looked over the map of the Rainforest, trying to pick up a signal from their lost allies; the storm's electromagnetic waves were still blocking their trackers.

Ratchet was preparing to help his friend to go out with him and search from their comrades. Ultra Magnus looked up at them as he closed the map. Smokescreen and Optimus were both waiting at the ground bridge for Ratchet; Raf awaited to activate the bridge.

"I still think we should hold off the rescue mission and form an attack plan...the Decepticons have lose only one of their soldiers...we've lost two, it would be wise to strike NOW when our ranks have thinned in size." Optimus was about to speak, but Ratchet jumped up, not finished packing his supplies.

"I'll remember that Ultra Magnus…-" he huffed before latching his pack onto his back, then pointing at the old commander. "-Next time YOU'RE stuck in an energon storm." he answered the commander's suggestion coldly.

"Grimlock." Optimus got the titan's attention.

"Be on standby...we will most assuredly need your aid out there..." Grimlock nodded. The bridge opened, the three bots ran through the bridge and off to find their missing comrades.

(Deeper into the Rainforest)

Starscream awoke, his red optics widened as he remembered what had happened. The pod, the Autobots...Dreadwing…

He growled, when he returned, he would make sure Galvatron heard about Dreadwing abandoning him with the pod.

He got up, he was damaged, there were several energon leaking wounds, he needed to get out of this forest. He tried to transform, only to hear his t-cog wheeze and fail. His t-cog was damaged, terrific...that was all he needed, no way to fly out, he would have to find his way out.

He began walking, this particular part of the forest was dark, he knew it wasn't late in the day, it was just the amount of fog and the trees blocking the sun.

He didn't know how the Autobots did anything by walking or running the whole time, flight makes everything so simple.

He jumped when he thought he heard something moving through the brush. He looked back, but he saw nothing there.

He kept walking, until he saw a familiar shape in his view. When he got close enough, he saw the thing they came for: the pod. When the seeker approached the pod, he attempted to use the keypad, but nothing changed. He observed the stasis pod, until he lifted it open; the pod was empty!

He gasped, jumping back, where was the protoform?

A large shadow grew around the seeker, his optics widened. He slowly turned around, fear overloading his mind as he was clueless to what was behind him.

When his optics laid upon the figure, his optics exploded open in fear.

A loud growl could be heard as the figure rose higher above the lose seeker.

"AAAAHHHHHHHH!" the seeker's cry could be heard across the Rainforest.

On the other side of the forest, Blackwolf and Arcee came to a dead stop as the blood, or, energon curdling cry of pain sounded across the Rainforest.

"What the frag was that?!" Arcee asked, her blasters charged.

"I don't know…but something tells me we don't wanna find out." he kept his battle mask on, his visor scanned through the forest, only seeing wildlife.

"Simple recon...my aft...remind me to say NO, next time Smokescreen's on recon and needs assistance." she sighed, he only laughed.

"Just like how you said to tell the others you weren't at base whenever Ratchet goes on his science scavenges?" he chuckled.

"Exactly like that." she smirked, only leading him to laugh heavily again.

"So...I wonder if Optimus and Smokescreen made it out...or...if they're lost like we are." he broke the quick silence.

"Those two? They'll be fine…Optimus was probably able to fly them out." she commented.

He took a minute before he looked back, his face shield sliding back into it's compartment, his visor still down.

"You know what I just realized, Cee?" he asked her, she shook her helm, not knowing what he was talking about.

"Look at your armor." he smirked. She looked down, gasping as she realized all the dirt covering her armor was now gone, sure there were still scrapes and damaged areas on her, but other than that, she was cleaned off.

"Whaaa?" she was confused. He already knew the answer.

"It must have rained while we were out." his paint was a bit more worn than before they arrived in the Rainforest.

The only problem with her, was that the motorcycle that she changed into, it's paint didn't do too well in the rain and was now more gray-ish than blue.

"I feel better...but I'll feel A LOT, better when we get back to base and I can hopefully, properly clean myself." she chuckled, he agreed.

"Same here...I'm gonna have to finally clean my armor." he agreed, looking at his scratched and dull armor.

"Maybe…I don't know...if you're in the mood..." she trailed off a bit.

"Yes…?" he awaited her to finish.

"We could...share a shower?" she asked innocently, he absolutely loved this about her. Since they were sparkmates, she could talk to him normally, or she was nervous at certain times, it always confused him that THIS was still the same Arcee; but he got past that feeling and now it only made the relationship between them grow stronger.

"Well...if you don't mind..." he chuckled, she lightly blushed, an electric blue appeared on her metal cheeks.

After an hour of silent walking, they began growing nervous, the factor of the unknown only causing their imaginations to make up threats where they couldn't see it.

Blackwolf's optics exploded open, he focused on something above them.

"Starscream-!" she already had her blasters ready.

"Where?!" he slowly pushed her right blaster down, in a calm manner.

He chuckled a bit. "Don't worry..." he pointed to the tree, a metal arm was hanging in the tree; one of Starscream's arms, "He's...been disarmed." he joked.

"To say the least." she growled, before a grin grew on both their faces.

In a matter of seconds they both began laughing heavily, the stupid joke he had just made was dumb enough that it was funny to them.

When they were finished laughing, a silence filled the air, he just realized something...what did this to Starscream?

He realized something...the Predacon...Protoform S...or Sigma…

"Cee…!" he whispered, she didn't hear him.

"Arcee!" he spoke a bit louder, she turned to look at him now, she didn't know why he was acting like this all of the sudden.

"Stay low!" he ordered, grabbing her a bit roughly to get her down.

"What's got you spooked?!" she asked seriously.

"Protoform Sigma...it wasn't just a beast...it was a hunter..." he gave her a second to think.

"To put fear in the sparks of his...prey...he would use the limbs of his former prey...hang them as warnings...fear tactics. Cee…! We're in HIS playground!" her optics widened, a wave of fear overcame her.

"What does that make us?" she asked, hints of fear in her voice.

"Prey..." he instantly reactivated his visor, rapidly searching their surroundings.

"Stay right in front of me! Do not, I repeat, DO NOT! Leave. My. Sight." he was dead serious, he had one blaster out, his other servo had it's knuckle claw extended.

"So… Honey...is there anything else I should know about this, Protoform Sigma?" she looked back at him, he didn't stop to look at her, but he opened his mouth to talk.

"Well...from what I remember...he learns-" he used his clawed servo and snapped similar to how humans do, "quick. If he doesn't take his prey down the first time, he'll adjust his strategy to how you fight..." she had a shiver crawl up her metal spine.

"And...is there a way to beat it…or...survive?" she asked, he sighed.

"No…the only ones to beat were Megatron and Soundwave…but even they struggled to beat it… Neither of us are ready...piece of advice. If it's just you and Sigma...don't engage...hide and pray it doesn't find you." he sighed.

"In all honesty...I guess I do owe it to Megatron for something. I never mentioned this...but I've faced Sigma before...The way I fought him was that I set up traps...used guerrilla tactics against him…but in the end, he almost killed me...if not for Megatron and Soundwave arriving...those two saved my aft that day." she was shocked...nor did she ever think in one million megacycles would she ever be thankful towards Megatron.

Before she could add anything to that, they came to a dead stop. A large wall of rock formations stood in their way.

"We can't stop...not here…" he looked up, seeing that there was more forest past the rock wall.

"Well...we'd best start climbing...we're close to the edge of the storm...but we'll never reach it if we don't get past this point." she nodded, agreeing with him.

"Well...only if you think you can keep up?" she joked mischievously, he only shook his helm.

"Looks we're about to find out." he sighed.

"Oh and...optics are up here." she spoke before they began climbing.

As they were climbing, she began going ahead of him, he huffed as he stopped a brief second to get some energy back in his arms. At this point, they were very far off the ground, an unprepared fall would seriously injure either one of them.

She didn't see where she reached her pede, when it found a rock to use as an anchor, she used it to push herself up; what she didn't expect was the rock to fall under the pressure of her using it as a jump point.

The rocks fell, Blackwolf looked up for one second, only to get a rock bashed into his helm. In a daze, her lost focus and went limp for a second, his grip on the rocks slipped and he fell back.

"Blackwolf!" she gasped, leaping down after him, she grabbed him by the servo and grabbed a rock to hang from. She groaned as her arms were strained to keep herself and him from falling.

When his mind returned, he gasped and instantly growled, he drew one of his swords, driving it into the rock wall. He sighed, angry at himself for losing focus and almost taking Arcee down with him.

"I-I'm alright Cee." he sighed, she was overcome with relief, just glad he was okay.

"You know you're a lot heavier than you act." she chuckled as they began climbing again.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he looked confused, jokingly.

"The way you swing your swords, the way you fight, the weight of your body doesn't do it justice." he sighed, agreeing.

When they reached the top, he was panting from the climbing, but what he didn't expect was her to gasp, nearly screaming, in fear from the sound of it.

He quickly got up and when he saw what she did, he didn't blame her for making such a high pitched gasp/scream.

Laying in a trail of energon were parts of Starscream. A wing, three of his digits, a leg and pede; they all led to the rest of Starscream laying in stasis lock.

"He's gone into stasis lock! There's no way the explosion did this!" she was scared, for once in her life since she was protecting Jack from Airachnid, was afraid.

"Definitely not… and from the looks of it...this was recent...no...this was the work of Protoform Sigma..." they could have sworn that an audible growl came from the brush behind them.

They turned back, nearly jumping back, seeing a huge shape step from the shadowy trees and flora. It was a metal titan…it had four long, clawed pedes along with a spiked tail in the back. It had several spiny spikes along it's back along with a damaged pair of wings.

What was more menacing about it was the fact that this thing had two metal dragon heads, both had terrifying orange optics. Both it's heads focused on the two of them.

"Scrap..." Blackwolf growled, it began advancing towards them. He quickly pushed her behind him; but that didn't stop Sigma from using his large tail to throw Blackwolf into a large boulder, nearly disabling Blackwolf.

Arcee growled, firing rapid volleys of energon blasts at the Predacon; all it seemed to do was tick it off. But it didn't seem to care about her.

It slowly approached Blackwolf, she pressed the blasts, trying to distract it; it didn't stop. When it was standing right in front of the Prime, she activated her blades and charged it. Sigma didn't even turn, using his tail to throw Arcee far onto her back.

It's left head leaned in and pressed it's large teeth down into Blackwolf's shoulder. He growled in pain as the razor sharp, metal teeth slowly tore through his armor.

The right head spoke.

"I remember you...Wolf...I always get my prey..." the other head bit down harder.

"GAAAAHH!" he roared as the beast seemed to chuckle.

"BLACKWOLF!" she screamed, knowing she was useless in this situation.

Suddenly, from above, a large volley of energon blasts struck it's back. It's right head looked up to see a flying Cybertronian along with two more running to follow.

Optimus roared as he drew the Star Saber. "Stay away from my family!" he unleashed a wave of energy, the Predacon almost fell back from it. It's head pulled away, but tore a piece of Blackwolf's shoulder armor with it, leaving the Prime groaning in pain.

Optimus, Ratchet and Smokescreen were unprepared for Sigma to charge them, one head grabbed Smokescreen by the arm and threw him into several trees, the other did the same to Ratchet. Sigma used his tail to send Optimus onto his back.

It stood over Optimus as both mouths opened to rip into the Prime.

Out of nowhere, a deafening, metallic roar filled the sound barrier. A metal t-rex grabbed Sigma by his left head and threw the Predacon into the nearest wall. When Sigma regained focus, a huge metal tail slammed him back into the rock wall.

Grimlock growled as the ground bridge closed. Arcee was filled with the overtaking sensation of 'The cavalry's arrived'.

Sigma regained focus as he and Grimlock both faced each other, a titanic fight was about to occur between the Dinobot and the Predacon.


So! SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED IN ONE CHAPTER! In all honesty, I didn't think I'd get it posted in time before I had to go to my grandparents' house til Christmas Eve, I may or may not have two more chapters, there's really not much left to put into this story. So I'll see you all in a couple days.