The psychotic man laughed as he neared the four anthro humans, Tigatron still in his iron-like grip. His hand started to slowly crush the once tiger-bot's neck and all four free Maximals winced; they could hear the bones in Tigatron's neck starting to crunch. "Well look what I found here…" He taunted, "Five little Maximals…all waiting to die…" He sniffed, "Is that fear I smell in your hearts? It is? Ah…good!" The man threw the unconscious Tigatron at the group and he nearly knocked Talon out of the sky.
Fortunately, the owl human managed to catch the tiger and gently lower him to the ground so he was resting in a snow bank near the cave. She flew back over to the group and pulled out a small bomb she had snagged from Rattrap's room after looking around for more of them. She glanced over and saw Kickback pull out a blaster, Dragonsbane blow a ball of fire in her hand and Pantha pull out a small, silver bladed dagger.
However, their weapons only made the psychotic killer cackle even harder. He knew, as well as they, that even with weapons, especially ones as pitiful as theirs, they wouldn't be able to defeat him. Even if it was four on one. Rampage's green optics took in the four nearly frozen warriors as he decided which one would be the first to die and which one would suffer the longest, having to watch their friends die in front of them.
Without warning, the large man lunged and the group scattered to avoid his well-aimed attack. Luckily for the party of Maximals, they all managed to flee just in time to dodge Rampage, but now they were scattered in the snow and, with the ice cold powder falling ever more quickly now, it was getting harder and harder to see a foot in front of your face. Their only hope now was that Rampage's vision, as well, was being impaired by the snow and he couldn't see them; that he wouldn't find them before they found each other…
Primal cursed as he, Dinobot, Megatron and Manterror trudged through the snowy wasteland, hoping to find his missing crewmates before Rampage did. The leader wrapped the coat he had borrowed from Tigatron's room tighter around himself. "Do you detect anything yet?" He grated; he hated trusting Megatron and his Predacons, but he had to in order to find the Maximals.
There a slight pause, but then Megatron took in a breath like he was about to speak, but Manterror beat him to the punch, "I detect blood." He said, glancing back at the Maximal Elder. He ran his human hand through his snow covered long, black hair the best he could considering he had a long bandana tied around his forehead to keep his locks our of his eyes. "But it's not human…or whatever we are."
Dinobot growled as Primal looked at him to get a second opinion, just to make sure the mantis wasn't lying. He nodded at Primal, a deep scowl on his face as he did. He looked back up ahead and studied his 'son' from a distance.
Manterror looked a lot like Dinobot from a distance except for the fact that he didn't have blue skin and his clothing was different. Their faces were pretty much the same and so was the way their bodies were built. Of course, there was the fact that, buried in his hair, Manterror had two mantis antennas that twitched and even flew up sometimes when he heard things; his eyes were a deep red orange color that had startled Primal and a few others at first. He had on a pair of green/brown pants with a tight brown shirt and a vest that could have been mistaken for what Snake from the Metal Gear Solid games wears. He the blades of what appeared to be scythes sticking from the side of his lower arms, a gift from his beast mode and he clenched his fists, ready to use them, whenever a new scent was smelled. When he snarled or growled, you could see his teeth were sharpened to a point they looked more so than Dinobot's.
Manterror growled a growl that sounded so much like Dinobot's it wasn't funny as he sniffed the air; he felt Dinobot's smoldering hot glare move away from his back and the mantis loosened up slightly. He paused slightly as a new blood scent filled the air; this one, he recognized. "My friends."
Dinobot paused, giving the mantis a good, long look before sniffing the air as well. He frowned and looked at Primal, his eyes narrowed. He nodded slightly. "It's their blood."
"Can you tell whose, Dinobot?" Primal asked.
"…All of there's..." He answered in a soft growling voice.
A high-pitched scream forced its way through the unnaturally quiet white wonderland. Dragonsbane froze as the shriek of pure terror reached her sensitive audios. Another one was heard, but this one belonged to a different voice. Her blue eyes widened and she clenched her fist nervously, her wings flicking slightly.
Great. Now that psychotic murder had two of her friends.
Dragonsbane backed away slowly as she pulled her tail out of the snow, trying not to make any noise, however, her crunching footsteps and soft breathing screwed that up. She had to get back to the 'safety' of the cave, where she could at least see farther than two feet ahead of her.
Crunching footsteps approached her from behind and, before she could even think to run or scream, a hand clamped itself tightly around her mouth tightly. Her eyes widened even more and she whimpered softly in fear, though it was muffled considerably.
Talon and Pantha both growled as they held their weapons in front of them warningly, but, truth be told, they didn't look very threatening at all. Blood was running down in trickles from cuts in their foreheads and arms; Pantha's shirt was slashed across the stomach while Talon's right pants leg was nearly torn from where Rampage had tried to grab them, but, luckily, his claws were the only thing that had gotten them. Both gave each other a worried look before they moved back to back so they could look for the psychotic crabman without leaving themselves open to an attack.
"See anything, T?" Pantha asked, voice shaky, as she wiped a bit of blood from her forehead. She moved her dagger to her left hand and rubbed her left arm, trying to warm it up slightly. The blood on their arms was freezing itself quickly, causing them to be even colder than they should have been.
"N-No…s-sorry, P…" Talon responded as she fiddled with the bomb. She had never really been scared before in front of her friends, or if she had, she hadn't ever shown it, but now she was. Her owl eyes scanned across the white wasteland nervously as she looked for Rampage, hoping to find him before he found them.
"Not yer fault."
A shadow fell over both and they froze. How had he gotten so close so quickly and without them noticing him? Without one of them sensing or smelling him? Both instantly jumped so they were facing the shadow and held their weapons in a ready position. Heavy footsteps neared and Pantha growled. She lunged, knife at the ready. However, before she could slash, a hand grabbed her wrist and lifted her into the air. The cat femme yelled, screeched and hissed as she kicked, but was unable to get away as the person grabbed her wrist that was holding the dagger, dropping her other arm. The two struggled for possession of it, but in the end, the unseen man slashed her cheek with it, just below her left eye, and snatched it free.
"Hey! Let 'er go!" Talon snarled; she had the bomb at a ready position. All she had to do now was throw it.
However, before she could, Pantha's dagger flew into the air and slashed her arm. The femme instinctively let go of the bomb to slap her hand over the deep cut in her upper limb. She soon regretted it. Rampage swung Pantha and then threw her so she and Talon hit each other and rolled into the snow; they were nearly buried by the quickly falling frozen rain.
Talon groaned and put a hand to her head. "Ugh…ow…P…ya okay?" She asked, looking around.
Pantha moaned and struggled to sit up, the snow numbing her exposed skin quickly. "I…I dunno…"
"You won't be soon enough." Rampage grinned in an eerie voice. He grabbed up both femmes by their throats and held them at arm's length; the crab legs on his back moved slowly, making him appear even scarier.
Pantha and Talon both struggled to get out of his grip, clawing, growling, snarling and hissing at the murderous psycho. Talon snarled and kicked Rampage's chest, her claws slashing his chest open, blood dripped into the snow, causing it to turn red. Pantha managed to bite into his arm and ripped a large chunk of skin and muscle out of his arm; blood also ran in rivers down his arm and onto the snow as well as she spat the flesh out of her mouth.
Pantha hissed, showing the ex-crabbot's blood all over her mouth and fangs, while Talon continued to try to get another decent slash at Rampage.
However, instead of howling in pain, Rampage only laughed and the two femmes soon saw why.
His wounds healed themselves so quickly and so well, if it wasn't for the blood in the snow, on Talon's claws and Pantha's fangs, you wouldn't have known he had ever bled or been injured.
Both femmes' faces instantly twisted into those of sheer horror; there was no way they could beat him when he could heal THAT quickly now. Pantha shivered and Talon growled when Rampage laughed a low, evil laugh.
"I hate my life." Pantha said, gulping slightly.
"You and me both, P…you and me both…" Talon agreed.
"Oh don't worry." Rampage smirked. "Yours won't last much longer…I guarantee you that. However…it will last just a bit longer…I want you two to witness the death of your friends…one…by…one. Their dying screams and their dead faces will be the last thing you hear and see."
"Psycho."
"Thank you." He grinned as he slowly started to choke them. He was going to let them live, of course, just long enough to watch their friends die; just as he had planned. However, that didn't mean that they were going to be conscious to warn and yell to tell their friends to run. No, he couldn't have that.
Talon and Pantha instantly started their struggling efforts up again, but knew it was futile. They were going to die at the psycho maniac who lusted after nothing more than the simply shed of blood's hands. They felt Rampage tighten his grip and Pantha's vision blurred while Talon started to feel lightheaded. However, before either could fully black out, Rampage suddenly stumbled, as if pushed, and dropped them both.
The two girls fell into the snow and started to cough, trying to breathe again. Pantha rolled over onto her knees and held her throat while Talon sat up and put a hand to her chest, also trying to catch her breath. Both glanced up when they heard fighting and tried to see what was happening.
Rampage let out a yell as he stumbled back, a hand over his chest where the femmes could see two sharp weapons, knives or swords maybe, had slashed him. Before the wounds could heal, two men jumped out of the snow and both slashed at him again. A familiar battle cry was heard and Talon and Pantha exchanged glances, smiling softly; they knew that voice.
"Jerk!" Pantha yelled.
"Ya couldn't have come earlier?!" Talon yelled as well as Rampage fell back into the snow, but was soon on his feet.
"I have a half a mind to kill you and your father for being late!"
"Oh sure!" A scythe slashed Rampage's face and then, suddenly and without warning, the ex-crab yelled and clutched his chest, eyes rolling in the back of his head. As soon as he had passed out, Manterror stepped into view. "Everyone says that, but so far, no one had succeeded." He smirked.
"Bite me." Both said. "You guys being late nearly cost us our lives!"
Dinobot snorted as he walked next to his 'son', a frown on his face. He put his blood-covered blade away and studied the two femmes. "It appears you can't handle yourselves as humans…" He smirked. "You two can barely take care of yourselves as femmes…"
Pantha stuck out her small, cat-like tongue as she stood; Talon gave Dinobot a human gesture that meant 'screw yourself all the way to hell', but quickly put it away the moment Primal and Megatron walked into view. Both femmes glared at Megatron.
"Okay, I can understand Manterror, but…wait. I don't even get why the battle hungry idiot of a bug's here." Pantha pointed to the mantis. "No offense."
"None taken." Manterror shrugged a shoulder.
"He and Dinobot are the best trackers we have." Primal explained as he and Megatron stepped over Rampage and he bent down to bind the maniac's hands behind his back.
"Okay…so why's Mega-Dork here?" Talon asked, then smirked. "No offense." She said sarcastically.
"Offense taken." Megatron growled, and pulled out Rampage's spark box…only it wasn't holding half his spark. "This is why I came. I don't trust any of the other Predacons with it." He gave both Dinobot and Manterror a glance when he said this.
"That's…not a spark." Pantha said, stating the obvious.
"Of course not." Manterror shrugged; he looked at them. "We don't have sparks anymore."
"I know that!"
"…Oh Primus…" Talon gagged.
"What?" Asked Pantha, confused.
"That's…half a human heart…HIS human heart."
Pantha glanced at Rampage and then nearly threw up in the snow as she covered her mouth. "Oh…I'm gonna be sick…"
"Femmes." Dinobot, Megatron, and Manterror all said.
Both glared, but their faces turned a sickly green.
Dragonsbane entered the cave with Kickback as the kangaroo toyed with his blaster, trying to fix it. He glanced up at the dragon girl and hit his blaster; it shot itself and hit the cave wall just above her head. "…Whoops?" He offered weakly.
Dragonsbane growled slightly, but sighed. It wasn't Kickback's fault. Rampage had found the kangaroo and squeezed his blaster when he had gotten close enough to, nearly destroying it. Now the two doubted it would ever work properly in that world again. She landed next to the kangaroo, who was using the snow to wipe some of the dried blood off his bleeding lip and neck, and sighed before using the snow to clean off her arm where she had tripped and slashed it on a rock that had been hiding in the snow. Though the snow was freezing cold, it would clean it off.
"How's Tigatron?" Asked the femme.
Kickback sighed as he stood up. "He'll be okay…" He glanced up at the cave entrance, "As long as Rampage doesn't find the cave again…but if he does…I doubt any of us will get away from here with our skin…"
Dragonsbane swallowed nervously. She played with her fingers nervously, "D-Do you think he'll find us?" She asked, though she already knew the answer.
"Yes. I really do think he will."
Before Dragonsbane could open her mouth to try to change the subject, shadows appeared in the doorway and she shut up. She hid behind Kickback, but had a ball of fire in her hand, willing and ready to throw it. She never got a chance to…
…For Talon stepped through the cave entrance first, her hands showing she came in peace. "Put down the fireball, Db. Last time I checked, we were on the same side." She joked weakly, smiling slightly.
"Where's P?" Dragonsbane asked, putting the fireball away.
"I'm here!" Pantha stepped through next. "So are Primal, DB, MT 'n'…Megs."
"Megs?" Kickback asked, glancing up.
Sure enough, Megatron entered next. He and Primal were carrying the bound and unconscious Rampage between them. The two leaders threw the comatose psychotic man down on the ground as they walked over to the others. Megatron went right to the fire while Primal bent down next to Tigatron to check him for any major injuries.
"Ah. Megs."
"Yesssss…Megs." Megatron growled; he hated that name.
"Ah…" Kickback glanced around, ready to change the subject. "Uh…how'd you get…" He pointed to Rampage.
"Actually, we have these battle crazy idiots to thank for the rescue." Talon said, pointing to both Manterror and Dinobot as the two sat away from each other, the latter keeping a close eye on his 'son'.
"Yeah. Without them, we'd all be dead." Pantha said, blowing a blood covered piece of black hair out of her eyes.
Dragonsbane gave Rampage a nervous glance and edged away, scooting closer to her friends. "How-How'd they manage to…" She glanced at them, relaying an unspoken message.
"Ah…Megatron's…spark thingy…" Pantha coughed nervously, the memory of the heart in her mind still.
"Spark box?" Kickback asked. "But we don't have sparks anymore…"
Manterror grinned. "Yeah. Tell them what's really in there." He asked the femmes, "What made you two barf."
"Hey! Pantha did, not me!" Talon tried.
"What?! It was di-sgust-ing!" She drew out each syllable, "I did NOT need to know what a half human heart looks like!" Pantha said, but then groaned and held her stomach. "Oh great…image coming back into head…" Her face turned a green that almost matched her eyes.
Dragonsbane and Kickback instantly looked sick. The earlier a little more than the latter considering she was once human. The dragon girl put a hand over her stomach and gagged, "I think I threw up a little in my mouth…"
"Gross." Was all the kangaroo said as he thought about Megatron caring half a human heart around.
"Care to see, Maximals?" Megatron reached for the box, grinning.
"NO!" All three femmes exclaimed, reaching out to stop him.
Manterror cackled at the femme's reactions while Kickback chuckled, shaking his head; Megatron laughed evilly as he smirked, knowing he finally held something over all the femmes. They had weak stomachs.
Dragonsbane narrowed her optics and growled at the tyrant, Talon flipped Manterror off and Pantha hissed at Kickback, whacking him with her tail.
"Some friend you are." Talon and Pantha both said. "Side with the enemy."
"Hey, I'm a Predacon." Manterror shrugged, smirking. "Technically, you're the enemy."
Kickback didn't have an excuse, so he simply shrugged.
"He'll be okay." Primal stood as he looked at the others. He gave Tigatron another worried glance, "Luckily, Rampage didn't break anything. He came close, but didn't finish."
Pantha shivered, "He wanted to kill us all in front of each other…make us watch as one another was killed…" She wrapped her arms around herself, chilled by the thought Rampage had forced into her mind.
Talon growled softly, "He's a murderous psycho, P…that's all there is to it…" She pointed to Manterror, who she had turned her back to, and frowned, "No, you don't count in that category because, last time I checked, you haven't threatened somebody with that tactic."
Manterror snapped his fingers in mock disappointment, a motion he had learned from reading human literature too much. The mantis sat down and twitched his antenna slightly.
Dragonsbane glanced up. "…Do mantises actually HAVE antennas?" She asked, seeing the thin green appendage flick.
"If he's got 'em they do." Talon shrugged.
"…That sounded so wrong on so many levels." Pantha pointed out.
All three femmes laughed, Dragonsbane had a soft, rumbling laugh, like a dragon's should be, Talon's sounded like an owl's hoot, soft and kind and Pantha's was like a cat's, quiet and quick; the tension from the cave relieved from the three for a moment as they giggled. They smirked and then Pantha folded her arms behind her head, laying down. "But, horribly put words aside, it appears as if you've finally got hands you can use outside of battle. Took ya long 'nough."
Manterror nodded as he glanced down at his hands. It had been odd to actually go from having nothing but weapons attached to your arm to something you could use to make working on your projects a bit easier. Unfortunately, he knew that this was only temporary for, as they spoke, the spider was working on, or rather claimed to be, working on finding a way to turn them back. Oh well, enjoy it while you have it.
Sneezing brought the mantis out of his thoughts and he saw all of the femmes and Kickback sneezing once or twice. "I hate the cold." Talon mumbled as she wiped her nose.
"I second that." Dragonsbane agreed, wrapping her tail around her legs.
"Triple." Kickback also agreed. He glanced over at Tigatron, "How does he handle the cold?"
"ACHOO!" Pantha fell back and then groaned, "I dunno…but I wish I did." She said, sitting up. The femme wiped her nose. "And I home run…er…quadruple agree…or…you know what? Forget it. I just agree."
Megatron chuckled. "Four little sick Maximals…and one out cold. How are you going to get through this, Primal?" He asked, tail swishing.
"There are more than five of us, Megatron. You forget." Primal said as he stood up, moving Tigatron's arm so it was behind his neck. "Maximals, let's go. We have a hike to do before we can get somewhere warm."
Talon and Pantha both cursed for half a minute strait, pausing when they had to sneeze. When they were done, Dragonsbane winced, "You know, I'd never even heard that many curses…" She mumbled, acting as if she was cleaning out her ears.
"They never repeat a single one, it seems." Kickback sighed.
"Indeed." No need to tell you who that came from.
"Shut up." Both femmes muttered. They glanced at each other and smirked; they were like sisters. All three of them were, of course, but Pantha knew Talon longer than she had known Dragonsbane so she was a bit closer to her older 'sister'.
Megatron stood up as well. He walked over to Primal and frowned. "How are we going to carry Rampage back down the mountain, Primal?" He gave the femmes a look, "I highly doubt they're going to want to."
"Hey!" All three femmes took offense to that.
"We're not scared of him!" Dragonsbane said, but there was slight fear in her voice. She wasn't scared of him…as long as the murder was out cold. She sneezed again, nearly setting Dinobot on fire, but luckily the raptor managed to flip and doge the fireball.
"Of course you're not." Megatron replied dryly.
Talon put her hands on her hips. "We can carry him!"
"Sure you're not too scared?" Manterror grinned. "After all, last time you two screamed like little frightened sparklings."
"Okay, you." Pantha said, pointing to the mantis, "Shut up."
Dinobot snickered at his 'son' being told to shut up by a femme. And he actually listened, but he frowned about it. The raptor stood as well, brushing the nearly melted snow, which was actually more like slush, off of his legs and out of his hair, and then put his now clean sword away. (He had cleaned it in the snow whilst the femmes had been cursing.)
Manterror glared at the femmes and held his scythes up threateningly, but the femmes simply snorted and shook their heads. Sometimes, the mantis thought, it completely sucked being friends with Maximals. Especially Maximal femmes. They had big mouths and never seemed to be afraid of him.
"Don't worry, MT," Dragonsbane seemed to know what he was thinking, "You still scare some people."
"Yeah," Talon snorted, "Too bad he can't scare femmes."
Manterror's frown deepened and all three femmes giggled, but then coughed and looked away, stopping their laughter immediately when both Primal and Manterror glared at them. "Femmes…" He grumbled, mumbling something about the Maximal heritage, which made Pantha's optic twitch, considering she was the only one out of the three femmes that had been born a Maximal.
However, the other two didn't find his words very flattering either and growled, but that only caused Manterror to smirk. Primal sighed, "Can we get back to business, please?" He asked, "We need someone to carry him…" The man looked at Rampage.
The femmes instantly looked at Kickback, a grin on their faces.
"…Don't look at me like that!" The kangaroo said, waving his hands in front of him.
"I can't believe I'm stuck with carrying Rampage…" Kickback grumbled as he followed the others, lagging behind because of the weight on his shoulders. He tried to hop a little faster, but yelped and slowed down when a heel dug into his foot. "Hey!"
"You forget, Tigger, I'm stuck doing this too." Pantha mumbled. Carrying Rampage had been a two-person job and the femmes had all played 'rock-paper-scissors' for five rounds, Talon winning two, Dragonsbane winning two and Pantha winning only one. Right now, she hated the fact she picked rock most of the time.
"Tigger?" Kickback asked, raising an optic ridge. He frowned.
Pantha simply grinned as she grabbed the belt of Rampage's pants and pulled it so the ex-crab was no longer sliding off her shoulders. "Watch or read Winnie the Pooh."
Kickback paused, then figured it out. "HEY!" He huffed, and then sneezed.
Pantha laughed a different, more meow-like laugh, and smirked at him, "Hay's for horses. And, well…you're a kangaroo." She shrugged, smiling. She curled and uncurled her tail slightly, but then sneezed, her good mood almost ruined. "Sorry, KB…but I had t' say it."
"What's up?!" Talon asked, flying next to them as she appeared out of nowhere. "What's so funny?"
Kickback kept his mouth shut, frowning, so Pantha answered, "I hate the cold and I called 'im Tigger."
Talon paused…then laughed.
"Why me?" Kickback asked, groaning slightly.
Pantha and Tridrac: (C) Me
Manterror and Kickback: (C) Sonic
Talon: (C) Storm
Dragonsbane: (C) Tahalli
YP: Ya read, now review...or no new chappies!!
