Disclaimer: This is a work of fanfiction. If you are a lawyer employed by any transformer-related company, check the meaning of that word and be on thy way. You won't earn your salary here.
Dedication: I dedicate this chapter to Lady Dementia, 'cause I admire her works, 'cause I can, and 'cause I want to. Questions? :-)
A/N: I hope you enjoy it. And if you do - please review! (If you don't - review and tell me why not).
Spoilers: "A better mouse trap". I should probably mention that when I say 'spoilers', I actually mean 'you should have seen the episode to fully appreciate the story'.
-
Mission: To save Beast Warriors
Part Three
Rat in Trouble
When security systems go haywire, and there's something strange lurking in the jungle, it's a bad time to be a rat. And we're all gonna die.
-
-
-
Rust opened one optic and yawned. He felt lazy. Scorponok had just informed him through the comlink that he had half a mega-cycle before his shift on monitor duty began. Too short a time to go out and wander, too long to just lie around and do nothing. He took out his EK-box and inspected the tools. Some needed sharpening. He was about to do just that, when Waspinator came in.
"What Doggy-bot doing?" he buzzed.
Rust growled. That does it!
He carefully closed the box and subspaced it, then lunged. Waspinator only had time to scream once before the bigger bot knocked him over, sat on his chest and punched him hard in a place that seemed about right.
It was. Two halves of a helmet swooshed to the sides, revealing Waspinator's face, young and frightened.
"Rust," he growled, leaning over the wasp bot, left fist raised threateningly. "Not doggy-bot, not crazy-head. Rust."
The green optics stared up at him in terror.
"Say it!"
"R-r-r-rust," the small bot stammered. His face was practically radiating fear.
Rust cursed inwardly. He really hated himself right now. But once you started...
"One 'R' only. Rust".
"Rust," Waspinator whispered meekly. He wasn't usually so easily scared, but there was something in those burning, blue optics that paralyzed him. If he could only turn his gaze away from them, maybe he could fight back...
"Good. Now say: 'What are you doing, Rust'. NOW!"
"W-what Rust doing?" and he cringed as his audios registered what his mouth said.
Rust's optics narrowed for a nano, then he smiled.
"Good enough." He jumped to his feet and pulled the smaller bot up. "Just remember what my name is, and you'll have no troubles with me."
As soon as he was free, Waspinator raised his hands and shut his helmet closed.
Rust turned to hide a smile.
Wise. Your face is way too expressive to show it to all the bad guys around.
Then he realized something. When his helmet was off, Waspinator's voice was different. Higher pitched and with no trace of buzzing. Just a normal voice of a young bot. There must have been some device installed in the helmet that altered it.
Pretending to be older, are you? I wonder how young you really are...
But he didn't ask. If the kid had chosen to disguise himself, it was his private thing.
OoOoO
One of the screens flickered and went offline. Megatron looked at it across the bridge, from where he was searching the archives, and growled. The equipment was falling to pieces; it required constant repairing and maintaining. If they didn't repair every fault immediately, they would soon be out of working machinery. But he and Tarantulas were busy searching data for their newest project, Scorponok had holed up in his lab, muttering shyly about a behavior changing viral again, and Blackarachnia, still annoyed about her forced enlisting, declared she'd show them how the wars are won and disappeared in a hold somewhere. But then again, a bot doesn't have to be an engineer to repair a simple screen. Megatron hit his comlink. "Rust!"
OoOoO
Waspinator shut his helmet. How did that crazy wolf know about it? He glared at Rust hatefully. He turned his back as if Waspinator wasn't there.
I'm fed up with being a punching bag! I'm fed up with being ignored!
He very slowly reached for his weapon.
"The last bot that tried to shoot me in the back spent a whole week in a CR-tank," Rust said without turning. Waspinator's hand jumped away. "
How does he know?
Before he could wonder, there was a beep.
**Rust! Report to the bridge**
"Coming, sir."
And he went. But he turned in the door.
"Wasp..."
"What?" Waspinator snapped defiantly.
"Next time someone pins you to the ground and is stupid enough to lean over you, use those optic lasers of yours and melt his slaggin' head to the Pit."
The door closed. Waspinator stared at them in amazement.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"With two new Predacons, we might be forced to leave the base unmanned sometimes, so I need you to make it impregnable," Optimus had said after Rattrap's Big Day, and Rhinox was working on it since then. It was quite a pleasant task, since their armory was full, and he only had to decide where to place each component and how to connect it to the system. Now he was almost finished; Sentinel only needed the last few lines of programming, and--
"What kind of defense grid is that?" Dinobot snarled in disgust. "These toys will not stop a Predacon in battle mode!"
Rhinox frowned, but beside that he didn't acknowledged the remark. He didn't have to, Rattrap was present. The green bot was probably the only Maximal in the entire universe who appreciated the rat-bot's big mouth, because it was never turned against him, and he could work in peace while Rattrap was talking the intruder to death. He concentrated on the codes, barely aware of an argument in progress.
"... Lethal threats demand lethal response!"
"Yeah, lethal, right, like that Big Bad Rust ya were tryin' to scare us with. How come he never showed up, huh?..."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Big Bad Rust sneezed, creating a small cloud of dust. He was currently in disfavor. Just because he'd blacked out the entire base for a few mega-cycles. It's not like it was his fault! He'd told Megatron this was likely to happen, but would he listen? Noo, repair the screen, that's an order, Rust! And then he goes postal because of some lost data.
And as a result, Rust was first used as a stress-relieving target, and then sent away to salvage some parts for Tarantulas. With Terrorsaur as a company. The red bot wasn't too happy.
And Rust was bored. It was a state he rarely experienced while on the move, but now he couldn't vary his run with any turns or jumps, because his movements were limited by his backpack and a sledge attached to it. The latter was his private idea, and he was rather proud of it.
He'd dragged one of floaters to Scorponok, and asked very politely (and he really didn't know why the scientist was so nervous. Really. Big blaster? What big blaster? Oh, this one? Nah, I'm only waving it to emphasize that I'm in a hurry, what with Megs on my heels and all...) to modify it a bit and weld some boards to it, converting it to a kind of pack sledge.
It would be useful when they reached their destination, but for now it was a hindrance. Hmm, maybe it would be more interesting if it were weighted? Or... Oh, here's a thought!
"Oy, Terror!" he bellowed to the skies. Then he sighed and activated his comlink. "Terror!"
**What?**
"Come down here."
**Why?**
"Cause I'm asking you."
**Go slag yourself.**
"Don't make me shoot you down."
That got a reaction.
That crazy wolf had proved to be an excellent gunner in aerial fights, and Terrorsaur didn't want to find out if he was as handy with a blaster. He landed at a safe distance and shot Rust a hostile glance.
"What?"
The wolf grinned and motioned his head towards the sledge.
"Hop on"
"What?"
"You heard me. There's no point in both of us getting tired, is there?"
Terrorsaur blinked. What was that fur-ball playing at? There was no way he was just offering a ride out of the goodness of his spark. But on the other wing, what mischief could he have planned? It was just a floater... unless he'd installed a shocker or something in it.
Rust scratched the sand impatiently.
"Well, move your leathery skid-plate in there and let's go!"
His dislike for effort finally won over his suspiciousness, and the flyer flopped to the floater.
"You're in there?"
"Yea..."
"Then hold on."
His contemptuous sputter turned into a screech, as Rust shot forward at highest speed.
Rhinox had called it 'Sentinel' for a reason. It was supposed to detect and neutralize each and any threats to the ship. Unfortunately, due to a rather unpredicted chain of events, involving Rattrap's sense of humor and Dinobot's temper, its main control console had been stabbed to death, and having no access to the 'friend or foe' files, Sentinel focused on neutralizing the only person still onboard.
"Oh, gimme a break!" Rattrap moaned, rolling out of the line of fire. It wasn't funny anymore! How did he ever end up in this situation?
I've chosen a really bad moment to become responsible!
He scrambled madly up the ladder.
"I should of stayed at Cybertron! Pit, I should of stayed back on Vespa3! Next time anyone asks me if I wanna interestin' job, I'll just turn and run!"
The hatch he reached was locked. He didn't waste time for pleasantries.
/BLAM/
...and the corridor entrance was open.
--Intruder, you are required to stand down--
"Shove it up yer--"
Three disruptive guns appeared up above.
Rattrap squeaked, turned, and ran.
OoOoO
Outside the base, Cheetor stifled a sigh. It felt weird to fire on his own base, even if the firepower wasn't doing any damage to it, but it was even worse when Rhinox's order stopped the assault, for it left Cheetor with nothing to do. He fidgeted anxiously, sharing his attention between his two present teammates and the greenish blob engulfing Axalon. As usual, he'd arrived at the scene in the middle of trouble, and no-one would tell him what happened. He wished that Optimus would come back from investigating the Predacon activity the teen-bot, Dinobot shifted, sharing his attention between Axalon and the rest of the world. It would be the worst moment for the 'Predacon activity' to show up at their doorstep. The vulnerability of their situation put all his senses on edge.
Rhinox frowned, glaring solely at Axalon. His shield had proved to be just as resistant as he'd intended it to be. If the rest of the system was as efficient...
The fact that Rattrap had survived in the Pred's base wasn't at all comforting. Megatron's defensive system wasn't anywhere near as good as his.
--Warning, energon surge-- Came a collective diagnostic warning.
Rhinox absentmindedly converted more power to dumpers, while the others beastmoded. He activated his comlink again, establishing constant link to Rattrap, then tried to modify the signal so that it would cut through the jamming field. If he could contact Rattrap, he could tell him what exactly he should do. AND he would know if small bot was all right.
There were many friends he'd lost to a 'friendly fire'. He didn't want a repetition.
Waspinator burst into the hidden cave like a 'Con out of Chaar.
"Optimuzz Primal izz coming!" he buzzed in alarm, speeding towards two Predacons. He was wrong in this regard, since Optimus has returned to Axalon, leaving the chase to Tigatron, but of course the distressed wasp couldn't know that. He simply relayed what he knew.
Scorponok put the laser drill down and looked at Waspinator with exasperation. The tunnel seemed so secure just a moment ago!
"What did you do now?"
"Waspinator not do anything! Optimuzz made ambush!"
Blackarachnia snorted impatiently, pushing Scorponok aside and fitting her device-of-a-fast-victory into a hole he made. "Forget it, he'll never find us here! Besides, he is already too late," she added, punching in the activation code, "All is set up, and I only need to--"
Crouched behind one of stalagmites, Tigatron gripped his gun. Attacking three Predacons single-handedly might be considered dangerous, but he didn't see it that way. His predator side was insisting that none of the creatures was a threat to him, and he believed it more than what his logic circuits were telling him. So he ignored the logic, and gave up to the tiger. That strategy had yet to fail him. He growled and made himself known. "You three are going straight to the scrap heap!"
He would have been mortified if he knew what effect his following actions had besides sending the Predacons scattering for cover. When the sonic emitter thrust by him in the wall went off and the big part of the land caved in, no-one noticed that the tremors reached Axalon as well.
"Rhinox ol' buddy, yer freakin' paranoid" Rattrap wheezed, pressing his back to the wall, and hoping that the narrow platform above would be enough to hide him from three huge shatterfields, hovering around the Sentinel's core computer. He'd caught a glimpse of the small panel adorned with a big red button before he was forced to roll over the edge to escape the 'friendly fire'. Now all he had to do was jump, grasp the edge of the catwalk, somersault, roll, run, and slam the Pit-forsaken button before the fragging slag-makers charged to full power and evaporated him. Piece of cheese. He could do it.
Probably.
Maybe.
Oh, what the Pit... With a battle cry that would make Dinobot proud, Rattrap stopped thinking a jumped.
He almost made it. He was about three feet from the panel, when everything shook violently. He lost his footing, and a nano-klik later a part of a ceiling landed on his legs, pinning him to the floor. The shatterfields zeroed in on him, howling with the power caged in their capacitors.
The tremors reached Axalon as well, but no-one noticed, for the epicenter of the event was so much more eye-catching. It's not every day that a large piece of land bubbles up like a tar pit. The Maximals crowded at the edge of the crumbled area, sensors on high alert and weapons ready. It can be safely said that they were all relived that it was Tigatron crawling out of the rubble, as opposed to, say, five to six Predacons. It was one thing less to worry about. Rhinox carefully scanned the tiger. He was only able to get the readout of the basics, but more often than not it was enough to evaluate the bot's condition. There were no energy fluctuations, and Tigatron seemed fine, even if he move a little stiffly. Nothing more serious than some dents and bruises, Rhinox decided.
"Um, guys?" Came Cheetor's hesitant voice from behind. "The shields went down."
Rhinox's systems froze.
"That's a good thing, right?" Cheetor added hopefully.
"No." Rhinox voice was so quiet they barely heard it. No, it wasn't a good thing. He'd written the safety protocols personally. In case of infiltration, the shields were to remain in place even after the intruder was neutralized. Unless manually removed, they weren't to go down as long as the intruder was still on board and...active.
The mechanical voice sounded throughout the base from the speakers.
--Scanning for enemy signatures.--
--No enemy signatures detected.--
--Sentinel standing down.--
The cryo-field generators stopped randomly cruising the corridors. The zero-friction fluid was sucked back into the piping it came from. The laser grids were shut down, and the blasters retracted into their holders. In the computer core chamber, the shatterfields powered down and withdrew to their positions. All went completely still.
On the floor, a small bot opened one optic cautiously.
"Heh, I ain't dead!"
He relaxed his fingers, dropping a piece of cable he'd slashed at the button just a nano ago. Amazing, but it worked. The Friend or Foe program was on-line, and friends were safe from it. Speaking of friends...
Rattrap wriggled from under the beam and activated his comlink to report his success. Rhinox's comlink was still open, and Rattrap heard the others before he spoke, and what he heard--
He laughed silently.
Huh, I am just in time for my own funeral banquet! I wish I had a recorder!
Somewhere in the desert two bots were enjoying themselves. Rust because he was testing his muscles and endurance, Terrorsaur because he was doing the exact opposite. Laying quite comfortably on his back, with his eyes closed, he reveled in idleness.
"Oy, Terror!"
"What now?"
"How did you meet Megatron?"
The pterodactyl opened his eyes in surprise. "What?"
"Do you always make people repeat themselves?"
"Huh?"
Rust sighed.
"Do you al--"
Terrorsaur growled.
"No. And I won't talk about that stinking--"
"Warning, dactyl - if he asks me what you said about him, I'll tell him."
A silence followed.
Rust waited for some time, till he got too bored.
"So how did you meet him?"
Terrorsaur started muttering curses. The floater stopped and he hastily got to his feet, in case Rust was going to attack him. He wasn't, but he was grinning an unnerving, wolfish grin.
"Let me put it that way, bird. I'm curious, and I'm bored. You can either tell me what I ask, or you can provide me with an entertainment of a different kind." And he grinned even wider.
Terrorsaur narrowed his eyes at the obvious threat, but then he shrugged. What the Pit, he didn't have anything else to do.
"Ever been on Gladius?"
Rust resumed trotting. "Sure. Great gladiators' fights, cool clubs, easy cash to make. Why?"
Pushing aside a surprise that the wolf had visited the asteroid, Terrorsaur laid on his back again.
"I lived there. Fought in the arena sometimes, more often just made bets. And one day I meet this guy in a pub - he's all smiles and free drinks and all - and he says that he saw me fighting, where did I learn that move I used, yadda yadda... And he keeps buying drinks, and then I wake up and they tell me that I've challenged that guy, with all the cash I had as a wager, and I lost. All nice and legal, cause I've signed all papers. No one gave a slag that I was drunk at the time."
Rust chuckled. "He probably bribed the juror. But why are you working for him, then?"
"Hallo, anyone in there?"
"Cause I've challenged him again, all right? I wanted my money back. And I had to sign a 10 stellar-cycle's service warrant to equal the wagers."
"And you lost again."
"Yea."
And the worst part is, he did that cause I was a flyer with a good aim and no place to go, and he needed someone like that to be his shield. His slaggin' cannon fodder. A scapegoat in case things went awry.
For a Predacon, that was the worst insult.
Rattrap entered the lift and glanced back with a smug expression on his face. "Yer Sentinel Expert's leavin' da buildin', children, but if ya need him, just call 'im!"
Dinobot growled. "It's been six solar-cycles, vermin! Would you cease your gloating already?"
"Yer just jealous, Scale-belly, 'cause ya could never..."
Optimus sighed in relief when the lift muffled their bickering, and turned to look at Rhinox, who was watching monitors, as he did almost all the time.
"Something wrong, Rhinox?" amazing how Optimus could see his frown even if he was sitting with his back to him.
"I'm not sure. Our scanner shows something... weird. Like a small energy disturbance. As if the scanner couldn't decide if it found something or not. And now that I think of it, it's not the first time, I just never paid it any attention before. It can't be anything natural. It changes location all the time, and disappears and appears randomly. It could be just an instrument error but--"
"--but we can't take any chances. How long has it been out there?"
"Hmmmm..." Rhinox pondered, "at least since Rattrap's 'betrayal'... " he gave Optimus a look, and the Maximal leader sighed. He'd apologized for that three times already, and Rhinox could really give him a break...
"But it could have been there earlier, only there was too much interference then to notice. This signal is very faint even now. See, it disappeared again."
"Hmmm. Well, our unhappy couple is heading that way, so I'll just let them know to keep an eye for anything unusual."
"Unusual? What's unusual?" Cheetor arrived on the scene, and was determined to make his star shine brighter than any other. Optimus finally assigned him to 'mysterious signal hunt' just to have him off his back. When one delighted Cheetor left the Axalon, he radioed Dinobot and filled him in, asking to keep an eye on both unusual things and hyperactive cheetahs.
When Cheetor found the two patrollers, they were at the stage of cutting remarks, heading fast to straightforward cutting. His arrival eased the tension somewhat, and they went on in silence, which allowed them to detect Tarantulas and Scorponok some time later. They were busy setting up some kind of machinery on a small clearing.
"So much for our mysterious signal," Cheetor murmured, disappointed.
Dinobot smirked. At last, something he was good at!
At his command they scattered, (Rattrap muttering something about bossy Preds under his breath), surrounded the two scientists quietly and opened fire almost simultaneously.
OoOoO
Tarantulas cursed as the first shots smashed his scanner to ashes. Slag it, he was so absorbed he lowered his guard completely! How foolish of him!
"Maximals! We must retreat!"
Scorponok clicked his claw and shot a missile. "But what about--"
"Forget it! It's not important!"
That coming from the very person who had insisted that they had to check the energy anomaly. Scorponok shook his head. That spider was so unpredictable! But retreating seemed to be a good idea. He launched a few more missiles and ran.
OoOoO
"Whoohoo! That was all too easy!"
Rattrap threw a bomb after the fleeing scorpion.
/bleep/ **They have fled, stop playing and return to base, vermin.**
"See ya there, Chopper-boob."
His comlink beeped the end of transmission, and Rattrap took a baseball-style swing to throw one last bomb for good riddance...
...and he heard the swish of air...
...and he saw the incoming missile...
...but he had no time to do anything about it.
Dinobot snarled at the sound of explosion, but out of annoyance, not worry. The rat should learn not to waste their resources like that! He shook his head and started toward the base.
OoOoO
At a charred clearing Rattrap blinked and groaned.
"Oooooow. Oh man. That hurt."
He reached for comlink.
"Rattrap to base, I need--" The comlink was trashed. "Oh great. What else?" He tried to get up. It didn't work. He beastmoded and tried again. Didn't work either.
"Hey, ah, Chopper-face? Cheetor? Are ya here somewhere?!" He waited for an answer.
"Oh come on, bots, I need help! Where are ya?!" He feebly scrambled to get to his feet and squeaked in pain. "Slag, I'm gonna die here, move yer skid-plates an' get me back to base!"
He continued yelling for some time, alternating pleading with curses, until the bushes nearby rustled--
"Oh, finally, took ya long enough..."
--and from among them came out the very worst thing that an injured rat can see.
A cat.
Tarantulas stopped and checked the damage reports his internal computer provided. Nothing serious, he wouldn't even need a CR-tank. But he was still angry. To let Maximals sneak up on him like that, that was unforgivable! He was a PSP officer, for Primus's sake! He should never let anything distract him to the point of being careless. And yet that was what happened. He frowned. Well, someone would pay for this, in not very distant future.
I wonder if the Maxis were there by accident, or were they looking for the same thing I was...
He looked back at Scorponok. At least that fool wasn't complaining about being ordered around. If Tarantulas heard once more that whinny 'I'm second in command', he'd blast the scorpion's head of.
"He shouldn't command me, I'm second in command," Scorponok muttered under his breath. But it was more a habit that actual protest. He knew all too well that his command only extended to the outer walls of the base. In battle, he was powerless, and, to be honest, helpless. He wasn't good at making quick decisions, and was secretly grateful when someone else was taking over. He hadn't always been like that, but... the past was the past. No point looking back.
"Oh slag, now I'm really gonna die!"
Rattrap watched the red animal anxiously. Oh man, that thing was almost as big as him! And it looked hungry too. It took a step toward him, and Rattrap's beast's instincts freaked out. "DINOBOT! CHEETOR! HELP!"
The cat tilted its head and came closer.
"I'm not yer snack, get lost!"
The cat stopped and leaned forward cautiously, sniffing at him. He wasn't sure whether it was a good thing or not. Was the smell of metal strong enough to discourage the feline despite his organic parts?
The feline jumped to him, poked him and jumped back. It hit an exceptionally sore place and Rattrap screamed. "YA (#&/$) (/&$$), GET AWAY FROM ME!"
The cat blinked, then slowly came closer. Rattrap waved his paws despite the pain, in futile attempt to shoo it away. "Will ya (&$/) off, ya ($&#&) Pit spawn?!"
A paw extended and smacked at his belly experimentally.
"/&$ $&$&$$&&/#$#$#/($#! Chopper-face, help! I'm gonna die and get eaten!"
Even if the cat suffered indigestion afterwards, it wouldn't help him a bit. He was badly damaged already, any more injuries, like pulled out internals for example, would result with critical energy loss, and his spark would slowly extinguish. And if he was really unlucky, he'd stay conscious till the end. He gulped at the thought.
He struggled desperately as the claws sank into his side and the cat pulled. The combined force of both actions rolled him to his front. That meant that his most vulnerable parts were now protected, but it also meant that he couldn't see what that blasted animal was doing.
"Go chase some birds, slaggit!" he moaned in desperation.
He felt his attacker's front paws on his back, and whined. "Come on, please?"
Come on, come on, it'd be too stupid to die like this...
The weight on his back shifted, and he felt a hot breath on his neck. "Oh, slag..." he moaned, squeezing his eyes shut.
The weight shifted further.
"You are fun," purred a voice straight into his ear.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Optimus was more than a bit worried now. Cheetor and Dinobot had returned almost simultaneously half a megacycle ago, reporting a 'successfully repulsed Predacon attack,' and Rattrap still wasn't there, and what's worse, his comlink was dead.
"Dinobot, we're going to look for him. Cheetor, you are--" His comlink beeped, interrupting him.
**Optimus, I've picked up Rattrap's signal, but there's something wrong with the readings--**
"Just give me coordinates, Rhinox, we can worry about tech problems later."
Dinobot snarled something about having priorities messed up, but followed their leader nonetheless. Cheetor ran along, carefully keeping at BigBot's side... after he was ordered not to race forward alone. They were approaching the jungle, when something emerged from the thicket. All three of them gasped.
Have you ever seen a little kitten, trying to drag a soft toy bigger than itself? It's a really cute sight, and it's a pity that the Maximals didn't see it that way. But then again, the animal in question was a fully grown cat, and the thing it dragged looked like the remains of their friend. It is allowed to overreact a bit in situations like that.
"Vermin!" "Rattrap!" "Leave him alone, you--!" Cheetor reacted most violently, transforming and pulling out his gun in one swift move.
"Cheetor wait! You could hit Rattrap!"
The cat looked up at them, released its burden and sat on its hinds.
"Why all the fuss? It's not like I'm gonna eat 'im," it said in a young, feminine voice. Rattrap opened one eye. "Take me away from 'er," he moaned.
OoOoO
Rhinox leaned over the screen and frowned at what it showed him. Rattrap's signal wasn't flickering anymore, but instead exactly the same weird energy disturbance he picked up earlier appeared near it. He shook his head and touched the button.
"Optimus, you should be careful. There is something strange right next to you--"
**It's OK, Rhinox, we can see her**
"Her?"
**We'll be back with you in few cycles. Optimus out**
OoOoO
Optimus knelt next to Rattrap, trying to pick him up as gently as possible. The yelps of protest told him he wasn't succeeding. He glared at the cat suspiciously. "What happened?"
She didn't even blink. "Don't look at me, he was like that when I found him".
"The Pit I was!"
"OK, so maybe you were damaged a bit on the way. Not my fault. You're heavy."
"I was-- OW! Watch it, Ape!"
"Shut up, Ra--" Optimus started automatically, but then shook irritation off. "I'm sorry. What happened?"
"I got hit by a missile, nearly died, someoneleft me behind, an' then she appeared," Rattrap summarized, wincing.
Dinobot snarled at the 'someone' comment, but stayed quiet. Somehow, the rat managed to put him to shame again. He'd been in charge for this patrol, and it was his responsibility to make sure everyone came back safely. And he failed. He'd underestimated the rat again, assumed that he was overdoing it, and didn't check if he wasn't in trouble. The raptor tapped his talons, frowning, his warrior's pride suffering.
Optimus absorbed the info, making a mental note to talk with Dinobot later, and looked at the cat.
"Well, thank you for bringing him here," he ignored Rattrap's sputtering and continued. "My name is Optimus Primal. I am commander of Maximals here. And who are you?"
The cat had already stood up and started walking toward him, but now she stopped abruptly and took few steps back, suddenly wary. She glared at them suspiciously, her tail slashing the air.
Optimus raised optic ridges in surprise. "What's wrong?"
"Shouldn't YOU know? I was in your crew."
He blinked at the accusatory tone. Well, of course she had to come from one of the pods, and therefore had to be part of his crew, but...
"Yes, I suppose, but your beast mode originates from Earth, and stasis pods often change voice and appearance."That's what happened to Tigatron and Blackarachnia, he thought. None of them look like any bot that signed the Axalon's contracts...
The cat didn't fully understand what had been said, but the tone of voice was enough to calm her down. "Oh," she said and sat down, tail wrapped neatly around her, to think it over. "Not Kitten, then," she murmured to herself. She stared at the ground for a moment, then looked up. "Kittar", she stated.
"Oh, how highly imaginative-- OW!"
The meaning of word "imaginative" was mystery to her, but she recognized sarcasm and chose to ignore it. "Easy to remember, though" she purred, much to Rattrap's annoyance. "And what's your name?"
Rattrap gritted his teeth and pretended to be deaf.
NOW she asks me. NOW she talks.
"He's Rattrap. And I'm Cheetor. And this is Dinobot, and there is Rhinox back at the base..."
The teen-bot was all to eager to pass any information he could. It didn't discourage him one bit that Kittar only nodded acknowledgement. Her attention was divided between young bot's babbling, and very complicated argument going on between the other three males. As far as she understood, it was about letting her on the ship, the males' state of mind, their appearance and lineage and what they thought of that. She finally considered it too confusing and diverted her attention back at Cheetor. By the time they reached Axalon she knew almost everything there was to know about it's crew. But there were still some surprises left, as she soon discovered.
It puzzled her when Optimus stepped onto a piece of metal and looked toward her expectantly. "Well, come on" he said after a moment, when she didn't react.
"Go on, injured and ladies first!" Cheetor encouraged her jokingly. She walked closer hesitantly, not sure what was expected from her. She sniffed at the metal suspiciously before stepping on it, and then hissed wildly and got ready to fight as it moved. The bigger bot obviously noticed her nervousness, because his voice was set at 'it's-all-right' tone when he spoke. "It's just a lift".
Humph. Whatever that was.
She forced herself to relax. She also refused to flinch when something really big moved nearby, opening something big and hollow. She was warned about him, after all. And the hollow thing looked familiar... Kittar tilted her head thoughtfully.
"This is--" Optimus started to explain, but she interrupted him. "CR. I remember CRs." She dashed past surprised Rhinox and whirled inside the machine, inspecting it. "This one's pretty old, though" she concluded with a hint of disappointment in her voice.
"Er, Kittar... Do you mind?" "Hmm? Oh." She jumped out of CR and on the round table in two moves. "Here you go"
"I demand 'nother CR-Chamber, who knows where she's been!"
"Shut up, Rattrap..."
Kittar smirked and watched as the rat was put into CR despite his protests, then shifted her gaze at the thing... lift... when it brought up the young bot, Cheetor, and the big lizard, Dinobot. She found the sight rather peculiar. Who would have thought there was such a long way between a head and feet... She smiled. Then her smile faded. She didn't like the way Dinobot was looking at her. She wasn't sure if she should file him under 'rival predator' or rather 'superior predator'. She certainly wouldn't like the latter...
And suddenly she yawned. And then again. Gee, was she tired...
"Sweet dreams!" Cheetor joked. She nodded at him, mumbled "Thanks", curled up and fell asleep. She was dimly aware they were trying to talk to her, but she ignored that. She wanted to rest and resting was what she was going to do. Whatever they wanted could wait.
Rust was laying on the sand, under the merciless sun. His sides ached terribly, and Terrorsaur was still tormenting him.
"Stop that!"
"...and though it's hard to belieeeeeeeve!..."
The wolf burst into helpless chuckles.
It wasn't that the song was one of the dirtiest he'd ever heard.
It wasn't that one stanza was about various things that could happen on a dog sledge race, which fitted the situation nicely.
No. It was that whatever crimes that song might have committed in the past, it certainly never deserved the things Terrorsaur's voice was doing with it.
Terrorsaur was having fun. Singing was his tested and trusted way of annoying the slag out of anybody. He'd used it to get to Rust, and was quite surprised when, instead of shouting to shut the slag up!, the wolf went into a laughing fit, but that was even better. He couldn't hurt him, when he was rolling in the dirt.
The pterodactyl continued singing, deliberately going as far off key as he could.
Rust continued laughing.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dinobot growled. It's been almost four mega-cycles since Optimus had let that cat into their base, and they still didn't know anything about her. Couldn't Optimus see the whole thing reeked of a Predacon trap? He wouldn't be surprised if the damn animal blew up suddenly. It wouldn't be beyond Tarantulas's skills to build an animal-like walking bomb. But would Primal listen? Nooo. 'Let's let her sleep' indeed! He glared daggers at the ball of red fur sited on the command desk, and as if in response, it finally stirred.
Kittar decided she'd slept enough. She arched her back and stretched, making sure every single muscle in her body was in place, then she sat, wrapped her tail around herself and examined her surroundings.
Yep, everything still in here. A CR humming quietly in the background, three bots looking at... something green and shiny, and lizard-Dinobot glaring at her. With that 'not-very-friendly' look on his face.
"She's awake" he informed his comrades, and they turned to her.
"Whoa, welcome back, Sleeping Beauty!"
She smiled at Cheetor. Whatever 'sleeping beauty' was, he made it sound like something nice. And she liked being treated nicely.
"Kittar..." She looked at Primal expectantly. "This is Rhinox". She nodded. She knew that already. "Cheetor already told you who we are." She nodded again and waited.
"Now you should tell us something about yourself" demanded Dinobot, tapping his talons against the floor impatiently. Kittar tilted her head and eyed the created scratches. Definitely superior. Not good. Not good at all. And she didn't feel too comfortable in this enclosed space either. Hmmm. Maybe she could figure out how to make that lift-thing move again...
"Kittar?" it was Optimus. "Can you tell us?"
"Yeah, like, where you came from, and how you found Rattrap" Cheetor's voice was full of enthusiasm, and at least his question made sense. Her name was Kittar, and she was a cat. What else did the other wanted her to tell 'about herself'?
"I came from the desert," she said. They seemed to wait for more, so she jerked her head in direction that seemed about right. "Somewhere over there".
"Well, there is a desert in that direction. Was that where your pod crashed?"
What's a pod? "Maybe."
"Hnn, what do you mean, 'maybe' ?"
She eyed his talons again. "I don't really remember." Which was true enough...
"Do you remember how long ago you came on-line?"
On-line? "No"
"How did you know where to find us?" That surprised her.
"I didn't" That surprised them.
"So, like, how did you ever get here?"
Ah, that was easy. "I followed the spiders"
"WHAT?!!!" They all bellowed at the same time, they're faces showing shock and, in Dinobot's case, anger.
She flinched at the volume, and reacted to the anger. Reaction included bristling her fur and hissing in lizard's direction. Superior or not, he was going to regret if he tried anything! He apparently did, but Optimus beat her to him. His hand clasped over Dinobot's mouth, cutting off some kind of... battle scream?
"Stand down, Dinobot!" He turned to face Kittar. "What spiders were you talking about?"
She blinked, then let her fur fall back in place. She was confused. They didn't know what spiders were? But then why did they react so strongly to the word?
"Those little metal thingies with legs" she explained, lifting her paw few inches above the table, to indicate how big little thingies were. "There were a lot of them" she added helpfully.
"Do you mean those little arachnoid flash-lights?"
Ara-what "They shone at night" she confirmed. That seemed to calm everyone down. Weird. She'd have to investigate this later.
"Why did you follow them?" she decided that she liked that rumbling voice. It sounded almost like purring.
"It was fun chasing them" she said. She meant to say more, but then changed her mind. The whole story would take ages. So she simply skipped to the end.
"But then I got hungry and went off to hunt, and when I got back I couldn't find them anymore. So I just wandered around for some time. And today I heard those noises, so I went to see what it was, I didn't find it, but I heard Rattrap screaming."
She rubbed her muzzle with her paw. "He was really loud".
"I believe he was" Optimus said with a smile.
"Hnn, he was most probably calling for help" Dinobot growled in disgust.
"That too," Kittar admitted. "But mostly it was 'oh slag, I'm gonna die' ". She repeated the phrase exactly how she remembered it, intonation and all, and all Maximals suddenly burst out laughing.
Ah, that's more like it! She liked laughter! She promptly joined in.
"He said other things too--" she started after their amusement subsided a little, but Optimus cut her off. "I think I know what it was like, Kittar, and you shouldn't repeat that."
Cheetor chuckled.
"Eh, what's so funny kiddo?"
Kittar turned her head to look at the speaker... And erupted on her feet, hissing madly, her fur standing on ends.
"Huh? What's wrong wit' ya? Apart from being a cat?" the stranger said... in Rattrap's voice. That puzzled her enough to smooth her fur and take a step toward him. She stopped at the edge of the table, craned forward and sniffed at him gingerly. The smell was right too...
"Why do you look so different?"
"Huh?"
Huh? "You were a rat. Now you're a robot!"
"Well, 'course I am a bot! I transformed!"
She just looked at him blankly. Rattrap shrugged. "Beast mode!" Kittar jumped again. Whatever he did, it looked extremely weird. But at least he was a rat again. "Maximize!" And here was the bot. Humph. She didn't like it at all!
"You don't know how to transform, Kittar?" She glanced at Rhinox, but stayed silent. "Kittar?" She licked her paw, and then cleaned her muzzle.
" 'allo, anybody in there?!" She snorted at him in irritation. She heard Optimus sighing. "Kittar, don't you--"
"No". So she didn't know something. Big deal!
"How can ya be a transformer and donno know 'bout transforming, huh?"
"Hey, I didn't even know I wasn't a cat before I first heard a Cybertronian speak!"
"Lucky for me I was shoutin', then," Rattrap concluded bitterly. Kittar gave him an odd look, but didn't comment. He was going to say something else, but Optimus cut in.
"Kittar, you just have to say an activation code. Your name and 'maximize' for bot mode, and 'beast mode' for... well, the beast mode. In which you are now."
She looked at Optimus doubtfully. He sighed again. -- "Beast mode" --and changed into gorilla. Kittar snorted. She didn't like the creatures, one of them roared at her in the jungle!
Cheetor didn't have to demonstrate anything to her, his name and the chest plate said it all. And Rhinox... when she looked at him from this new perspective he was quite obvious too. But that whole transforming-thing seemed too weird. Not to mention painful. Hmmm. Oh well...
"Kittar, maximize." She glanced down at herself. Nothing happened. "Not working."
"We can see that, fur-ball. Maybe ya should try 'terrorize' instead."
The others looked shocked.
"RATTRAP!!!"
And here they go again, getting upset at nothing. She chose to ignore them.
"Kittar, terrorize." No shifting body parts. "Not working either." She looked at Rhinox, who seemed most balanced of all males. "Why did he suggest this, and why was it a bad thing?"
" 'Terrorize' is an activation code for Predacons, and Rattrap should know better than to suggest you're one" he frowned at the rat-bot.
"What, she sure behaves like one!"
Predacon. Sounds familiar... Where did she hear the word before? She suddenly realized Rhinox was speaking to her.
"--some malfunction. That would explain why our scanners didn't pick you up, or rather, couldn't identify you" He motioned toward... big metal thing with lights. But the word 'scanners' stirred something in her memory. "If you don't mind, I'd like to run few tests to check what's wrong."
"Rhinox, even the lift startled her. She may find your lab a little... scary." Kittar snorted at Optimus. She wasn't startled! She was... surprised. And he didn't have to remind her of that anyway.
"I can go with them! I'll show her how everything works!" Cheetor dropped to beast mode (Kittar winced) and hopped to the door, eagerness written all over him. Kittar jumped down from the table and followed. Behind her she heard footsteps of the rest of Maximals.
It turned out that the laboratory was quite a few corridors away. That's why, as she found out later, the Maximals moved the CRs to their command center.
The door opened with a soft hiss, and Cheetor turned to her, explaining, "So here is--"
"It's a Med Bay!" Kittar interrupted, her voice exited, eyes lit. "I know all this stuff!" In one jump she landed on a bowl-like machine in the center of the room and sniffed at it vigorously. "It's for deep internal scans!" She jumped down and ran around the lab, sniffing at and naming everything she saw.
"Tool rack, spark monitor, life functions monitor, emergency and normal energon feeders..." It went on and on. She finally turned to them, looking delighted. "Oh, I LIKE this place!"
Optimus and Rhinox exchanged glances. "Well, so much for scary..." Primal murmured.
Kittar jumped on the scanner again and from there straight on Rhinox's shoulders. "So whaddya wanna do?"
Rhinox only grunted. The rest of Maximals gasped, both at her action and her accent.
"If you'd get down, Kittar, and lay on the scanner, I could begin--"
"Ya got it!" She jumped again, and froze in a sphinx pose in the middle of the central machine.
The Maximals exchanged exasperated glances, and Dinobot threw his hands up in an overdramatic gesture. "Oh, marvelous!"
The red cat blinked at him. "What?"
"Er, Kittar, it would be better if you didn't speak like Rattrap" Optimus ventured.
"Oh? Why?"
"Some bots here might find that... annoying."
"Really? Which one?"
Me, Optimus thought privately. One Rattrap is more than enough... Luckily, he didn't have to say anything. Twin 'Me's came from behind him. Apparently Rattrap didn't like copycats as much as Dinobot.
"Humph." Kittar rubbed her muzzle. "OK," she said reluctantly, then looked at Rhinox. "Well, go on." He nodded and pressed some buttons. The scanner went 'ping-hisss-beep-ping', and its screen lit up.
"You can--" he started and immediately there was half a ton of cat on his shoulders. Her whiskers tickled his cheek when she craned her neck to stare at the readings. He patiently allowed her to settle. "Can you understand all this?" he asked.
"I recognize the diagrams, but--" she rubbed her muzzle against his head "--either you've changed your alphabet, or I have lots of education to catch up."
"I don't think that is the case," he replayed in amused voice. "There are some partially damaged chips in your hard core and processor, and your comlink and transformation unit are fried. Nothing serious, CR should fix it in no time. Shall we?"
"Sure." She had nothing against using CR. She rubbed against his head again. "Let's go."
"Eh, ya forgot what yer legs are for?" Hmmm, her rat/robot seemed to not like her. She wondered why.
"She must be tired after carrying you, Rattrap" Rhinox rumbled, trying to walk with a new fur collar. He had to hunch his shoulders and bow his head in order to do that. He just hoped she wouldn't be too embarrassed at the memory after CR fixed her logic circuits...
"Carryin'?! CARRYIN'?! She slaggin' dragged me! And she almost broke my neck too!"
Ah, that must be why he was upset. Well, too bad, how sad. He'd have to live with it. And with her as well. She made herself a little more comfortable and purred.
If Tarantulas was a less restrained bot, he would be cursing up a storm right now. As it was, he restrained himself to furious mutters and sputters when he saw the energy readings coming from the Maximal base. It was just so frustrating! HE was the one who found the kitten in the desert, HE was the one to discover what it was, HE was the one to lure her near! And what happened next? The kitten went straight to the Maximals! The chances that she would fall for his tricks after they were done fixing her where close to none. Such a great opportunity to experiment with posttraumatic memory fluxes wasted! Muttering angrily, the scientist turned off the screen and went to make few new arachnoids to take his mind off of things.
The CR opened, and Rattrap sputtered. "Haven't ya slept enough, fur-ball?"
He'd been informed what happened while he was being repaired, and it did nothing to calm his temper. She'd scared him half to death, dragged him through the jungle like a sack of rusty nuts, banging him on what felt like a thousand roots, and then just slept like an innocent little angel!
The red ball of fur uncurled and yawned. "Huh? Oh." She stepped out of the machine. "Kittar, maximize."
It did work this time. A fem-bot of yellows and oranges appeared. What hit Rattrap most was that she was tiny. About three inches shorter than him, and slender.
She looked down at herself and flexed her fingers experimentally. "Hmm. Interesting."
Rattrap shivered. The way she pronounced the word seemed... familiar, somehow, but he couldn't quite place it. She laughed suddenly, and he tensed. If she'd dare to tell anyone...
"What's so funny, eh?"
"Nothing." She inspected the room, looked at the monitors, and smiled. "I can read."
Rhinox and Optimus smiled.
"Fortunately the your datatrax were only--" Rhinox started, but she interrupted him.
"--only inaccessible, not corrupted or damaged, and the CR has successfully rewritten them to repaired chips." She grinned, exposing two small fangs. "I know."
"Wow, that was cool!" Cheetor was gaping at her admiringly. She grinned again, and returned to inspecting her body.
"What's that?" Cheetor asked as she pulled out something resembling a hair-dryer with a small screen on the handle.
"LSD," she responded, and at his blank look, pointed it in his general direction.
--Three life signals detected--
"Oh. But what's it for?"
Kittar wrinkled her nose. "For seeking survivors, at battlefields, accidents sites and such."
She subspaced it and moved her left arm. A broad screen slid out of it, and rested on her forearm. Rhinox moved closer, interested. "A mobile life functions' monitor?"
She nodded. "Yep. RT-385. Da best one there is," she stated proudly.
"Stop talkin' like me," Rattrap growled. She flashed him a toothy grin, and raised her arm towards him in a scanning motion. Then she frowned, and tapped the screen.
"Hmm, malfunction?"
Rhinox glanced at it as well, but everything seemed all right to him. "Why?"
"It says: all systems normal. Can't be right."
Cheetor chuckled, and even Optimus had trouble hiding a smirk. Rattrap fumed silently.
If she doesn't get off my back in one nano, I'm gonna--
The help came from unexpected source. Dinobot was watching the scene silently, leaning against the wall, arms crossed. Any other day he'd probably join in on a group Rattrap-teasing, but today, he felt, he'd done enough. After all the rat had been through lately, he deserved some respect. So he decided to change the subject, and snarled to get attention.
"Don't you have any weapons, cat?"
Amber optics looked up at him. "Weapons? What for?"
"Hnn, We are at war here, cat!"
Kittar blinked. A war? Well, OK... She opened both writs compartments and looked considerately at eighteen blades, sharp enough to be used as scalpels, concealed in them. Hmm... If she clenched her fist like that, with fingers positioned like that...
Three daggers swished out from between her knuckles. She poked at the air experimentally (Cheetor and Rhinox took a cautious step back), then pushed two blades back into her arm, turned to Dinobot and made a throwing gesture.
/zzzzip/
The dagger buried itself halfway in the small spot on the wall, about five inches from warrior's face. He snarled, pulled the blade out with minimal effort and tossed it back to the small femme. She caught it out of the air, looking at him with respect. He hadn't even flinched, and was strong. Maybe a phrase 'superior predator' wasn't misplaced after all.
I wonder how good he is at hunting.
"So, whom we are at war with?" she inquired, hiding the dagger.
There was some explaining, showing her files they had on Predacons, touring the base, giving her a room of her own (opposite to Cheetor's, far away from Rattrap's, he made sure of it), and she finally tired of all those bots around.
"I want to go out now," she said, heading to the lift. She laughed quietly, activating it.
Optimus shook his head lightly. "You shouldn't go out alone, Kittar, you don't know the area and--"
"I want to go out," she repeated patiently, stepping on the platform.
"I'll go with her!" Cheetor volunteered, and hopped to join her.
"Eh... All right, but don't go beyond scanner range."
"You got it, BigBot!"
When the two cats disappeared, Optimus turned to Dinobot.
"Dinobot, we need to talk." The warrior snarled, not thrilled, but nodded and followed him off the bridge.
Rattrap watched on monitors as Kittar and Cheetor started racing, and muttered something under his breath.
"Something wrong, Rattrap?"
"Da nastiest an' ugliest femme I've ever met, an she has ta be in my team," he repeated, audibly this time.
"Rattrap! Even if she was clumsy, she was only trying to help you."
"Yea, well, she could of said so, she could of said anything, before I'd made a total fool of myself."
He wouldn't tell that to anyone else, but this was Rhinox. The only bot who ever treated him seriously.
"Do ya know what's it like, ta lie wounded in da jungle an' see somethin' like this approaching ya?" he gestured to the monitors angrily.
"Hmm, I guess it's similar to what you feel when you lie wounded on a battlefield, and hear someone approaching without knowing what insignia they wear."
There was a brief silence, then Rattrap smiled.
"I'm overreactin', aren't I."
"Maybe a bit," Rhinox smiled. "And why do you say she's ugly?"
"Well, ya can't say she's pretty, can ya."
Rhinox made a neutral gesture. He didn't really think of it. After all, outer shells didn't really matter.
"I won!" Cheetor was panting heavily, but was delighted. Finally he had a company for some serious racing. He'd won, but barely. Kittar sat on the sand nearby and rubbed her muzzle, frowning slightly. Then she suddenly jumped to him, slashed at his side and jumped back.
"Hey! What was that for?"
Hmm, what for indeed?
"Nothing."
"You're angry I won?"
She tilted her head, and thought it over. "Maybe. Yes, I think that's it." She frowned. "Do you think that's normal?"
Cheetor was watching her, half bewildered, half amused. "I donno. Do you always react like that?"
She looked at him blankly. "Always? It's the first time I've lost."
"With me, but on Cybertron? Or wherever you come from?"
She gave him an odd look. "I came from the desert. I've told you that." "Yea, but... you don't remember what was before? I thought CR fixed your memory! You remembered about your monitor and that it was the best..." he was worried now. "You do remember that, right?"
"Sure. I can even tell you why it is the best," she brightened up, as she started saying... things.
"Whoa, wait, I can't even understand half the words you're using!"
She looked disappointed. "You don't?"
"Jumping gyros, I think only Rhinox would! How can you remember all that and nothing about yourself?"
"Hmmm..." Kittar stared at the ground, making thoughtful faces, which made Cheetor laugh.
"The pod." She said finally. "There is something about the pod that explains that, I'm mechy(1) sure, but I can't remember. I'll have to check if you have some data on it in your computer."
She jumped to her feet. "Come on, let's race back!"
"You don't have to tell me twice!"
Rattrap stretched and shut down the computer. He'd said out loud what was bugging him, beat the computer at poker, and now he was in a much better mood.
"Well, goin' to get some recharge, see ya late--"
The lift's door opened behind him, and he found himself lying on his front, with something heavy on his back.
"I'm back. Missed me?" purred a voice straight into his audio.
---
End of part three
---
Chapter edited on 28.02.2008
1) mechy - equivalent of "bloody"
