-Ten-Faced Paladin
Inuyasha Maximum
By Ten-Faced Paladin
Chapter 4: Canines and Bloodsuckers
The sun had risen and the firends woke up along with it. They had quickly resumed their journey and soon they had arrived at the next village. This was where they were heading before they had been sidetracked by the mantis demon and the arrival of Wolfang and Grandscythe. The village where the bone eaters well was situated.
To Wolfang, it was pretty small. Nothing like Cybertropolis back home. This village was made entire of small wooden homes that seemed pleasant and quaint. He could see people working in the green rice fields and young children near the homes. It was also very quiet. Not at all like the city he had come from.
"About time we got here," Inuyasha grumbled.
"Yeah," Shippo smiled. "I hope Kaede's herbs are grown by now."
"Who's Kaede?" Wolfang asked, looking up to Kagome.
Kagome looked down at Wolfang, "Kaede's the village priestess. She's the one who makes sure that demons don't attack the villagers. She's a really nice person."
"Sure, except when she's faced with a demon," Inuyasha smirked. "She might actually think you're a demon y'know. Then you'll see when the old hag gets nasty."
"Inuyasha!" Kagome scolded. "You're scaring him!"
"Don't listen to Inuyasha," Miroku spoke. "Kaede is a very wise and powerful woman. I doubt she would think of you as a demon."
"Well, you never know," Inuyasha spoke. "Wolfang did get his animal form from a demon didn't he?"
Kagome shot a glare at Inuyasha, who just gave a 'feh' in response. Wolfang just shook his head and began walking towards the village.
The inside of the village was just as nice as it was from an outside view. Wolafng walked a bit ahead of the others and he came across a small group of children. They were playing some game and hadn't quite noticed him. When he came closer, a girl was the first to see him and she gasped in surprise. The other children quickly noticed after her and they were soon staring at him in surprise.
"It's a doggie," a smaller girl squealed in delight.
"No way!" a boy insisted. "It's a wolf!"
The girl who first noticed Wolfang daringly took a few steps forward and held out her hand to Wolfang.
"Are you a nice wolf?" she asked cutely, but there was a tremble in her voice.
Wolfang almost smirked, but he knew it would just scare the children. Instead he took a few steps forward and nuzzled the girl's hand. She had been trembling at first, but that quickly stopped. The other children, seeing the wolf as friendly, began crowding around him and petting him. Kagome and the others came past just after that.
"Oh!" one of the children gasped when they saw the group. "Lady Kagome, is this your wolf?"
Kagome walked to the children and gently scratched Wolfang behind his furry ears. For some reason, Wolfang found it more enjoyable than when the children pet him.
"He's a friend," Kagome explained. "His name's Wolfang."
"Hi Wolfang!" the children cheered as they crowded around him again.
As Inuyasha and the others moved on, Wolfang got away from the children and caught up to them. As they walked along, he noticed that all the villagers seemed very friendly to Kagome. They really respected her and seemed to bask in her presence.
"Kagome is the reincarnation of Kaede's sister," Shippo whispered in Wolfang's ear. "She's a real hero around here."
Wolfang nodded. This was soemthing that he did understand. Maximals could do that too. As long as their spark was still going then they could get a new body if their old one was severly damaged.
The group continued until they reaced a small hut that was next to a set of stairs that led up to a kind of archway that Wolfang was unfamiliar with. He looked back to the hut and saw an old woman comign out of the doorway. She wore priestess attire and had an eye-patch over her right eye. As she came out, she saw the friends and smiled.
"Ahh, Kagome." she greeted. "Ye has returned."
Shippo leaped from Wolfang's back and ran up to the aging preistess.
"Kaede!" Shippo smiled. "Have we got a story for you!"
"Hello Shippo," Kaede smiled. "I have a tale for ye as well. Please, come in. Your new companion may enter as well."
Everyone entered the hut and began taking seats around a small fire pit. It had some glowing embers on it. Kaede quickly put some sticks on them and restarted the flames. She then took a seat. Her eye landed on Wolfang, who had stayed at the part of the hut where everone had removed their footwear. She then turned her gaze back to Kagome.
"Well child,"Kaede began. "Would ye like to tell your tale first?"
Kagome nodded, "Well, it began when we stopped at a village about a day from here..."
Kagome immediately sprung into her story. She went over the events of how they got in the fight with the mantis demon. She told how the black box appeared and what it did once it appeared. She finally went to describe Grandscythe and what he was capable of.
"I see," Kaede nodded, her good eye closing. "So this metal man Grandscyhte, he came out of the black box disguised as a mantis."
"It wasn't a great disguise," Inuyasha remarked. "The idiot was too big."
"Even so Inuyasha," Miroku remarked. "He was a powerful opponent in his true form."
"I'd say so," Sango nodded. "We were lucky that Wolfang helped us or else we'd be a lot worse off than now."
"Wolfang?" Kaede asked, her eye opening again. "How can one wolf turn the tide against soemthing like Grandscythe?"
"Well," Kagome began. "I didn't tell you yet, but Wolfang...he's a metal man too."
"Really?" asked Kaede, slightly surprised.
"That's right," Wolfang remarked from his seat. "Grandscythe and I come from the same place."
"Perhaps," Kaede nodded. "Would ye please return to your true form and join us?"
"I'd be delighted Miko-san," Wolfang nodded. "WOLFANG MAXIMIZE"
The wolf shifted and changed to become the blue metal man that Inuyasha and the others had become friends with. Kaede's eyebrow rose in slight surprise at the transformation. After he was finished, Wolfang stepped closer to the circle of friends and took a seat next to Kagome. He actually took the proper kneeling position which shocked Kagome. He wasn't from this planet, yet he knew some of the customs. He even knew how to be polite to Kaede due to her position in the village.
"Please," Kaede smiled. "I will not have friends regard me by my title. I would prefer if ye just called me Kaede."
"Oh," Wolfang smiled. "I'll remember that."
"I suppose I should speak of my tale," Kaede spoke, her voice becomeing less light-hearted. "Some time yesterday, one of our rice fields were engulfed in white light. By the time myself and the village guards approached where it had come from, the light had vanished. What remained was one of these black boxes that Kagome spoke of. After much thought I decided to have it placed near the well. We were going to see if we could put it down there before all of ye arrived today. If what ye tells me is true then is a being like Grandscythe or Wolfang within it?"
"Maximal or Predacon?" Wolfang asked. "You can usually tell by the programming chip in the pod."
"Program chip?" Inuyasha grunted. "What the hell is that?"
"Well...It's.." Wolfang began, trying to find the words. "Oh slag it. I'll just show you. Kaede, where is this well you talked about?"
"I will show you," Kaede replied. "Follow me."
Wolfang nodded before changing back to his wolf form. Keade then left the hut with the Maximal close behind. Kagome and the others quickly followed. Kaede led them up the through the village and into the forest where Inuyasha once was sealed to a tree. Kaede continued walking and they entered a clearing. In the middle of it was a lone wooden well. It didn't look special to Wolfang, but his sensors read the same type of energy coming off of it that Kagome did. Beside the well was a welcome sight. A stasis pod.
"Let's do this," Wolfang smiled. "WOLFANG MAXIMIZE!"
Wolfang resumed his robot form and moved closer to the pod. He kneeled to the control panel and began looking for something. The others began peering over his shoulder to examine the stange item.
"Ah, here it is," Wolfang grinned as he pulled a lever.
The entire panelopened to reveal a mess of coloured strings and small squares. Small flashes of light could be seen travelling between the squares.
"Amazing," Sango gapsed.
"Oh this is nothing," Wolfang smirked. "You should see the stuff that we have back home,"
Wolfang began peering at the mess of squares and strings that made up the inside of the panel. Kagome had a slight better idea of what she was looking at. Microchips and wires. One in particular was yellow with a red insignia on it. It looked like a bat face of some kind.
"Uh, Wolfang?" she asked, while pointing at the chip at question. "What is that?"
Wolfang glanced at the chip and broke into a wide smile. He only wished he had found it sooner.
"I'm glad you asked that Kagome," he smiled. "That is the programming chip. This one tells us that the transformer inside is going to be a Maximal."
"Such a small thing determines how the being is aligned?" Miroku asked skeptically.
"This from a guy with a black hole in his hand," Wolfang replied sarcastically.
Wolfang slammed the panel shut and began working with the buttons on the panel. No one knew what he was doing exactly, but they knew they didn't want to disturb him. He was pressing buttons and pulling levers. After a moment he finally stepped back.
"Okay, everyone stand still." he ordered.
"STASIS POD ACTIVATED," the pod spoke in a male voice. "BEGINNING SCAN."
The familiar sspere on the rod rose from the pod just like before. It began to spin and it threw out the field again. This one was a golden yellow colour. Everyone who had witnessed the purple field felt different about this one. There was no sense of foreboding. More like an anticipation of wanting to meet someone.
The field reached over the trees and far past everyone there. It passed over the well and over Wolfang. It finally reacted when it passed over Inuyasha, Shippo, and Kilala. After it passed over them, the field drew itself back into the pod. The sphere and rod then rested beside the consoule again.
"SUITABLE DNA DETECTED," it reported. "BEGINNING REPLICATION."
The familiar humming sound returned as the pod went into it's work. Everyone was slightly tense as they waited for what they hoped for was the new Maximal to come out. Wolfang had told them that it was going to be a Maximal, but they couldn't be too sure.
The humming stopped as the pod seemed to finish whatever it was doing. After a moment of anticipation, the pod's occupant began scratching the surface. Wolfang went over to open the pod, but as he came closer, the lid opened on it's own.
Out of the pod came a large white dog. It had golden eyes and and it had shaggy hair and a long tail. When Kagome saw it she was reminded slightly of when Sesshomaru changed into his giant dog form. The only differences between this dog and that one was the size and the fact that this dog looked much friendlier.
"Oooh!" Kagome smiled in delight. "He's so cute!"
"Thank you kindly ma'am." the dog smiled. "My names Growlor."
Wolfang stepped forward and caught Growlor's attention, "Hey there Growlor. I'm Wolfang. These are Kagome, Inuyasha, Shippo, Sango, Miroku, Kilala, and Kaede."
Growlor turned to face everyone that was facing him. He smiled brightly with his dog face and bowed.
"G'day," he greeted. "Nice to meet you."
The two Maximals walked over to the others and began chatting away. Growlor proved to be popular with Kagome and Shippo as they commented over his nice fur and his nice manners.
"Hard to believe he derived his form from you," Miroku commented.
Inuyasha glared at the monk.
"Feh," he snorted. "I don't see the resemblance."
The conversation was halted as they heard a buzzing noise in the air. Inuyasha began sniffing the air as he drew the Tetsusaiga.
"Inuyasha? What's wrong?" Kagome asked in concern.
"I smell bugs," Inuyasha growled.
"Naraku?" Sango asked while gripping her weapon.
"No," Inuyasha replied, shaking his head. "Not him. I'm smelling metal bugs. I'll give you three guesses who that is."
"Predacons," Wolfang growled dangerously.
The buzzing grew louder and everyone looked to the sky where two flying objects were flying closer. One of them was who they were expecting. The ginat mantis and in Inuyasha's opinion, a new pain in the butt, Grandscythe. The other one ws a new face. it was a giant mosquito.
"Who is that?" Shippo asked with a small tremble.
"Trouble," Growlor frowned.
The two giant insects stopped above them and hovered on the spot. They looked down at the group of friends. Grandscythes mandibles were fixed in a kind of sneer.
"That cowardly priest was telling the truth after all," he laughed.
"They look delicious," the mosquito buzzed. "Can I eat them?"
"Just save the one with the short skirt for last," Grandscyhte hissed. "She's going to tell us about the purple crystals."
Inuyasha growled and tensed while holding the Tetsusaiga. Miroku and Sango also tensed at the obvious threat to their friend. Wolfang was itching to pull out his weapon while Growlor began growling menacingly.
"Like I'd tell you anything!" Kagome shouted at the arrogant Predacon.
"Oh, you will," Grandscythe laughed. "GRANDSCYTHE TERRORIZE!"
The mantis fell out of the sky as it shifted and changed into the Predacon that the group was beginning to really hate.
"by the gods!" Kaede gasped.
"Heh heh heh," the giant mosquito laughed. "TRANSQUITO TERRORIZE!"
The insect's abdomen split down the middle and foldedout to become a pair of legs. It's sides detatched to be revealed to be attatched to bronze arms that were unfolding. The head split open just above the needle mouth and began lowering to the middle to become a chestplate. The mouth flipped backwards and an ugly face with a circular mouth housing four teeth appeared. The eyes were blood red as they exuded arrogance and a sinsiter intent.
"Ha ha ha!" Transquito laughed as he hovered in the air. "Now comes the time to feast!"
"Guess again pred-heads!" Growlor snapped.
The two Predacons' eyes swiftly turned to face the white dog that they had previously deemed not a threat. Grandscythe's eyes narrowed dangerously while Transquito snickered. It didn't matter what his prey was cabable of to him. It was just another morsel to drain.
"You two had better think twice about hurting the lady," growlor said darkly. "Or any of us for that matter, 'cause no one threatens my friends. GROWLOR MAXIMIZE!"
Growlor's hind end folded onto his back as his front legs relocated to become a pair of bipedal legs. The canine feet folded into the calves while a pair of red metal feet came from the shins. The dog's chest folded downward to become a kind of waistguard. As it moved, a metal red arm unfolded, taking a position on the left shoulder. The dog's head detatched and was seen to be connected to what became the right arm. The head served as it's hand. From where the new shoulders were, a silver metallic head with a white helmet rose. The helmet had two triangular points where they could be taken as ears. The face had yellow eyes and two fangs could be seen sticking out of the mouth.
Growlor stepped forward in his robot form and glared at the two Predacons. Grandscythe frowned and then took a look at all of his enemies. He then sneered when he saw his goal.
"Be it one Maximal or a hundred," he laughed. "Be it humans, hanyous or demons. Nothing will stop me from getting what I want."
"Wanna bet?" Inuyasha smirked while he prepared to strike.
"I think I will," Grandscythe smirked again.
He held up his hand and snapped his fingers. Transquito buzzed a bit higher above everyone. He then began his assault.
"Needle storm!" he roared loudly.
In the next moment, Transquito began spitting energy bolts out of his mouth. The bolts rained down on the group. Inuyasha slashed at the bolts to stop them. Miroku and Sango took cover behind a tree. Wolfang pulled out a shield while Kaede took Shippo and hid by another tree. Growlor immediately took evasive action, dodging the bolts like an acrobat.
Kagome was actually outside the range of the attack. Transquito didn't seem to be attacking her or didn't see her as a threat.
"He just made a big mistake," Kagome smirked as she prepared to fire one of her sacred arrows.
"I think it was you who made the mistake," a voice whispered in her ear.
Kagome whirled around, but she found her throught clasped tightly by Grandscythe's metal hand. She dropped her weapon and clasped the metal apendage desperately trying to get it off.
"First rule of being a warrior," Grandscythe sneered. "Pay attention to your surroundings."
Kagome couldn't even make a sound as air was cut off from her lungs. Grandscythe seemed to be able to feel the fear emmanating off of her. His sneer grew by on order of a magnitude. He finally released some pressure from kagome's throat so that she could answer the questions he had.
"Now," he grinned sinisterly. "What are the purple crystals? How can we use them?"
Kagome was terrified at the moment. She had tears at the corners of her eyes and the cold grip around her throat just intensified the feeling of death that loomed above her.
"I-Inuyasha," Kagome squeaked.
"Heh," Grandscythe scoffed. "Your hanyou lover isn't coming to save you today."
"Then will I do?" a new voice asked. "Alloy revaer spark stealer!"
A white flash raked down Grandsycthe's back. The Predacon roared in pain and dropped Kagome. Grandscythe turned to see who dared attack him and was met with a face full of red metal. It collided with a metal crash which sent Grandscythe into the dirt. kagomelooked up to see Growlor's smiling face and his outstretched hand.
"You alright Kagome?" he asked with some concern.
"Y-yes," Kagome nodded as she took his hand. The metal was warmer than Grandscythe's. Especially at the tips.
"Good to hear," Growlor smiled as he helped her to her feet. "Now, let's take care of that pile of scrap."
Grandscythe growled angrily as he stood up again. Growlor turned to face him, his canine hand twitching slightly.
"You will pay for that Maximal," Grandscythe hissed.
"You wish," Growlor smirked.
Grandscythe growled and Growlor just continued to smirk.
Away from them, the others were still being pinned down by Transquito's rain of energy bolts.
"Damn!" Inuyasha cursed. "How are we supposed to kill this bug when we can't even get near it!"
from his hiding spot, Miroku quickly set his staff down and grabed the beads that were fastened around his right hand.
"Like this," Miroku stated as he came into view. "WIND TUNNEL!"
Inuyasha and Wolfang quickly leaped to the sides, trying to avoid the suction. Transquito's energy bolts stood no match to the force as they were drawn in.
"What in Cybertron?" Transquito gasped as he felt the force. He flapped his wings harder to try and stay as far away as he could.
All of Transquito's energy bolts were drawn into Miroku's hand, but he quickly discovered that something was wrong. With every bolt her drew in, his arm developed a deepening burning sensation. He looked to the skin on his arm and found that it was quickly reddening and that a blister or two was forming.
"I can't hold it any longer!" Miroku shouted as he quickly closed the wind tunnel. "The bolts are burning me up from the inside!"
"I got him!" Sango cried. "Hiraikotsu!"
The demon hunter hurled her weapon straight at the Predacon with deadly accuracy and force. It collided directly with his chest, hurtling him to the ground with a large crash.
"Gaaah!" the bronze Predacon groaned in pain.
"You think that hurts?" Inuyasha sneered as he raised his sword. "Try this! WIND SCAR!"
As the Tetsusaiga crashed into the ground and unleashed the attack, Wolfang quickly jumped into the fray. Not literally of course, he liked his servos where they were.
"Let's add this to the mix!" he laughed. "Lobo blaster!"
The missile shot forward and was quick enough to overtake the windscar and explode on contact with Transquito. He didn't even get time to scream before the windscar hit him as well. The explosion caused everyone to look at the source. Even Grandscythe and Growlor stopped their staredown to see the result.
The smoke and dust cleared to reveal that the newest Predacon was still alive. Barely. His chest armour was not only dented, but a hole was visible. His wings were tattered and slash marks could be seen running up his body.
"I don't...feel so good," he mumbled stupidly before falling into the dirt.
"Transquito! You idiot!" Grandscythe bellowed as he ran to his flunky while reverting to his beast mode.
As he clasped his insect legs onto Tansquito, he looked at his opponents.
"Mark my words," he hissed. "I will discover what thos epurple crystals are. And when I do, I will have you all bowing to me."
"Go blow it out your tailpipe already," Wolfang growled.
With another hiss, Grandscythe quickly retreated, his flunky in tow. Everyone sighed in relief and the two Maximals changed back into their beast modes.
"Okay," Growlor sighed. "I'm a little lost. The green one mentioned something about purple crystals. Why?"
Miroku, while trying not to move his right arm, walked next to the white dog and kneeled down, "That, my frined, is a long story."
To Be Continued.
A/N: Iiiiiiiiii'm baaaaaaaaack! Wow, I didn't think anyone liked this story, at least not on the same level as my other ones. Thanks guys. I appreciate it. Well, there we have it, two new transformers have entered the fray. Next chapter is where the Maximals learn about Naraku and they discover a new power. What will it be? You'll just have to wait for the next chapter to find out.