13: Clash
Knight raced along through the woods which he had just recently run through to reach his Pack. Now he was running away from the pack again, after Darkstar. Knight soon lost sight of the black wolf in the shadowy distance ahead of him. Going at a slower pace now, Knight followed Darkstar's scent. He noticed for the first time how unlike his scent was from any of the other wolves.
Soon Knight reached the edge of the jungle and was in sight of the boulder-strewn flatlands where Darkstar usually went. If Knight followed the flatlands far enough, he would come to the plateau where he had been with Blackarachnia just before they were caught in the Vortex. Straight ahead of Knight were these rocky grounds, behind him was the woods where his wolf pack was resting, and to his left and right sides were high, black cliffs. It was nighttime now, but to this wolf, like any, darkness was as welcome as daylight.
Knight sniffed around, his nose to the ground like a bloodhound. Darkstar's scent led to the cliffs on the right. He was heading towards the plateau, Knight conjectured, only he was taking a detour through the cliffs. There must be a trail or a path, Knight thought, and bounded over to the shadowy stone giants. Yes, there was a path. It was a hard one, and it led through darkness so black that it was hard for even a wolf to see through. But so was this wolf's life: going through the darkness for the ones he loved. He was doing this for Darkstar. Knight had to show Darkstar that they could still be friends.
The disfigured wolf stopped in his tracks. The path stopped. There was nowhere to go, only sheer, black rock. Had Darkstar climbed the cliff? Impossible! No wolf could do that. The cliff was at least seventy feet high and almost all the way sheer.
Now I'll have to go back and take the usual route, Knight thought. He sniffed the air once before he set off. There was a familiar scent on the air. A faint metallic, slightly oily scent. Transformers. Their scent came from both directions, but more strongly from above. Something was happening on top of that cliff! Knight had to know what. Blackarachnia could be there. She could be in trouble. The silver wolf took a deep breath and began to climb.
***
Five maximals and five predacons faced each other on the plateau. Cheetor held his large blaster in both claw-like hands and stood tall beside his leader. Optimus stepped forward, perhaps in an attempt to parley. Megatron, however, was in a hurry to win this open space for himself and wait for the Vortex Controller to come. He fired a purple, fiery blast out of his tail weapon.
Hit in the shoulder, Optimus reeled back a little. But his new, huge body was strong and was not badly damaged.
Depth Charge saw Megatron's weapon go off, and took that as a signal for action. He transformed into beast mode and soared through the air, heading right towards Rampage. Dinobot's claws flashed in the starlight as he jumped up and caught onto Depth Charge's body. He hung by one claw, and before the manta-ray knew what was happening, Dinobot took his other knife-like hand and started mauling at the metal.
Rampage saw what was happening and, as usual, laughed. He headed over to the warrior ray under assault. "Saurian!" Rampage called to his spark-brother. "No fight's a fight unless it's unfair. Make it two against one—allow me to join you!"
Rattrap, in vehicle mode, zoomed over to Megatron. The rex-bot was too busy aiming shots at the aero Optimus to see the rat. Rattrap, not being able to resist, sank his stainless steel teeth into the predacon leader's leg.
This caught Megatron's immediate attention. "Aah! You vermin!" Megatron tried to shake the rat off his leg, but this effort was to no avail. "Err! When I get my hands on you…"
"Royalty!" Inferno caught Rattrap by the tail and dislocated him from Megatron's leg. "I've got your back, sir!" The ant-bot swung the squealing rat around by his tail and then threw him yards away.
Megatron smiled with amusement, and then turned around again to continue his target practice. In greeting, he received a whack in the face from Optimus' giant fist. Inferno ran over to help his leader.
Meanwhile Cheetor and Rhinox, back-to-back, were firing at the other predacons. Rhinox had a certain Transmetal Tarantula on his mind, and Cheetor was in the mood to see that bone-faced clone of Dinobot blown to bits. This was easier said than done, since Dinobot left Depth Charge to return the assault.
After being flun by Inferno, Rattrap landed right on top of Depth Charge. "Yikes!" He jumped out of the way to avoid a smashing two-fister from Rampage. The crab tackled Depth Charge again.
"Maaan, don't you two bone-heads ever get sick 'o fight'n each other?" Rattrap moaned. "Hey Ray-boy, there's a lotta other preds that could use the beat'n you're always giving that crab cake!"
"None are more deserving of the beating," Depth Charge grunted, struggling for his life. Rattrap ran off to help Rhinox.
Depth Charge and Rampage carried their battle to one edge of the plateau, where there was a ravine so deep neither of them could see the bottom. Across the twenty-foot wide ravine was a flat cliff-top with a pond on it, and beyond that was another drop. At the bottom of that second drop was where Knight was. Right by the edge of the first drop, the deeper one, was where Rampage and Depth Charge were fighting. With a mighty heave, Depth Charge managed to push Rampage off of him and off the edge of the cliff as well.
Rampage shouted as he plummeted downwards. "I'll finish with you later," Depth Charge promised, and turned to the battle. That was when he spotted the wolf. "Huh? What in the world…." He saw a black wolf among the rocks. Depth Charge flew over to the rocks.
The wolf did not run. Depth Charge moved closer to it. "Not another step," said the wolf.
Depth Charge gasped. "Who and what are you?"
"Darkstar," said the Black Wolf. "Y'know, you look like you might do."
"Do what?" Depth Charge demanded, still somewhat alarmed.
"I seem to have an unlucky time choosing slaves. Every one who comes my way has some unexplainable-to-science pain go'n on," the black wolf replied. "Plus, they're psycho."
"Well, if you're a wolf and you can talk, then I must be turning into a psycho too," said Depth Charge. "I'm not interested, dog. Besides, I'm no good to anyone."
"Is that so?"
Depth Charge did not exactly like this wolf's attitude, but a strange feeling was coming over him like this wolf was familiar. Depth Charge remembered his suspicion earlier that there was someone out there—a survivor of Omicron perhaps, like himself. No, it was all in his head. "Yeah," Depth Charge answered quietly, "my home was destroyed. So was everybody and everything I loved."
The black wolf sighed. "That place didn't happen to be Omicron, did it?"
Depth Charge suddenly shot his head up and fixed his flaming red optics on the wolf. "What did you say?"
The wolf smiled. "Shall we…talk?"
***
At last! Knight scrambled above the cliff. He did it! He made it! But it had taken several hours. Sounds of battle now reached his ears clearly. What if Blackarachnia was in trouble? The silver wolf looked at his surroundings. He had climbed up a cliff, and was now on the crag's flat top. There was a pond a yard or so off, no doubt formed by a spring. Straight ahead there was a twenty-foot gorge, and on the other side of the gorge was The Plateau!
Knight gasped. There were ten Transformers fighting on the plateau!
Something else caught his eye now. It was among the rocks on the plateau across the gorge. This thing was blue, red, metallic—"Blackarachnia!" exclaimed Knight. He threw up his head and howled, for no reason other than his joy at seeing her.
"Silverbolt!" Blackarachnia shouted. She started making her way toward the edge of the gorge. Knight did the same. The chasm was separating them.
They looked at each other from across the gorge. "Hang on, I'll jump," said Knight.
"Uh, you're not any less of a bone-head, are you?" Blackarachnia asked, smiling. "Just hold on to your fur a minute and I'll find an easier way to cross."
"Ha! I'll not wait so long to see you," Knight told her. He backed up so as to have some distance for a running start, and then bounded towards the gorge.
Blackarachnia watched him go. He was disfigured, maybe, but that made him no less graceful. She could imagine the eagle wings and talons on him as he jumped.
Whoosh! "Ugn!" Suddenly a shot from somewhere got Knight in mid-air. It hit him, throwing him off his balance, and he fell downwards.
Blackarachnia gasped. "Silverbolt!" she shouted.
***
Depth Charge stood behind a large boulder, one eye closed and holding his blaster-gun. He looked uneasy.
"Again," said Darkstar.
"I already hit him," said Depth Charge.
"Yes, I know!" the black canine snapped. "But isn't there another one out there?"
"There's nine other ones out there," Depth Charge retorted. "You hired to me to shoot every bot on the planet?"
"I mean the one by the cliff edge!" Darkstar told him impatiently. "The femme!"
"Can't," said Depth Charge, shortly. He knew that somehow or other Blackarachnia would be killed, but surely not by him, right? Depth Charge was convinced that Silverbolt did not control the vortex after all—it was this black wolf, Darkstar. Besides, Optimus and Blackarachnia were foolish for believing that he was alive after they saw his spark rise out of his body. So that silvery, disfigured wolf he had just shot had to be an ordinary wolf—one he could shoot down. But he couldn't hit Blackarachnia. She was like his sister, although he hated himself for thinking it.
"You're not going to chicken out?" asked Darkstar in surprise. "I thought you cared about Omicron. You want to get it back, don't you? Remember, as soon as I have control of time I can bring Star-base Rugby back. It's worth a couple of maximal slag-heaps."
"That's not very maximal talk," said Depth Charge. "Anyway, we can finish her later. I've got a crab to deal with. X has gotta die first. I threw him down the abyss already, but I've gotta make sure he dies. There's a roundabout way down to the bottom of the cliff. I'll take it. You…" Depth Charge forced himself to say it, "you can get rid of the spider yourself."
"Well and good," said the black wolf.
***
Blackarachnia stood at the edge of the cliff. She was dumbstruck. She couldn't believe it—she couldn't move, she couldn't think—Silverbolt could not have fallen. He couldn't survive that fall. Maybe there was a ledge. Yes, maybe Silverbolt landed on a ledge!
"Slag it, how do I get down?" she thought aloud.
"Here, let me assist you!" Blackarachnia turned around just in time to see a large, black wolf pouncing at her. It was the same one that had attacked her before. His weight was thrust against her, and she lost her balance. She felt herself tottering backward—there was nothing but air below her—she was falling, watching the canine's leering face above her get smaller and smaller.
As she scraped past a rock sticking out of the cliff, Blackarachnia's sense came back to her. Transforming into beast mode, the she-spider clung onto the cliff-face. How long she could stay here without falling, she had no idea.