This is a deleted scene from all the way back in chapter 25! There's a part where Stampy, Polar Claw, and Jack come back from a mission all shaken up after dealing with a Predacon who hunts and eats both his own kind and humans (all together now, "EEEEWW"). Since we already had one similarly shaped Predacon in the chapter, it was eventually decided that two would be a little confusing.

So it was that Bonecrusher (an alligator) stayed in the chapter and Skullcruncher (a crocodile) was moved to a chapter of his own over in this story. This ought to explain why Jack was all freaked out when he got back to base.

(this was also because Miko had gotten some really cool adventures/battles, and Raf had gotten to fight Waspinator, but Jack hadn't done much besides hang around base and try to keep his parents from catching him slipping out. This was partially meant to let him have a little action in the story again)

Somewhere in Lozère…

"When you guys said you wanted me to come observe field work, this isn't what I thought you had in mind!" Jack hissed as he crouched in the abandoned shed.

"Is not exactly vhat we were hawing in mind either!" Polar Claw snapped back, "Battle-rawages is one thing. This is not Battle-rawage!"

Both froze as a long, low shadow passed by the barricaded door. Darkness fell over the Maximal and the human as whatever was hunting them stopped in front of the windows, which had been painted over with a sickly green color.

"It's outside," Jack mouthed to the Cybertronian.

A high, thin voice warbled through the glass from the other side. "I can smell you, meat! Wooden walls cannot hide you from Skullcruncher!"

Jack cringed and, as silently as he could manage, crept over to sit beside Polar Claw. "See?" he whispered, "This is why I keep saying I need a gun or something!"

"Nye!" the bear snorted, "That was wetoed. You know this."

Jack had, in fact, brought up a request for some kind of weapon on multiple occasions, ever since the failed kidnapping with Archadis, but it had been rejected each time on the grounds that he was not licensed to carry human weapons and they had no Cybertronian weapons they were willing to let the children use. None of them could be safely scaled down to a human's size anyway, without the help of a minicon or Headmaster specialist. To attempt the mass conversion process without one could end up blowing a crater in the side of the mesa. So Jack was left with no other option than relying on his wits and the techno-pack.

Outside, the crocodilian Cybertronian, smaller than Bonecrusher but no less fierce, began to push his narrow snout against the walls of the rotting shed, looking for an easy way in that did not involve transforming and expending more energy than was needed. Abruptly, a laser blast struck him between the shoulders. Skullcruncher hissed in pain and displeasure and turned quickly to see Stampy standing several yards away, an insolent grin plastered across his faceplate.

"Hey Crunchy! Try picking on someone your own size!" the youngling shouted, firing twice more. He gulped and took a step back as the creature unfolded itself into a green and magenta mech much larger than he'd anticipated.

"Someone like you?" the Predacon hissed, raising his own gun.

"Uh oh." Stampy dropped into beast-mode and hopped out of the way, dodging behind trees and over fences. At least the local humans had all been sufficiently panicked by a gigantic crocodile to evacuate rather than stay out of curiosity. Overall, Stampy would normally have been relieved to receive a call about Battle-ravages and discover that it was really only one mech. When said mech had developed a taste for human and Cybertronians, however, the mission got grody.

The Maximal scout vaguely remembered seeing Skullcruncher's rap sheet from before he shipped out with the Yukikaze. Galvatron had outright refused to allow him into the ranks of his Predacon splinter group on the grounds that he would probably eat his fellow soldiers, and many Maximals had lobbied for his execution. He was supposed to still be on Cybertron somewhere, which - given that he was very much not on Cybertron - did not speak well of Maximal prison guards. Unless Skullcruncher had eaten them. That wouldn't have been their fault, Stampy supposed.

Stampy yelped as the Predacon caught him by the ears, but his diversion had done its job: Polar Claw was now out of the shed and getting ready to charge.

"Any last words, Maxi-meal?" Skullcruncher taunted, lifting the hare a little higher. Stampy smirked.

"Of course you know, this means war!" he quipped in his best Bugs Bunny voice. No sooner had the words left his mouth than Polar Claw barreled into the Predacon at full speed. Skullcruncher dropped Stampy in surprise, and the Maximal transformed and equipped his forearm-blades.

"Jack, call for a Bridge, would ya?" he called calmly as he moved to flank the crocodile, "This shouldn't take too much longer."

Almost too quick to see, Skullcruncher whirled and tucked himself down into his beast-form. A long, powerful tail lashed out, slamming into Polar Claw. The large bear let out a huff as he was hurled into a tree. The trunk splintered and cracked, unable to handle the weight of a full-grown miner-class Maximal. He was on his pedes again in seconds, ready to fight, but Skullcruncher wasn't interested in him.

He had caught sight of Jack, dodging around to the back of the shed, where the reception was better, to call for a Ground Bridge, and it occurred to him that humans were much easier to catch than Maximals.

Stampy guessed the Predacon's intentions and leapt in his way, forearms crossed and blades at the ready.

"Not on my watch," he ground out through gritted denta.

"So dramatic," the beast chuckled, and charged.

Stampy braced himself, and as he was pushed backwards, his pedes left long furrows in the turf. "Claw! Get Jack!" he hollered as he tried to keep Skullcruncher's attention fixed on him.

On the other side of the shed, Jack crouched, trying to open his comm channel, but his hands were shaking. He wasn't sure why at first, as this was hardly the first battle he'd ever been in. He decided to chalk it up to the fear of being eaten - which he decided was pretty justified, given the circumstances - and tried to focus on the task at hand.

"Come on Jack, just call for a Bridge, how hard is that?" he hissed. A bitter laugh almost escaped his lips. Miko wouldn't have been hiding behind a shed when there was a Predacon about.

Then again, Miko would probably have done something rash, like with the Bonecrusher Incident.

Well, I'm not Miko, Jack admitted, But that doesn't mean I'm a coward. He sent the distress signal, then peered around the edge of the shed to see whether he had any way of helping available to him.

Polar Claw and Stampy circled the Predacon, all three bloodied and dented. Jack could not help but notice that they were slowly but surely heading in his direction, and darted back into the shed. When he and Polar Claw had been inside a few moments ago, he'd thought he'd seen - ah! There it was!

Jack snatched the half-empty can of gasoline and set it by the door. Now to find something to light it with.

As he searched, he heard a crash outside, but did not dare stop to look. Just as he laid his hand on a box of matches, the hideous, thin voice hissed from outside the door, "Now, where did you scamper off to?"

"Now, where did you scamper off to?" the spider-like femme's voice is at once playful and hideously cruel. He crouches behind the edge of the landing ramp, praying that she will take the bait. He has no idea where Arcee is, but he can only hope that she is still alive.

The box fell from the boy's trembling hand to bounce across the floor, scattering matches into the dark recesses of the tiny structure. He didn't notice. His pulse pounded in his ears and his mouth was dry as his nostrils filled with the cold, cloying scent of those hideous preservative jars in Airachnid's ship. Of all the death and destruction he had seen, nothing started him to gasping wakefulness in the middle of the night like the memory of fuschia optics and the skritch skritch of multiple limbs, relentlessly pursuing him, and the feeling of razor servos trailing down his face.

The rest of the world melted into a blur to Jack, and his heartbeat drowned out everything else. He only knew that after what seemed like ages, he heard Stampy calling his name repeatedly. He turned, dazed, and looked out at the energon-covered scout.

"..." he opened his mouth but only a rusty squeak came out. The boy coughed and tried again. "I lost the matches," was all he could manage.

Stampy blinked, then noticed the gasoline by the door. "Oh. Oh, uh...that's….that's okay, Jack." One of his optics was scuffed and both his arm-blades were hanging loosely, but he was alive. "Hey, the Bridge is here. C'mon, Jack, let's go home."

"Home, yeah," Jack shook the last of the cobwebs from his mind and frowned down at his shoes as he joined the others outside. He saw no trace of Skullcruncher, but the ground outside was covered in bright blue stains of energon. Jack winced and shoved his hands into his pockets. He hadn't had a flashback during the day in a long time, and certainly never in the Maximalverse.

Oh, he'd had plenty of nightmares, and more often than he'd admit, the red numbers on his digital clock triggered flashes of panic if caught out of the corner of his eye, but things had been improving! Or had they? All the way back to the base, Jack tried to calm himself, but there were too many thoughts coming from all directions at once, all battering away at his brain, and the only coherent thread he could pull from the mess was that he hadn't done any good at all.

He wanted to talk to Optimus, to his mother, but most of all he wanted to talk to Arcee. She, of all people, would know how he felt and what he was experiencing. She, of all people, would know what to do about it.

Miss you, Partner.