The stalker's face twisted into a snarl. He kept coming so close to only have the gap widen between them again! He had been so near, had been able to lay eyes on the Autobot jet as it lifted off and flew on again. No matter, he would just keep following. Sooner or later he would catch up to them. Then Ty would be destroyed, along with his family, and Cindy would be his. That thought calmed him again as he renewed his chase.

.

.

"This targeted loved one appears to be very elusive." Death calmly stated as their mounts flew in the air now. Held aloft by the powers given to them as well. "Even the stalker struggles to get close to him."

"We run out of time Death!" War snapped at her. His mount feeling his frustration and let out a stream of fire, lighting up the sky around them. "He will be here soon and not take lightly to this world mounting a defense that will inconvenience him."

"Patience War." Was her still infuriating calm reply. "I for one relish in the challenge, and he is not so close to where we need to worry."

"There have been other targets as crafty as this one before." Famine agreed. "But eventually they all fall and their loss weakens the champion. This champion will be no different. He will feel the pain of loss and be unable to fight us."

"Do none of you understand!" War roared at them, his anger flaring. "It is not just the champion! The essence of Primus is here also! If we fail to destroy the champion then he will be free to aid the descendant of the Primes! That outcome could be disastrous for us all!"

"And if we rush in without weakening him, the fight will weaken us to the point we can not aid our master." Pestilence reminded him.

"This is a tricky scenario." Death quietly said. "Never before have we encountered a world that held both a champion and a Prime. We must play our game carefully."

War just grunted, still very much annoyed but agreed with his companions. They would have to be patient. Patience however was not his strength. He was beginning to wonder though if this planet was worth the aggravation. But his Master's wishes had been very clear. This planet would be the next to fall, and the Prime along with it.

.

.

"I got a bad feeling about this." Raph mumbled as we walked behind the Bots, his eyes wandering constantly.

"Aw...is the big tough Raph scared of a little trees?" Mikey grinned, and ended up falling backwards when Raph's smack connected.

"I ain't scared of no damn trees!"

"Knock it off you two!" Leo hissed.

They were all on edge, with good reason. We were finally on the island that housed the Dinobots. It was a lush, forested paradise with no one residing here but the large Bots and a few NEST personnel left to see to their needs. And oddly enough, Crosshairs and Drift. The presence of those two led me to believe we were indeed working with the movie version Dinobots. Now that we were here, I was starting to have mixed feelings about that.

I wasn't the only one. Leo had firmly insisted that we all stayed behind while he and his brothers went out. Everyone listened...everyone but Cris and I. There was no way in hell we were going to miss this. A point we made very clear when we just walked out with them when they were leaving the island base. Leo had given me that glare and I just crossed my arms and returned it. "What are you going to do? Tie me to a tree?"

He had stalked on, inventing new swear words as he went.

"This way." Drift quietly led us in a new direction. "There is a clearing up ahead that they favor. We may find them there."

"Aye, an' you know Grimlock will be happy to see this one again." Crosshairs grinned at Ironhide.

Hide gave him a nasty look in return. He did however inch a bit closer to the snackbar Sides was pulling along behind him. I covered my mouth with my hand to hide my smile.

"What's the big deal about these things anyway." Raph grumped as we moved on. "What do they have that you guys don't already have? I mean, they have size. Big fucking deal. Guns? Yay. And they obviously can't be too bright if you have to hide them all the way out fucking here. I bet they are dumb as stumps."

We all stopped to shush him, but he refused to be shushed. Even crossed his arms, ignoring the sudden wide eyes of everyone in front of him. "I bet they smell too. Let out big, nasty air horn train farts or something."

Mikey was waving at him to stop, making scared mewling noises because he couldn't get the words out.

"This is just great, having to come out here for some big dumb robots. Why are they called Dinobots anyway? They too old to put up a decent fight? And what in the hell is wrong with you Mikey!"

Mikey just pointed a finger at what was behind Raph. The big turtle just rolled his eyes and turned...and came face to face with a large, very large, metal Tyrannosaurus head that had lowered itself close to the ground and was watching Raph through narrowed eyes.

"Oh...that might explain the Dinobot part..."

What was obviously Grimlock roared in fury, knocking Raph over backwards with the force of his vocals alone even as the rest of us scrambled out of the way. Good thing too, because a bright flame burst out of that mouth next. It missed Raph, barely, and flowed out into the trees behind the red masked turtle, setting a fair amount of them on fire.

When that was done and over with, a giant foot came down next and Raph found himself rolling like hell to get out of the way before it slammed down.

"Alright you big metal lizard!" Raph snapped at him as he got back to his feet. "You want a fight?! Let's make it a bit more fair!"

"Oh no..." Leo groaned. "Vicky...this is why I wanted you to stay back with the others!" He began to frantically pull me out of harms way even as Raph shimmered and changed.

I just nodded in dumb agreement as I let him drag me along.

Grimlock roared again and Raph answered it with one of his own. Then they came together with enough force to knock my feet out from under me as the ground shook.

Screw any monster movie you ever seen...because this took the cake out of all of 'em right here. Raph was bigger than Grimlock overall, but a lot of his size was neck, wings and tail. Grimlock had the bigger body, though not by much. As far as I could tell...they were evenly matched, even to the fire breath that was flaring out every which way now. I squealed a little when one of those blasts came real close to frying my backside.

Grimlock got a good body slam in on Raph and he hit the ground hard enough to send me on my ass, again. The Dinobot was coming in with his head for the seemingly vulnerable neck but Raph managed to use that long neck to swing his own head around and knocked the jaws to the side before kicking Grimlock's rear legs out from under him with his own. Then he was the one going in for the downed opponent until he learned that he wasn't the only one who could fight with his tail. Grimlock's came around hard and knocked the turtle dragon back off again. It didn't phase Raph a bit as he rolled with the hit, then dug his claws into the ground to stop that roll and they both leapt at each other.

Note to self, the next time there is a potential meeting between two giant hotheads...stay the fuck home... Nowhere seemed safe. Dirt, rocks, trees and fire was flying every which way now. And there was no safe place to hide from any of it. I had completely lost Leo in the commotion, but I did hear Cris screaming bloody murder at Raph as she tried to snap him out of his anger. It wasn't working.

Grimlock went down this time and a snarling Raph was coming in for another hit before another dragon slammed into him. Suddenly I knew where Leo had gone off to as that blue banded head snapped it's jaws right in front of Raph's face, a few times. Leo was definitely not happy with his brother at the moment and it showed. Once he had Raph down, that head swung around to the charging Grimlock and narrowed before he let out his own roar, slamming his tail into the ground as he did. I fell on my ass for the third time.

Grimlock seemed a bit unsure, but his charge really didn't stop until Prime himself blocked him from his target. "Grimlock! Hold!"

To my surprise...he did. The big behemoth managed to skid to a stop just before he ran into, or should I say over, the Autobot leader. He glared at Raph though, his eyes angry as he snorted a few times. Raph just glared right back and matched those snorts and added a growl or two. Until Leo swiped at him with a forepaw. Then he shut up.

"They are our allies and friends noble one." Prime tried to calm the big thing.

Grimlock let out a final snort, then changed into his bot form. Good lord he was huge... "Why puny little thing insult me Grimlock?"

"Because he's an idiot!" Mikey called out from a safe distance.

Donnie took the liberty to smack him since both Leo and Raph were busy at the moment.

"Me Grimlock not like mouthy green man. Should just squish him."

Leo stared Raph down, and Raph finally went back turtle, though he didn't look to happy about it. "I'd like to see you try!"

Leo had by now also changed back and promptly smacked his bigger brother. Now that was a rarity... "Don't you think you've caused enough damage for one day with your mouth!"

Raph just crossed his arms and harrumphed.

"Seems like ol' Grimmy doesn't care too much for your friend." Crosshairs told Ironhide with a smug look. "Lil guy might even become his new favorite chew toy instead of you."

Hide's response to that was to deck the green bot. "the next one that makes a reference about that incident will get one too." Hide grumbled around him. Suddenly all the other bots found more interesting places to be.

I didn't move, not even after the situation had calmed...somewhat. I was too scared too. It would be my luck that i'd be the next one Grimlock went after because I accidentallyy pissed him off. But it was also that determination to stay put that almost got me squished anyway when a foot slammed down next to me. I think I pissed myself a little when that happened and I was seriously shaking when the other one past me and came down further in. I shakily looked up to see Scorn move onward towards Prime and Grimlock, and further to my side Slug also moved in as Strafe flew down from above.

Tripping over myself now, I somehow made it to Hide, seriously banging on his foot to get his attention. "Pick me up." I almost squealed when he looked down. "Pick me up right now before I get smushed out here."

He was trying real hard not to laugh at me, but gently scooped me up and placed me onto his shoulder. "Shows no fear to Starscream, yet the Dinobots terrify you."

"Hell yes they do! Screamer would at least acknowledge I was there before he steps on me, these guys just plop their big ass feet wherever they feel like it!"

"Leonardo told you not to come."

"Oh...shut up."

Ok, that time I did get laughed at.