Lunarflare wasn't sure what to think of this sudden development. Was this how Predicons always acted? Was he really expecting Optimus to simply, agree to these terms? What was stopping them from just, unloading on him like Rhinox suggested before, and ending it without the hassle?
"I don't want to fight you," Optimus told him.
"You do not have a choice! Your command center is back there, and no one crosses this bridge until you face me," Dinobot threatened menacingly.
"Don't we get a say in this?" Rhinox spoke up suddenly.
"Let Chopper face and the boss monkey duke it. No fir off a' my tail," Rattrap smirked.
"No way! Hey, scale belly, how's about you try a taste of the bad kitty, huh?" Cheetor shouted to him.
At that, Optimus flipped around to address the young bot. "Cool your circuits, Cheetor. I wouldn't send anyone to do anything I wasn't willing to do myself," he assured him.
Lunarflare wasn't sure what to make of the fact that he kept insisting on this concept. She had been sent to do things hundreds of times that her commanding officers weren't willing to do. After all, why would they force themselves to do something unpleasant or even potentially life threatening, when they could just send her?
"Oh, yeah, right, now he says that," Rattrap taunted.
"Ugh!" Optimus groaned in contempt at the rat's comment. "This is foolishness, Dinobot! We're Maximals, you are a Predicon," he barked with a frustrated tone.
"All the more reason I should lead then," Dinobot tried to argue.
"Look, I don't know what happened between you and Megatron–" he didn't get a chance to finish because Dinobot cut him off.
"Megatron? Megatron will fall as soon as I have your Maximals at my command!" he assured him.
Lunarflare wasn't sure about the others, but to her, his logic held little value! It was thoroughly confusing, in fact. Why would he think these Maximals would listen to him, even if he did win a battle with Optimus? That is, if Optimus decided to even humor him at all!
"You are welcome to join us, but you shall not lead," Optimus informed him adamantly.
"I beg to differ, for in anticipation of my new role as leader, I have already reprogrammed my activation code – Dinobot Maximize!" he shouted and transformed.
Optimus did not look happy about this, but he transformed as well.
"I'm going in there, Cheetor Maxi–" but Rattrap jumped on his head and snapped his mouth shut before he could finish.
"Clamp it, kitty! Nailing the chopper from behind won't settle anything," he explained.
"Yeah, like it or not, we gotta let um' finish," Rhinox added.
Optimus and Dinobot then began to battle it out with an epic display of sword mastery. Strangely enough, it seemed as though he was going to humor him. There was a lot of fancy footwork as the others looked on with anticipation and worry. Eventually, however, Optimus was able to gain the upper hand by nailing Dinobot in the face with a lucky punch. Dinobot fell prostrate on the ground, and Optimus stuck his sword under his throat.
"I still live. Finish it!" Dinobot moaned as he raised his head.
Lunarflare felt rather anxious about what was going to happen next. Would Optimus actually finish him off?
"That's not how we Maximals do things," Optimus told him instead, panting from all the effort, and offering a hand to Dinobot to help him up.
"Then that, will have to change!" Dinobot exclaimed, and instead of taking the hand, he blasted Optimus in the eyes with his eye lasers.
Optimus yelled in pain and stumbled backwards. He ended up stepping on a loose rock, tripping and falling over the side of the bridge. He managed to grip the ledge using only his legs to keep him from ending up in the river below.
Cheetor gasped and Rhinox shook his head despondently as Dinobot stood over Optimus. Lunarflare's servos involuntarily tensed, fearing along with the others that this would be the end of the commander. The raptor stuck his sword in Optimus' face, but then to everyone's surprise, suddenly reached down, grabbed a hold of Optimus, and tossed him harmlessly back on the bridge.
"What are you doing? You'd won," Optimus grunted in confusion, but Dinobot only sighed.
"You slipped. To defeat you in such a manner would be lacking in honor. I would not have earned the right to lead. I prefer to defeat my opponents the old fashioned way – brutally!" he explained menacingly, and the sparring continued.
"For a Predicon, Dinobot, you have qualities I could like," Optimus grunted, as he pushed his sword against Dinobot's.
"And you have proved to be a worthy adversary. I will have you recycled with full honors," Dinobot replied as they came face to face.
"Well, that's just Prime!" Optimus shot back sarcastically.
Despite the intense battle that was taking place, Lunarflare suddenly detected some movement to a cliff edge situated towards their right. She turned to find the rest of the Predicons were not only watching as well, but were also about to unleash a barrage of gunfire right at the dueling transformers!
"Uh, excuse me, Rattrap?" she inquired, getting his attention, because he was standing right next to her. "We've got company," Lunarflare informed him, indicating the group of Predicons.
"Chao! Shift your scanners due east there pals. This party has got big time crashers!" he exclaimed when he glanced in the direction she'd indicated. At the same time, they opened fire on Optimus and Dinobot.
"Optimus!" Cheetor yelled to alert him to the danger.
When Optimus saw the missiles coming, he quickly transformed to Beast Mode, grabbed ahold of Dinobot and proceeded to dive over the edge of the bridge into the ravine, just in time to avoid the shots.
"Optimus!" Cheetor shouted down the cliff face, only to be greeted by a sad echo.
Lunarflare could hear the worry in his voice. Heck, even she was a bit worried. How could he just dive off into oblivion like that? Rhinox shook his head. Meanwhile, the cat-girl, more out of curiosity than anything, was about to go looking for him, when they all heard something.
"If you guys aren't doing anything – a little speed would be prime," came the strained suggestion.
After quickly getting over the initial shock, they all peered down where the voice had come from, to find Optimus hanging upside down, holding onto the edge of the bridge with his hand-like monkey foot. He had one of Dinobot's feet in a shaky grip with his right hand, who was then also hanging upside down, and not looking very comfortable about it.
"Let's go!" Cheetor was first to declare.
They all immediately leapt into action, transforming into Robot Mode to do what they could to assist. That is – except for Rattrap. Who Lunarflare was noticing more and more as being incredibly stubborn! Rhinox impatiently tapped him on the back of the head.
"He-Hey, hey, hey, you go and get yourselves scrapped, cuz I ain't–" The troublesome rodent didn't get a chance to finish, before Rhinox lifted him up by the back of his neck and glared at him with an angry scowl.
"Alright, alright!" Rattrap finally consented, sounding slightly strangled from the grip.
In that moment, Lunarflare also noticed that Dinobot began sparking dangerously. Energon build up, for sure. She and the others were trying to get to him and Optimus as quickly as possible, but the Predicons were making that very difficult with the continued rapid assault.
"The energon fields! I am shorting out!" he exclaimed.
"Hang on, you can't transform in this position," Optimus told him, as if he wasn't already aware of that.
"Release me, let me fall, and save yourself," Dinobot groaned.
"Now where's the honor in that?" Optimus attempted to sound lighthearted despite the situation, but his grip was becoming increasingly more strained.
"You have no choice," Dinobot warned him.
"Then we both go!" Optimus decided as his grip came loose, but just as it did, Rhinox, still ducking and weaving through enemy fire, reached down and grabbed him at the last possible moment.
"Going up," Rhinox joked, as he deposited them safely back on the bridge so Dinobot could transform.
Unfortunately, the reprieve was short lived as the Predicons opened fire with a renewed vigor, causing the bridge to begin to crumble beneath them.
Lunarflare, being as quick as she was, noticed this problem immediately and was the first one to cross onto solid ground. Rattrap, however, was not so fortunate. He wasn't able to quite make it to the other side of the ravine before the land began to literally collapse out from under him! Optimus had to snatch him right out of the air to keep him from plummeting to his demise! When the commander set him down, the rat sighed in relief.
"You're welcome," Optimus snapped irritably when he saw no signs of Rattrap offering him any gratitude.
"You're the leader, it's your, job," Rattrap offered in a feeble attempt to justify his rudeness.
Optimus responded with a hard glare.
Fortunately for Rattrap, a sudden explosion took all the attention off of him, and they all turned to see that the Predicon missiles had managed to blow up a mountain, revealing a very large collection of energon crystals. Lunarflare could immediately sense the increase in the radiation, which filled her with energy. For the others, however, it caused more unsightly shortages which prompted them to transform back into Beast Mode. So, she followed suit to avoid looking suspicious.
"Raw energon, in it's natural form it's highly unstable. We're lucky those missiles didn't cause it to explode," Optimus commented.
"If you can call it lucky," Rhinox mumbled.
"Megatron's on the move. Bearings 6-1-7-5," Cheetor calculated.
"He's after the energon. A crystal that size would make him unstoppable," Dinobot explained.
"Oh, ah thanks a lot for the hot tip, scale belly! Rhinox, scrap this guy," Rattrap ordered more than suggested. Nonetheless, Rhinox complied and began advancing on the Predicon.
"Hold on, Rhinox," Optimus told him, putting out a hand to stop him. "Will he send flyers?" he directed at Dinobot.
"Oh, for bootin' up cold! You're not gonna believe a Predicon, are ya?" Rattrap protested.
"That's my call," Optimus sternly reminded him. "Will he?" he asked again.
"Negative, the crystal is too big for the flyers to carry. Only Tarantulas has the skill to segment it," Dinobot informed him.
"Then we have to get there first. All six of us," Optimus emphasized.
"Yeah, all six of us," Rattrap agreed at first, until he recounted. "Ya mean, chopper-face- is going with – we're all gonna die!" he decided as the rest of the group began to leave without him. "Hey, wait for me!" he called.
"First, weirdo cat-girl appears out of nowhere, and now Optimus is just lettin' Preds in. . ." Lunarflare could hear Rattrap muttering as he passed by her and Cheetor, obviously not fond of the girl's presence anymore than the raptor's.
As they made their way to the giant crystal, Lunarflare's mind began to wander through all these recent events. Things were sure transpiring rather quickly. She couldn't seem to quite wrap her head around how Optimus Primal was strangely willing to risk his life for a Predicon who, just moments before that, had been threatening his life! What kind of bot does something like that? She glanced up to gaze at his back in confusion.
"What's wrong, Lunar? Are you okay?"
Cheetor's sudden question snapped her out of her thoughts. She flinched before turning to him with an innocent expression, a bit taken aback by the sudden assignment of a nickname.
"Nothing is wrong. I'm fine," she assured him, although couldn't help wondering why he was asking. Except, not for long, because he responded almost as if he'd read her mind.
"You just had such a serious look on your face," he explained with a frown of concern. "Is your back still bothering you from that missile you took?" he wondered.
"No, I believe all internal repairs have been completed," she replied with confidence.
"Oh, well, that's good," he said.
"Hey, so I was wondering. Your flying, robot form could make it to the crystal faster than any of us," they heard Rhinox suddenly direct to Optimus.
"No, we have to stay together. The Predicons could attack at any moment, and there may be other surprises on this planet," the Maximal leader told him.
"There are, down there, look," Rhinox indicated a stone formation that looked like it had been built by intelligent life, and they all paused for a moment to peer down at it.
"Hmm, unusual! Any opinions?" Optimus asked.
"Just one, it isn't natural. We didn't build it, and neither did the Predicons," he said with an air of foreboding.
They didn't get much time to ponder on that, as Cheetor suddenly growled, garnering their attention.
"Heads up," he warned them of the incoming threat. The Predicon flyers were advancing on their group, and everyone transformed in response.
"Defensive positions," Optimus ordered.
"Yeah, but what about him?" Rattrap asked, indicating Dinobot.
"He's with us," Optimus insisted.
"Yeah, I ain't buying it just cuz you say so," Rattrap informed him.
The incoming attack by the flyers seized everyone's focus then, and they retaliated in kind. However, the missile fire was causing the ground above them to become increasingly unstable.
"Hold your fire, we might start an avalanche," Optimus told them.
"You crossed your wires? They're coming back!" Rattrap pointed out.
"I'll handle this," Optimus decided, and took off, while all the rest of them could do was watch. He was able to take care of them pretty easily, however, and they began to retreat.
"Now, while they are weak!" Dinobot encouraged, and began to fire at them as they flew away, but in doing so, he was loosing the rocks above them even more.
A particularly large bolder suddenly broke away, and would have crushed Rhinox if he hadn't noticed and dived out of the way in time. The large Maximal glared at Dinobot suspiciously.
"I knew it, ya traitor! You tried to scrap my pal!" Rattrap accused and dived onto Dinobot, knocking him on his back. He then placed the end of his blaster to Dinobot's head, and Lunarflare thought for sure he was going to blow it off! "Once a Pred, always a Pred," he declared darkly.
"Ease off, Rattrap! It was an accident," Optimus justified, as he landed back in the cave.
"Says you," Rattrap snapped.
"That's right, says me! You wanna question my orders one more time?" Optimus asked, angerly poking Rattrap in the chest.
"I, uh, I don't trust Predicons," Rattrap confessed before ultimately backing off, but not without jabbing his gun into Dinobot's forehead once more for good measure.
Apparently, he'd decided that it would be in his best interests not to cross Optimus again, because he allowed Dinobot to push the gun away and stand up. Lunarflare had to commend Rattrap on his bravery, if nothing else. It took a lot of courage to stand up to someone who was three times your size, which was now made very obvious as the massive raptor loomed over the rat.
"We've got enough trouble with Megatron's crew without fighting amongst ourselves. Now, come on!" Optimus lectured irritably, and they continued on in Beast Mode.
They were able to reach the energon mountain a few minutes later. The glow from the crystals glistening beautifully, in a dangerous sort of way. The amount of radiation was so powerful that it was making Lunarflare's fur stand on end! As they climbed over the last ridge, they could see that the Predicons had already arrived, coming up from the opposite way.
Optimus turned to Lunarflare for a moment, indicating that she should stay where she was.
"I want you to hang back for this, Lunar. Keep an eye on everyone and assist only if you see someone in real trouble," he told her quietly. "You've already taken enough damage today, and I don't want to risk more," he explained.
She nodded in response, albeit not completely understanding his logic when she'd already informed Cheetor that she was fine. Even so, she couldn't help also feeling a bit surprised that the nickname had caught on already!
Both sides lined up and began to stare each other down, and Lunarflare noticed another reason why Optimus had insisted that she not get involved with this. Not including her, there were exactly five members on each side, just enough for five one-on-one battles, which was how they were going to have to fight in this particular situation. After all, too much disturbance could result in the energon igniting, and that would be bad for everyone!
Megatron stepped forward and was the first to begin speaking.
"Across the Galaxy it has come to this, Optimus Primal. Face to face, tooth to claw, yes. Have you anything to say?" he inquired.
"I'd say, that's Prime! Let's do it!" Optimus shouted and both sides charged at each other until they collided in the middle.
Optimus took on Megatron, Cheetor pounced on Waspinator, Dinobot and Scorponok began snapping at each other, Rhinox charged at Terrorsaur, and finally Rattrap actually rode atop Tarantulas. Lunarflare's attention, however, was mainly focused on Optimus and Megatron. She watched as Megatron threw Optimus onto the ground and tried to close his massive jaws around his head as Optimus barely managed to hold him at bay.
"Admit defeat, Maximal! The energon shall be ours," Megatron boasted as Optimus forced the formidable jaws away from him.
"Not if I can help it!" Optimus grunted as he threw Megatron over the top of him. His head landing in a crevasse between some large boulders. He attempted to push his way out, but failed.
"Surrender, Megatron! You're trapped!" Optimus shouted at him.
"No! You shall not defeat me!" he hollered and crashed his way out with a great shattering of rock.
Megatron turned and once again charged at Optimus, this time slamming him into one of the mountain's walls. He then closed his jaws around Optimus' leg, causing him to cry out in pain.
Lunarflare was poised and almost reacted, before Optimus was able to beat Megatron off of him, who landed just a few feet away. The Maximal commander rose and took hold of the T-Rex's tail, spinning him around and flinging him into the opposite rock face. Megatron went down and seemed stunned, but when Optimus tried to move over to him, he stumbled on his injured leg and fell, gripping it with clear discomfort.
"It is over, Megatron!" he tried to reason with him.
"It is never over! No!" he argued, and then to Lunarflare's surprise, he threw caution to the wind and transformed, suffering from energon build up almost instantaneously! "For if I must die, I shall take you with me!" he threatened.
Then, to her horror, Lunarflare watched him aim and fire a missile directly at Optimus! Not only would this likely kill him, but it would surely cause the mountain to explode, destroying the rest of them along with it!
Feeling her programming kick in, not to mention her own sense of self preservation, she transformed as well, leaping in front of the injured Maximal leader. She put her hand out and immediately generated a force field, the missile making impact a second later. Although, while she was able to protect Optimus, the resulting detonation still had the unfortunate effect of creating a chain reaction in the unstable energon. The entire mountain began to shake violently and she dropped the shield, glancing around and wondering where to go from here.
"It's gonna blow!" Rhinox warned.
"Time to fade, heroes!" Cheetor added, as the tremors only increased.
Rhinox thundered over to give a lift to the currently immobile Optimus, and they collectively hauled ass in the direction they had come, trying to put as much distance between them and the exploding mountain as possible. They stopped at a safe distance as soon as the final detonation went off, and as the last remnants of rock stopped showering down on their heads, all gazes instantly shifted to Lunarflare.
She could feel their optics boring into her frame with surprise and suspicion. She hadn't bothered to transform back into Beast Mode this time. What would be the point? Her little power demonstration had already blown her cover, such as it was. They would have to be completely inept to not know what she was now!
Cheetor was actually the first to address her.
"What did—how did you do that?!" he wondered in awe.
"I, uh . . ." she trailed off, indecisively.
How was she supposed to handle this? Just come out and tell them, 'Guess what? I'm a Spartan'? Her eyes flickered over to Optimus. He was studying her with a stern expression. She began to feel increasingly nervous. How was he going to react? She shifted her gaze and kept them glued to the ground. Then, after a long, excruciating moment, he finally spoke.
"You're not actually a Maximal, are you?" he guessed.
"I – no sir," she admitted, glancing up at him.
Meanwhile, Cheetor began to look back and forth nervously between them at what that could imply.
"But, you're obviously not a Predicon either," he confirmed. "So, where does that leave us?" It was a rhetorical question, but it left Lunarflare still wondering if he was waiting for her to admit it herself.
"Hold on! You aren't suggesting – but, how is that possible?" Rhinox suddenly questioned, apparently catching on to what Optimus was inferring.
The surprise in his voice caused Optimus to smirk. "You're a Spartan, aren't you?" he finally just announced, which caused Lunarflare to flinch involuntarily.
"Yes, sir," she admitted flatly.
"Wait, what? Are you serious? But, I thought that they had all been destroyed!" Rattrap exclaimed.
"Well there was a rumor that a very young one had survived and was still living on Colony Omicron. I take it that's you?" Optimus asked her.
She nodded, acknowledging that he was correct.
"What's a Spartan?" Cheetor suddenly asked.
"Spartans were a powerful race of transformers designed with the ability to manipulate the effect fields of energon to their will. They can absorb raw or stable energon directly through their super structure, which is why she can stand there in robot form and not be shorting out right now. They were originally developed to aid in Maximal defense in case of another Predicon uprising. But since that never happened, until now anyway, they became idle until eventually, they were tragically wiped out by the very same transformers who created them," Optimus explained.
"It was never really known for sure whether the Spartans attacked first, or if it was fear of their power that drove the Maximals on the colony to strike," Rhinox added.
They all stared at her, as if waiting for her to make some kind of grand proclamation that would finally answer the question. Instead, she simply shook her head while avoiding eye contact.
"As you said sir, I was very young at the time and do not remember," she informed them.
"Hmm," was all Optimus' response.
"Yeah, that's great 'n all, but what I wanna know is, how in Primus' name did a super-powered, experimental soldier end up on our exploration ship?" Rattrap questioned suspiciously, fixing Lunarflare with a very dirty look.
"I do not question orders. I simply follow them," she stated stoically, her hidden inference not missing the rat's attention, however.
It, of course, did nothing to improve his opinion of her, but she figured she wasn't going to be winning any popularity contests at this point, anyway! She needed to keep her answers as vague as possible, just like Depth Charge had instructed, once she ran into this inevitability. As it was his understanding that they most likely hadn't been informed of her trial, the High Counsel wanting to keep it as quiet as possible. It was just a shame that she didn't get the chance to hide her true identity for longer, but considering the seriousness of the situation they found themselves in, losing Optimus would have been considerably worse!
Meanwhile, said Maximal commander blew out a reluctant sigh in response. "I'm pretty sure this is my fault," he conveniently admitted, piquing the cat-girl's curiosity at to what he could be referring.
"You think the High Counsel assigned her?" Rhinox guessed.
"Oh, I'm certain that's what's going on here! You know how unhappy they were with my insistence that we didn't need any military personnel on this mission," he revealed. "They obviously managed to sneak her aboard with the rest of the protoforms," he elaborated, fixing Lunarflare with a questioning gaze, as though waiting for her to confirm.
"But, if that's the case, why didn't she just tell us that right away?" Rattrap piled on, obviously not wanting to let her off the hook that easily.
In keeping up with her ignorant act, she simply shrugged in response.
"I was ordered not to." It was at least partially true, as far as they needed to know.
"Figures," Optimus mutter, but then fixed her with what she assumed was a sad expression. It wasn't something she was used to seeing directed at her. "Don't worry, Lunar. We know it wasn't your fault. Sorry you got mixed up in all this," he strangely offered.
Lunarflare didn't understand why he was apologizing. She honestly couldn't have asked for a better cover story for herself. At least the suspicion of why she was here had been cleared up, for the moment, anyway.
"You purposely planned this voyage without any kind of military protection?" Dinobot questioned dubiously. "Does Maximal ignorance know no bounds?" he wondered, shaking his head in disappointment.
"This was a mission of peace. I really didn't think it was necessary!" Optimus was quick to defend.
"And that has worked out so well for you so far," Dinobot shot back, his tone thick with sarcasm.
"Either way, I suppose I should be grateful they went behind my back and sent her with us, since you just saved my life back there," Optimus addressed the cat-girl.
She turned to him to find him with a large smirk spread across his face. A part of her wanted to inform him that it wasn't out of any kind of compassion or loyalty, but another part of her was just glad he was taking the revelation of what she was so well, and not feeling as though he needed to shoot her on sight!
"I am programmed to protect Maximals, sir. It is my highest designated priority," was all she said instead. No one seemed to know how to respond to that, staring at her with blank looks.
"Fine! Whatever!" Rattrap finally snapped in exasperation. "But, now Megatron's gone and so's the energon. So, it's over! Can we go home now?" he requested hopefully, apparently also wanting to bring the conversation of the Spartan girl to a close.
"No Rattrap, for now we're stranded here with the Predicons on this unknown planet. Megatron may be back, and there's still more energon." Rattrap looked less than pleased at hearing this. "If they ever get enough, they could conquer the galaxy! So, for now, let the battle be here, on this strange primitive world, and let it be called, Beast Wars!" Optimus exclaimed dramatically.
. . .
So, this is how it was going to be. Lunarflare seemed to always be finding herself in the middle of trouble, and now here she was with little choice but to get involved in a war between Maximals and Predicons. However, it could be worse. These Maximals didn't seem to be too bad, as far as Maximals went anyway, and at least she wouldn't have to worry about getting bored!
"Come on, let's get back to base," Optimus told everyone, leading the way.
Lunarflare transformed back into Beast Mode and trailed along behind the group – her 'proper place', as it were. She figured now that they knew what she was, it would be back to the status quo for her.
However, after a few minutes, Cheetor noticed her distance and slowed his pace to walk along beside her. She blinked at him in confusion. Why would he do that?
"So, that was really cool, what you did back there. What else can you do?" he asked with a big grin.
That explained it. He was simply curious about her abilities, which only made sense if he'd never even heard of a Spartan before. Despite that, she felt very reluctant to explain anything about her powers to him. She was afraid that the more these Maximals knew about her, the more they would grow to despise her, like all the others. Not to mention that she felt resentful whenever she was required to put herself on display, but she couldn't refuse to answer. . .
"Um, it is – difficult to explain. Manipulating energy with one's will can have many different effects. Explosive power, defensive barriers, levitation–"
"Does that mean you can fly?!" he interrupted suddenly, looking excited.
She started for a second, before recovering from the outburst. "That is correct, although such abilities can also lead to effects that are not particularly desirable," she continued.
"Does that mean you can't always control these weird skills of yours?" They suddenly heard from the group ahead of them.
It surprised her at first, she didn't realize that the others could hear her. She looked up to see Rattrap peering back at her with what she could only describe as disdain. It was an expression she was very familiar with.
"I have, adequate control." Lunarflare had to fight to keep the bitterness out of her tone, and force herself to sound reassuring instead.
She had spent years developing and honing her powers to keep them under control. It was not an easy process. Now she wished she hadn't mentioned it at all, but it was always a possibility. 'Part of the package', so to speak.
"Don't listen to him. He's probably just being jealous again," Cheetor chided under his breath, but the rat obviously still heard anyway.
"Oh, yeah right! Jealous of accidentally blowing myself up? Sure!" he shot back, his tone thick with sarcasm.
"Alright Rattrap, that's enough," Optimus scolded.
Although, in Lunarflare's mind, he needn't have bothered. She was only all too used to these kinds of jeering comments. They no longer had an effect on her. At least, that's what she tried to tell herself. After another few minutes of silence, Cheetor spoke again.
"Do you think, maybe, you could show me?" he asked hopefully in a hushed tone.
Lunarflare looked up at him slightly confused and slightly skeptical. What did he mean show him? Show him what, exactly? And how? But instead of voicing all these questions, she simply offered up an excuse.
"It will be difficult to do a demonstration while on the move."
"So, when we get back to base, then?" he suggested alternatively.
"Very well, if you wish," she finally just complied.
. . .
When they arrived back at the Maximal base, Lunarflare hung back while the others headed towards the entry hatch. It was of course Cheetor who was the first to notice.
"Aren't you gonna come inside?" he asked.
Lunarflare looked a little confused before responding. "It was my understanding that you requested a demonstration of my abilities," she reminded him.
"You can't show me inside?" he wondered.
The others had stopped and turned to look at her again. She hated being stared at like this! She had hoped the rest of them would go inside, so she could just show Cheetor a few tricks and not turn this into a three ring circus! But after a moment she sighed and addressed his question.
"I would not want to risk further damage to your base," she explained.
She would have thought that it would be obvious, that her offensive powers would be destructive. And judging by the looks of their damaged vessel, it couldn't take much more of a beating if they wanted it to remain remotely functional.
"Oh right! Well then, let's see!" he said excitedly, plopping down on the ground where he was and gazing at her expectantly.
Lunarflare glanced up at the others to see what they would do, but after a moment, when it was clear that they were not going to go inside, she groaned internally and transformed. Whether it was by their own curiosity, or an attempt to size her up as a possible threat, she couldn't be sure. But it seemed she would be putting on a show after all.
She started off by showing them how she could conjure a force field, waving her hands and creating the blue, shimmering bubble around her once again.
"This is what you did when you stopped Megatron's missile from hitting Optimus?" Cheetor questioned.
"That's correct," she told him, her voice sounding a little metallic from the other side of the shield.
"How strong is it?" he asked.
"As strong as I need it to be."
When she said that, she noticed the Predicon Dinobot make an expression that she wasn't entirely comfortable with and move towards her threateningly.
"Why don't we test it? You wouldn't mind, would you?" But before she had a chance to respond, he had transformed and began blasting at her with his eye laser weapons.
In a split second reaction, she threw her hands out in front of her, putting them between herself and the attacking Predicon. As soon as the lasers hit the barrier, she could feel her energy start to wain. She concentrated on fortifying the part of it where his weapons were making contact. She could feel him increase the power of his lasers, so she bared down and pushed back, keeping the deadly energy beams at bay.
After another moment of this, she noticed Optimus make a move to stop it.
"Stand down, Dinobot!" he ordered, and Dinobot ceased his attack.
Lunarflare dropped her shield, panting a bit as that old familiar, drained feeling crept back into her core.
"I don't know about how you did things back under Megatron's command, but around here we do not fire on teammates," he lectured.
"It was merely a – weapons test," he tried to reason.
"She's a person, not a weapon!" Cheetor suddenly protested.
Lunarflare was, surprised, to hear him say that with such fervor. After all, for all intents and purposes, she had always been labeled as a weapon by those around her. She decided that it was possible that he just did not know enough about the situation to realize this. He would probably learn in time from the others, however.
She watched as they all continued glaring at each other before Dinobot finally relented and retreated once again to the back of the group.
"Sorry about that. Now what was it you had said about levitation?" Cheetor pressed her to continue, moving a little closer.
Lunarflare responded by looking around for a sizable chunk of stone. When she located one, she held her hand out towards it and focused her energy on it. Her eyes glowed, her hand glowed, and then the boulder began to glow. It shook itself loose from the ground and she lifted her hand up along with it as it rose into the air, but after another moment, it faltered. The lights began to dim as she was running low on power and she lost her grip, the stone dropping back to the earth with a loud crash!
They all jumped in surprise as she looked visibly fatigued.
"I apologize," she panted out. "I am running low on energy at the moment," she admitted, placing her hand to her head. She felt dizzy from all the exertion.
"Alright Cheetor, she's obviously had enough. Let's head on inside. We need to assign everyone's quarters," Optimus told them.
Lunarflare followed Cheetor up one of the entry hatches. She peered around the room as they entered, everyone transforming to robot form now that they were inside an energon shielded structure. Everyone seemed to head off in different directions while Optimus addressed the two newcomers.
"Why don't I show you around, and then I can show you where you'll be staying," he told them.
After a quick tour of the base, Optimus dropped Dinobot off near the beginning of the hallway where the private quarters were, and motioned for Lunarflare to continue to follow him down closer to the end of the hall. He then opened up a room that was much smaller than the one that had been assigned to Dinobot, probably due to her much smaller size, more likely due to the fact that she was a Spartan. Although, she supposed she should be grateful that it wasn't a utility closet!
"You should probably get some rest. It's been a long day! And feel free to let me know if you need anything," he told her.
"Very well. Thank you, commander," she told him with a slight nod. He sort of chuckled and smiled at her, which she found to be odd.
"Lunar, you don't need to be so formal. You can just call me Optimus if you'd like," he told her.
She wasn't exactly sure how to respond to that. Never in her life had she addressed a superior officer by name. Lunarflare had been instructed from very early on to refer to them either by their title or by Sir or Ma'am, and that was it. She had even taken to calling those of lower rank with the same respective. It seemed that with most, especially men, that they enjoyed the superior feeling that came with a title, and putting those that could do her harm in a good mood was one of the ways in which she had managed to survive for this long.
No, she was sure it would be better to continue to address him respectfully, but she did finally nod her understanding as he seemed to be waiting for a response.
"Alright, well, have a good rest. And unless we have some kind of emergency, we're going to meet at the command center at 0700 solar time," he told her and left.
She closed the door behind him before peering around the small, bare room. She sat on the berth before pulling her Jetfire figure out from behind her back. She stared down at it. Depth Charge had given it to her after she had expressed that he was her favorite Autobot from the Great War. It had been her only source of comfort for a long time now.
At least, she thought, that she could also take comfort in the fact that these Maximals had been treating her decently so far, despite knowing about her background, but she knew better than to read too deeply into it. For it could change without warning at any time, and if they ever learned the real reason why she was here, it could quite possibly spell the end for her.
Alright! Done with all the awkward intro stuff! Hope it was enjoyable.