Welcome back everyone. Sorry for the wait, real life got in the way and I had a heck of a time figuring out how to start this chapter. I do wish to impress again, it's been a while since I've seen Transformers Prime so if any character acts out of character, I apologize. Now, without further ado, it's time to unleash the Beast Wars. Note: edited 3/15/22
Miko sighed in boredom as she looked around at the animal sanctuaries' empty parking lot. Once they'd exited the ship she'd been asked to stay put while Jack and Raf went in the animal sanctuary to pick their beast modes. Wheeljack said something about having Ratchet run some medical scans on her to see if their transformation had any adverse effects and to see whether or not the kids needed Energon or not. She wasn't sure whether they did or not, sure she felt hungry but wasn't sure if that was how the bots felt when they were low on Energon.
To keep her occupied Wheeljack and Bulkhead tried to show her some fighting techniques. First was Bulkheads attempt at demonstrating diffusion ended with Wheeljack slamming into the side of the ship and Ultra Magnus to begin yelling at them. After he'd cooled down, they decided to hold off anymore teaching. "To be honest, neither of us are particularly good at teaching Cybertronian martial arts." Wheeljack commented.
Bulkhead laughed. "Yeah, what was it Drift always said? An incompetent teacher was deadlier than the sharpest sword?" He said with a somewhat airy voice. Wheeljack let out a chuckle. "Right on the Nose Bulk."
Miko raised her eyebrow. "Who is Drift?"
Bulkhead looked over at her. "Drift is another Wrecker. A well-known practitioner of most forms of Cybertronian martial arts. He taught most of us whatever fighting style he thought would best suit our strengths."
At Mikos' curious look Bulkhead continued. "He was originally a Decepticon sharpshooter named Deadlock, but changed sides. I'm not sure what made him do it, but afterward he began studying under the legendary twin grandmasters Yoketron and Banzai-Tron before their academy was destroyed. His preference is Metallikato, but we've seen him use Curicuit-Su, Crystalocution, and Mueikyaku."
Mikos' eyes shot open. "He was a Decepticon?" She'd never heard of anyone really defecting from them before. Then something else came to her mind. "What happened to him? And how was the academy destroyed?"
Wheeljack shrugged. "He's still out there somewhere. I heard he went off in search of other surviving students. I think he hoped to get enough of them together to restore the Cyber Ninja Academy. It was Destroyed by Banzai-Tron when Megatron infected him with Dark Energon and killed Yoketron. All because Banzai-Tron, while less choosey about his students, wouldn't commit to the Decepticon cause."
There was silence while Miko processed that. The silence was broken by the distant sound of an engine coming closer. Wheeljack and Bulkhead took up a defensive stance while Miko retreated back into the ship. A moment later a Familiar white and red ambulance drove into the parking lot and transformed back into the Autobot Medic Ratchet.
"Alright what's the damage. I was perfectly content to rust in peace with the other wrecks but." He was cut off when Miko exited the ship again. Ratchet looked her up and down. "Do I know you?" He asked.
Miko swallowed. "I'm the one who infected the mainframe to fill the monitor with emojis." She replied nervously. She knew he was still angry about that little stunt.
Ratchet scoffed. "Then that would make you...Miko!?" He exclaimed; optics wide in recognition. "What in the pit happened to you child?"
Bulkhead cut him off. "One word Ratch, Knockout. We were hoping you could run a scan to tell us a bit more about what happened to those three."
Ratchet reached behind him and pulled out some kind of scanning device. Running it over Miko he looked at Bulkhead. "Three? Wait, where's Rafael and Jackson?" While worried about his current patient he was equally worried about the young boy he'd taken a somewhat reluctant liking to, not to mention the other one that reminded him so much of Optimus when he was younger.
"Same condition doctor." Ultra Magnus said exiting the ship. "I have Bumblebee and Arcee taking them to get beast modes. We'll explain everything enroute to our destination."
Ratchet finished his scan and looked at Magnus. Beast modes? He shook his head. "It's good to see you again Magnus, but excuse me, I need to analyze this."
He returned the device and pulled up a holographic image of Mikos' body on his wrist computer. He turned it slightly before opening the hologram to examine her internal workings. "From what I can see, there is a spark in a casing, from there it seems like information is flowing back and forth to the brain, and from there the rest of the body. I don't see a T-cog anywhere, but it seems that their transformation is triggered by something else."
He looked even closer. "There seems to be a combination of organic digestive system and." His Optics widened. "Somehow, it's converting organic matter, to energon. That energon is powering her body." He looked over at Miko who seemed embarrassed about having all this read out loud despite her initial curiosity. Ratchet mentally kicked himself and shut off the hologram, that was highly unprofessional. "Sorry Miko."
Wheejack interceded to spare the femme any further embarrassment. "Then we have another reason to keep the kids safe. If Megatron and Knockout learn they found a way to make energon with those three, they'll find a way to harvest it to power their troops." All the collected Autobots shivered at the thought of their human allies being reduced to little more than energon dispensers.
Any further discussion was interrupted by a loud roar and flapping of wings. Looking up they saw something that made them all stare. Looking up in the sky there appeared to be a mechanical dragon. "Where did the Decepticons get a dragon?" Miko exclaimed.
It swooped down planting itself firmly between them and the ship. Miko and the Autobots deployed their weapons as the Dragon glowered at them."Think it might be friendly?" Miko asked as she held her katanas up. This was answered when the Dragon roared and a stream of fire erupted from its mouth, causing them to scatter. "That answers that."
The dragon charged at Miko, causing her to leap into the air towards Bulkhead and slash at its' head with her swords. This only served to annoy the beast further as it unleashed another burst of fire at them. Bulkhead moved and shielded Miko from the flames.
"Bulkhead!" She cried, coming to his aid. She held out a hand, but he waved her off.
"Don't, I might still be hot to the touch." Bulkhead and Miko were then sent flying backwards into Ratchet and Ultra Magnus by a swing of its great tail. This caused a stunned Miko to shift back into her beast mode.
"Get back!" Wheeljack called out. A dull thud got the dragons' attention. Looking down it saw a grenade with the pin pulled. A split second later it went off, obscuring it in smoke and fire as the beast gave out a roar of pain.
When the smoke cleared the Dragon was only a little scorched on its' underside. With a mighty roar it began to descend on the injured group. They stood up shakily, Magnus and Wheeljack at the front. They'd hoped that they might be able to buy some time for the others to escape.
The Dragon growled and went to breath another blast of fire when a loud roar caught its' attention. This was followed by sharp pain on its back as a large techno-organic lion sank its' claws into it. It roared and reared up. Reaching around with its' mouth, it caught the lion around the middle and threw it to the ground in front of the group.
Taking a closer look, the team noticed the lions' fur was a grayish white in color. Its' mane was midnight black and from it ran a silver-blue cybernetic spine that spread partway down its ribs and ended in a segmented tail. Topping it off, at the ends of its legs were silver-blue claws ready to tear into the dragon again.
The lion stood back up and gave a loud roar which the dragon answered. Unexpectedly a loud bellow caught the dragon off guard. Turning to the left, it had a split second before a colossal techno-organic rhinoceros rammed its horn into its' side sending it sprawling. Standing back up it growled at the newcomer.
The rhino stood firm. Its' hide was a light brown, but segmented at the joints by pulsing yellow circuitry. Like the lion its spine was visible and metallic yellow, but not the ribs. All four of its' legs had visible hydraulic coils and its' metallic yellow horn was almost saber like.
The rhino ran to join the lion in front of the group as Arcee and Bumblebee exited the sanctuary. "What the heck is this thing?" Came Jacks' voice from the lion. Arcee and Bumblebee joined the group, standing on either side of the two.
After a brief moment of shock Ultra Magnus answered. "It's called a Predacon. A beast from ancient Cybertron. I have no idea where it came from or how it found us, but it seems to be hunting us."
The Rhino nodded. "Something like a tracking dog." Raf answered, causing another moment of shock.
The two stared down the Predacon. Wherever it came from, whoever sent it, it was now a threat to them and their friends.
Raf looked up at the Predacon, knowing that he now had the power to help, and truly understanding that he mattered to the Autobots and his friends, he transformed. He gave a bellow as his spark flared golden yellow.
He reared up as his rhino head seamed to yawn into a larger upper body, complete with a head similar to his original look, sans glasses. His jaw folding down over his chest, adorning it with a row of semi-sharp teeth. From his forelegs emerged a pair of yellow hands as his shoulders expanded. His back legs extending until he was about a head shorter than Bumblebee.
Jack looked back to check on the group. Most of them were battered and tiered, but ready to fight. He glanced at Miko in her beast mode and steeled his resolve. Optimus once said he'd make a good Prime, time to prove it. Jacks' spark flared a deep blue as he began to transform.
He gave a growl as he reared back, forelegs and back seeming to split from his Lion head and chest revealing his regular head. Straitening himself up he realized his legs were becoming thinner, more agile as his tail seemingly retracted into his spine. His paws folded in on themselves revealing hands as his Lion chest and head retracted into his abdomen, the lion head flattening out against his chest.
The Predacon glared at the two. It roared and lunged forward. The two four warriors dived to the side drawing its' attention to them. It didn't matter to the Predacon, wounded prey couldn't get very far. It would just take care of these four first.
Arcee and Bumblebee deployed their guns and laid cover fire. Jack reached behind him and pulled out what looked like a sword handle made from the tip of his lion tail. It flicked on and extended into a laser whip. He cracked it towards the Predacon. It made contact, generating a small explosion where it hit. The Predacon roared in rage and pain as it turned to face Jack.
Taking a deep breath, the Predacon exhaled a steady stream of fire at him. Acting on instinct, like Miko had, he began to spin the cord of his whip around in front of him. The energy of the whip acted like a shield, protecting Jack from any damage.
When the fire died down, he cracked the whip again, wrapping the cord around the Predacons neck. Pressing a button on the handle, the cord began to retract, pulling Jack with it. In a split second he aimed both his feet at the Predacons neck and at the last second shut the whip off. He drove both of his feet into its' neck, sending it staggering.
As Jack was doing that, Raf had found his body had a lot of tools, many suited to being a medic, he only had one weapon. Clenching his fists, he watched as his forearms expanded and split into what looked like barrels on a machine gun. They then moved forward covering his fists.
Once in position they began to spin. "Jack, get down." He called in warning to his friend as he opened fire. As each barrel passed the top of his fist it fired a concentrated blast of energy. Jack dove out of the way as the Predacon was pelted by the heavy artillery from Rafs' Chain guns. A moment later the fire stopped as Raf retracted his guns. The Predacon roared again. It was hurt, but not out. It would finish this hunt.
It's thought process was interrupted by the sound of Ultra Magnus' ship starting up. It lifted off and turned, bringing all weapons to bear on the Predacon. Without any warning Ultra Magnus opened fire. Missiles and lasers hitting the dragon dead center. Its' armor protected it from the worst of the damage, but it wouldn't be able to stand another barrage like that. Growling in frustration the Predacon took wing back to Darkmount.
Once the Predacon had disappeared over the horizon Ultra Magnus set the ship back down and lowered the boarding ramp. "Alright bots, lets load up and head out."
Miko walked over to Jack and Raf, still in beast mode. Jack looked at her. "You okay Miko?"
"Aside from the fact I can't transform, I don't feel like I have the energy to." She replied. She'd tried to transform to join the boys in the fight, but she just couldn't manage it.
"I may have an answer to that." Raf replied. "It took us a little longer to get back here because we were testing a theory before we scanned our beast modes. We were both worn out and decided to try and eat something to get our strength back. Turns out we can still eat normal food; it just takes more to fill us up now."
Miko nodded. "Ratchet said something along the lines of our digestive system being able to turn food into energon." Embarrassing as that conversation was, it did help things make sense. She wondered a bit what else of their human bodies carried over into these new ones. She looked up to see Jack coming towards her with a large stainless-steel container in his hands.
He held it out to her, showing it held steaming, cooked burger patties. "I know it's not exactly my best cooking, but it's all we were able to scrounge up from the animal sanctuaries' restaurant." She looked fondly at him. Not what she was hoping for as far as having dinner with him, but it would do nicely. After the first few patties she had enough energy to transform back into robot mode and eat properly.
Sighing she stood up and looked Jack and Raf in the eye. She hugged both of them around the neck. "Thanks guys, I needed that." Releasing Raf she gave Jack a quick kiss on the lips. "And thank you for the food." She looked at the two of them again. "Nice picks on beast modes by the way. They really came in handy against that thing."
At Ultra Magnus' second call they boarded the ship. Settling in, the was ramp raised and the ship took off following a similar course to what the Predacon took. Ratchet looked at the trio. "Did you three know you have some kind of insignia on you all?"
Looking down Jack saw what he meant on his left arm. It was green, looked kind of like a stylized cat or dog skull with fangs and pointy ears. A quick glance showed that Raf had one on his chest and Miko on her right outer thigh. "No, I didn't see that before. Any idea what it means?"
Arcee cut in. "Yes, that's an ancient symbol for a tribe of Cybertronians called Maximals. They went extinct around the time the Predacons were supposed to have." At everyone's' surprised look she replied. "I was a teacher before the war broke out, it was a subject in my history class." After what Wheeljack and Bulkhead mentioned about their lives before the war, none of the kids were shocked.
Ultra Magnus cleared his throat. "Alright, listen close. I have a plan to take out the fusion cannons at Darkmount. If we're careful, this will be done without any casualties on our side." He said, including the newly minted Maximals.
Wheeljack interrupted. "I say we just go and do this Wrecker style."
Magnus huffed. "I couldn't deal with 'Wrecker style' back on Cybertron, and I refuse to deal with it here." He took a breath. "And as Optimus Primes' second in command, I have no intention of dealing with Wrecker behavior." He finished, earning a glare from Wheeljack and Miko. "Now, here's the plan.
Meanwhile, back at Darkmount, Starscream sat on a berth in Knockouts' partially restored lab. He glowered down at the marks left by that Primus damned femme. If he knew that she was capable of that, he'd have brought a bigger squadron, and stayed well enough away because, scrap that hurt.
It was bad enough that he returned empty handed. Megatron hadn't been the least bit happy with him as the hand around his throat had testified, but then he had to answer to Shockwave as to why he never looked for him after the space bridge explosion. Luckily, he'd been able to bullshit his way out of that situation. He knew Shockwave trusted far too deeply in cold hard logic. He also knew how to twist that fact to his advantage.
Speaking of, he gave a shudder thinking of that Predacon that Shockwave had cloned. Loathe as he was to admit it, that beast would probably be better suited to tracking down the Autobots and the escaped experiments than he would. Then again, it was also more expendable. Not that he'd say that out loud.
Starscream felt a smack on the back of his head, causing him to growl. From his position behind him Knockout growled. "Stop wriggling, this patch job is being difficult enough without you moving around." Knockout went back to his welding. "If I'm careful you should be able to avoid any scarring."
Megatron walked in followed closely by Shockwave. "Knockout, in light of what happened with your recent experiment, I am ordering all information on it be turned over to Shockwave. He tells me he may be able to use it in Project: Predacon 2.0" Knockout raised his head and quirked a brow. 2.0?
Shockwave spoke up. "Correct, from what I've been told I think your work, with some revisions could augment our forces to make up for the troop deficit. Originally, I'd planned to clone more Predacons like the one released earlier, now it seems I may be able to make more Predacons out of some of our existing troops, Predacon CNA, and some Earth animal DNA."
He held up the Spark Extractor, causing Starscream and Knockout to wince. "Using the Vehicon sparks contained in this device, and their currently sparkless bodies, I may be able to have a host of Predacons ready in a few cyber-weeks."
Knockout nodded and got back to work. "Fine, take it, after what happened last time, I'm done with that project. Took forever to get all the dents out." He sealed up the last open wound on Starscream. "Just use a buffer a couple times a day for a while and you'll be good as new." Starscream nodded and exited the lab as fast as he could.
Megatron grinned. "Shockwave, before you begin your experiments with the Vehicons, I'd like you to gather some more humans to test the process with. The combiner the Autobots' human pets created was quite the challenge. With a little tinkering, some transformed humans might make for an excellent distraction for the Autobots."
Shockwave looked at him. "Using indigenous lifeforms as initial subjects, with modified safety precautions would be, logical." He turned and exited the lab, intending to send out some Vehicons to capture a few more human subjects. He figured the most logical chance at sucess might be to use humans from the same location the Autobots charges came from. Jasper Nevada.
A/N: This one took a while. Okay, I tried to base Jack's beast mode on Leobreaker from Transformers: Cybertron and Cheetor from Beast Machines. (I still plan to have a Cheetor in this down the line) As for Raf/Rhinoxs' beast mode, I tried to keep him similar to the original. (Complete with chain guns of doom) just a slightly different color scheme and head sculpt. I purposely hinted at him becoming Rhinox a couple chapters ago. Project: Predacon 2.0 is going to yield some interesting results once this first arc is over with so consider this an idea of what's to come.