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Episode 3: The Calm
Scavenger walked into the main control room, finding Atlas and Noctorro speaking quietly with each other. Atlas sat in his command chair, and Noctorro stood just in front of him. Clearly annoyed, Scavenger walked right up to them, interrupting their discussion.
"What's going on here," he demanded.
Atlas briefly glanced in his direction. "Noctorro, return immediately and continue surveillance. Excellent work in keeping radio silence. But if there's trouble, call for assistance immediately, understood?"
Noctorro nodded vigorously, "Yessir!" And he took off out the entrance, zipping through the darkness that hid everything but his green, brightly glowing eyes.
Atlas turned towards Scavenger. "Don't be so impatient."
Scavenger scowled. "Why was I not included in this discussion? I'm the second highest ranking officer-"
"Enough complaining. Time was too much of an issue to radio for you and await your arrival. Sit and listen for a moment instead of incessantly spewing bile all the time."
Scavenger growled. "With all due respect, sir-"
Atlas swivelled to face him, slamming his fist onto the table. "With all due respect, Scavenger, be quiet and listen!" Atlas paused, staring Scavenger in the eye. He put a firm emphasis on each of his following words, making sure that it all sunk in. "We...are...on...EARTH."
Scavenger's jaw dropped. But his shock quickly transformed into disgust.
"Don't tell me you bought that!? Where are the signs of civilization? The HUMANS!?"
Atlas jabbed his sword at Scavenger, mere millimeters from his face.
"The ship that brought us here had transwarp capabilities. We have no idea WHEN we are. When the renegades asked the Predacon about it, he said he'd tell them more tomorrow. Which is why Noctorro is going to continue his surveillance of their base. Now, unless you have any further mindless thoughts you'd like to share, I'm going to go plan for tomorrow."
Atlas calmly walked out of the room as Scavenger silently sat there and fumed.
The following morning, Atlas assigned patrols to every member of the team. Scavenger studied the various patrol routes on the computer's display screen. There was something about them that didn't feel right...
"Do our teammates know why Noctorro isn't here, hmm?" Scavenger asked. "Are they aware that the base will actually be defenseless?"
Buzzclaw looked uneasily at the leaders of the team. Poison Bite remained eerily quiet, uncaring about the politics unfolding before him. Atlas shook his head unhappily as Scavenger continued to look over the different paths of the patrols.
"Please do try to keep up, Scavenger. I have reprogrammed the base's defenses to respond to our personal energy signatures, and to attack the enemy. Today will be serving as a test run."
Scavenger ignored Atlas's snide comments as he carefully typed a couple commands into the computer, trying to make sure he didn't cause any damage with his drill-hands. As he typed away, the patrol routes vanished, only to slowly grow back to their original appearance, like a snake sliding along its path. Scavenger slowly smiled, as he saw the paths all come close to intersecting almost at the same time.
"Clever move, captain. Tell me, will Noctorro be ready for us?"
Atlas scowled furiously, and hit a couple buttons on his command chair. Scavenger's screen blanked out.
"You have your orders, Maximals," Atlas snarled. "Let's get to it."
The main door slowly slid open, and the four bots headed out.
Waspinator was lying on the ground just outside the cave's entrance. He had his hands behind his head, and was relaxing, just enjoying the morning sun. Suddenly, two shadows appeared over him. Startled by the surprise, Waspinator curled into a ball and began flailing his arms about.
"No! No slag Waspinator! Slag someone else! Go find Two Heads!"
Torca shook his head sadly. He reached down, grabbed Waspinator by one of his flailing arms, and lifted him into the air, staring him in the eye.
Another hand reached out, and turned him away, bringing him face to face with Icefire.
"Waspinator, you said you were going to tell us today."
"What? Oh! Yes, commander Waspinator knows all, and will share his knowledge with friend-bots!"
Torca set him on his feet, and Waspinator dusted himself off. Icefire beckoned Injector and Razor Claw over, and Waspinator began talking.
"Waspinator was Predacon, and worked for Megatron. Megatron brought us here to get energon. But Megatron kept secrets! Megatron brought Waspinator to Earth to destroy Autobots forever! Megatron attacked the Ark, and almost destroyed all of time. Waspinator not down with that! And Megatron was bad, and always let Waspinator get blown to pieces! Waspinator REALLY not down with that! So Optimus Primal and other Max-bots beat Megatron and took him to Cybertron. But Waspinator was left to help take care of fleshies. Fleshies liked Waspinator, so Waspinator stayed and helped. But Waspinator got bored and left. That's when Waspinator found bird-bot!" He pointed at Icefire at the last sentence.
Injector shook his head. "This is ridiculous. This guy talks like a Junkion that overdosed on bad energon."
"The Ark..." Icefire whispered. "That doesn't make sense! How would Megatron attack the Ark?"
"Ark is defenseless!" said Waspinator. "Megatron walked in and shot truck-bot. Max-bots and spider-bot stopped him and defended ark after that."
"Truck bot...You mean Optimus Prime!?" Icefire asked incredulously. Waspinator nodded. Icefire was amazed.
"There's no way a Predacon could do any sort of damage to Optimus Prime! He's the greatest warrior to ever live! And why would he need the Maximals to defend him? Why would he be so defenseless?"
"Maybe he was incapacitated already," Torca suggested.
"Yes, that could work, I suppose," Icefire said, nodding. "But the only way that could make sense is if..."
Icefire looked at Waspinator in complete shock.
"Waspinator...This is very important: Did you use a transwarp jump to arrive here?"
Waspinator nodded. "Max-bots followed using transwarp too. Max-bots dropped all stasis pods into orbit before crashing."
The rest of the group looked at Icefire expectantly, as they were beginning to get lost by the combination of tricky history facts and Waspinator's poor sentence structure.
Icefire nodded slowly. "So you guys went back in time millions of years, didn't you."
Waspinator nodded again. "All Autobots and Decepticons are in stasis lock. Waspinator knows what it's like to be slagged when no one cares."
Icefire shook her head. "We can't let this information get into Atlas's hands, no matter what."
The underbrush nearby rustled slightly. Green eyes sat quietly amidst the branches, as Noctorro smiled broadly.
Poison Bite zipped along the streambed, keeping an eye upward for the Maximal team. He chewed through logs and shallows as they got in his way. He hated scouting with a passion; all the tension of a battle, with none of the action.
Ah well, he thought. At least there's the terrain to take it out on.
Suddenly, a crackle came through on his communicator. "All members, this is Atlas. Assemble on grid Spectre, coordinates X, 9!"
Poison Bite spun around and swam his way up-current as fast as he could.
Buzzclaw, in bot mode, and Poison Bite, in scorpion mode, converged at the base of the mountain, hiding amidst the trees of the forest.
A crackle came through the communicators again. "Buzzclaw, Poison Bite, and Noctorro; when Scavenger and I attack, cut them off. As we found out last night, they're defenseless and cornered inside their cave. This time, there is no room for error. I will NOT accept failure a second time!!"
Buzzclaw and Poison Bite exchanged questioning glances, but their thoughts were left unsaid as Atlas and Scavenger came roaring over the mountain's peak in vehicle mode. The startled renegades tried to scatter. As they turned to head down the mountain, they found themselves facing a strike force of 3 coming up on them. Waspinator's team pulled back into their base, trying to set up their defense. Atlas and Scavenger dropped down from the top of the cave's opening, transforming in mid-air, as they landed on their feet.
Atlas silently cursed himself. "Of course! I should have expected the amateurs to run! Their base, all of this, it could have been ours!!"
But that's all the time he had to think, as his 3 back-up members flew in for the assault. Buzzclaw, carrying Poison Bite, bowled Icefire over, and dropped the scorpion on top of Injector.
Scavenger charged forward towards Razor Claw. Razor Claw, in dino mode, dove just fast enough to dodge Scavenger's thrust with his "fist".
"Razor Claw, MAXIMIZE!" And parts spun around, leaving him in his more powerful wolverine mode.
"I don't like hearing ‘maximize' coming from your mouth, renegade!" Scavenger snarled.
"Well, I don't like you at all, so let's just call ourselves even," Razor Claw snapped back.
Scavenger swung his fist, and Razor Claw dodged just in time, as Scavenger left a deep gouge in the ground.
A few quick stings to his giant head were all it took to take Injector down for the count. Poison Bite turned, eager for his next victim. Having dropped off his cargo, Noctorro turned to help Buzzclaw, who was doing incredible aerial acrobatics trying to keep up with Waspinator. Noctorro began flying up to help when he was broadsided by Icefire.
"I'm bigger, I'm faster, and I'm smarter than you, bat," Icefire laughed.
Noctorro responded by sending her straight to the ground with a blow to the head. "AND you talk too much," he growled.
Meanwhile, Torca was face to face with Atlas, and pawing the ground.
"Atlas, beast mode!" As soon as he finished the transformation, he switched to vehicle mode.
"You're too old and weak to handle me," Torca said.
Torca's calm, calculating voice bothered Atlas.
"You incompetent excuse for a Cybertronian. There's a lot to be said for the value of experience."
"Yeah, like what, you tin-plated freak?" Torca snapped.
"Surprise tactics," Atlas said with a dark grin.
And at that, Poison Bite landed on Torca's back. With his pinchers he grabbed Torca's tusks, and began pulling. With a mighty roar, Torca began to thrash about. Atlas took that brief free second that he had to size up the battle. As he glanced upward, he saw Waspinator get shot out of the air in a downward spiral.
Atlas, still in vehicle mode, roared forward, timing his charge in order to slam into Waspinator as he fell. He only got halfway there before getting bowled over. Icefire had thrown Noctorro right into him. Noctorro sat up, woozily shaking his head.
"I've had more than enough of your bull!" Icefire laughed. She began to dive forward to finish up the attack.
"Atlas, MAXIMIZE!" He landed on his feet and pulled out his gun, firing at Icefire.
Icefire pulled off her dive and began firing back. "Haha! Looks like you'll be more fun than I thought!"
Atlas glanced around and saw Poison Bite getting launched off of Torca. Having foolishly positioned himself just over Torca's blowhole, he slammed directly into the ceiling. Torca transformed, stepped forward, and pulled his now-detached tusk out of Poison Bite's claw. He brought it upward, and slammed it down in anger.
Noctorro, finally having cleared his head, lifted his gun, and began firing at Icefire too.
"Good," Atlas said to his teammate. "Hold her off."
Then he turned and began firing at the weary Torca. Torca, unprepared for further battle, lit up with Atlas's rapid-fire shots. After a quick couple seconds, he collapsed to the ground, eyes dimmed. Atlas turned back to Icefire just in time to see Noctorro go flying.
"Hope you're better at dodging shots than your furry friend!" Icefire called out.
"Dodge this."
Buzzclaw's voice came from just behind Icefire, just as she felt both his ion wrist blasters lightly brush her back.
BLAM!!
As she careened forward, Buzzclaw flew back, each slamming into opposite walls of the cave. Icefire slumped limply to the ground. Buzzclaw, covered with scorch marks, coughed slightly and fell over.
Atlas turned his attention to Scavenger and Razor Claw, both covered with scratch marks. But no one except Razor Claw saw Torca raise his gun until it was too late. Razor Claw rammed into Scavenger's chest as Torca took him out at the knees. Razor Claw shoved off of Scavengers chest and leapt into the air as Torca unloaded his weapon on the giant ant. Atlas furiously trained his weapon on Torca. He got a couple shots off, sending Torca's weapon flying, but Razor Claw dove between the two, deflecting the rest of the attack with his shielding.
"NO!" Atlas shouted furiously, turning up the firepower.
"Razor...Claw..." Torca grunted painfully. "You've...got to activate...the defensive matrix..."
Razor Claw frowned thoughtfully. "No...hands. Not good...at that."
"Unh...You...learned how...earlier today. Need you...to do that now."
Atlas threw down his weapon and pulled out his sword. "Just how invulnerable are you, hmm? I have a money-back guarantee this blade can cut through anything!"
Razor Claw hesitated, glancing back and forth between Torca and Atlas.
"NOW!!!" Torca shouted.
"Beast mode!" Razor Claw ran for the control panel, hoping his dino-mode's claws would be good enough. He quickly hit a succession of buttons on the panel before him.
"What do you think you're doing!?" Atlas shouted. "Don't think you can run away, coward!"
The massive gun in the center of the room began to hum loudly.
"No..." Atlas whispered, as he realized that was not a good sound to hear. "NO!!!"
He turned and threw his sword at Razor Claw, but he was too late. His sword flipped through the air towards the mutant, but a bright pink beam shot out from the gun, freezing the blade in place. Instantaneously, five more beams shot out, each gripping the members of Atlas's team. All of them, and the sword, were lifted off the ground and launched out the cave's entryway into the night.
Torca squinted at the vanishing enemies and shook his head. "That's just lame. You mean we launch them into the air, and that's our closure on our enemies? I swear, you'd think we'd just take care of them for good rather then just blasting them off like that."
"SILENCE!!" roared Atlas, slamming his fist down. "Enough with the excuses; it's my fault." The team looked at him in surprise. "I should have anticipated the renegades would have some sort of defenses up by now. But there's no use in dwelling in the past...So to speak. Noctorro, I presume you have some important information to share with us."
Noctorro, in beast mode, drew himself up to his full size in pride. "Yes, Noctorro does."
After a couple seconds of waiting to hear it, Atlas set his head in his hand. "Tell us NOW, Noctorro."
Noctorro wrung his hands distressedly. "We are on earth."
Jaws dropped, and heads snapped in the direction of the fuzor.
"And it is millions years before the Great War."
The room was deathly still. Atlas moved very slowly and deliberately in Noctorro's direction. "Then this means the warriors of the Great War are on this very planet, all in stasis lock?"
Noctorro nodded dumbly.
In a blindingly fast motion, Atlas grabbed Noctorro by the neck and lifted him off the ground.
In a deep voice, he growled, "You do realize how upset I'll be if you're wrong, don't you?"
Noctorro nodded again, much more meekly this time.
Atlas released, and Noctorro dropped to the ground, coughing. Atlas turned to address the team.
"My fellow Maximals, we must devise an attack plan."
Poison Bite jumped in. "Yes! We'll destroy the renegades! I'll rip them to PIECES!!!"
"Shut UP, Poison Bite," Atlas snapped. "You're clearly too dense to realize the enormity of an attack we can release upon the renegades. You fail to see them as anything more than a simple group of rebels. In reality, they are led by a PREDACON. They rely upon the guidance and instruction of this Pred. His ancestors, the Decepticons, are sitting silently, waiting for us to free them from their misguided lives. Thus, if we destroy the correct ones, the renegades will cease to exist entirely."
His voice began to rise as his passion for which he spoke continued to grow. "In fact, there is no reason to allow them to hide behind the simple title of ‘renegades' any longer. They have sided with the Predacon; they have accepted him as their leader. They too must be considered traitors...They must be considered Predacons as well! Although they may still believe themselves to be Maximals, and they may even continue calling themselves by that faction, they are no longer deserving of that privilege. If they must insist on tarnishing the name of our noble race, then we must prove that we answer to a higher calling, that we follow the truly righteous path of our people...From now on, we shall no longer refer to ourselves as Maximals; this day onward, we are true to our heritage, we stand strong for all that is good: We are Autobots! And as for the Predacons...They shall rue the day that their very sparks lit into existence!!"
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