Transformers
Beast Wars
Treacherous loyalty
Part one
It
began with darkness... Voices and memories from a past that
suddenly seem to be so far away.
Hated
memories...
Forgotten
memories...
"Life form detected."
"Enemy signature
detected..."
"Scanning DNA."
"Soon the Matrix will be
mine..."
"DNA
scan complete. Initiating
activation sequence. "
"Retreat! Retreat!"
"Error. Error. Protoform damaged.
Energon interference. Programming spark failing."
"This is not over yet,
Optimus!"
"Spark programmed as neutral. No Maximal or Predacon
activities in status pod programming system. Downloading will be aborted."
The memories...
"Snap out of it!"
"You are going down, Decepticon scum!"
They are so painful!
"Wake up, you."
"Wake up! Now!"
"Sequence
not completed. Protoform’s spark incomplete."
Green optics light up in the darkness, big en sharp
and shoot from the left to the right to take a quick look around. Metal meet
metal when long sharp silver and red fingers wrap themselves over the edge of
the status pod to get a good grip.
She pulls herself up and gently steps out off the
status pod, looking around to let her optics adjust to the dim light in what
seems to be the inside of a cave.
She staggers a bit, quickly grabbing hold onto the
status pod, so she won't tumble over from the confusion that feels like it will
explode in her system.
"W-what happened...? Where am I..?"
She looks up to the ceiling of the cave, seeing a
large hole and the night sky far away. She lowers her gaze back down to the
status pod and tries to think. It seems that the status pod crashed down into
this cave with a tremendous force...
"I crashed... but where... and how?"
She studies her current form. It seems that the programming system
gave her a form, which helps her to stop Energon interference. Brown fur… She
brushes her hand over the brown fur over her shoulders and then notices the
thin flesh colored wings attached to her arms and
hips. She moves her arms up side down and feels how the wind she creates gets
caught in the pink parachute-like parts of her new form.
“That’s odd… I cannot remember I ever had the ability
to fly… Even though this is a strange way to do it. I don’t see myself flapping
hysterical with my arms to get from point A to point B. I guess it’s more for
floating…”
Her voice is somewhat high and a bit screechy, still
stumbling over the words, as if she is looking the right ones before speaking
them out. Must be a bug in the system.
Her brown thin ears tremble softly when she speaks, catching
the echoes of her words that glance off
against the stone walls of the cave to return back to her or to go further away
into the tunnels.
“Strange form…”she mutters and wiggles her sharp metallic
fingers to look at them carefully. They are not only body parts, but also
weapons. Very swift and dangerous weapons.
“I know so little about this new form and so little
about where I am and what I am doing here. What is the cause of all this?”
She stops talking to herself when her ears pick up
different sounds from a tunnel not far away from her and the status pod.
Her optics narrows and she hisses, more in a reflex
then in showing off. She doesn’t know on which side she is on and if the voices
are from creatures she can trust.
“Jumping gyros, look at that!” A yellow black spotted
creature pads into the cave and seems looks up to the hole in the ceiling,”
that was some major crash that pod made!”
“Calm down, Cheetor. Let’s see of the prototype is still
intact. I wouldn’t be surprised if the spark is totally damaged.”
A large rhino makes his way into the cave and walks
over to the pod. A bit slow, but fast enough to get there before a little
rodent typed creature that sniffs the air in a nervous way could catch up with
the cheetah.
“What does surprise me is that there aint a Pred in
the neighborhood. When it’s all about a pod, they come over here like virus on
a microchip.”
“The pod landed in Maximal territory and the thick
walls of this cave even managed to keep our sensors away from it. They only
picked up the radiation of the crash.”
“So, no Preds?”
The rhino shakes his head and looks at the status
pod:” we have nothing to worry, Cheetor. Rhinox, maximize!” the rhino opens his
large mouth, makes a roaring sound and then claps open to reveal metal and
cyborg body parts. Slightly bent through the knees, the green and brown robot
straightens his back and clicks open a small control panel to access the status
pod program. He is heavy built and one first appearance ungainly, but he moves
with easy and fast movements and seems to know a lot about computer programs.
He is not just a heavy block of metal with more power then memory chips.
“Something is not right,” he mutters and looks to the
hatch of the status pod,” and there is the problem. The hatch is already open.”
He grabs for the hatch with his large hands and pulls
it open with ease, seeing that the pod is totally empty.
The rat and the cheetah come closer to take a look
their self and when they see the emptiness in the pod, they both transforms
into their robot modes with confused looking optics.
“Eyyyuuuh, where did it go?”
“Yeah, I thought you said there wouldn’t be any Pred
here to claim the pod, Rhinox,” the young spotted robot looks up to Rhinox and
this one shakes his head in confusing.
“No, this is not the work of the Predacons… Something
else has happened and I really want to know what.”
“Oh, well that’s just prime! Not only did we arrive
too late, we also lost the Protoform! What else can go wrong?? I…!”
Before the smallest of the three robots could finish
his line, something lands on top off him with a screech and brings him down
onto the ground, sharp nails pinning through his armor. They both struggle,
rolling over the ground, like it’s a game of who gets on top first. Rhinox and
Cheetor are stunned by the sudden appearance of the strange creature and watch
the rolling game with surprised interest.
“Yo, guys! Rat in trouble here! A helpin’ hand would
be nice!” the attacked robot yelps and places a hand in the face of the female
bat-like cyborg to keep some space between them,” not the face! Do not mess
with the face, sister!”
The attacker hisses and growls, her green optics wide
open and her nails digging deeper into the bronze armor. Little sparks from
where the nails are digging can be seen and for Cheetor and Rhinox, this is a
good sign to jump in between.
“Ok, enough hugging and clinging!” Rhinox demands and
pulls out one of his Dual Chain Machine Guns, placing it
against the side of the creatures head.
She stops struggling and looks towards Rhinox with a
glare, making a soft hissing growl as Rhinox presses the weapon harder against
her head. It is really more a threat then a nice gesture. Slowly she pulls her
nails back and raises her arms up so her “prey” has his space to move his upper
body.
“Now slowly stand up…”
She does as Rhinox asks her and stands completely
still with her hands up.
“Are you A-ok, Rattrap?” asks Cheetor to the slightly
damaged rodent bot and this one rubs over to the holes in his
armor.
“Oh man, she ruined my new paintjob! After an oil bath
and hours of polishin’, that vixen ruined it in a few clicks, thinkin’ I’m
givin’ a free manicure here!” He grumbles and aims a finger at the fembot,”
what makes you think you’ve the right to do this, after we moved our hairy
butts here to save yours?? Who knows in how much trouble we could’ve been with
the Preds, when Big Green would be tryin’ to program your doomed Spark? Layin’
in crossfire and dodgin’ cyber venom!? And to thank us for actually comin’
here, you pinch the slag out off me?? Now you listen here, sister..!”
“Rattrap…”
“I ain’t finished yet! I have much more to lecture and
to complain towards this… this…!”
“Shut up, Rattrap!”
Rattrap, who now seems to be offended, opens his mouth
to say something, but when he notices Rhinox face… He closes his mouth and lets
his shoulders drop with a shaking head.
“That’s better… Now, tell us who you are and we won’t
hurt you,” Rhinox addresses to the fembot and this one tilts her head a bit up
and lays her ears a bit back. Her green optics are still narrowed and her
expression tells the three robots she doesn’t trust them a bit. Rhinox puts his
machine gun away and stands down, showing she doesn’t have to be afraid.
“I don’t know…”
“You don’t know your name?”
“No…”
Cheetor steps closer to take a good look at the
stranger and lowers his Quasar Cannon, asking Rhinox in a whisper:” Big Green?
She attacked Rattrap. Why so nice to her?”
“Obviously she is pretty confused. She might be as
confused as we are now. It is best not to provoke her and to be gentle and
careful. She doesn’t wear any Predacon or Maximal emblem on her, so it might be
possible that her core is quite damaged.”
“I’m sure she is a stinkin’ Pred! No Maximal would
attack a good-looking bot like me and especially not a Maximal lady! In other
words… She is freakin’ dangerous!”
The fembot hisses angrily at his words and flicks out
her nails, saying in that screechy voice of her:” NightRay, transform!”
Nothing happens…
“I said; NightRay transform!” she growls and looks at
herself. Not even the slightest sign of a transformation. She shakes her head
and looks at her hands. She is still the same as she was when she came out off
the status pod. Why can she not transform? And her name. It just popped up.
NightRay is her name… And in what is she suppose to transform?
The three Maximals don’t know what to say or to do and
stare towards her as she keeps repeating her words, trying to transform. Obviously
something is terrible wrong with her.
“Why… Why can’t I transform?”
“Maybe you should try saying maximize instead of
transform.”
“Eyeah, and if that doesn’t work, why don’tcha try the
word terrorize? I bet that’ll do the trick!” snickers Rattrap and Rhinox smacks
him across his silver head,” ey, take it easy, big guy! Just tryin’ to help
here. Sheesh…”
“Maximize…? Terrorize..?” NightRay looks down at the
ground, seeming to be thinking about it. After a few seconds, she nods to
herself. Even though she doesn’t trust these three, they might be able to help
her. And maybe, if she is lucky, she will get more of her memory back,”
NightRay, maximize!”
No effect…
“NightRay, terrorize!”
Also no effect…
She shakes her head and suddenly looks desperate. What
if she is stuck in this form forever? She covers her face in her hands and
sighs.
“It’s no use. She isn’t able to transform. I say we
take her to our base, put her in the CR chamber and let her join our team!”
Cheetor says excited and Rhinox rubs over his chin as Rattrap starts to wave
with his arms.
“Let her join our team? No, I don’t think so! She
might be gorgeous to look at, but I don’t trust her one single bit! I say,
leave her here so she learns some manners!”
“I am going for Cheetor’s plan. Optimus might know
what to do with her…”
“Oh yeah sure… Send her to the big leader with a big
heart! She only has to look sweet into his way and he says: yes, of course she
can stay. Welcome to the Maximals, NightRay. It’s always a pleasure to get
someone new in our team.”
“Rattrap, you suck when you try to act like Big Bot,”
mutters Cheetor and starts to head out off the cave.
“But you know I am very right, kid! Admit it!”
Rattrap transforms back in his beast mode and walks after
the cheetah, still talking and complaining to himself.
“Ready to go, NightRay?”
NightRay looks towards Rhinox for a moment. It seems
she has no choice at all. She has to go with them to see Optimus.
Optimus…? She looks away from him. Optimus Prime? Why
does that name spook through her head now. Who is that? Well, there is only one
way to find out.
“Lead the way, big guy…”
The trip to the Maximal base didn’t take that long and
was quiet. Rattrap stayed out off NightRay’s way, Cheetor sometimes ran past
her and Rhinox to see if everything is all right and Rhinox… Well, he just
walked besides her in his robot mode, trying to start a conversation with her.
What else could you do with someone who fell down from the ceiling and who
attacked one of your teammates? But trying to talk to her wasn’t as easy as it
looked. She doesn’t know much thanks to memory loss and her attitude is pretty
cold.
“Aah, home sweet home. I never thought I would be so
happy to see that piece of junk!”
Rattrap rushes over to the base and jumps onto the
plate to get inside. Cheetor gets besides him and together they move up to
enter the Axalon.
Rhinox and NightRay look up when the elevator
disappears in the darkness of the opening, hearing Rattrap shout towards
someone.
“It seems that Rattrap is pretty fond of you,” laughs
Rhinox and watches the plate come down again,” don’t worry. Optimus knows when
Rattrap is overdoing it. Like now.”
NightRay remains silent. Rattrap might become a
problem to her very own problem. She steps onto the plate and looks up to the
hole above her, wondering what she will find up there.
Rhinox stands besides her and the elevator moves up
again. Soon her curiosity will be rewarded. She stays as calm as she can be.
When the elevator stops, she looks into the bridge of
the base. A circle-formed room with three computer screens, control panels and
chairs on one side. Two elevators on the other side, a round control panel in
the middle and four Maximals beside it.
Rattrap and Cheetor are standing across a grey and black
colored bot, while a raptor-typed creature stands slightly
apart from them. Rattrap sets a step forward and wiggles his finger at the
robot who is a little bit taller then him.
“I tell you, she can not be trusted! Why, look at what
she has done to me!” says Rattrap and points to his damaged armour. The holes
aren’t as deep as he wants the others to believe, but you can’t say you can’t
see them.
“I’ll be the judge of that, Rattrap. And the damage
isn’t so big. She can not be that bad as you scream she is.”
“Such a wuss!” the raptor steps in between Rattrap and
the grey and black robot and glares towards the little robot. He snorts,
showing his razor-sharp teeth and says with angry mock in his voice: “crying
over a few scratches. If I were in your place, I would have shred her into
pieces!”
NightRay turns her gaze towards the raptor and narrows
her optics. She has seen enough and she has a very clear opinion about him. She
doesn’t like him at all.
“Well, this is your chance to prove it, Chopperface!” Rattrap
throws his arm towards NightRay and Rhinox with angry look in his metallic
face, saying,” Because here she is!”
The one refered to as Chopperface looks to where
Rattrap is motioning and growls softly as he notices NightRay, a growl of mock
and surprise.
“You were beaten up by that?! If I wouldn’t know
better, rodent, I would say that you are a coward and a weakling.”
“Say that again?? Why you Predacon piece of…!”
“Stand down, both of you! I do not want any of you
fighting in a situation like this. Rattrap, you get yourself fixed in the CR
chamber. I hope you will feel better then,” smiles the blackgrey robot and pats
Rattrap on the shoulder.
“Yeah, right. Like I’m gonna…” mutters Rattrap
offended and walks away from the group to take his place in the CR chamber.
“In the meantime…” he turns around to look towards the
new face,” I am Optimus Primal, leader of the Maximals. We stranded on this
planet, while trying to stop the Predacons to get away with three valuable
objects. Our ship got damaged in battle and we crashed down, together with the
Predacons.”
Predacons?
“Her name is NightRay. Sadly enough we don’t know on
whose side she is. The statuspod program was pretty damaged and wasn’t able to
active the Spark as a Maximal or Predacon. In other words, her Spark is very
blanc. She suffers from memoryloss, has problems with transforming into
beastmode and has a few bugs in her functionsystem.”
“Well, that’s just prime…” Optimus
whispers and walks over to NightRay,” your name sounds familiar. Can you
remember anything from your past?”
“Nothing…” Well, she only remembers flashes like
voices and names, but only when she hears someone else say them. And something
tells her that she has to keep that for herself.
“I guess it wouldn’t harm us if you would stay here,
NightRay. That is, if you want that of course…”
Staying with this freak show or wandering all alone on
a planet she doesn’t know? Tough decision…
“I don’t… want to be a bother,” says NightRay and
looks to where Rattrap went,” I have caused enough trouble already.”
She shouldn’t have used those words. It is giving her
a bad feeling, as if she said something wrong.
“Trust me, NightRay. You won’t be a bother at all. It
would even be a pleasure to have a new recruit in this team. We can use all the
help we can get against the Predacons.”
“Very well then…”
Optimus smiles when he hears her words and looks
towards Rhinox:” Rhinox, lead NightRay to a CR chamber. Maybe we can get her
problems fixed that way. After that, report back to me. I have a task for you.”
“No problem, Optimus,” nods the green and brown
giant,” just follow me, NightRay…”
NightRay nods and walks after Rhinox to go to the CR
chambers.
“This might take a while, so make it yourself
comfortable,” says Rhinox when he plugs her into the CR chamber,” When the
progress is done, just walks back to the control room. We will see you there.”
NightRay says nothing in response and only nods,
looking ahead of her. Rhinox nods as well and steps back to close the hatch of
the CR.
He can see her silver face with the brown fur through
the small window of the hatch and sees she is as calm as she can be. Now let’s
hope she will stay calm and that the preparing will go without any problems. He
turns around and heads back for the control room to see what Optimus Primal has
for a task.
“How is she?” Optimus asks when he hears Rhinox
footsteps coming into the control room.
“Very calm. Even though she is confused and a total
stranger in her eyes, she manages to keep her cool.”
“Good… Now Rhinox, I want you to look up her name in
the old files of Cybertron. I have a feeling that she is more then meets the
eye,” Optimus rubs over his chin and stands behind Rhinox who took place behind
a control panel and a computer screen.
“You don’t trust her, Big Bot?” asks Cheetor, the
youngest of the Maximals and stands besides Rhinox to take a look at the
computer screen as Rhinox starts to look for info about NightRay.
“No, that’s not it. It’s her name that gives me that
feeling. I heard it before, but I can’t remember from where…”
“I have to give it to you, Optimus. That feeling of
yours is very right. NightRay has a history in the Cybertronian files and I
can’t call them little.”
“Let me see…” Optimus leans forward to look at the
markings on the computer screen to read about what Rhinox found, resting his
hand on the broad shoulder of the bulky Maximal. He takes his time so he won’t
skip something and Cheetor starts to get impatient. He also leans to the side
to get a good view on the screen and asks: “So what does it say, Big Bot?”
Optimus straightens his back and rubs over his chin
again, shaking his head.
“Bad news, I am afraid…”
He steps away from the two Maximals and looks towards
Dinobot for a moment. He has been quiet all the time and kept his distance from
this sudden discovery. He only growls, a thing he always does when he starts to
feel restless.
Rhinox and Cheetor turns around to look to their
fearless leader and don’t even dare to ask to let him continue. His concerned
look even keeps the stubborn and short-tempered Dinobot quiet.
“This is something that has to remain silent, so no
Predacon will discover what we brought into this base… NightRay has a very dark
past. She was a Decepticon, one of the most loyal Decepticons towards the old
Megatron.”
“No way! We have a Decepticon in our team? That’s so
ultra awesome!”
Cheetor excitement doesn’t count for the others.
“So what brought her here? Was she part of the
protoforms we or the Predacons had onboard?”
“Mostly likely, yes…”
“I say we dismantle her now that she is in status and
dump her somewhere! If she discovers that she is a Decepticon from origin, she
will do anything in her path to destroy us!”
“You sound very sure of yourself, Dinobot…What makes
you think she will do that, after all what you have gone through. You are a
Predacon from origin and still, you are with the good guys without trying to
destroy us.”
“There is a difference between a loyal Decepticon and
an honourable Predacon, Optimus Primal. I act with a feeling for honour. Loyal
Decepticons don’t have that feeling and will do anything to please their leader.
I have my principles…”
“Good to know…”
Dinobot snorts and walks away from his three Maximal
comrades, his footsteps heavy and the sharp claw ticking down onto the metal
floor.
“Now that is clear, we have to decide if we let her
stay or if we let her go.”
“I say we give her a chance. Who knows what has
happened to her after the fall from Unicron, Megatron and Galvatron. Maybe she
isn’t so loyal anymore, after being a Decepticon without a good leader like
Megatron for so many years…”
“I vote for letting her stay!”
“Very well… We’ll let her stay. But remember, we have
to keep it a secret, until she finds it out herself. It’s for the best…”
As the three Maximals are deciding NightRay’s new
fate, the Predacon Dinobot reaches the two CR chambers. He sniffs the air and
looks around to check nobody is there, before he transforms into his robot
mode. Suddenly looking more alert and careful, he says with his rasping voice:”
Computer, end the repairing program for CR chamber number 2.”
“Command confirmed. Ending repairs now.”
Dinobot looks around again, waiting for the computer
to end the program.
“Repairing unit aborted.”
The hatch of the CR chamber opens and Dinobot sets a
step back when the hatch hovers up, revealing the Decepticon NightRay who looks
him straight in the optic.
“Ah, you are awake! Good, very good! Optimus Primal,
our leader, has decided to let you join us and asked me to show you around in
the Maximal territory.”
NightRay narrows her optics and steps out off the CR
chamber. She is slightly smaller then Dinobot, so she has to look up to him. A
very disturbing thought. Also, the repairs weren’t done yet, but that doesn’t
seem to infect the way of her functioning.
“Oh yes… You are Dinobot…”
“Yes, I am! Now if you are ready, we can head outside
to scout the perimeters so you learn much faster about… this planet,” he says
in an unusual tone,” although I am sure you know a lot about it.”
“What does that suppose to mean?”
“You will find out… Soon enough,” he says and turns
around to head outside with NightRay following him. He snickers to himself as
he thinks of his plan. Someone is going to be in for a surprise.