(NOTE: All scenes in this part of the alien saga, as well as any other parts, that have JUST the aliens talking in them, are translated into English. The aliens are actually speaking in their own language to each other. )

 “Initiate the second phase of the experiments.”

 “Are you sure it is time already?”

 “Do not question Master Tarad’s orders. He sees all, therefore he knows all.”

 “Affirmative. Initiating.”

 To put it bluntly, Megatron was bored.

 Sure, he had new Transmetal 2 nanite armor. Sure, practically half of the other transformers had been changed recently as well. But what was the use of it all if the only thing they could do was sit in this large, featureless, gray room, with nothing to do but twiddle their thumbs?

 There had been the expected surprises and on-edge conversations for the first few hours after everyone had woken up, but then it had pretty much quieted down. Now, there was nothing to do- after the first few days, everybot had gotten bored with the pack of cards Rattrap had stashed in his filthy subspace (along with Primus knew what else). About two days ago, Cheetor had woken up for the first time, obviously in a lot of pain, and since then the catbot had been having periods of alternating consciousness and feverish sleep. Now, it was nearing a week of their being in this room and nothing had happened. Ever since Scavenger had found that tablet near the stasis pod cache, the one that said that the aliens were coming, everything in his plans had gone downhill. For a nanoclick, Megatron wished the aliens would disintegrate someone in here just for entertainment, but he quickly pushed that thought out of his mind. They might choose to disintegrate him.
 Megatron sighed and looked at the side of the room where the Maximals were sitting. He closed his optics, then opened them again suddenly.

 Wait a minute... something was wrong here.....

 “Where is Airazor?” Tigerhawk called out, the first to put into words what Megatron had noticed was different.

 “Funny, she was here just a second ago-” Optimus stated, then stopped, as the Transmetal 2 Fuzor he was addressing had disappeared as well.

 “’Ey, what the slag’s goin’ on ‘ere?” Rattrap said in bewilderment, as he noticed that Sandstorm, Beastbot, Silverbolt, Buzzclaw and Scavenger were gone as well.

 “I don’t know, but I don-” Blackarachnia was interrupted as she disappeared into thin air in mid-sentence. Optimus, Ramulus, Terrorsaur, Waspinator, and Depth Charge quickly followed her as well.

 Perhaps I am getting my wish, Megatron thought to himself as he watched Rattrap, Claw Jaw, and Rampage vanish before his very optics. Perhaps the aliens are disintegrating everyone. However, this isn’t exactly what I would call entertainment...

 Megatron’s thought was interrupted as, in the blink of an eye, his entire world around him changed. He quickly deduced that he had been “disintegrated”- or, rather, transported- as well. Funny, he thought he would feel something as the process occurred...

 Crossfire, Cybershark, the unconscious form of Cheetor, four ‘bots he didn’t recognize, and the two Dinobots soon materialized in the area around Megatron as well.

 As his optics left the appearing forms around him, Megatron began to take in the scenery. All the transformers were in a long, narrow, grey, featureless hallway. Behind Megatron, the hallway curved off to an unknown location, and before him, it abruptly ended and turned at a right angle into another hallway beyond Megatron’s area of view. The walls stretched up all the way to the ceiling, over 100 feet above them, so flying up for a view of the surrounding area was out of the question.

 Megatron also noticed another peculiar item- all the Maximals seemed to be separated from the Predacons by at least 10 feet or so. Depth Charge’s team, Beastbot, Ramulus, and Rampage’s team seemed to be evenly dispersed among the two teams, as they had no designated alliances.

After the initial silence, Crossfire was the first to speak up.

“What the slag’s going on here?

“Good question,” a voice replied calmly, seemingly coming out of nowhere.

“Who’s there?” Cheetor asked fearfully- he had woken up after he had been teleported here.

“Again, good question,” the voice replied calmly. “Unfortunately, you do not have Class 8 clearance, so I can’t tell you.”

“What do you want from us?” Blackarachnia called out.

“We merely want to study you, and see what characteristics your war-oriented species has. Don’t worry- we don’t want to hurt you- that is, if you cooperate.”

Nobot really wanted to reply to that statement.

“Now,” the voice continued, “On to why you’re here. Although we have acquired a vast amount of knowledge as to what your body structures are like, how you react to certain chemicals, etc., we still know very little as to what your battle skills are like. Thus, we have prepared this test in order to test your combat skills. You are in a maze, of sorts. When we start the test, each of your teams will be transported to different corners of this maze. Your goal is to find each other and, to put it simply, attack your opponent, using different strategies and such, until one or the other wins. The tests will continue until all the objectives are completed.”

“And what kind of ‘objectives’ might those be?” Optimus asked.

“Glad you asked. There are three mechanical devices- I believe you call them ‘stasis pods’- we teleported from the stasis pod cache to different locations in this maze. After all three pods are opened, we will count down five Earth minutes, and then the test will end.”

“What if we refuse to go on with this ‘test’ of yours?” Beastbot asked, folding his arms across his chest.

The voice chuckled. “I believe you already know the answer to that.”

Immediately, an intense electric shock ran its way through the circuits of every transformer in the maze, causing them to drop on their knees in pain. A few seconds later, the shock stopped as quickly as it had started.

“I guess we have no choice than to acce-,” Megatron stated.

“Megatron...remember? The truce?” Optimus interrupted. “We aren’t going to fight each other until we get out of this mess!”

“Perhaps, Primal,” Megatron said, activating his nanite Transmetal 2 armor, “But I can not pass up the opportunity to gain more loyal Predacon troops, no.”

Optimus merely growled in reply.

“The test will commence in one minute,” the voice said.

“Aw, this is just slaggin’ great,” Rattrap whined. “Now we not only have the aliens against us now, but the Preds again as well! Eh, we’re all gonna die.”

“Shut up, Rattrap!” All the Maximals except Primal and Cheetor yelled.

“We don’t have time to be complaining, Maximals,” Optimus stated, glancing over his group, “We need to settle some things first. First off, who are you four over there?”

“I’m Prowl.”

“Ah’m Ironhide.”

“Me Grimlock.”

“I am called Sigma Prime. Don’t worry, we’re all Maximals, like you- at least, I think we are.”

Rattrap nudged his elbow into Silverbolt a little.

“Sounds ta me like somebots were dropped on their head when they was little, and know they tink they’re Autobots....” Rattrap whispered to the eaglebot.

Silverbolt merely nodded.

“Um.. all right,” Optimus said, a bit startled by the character’s voices, as the first three sounded exactly like the Autobots that had their same names, and the fourth one sounded almost exactly like the legendary Optimus Prime. Sigma Prime also looked a lot like the old legend as well, except that this Maximal was completely white, and had no truck “extras” on him. “I’ll talk with you later on exactly how you got here, but I’m afraid we don’t have time for pleasantries. Now, here’s the plan, Maximals, so listen up. When we’re teleported to wherever in this maze we’re going to end up, I want us to split up into three teams, one to search down each pod. Since our internal systems are able to pick up a stasis pod energy signature, it won’t be locating the pods that will be the problem- it’ll be getting to them.”

“Now,” Optimus continued quickly, realizing that a minute was almost up, “Here are the teams. Silverbolt, Blackarachnia, Ironhide, and Prowl, you’re going to go after one pod. Tiga- er, Tigerhawk, Airazor, Dinobot, and Sigma Prime, you’re on the second team. Rattrap, Cheetor, and Grimlock- you’re with me. Any questions?”

Nobot said anything.

“Alright, then, Maximals, get ready!”

All the Maximals took out their guns and weapons, and everybody that wasn’t in robot mode already maximized. Optimus Primal converted to his battle armor robot mode. Seconds later, the Maximals- as well as the Predacons, Depth Charge’s team, Beastbot and Ramulus, and Rampage’s team- were all teleported to different areas of the maze.

 “Take a left here,” Depth Charge said, following his own advice. Cybershark and Claw Jaw followed close behind him.

 “But, sir,” Claw Jaw stated, “My scanners indicate that the nearest stasis pod is to the right!”

 “Forget the pods,” Depth Charge replied emotionlessly, converting to vehicle mode to gain more speed, “I’m gonna use this opportunity to slag Rampage. I’ve been staring at his ugly face for several days, and I haven’t been able to do anything about it. Those aliens want a fight, they’re going to get one. Come on, this way.”

 Depth Charge made another left. Cybershark and Claw Jaw looked at each other questioningly and shrugged. Cybershark converted to his vehicle mode, and Claw Jaw hopped on. The two sped off, following their commander.

 “Wazzpinator’z wingz getting tired. Even with new tranzmetal body, Wazzpinator need to rest.”

 “Shut up already!” Terrorsaur screeched. “I’ve been listening to you complain for the past ten megacycles! We’re almost to the pod!”

 Both Terrorsaur and Waspinator were in their vehicle mode, speeding toward their assigned pod. Megatron had had a similar idea to Optimus Primal’s, and the Predacon troops had split up, each going after one pod.

 “Dactyl-bot only fooling himself,” Waspinator replied. “Predacon troopz are outnumbered by Maximal troopz. Maximalz win, get podz. Not fair.”

 “Enough!” Terrorsaur yelled to his companion. “We’re here!”

 Both Predacons transformed to their robot modes as quickly as possible, landing a few yards away from their goal- a stasis pod, at a dead end in the maze.

 “Wazzpinator is picking up Maximal energy signaturz nearby...not like thiz...”

 “I know, I’m picking them up too,” Terrorsaur replied, hurriedly flipping open the stasis pod’s computer, “This means that I -we’re- going to have to work fast. You keep guard, and I’ll reprogram this pod.”

 “Why Wazzpinator alwayz get slag assignmentz?”

 “Because YOU don’t know how to reprogram stasis pods!” Terrorsaur replied impatiently, his green claws flying over the pod’s keyboard.

 “Oh...Wazzpinator forgot about that.”

 “Let’s see....” Terrorsaur muttered to himself, “Predacon programming accepted....Protoform’s in good condition....Beast mode already chosen? That’s odd... must have something to do with those aliens.... OK, initializing activation sequence... there, now...”

 Terrorsaur was interrupted from his task by the faint sound of metal clanging on metal. Frustrated, Terrorsaur turned around.

 “Waspinator, those-“

 Terrorsaur stopped his sentence, as he saw that the ‘bot he was addressing was in a smoking heap on the floor. Behind the heap of wasp parts stood Silverbolt, one of his wing missile ports still smoking, Blackarachnia, and two transformers he didn’t know who obviously had the beast modes of an elephant and a lion, judging from their appearances. All of them were in robot mode, their guns pointed straight at Terrorsaur.

 “Um…heh-heh…” Terrorsaur said nervously, raising his claws in the air, “I… um….”

 Terrorsaur didn’t have time to finish his sentence, as the top of the stasis pod behind him clanged to the floor, broken at the hinges. Grateful that the stasis pod had done its job, but frustrated that he had been interrupted three times in the past minute, Terrorsaur turned around to see the new Predacon.

 The body of a manticore rose up from the pod- a very large manticore. Slightly bigger than Rhinox’s beast mode, the large beast stepped out of the pod slowly, surveying his surroundings. His lion body, legs, and face were blood red, with a dark brown mane encircling his head. Above his front legs, two huge black bat wings protruded out from his body. The manticore’s wingspan, Terrorsaur guessed, had to be at least fifteen feet. Where a lion’s tail should be, instead this beast had a red scorpion tail.

 “Manticron, terrorize!”

 “Quit goin’ so dang fast, ya flyin’ freak!” Sandstorm complained, scuttling through the endless maze hallways as fast as he could in his beast mode. This, however, was not fast enough. Scavenger, in robot mode, was using his back-mounted rotary jets to propel himself far ahead of the brown scorpion.

 “Quit your complaining, scorpion! You should be grateful that the royalty has granted us the permission to take on this most important task for him!”

 “I’d be more grateful if mah legs weren’t so dad burned tired!”

 Scavenger ignored Sandstorm, focusing on the task at hand.

 “My scanners indicate that the stasis pod is within a few miles.”

 “MILES!?”

 “Yes,” Scavenger replied, “After this hallway, we should turn left, and then…”

 Anything more Scavenger might have said was lost to Airazor’s audio receptors as the two Predacons moved further on to their destination.

 Airazor slowly peered out from behind the corner where she, Dinobot, Tigerhawk, and Sigma Prime had been hiding behind, eavesdropping on the two Predacon’s conversation in the hallway perpendicular to the one they had been walking down. The Maximal team had been tracking the signature of the same stasis pod as well, and had come to the corridor when the heard Scavenger and Sandstorm traveling down it. Although the Maximals could easily take the two Preds down by themselves, they wanted to listen in on the conversation- or at least, everyone except Dinobot did. This Maximal team, because of the influence of the partial pacifists Airazor and Tigerhawk, had decided not to get involved in a fight unless it was absolutely necessary. They wanted as many transformers functional as possible if they were ever going to get off this accursed ship.

 “Good, they’re gone,” Tigerhawk commented, coming out from hiding as well, followed by Dinobot and Sigma Prime. “Now, all we have to do is make sure we reach the pod first, and-“

 “What was that?” Dinobot suddenly interrupted, his optics darting from side to side.

 “What was what?” Sigma Prime asked.

 Tigerhawk heard a slight buzzing sound to his right, and glanced down the hall, frowning.

 “That!” the Transmetal 2 fuzor exclaimed, pointing at the incoming enemies.

 About ten small robots were heading towards them from the north hallway. They consisted primarily of a central, silvery-metallic body in the shape of a sideways oval, with two small lasers attached to the top of the body and 3 insect-like legs sticking out from the sides. They were emitting a low buzzing sound- what caused it was anybot’s guess. As soon as the robots noticed that they had been spotted, they opened fire on the four Maximals, the recipients of the laser fire just barely managing to dodge the blasts.

 “What ARE those things?!” exclaimed Dinobot, shooting at one with his eye lasers. The little contraption proved too fast, however, and jumped out of harms way easily.

 “I’m clueless as to exactly what they are,” Sigma Prime answered, taking his laser gun out of subspace, “But they’ve obviously been made by the aliens to give us a little ‘challenge’.”

 “I was not aware of that,” Dinobot answered sarcastically.

 “Chalk one up for me!” Airazor exclaimed, as her machine-gun-talons took out a robot.

 “These hardly seem to be a challenge,” Dinobot said, taking out a few more robots while dodging a few laser blasts.

 Within a few more minutes, the Maximal team had taken out all the robots, with only a few minor burn marks and laser hits taken upon themselves.

 “Well, that was easy,” Airazor said.

 “A little TOO easy, I’m afraid,” Sigma Prime replied, pointing to one of the drones they had demolished first. The drone seemed to be healing itself. However, instead of pulling its scattered parts together to make itself whole again, each part seemed to be making a NEW drone. Within seconds, the demolished drone has somehow managed to become five fully active drones! The other destroyed drones started to stir and heal themselves as well.

 “You had to open your big mouth!” Dinobot accused, following the others as they ran away from the rapidly recuperating drones.

 “Finally! We’re at tha dang pod! Let’s get this over with!”

 Sandstorm terrorized and stepped over to the pod, lying at another dead end in the maze, and began to reprogram it. While one of Sandstorm’s former “minds”, Quickstrike, had not had the technical knowledge to reprogram stasis pods, Sandstorm’s other former “mind”, Scorponok, had. However, Sandstorm was still just as clumsy as either of his former selves.

 “Dang! Hit the wrong button! Now it’s gonna take a few more cycles just to fix the problem! Stupid claws! Why can’t I have fingers!?”

 “Quit your whining, scorpion,” Scavenger said, “We must be on the lookout for any Maximals. We have not encountered any yet, and that makes me suspicious.”

 “Gah, ya just can’t admit that we finally got somethin’ done easily for a change,” Sandstorm retorted.

 Within another five minutes, the brown Predacon had completed his reprogramming of the pod, and the new Predacon stepped out. It was a medium-sized transmetal blue-and-gold octopus, with four blue tentacles and four transmetal gold tentacles. It peered at the two Predacons with its large, unblinking eyes.

 “Excellent, scorpion!” Scavenger complimented, “You have successfully reprogrammed a new soldier for the colony! The royalty will be pleased!”

 “Heh, waz nothin’.”

 “Hey, I’m a lot more than nothing!” the octopus stated, obviously taking Sandstorm’s comment literally. “Octopod, terrorize!”

 “Well, at least all we hafta worry about is Mega-dung this time, and not his pals as well,” Rattrap stated, for once looking on the bright side of things.

 The Maximal team of Rattrap, Cheetor, Optimus, and Grimlock had arrived at the third stasis pod at about the same time as the Predacon team of Megatron and Buzzclaw had. A battle had begun shortly after, but it looked like the Maximals would win, as they had the superior forces, and Buzzclaw wasn’t much of a threat anyway, as the fuzor had no real weapons- or at least, none that Megatron knew about yet.

 In the midst of the battle, Buzzclaw took out a thin shield from his subspace- a pink-and-red shield that became Buzzclaw’s “tail” in beast mode. The shield quickly folded out into a larger, round shield, almost as large as Buzzclaw himself!

 Megatron stared at Buzzclaw, blocking a few shots from Optimus and Grimlock while doing so.

 “I thought you said you didn’t have any WEAPONS!” Megatron yelled at the small fuzor.

 “A shield’s not a weapon,” Buzzclaw replied, sounding like he was hurt that Megatron would think he would lie to his leader. “It’s a defense...thingy.”

 Megatron merely shook his head at the fuzor’s incompetence as Buzzclaw was shot in the back by Rattrap, and the mantis/lizard went into stasis lock.

 “Heh-heh!” the transmetal rat grinned, “Well, I guess we know who’s gonna be winning dis battle.”

 After a few minutes, it became apparent even to Megatron that the Predacon leader had no chance of winning, and the Transmetal 2 dragon flew away in a huff, badly damaged.

 “All right!” Grimlock yelled, “Maximals win battle! Me Grimlock open stasis pod and welcome new comrade!”

 “Hold on there,” Optimus said, putting a hand on Grimlock’s shoulder as the eager white Maximal stepped toward the pod. “Rattrap has to reprogram it first. You check with Cheetor, make sure he’s okay- he’s not been feeling very well lately, it looks like he’s slowly changing into…something.”

 As Rattrap set to work on reprogramming the pod, Grimlock went over to see the slumped form of Cheetor, sitting against one of the hallway walls.

 “Cheetor okay?” Grimlock asked.

 “Yeah…I.. guess so…” Cheetor said, obviously in a little pain. Within the period of a week, his optics had something that resembled pupils in them now, a first for any transformer- and it made Cheetor look very weird in combination with his Transmetal 2 body. His hands had become more human-like, and the claws on the tips of them had grown smaller. His feet had also formed into some type of robotic hooves, and all the metal “patches” on his body were gone.

 “Don’t worry. Grimlock make sure Cheetor stay okay.”

 Rattrap interrupted Grimlock as he finished reprogramming the stasis pod.

 “Who-hoo! Guys, say hello to the new Maximal!” Rattrap said, stepping back as the pod opened. A medium-sized gryphon stepped out, eyeing the other Maximals curiously.

 “Gryphtron, maximize!”

To be continued…
 

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