“Tarantulas, I’m sick of this! There’s nothing here!”

“Be quiet! I’m certain there’s something. Keep digging, Buzzclaw.”

Tarantulas and Buzzclaw had been digging for several hours in the area around the stasis pod cache and force field, and still they had found nothing. The hole they were digging was now almost as deep as Tarantulas was tall, spider legs included.

Although Tarantulas was making progress because of his chainsaw-blaster, Buzzclaw had to stick to an old shovel.

As soon as Tarantulas had finished his sentence, Buzzclaw’s shovel made a dull clank as it hit something hard.

Tarantulas looked over, and his eye widened.

“See, I told you! Keep digging!”

Several tiring hours later, Buzzclaw finally set down his shovel.

“That’s it, Tarantulas. I’m done. My energon tank is only at ten percent.”

Tarantulas reluctantly set down his chainsaw blaster.

“Fine. I guess three square meters of uncovered ruins will have to do for now. Help me dust this off so we can make off the details of this large stone plate we’ve struck.”

The two Predacons started to dust off the fine details of the ruins, revealing a large series of carvings that made no sense at all and two large stone panels.

After a few quick minutes, the Predacons stood up and admired their work.

“Finally. Buzzclaw, get me some energon from back at the base for you and me so we can recharge. It’s almost nighttime, so Megatron won’t see you coming in. I’ll finish up here.”

“Sure, Tarantulas.”

Buzzclaw stepped back and started to turn around, but accidently stepped on the two stone panels as he did. They sunk about an inch into the ground and made a slight cracking noise.

“Oops.”

“Buzzclaw, you idiot! That could be something very import- AHHHHHH!”

Tarantulas screamed as he saw two stasis pods materialize on top of himself and Buzzclaw, crushing them as they fell.

A few seconds after the stasis pods had been cushioned from their fall by Tarantulas and Buzzclaw, the larger of the two pods, which had fallen on top of Tarantulas, opened up.

“Data tracks recoverable... Matches those of Maximal unit Maximus... Changing data tracks to suit those of protoform... Uploading new data tracks... Data tracks will be completely uploaded within two megacycles... Activating protoform,” the pod’s computer briefly stated.

A large Transmetal 2 mountain goat cautiously stepped out.

“Ramulus, maximize!”

His ram body seemingly came apart as the ram transformed into a Maximal with some organic fur sticking out of his legs and arms. His large, powerful, hooved legs held up the newcomer, almost as large as Dinobot in robot mode. His horns came off to become a large pulse cannon, and he had two sharp retractable blades with small holes on the ends of them attached to his hands.

As Ramulus was trying to figure out where he was, the smaller stasis pod opened up.

“Data tracks partially recoverable... Matches those of Maximal project B.E.A.S.T... Changing data tracks to suit those of protoform... Uploading new data tracks... Data tracks will be completely uploaded within three megacycles..Activating protoform,” the pod’s computer said.

A moment later, a very weird-looking creature stepped out.

His body and legs were that of a cougar’s, with brown fur. At the tail, however, the fur faded off to reveal a long, snaking velociraptor tail, tan with some blue stripes along it. Where the cougar’s neck was supposed to start, the fur faded off into a velciraptor’s waist, with the same basic colors as the tail. From there on up, it looked just like a regular velociraptor, with short arms and a protruding mouth. The only thing different was that instead of a velociraptor’s two eyes, he has a long red band for an eye, much like that of Scorponok’s.

“Beastbot, robot mode!”

His cougar and velociraptor back folded back, and his tail came off and split off to reveal a laser gun. His front cougar legs folded back as well, but his back cougar legs became his robot feet. Two short brown robot arms folded out, and his beast head folded down to become his chest, revealing his robot head. His new head looked much like that of the old Dinobot’s, except that there was still that long red band for his eye, and there were some large, protruding teeth coming out of his mouth.

After Beastbot had finished transforming, he picked up his laser quickly.

Ramulus glanced in Beastbot’s direction and smirked.

“‘Robot mode?’ What kind of an activation code is that?”, Ramulus asked in a slightly deep, sarcastic voice.

Beastbot seemed slightly annoyed by the question, but answered anyway in a rough voice.

“I’m not sure. I just knew on instinct to say it. What side are you?”

“Maximal. If you’re a Predacon, I’ll kill ya.”

Ramulus quickly tightened his grip on his pulse cannon.

“I’m a...a...” Beastbot quickly searched through his memory banks for an answer. “I- I don’t know which side I’m on.”

Ramulus sighed and rolled his eyes. “You expect me to buy that? You must be a Predacon.”

Ramulus then quickly leveled his cannon at Beastbot.

Beastbot stepped back slightly, in a battle-ready position.”I’m telling the truth. You can search my memory banks if you want.”

Ramulus slowly put his cannon back down, staring at Beastbot suspiciously. “I don’t know- but- I somehow know you’re telling the truth all of sudden.”

Beastbot was taken aback.

“You do?”

“Yeah- it’s kind of like- like- I know you already.”

“But we’ve barely met each other, Ramulus.”

“Yeah, I know...”

“Hmm...that’s strange...I feel like I’ve met you, too.”

Ramulus pondered Beastbot’s statement for a few seconds before changing the subject.

“Oh, well. Hey, do you think there are any others of our kind around here?” Ramulus asked, looking around as he spoke.

Beastbot shrugged. “Probably not. If there were any, then wouldn’t they have showed up by now?”

Ramulus then thought for a moment. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. Come on, let’s go find some permanent shelter while we figure out what’s going on.”

Both of the robots transformed back to beast mode, climbed out of the small hole they were in, and walked off silently.

A few seconds after they had left, a small groan of pain came out from underneath the larger of the two now empty stasis pods.

Waspinator was flying around scouting in beast mode, as he usually did every day about dawn.

“Wazzpinator sick of slag missions. Wazzpinator want to fight Maxzimalz. Want to issue formal complaint to Megatron. Then he probably slag Wazzpinator. Wazzpinator don’t care, Wazzpinator be happy then. Wouldn’t have to -”

Waspinator cut himself off as he saw two small glints in the distance.

“Ooooo! Wazzpinator finally get to engage enemy! Wazzpinator, terrorizze!”

Waspinator transformed to robot mode and flew off, full speed ahead, at the two small glints.

The two small “glints” were Ramulus and Beastbot in their robot modes, fortifiying their home. They had found a small empty cave, and had decided to make it their home. During the night, they had cut some lumber nearby and made a crude fence around the entrance to their cave.

“Can’t be too careful,” said Beastbot, admiring his and his friend’s work. “My memory banks have completely restored themselves now. Now we both remember everything that happened before we arrived in this strange place. Hey, we gonna be bounty hunters like in the old day-”

“Hey, Beastbot- look!”

Ramulus pointed to the sky, revealing a wasp-like Predacon closing in on their position fast.

Ramulus glanced at Beastbot before speaking.

“Let’s try approach 2BR.”

Both pulled out their guns and leveled them at the Predacon. Without even seeing if it was friend or foe, they shot some blasts at the flying robot, and quickly knicked both of its wings off, making it shriek as it plummeted to the ground.

“We still got it,” said Ramulus, putting his cannon back into his subspace. “Let’s go find out if that thing is another one of us.”

“Don’t hurt Wazzpinator. Wazzpinator do whatever new-bots say.”

Ramulus chuckled a bit before looking down at Beastbot, who was only chest height to him. Waspinator was lying on the ground, slightly damaged, before them, holding his hands over his head pitifully. Beastbot quickly glanced back at Ramulus, and then spoke in an unusually deep, menacing voice.

“Who dares disturb the quarters of B.E.A.S.T. and Maximus?”

Waspinator cautiously peeked out from under his arms at the two transformers towering over him.

“Umm..umm.. Wazzpinator. You really B.E.A.S.T. and Maximus? The famous Zybertronian bounty hunters?”

Beastbot smirked and continued.

“Yes. Why do you care? Do you need our services?”

Waspinator thought for a moment before answering.

“Umm...um...Predaconz have big enemy. Name Optimal Optimuz. Can new-botz get him for Wazzpinator and ....and...”

Now it was Waspinator’s turn to smirk.

“...and somehow make it look like Wazzpinator did it? Then Wazzpinator be rezpected by Megatron.”

Ramulus considered it for a moment before answering.

“Perhaps. There are more of you? Interesting. What do we get in return, then? There is a reason we are called BOUNTY hunters, you know.”

“Wazzpinator give you almost anything you azk for! How about Wazzpinator’s energon rations for a week?”

Ramulus and Beastbot both shook their heads.

“Two weekz?”

Ramulus and Beastbot both looked at each other, then nodded yes.

“Sure, bug,” Ramulus answered. “I’ll do the honors. But if you don’t pay up, we’ll be after you.”

Waspinator gulped.

“Wazzpinator obey. Bye.”

Waspinator quickly got up and ran away from the two hunters as fast as his legs could carry him.

Ramulus then turned to Beastbot as the two headed back to their “fortress.”

“I’ll be gone for a few hours tonight, Beastbot. I’m going to ‘work’.” Ramulus chuckled as Beastbot nodded.

An extremely battered Tarantulas glared at an equally damaged Buzzclaw. It had been almost half a day since they got smashed by two heavy stasis pods, and they still had several dents and scratches in them. In fact, Tarantulas was so battered that one of his legs wasn’t working. They didn’t dare go back to the base, however, because Megatron would surely question what they had been doing.

“Tarantulas, why are we heading this way? There’s nothing this way but some canyons,” Buzzclaw asked.

“I checked the data tracks of the two stasis pods. It matches those of the famous Cybertronian bounty hunters Maximus and B.E.A.S.T. I’m following their energon footprints to see where they went. I have a.....job for them.”

“How are you following their footprints?”

“I have an energon-detecting visor over my optic. It highlights in blue their footprints.”

“Oh.”

Tarantulas stopped limping suddenly and pointed ahead with his finger.

“There! There’s some kind of wood fortress there, no doubt the home of those two.”

A few minutes later, Tarantulas shut off his energon visor as they stood at the entrance to the crude fortress. They waited for almost half minute quietly, but they didn’t hear a sound, much less see anyone. Tarantulas glanced around suspiciously, pulled out his gun, then stepped in.

“Hello? Anybody home?” Tarantulas nervously asked.

All within a split second, Tarantulas’ gun was shot off of his hand, and Beastbot and Ramulus, robot modes, were walking out from the cave, silent as ghosts.

“What the-” Tarantulas stammered as the two hunters pointed their guns at him. He quickly put his hands up in the air.

Beastbot was the first to speak.

“What do you want?”

“I-I have a job for you. You are the bounty hunters Maximus and B.E.A.S.T., right?”

Beastbot and Ramulus both put their guns down slightly before Beastbot answered.

“Names are Beastbot and Ramulus now. You better be tellin’ the truth about you havin’ a job for us. What’s the job?”

“Have you ever heard of Megatron?”

Beastbot seemed confused for a second.

“Umm..yeah. He was the Decepticon leader until he turned into Galvatron. Why?”

Tarantulas shook his head.

“No, no, no. I mean the OTHER Megatron. The one on this planet. The leader of the Predacon forces here.”

“Oh. No. Why?” Beastbot answered hesitantly.

“Because I have a mission for you,” Tarantulas snickered. “I want you to take out Megatron. I want nothing more than to take over lead of the Predacons here and make them fight and win, not do senseless things like Megatron makes them do, to put it quite simply. I will pay you two-and-a-half POUNDS of energon cubes. That’s seventeen whole cubes, you know.”

Beastbot chuckled. “My, you certainly have this all planned out, don’t you? Very well. But I only accept my payments in advance. If you deliver the energon to me by dusk, then I’ll do it tonight. Otherwise, you can forget it.”

Tarantulas snickered some more. “Hehehe. You certainly drive a hard bargain, but I guess that’s to be expected. I’ll be back in about two Earth hours.”

Before Beastbot could get in another word, Tarantulas painfully transformed to vehicle mode and took off, with Buzzclaw following close behind.
Beastbot then turned to Ramulus.

“Weird guy, huh?”

Ramulus nodded while still watching Tarantulas travel on the horizon.

Beastbot then transformed to beast mode and then spoke, half to himself.

“I guess we’ll both be at ‘work’ tonight.”

That night, Beastbot sat drinking an energon cube in robot mode while Ramulus sipped up the remains of his one.

“Hey, Ramulus, you sure this energon gonna be safe while we’re out kickin’ butt tonight?

“Sure it is. No one except Tarantulas, that fuzor, and that wasp thing know we’re here, and they won’t even think about double-crossing us until we’ve completed our mission.”

“Whatever you say.”

With that, both bounty hunters got their rest of their attack gear they had either made or stolen together as Beastbot finished up the last of his energon.

“Stealth device, check, Ramulus,” checked off Beastbot as he put the device into his subspace.

“Power tank, check, Beastbot.”

“Laser gun, check, Ramulus.”

“Pulse cannon, check, Beastbot.”

“Grappling pads, check, Ramulus.”

“Time bomb, check, Beastbot.”

“Okay, then, we’re all ready to go,” said Beastbot, transforming into beast mode.

“See ya in a few hours,” replied Ramulus, transforming to beast mode as well.

The two started off from their base in opposite directions, ready to destroy the leaders of both of the factions.

To be continued...

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