Prowl yelped as a laser beam nicked his right arm, burning away the armor and revealing a tangle of wires underneath.

 “$&*@!” Prowl ducked behind the rock he was using as cover, letting loose a string of profanities that would have made Rattrap blush- if he could have, that is.\

 “Watch your mouth,” Dinobot growled to Prowl while letting loose a volley of laser eye beams at the attacking Predacons. “A battlefield is no place to be talking about such... unclean activities.”

 “Sorry,” Prowl apologized, rubbing the burn in his armor. “That slaggin’ hurt, though!”

 “Eh, thanks for statin’ the obvious, Simba,” Rattrap added sarcastically. His comment went unheard, however, as a small fireball flew overhead, taking out one of the chain gun defenses controlled by Rhinox.

 Terrorsaur laughed in his usual shrieking pitch as a shot from his gun took out a chain gun mechanism directly over Rattrap.

 “Oh, man, I forgot how much fun attacking the Maximal base was!”

 “This is not merely for fun, Terrorsaur,” Megatron corrected, firing an ice blast at Gryphtron, who promptly ducked back behind a rock. The Predacon leader had activated his Transmetal 2 nanite armor, as had the opposing leader. The armor enhanced their defensive capabilities threefold in battle. “We are here for a certain purpose, and you know what it is. Quit focusing on those stupid automated guns, and start targeting Ironhide! Waspinator, Buzzclaw, that means you two as well!”

 Buzzclaw groaned as he changed his weapon’s focus from Sigma Prime to Ironhide. “Dangit, I’m not good at this! This gun doesn’t feel right in my arms!”

 “Mantiz-bot should be glad he haz a gun at all,” Waspinator commented. “Ztupid Prometheuz only weapon you had, and now he gone az well.”

 “Just because it’s one of Megatron’s spare weapons doesn’t mean I like it,” Buzzclaw muttered. “I stink at aiming.”

 Buzzclaw’s words held true; he had fired nearly a dozen shots at Ironhide so far, and they had all flown wide. Even Waspinator had better aim then he did.

 “That’s two down,” Blackarachnia commented as she blasted Waspinator to bits. Manticron had gone down a few minutes earlier, via a well-placed shot from Optimus.

 “Why are these Predacons attacking?” Optimus, whose position was to the left of Blackarachnia’s, wondered aloud. “All of them are here, so they aren’t stealing anything….”

 “You know Predacons,” Silverbolt said, firing off a few of his feather missiles. “They probably just got bored hanging around their base.”

 “I wish it were that simple…” Optimus commented.

 No sooner had Optimus finished his sentence then Ironhide went down a few yards away, taken out by a shot directly to the head. Optimus traced the shot back to Terrorsaur.

 “That’s IT! You’re going down, Terrorsaur,” Optimus growled, reloading his machine gun.

 “Got ‘im!” Terrorsaur laughed, doing a little victory dance in the air. “That’s two for me!”

 “Alright, the mission’s done,” Buzzclaw commented, a bit eager to get away from the battle. His right arm had already been blown off, and his other arm wasn’t in a much better condition. “Can we LEAVE now!?”

 “No, you fool!” Megatron responded, backhanding the much-smaller fuzor. “If we withdraw right now, Optimus might suspect something. Wait until the Maximals take down one more of us.”

 Just a few seconds later, a burst of machine guns bullets struck Terrorsaur in a couple dozen places, sending the still-celebrating Predacon crashing to the ground, unconscious.

 “Predacons, we are outnumbered too heavily now!” Megatron yelled to his troops, loud enough for the Maximals to hear as well. “This assault on the base was useless! Retreat, now!”

 The surviving Predacons quickly followed Megatron’s orders, taking the smoldering forms of Terrorsaur, Waspinator, and Manticron with them.

 “….I presume the battle was a success,” Rhinox commented as the Maximals came back into the base. All of Rhinox’s visual connections to the battle- various cameras and machine guns planted outside the base- had been destroyed at different times throughout the battle.

 “Mostly,” Optimus responded. “Ironhide’s heavily damaged, though.”

 Rhinox’s image on the computer monitor frowned. “Let me take a look at him.”

 Rhinox’s main module, little more than a mobile computer with arms, disconnected himself from the main computer. The makeshift form scooted over to the still form of Ironhide, hauled in by Silverbolt.

 “Hrrrmmmm…” Rhinox grunted, inspecting different damaged areas of Ironhide’s structure. “Damage like this will take at least day in the CR chamber to fix completely. Ironhide took a pretty bad shot to the head- it almost hit his core processor.”

 “Well, at least it didn’t shut him down for good,” Optimus commented. “Still, though, we’ll be one soldier short for a while. Did Ironhide have any duties assigned to him tomorrow?”

 “Let me check,” Rhinox replied, moving back over to the main computer and reconnecting to it. After a few moments, his visage on the screen appeared. “It seems the only thing he had been assigned tomorrow was his usual weekly patrol route through Sector Tallories.”

 “That’s not usually a Pred hot spot, but it still needs a weekly check, just in case,” Optimus said. “I’ll go in his place tomorrow instead.”

 “Will do,” Rhinox replied. “For now, though, you’d better get some sleep. “This battle lasted nearly two hours.”

 Optimus’ optics widened a bit. “That long, huh? Well, time flies when you’re having fun,” he said, chuckling a little. “See you tomorrow, Rhinox.”

 “G’night, Optimus.”

 “Terrorsaur, Scavenger, Waspinator, and Manticron! Come to the command room at once!” Megatron spoke into his comlink. “I need to brief you on your assignment!”

 Within a few minutes, every Predacon Megatron had asked for was there- Scavenger got there a while before the others came, of course.

 “What is your command, Royalty?” Scavenger asked, saluting with his drill-hand.

 “It better be good,” Terrorsaur said, his voice a bit unsteady. “I’m still recovering from last night’s attack.”

 “Hmph,” Waspinator snorted, “At leezt Dactyl-bot not get blown to zcrap all the time like Wazzzpinator.”

 “Oh, stop with the self-pity already!” Manticron grunted, backhanding Waspinator. “I’m sick and tired of it!”

 “My sentiments exactly,” Megatron commented, pleased he had at least some competent troops. “Now, I want you four to fly over to Sector Jupitus and wait there. Within an hour or so, Optimus should be passing through that sector. I want you all to find and eliminate him when he gets there.”

 “Megatron wantz Wazzzpinator to fight Optimezzz? Wazzzpinator get blown to zcrap for sure!”

 “Nonsense,” Megatron retorted. “Optimus is a powerful fighter, yesss, but even he cannot hope to win when outnumbered five to one. Sector Jupitus is also far enough from the Maximal base and other Maximal patrol routes that it will be impossible for any other Maximals to come to his aid in time.”

 “Hold on a sec,” Terrorsaur interrupted, “Five? There’s only four of us that are going, Megatron.”

 “I’m going too,” Megatron said.

 “Since when do YOU go do the dirty work alongside us?” Terrorsaur retorted.

 Megatron growled. “I’d normally scrap you for that comment, Terrorsaur, but I need you today. I am going because I want to witness Optimus Primal’s destruction close up.”

 “How do you know Primal is going to be in that sector today, anyway?” Manticron asked. “Optimus rarely goes on patrol missions.”

 “Fool!” Megatron replied angrily, pounding the arm of his chair with his fist. “Why did you think we attacked the Maximal base last night!? Although I tried not to make it too blatantly obvious by only having three Predacons focus on him instead of all of us, the entire goal was to take out Ironhide! While Ironhide is in the CR chamber repairing himself, good old selfless Optimus will undoubtedly take over Ironhide’s duties. Thanks to a Maximal message decoder chip I secretly swiped from Optimus when we were aboard that accursed alien ship, I was able to figure out the different Maximal’s patrol routes assigned to them at different times of the day, via picking up various conversations over their comlinks. I figured out that from 11:00 – 11: 20 A.M., Earth time, Ironhide’s route would take him far away enough away from the other Maximals that he would be vulnerable to a Predacon attack, since no other Maximal would be able to get there in time to help him. After I figured this out, it took only moments to figure out a plan to put Optimus in Ironhide’s place, destroy him, and thus give us a definite advantage in the Beast Wars.”

 “I am impressed, Royalty,” Scavenger commented. “I would never have been able to formulate so complex a plan.”

 You couldn’t formulate a salad, you mindless bug, Megatron thought to himself as he checked his internal watch. “We must hurry,” Megatron said out loud, “It is less than half an hour before 11:00. Let’s go!”

 Megatron activated his Transmetal 2 nanite armor and flew out of the ship, closely followed by the flying forms of Terrorsaur, Waspinator, Manticron, and Scavenger.

 Optimus Primal flew over the beautiful tropical scenery of Sector Jupitus in his normal bat mode. Although Optimus missed Cybertron a great deal, he loved the natural beauty that this planet offered. Optimus closed his eyes for a bit and flew along silently, listening to the wonderful sounds of the wild. The gentle rush of a nearby stream, the almost musical sounds emitted by various tropical birds, the rustling of the leaves of the jungle canopy, the silent roar of a distant turbine engine…..

 Optimus’ eyes snapped open. A distant turbine engine?

 Optimus didn’t have any more time to think before he got hit in the back by a drill missile. The impact nearly tore off his right wing, but Optimus quickly reacted, transforming to his robot mode and then activating his Transmetal 2 nanite armor, which filled in the gaps in his injured wing. He swirled around to see the hovering form of Scavenger, laughing maniacally, as always.

 “Your days of opposing the Colony are over, Maximal!” Scavenger yelled, letting loose a volley of drill missiles.

 These missiles were a bit more recklessly fired, and Optimus easily dodged them. His victory was short-lived, however, as he saw the forms of Waspinator, Terrorsaur, and Megatron in his Transmetal 2 mode emerge from underneath the jungle canopy, all of them quickly converting to robot mode and swerving in to attack the now-outnumbered Maximal leader.

 Optimus emitted a sonic screech attack to destroy an incoming surge of missiles from Waspinator, but he wouldn’t be able keep all the incoming projectiles at bay for long.

 “Rhinox!” Optimus yelled, opening up his comlink, “I’m being attacked by four Predacons- Waspinator, Terrorsaur, Scavenger, and Megatron himself! I don’t know how, but they seemed to know that I was going to be passing through here!”

 “Hold on, Optimus!” Rhinox quickly responded. “I’m going to get Rattrap, Gryphtron, and Airazor to come and help you- they’re the only other Maximals anywhere near your position. They’re all still quite a ways away, though, so you need to find some way to hold them off!”

 “I’ll try,” Optimus responded, “But I don’t know how long I- auuugghh!”

 An energy ball from Terrorsaur stuck Optimus in the chest, leaving a shallow steaming indentation. It wasn’t a fatal blow, but it was a rather powerful shot, and Optimus was sure he couldn’t take many more of those. He fired off another sonic blast at the ever-nearing form of Megatron and then dove into the canopy, trying to seek cover.

 “’Ey, Airazor!” Rattrap hollered. “”Dere you are!”

 Airazor, streaking through the sky in vehicle mode, noticed the racing Transmetal rat and slowed down, lowering herself to just a few feet off the ground next to Rattrap.

 “Here I am,” Airazor confirmed.

 “…And here I am!” another voice exclaimed. A familiar griffin flew up alongside the racing forms of Rattrap and Airazor.

 “Look, guys, I want you two to go on ahead of me,” Rattrap yelled, struggling to be heard over the sound of his engine. “You guys are definitely faster, and we need to get to Optimus as fast as we can. I’ll catch up.”

 “Will do,” Airazor nodded, and sped forward.

 Gryphtron nodded and flew after the falcon-plane.

 Optimus let out a breath of relief.

 After several minutes of flying through the jungle, diving and twisting around a maze of trees and vines, he was certain he had lost the Predacons. It had been at least five minutes since he had heard anything from his pursuers. Now that he’d lost them, he’d better get back to base as quick as he...

 Optimus didn’t have time to finish his thought. A huge branch swung down from out of nowhere and whammed into him, sending him slamming into the ground several meters below at full speed.

 Manticron chuckled when he saw he had hit his target.

 “Too easy,” he said happily, tossing the broken branch out into the air behind him with his massive arms.

 “Now to finish the job.”

 Manticron dove toward the fallen body of Optimus, landing just beside the sparking, damaged Transmetal 2. Manticron unsheathed his swords from his subspace, and swung them in a fatal strike….

 ….But they were blocked by Optimus’ own swords.

 The Maximal leader was online after all, Manticron noted.

 Optimus, struggling under the press of Manticron’s swords, slowly stood up.

 “You won’t… get rid of me… that easily…” Optimus grunted.

 “Correct,” Manticron said back, his tone showing no emotion whatsoever. “But I WILL get rid of you regardless.”

 Manticron swung one of his swords in a cleaving strike, while keeping the other against one of Optimus’ own. Optimus blocked the strike with his other sword, but it was to no avail. Optimus’ sword shattered under the ridiculously strong swing, and Manticron’s curved sword continued straight into Optimus’ shoulder blade, slicing down through the leader’s chest almost a foot.

 Manticron grinned and drew back the blade, leaving behind a long gash spurting mech fluid. While Optimus stared at the unexpected wound in both disbelief and awe, Manticron struck him with his fist full-force, sending the Maximal leader flying back several feet and falling in a twisted heap, in stasis lock.

 “This was even easier than I thought,” Manticron grinned, striding up to the deactivated Maximal and readying his swords.

 “No! Stop!”

 Manticron turned towards the voice, seeing a large red dragon descend beside him. As soon as Megatron landed, he deactivated his Transmetal 2 nanite armor, leaving him in his crocodilian beast mode. Waspinator, Terrorsaur, and Scavenger flew down soon after the Predacon leader, landing a few seconds later.

 “Do NOT kill Primal,” Megatron commanded sternly, transforming to his robot mode and tearing Manticron’s swords away from the bewildered Predacon.

 “What?!” Manticron asked, disbelieving. “WHY would you possibly not want me to kill Primal? Another one of your stupid hostage plans!?”

 Megatron snorted. “Much better than that, my dear Manticron. Death is too good for my dear friend Optimus. A torturous existence is much more fitting.”

 “What do you have in mind, Royalty?” Scavenger asked.

 “Both me and Optimus share the same Transmetal 2 nanite armor technology. When I first was given my nanite armor, I ran a diagnostic check on it. While it does increase strength and endurance and does enable its host to be able to regenerate to a limited extent, it has a flaw. If either me or Optimus were left in our nanite forms for too long, the nanites would integrate themselves with our core processors. Without either the nanites or ourselves in complete control of our actions, we would turn… feral. Unpredictable.”

 “Ah, I get it now,” Terrorsaur said, smirking. “You want to leave Optimus like this. He’s been in his Transmetal 2 form so long, just a few more minutes and the nanites will start to merge with him! Then he’ll be just a feral, confused monster! Hahahahahah!”

 “Exactly,” Megatron confirmed, examining Optimus’ wound. “Hmmm… Yes, Primal’s Transmetal 2 capabilites should heal that wound eventually. Let’s leave Primal to his eternal tortured existence, Predacons.”

 Terrorsaur, Manticron, Scavenger, and Megatron laughed wholeheartedly as they all transformed into their respective beast modes and headed back to the Predacon base. With Optimus out of the picture, victory was soon at hand.

 Waspinator was the last to leave. He gazed sadly at the prone form of Optimus.

 “Thiz not feel right… too mean even for Predaconzzzz…”

 Waspinator shook his head and transformed to beast mode, flying slowly after his comrades.

 Airazor and Gryphtron stopped at a small clearing in the jungle, each transforming into their robot modes.

 “Where is he?” Airazor questioned, looking around the clearing. It was definitely disturbed, and there was a small puddle of mech fluid in one corner. “Rhinox contacted us just about five cycles ago and told us Optimus’ signature was in this general vicinity. There was obviously a battle here….”

 A shriek of terror interrupted Airazor’s sentence, coming from several dozen yards beyond the clearing.

 “Rattrap!” Airazor and Gryphtron exclaimed simultaneously, recognizing the scream.

 “Op-op-optimus, it’s m-m-me, Rattrap! What’s wrong!?” Rattrap shrieked nervously, edging back against a tree. A telltale trail of mech fluid dripped from a long wound in Rattrap’s back.

 Optimus Primal stalked towards Rattrap in his Transmetal 2 robot mode, his fangs bared menacingly.

 Optimus hurled back his heard and roared an unearthly sound, then swung his long bladed claws at the cowering, unbelieving form of Rattrap, striking another long gash, this time in Rattrap’s left arm.

 All of a sudden, Gryphtron leaped out of the jungle and onto Optimus, keeping the crazed leader’s hands down to his sides. Airazor followed soon after and clamped onto Optimus’ legs.

 Rattrap walked up cautiously, staring at the roaring form of Primal.

 “What’s wrong with Feahless Leader?”

 “I do not know,” Gryphtron replied. “He doth seem to be in some kind of mad rage.”

 “I have no doubt Megatron had something to do with this,” Airazor said sorrowfully.

 With a sudden burst of energy, Optimus flung Gryphtron off of him, roaring, and then kicked Airazor off. Rattrap, Gryphtron, and Airazor all prepared for a fight, but Optimus merely let out a cautionary shriek and flew away, soon hidden among the trees of the jungle.

 “Why…eh… why didn’t Optimus start fightin’ us?” Rattrap asked, staring at the spot of jungle where Optimus vanished seconds before.

 “He is struggling, that much is obvious,” Gryphtron said. “Some unseeable force is keeping him feral, methinks. Optimus would never do this to us willingly.”

 Rattrap merely sighed and transformed back into beast mode, ready to go back to the Maximal base to bear the awful news.

 This was one of the few times he was jealous of humans.

 Humans could cry.

The End

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