Scourge was awakened from his state of unconsciousness by a small tapping on the cracked cockpit window of his escape pod. Activating his light-sensitive cells (as Vexorans had no visible eyes), he saw that it was a small raven perched on the window, tapping its beak on one of the large cracks in the cockpit’s windshield.

 “Shoo, you disgusting Earth creature!” Scourge growled out. He was not in the mood to hear the repetitive tapping of a raven’s beak.

 Startled that the form inside the escape pod was alive, the raven let out a surprised squawk and flew off.

 Now that he had gotten THAT annoyance taken care of, Scourge assessed the situation he was in.

 Soon after his and Scarem’s escape pod had cleared Tarad’s ship, the larger ship exploded, and a large mass of flaming debris had hit their pod. It had sent their escape pod careening down toward Earth. The last thing Scourge remembered was kicking a whimpering Scarem away from him as their escape pod entered the Earth’s atmosphere and started to burn up.

 Apparently, most of the armor on the escape pod survived the entry into the atmosphere, and the subsequent crash. Ah, good ol’ Vexoran craftsmanship- there was none greater in the galaxy.

 Still, though, the escape pod had suffered massive damage. The cockpit area had been crushed to a mere fourth of its original size from the impact, and half of the windshield was gone, with the other half cracked in several places. Judging from the light rays coming in from the crushed engine room door behind him, the entire fuel engine had exploded some time after Scourge had lost consciousness.

 Speaking of damage, Scourge had been badly injured in the impact as well. He didn’t even have the strength to reform his body, and as such, was merely a conscious black pile of goo with a mouth. Scourge sighed and, with great effort, slithered (or, rather, spilled) onto the cockpit floor from his crushed seat.

 Scourge moved his light-sensitive cells towards the other seat, and found Scarem in a similar condition as well.

 “Scarem!” Scourge snapped loudly, trying to get his brother conscious again. “Scarem!”

 The black pile of goo next to him stirred a bit.

 “Wha…? Huh…? But I don’t want any more coconuts, Captain…”

 “Scarem! Snap out of it!” Scourge said harshly. “You’re here! In the escape pod cockpit! With me! On Earth!”

 The blob named Scarem stirred again and spilled down onto the floor next to Scourge.

 “Whoa! What happened!?” Scarem asked, bewildered.

 “We crash-landed on Earth, you idiot.”

 “Oh… now I remember… Wow, I can’t believe we’re still alive…”

 “Yes, we were rather lucky in that respect, I guess. But now we’re stuck here on Earth, badly injured, and our mothership has been destroyed!”

 “So….what do we do now?”

 Scourge sighed. “I don’t know. I don’t even know how long we’ve been unconscious. Days? Weeks? Months? Who knows? Let’s get out of here and try to find anything that can heal us. I’m not sure what we could find that would do such a thing here, but I haven’t got any better ideas.”

 Scourge and Scarem silently slithered out of the broken half of the cockpit window and onto the ground below, then began to trek northward towards some nearby mountains, to see if they could spot anything from there.

 Scarem was the first to spot it. It was about half an hour later, and the two puddles of goo were navigating through the bottom of large valley surrounded by small mountains.

 “Hey, Scourge- is that what I think it is?”

 Scourge turned his light-sensitive cells in the direction Scarem was. After doing a double-take, Scourge chuckled.

 “Yes, brother, that IS what you think it is. The stasis pod cache!”

 Scourge then went into a bout of maniacal laughter as he slithered toward the large collection of stasis pods surrounded by a force field.

 “Hey, why are you laughing so much?” Scarem asked, trying to keep up with Scourge. “It’s just a bunch of those stupid Transformers in pods.”

 “Yes, Scarem, but don’t you see?” Scourge laughed, “These stasis pods can be the key to the Beast Warriors’ destruction!”

 “Wha? How so?”

 “I’ll tell you later. Right now, I need to infest one of those Transformer’s stasis pods to regain my strength.”

 “But brother, there’s a FORCE FIELD blocking us from reaching those pods! That’s kind of an insurmountable obstacle, there…”

 Scourge sighed. “Scarem, you idiot, didn’t you ever read the weekly reports?”

 “Well, um….”

 “That force field is meant to keep out Transformers ONLY. We Vexorans can pass through it with no trouble at all! In fact, I mean to permanently deactivate this baby. What was the deactivation code? Ah, yes…”

 Moving up to the force field, Scourge uttered monotonously, “Arthenium grental”.

 Scourge chuckled as the force field flickered for a moment and then disappeared.

 “Mwahaha! Ours for the taking!” Scourge laughed, slithering up to a rather large stasis pod near the edge of the cache.

 “Um, Scourge?”

 Scourge sighed for the umpteenth time in the past hour, stopping his ascent into the stasis pod. “What is it, Scarem?”

 “Why do you want to infest one of these… disgusting… creature’s bodies? You DO realize that once we infest one of these protoforms, we’ll be permanently stuck in Transformer form, at least until we somehow get back to Vexora, where we have the technology to undo such things.”

 “It’s better than slowly dying from lack of energy, Scarem. If we don’t do something to gain back more energy within the next day or so, we’ll be goners.”

 “True, that.”

 “Now, watch and learn, brother,” Scourge said, squeezing his liquid body form through the cracks in the stasis pod’s window and into the waiting protoform inside. Scarem watched as the stasis pod shook for about a half a minute or so, beeping and clicking out interrupted error messages. After the stasis pod finally stopped shaking, the cracked lid popped open with a hiss, and out stepped a huge Transmetal 2 locust.

 Scourge’s new beast form was very warped and asymmetrical. It was apparent that the protoform he had chosen to infest had been through a lot. Scourge was mostly a very shiny metallic orange, with purple insect legs and antennae. His tattered and worn wings were slightly transparent, with orange spots scattered all over them.

 “Wow, Scourge… you look… nice…” Scarem stammered. “What happened to the Transformer’s spark in that stasis pod, though?”

 “I devoured it,” Scourge said absentmindedly, looking at his new body. “It tasted quite good, actually. Gave me a bit of an energy boost. Hmmm….this form DOES look a little better than I thought it would. I wonder what my alternate mode looks like? Scarem, what was that activation code that those Predacons used? I altered the protoform’s allegiance programming to Predacon, for… future reasons….”

 “Um, uh…. Terrorize was it, I think,” Scarem said, still taken aback a bit at Scourge’s frightening new form.

 “Ah, yes. Thank you. Scourge, terrorize!”

 Scourge’s metal parts shifted and turned, and in a little under second’s time, he looked completely different. His locust head was mounted on his left shoulder, while another, smaller shoulder pad was mounted on his right arm. His large wings still hung out behind the rest of his body, but his insect abdomen had split into two separate halves, giving Scourge small armor plates behind his arms. His face was mostly black, with blaring orange optics. He had no mouth, but rather a “mask” over his mouth, like Optimus Prime’s. His main feature, though, was his abnormally large legs. The legs themselves were at least three times as large as his main body, and they bent backwards at the knees. Although Scourge technically wasn’t massive, his large legs and his spread-out wings and abdomen armor plates made him seem so. He was very tall, too; the average Transformer would have only come up to Scourge’s waist.

 “Hrmm….not that bad, for a Transformer. Scarem, it’s your turn now. Pick a pod and infest the protoform inside. You can alter the protoform’s programming however you like, just make sure you change its allegiance to Predacon and that you devour the spark inside.”

 “Hmmm, alright…” Scarem nodded, looking at the wide selections of pods available. Not really caring which one he picked, he just chose the nearest one- a badly damaged, medium-sized pod to his left. Entering the pod by seeping in through the cracks, Scarem soon underwent the same process that Scourge had moments ago. When Scarem emerged, he was a moderately-sized Transmetal 2 stag beetle.

 The beetle had largely exaggerated pincers on the sides of his mouth- they made up almost half of his body length, in fact. Scarem’s main body was dark green, with small, shiny blue wings closed around most of it. His insect legs were mostly orange, and his small red eyes shone emotionlessly from the sides of his head.

 “Hmm… not that bad, Scarem, but my form’s better,” Scourge bragged, crossing his arms. He would have smirked if he could have.

 “Oh, yeah?” Scarem retorted. “Let’s see how my robot mode is! Scarem, terrorize!”

 With a flipping and switching of parts, Scarem transformed into his rather short robot mode. Despite the fact that he was barely above Scourge’s knees in this mode, Scarem’s robot mode was rather impressive. His arms didn’t have hands on the ends of them, but rather large, scythe-like weapons. His insect wings had become his shoulder plates, and his insect legs had combined to become his robot feet. Scarem’s head had a small horn poking out of the top of each side, and, unlike Scourge, he had a mouth in this mode. Several large fangs were protruding out of it, making him look all the more menacing.

 “Ha!” Scarem laughed, “I think THIS mode looks so good, it doesn’t DESERVE the name ‘Transformer’!”

 Scourge merely snorted at Scarem’s comment. “Remember, Scarem, we are NOT Transformers. We are still Vexorans, we are just…in disguise for the time being. When I’ve put an end to these ridiculous ‘Beast Wars’ and we get back home to Vexora, the first thing I’m doing is getting rid of this form.”

 “But… how can you possibly destroy all these Beast Warriors by yourself, Scourge?” Scarem asked quizzically.

 “Scarem, do you remember that briefing we were given on stasis pods a few weeks ago by Tarad?”

 “Yes, but…”

 “Well, brother,” Scourge interrupted, “It’s time we put those skills to good use. You and me are going to activate all these stasis pods here, converting them all to the ‘Predacon’ faction.”

 “W-what!?” Scarem stuttered, bewildered. “WHY would you want to bring to life MORE of these blasted beings? There’s already enough on this planet as is!”

 “All part of my plan, brother, all part of my plan,” Scourge reassured. “After we activate all of these Transformers, I’ll convince them to join us, with me being their leader, of course. Then, with this vast army of Transformers, I shall take them all to the Predacon base here and dispose of the Predacon leader- Megatink, I think was his name. Anyway, after I dispose of Megatink, the other Predacons formerly under Megatink will either join me or die. After we get this accomplished, I shall lead the Predacon forces to an attack on the Maximal base here, and obliterate the Maximals entirely. Then, convinced of their total victory, I will have the surviving Predacons scavenge together a working spacecraft from the remnants of the Maximal and Predacon bases. After they complete the shuttle, you and I will silently kill them all in their slumber the night before we supposedly lift off. Thus, the Transformer problem on this planet will be solved, AND we will have a means of getting back to Vexora.”

 “Uh, that sounds like a pretty good plan, Scourge,” Scarem admitted, “But how will we convince all of these Transformers here that they’re to follow our lead? What if they just decide to obliterate us and nominate one of themselves as their leader?”

 “Because of one simple programming alteration I made to my form, Scarem,” Scourge said, smiling as he took an orange missile out of one of his transparent wings.

 "This,” Scourge said, holding out the missile in front of him, “is what I like to call a ‘pestilence missile’. When it strikes any Transformer, the powder released when it explodes breaks down the Transformer’s metal into their core molecules within moments, turning any victim Transformer into no more than a pile of rust and ash. All of these Transformers will be forced to follow me or risk dying an agonizing death. Satisfied?”

 “Wow, that’s…. intricate….”

 “Thank you, brother. Now, let’s get started.”

 “Okay.”

 “Oh, and Scarem?”

 “Yes?”

 “Remember, don't give these new Predacons any reason to believe that we are anything other than their own kind. To do so would threaten my leadership of them tremendously. Oh, and refrain from activating nine of these pods, if you would. I’m going to save them for a…. backup plan.”

 Waspinator paced back and in his quarters, muttering to himself. He had had a lot to think about recently.

 “Wazzpinator likez being Predacon. Predaconz fun, fun blowing stuff up- az long az it not Wazzpinator, of courze. But latezt scheme of Megatron’z- Wazzpinator not sure if he like that. Too mean….leaving Optimezz Primal to suffer az mindlezz animal inztead of juzt slagging him. That not what Wazzpinator would have done, Wazzpinator would have only beat Optimezz up a bit, then let him be… if Wazzpinator could, like that would ever happen…. Pluz, Megatron not been nice to Wazzpinator rezently… Zend Wazzpinator on zlag missionz…. Get blown up all the time…. But Wazzpinator been Predacon all hiz life! Cannot switch now, betray other Terrorsaur and other Predaconz, who are outnumbered already… Doh, Wazzzpinator’s head hurt! But what Wazzpinator do!? What-“

 Waspinator was interrupted from his ramblings by Megatron’s booming voice coming in over the base intercom.

 “Waspinator! Report!”

 Waspinator quickly stopped pacing and turned toward the intercom, standing up straight and saluting, as if Megatron could see him through the intercom.

 “Wazzpinator here, Megatron!”

 “Good. Just a reminder- don’t forget the meeting in two hours, you simple-minded slagheap!” Megatron commanded, his tone of voice quickly changing from friendly to angry in just a few words. “You DO remember what happened the last time you forgot, right?”

 Waspinator looked down at the floor, as if afraid to admit it. “Well…”

 “Yesssss?”

 “Wazzzpinator waz pounded on by Megatron…..”

 “Ah, so you CAN remember something. In two hours, remember!” Megatron commanded, the intercom clicking off afterwards.

 Waspinator chuckled quietly to himself.

 “Thankz, Megatron, for solving Wazzpinator’s problem…”

 Waspinator opened up his subspace pocket and quietly began to load his few keepsakes into it.

 Scavenger was interrupted from marching back in forth in front of the entrance to the Predacon base by the appearance of Waspinator.

 “And where are YOU going, drone?” Scavenger asked curiously, stopping his patrol to turn and look down at the shaking Predacon.

 “U-uh-um… Me-Megatron tell Wazzpinator to… to….to go out on scout patrol!” Waspinator stuttered at first, but then relaxed as he thought up a reasonable excuse to get out of the base.

 “Fine,” Scavenger said, raising the Transformer equivalent of an eyebrow. “But be back in time for the Royalty’s meeting in two hours, drone!”

 “How could Wazzpinator forget,” Waspinator replied sarcastically. As soon as Scavenger stepped out of the entranceway to allow Waspinator pass, Waspinator transformed into his jet mode and flew off….in the direction of the Maximal base.

 Scourge stood proudly, surveying the new army he and Scarem had created in just the last hour or so. There were all sorts of Transformers present, with all sorts of beast modes. There were some Transmetal 2s, like him and Scarem, but there were also many “regular” Beast Warriors, Fuzors, and even the occasional Transmetal. Scourge estimated that there were at least forty or so here. And all of them were Predacons.

 “Silence!” Scourge commanded, raising his voice so that all the new Predacons could hear him. All of the conversing and threatening between the various Predacons stopped soon afterwards.

 “My associate Scarem and I have created all of you for a purpose,” Scourge continued, stepping up on a large rock so that all of the Predacons could see him. “And that purpose is to serve me, Scourge, leader of the Predacons!”

 “Wait just a minute!” a voice from somewhere in the audience called out. “Who the slag do you think you are!?”

 “Who said that!?” Scourge asked, agitated. “Step forward immediately!”

 The various assembled Predacons parted to allow a small, stocky Transformer to come forward. From observing his robot mode, Scourge could immediately tell that his beast mode was some type of amalgamation of a baboon and a tiger.

 “I said that!” the orange-and-brown Transformer said in a gruff, defiant voice. “I know that you’re the one who activated our pods, and therefore gave us life, and for that I’m sure we’re all grateful. But who just up and said that you could make us all your cronies? I sure as heck ain’t gonna serve nobody! My will is my own, thank you very much!”

 Some murmurs of agreement came from the crowd behind the Fuzor.

 “Hmmm… a good point, you have there,” Scourge admitted, smirking. “Tell me, Predacon, what is your name?”

 “My name?” the Fuzor asked, taken aback that Scourge would suddenly ask such a completely unrelated question as that. “Uh… my name’s Bantor.”

 “Ah, Bantor….” Scourge said, massaging his chin with his hand as if he were committing the name to memory.

 “But what does that have to do with anything?” Bantor asked impatiently.

 “I just wanted to know what name to put on your gravestone,” Scourge said emotionlessly.

 Before Bantor could react, Scourge’s left wing suddenly flipped forward and fired a large orange missile at the Fuzor. Although it didn’t look as if the missile did anything initially, after a few microseconds, Bantor’s left arm- the arm that the missile had hit- suddenly turned brown and disintegrated into a pile of rust and ash. Bantor yelled out in pain and agony as the rest of his body quickly followed suit, crumbling and decaying until the Transformer was no more than a small pile of dust. Soon afterwards, that, too, was gone, as the high winds whipped the dust away, scattering it among the valley.

 All was silent for a few moments as the crowd of new Transformers gaped at the spot where Bantor was just moments before.

 Scourge interrupted the silence with a question. “Now, is there any other Transformer ‘whose will is their own?’”

 None of the Predacons present dared to speak a word.

 “Good. Now, my new Predacons, you can decide to join me, or you can decide to join your friend Bantor. Choose your side now. Aye if mine, nay if Bantor’s.”

 Every Predacon present yelled “Aye!” as loud as they could.

 “Oh, you are most kind,” Scourge said in mock appreciativeness, bowing slightly. “Now, I have a task for all of you. You are all to follow me. I know of a base that needs conquering. Oh, and you eight in the back- bring those full pods behind you with you.”

 Transforming to his beast mode, Scourge commanded, “Predacons, move out!” before flying off into the skies eastward. His new army quickly followed.

 Megatron pounded his fist on the table in frustration. “Where IS Waspinator!? I even REMINDED that idiot of the meeting, and he forgot AGAIN!!”

 All of the Predacons minus Scavenger and Waspinator were all seated around a large table in another of the Darkside’s gray, featureless rooms. Scavenger had an excuse, however, as he was still guarding the base’s main entrance. Besides, being so one-minded, Scavenger rarely had anything useful to add to a meeting, anyway.

 “Waspinator couldn’t remember his own birthday if he had it pinned to his forehead,” Manticron said, chuckling. “Why would this surprise you, Megatron?”

 Megatron was about to answer when the base shook suddenly. Nearly all of the Predacons fell out of their seats at the rumbling, and the alarms suddenly started blaring.

 “What the heck is going on!?” Octopod shouted, trying to be heard over the ringing alarms.

 “I don’t know,” Megatron admitted, activating his Transmetal 2 nanite armor. “But we’re definitely going to find out! Those foolish Maximals must be attacking us for some reason, probably over the conversion of their leader, the slagheaps! Everyone, to the front of the base! Quickly!”

 Megatron and his fellow Predacons ran out of their base, only to come to a screeching halt at the sight that lay before them.

 All of the base defenses were destroyed, leaving only black marks on the soil that trailed wisps of smoke. Scavenger was nowhere to be found. Most disturbing, however, was the fact that an army at least five times the size of Megatron’s stood in front of him. All of Megatron’s loyal followers gaped in shock at the scene before them as a large Transmetal 2 locust, apparently the leader of this Transformer armada, stepped forward, transforming.

 “Who are you? Why are you here!?” Megatron questioned angrily, barely able to contain himself from attacking the Transmetal 2- due to the number of the locust’s followers, that would surely be suicide.

 “I am Scourge,” the locust replied, “And you are in my ship.”

 “This is MY ship!” Megatron shouted. “What gives you the right to invade my territory? According to you and your comrade’s symbols, you all are Predacons! Why are you attacking us?”

 “I agree. We ARE all Predacons. Therefore, we should all live amongst each other. With me as the leader, of course.”

 Megatron had steam coming out of his air vents, he was so mad. “I am the leader of the Predacons! Not YOU, nor ANYONE ELSE! And WHERE is my soldier SCAVENGER!?”

 A transformer whose beast mode was obviously a snake stepped up behind Scourge, holding out something in front of him. “Ssssscavenger? You mean thisss guy?”

 Megatron gaped in shock at his former soldier. Most of Scavenger’s body had been mutilated and burned beyond recognition, but his head remained mostly intact. In fact, it seemed still functional…

 Scavenger slowly turned his head up towards Megatron and sputtered out the words, “I-I’m sorry, Royalty…..I….failed….you….”

 Scavenger’s optics dimmed for the last time as the snake transformer threw the Transmetal ant’s corpse carelessly towards Megatron’s feet.

 “Thank you for the explanation, Corhada,” Scourge complimented his follower. “Now, Megatron, about you joining me…”

 “I will NOT join you! I WILL K-“ Megatron interrupted himself, struggling to keep his temper under control. He held a hand up to his forehead and closed his eyes, breathing in deeply before continuing, this time in a much calmer tone. “Fine, insect. But you will not earn the leadership of the Predacons that easily, nooo. I challenge you to a duel- the winner will command all- and I mean ALL- of these Predacons.”

 “Hmmmm…..” Scourge thought, “Ummm… no.”

 As quick as lightning, one of Scourge’s wings swung forward, firing one of his Pestilence missiles at Megatron. Taken by surprise, Megatron hadn’t the time to dodge the missile at such a short range, and it hit him directly in the chest.

 Megatron winced under the impact, but, after realizing that he felt no pain from it, stood up confidently. “Hah! Your puny missiles have no effect on my nan—noooo!”

 Megatron was interrupted in mid-sentence as his chest suddenly turned brown. Megatron cried out in agony and gasped in his last breath as the rest of his body turned brown as well and quickly disintegrated.

 “Rule number one, my fellow Predacons,” Scourge said, nodding both to his large army and Megatron’s troops, “Never accept one of those foolish ‘challenges’. It’s so much easier just to kill the enemy outright.”

 “Now,” Scourge said, turning towards Megatron’s troops, “Will you join me and my army or suffer your leader’s fate?”

 All of Megatron’s commandos silently lowered their heads, nodding the affirmative to join Scourge.

 “Wonderful,” Scourge said loud enough for his entire army to hear, clasping his hands together. “Now, my Predacons,” he continued, turning toward the majority of his army, “We have a few other places to conquer before we have completely and totally won. The first… is the Maximal base.”

To be continued…

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