Nighteye decreased his optics’ magnification back to normal and immediately jumped into the air, taking off at full speed toward the Maximal base.

 “This is DEFINITELY not good,” Nighteye muttered to himself as he streaked through the sky, his ion thrusters on max. “To think that Scourge could try something like this without even getting to KNOW the Transformers like I did… Bah, sometimes for such a superior species, we sure act inferior.”

 Nighteye had been watching Scourge ready his army for the last few minutes, via magnifying his audio and visual senses tenfold. Although he had heard and saw everything that had happened as if he was only a few feet away, in actuality, he had been nearly a kilometer away, hidden in a cave in the middle of a faraway cliff.

 Nighteye winced as a sparrow nearly collided with his face, seemingly coming out of nowhere.

 “Gah! Watch where you’re going!” Nighteye cursed angrily at the bird, now flying on behind him as if nothing had happened. “This is more important than anything YOU could possibly be doing!”

 Nighteye grunted and turned his attention back to where he was flying. Sometimes he envied non-intelligent life forms. No worries other than their own stomachs….

 “Yo, Rhinox!” Rattrap yelled to the mobile television screen, “According to the scanners, we got a Pred at the front of th’ base!”

 After Optimus Primal was taken over by his Transmetal 2 nanite armor, the Maximals had elected Rhinox to be in charge, at least for the time being. The former rhinobot seemed to be generally the most knowledgeable and wise out of all the Maximals right now. Rhinox wasn’t very happy about it, though, because he wasn’t one to take the stresses of leadership very well…

 “I can’t deal with that right now!” Rhinox snapped back uncharacteristically. “I’ve already got ten other things I’m supposed to be doing at the same time! Just take Sigma out with you and see what he wants!”

 Rhinox was not one to have a short temper, but he didn’t like putting up with all the stresses of leadership- they could really get to him. He was one who liked to hang back and get things done on his own time. Now, he had all these different burdens handed to him suddenly- Optimus Primal giving in to madness, the disappearance of Grimlock on a recent scouting patrol, and now this… not to mention all the daily reports and such that a commander needed to file….

 “Sheesh, don’t get yer wires in a bundle,” Rattrap muttered back, “I’m goin’. Hey, Sigma! C’mon, we need to go outside and see what this Pred wants!”

 Sigma Prime wordlessly came up behind Rattrap as they came out from behind the main doors, pointing their guns cautiously at the Predacon a few feet away.

 “Wha’da you want, scumbag?” Rattrap asked sternly, anger evident in his voice. He had always hated Preds before, but now he absolutely despised them… especially after what they did to Optimus Primal…

 Waspinator immediately raised his hands over his head and kept them there after seeing the two Maximals exit from the base. “Wazzpinator not shoot! Wazzpinator zzick of shooting Maximalzzz!”

 “What do you mean?” Sigma Prime asked, lowering his gun a little and cocking an eyebrow at Waspinator’s odd reply.

 “Wazzzpinator zzick of being Predacon! Megatron went too far when he made Optimezz Primal insane! Wazzpinator not like that! Wazzpinator want to fight with Maximalzz now, against zztupid Megatron and zztupid Predacons!”

 Instead of the cautious acceptance that Waspinator had expected, he instead got a gun pointed at his head.

 “Listen, bugface!” Rattrap growled, his voice dripping with hatred, “You’ll excuse me if I don’t listen to one slagging word any of you Pred scum say anymore! You’ve fragged one too many Maximals this time, pally, and I’ve had it up to here with having to stare at your ugly mugs again and again! So prepare to meet your-“

 Rattrap was interrupted by the approaching whine of ion thrusters. Looking up, Rattrap and Sigma Prime saw that Nighteye was speeding toward their position. Within just a few moments, Nighteye had made it to where the other three Transformers were waiting and transformed immediately into his robot mode, not caring what he interrupted.

 “Rattrap! Sigma Prime! You’ve got to listen to me, now! A new Predacon named Scourge has recently come online, and he’s killed Megatron, effectively taking over control of the Predacons! He’s also managed to activate all the stasis pods in the stasis pod cache, so now he’s got a veritable army at his command!”

 “Wait a cycle! Hold up!” Rattrap said, trying to take in all the bad news suddenly revealed. “How did this Scourge guy come online? All the stasis pods were under a protective force field!”

 “And how did he activate all the stasis pods in there?” Sigma added.

 “I don’t know,” Nighteye lied, “But he has! I just spotted him calling his troops together for an assault on the Maximal base! He’s also sending smaller parties after Depth Charge’s and Rampage’s groups, too!”

 Better not to tell the other Transformers that Scourge is a Vexoran like me, Nighteye thought to himself, or they might start to think I’m just as determined to get rid of them, too, since I revealed to them that I’m Vexoran…Besides, Scourge is MINE. I’m going to tear apart that traitor piece by piece…

 Rattrap shook his head, rubbing it as if he had a headache. “Well, that’s it, then. Like I always said… We’re all gonna die.”

 Sigma Prime turned from Nighteye towards Rattrap. “Rattrap, if I may suggest… I think we should really accept Waspinator into the Maximal ranks now, at least for the time being. We’re going to need all the help we can get to fight off Scourge and his forces.”

 “But this is WASPINATOR we’re talking about!” Rattrap protested, motioning with his hands at the Pred as if it were obvious what he was implying. “The guy’s more likely to be more of a hindrance than a help!”

 “What do we have to lose?” Nighteye interjected. “Either he proves that he’s loyal to the Maximal cause or he gets slagged. Either way, it’s good for us.”

 “I guess you’re right,” Rattrap sighed, much to Waspinator’s delight. “Call all the Maximals out on patrol back, Sigma. We’re gonna be facing a battle soon the likes of which I’ve never seen- and I hope never to see again.”

 Dinobot lowered his binoculars and activated his comlink.

 “Scourge’s force has been spotted, Rhinox. They are about a mile away and closing.”

 “How many are there?”

 “I am uncertain. I would guess about thirty.”

 Dinobot heard an annoyed groan come through the comlink. “Alright, Dinobot. Stay on top of that rock outcropping until they get within about forty klicks of you. Then retreat back to where the rest of us are waiting.”

 “Understood,” Dinobot confirmed. “Dinobot out.”

 Rhinox viewed all of the Maximals in front of their base, via the several outdoor surveillance cameras he was plugged into. After Rattrap had come in and told him the dire news, Rhinox had immediately plugged into the base’s main defense systems and had done a systems check to ensure that everything was indeed operational. A minor glitch had been discovered in one turret, but it was quickly fixed, and the Maximals prepared for the battle to come. Rhinox had ordered all of the Maximals out in front of the main doors. They were to find any large rocks available and push them in front of the base, in order to provide as much cover as possible from the Predacons.

 Rhinox smiled to himself as he saw Magnaboss pick up an exceptionally large rock and drag it toward the main entrance. Thank goodness that they had a gestalt- that might help even the odds a little.

 A little. Those were the main words there. The Maximals were hopelessly outnumbered, if Dinobot’s estimation was correct, and even the most optimistic Maximal would have a hard time drilling into his mind that they were going to win the upcoming fight.

 Rhinox’s resolve hardened. But there was one thing Maximals were not, and that was cowardly. Even if it meant that they all perished, he knew that his crew would fight to the bitter end. Sure, they would die, but they would take as many Preds with them as possible.

 Rhinox’s thoughts were interrupted by a distant rumble, followed immediately by Dinobot’s voice coming in over the comlink.

 “Rhinox, they’re here!”

 Rattrap could only scowl as he saw the enormous force of Predacons heading towards him and the other Maximals. Lowering into a battle stance and drawing out a gun, he shot the first target that presented itself- which happened to be a giant mantis.

 The annoyed mantis found the source of the gun blast that scorched his left arm and let out an odd, chattering growl.

 “Manterror, terrorize!” the mantis screeched, his voice an ear-splitting cacophony of noises, not unlike that of the legendary Insecticons from days of yore.

 With a flip and a twist, the huge mantis became a tall, but gangly, transformer, with huge scythe blades for hands. A large snake, which mentioned its name was Corhada when it transformed, followed Manterror’s lead, and they both charged towards Rattrap.

 Narrowly dodging an ion disk thrown at him from the blades of Manterror, Rattrap quickly ejected a “sticky bomb” from his lower arm and threw it at the giant mantis. Caught by surprise, the bomb hit its target dead on. Manterror, realizing what the thing was that had latched onto him, scratched frantically at his stomach, trying to pry the bomb off, but it was too late. The mantis exploded in a shower of Pred parts.

 Rattrap reached out to eject his remaining “sticky bomb” from his other arm, but Corhada had already reached his position by that time. Reaching out with his whip-hand, Corhada smacked the bomb meters away as soon as it came out of Rattrap’s forearm. Reacting quickly, Rattrap yanked his machine gun out of subspace, but Corhada smacked that weapon away as well. His whip-arm struck out far too quickly for Rattrap to react in time.

 Hissing maliciously at his apparent victory, Corhada gripped Rattrap’s throat in his whip-arm and began to squeeze.

 Gryphtron hissed in pain as a large Transmetal blue-and-green rhino plowed into him, driving the mystic fuzor back into the cliffside behind him. Grunting, Gryphtron quickly grabbed the rhino’s horn that was impaling his midsection, and twisted the blade-like protrusion until it broke under the stress.

 Grunting, the rhino retreated back a few steps, roaring, “Trample, terrorize!”

 With a mechanical whir, the Transmetal rhino transformed into a mildly large, bulky ‘bot, with a large, rough hide covering his chest and arms. As soon as he finished, Trample swung a huge fist at Gryphtron’s head. Gryphtron, although weakened from all the mech fluid leaking out his torso, dodged the punch, wincing as Trample’s fist indented the solid rock right next to his head.

 As Trample struggled to pull his fist out from the indentation it had made, Gryphtron put all his strength into a hard uppercut to Trample’s jaw, cracking the rhino’s teeth and shattering his optics. Trample’s remaining optic faded to black at the sudden blow, and the large Predacon collapsed onto the ground, unconscious.

 Gryphtron, his energy spent, slumped to the ground and looked up with dread as another Predacon sped toward him, this one a Transmetal panther of some sort.

 Unlike most of the other Maximals, Magnaboss was quite successful against the overwhelming odds. Because the gestalt loomed over all the other, smaller Predacons, he could take on a few at a time. Currently, he was stomping a giant earwig bug into the ground with his foot, while simultaneously crushing a bull/bat fuzor in his right hand and swatting at a cicada with his left.

 The cicada, nimble enough to dodge Magnaboss’ huge, relatively slow arm, called out to two of his comrades in a very Mexican accent, “Hey, amigos! Big Boy here wants to play!”

 Two forms from the chaos below jumped up into the air, each landing on Magnaboss’ upraised arm. Although Magnaboss tried to shake the two Predacons off of his arm, the lobster and the rhinoceros beetle simply clung on too tightly.

 “Then I say we give him something to play with, dagnabbit!” the beetle yelled in a deceptively old, feeble voice.

 “Cicadacon, Ramhorn!” the lobster commanded, still hanging on to Magnaboss’ swinging arm, “Let’s merge!”

 In mere seconds, the three forms transformed and connected to each other, becoming a gestalt even taller than Magnaboss, albeit a bit lankier. The new gestalt had oddly shaped arms, his left ending in a hook while his right ended in a kind of sword. His face looked almost demonic, with a wicked, sneering grin seemingly etched into it.

 “NO ONE CAN STOP THE MIGHT OF TRIPREDACUS!” the new gestalt boomed, advancing on Magnaboss.

 Immediately forgetting about his other opponents, Magnaboss unsheathed his Magnasword just in time to block Tripredacus’ sword-hand. Magnaboss grunted under the strain of keeping Tripredacus at bay, and Tripredacus knew the element of surprise had won him first strike in this battle. Taking hold of Magnaboss’ sword, Tripredacus heaved Magnaboss over his shoulder, the Maximal gestalt refusing to let go of his sword and give Tripredacus his powerful weapon. Magnaboss fell to the earth with a resounding boom, shattering several small rock outcroppings and flinging up a cloud of dust in his wake.

 Satisfied, Tripredacus unleashed optic blasts at Magnaboss, the lasers tearing apart the giant’s chestplate armor.

 Unlike most of the ground fighters, Airazor, Tigerhawk, and Waspinator were mostly working together- they had to, as they were vastly outnumbered in the skies. Airazor and Tigerhawk, in their beast modes, were distracting two different aerial fuzors- a horrendous lionfish/bee fuzor and a giant dragonfly- while Waspinator tried taking potshots at the Predacons.

 “Ow! Watch it, will you!” Airazor yelled at Waspinator as one of the waspbot’s errant shots nicked her in the wing.

 “Wazzpinator zzorry!” Waspinator called out, “Izzz trying hizz best!”

 Easily dodging a few blasts directed at him from some ground-based Predacons, Waspinator fired a few more shots at the lionfish/bee fuzor, this time hitting the ugly Transformer directly in the center. Waspinator giggled in his high-pitched tone as the fuzor fell toward the ground below, yelling curses at the Maximals as he fell.

 The dragonfly, however, transformed into his robot mode, firing his waist missiles at Airazor while dodging Tigerhawk’s missiles. Airazor narrowly dodging the incoming missiles just in time, but gasped as the maneuver suddenly put a high rock outcropping in her path. Unable to veer away in time, Airazor crashed head-on into the rock formation, her engine exploding and charring her unconscious form as she crashed into the earth below.

 “Airazor!!” Tigerhawk gasped, immediately changing his flight direction so that he was heading towards Airazor’s charred body.

 “I don’t think so, ace!” the dragonfly Pred shouted in a mocking tone, speeding up so that he could intercept Tigerhawk before the Transmetal 2 made it to Airazor.

 “OUT OF MY WAY!!!” Tigerhawk growled, done with hit-and-run tactics. Activating his wing-mounted machine guns, Tigerhawk unleashed all of his firepower on the hapless Pred, who fell to the ground, several holes in his wings.

 No sooner had that Pred been taken out of the picture than another one joined the fray. Tigerhawk grunted as a huge flying transformer crashed into him, knocking him into the cliff face.

 “Manticron,” Tigerhawk growled as a familiar manticore lunged at the fuzor.

 Waspinator was about to take a few shots at Manticron when he heard a familiar screech behind him. Turning, Waspinator saw Terrorsaur streaking towards him, the dactyl-bot obviously enraged at Waspinator’s treachery.

 “You worthless TRAITOR!!!” Terrorsaur spat, flinging a few energy balls at Waspinator. The waspbot easily dodged them, only to have Terrorsaur slam into him, the Predacon’s optics red with battle fury.

 “Dactyl-bot one to talk!” Waspinator grunted, struggling to hold his own against Terrorsaur, their fists locked together as the two tried to overpower the other physically.

 “SHUT UP!” Terrorsaur screeched, kicking Waspinator off of him and blasting the former Pred with his optic lasers. Waspinator yelped as the laser blasts scorched his chestplate.

 Terrorsaur smirked, forming another two energy balls in his hands. “You always were a weakling,” Terrorsaur murmured, just loud enough for Waspinator to hear.

 “NOT ANY MORE!” Waspinator shot back, a rather uncharacteristically determined look on his face as he charged Terrorsaur.

 Grimlock smiled devilishly as his spinning tail-shield slowly sheared apart the Predacon before him, this one’s beast mode obviously being some kind of gray wolf.

 Now this, this was what he lived for. The thrill of battle, the glory of combat- this was what he lived for. Well, okay, so maybe it was just fun to kick some butt. Grimlock had been going through “battle withdraw” for the past few weeks, and he was glad to finally get his claws dirty.

 Convinced that the Pred was in stasis lock after sticking his sword through the wolfbot’s torso, Grimlock turned to find his next opponent, only stuck on the side of his face by a Transformer whose beast mode was obviously an armadillo.

 Grimlock roared, quickly transforming to his white-and-black velociraptor mode and whapping the Predacon hard with his tail. “WHO DARE STRIKE ME GRIMLOCK!?”

 “That’s a stupid question if I ever heard one,” the armadillo sneered, transforming into his beast mode as he did so. The enraged form of Grimlock was about to step on the smaller Pred, but the armadillo quickly dug a shallow pit underground with his claws, narrowly missing Grimlock’s foot as it slammed over the small pit.

 Grinning, the armadillo started digging madly into the bottom of Grimlock’s foot, shearing armor and synthetic flesh away as he exposed the delicate wiring underneath. Grimlock howled in pain as the lower part of his velociraptor leg was torn apart by the sharp claws of the Predacon.

 Blackarachnia grunted as a huge bison bowled her over, yanking her claw-grappling hook from her hand with his mouth.

 “Bonecrusher, terrorize!” the bison yelled in a voice that sounded remarkably like Randy Savage as he transformed.

 “You’re going down, little lady, oooh yeeahh!” Bonecrusher declared, a bit more loudly than a normal ‘bot would have talked, even in the midst of a battle.

 “We’ll see,” Blackarachnia smirked, jumping up suddenly and kicking Bonecrusher in the gut. The huge Predacon merely chuckled at Blackarachnia’s attempt to damage him.

 “Heh heh heh! No one can bring down the BONECRUSHER, missie! Now it’s time for my PILEDRIVER!”

 Bonecrusher slammed his elbow down on Blackarachnia’s gut, leaving a large indentation in her stomach.

 “That HURT, slaggit!” Blackarachnia growled out between clenched teeth, almost doubling over as Bonecrusher started to crush her midsection with his bare hands.

 “This’ll teach ya to mess with Bonecrush- wha?” Bonecrusher looked up from his hands to see Blackarachnia’s orb on her forehead begin to glow a light green. Bonecrusher feigned terror upon seeing this.

 “Ooo, wow, your forehead can light up, missie! I’m sure sc- whooooaaa!”

 Blackarachnia merely smiled as she lifted Bonecrusher’s huge bulk and threw it into another nearby Predacon via her Transmetal 2 psychic powers.

 Dinobot dodged another tail swipe from the Predacon he was facing, another tan raptor with red stripes and green, pupil-less eyes.

 “Bah, enough with this!” the raptor growled. “Bloodshed, terrorize!”

 Bloodshed’s transformation was not unlike Dinobot’s, and his robot mode was rather similar, too. The main difference was that Bloodshed wore some kind of dinosaur fossil-helmet over his real robot head, and he was also slightly more lithe than Dinobot.

 Taking out a familiar twirling tail-shield and sword, Bloodshed charged Dinobot, who was already in robot mode. Dinobot nimbly stepped aside, thrusting his sword out in front of Bloodshed and tripping the slightly smaller raptorbot. Bloodshed fell to the ground with a grunt, and Dinobot quickly thrust his sword through Bloodshed’s midsection.

 “You are a fine fighter,” Dinobot commented dryly as Bloodshed entered stasis lock, “But you lack a warrior’s discipline.”

 “Try me, then!” Dinobot heard a voice behind him shout, and he turned around just as a giant curled-up pillbug pounded into him, knocking the raptor to the ground.

 Nighteye and Sigma Prime pounded through the midst of the Predacon attack, heading towards the rear. So far, they had been able to cut through any Predacons that had refused to get out of their way, but they had sustained quite a few injuries during the process. Nighteye’s left wing was broken, and the red orb in the center of his chest was broken. Sigma Prime’s right optic was shattered, and his right arm was missing, too, a victim of an orange anklyosaurus’ sudden lunge.

 Finally, Nighteye and Sigma Prime broke through the rear of the Predacon force, panting from exertion. Nighteye looked up, and saw the enemy he had been looking for just a few feet away.

 “Scourge,” Nighteye growled.

To be continued…

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