By Starlight Disclaimer: This story is not owned by Kenner and Hasbro, Mainframe or Alliance. All characters within it are property of Mainframe, Alliance, Hasbro and Kenner. The only exceptions are Nightshade ( slag, I love that name!) Malice, Crimson, Satin, Jade, Dippy, Serpentess and Unnamed Flyer. These are MY characters and NO ONE may use them without my permission. Beauty and the Beast and Bambi are property of Disney. No profit is being made from this so don't sue, please.
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Up in the blackness of space, stasis pods orbited the planet. Up in the blackness of space, some of those pods shook loose from these orbits, and headed towards the planet beneath them. Down on the planet, the scanners of two ships had picked up their signal.
"Stasis pod headed towards sector F-19," beeped Sentinel.
" How many are there?" asked Cheetor, who was standing beside Rhinox who was, as usual, hunched over the computer.
"Eight," said Rhinox.
Cheetor grinned. " That's the biggest number we've gotten yet."
"Yep," agreed Rhinox "and the bad thing is three of them are headed towards Pred territory."
"So, what are we waiting for, Big Green?" asked Cheetor in his normal fast-paced manner "let's go out there and get those Maximals!"
"I think we should wait for Optimus first," replied Rhiox. As if on cue, Optimus entered the room, followed by Dinobot and Rattrap.
" What's all the fuss in here?" inquired Rattrap " Somebody lose something or what?"
"Eight new stasis pods have landed," informed Rhinox " five in our territory, and three in the Predacons." "Stasis pod headed towards sector M-94," said the computer.
"Sector M-94? Ain't that where that alien thingy we found last week is?" asked Rattrap.
"It is," said Optimus.
There had been another alien artifact found again. It had mysteriously appeared out of no where. It had been nicknamed " the black pyramid" because it looked just like a black pyramid. The Predacons and the Maximals had gone to look at it, causing many battles along the way, but no amount of their fire-power could open it, so they left it alone. But there was a lot of energon inside there, so if there was a way to open it, both fractions would be battling for it with their lives.
"I'll alert Air Razor and Tigatron," said Optimus " the rest of you, come with me."
"We will be leaving the base alone and unprotected, you realize," hissed Dinobot.
" Hello, Scale Butt, we got Sentinel remebah?" snapped Rattrap. Dinobot sighed, he did so hate to greet new Maximals. It was not the curt, formal introductions he was used to. And it just meant more Maximals to hate him. "Prime Jets, on" shouted Optimus. The rest of the Maximals followed his example and headed out of the base.
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Meanwhile, a large spider and a scorpion one of the stasis pods in their territory, which was a coniferous forest.
"Where is the pod?" asked Scorpinok, with an uncharacteristic whine in his voice "I don't like it here, it's too close to Maximal territory."
" For your information, it is right over here," said a transformed Tarantulus who was behind a large oak and rapidly punching the keys on the stasis pod.
"How does he do that?" Scorpinok muttered to himself. He never really liked Tarantulus.
"Okay what do we want now?" Tarantulus said to Scorpinok," another ant, a worm or a vampire bat?"
Scorpinok thought.
" Warning, spark beginning to fade," said the computer on the pod.
" I choose bat," said Tarantulus quickly. He typed in a series of codes and the newly programmed Predacon stepped out of the pod.
The bat had brown fur, long leathery wings, with one claw on each wing, beady black eyes, a short turned up nose, two white fangs, and little three clawed feet. The bat's face and small feet were hairless. It shook it's head and looked around.
"Where am I?" it asked in a voice that was somewhat feminine. Then she noticed the two others. " Umm... whoever I am, Terrorize" she said as she transformed into robot mode.
The bat, in robot mode, had two blade like wings on her back and was dark brown with a bit of pale pink on her face, hands and feet. She took out a pistol and aimed it at them.
" Who are you?" she asked.
"I am Tarantulus and this is Scorpinok," said the spider " we are Predacons, just like you."
"Predacons, huh?" she said suspiciously " well okay, I believe you. So what do we do now?"
"We must go see how Blackarachnia and Terrorsaur are doing on the other two pods," said Scorpinok " and then we must go and stop the Maximals from getting the other pods."
" Maximals....." the bat mulled over the name " oh yeah, they're our enemies. I'll go get another pod from their territory if you want. Well, as soon as I find out where their territory is."
"An interesting offer, but you cannot stand all of the Maximal troops, and you can't reprogram stasis pods, so it is of no use to us," said Tarantulus.
"I can too reprogram pods," the new Predacon snorted. " And I can fly too," she said as it occurred to her " so you can't stop me." And with a grin, she took to the air.
"Shouldn't we stop her?" asked Scorpinok.
"There is no time" said Tarantulus "come on." They left to check on Blackarachnia.
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"Convinient life forms located," said the computer on one stasis pod.
"Well, what've we got, Big Bot?" said Cheetor with a grin.
"A mouse, a shrew and a fox," said Optimus.
" A hard choice," said Rhinox. " A shrew would probably be violent, a mouse shy and a fox smart. I'm just stereotyping though."
Even though the three Maximals seemed calm and unhurried about reaching the pods, there was still an underlying sense of urgency.
" The fox, please," begged Cheetor.
"Well okay," obliged Optimus. Rhinox typed in some stuff.
"I must say it is nice not to have the Predacons bothering us while we do this," mulled Optimus.
"Yep, real peaceful and quiet without the Predheads around," agreed Cheetor.
" And if there were any, I'd probably scare them off," said the new Maximal, who they had just noticed. The fox, who was in her beast form, was a dark, almost red shade of orange; had long black "stockings" on all of her four legs; and white on her chest and belly. She had two topaz colored eyes. The female fox took a look at her creators and nodded, as if finding out exactly the information she had wanted.
" Satin, Maximize," she said. She transformed into a orange and white humanoid with red eyes, long legs, and large breasts. Her weaponry consisted of a quasar attached to her side and a personal shield shaped like a fox's head.
"Well," she said with a teasing smile " how do I look?"
"Good," Cheetor managed to croak out. He was staring at her with eyes bigger than computer monitor's. She was leaning seductively against her pod. Rhinox and Optimus looked at each other worriedly. This was not a good start.
"We're going to go check on Tigatron and Air Razor," said Optimus.
" Take as long as you want Optimus," said Cheetor in a far away voice, his eyes riveted on the goddess in front of him.
"You're coming too," said Optimus as he turned Cheetor in the right direction.
"You too, Satin." Satin gave a little sigh and transformed into beast mode.
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They found Air Razor, Tigatron, Rattrap, Dinobot and their new recruit in a savanna not far from their former position.
"Hello Optimus," said Air Razor with a smile " we've just programmed the new Maximal."
The four of them looked at the new Maximal. It was a large hyena, with a brown sloping body, black spots and a tan mane.
"Ohhh," Satin murmured " prime cut too."Air Razor glanced at her with a half disgusted half quizzical look.
" He was found in a very badly damaged pod," she said "and his vocal circuits were so damaged that he can't talk, only growl and laugh like a hyena."
"Well, we have a few portable lab tops back at the base, he can use those," said Optimus. " Does he have a name?"
"He wrote it down on the dirt," said Tigatron " he wants his name to be Malice."
"Welcome to our fleet, Malice," said Optimus. " Now we'll split up. Rhinox, Cheetor, Tigatron and Malice will go to the pod at sector R-18. Dinobot, Rattrap, Air Razor, Satin and I will go to the pod at sector E-28."
"Shouldn't one of us go get the other pods from the Predacons?" asked Rattrap.
Optimus sighed. "Much as I hate to say it, our other three comrades landed to close to the Predacon base to be retrieved right now and the one in the black pyramid is probably dead by energon poisoning. They've probably either died or been made into Predacons right now."
There was a moment of depressed, haunted silence.
Dinobot snarled. "This is no time for mourning, Megatron will surely have sent a small number of his forces to reach the other pods. We must reach them first."
Everyone glared at Dinobot. The hyena bared it's teeth angrily.
"He's not really nice, is he?" said Satin rudely.
"Nah, he ain't," agreed Rattrap "but as much as I hate tah say it, Chopperface does, for the first time in his life, have a point."
"Lets go then," said Optimus in his famous commander's voice.
They all dispatched.
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"No suitable life forms located," said a computer on the stasis pod in sector R-18, which was a barren deserted wasteland.
"Switching to deluxe feature. Scanning tissue and remains of dead life forms." Pink beams shot out of the scanner up above the pod.
"Life form located. Life form is a three month old dromaeosaurus of the raptor familly. Duplication process commencing. Duplication process complete. Maximal may emerge."
A small, black raptor with a yellow blaze that started down it's snout and reached it's tail came out of the pod. It blinked and looked around.
"Wow," she said in an awed voice "where am I? This certainly isn't a very pretty place, being a dessert and all that. I wonder, am I the only other Maximal here? Am I the only bot here?" Her oddly blue eyes widened at the prospect of being stuck alone on an uncharted planet.
"Heeellloooo!" she called out. Her lonely echo was the only thing that answered.
" Well," she thought out loud " as long as I'm here, I might as well think of a name for myself." She looked at the land around her. "Sandy, no..... Rocky? Nah, too boyish. Cacti? No."
Her eyes fell upon a bush with green, ripe berries and dotted with purple and yellow flowers.
"What's this? A type of nightshade bush? Oh yes, I remember now. This is a belladonna, otherwise known as deadly night shade, and it has poisonous berries."
The odd thing was that she didn't know how she knew that.
She transformed and gave herself a review. She was black blazed with yellow, with silver on her face. Her figure was light and dainty, but she had a surprising amount of power. Her five fingered hands were tipped with white claws, as were her feet. She had a whip that was attached to her side and claw shaped axe with a long handle that could flick it's blade up and down, like a switch blade. When she tested her fire power, she found out that yellow beams came out of her eyes.
" Hmmm, certainly nothing poisonous here, but still, night shade or belladonna would make a pretty name." She thought for a little bit, looked at her black coloring, then decided.
" Nightshade it is then."
" Well Nightshade," said a high, nasal voice behind her " pleasure your acquaintance meeting it be." The voice gave a psychotic chuckle.
Nightshade spun around. There in front of her was the creature that had addressed her. She studied it. He was a small dinosaur, about her size, but a bit smaller and definately skinnier. He was a light purple with brown stripes. He had a narrow, sloping muzzle, somewhat like an ostrich head, except with scales, not skin, and a toothed mouth. He walked on two legs and had hypnotic, yellow, bulging, eyes, almost to big for his head. He had three fingers on his deft, nimble hands. He had a long, ostrich neck. He also had a small sickle shaped claw on his hind feet, the same kind she had, except his was less curved and smaller. Another type of raptor, or a... troodon?
"Introduce myself I shall," said the troodon " Dippy am I, Predacon new recruit, and, though team I join knows it not, master of thievery and tracking I be. Other members of crew steal stasis pods are out to do. General universe rule it is, shoot you do I. So shoot you will I. Draw gun you do now."
Nightshade's whip and axe flashed into her hands, while her eyes turned yellow.
" Interesting it is," said Dippy approvingly. "Dippy, Terrorize ." He morphed into a small and rediculously skinny purple humanoid with brown stripes and lean features. Dippy was very angular, with spikes on his elbows and knees, and pointed feet. He had pointed fingers, on hands that seemed too big for his body. The troodon's eyes were yellow in robot mode, and they took up so much of his face that he only had room for a small mouth. His eyes looked like two golden saucers. Dippy pulled out a quasar and a curved knife.
" Oh," he said as if he had just remembered it " mind you I hope not, but brought I friends to help."
Dippy began to jump up and down. While Nightshade was watching this, she felt a knife rip through her exoskeleton and cut a few of her major circuits that helped her leg to move.
She spun around, dropping her whip and tearing the knife out of her right leg. Mech-fluid dripped out of the tear. She saw a light brown and golden female humanoid grinning evily at her. Her attacker's head melded into a hood which was outlined in dark brown, suggesting a cobra was her beast form. Also beside the cobra stood a green buzzing bot, evidently a wasp or a hornet. Dippy transformed into beast mode, obviously thinking that the two other Predacons could handle her if she tried to escape.
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