Of Ghosts and Aliens


Finally !

Of Ghosts and Aliens

Come on, You know who it's written by!

Tigatron growled. He was surrounded by mist, again. He knew that in a few seconds it would materialize into something else. It always did. He tested all five of his senses, to see if they still worked. They did. But it still was not very comforting. The cold whiteness of this misty room, if room it could be called, chilled him down to his circuits.

Suddenly, but predictably, the mist changed. It formed trees, plants, the sun, the sky and ground beneath Tigatron's feet.

But still, Tigatron knew this was not right. There was something so wrong about it. The sun did not give off any warmth, nor was there any breeze to rustle the trees. He also heard no sounds of animals. No chirping birds, squeaking insects or anything. When he walked, his feet did not make a sound on the earth, not even a rustle of grass.

"Air Razor!" he called out, hoping to hear her reply, though doubting he would.

"I'm here Tigatron," the falcon's voice reached his ears. Tigatron looked up, or what he supposed was up. He could not tell in this alien world. He felt a faint feeling of hope creep into his heart, a feeling he knew with certainty would diminish quickly.

Air Razor flew in her beast mode above him. Tigatron narrowed his eyes. Was it really her this time, or just an alien illusion? He began to desperately hope it was the actual her. Even though he knew, if it was not her, that his heart would be crushed, as it had millions of times before.

Tigatron had only seen the "real Air Razor" a few times, and all those times she had been ripped away from him too quickly for his liking.

Air Razor...... how he missed her. The white tiger had never realized how much solitude could hurt. When he had been with the Maximals being alone had been fine. And with characters like Rattrap around, it had been preferable. But he had always known that the Maximals would be there for him, so he was never really lonely.

Now he was. It hurt more than anything. He just wanted to be with someone real to be with, not just a phony alien copy, that would dissolve and disappear.

"I'm so glad I've finally found you Tigatron!" Air Razor said. Tigatron's sharp ears monitored every word. Once she had said that he knew this was not the real Air Razor. Her voice sounded so....different, so emotionless. The aliens had perfected her body, the shape of her ebony claws, every single color scheme patterned into her feathers, everything. But the one thing these aliens could not do was perfect emotions.

That was what gave her away.

"Go away, alien scum. I do not need this now!" Tigatron snarled, shooting at the false falcon, which immediately dissipated, as if it had never been.

"You get to know us well, white tiger," said an alien voice which came from all direction, yet none at all. Tigatron cringed at the words, so cold, lifeless and........cruel.

"In answer to the question of your heart, your falcon is near. Though not in the most pleasant of circumstances."

"Where is Air Razor?! If you have hurt her, I warn you....." Tigatron sputtered. He felt so mad! He never thought he could feel such rage. He, a pacifistic white tiger, at one with the earth, could dare get up the nerve to kill another living creature. But unfortunately, right now he felt that, if he could identify the source of the voice, he would kill the one producing it.

They have no right to treat me like this!! I am not a caged animal in a science lab, to be examined and tortured at the scientist's will!

"But, white tiger, to us you are a caged animal. You came to our planet, and destroyed a project we had been working on for centuries.

It took us so long to master the way to perfect the soil of the ground, to make the sun that brought the planet heat, to create the animals that live there. It took us so long to create the plants, the correct formula for water, and then we had finally finished. Out of all the planets and galaxies we have created, that planet was our finest yet.

And then you Transformers come, destroying what we have made. Do you not see what havoc you did wreak? We tried to stop you, by destroying the planet which we loved so. But even that did not work. Now you think we have gone, and that the planet is all yours! But it is not."

"We have tried to protect the earth!" Tigatron yelled. " The Maximals care about your planet. It is a beautiful thing. You know we did not come here by choice....."

" Yet you still persist in this futile war!" the alien voice shot back. "Did you not realize that by helping each other you could get off this planet, and leave it in peace? Oh, you are a foolish race!" The alien spoke with something almost resembling contempt.

An idea occurred to Tigatron. "You say if we help each other we can leave, but then, why do you not help us off this planet. With all your power, you could certainly spare some on us, if the planet means that much to you."

There was a long pause.

"I cannot be permitted to tell you that," the alien said.

With that, the trees, grass, sky and other natural ornaments disappeared, like sugar mixed with water. All around was white, cruel white mist.

"Big Cat, it's you!"

A metallic, turquoise and silver cheetah burst through the mists, flying on turbo jets. It landed right next to Tigatron. "Man, have I ever missed you! The aliens sucked me up into this place too. It scares me, a little. But now that you're here....."

"Why do you persist in torturing me like this, aliens, WHY?" Tigatron cried. He knew this, as well, was not the true Cheetor. There was again no emotion in the Transmetal's voice, none of Cheetor's heightened exuberance. This had happened too many times. Tigatron's hopes had been raised too much.

The Cheetor faded, as if it had never been.

The pit of loneliness and despair in Tigatron's heart grew another inch.

"I would rather be dead than toyed with for another moment! You have played on my emotions too many times. I want to go back home, to Earth, to your planet. I will tell all who seek to destroy your world to forget about the war, I swear. No one will ever harm your planet again, no more of your creatures will die. Just take me and Air Razor back home. PLEASE!!"

That last word was more like a frightened kitten's wail than a warrior's proud voice, but Tigatron did not care. There was no answer, but the feline had not expected one. Then there was only one course of action.

Tigatron held his gun to his head. His hands shook alarmingly. He shivered, this time not because of the biting cold mist. He just felt........oh he felt nothing, just an insane desire to end it all! To have his life over with. The aliens could not torture him, if he was no longer on this plane of existence. He felt his middle finger reach up towards the trigger of his gun.......

"Tiga-t-tron!!" called a voice, sounding like Air Razor's. Tigatron dropped his gun in shock and his heart skipped a beat. Was it the real her?

"Air Razor!" he called back. He could see her dimly outlined in the mist, a brownish black figure cutting through the whiteness.

"Tigatron, help me! Please, if it is really you! The aliens, they are going to torture me some more, I just know it! Oh Tigatron, if it is you, please......"

The falcon's voice had emotion. Tons of it. It had to be her! There was no other way about it. Tigatron ran towards her, his legs pounding something resembling a floor. His heart raced, but he did not care. He just had to get to her, to have her by his side again, to be with her. With a strong exertion of will, he finally reached her.

"It must be you, the real you, please say it is!" Air Razor pleaded, a look of desperate hope in her crimson eyes.

"It is me, I assure you, my lady," Tigatron said. He bowed low to the ground, and kissed her hand. How good it felt, to know it was the real her! Tigatron felt the icy chill of loneliness leave him, and, for a moment longer, he was content.

A moment longer being the operative phrase.

Just as Air Razor was bending down to hug him, he felt her hand ripped away from his. Air Razor was flung backwards by some unknown force.

"NO!" Tigatron called out, trying to grab hold of her. But the invincible giant hands just tossed her farther away from him. Try as he might, there was no way he could reach his friend and dear comrade.

"I'll find you again, Tigatron, just wait a little while longer!" Air Razor called, her voice fading quickly.

"I'll find you too lady, we will be back where we belong soon, I swear it!" Tigatron spat out vehnemously.

The tiger sank to the ground, only his black stripes keeping him from being at one with the swirling mist.

************

Phantom opened up his eyes. It took him a few minutes to remember where he was, and how he had gotten here.

Blackarachnia's machine............the fleeing Predacons..........Blackarachnia and Megatron fighting....... the alien device surrounding him....... that was it! He was stuck in the alien device, instead of Blackarachnia.

But of course, that was not very comforting knowledge.

The Transmetal took a few steps. All he could see was blackness, tainted with a bit of eerie blue. The only light came from some large glowing energon crystals, in each of the four corners of the alien device . He slid his feet across the floor, which felt even enough. After wandering around aimlessly, he found out that this alien device was about twelve yards wide, in a square shape. When he tried to locate another entity, though, he came up with no results. Nothing showed on his infra-red scanners. He wandered around, groping, hoping to feel something. He felt only empty space. It seemed there was no one else but him here.

"Hello!" Phantom called. That had a significantly more interesting response.

A bluish white light suddenly grew in front of Phantom's eyes. He shielded them with his hands, while charging up his optical lasers, an old warrior trick he had learned from his father. He briefly wondered what the Maximals were doing right now, but pushed the thought out of his mind, readying himself for the dangers his alien captor might possess. Finally, when the light faded a little, he looked at what was before him, and gasped when he realized what. It was a giant, leering face. But not just any face. It was the face of a bot Phantom had never met, but that looked oddly enough like Optimus. Phantom guessed this must be the face of Optimus Prime, Optimus Primal's ancestor.

"Why did you call us here?" Optimus Prime, really the alien, asked of him.

"It was not me, Blackarachnia called you here with her machine, I just happened to be trapped inside as it came down on me," Phantom explained, with a mixture of curiosity and fear.

"Nevertheless, I WAS called, and I do not like it when people waste my time. Especially ones who have taken over our projects."

"Well, you shouldn't have made a porthole to your project, if you did not want anyone to find it," Phantom said, wanting to learn more about the aliens, now that the initial fear had passed. Now all he felt was a gnawing and hungry curiosity.

" Then how could we have gotten to it? You are more stupid than we have been lead to believe. You, who consider yourself a master at taming the powerful, such as you did with that flying cat. Oh yes, we know all about that. This planet is our project, we can see all that goes on here, from the death of an insect, to the explosion of a volcano."

"Why don't you call us by our names, if you know so much? Or do you only see all that happens, not hear it?" Phantom said, adding a mocking tone to his voice.

"You mean very little to us, we do not bother learning your names."

"Yet, you tried to destroy this planet just to get rid of us. If you do not mind the rats, why call in the exterminator?"

"Because rats chew holes in your cloths, and keep you awake at night when they scurry about behind the walls. If we did not try to exterminate you, then you would grow to such numbers that you would destroy our planet against our will, which is a VERY strong violation."

Suddenly, a thought popped into Phantom's head. Why had he not thought of this before? "Where are Air Razor and Tigatron?"

A globe of whiteness appeared in front of Phantom abruptly. It was blurred and fuzzy, put eventually it began to take shape. It showed Air Razor wandering around in a white mist, looking totally lost and afraid. "Tigatron!" she cried out, her voice hoarse, as if she had been calling for a long time.

The globe swirled around and produced a picture of Tigatron. The tiger was on his knees, his body shaking with cold and fear, whimpering under his breath.

The globe quickly disappeared, and Optimus Prime's face looked down at Phantom. "We have been keeping your friends in captivity, for the sins they have committed against our project. They will not be released, for not one of you can stop us. We are testing their physical and mental limitations, and we are far from done."

Phantom felt a burst of anger at those words. That was wrong! You could not keep people prisoner, and torture them like lab rats!

"I see," Phantom said, showing none of his emotions, as he was prone to do. "You are like children, then. Always taking joy when you pick the wings off flies."

Phantom felt himself thrown against the wall of the enclosure. His back hit the hard surface, and pain coursed through his head. Metallic vines shot out and chained him to the wall, making sure he could not move.

That was not a good move, Phantom thought. Now, I'm probably going to get hurt. Why can't I ever shut up when I'm supposed to?!

But Phantom, true to his form, made another rude remark before his brain could tell his mouth to be quiet. "And, like children, you throw a temper tantrum when people try to tell you the truth," he sneered.

The Transmetal closed his eyes, expecting some hard thing to come flying at his head at any minute. Nothing did. He opened his eyes cautiously.

" You are much more stupid than you look," the alien said. "I think I have a special job for you to do."

"What job would that be?" Phantom asked.

" Not to scream when I take over your mind!"

Phantom gasped, but, other than that, he fulfilled his job.

******************************

Beta 99 looked down at his body. It was not really his, he knew, it was that Transmetal's. But, for now, it was his body. The alien liked the color black, it suited his dark purpose very well. Beta 99 had always found this.....this Phantom a particularly interesting character, an odd mixture of cold ice and warm flame.

He searched the Transformer's memory files. He felt Phantom try to shield his mind from him, but it would did not work. Beta 99's powers were too strong. It broke through the dog's weak mental shield and gathered the information it required.

"Beast Mode," the alien said. He felt a very peculiar sensation as he transformed into his metallic beast mode. It was odd, put not painful.

"Jets, maximum burn," he said, feeling jets pop out of his paw pads and jets thrust themselves out of his elbows and knees. They all fired at once, his paw jets pushing him up, then his knee jets propelling him forward. Once he was up in the air, the feet jets stopped, allowing his knee jets full propulsive power. This again was odd, but interesting.

Beta 99 flew off to what he knew the be the base of the......Predacons, as Phantom had labeled them. These were the ones that had started this war, or so the Maximals believed. They were the ones deemed evil because they did not care about lives of others, only their own. Beta 99 laughed at the Maximals. They probably deemed his race evil, just because they had tried to preserve their projects, which had taken so long to perfect! Foolish Maximals.

Beta 99 looked down at the planet below him. The beauty of the planet he helped create never ceased to amaze him. The blue of the sky, the green of the grass, it was all so lovely. It was a perfect salutation the the power of him and his comrades.

He was approaching the Predacon base now. The ground had turned black and rivers of lava cultivated here. He could see the base below him, a green, slim ship. It was almost fitting, that these evil ones should have crash landed on such an forbidding place. Not that he himself thought that, but the Maximal Phantom seemed to think so. Again he laughed at how stupid these Transformers were. If the Maximals had crashed their ship here, they probably would have thought themselves angles, fallen in a place of evil. Hah! Little did they know, that everything was a mixture of good and evil, when looked at it from every angle. So much that, everything in the world was neutral. That was the way Beta 99 had been taught, why should he think any different?

The alien heard the roaring of jets behind him. The roaring of two jets and the buzzing of two wings, actually. That meant there were two Transformers at his back.

"Freezzzzze, Maximal!" cried a buzzing voice behind him.

"Yeah, and don't move either!" said another, this one more feminine.

Beta 99 simply turned around, and with one slash of Phantom's claw, took the head off of the green Transformer. The brown female started to fly away, but the alien slashed her in the back, ripping open her spinal rod. Her body went limp, and dropped the the ground with a loud clank.

He smiled. Three more bots came out of the base, one flying towards towards him, the other two running.

"Robot mode," he whispered. The alien felt himself falling, the ground rushing towards him surprisingly quickly. He shot at the two on the ground with his/Phantom's optical lasers. One, a small light purple and brown striped bot, got struck full force. After a few seconds it was knocked down.

Beta 99 landed on the ground with a hard thump. He looked at the one coming towards him. It was that cobra. She tried to throw a knife into him, but he dodged away. Suddenly, he got hit in the back by a bullet from the flying one, a ladybug of some sort. Pain coursed through his body.

The alien did not like the feel of pain.

He snarled, and bolts of electricity flew out of his fingers. They hit the ladybug square in the chest, causing him also to fall to the ground. Beta 99 took out his sword, and with a long swipe, decapitated the cobra.

He could see more Predacons flood out of the base. How foolish these Transformers were! A large bot with many weapons, an ant, a brown and white bot, and a purple and yellow arachnid tried to attack him.

The brown and white flyer was easy to get rid of. A few shots and he was down. The large Transmetal bot took considerably more time but, with a few well placed electrical beams, he managed to bring him to his doom. The ant and the purple and yellow arachnid fell as if he was the logger, and them a grove of trees.

Finally, two bots came out out of the base. One was yellow and blue, a Fuzor of some sort, and the other was a great purple and bronze Transmetal. Beta 99 could sense that Phantom felt a particular awe for the purple one, because he was the leader of the Predacons. Leader he may well be, but he would treat him as he would treat any enemy. Without awe or fear of any kind.

And certainly without mercy.

"Ah Phantom! How delightful to see you again....." the leader began, but the alien cut him off.

"Die," he said, in Phantom's hissing voice. That added a nice effect.

Instead, the Predacon leader laughed at him. "Ah Phantom, you are amusing! What makes you think that you can kill me?" More evil laughter from the Predacon leader.

"This does, Transformer scum!!" Beta 99 roared, anger flashing through it's mind. How dare this Predacon leader mock him! Him, who helped with the creation of this planet. Him, who had populated the planet with energon. Him, one of the most powerful Betas out of all his peers, being mocked by a SMALL, INSIGNIFICANT LITTLE SPECK!!!!

He shot at the Predacon leader with his/Phantom's optical lasers. The shot was in no way one to miss. It hit the leader straight in the chest.

Then the blue and yellow Fuzor came up and shot at Beta 99, who nimbly dodged away. Unfortunately, he had to cease firing on Megatron. To get rid of his disappointment, the Alien ran close to the Fuzor, and took out Phantom's pistol.

"Come to play it like a man, huh? Well I-URK" the Fuzor said, until he was shot in the head point blank by Phantom's pistol five times. No one will ever know what he was going to have said.

Beta 99 looked at the Predacon leader. He was looking considerably worried now. Phantom/Beta 99 advanced towards him. Megatron fired at him twice. One shot struck the alien in his foot, the other energy beam missed it's mark.

"Now you die, Transformer! You who dare mock me!" Beta 99 took out Phantom's sword, and swung it at the Predacon leader. The leader managed to block it with his tail cannon, but not for long though. Beta 99 secreted some of his strength into Phantom's superstructure, charging Phantom up with electricity and energy.

All the energy was released with one blue blast that came from Phantom's mouth. It hit the Predacon leader in the head, which went flying, and landed on the ground a few miles away with a barely audible crash.

Beta 99 panted, feeling his rage desert him. It was an odd feeling, this anger. He glanced up, hoping that none of his peers had seen that outburst of emotion. They were probably watching his every move, right now. Feelings of any kind were forbidden in the planet he lived on, for what use did they have of them? Beta 99 hoped no body had seen that.

But, he had bigger things to do.

And destroying the Maximals was one of them.

The alien took off to where he knew the Maximal base was. Unfortunately, Phantom guessed at what he was up to, and tried to take control over his body again. But Beta 99 just shrugged it off. So the dog wanted to protect his comrades, eh? Well, it would not happen as long as Beta 99 was in charge. And that would be for a long time.

He passed over a string of large mountains. Smiling, Beta 99 ducked lower. He had personally helped with this particular band of mountains, and wanted to see them up close, instead of just through a viewing machine. The alien landed on a cliff, and felt his metallic paws touch the rock surface. How tall and grand they were! The sun was shining down on them with a brilliant radiance, bathing the mountains in a warm glow.

Suddenly, Beta 99 turned around. He heard voices.

"Blackarachnia, your plan did not succeed at all! What could have gone wrong?" said a distressed voice.

"I PLANNED IT THIS WAY!!!" screamed another, a female from the sound of it.

"You what?" replied the first voice in stunned silence.

Beta 99 would have liked to hear more of this conversation, but he had a job to do. He knew it was that female spider, the one that had summoned him to this planet. He also heard he voice of the white knight who had been turned into a white pawn. This could prove amusing.

Beta 99/Phantom moved towards their position, ever so quietly. It was kind of hard, because Phantom was metallic in both modes, and therefore made clanking noises every time he walked. But, with difficulty, Beta 99 managed to get in an appropriate pouncing distance, where he could see his two victims.

"Phantom Maximize, stealth mode," he whispered, feeling the odd sensation of transforming again. Taking up Phantom's sword and charging up his eyebeams, Beta 99 waited.

"But-but....you said it was....help save us from the.....the aliens..." the Fuzor trailed off. He had a look of shock and pain on his usually regal features. He looked at the female spider with his rapidly breaking heart in his eyes.

"Oh, I say a lot of things you moron! And hardly any one of them is true!!! You were a fool to believe me!" the spider screamed.

"Blackarachnia, I refuse to believe it!" the white pawn said stubbornly.

"Then let me tell you again.....AHHHH!" The spider screamed, but this time in pain as the alien sent his sword through her gut. She shuddered, then fell down limply.

"PHANTOM!!" the pawn growled. "How dare you do this....?"

"That was nothing," Beta 99 growled. "How I dare do this, is another matter."

He shot at Silverbolt with his eyebeams before the Fuzor could react. Beta 99 only succeeded in pushing the pawn backwards, before the Transformer fired at him with his wing missiles. Beta 99 dodged out of the way, and fired back at the Transformer, never even giving him a chance to fight back. Eventually, the Fuzor fell onto the rocky ground, as dead as the female seductress beside him.

Beta 99 flew up into the sky again, this time not stopping to look at any of the planet's beauties, before reaching his goal

********************

Jade walked through the hallways of the Maximal base. He had just been out scouting, and he was trying to find where Optimus was. He was probably in his quarters, in which case Jade did not want to disturb him, because he might be sleeping. It was bad enough having normal people mad at you, but the leader of your team.....oh, that would be awful!!

There were no Predacons in sector R-34, which was odd. He had heard that Blackarachnia hung out there often.

Maybe I didn't search hard enough! the dragon thought, his eyes flashing crimson in alarm. Oh, I knew I should have looked in that cave! Why didn't I? Blackarachnia might still be out there, ohdearohdearohdear...... I am so stupid! Can't I do anything right? I shouldn't have been flying around like an idiot. I should have scouted harder! Dumb, dumb, dumb...

Jade snapped out of his thoughts. He thought he had heard a noise. He cocked his head again, trying to hear what it was. There was no other sound. His eyes scanned the area. Just a bunch of metal and shadows. There was nothing else.

The dragon shrugged it off, his eyes changing back to a meditative brown.

He was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he hardly felt the optical lasers hit his head.

****************

This Transformer had hardly heard him coming, Beta 99 realized. They were a stupid race! No wonder he had managed to kill them all so easily. He had even managed to destroy the Predacon exile that went by the name of Tarantulus. One by one, he had seen their sparks float up into the sky, to where ever their spark went when they died. Those who were not dead, Beta 99 had made sure they had a thorough concussion, so that their spark would fade slowly, and they would be dead within a few days. The ones still alive would not be able to get up and go to their precious healing chambers. All the alien had to do away with now was the flying cat, the rhinoceros, and the Transmetal fox.

His only disturbance was Phantom. The Transformer seemed even more persistent in trying to get his body back, and almost had succeeded on numerous occasions. The first was when Beta 99 had killed the pup's father. It had been humorous to hear Phantom gasp as his father flopped down on the ground, a strange fluid pumping out of his chest. With every Maximal death, Phantom seemed to get more annoying.

Beta 99 also sensed Phantom's fear. But the Alien did not know what he feared. Could it be the Transformer feared his power, or where he would go after he died? It was an interesting thing to puzzle over.

This connection and wanting to save his team mates was something the Beta 99 did not comprehend. Why did Phantom need them, or want to be with them? What was this strange bond that these Maximals seemed to share with each other?

But, as much as he would like to pursue this study of bot psychology, he still had the remaining Maximals to get rid of.

And then, the planet would be great once more.

***********************

Firecat held her breath, and stared at the floor hard. It was all tiles, and on those tiles were drawings. She knew she had to step on the correct drawing, in the correct order. Should the winged cat mess up, death would be her fate. It was VERY crucial that she learn how to perfect this. Every little detail must be choreographed precisely and perfectly, or else her life would end.

She was tip toe-ing her way through a very dangerous labyrinth. It was dark and damp. Fear held Firecat by the throat as she carefully moved from one tile to the next. She was afraid that not even her magical powers could save her now. It all lay in the hands of her footsteps.

And the hint guide.

She clicked on the tile that had the skull on it. Her player, Alexander moved to that spot. Suddenly, giant spikes flew at his head, and he fell down dead.

Firecat snarled underneath her breath. She took the computer disk out of her laptop calmly, as if she felt no frustration at all.

After she had put the disk in it's case, however, she exploded. "SLAG! I always mess up on that part! Stupid King's Quest 6 hint guide! Slag, I hate that game! I'm going to go play Return to Zork! It has better graphics anyway!"

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