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Rebound
By Starlight85
"Well, kitten, glad you could make it here today" said Blackarachnia, her gun to Cheetor's head. "Bring him to Megatron" she said, nodding towards Waspinator and Inferno, who followed her orders.
Cheetor was led through a series of hallways, all decked out in the army green and silver of the Predacon base. A door suddenly appeared right in front of him. When it opened he found himself in Megatron's quarters. The Transmetal T-rex leered at him.
"Ah Cheetor" he said in a courtly manner "I see that you looked distressed. Pray tell, what is the problem?"
"You know exactly what it is, you stinkin' Preda-butt" Cheetor found himself snarling.
"You took away our base and now the rest the Maximals are lying half dead in the jungle."
"Yes, that was a stroke of genius on my part, wasn't it?" the Predacon leader replied.
"You'll pay for that" Cheetor howled in rage as he swiped at Megatron with his whip. Megatron merely stared back.
Suddenly, out of the shadows, came all the whole entire Pred fleet. Even Scorpinok and Terrorsaur were there. They all drew their weapons. Cheetor tried to move, but his legs were stuck to the floor. Simultaneously, all of the Predacons fired at him. He saw their bullets drawing closer to his body, and closer......
Cheetor slowly opened his eyes with a whimper of terror. At first all he could see were some shadows and specks of light, then his vision began to clear. Cheetor was in a jungle. All around him he heard the sounds of snoring Maximals. He tried to stand up, but a massive pain attacked him, forcing him back onto the forest floor with a loud groan.
He felt some fur brush against the cool metal that was now his skin. Cheetor glanced over to his right and saw Satin lying next to him, snoring drowsily. Cheetor glanced at her ankle, which was twisted in the opposite direction then ones feet should normally be. It was also swollen. Cheetor sighed and glanced at her lovingly. Even with the twisted ankle, she was very beautiful.
Cheetor liked Satin very much, but whenever she was with him, he got the feeling she was using him for something. That he didn't like. Cheetor also didn't like the fact that she was a bit too old for him, he being fifteen or sixteen in human years and she being around twenty five. And he also knew that Optimus didn't like the fact that Cheetor liked her, which wasn't good if he wanted to make a good impression on Optimus.
The Transmetal grimaced as he turned his thoughts away from Satin to the events that had taken place last night. Had it been last night, or a few nights ago? Cheetor had lost all track of what day it was. He didn't know how long he had been stuck in the black void of sleep. Cheetor looked around some more.
Jade was over his left, the right half of his body charred and burnt. Dippy's small curved knife was sticking out of his back.
The dragon laid sprawled over Rhinox, who had lots of tears and deep scars in his hide.
Optimus was close to Rhinox, his back also burnt and with some serious wounds.
Beside Optimus was Malice. His mechfluid was dripping out in tons of places.
Silverbolt lay beside Malice, one of his wings was torn up very badly, the other one limp and hanging.
Rattrap's body was blackened and scarred so much it looked like some one had dipped him in a can of black paint then ran a lawnmower over him. Nightshade was next to Rattrap. She had many very serious wounds too. Cheetor saw Waspinator's bullet between her ribcage.
Dinobot was beside her, his flesh open and jagged, his blue crackling circuits in plain view. The cat noticed that whenever Dinobot's chest rose and fell during his breathing, there was a certain unevenness about it.
Cheetor gave himself a review. Other than minor wounds, he had a big hole in his chest. He nearly fainted at the sight of his mechfluid, which was pumping out of the wound at an alarming rate. The cat gently lowered himself down on the ground. He didn't know what to do. He just wanted to get back home to the base, to a CR chamber. But he couldn't do that.
Maybe I should wake Optimus, Cheetor thought. He'll know what to do.
Cheetor grunted in pain as he got up onto his feet. Suddenly he heard a rustle over to his right. Cheetor whirled around.
All he saw was a clump of ferns.
The noise, though, had to be a Predacon.
"I know you're here" he said " so yah might as well come out and save yourself the trouble of me whipping your tail." There was no answer. Cheetor grinned grimly. I'm in no shape to kick anyone's tail right now.
He moved over towards where he had heard the sound and sniffed, trying identify a smell. Cheetor smelt metal. Tarantulus? Cheetor heard the rustle again. He ran towards Optimus and shook him, like a child trying to rouse a parent after they've seen the infamous Boogey Man.
"W-what is it Cheetor?" asked Optimus, shaking his head and grunting in pain.
"Something's out there, Big Bot" said Cheetor "I heard it just a minute ago."
"Where did you here it?" asked Optimus.
"Over to my right, behind those ferns over there" replied Cheetor. The two Transmetals listened for a five more minutes, hoping to catch a sound of any sort. No other sound was heard.
"Are you sure you didn't just imagine it?" asked Optimus.
"No I didn't Optimus" said Cheetor, suddenly getting very defensive, "I'm not a brainless cub, I know what I heard, and I heard a sound from the bushes."
"It's not you Cheetor" replied Optimus "this has just been very hard on all of us." Optimus looked around at his fellow Maximals, his face turning grim. Optimus sighed.
Poor Optimus, the cat thought, he must think this is all his fault.
"Big Bot, you showed some great commando skills out there" Cheetor said in an abnormally slow, comforting voice "you should be proud of yourself. None of us are dead." Cheetor didn't want to add the word "yet."
"Yes, but they will be if we don't get to a CR chamber" said Optimus.
"So what do we do?" Cheetor asked, hoping against all hope that Optimus would know.
"I don't know" said Optimus. "We could try that surrender trick we used on StarScream, but this time we're really injured, so it will be hard for us to do anything. We could actually surrender, but that would be putting ourselves in a position were Megatron could do anything he wanted with us. On the other hand, if we stay here, we'd just probably end up off-line. Our internal repairs systems will work, but it will be too slow to actually stop the most of the damage."
Optimus looked at Cheetor. It was a look of despair, a look of fear, a look of hopelessness.
"Optimus, you can't lose hope" cried Cheetor, fear grabbing his Transmetal throat.
"I'll try not to Cheetor, but it's going to be very hard." Optimus sighed. "Very hard."
*********************
Phantom paced around in the storage room. Near him, piled up high, were the Maximal's extra weapons. There was a replica of Rhinox's rotor gun, Dinobot's sword, Cheetor's old quasar and his new whip, Nightshade's overgrown switchblade knife, as well as many others. There was also a large supply of stable energon.
It had been amazingly easy to keep away from all of the Predacons. Dippy, Unnamed Flyer, Quickstrike and Crimson never even gave a thought to the fact of the new Maximals.
Dippy was too busy being slobbering at shadows and biting himself to care.
Crimson's one thought was of his leader.
Quickstrike was fuming over how much he wanted his "Sugar-Bot" by his side and at how much he wanted to kill those "tin-horned ornery Maximal buffoons."
Unnamed Flyer was too busy making new discoveries with Rhinox's technology all the time, and if she did learn of the Maximal inside the storage chamber, she'd probably forget.
So Phantom's only real threat was Serpentess. She's too cold, too clever and too ruthless to leave me alone if she ever found out about my existence. I'll have to watch her. And the others as well. Surprises usually come from the most unlikely.
Phantom pranced back and forth in agitation. He had been in this base at least two whole days, and not one of the Predacons had taken off their belts yet. He had slunk into every room, not one sign of the belts. Besides, he had begun to wonder as to how his sister was doing.
Ha, if they haven't already figured out who she is, the bot thought with a mental chuckle. It's time for me to blow this metal pop stand, Phantom thought as he left. He slowly opened the door of the storage room and looked around. No one to be seen. But then if they still carried the belts they could become invincible in a second's notice. Might as well make one last room check, the Maximal thought.
He skirted quickly down the left hallway and put his ear to the first door he came across, which was Crimson's room. No sound. He moved towards the door and it opened for him.
Phantom surveyed the room, even though he knew them off by heart. Cheetor's old room, which used to have pictures of cheetahs and cats everywhere, was now bare. Except for one item.
A belt!
Phantom grabbed it in his mouth. He smiled in happiness as he dashed towards another room. Unnamed Flyer's.
He heard noises inside; the clomp of Unnamed Flyer's feet against metal, the tinkling noises as she poured a liquid into another liquid, and the crashing explosion that came after it. Phantom smelt smoke and saw it pouring out of the cracks of Unnamed Flyer's door. Phantom heard some hoarse coughing. The bot ran quickly onto the next room. That explosion would probably have sent Quickstrike or Crimson over to investigate. It was best that he not be there when that happened. Phantom couldn't surpress a chuckle. What an awful scientist that bat is, he thought. The last room in the left hallway was Dippy's room. Phantom heard no movement, and, after a few more seconds of cautious listening, the Maximal opened the door.
The inside Dippy's room was a museum of bones, fur, skin, horns, animal insides, feathers, bird eggs, leaves, fungi, bark, twigs and rocks all arranged in a careless, hectic fashion. There was also a dirt section, ranging from black soil to pure white sand, strewn all over the floor. There was also a small amount of glowing blue energon. He walked over and pawed at the energon, as quickly and noiselessly as possible. Underneath he found what he had sought.
Another belt.
Phantom quickly transformed. He looked down at his robotic body. It was so odd, he had been in beast mode for so long that he had practically forgotten he had a robot mode. He put the first belt in his hands and slipped Dippy's belt onto his waist. He pressed the alien symbol that he had seen Megatron press to make himself invincible. It worked on this belt too. Phantom transformed back into his beast mode. He nodded with satisfaction and a bit of surprise as he saw the belt's metal glow blue and meld to fit his new form. He quickly slipped out of Dippy's room, passed the control room, and ended up at the first door of the right hand hallway.
It was Quickstrike's room, which no one was in. The Maximal dashed inside and heard the door close automatically behind him. Quickstrike's room was as bare as Crimson's except for the pictures of Blackarachnia, which Phantom sneered at, and a belt, which Phantom hastily picked up. He transformed into robot mode and put this belt around his neck, like a collar. Then he transformed again, he still held Crimson's belt still in his mouth. He trotted out of that room and went to the third door on the left of the hallway.
He couldn't hear anyone in Serpentess's room, so he opened the door. Nobody was in there, but no belt either. The bot sighed, but he was only somewhat unhappy. He had three belts already, and these belts could regenerate four Maximals each, and all he needed was to regenerate ten. Phantom left Serpentess's room in a hurry, running down the hallway. Suddenly the Maximal stopped dead in his tracks.
"Who's there?" called a cold, steely voice. Serpentess stood in the control room, her blood red eyes scanning her surroundings. He also noticed that she had the belt on. Think, who's someone that would be out of the base right now?
"Dippy be I" said Phantom in his best Dippy voice.
"You don't have a metallic clanking sound when you run" said Serpentess casually.
"Mode robot in I be" said Phantom. He saw Serpentess raise an eyebrow. They both knew that Dippy was never one to run around in his robot mode. "Something new try I" said Phantom, with an indignant squawk to his voice. "Wrong now it be for someone to try thing new?" he asked.
Serpentess didn't respond.
"Out go I" said the Maximal, eager to get back to his sister.
"Well, that's very interesting, because right now you should be outside" said Serpentess.
"What?" asked Dippy/Phantom.
"I just saw Dippy go outside two minutes ago" the cobra said.
Phantom froze as he heard those words. Serpentess lunged at Phantom, grabbing him roughly by the shoulder before he could pull away. Phantom felt the barrel of Serpentess's gun at his head, and her knife tickling him under his chin. Oh how the mighty have fallen, was the only thought that came to his head.
**********************
"Oww."
Jade ground his teeth together and blinked back a few tears as he ripped Dippy's curved hunter's knife out of his skin. He glanced at the wound. He saw a large gaping hole in his skin, blue broken circuits underneath, and a bit of a torn wing membranes. And of course his own mechfluid. Jade sighed. He didn't mind being out of the base, nature was a very lovely thing to be in, but he didn't like the fact that everyone was in pain and that they had no safe haven, as the base had been. He also didn't like the fact that if they went without a CR chamber or any sort of aid they could die. And the knowledge that the Predacons could attack at any time was none too comforting. Jade pulled some large leaves off of a jungle shrub and held them to his wound. He then tied them to his side with a vine from an overhead tree. He hoped it would stop the flow of mechfluid. Then Jade did a quick survey of his surroundings with his color changing eyes. Birds chirping in trees, bugs buzzing about, howler monkeys howling, everything was as it was supposed to be. I'd better go see how the others are, Jade thought. Every one was been trying to make the best of what they had. Every body's major wounds were now covered with dried mud or bound up like Jade had done. Rhinox was now completely submersed in mud. Satin had, after a lot of persuasion, had twisted her swollen ankle the other way around. After everyone had been doctored as best as possible, Optimus and Silverbolt had gone looking for a place that they could all stay in, like a cave or a den.
"Are you okay, dragon?" came a voice from behind him. It was Silverbolt. The wolf/eagle's face was scratched, torn, and haggard, but still he held his head high and walked with a purposeful stride, as if he had no wounds at all.
"I'll survive, if I'm lucky" said Jade with a rueful smile. Now why did I say that?Optimistic, you stupid dragon, you're supposed to be optimistic. "Did you find a place where we could sleep for the night?" he asked trying to keep some hint of hopefulness in his voice.
The Maximals had been complaining about the need for a shelter. Where they were right now was a perfect place for a Predacon attack. If it rained some of them might catch a cold or a fever also, though that was unlikely to happen.
"Yes we did" said Silverbolt. "Optimus and I found a large series of underground tunnels which are all connected together, like a labyrinth. Optimus sent me back to tell you this. He said he was going to look around some more."
"How far away is it?" Jade asked eagerly.
"It is well over to the west, and on neutral territory, too" the fuzor replied.
"How long do you think it will take us to get there?" Jade asked again, his spirits rising a little.
"With the condition we are in, and if we start in the next hour or so, we might be able to reach it by sun up tomorrow" said Silverbolt with a smile on his doggish face.
"This is great" Jade grinned. "I'm going to go tell the others" he said as he dashed through the jagged undergrowth, almost ignoring the pain coming from his burnt side. After a few seconds of dashing through the steamy jungle, he go to the twelve meter clearing in which the Maximals were resting, practically on top of each other.
"Hi Jade" greeted Rattrap with a small grin.
"Hi" Jade bobbed his blue horned head in a greeting.
The situation seemed to bring the best in everyone. No one complained, no one fought, and every body was nice to their neighbor. Even Dinobot was subdued.
"Any visible Predacons?" asked Rhinox.
"No" replied Jade "I've found out something much better than that. Silverbolt" he nodded to the fuzor as he appeared behind him " and Optimus found a series of large caves. It can fit everyone in, with room to spare. Optimus stayed behind to check it out some more."
"That's great."
" A place to stay."
"No more steamy, foggy jungle for us."
"This location is perfect cover for a Predacon ambush. I am glad we will be leaving."
"All right Bird-Dog and Big Bot!"
Those were a few of the many happy replies that greeted Jade's ears. Things are finally looking up for us. Some of the weight was lifted off of the Maximal's shoulders. "When do we leave?" asked Rattrap. Jade looked at Silverbolt. The dog replied "Optimus said he would come back to tell us what he found, how many caverns there are, if there are any dangers and so on, so I would think we should wait for him."
And that was what everyone did for the next half hour, until they saw a metallic gorilla riding towards them on a hoverboard.
"What is the information you have about the cave?" asked Silverbolt.
"There will be no threat of cave ins or blockages in most of the caves because they are all made out of one piece of stone, with no loose rocks. There are pools of water in five of the lower caverns. The one entrance I found was at the base of a mountain, so no one will have to climb, and it is concealed by other rocks, so it will be hard for Predacons to spot it. I did find one thing disturbing, however."
Optimus, you were this close, Jade thought despairingly.
"I found these lying in one of the rooms" continued Optimus, as he held up two solid steel chains. On one set of chains the shackles had been broken by sheer force, on the other the shackles hadn't been broken off at all, the links had been broken. "I don't know what they were for" said Optimus "if they carried any scent it is long gone."
"One of the new Maximals or Predacons?" asked Rhinox.
"It could be" replied Optimus. "I didn't smell anything in the caves, so I guess they must have moved out."
"So are we going or not?" asked Cheetor.
"Going." said Optimus. All bots assembled scrambled, slowly but surely, to their feet, groaning as they felt scars open or their mechfluid run through their stiff joints. Each one of them were quite happy that they were moving into another, more secure place. A place that somewhat made up for the base they had lost.
Jade saw that Dinobot had the most trouble getting up. The velociraptor had broken three ribs, as well as other deep running scars. Cheetor's chest also caused the Transmetal to get up slowly, though he looked too happy to let that wound bother him now. Satin still walked with a limp on her retwisted ankle, which was swollen to the maximum. Nightshade also had trouble, Jade noticed as she painfully flexed the side where Waspinator's bullet had entered her rib cage. We're certainly going to take a long time getting to those caves.
It wasn't until it was too late that Jade heard the buzzing up ahead.
"Die Maximalzzzz" cried Waspinator, brandishing his gun.
"Alright y'all, time to whip some butt!" shouted a very enthusiastic Quickstrike.
"Death bring you we do" called a voice from behind him. Jade didn't even need to turn around to figure out who that was.
"For Our Leader" said Crimson in his very military voice. The Maximals looked around. Their good mood had vanished.
**************************
Cloud Runner gasped. She forgot all about the chains that had held the Predacons, or the fact that she had to let her brother know that the Maximals would be using their home.
Cloud Runner glanced around, taking in as much of the action as her tree fortress allowed. Waspinator was approaching from the right side of the clearing, right under her tree, Dippy from the left, Crimson from the north, and Quickstrike from the south. The group of ten Maximals were surrounded. She had to help the Maximals, but how?
Her brain working wildly, she suddenly thought of a way.
She remembered the time that she and her brother had noticed a pack of wolves approaching a deer herd out in the wilderness one day. Phantom had wanted to help the wolves. Cloud Runner never liked her brother to go hunting animals, but he had begged and pleaded so much she had finally let him have his way.
"But how will you help them?" she had asked. "If you rush out there and run those deer over the wolves will stop hunting, or they'll try to kill you or the deer will run away from the wolves."
"Ah, sister, if I cannot help them directly, I will help them indirectly" Phantom had said as he charged off, spooking the herd so that the sick and young deer ran right into the waiting jaws of the wolves. A little while later her brother had been entitled to some of the most delicious scraps around.
Cloud Runner now tried her brother's philosophy.
Waspinator started firing at Optimus, Malice and Nightshade who were trying to dodge the bullets, but with little success. Nightshade got hit thrice, twice in the ribs and once in the legs, Malice got hit five times, and Optimus was getting blasted so many times it was hard to keep track of them all.
The unknown bot slunk over to Waspinator and, with out further fanfare, broke a rather large branch and dropped it on his head.
"Huh?" said Waspinator as he looked up, just to see the offending bit of foliage whack him in the face. Optimus took that opportunity to kick Waspinator's pistol out of his hands. Cloud Runner saw it land on the ground near the tree that she was in. She hopped quickly to the ground and picked the gun up in her mouth, then scrambled back into the tree.
Cloud Runner jumped awkwardly from branch to branch, to where Quickstrike was firing at Silverbolt and Dinobot, both of who were getting majorly damaged. After at least one or two minutes, Cloud Runner manage to get the gun just in the right position so that she could fire it in beast mode. She fired three shots, all of which hit Quickstrike straight in the back.
"What in tarnation?" howled Quickstrke as he shot a few energy beams up into the tree tops. Cloud Runner picked the gun up again and dodged them all. She saw Dinobot and Silverbolt charge Quickstrike. The Predacon fuzor fell down, but not without grabbing Dinobot's head in his gigantic hand and throwing him against the tree, which trembled under the blow. The unknown Maximal watched Dinobot's body go limp. Quickstrike got up again and started wrestling with Silverbolt. Cloud Runner knew that if she shot then, she would have a fifty percent chance of hitting Quickstrike, and a fifty percent chance of hitting Silverbolt, so she dashed to the next scene of violence.
Dippy was slashing at Jade and Rhinox with his curved, overgrown hunting knife. He had no strategy whatsoever, just a slice here, a slice there over to the next and chop some more. The Predacon giggled as he did this. Dippy moved closer to Jade and, with one slice, cut the dragon's right arm off. Jade howled in pain. His eyes turned from black to a fiery orange. Cloud Runner aimed the gun at Dippy and shot him twice. The first shot struck the troodon in the shoulder, the other one struck him in the foot. Dippy staggered around and fell into Crimson, who had been shooting at Rattrap, Satin and Cheetor all the while. Cloud Runner noticed that both Cheetor and Rattrap had stopped moving.
Unfortunately for the Maximals, while Dippy and Crimson were righting themselves, Waspinator and Quickstrike stood in front of them and took their places. Quickstrike started shooting the Maximals with almost effortless ease, picking his victims out carefully and casually. Waspinator just went around kicking and punching everyone. Cloud Runner jumped out of her tree and onto the ground. She carefully snuck over to where Crimson and Dippy were standing. She grabbed Crimson's leg in her Transmetal jaws and shook him until he lost his balance. Crimson fell on top of Quickstrike. The gigantuan ladybug also managed to drag Dippy down onto the ground again.
Cloud Runner once again maneuvered the gun so she could shoot in beast mode. This time she aimed it at the pile o' Preds in front of her, shooting them once, twice, three times and so on, until she felt that they would be no immediate threat to the Maximals.
Waspinator, however, was still buzzing above them, knocking people down and throwing them against trees. Cloud Runner took his gun and shot him twice. Both of the bullets hit him in the chest, thus causing him to crash unceremoniously to the ground.
By this time the few Maximals who could move properly had gathered up their disabled comrades.
Nightshade gathered Cheetor in her arms, Satin half dragged half carried Rattrap, Rhinox got Dinobot on his back, Silverbolt and Optimus leaned on each other for support, and Malice carried Jade. They all slowly made their way out of the clearing, limping and moaning and crying.
Cloud Runner saw the four Predacons get up, slowly and somewhat painfully.
"Maximalz are gone" said Waspinator in a disappointed voice.
"Them after go we should?" asked Poltergeist. There was a second's pause while everyone tried to figure out what Poltergeist had just said.
"Well, I'd love tah, but Boss Bot said that he wanted Optimus and a few other Maximals alive to what he likes with ‘em" said Quickstrike.
"Besides, we got shot at by an unknown assailant who might still be around" Crimson seconded. "We should go back to Our Leader."
"But Wazzpinator lose gun" the wasp sighed as he picked up Dippy and flew off into the sky. Crimson grabbed Quickstrike and joined Waspinator in flying back to the base together. The first emotion Cloud Runner felt was happiness.
I beat them and helped the Maximals, she thought with a grin.
The second was of distaste. Ugh, I can't believe I ran around in the shadows like.....like....like my brother does! If he ever found out I did that....
And the third was of concern. What about Dinobot and Jade and Rattrap and everyone else? Are they going to be okay? What if they aren't? Then what'll happen to the rest of the Maximals?
And so it was that with these disturbing thoughts Cloud Runner left to check on the Maximals, and to wonder at their fate.
*****************
Nightshade panted and wheezed. She wiped her eyes, trying to keep the mechfluid out of them. Her entire body ached with a million pains that crowded into her brain. She felt the air around her go from stale to humid.
We reached the caverns, she thought, but at what a cost. Dinobot unconscious, Cheetor and Rattrap paralyzed, Optimus bleeding to death, Jade with a missing limb, and the other Maximals with dozens of fatal and deadly wounds. It's awful. If we don't get to a CR chamber quickly, we're all going to be scrap.
The raptor sighed and kept marching, slipping occasionally on the crude path that led down to the lowest of the caves . Finally she reached the bottom of the caverns. She heard a trickle of water. Nightshade peeked in, and what she saw made her forget her pain.
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Rebound Part 2 of 3. Written by Starlight.
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