The Intergalactic Highway

((OOC: I'm glad to see everyone is okay. =) I have been in hurricanes before and it is not fun at all especially with no power, buying food from a gas station, and sleeping in a the dark with the sounds of chainsaws. *shivers* Scary. Today, I started back in college again and I had a weird dream that dealt with Beast Wars and Zombies Weird thing to dream about on a college day. XDDDD Okay, I'm posting. XDD))

"Aye," Aurora responded, tugging lightly on her lip as she did. "I hope we can help her work through those demons that are haunting her."

"I hope so too, Aurora." She smiled confidently at the young one.

Mystrea wrote:Aurora's smile caught Ironclaw again and he would just spill his entire life story right then. "I'm from Cybertron. I was working on a Star hopper when it decided to bring me here of all places. Thats what I do, I'm an engineer. I'm also the decendant of the great Autobot Ironhide" Ironclaw paused after that last part. He didn't know why he added that in. He tried to think of something to make it sound like it was relevant. "Like Optimus primal is the decendant of Optimus Prime, I am the decendant of Ironhide. Although I don't think I can live up to that like Optimus can" Ironclaw explained takin a quick look over to Optimus. He was envious of Optimus for that.

She listened to Ironclaw intently. She was surprised to hear that he was the descendant of Ironhide, Optimus Prime's old friend. That was interesting. Ironclaw, though, didn't seem confident in himself probbaly because of high expectations to be great like his ancestor. That's a lot of pressure. She was just tell him like she told others she met like him.

"Just be who you are, Ironclaw." Whitegrazer said comfortly with smile. Optimus Primal wasn't great just because he was the descendant of Optimus Prime. He is great because of who he is, not who is he related to.

New Moon wrote:Feralnight looked around the bridge, though compared to earlier it was empty so she flew to the flight hatch and flew outside again. Looking around a bit the fuzor spread her wings out a bit more to slowly land and glanced over as she heard a few voices, one she recognized as Ironclaw's and she came around to where the three where. They seemed to be getting quite a few new bots that day, having smelled a third new bot on her way there."Enjoying your time to the Axalon you two?" Feralnight spoke up after Ironclaw finished talking and came over to join them,"And good to see you Whitegrazer." She greeted with a smile before looking back at Ironclaw and Aurora though was a bit curious of both.

"It's good to see you too, Feralnight." Whitegrazer greeted her, "I hope everything is going well and have you met Aurora and Ironclaw?"

_______________________________________________________________________________

Blackarachnia still hid herself, watching the battle below, waiting to see who would win. The new Pred was handling himself pretty well.

(Hm.. Not entirely sure Blackarachnia would be hearing that entire conversation on loudspeaker.As for the Hurricane.. apparently I over reacted in assuming I would need my glowsticks and crackers. Power didn't go out, the rain and wind was mild. I got off rather lucky since I've had thunder storms alot worse. Seems it let out all it's fury in the lower states and lower part of new york.. the worse being a street in Staten island I watched on webcam having a sewer issue having the street flood into a river of sewage over 3 ft deep.)

Glowstick simply blinked watching Cecaelia communicate with Starshadow. Stripey fluffy furball? Not exactly that detailed since Tigatron and Wintersong fit that description.

Glowstick locked the controls for the manipulators on the Leviathan, then put the ship into Autopilot as he stood up Alright then.. Since I'm the only one who can fly, I guess I'll go out and help. Cecaelia, you're piloting. Keep the Leviathan back and high in the air so the Maximals can't reach it. Steelclaw, you're in charge until I get back. If I need cover fire I'll radio in and we'll retreat.

He waved one of his tentacles as he then moved past Cecaelia to the back of the bridge, and exiting.

Moments later the turret hatch of the Leviathan opened as Glowstick floated out, closing the hatch. He then powered up his internal fan flying off towards the Battlefield, swiftly floating down in front of Starshadow, inches above the ground. His appearance as bizarre as usual, with lights flicking along his transparent limbs.

His optics focused on Dinobot I swear Star, it's like you draw trouble to you sometimes. He then said, one of his tentacles moving to grab the Raver blade from his back, twirling the weapon as it was pasted from one tentacle to the next, until it landed in his feeder tentacle's grasp. One of his other tentacles then pulled out a rather familiar looking weapon to Starshadow, a modified version of her energy rifle, most likely designed to go with the set of amphibious armor that Glowstick had designed for her, it appeared almost the same other then having purple accents, water seals, and a sensor equipped for targeting underwater. Brought you a present, try not to shoot me with it. I know you couldn't hope to repair anything on your own, so just use that for now.

Glowstick then held his sword in front of himself in a strange reverse guard. Well Dinobot, I suppose I'll be your opponent if you insist on pursuing this. His speakers then opened as music started to play (Guilty gear X2 OST-"Still in the dark" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_S43AP1tgc)

(( OOC: @ Blackrosefencer: Awwwe. The poor bunny. I hope she feels better soon. I hate to see my pets feeling umcomfortable or sad. Makes me feel so bad. ))

"The thought had occurred to me," "But I think that my Predacon side is just as interested in my survival as my Maximal side. Obviously I can't know for sure, but I think that I might go out looking for a fight, but I don't think I'd change sides repeatedly. I think the Predacon in me knows that the other Preds are a threat. No one from Cybertron is here now, no one from Cybertron knows how to contact anyone on this planet nor does anyone here know how to contact them, but how long do you think that will last? If they ever found out I was a part of such an important experiment....important in their eyes....they'd be sure to find a way of contacting the others."

"Hm," Optimus let out thoughtfully. "I think Megatron would have different intentions. He isn't one to throw away an opportunity of which he might be able to use against us without consideration of your own well being." The more Arachnitron explained, the more difficult her situation started to sound than Primal previously contemplated. But because of his optimism, he wasn't going to give up without trying. "As for our lack of communication with Cybertron, we've been here for some time already, and I fear it will be much longer. Even if any contact is established with them, your identity is safe with me."

"If you think that is best," "And, yes, I would appreciate no one knowing my previous involvement with the Predacons. The fact that I have a genetic structure that includes both factions will be frightening enough for some."

The gorilla nodded at the widow before him. "Then it will remain between us," Optimus said, giving her his word. While some might be frightened of that aspect, others could be intrigued by it. Others like Frilla, Rhinox, and Oraciner. There were enough people there to help her, or at least understand her. "Thank you, Arachnitron, for explaining everything to me. I know it must be difficult for you to trust anyone, no matter which allegiance they belong to. So, would you like to look around our ship? Or would you rather have some time alone? Just remember that if you remain in robot mode too long, the raw energon fields will build up on your systems and disrupt them, quickly putting you into stasis lock." Primal was aware that she had been out of her beast mode for a little while now, and out of common courtesy, he just wanted to remind her of the dangerous effect it could have. And he was offering an invitation to dismiss her, if she was done telling him everything that she wanted to, in case she wasn't comfortable yet being around so many strangers inside the Axalon.

Because something in the sky caught his eye, Optimus shifted his gaze to find out who was flying in. He always tried to be alert when outside, and aware of his surroundings. Recognizing that it was Feralnight, he simply turned his attention back to Arachnitron. He hoped things had gone all right with the Fuzor's group. He had a feeling there was a lot of debriefing to catch up on, not ot mention the other two new bots, Aurora and Ironclaw.

(( OOC: Not to rush Arachnitron or anything, just want to keep things moving and have OP speak with Ironclaw and Whitegrazer (although, she'll have to pull Optimus aside for that since he isn't aware that she wants to warn him about something), and catch up with everything else that has happened. Unless Arach's dark side comes out soon. ))

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"We have not yet lost the pod," "And if it is not your desire to engage us, then you had better hope your comrades do not try to interfere with our mission. We have come to acquire what is rightfully ours."

Rattrap was afraid Dinobot would say that. In a way, though, he was right. The pod was the Maximals' property no matter how came out of it. But the rat really just wanted to avoid a fight over a now empty stasis pod. Maybe he could find an opportunity to destroy it. Watching Lizard Lips casually walk by Onyx, Rattrap waited to see what the new Pred would do.

"Maximize!""Unfortunately Rattrap think we're stuck with a fight."

"Yeah, I noticed," the unhappy rodent sighed.

"I suppose it can go either way." "Terrorize."

Watching the black horse transform, it was probably too late to go back to chatting, not that it ever lasted long when Dinobot was involved. Now, if Optimus were there, he might actually have had been able to stretch out some kind of negotiation. Of course, it probably would've ended in a battle anyway. "Rattrap, maximize," he ordered his internal computer and his body automatically shifted to his robot mode. Pulling out his gun, he targeted the ebony Predacon.

"I do apologize Maximals I didn't expect to engage in a fight so early but I suppose that was inevitable."

"Yeah, well, all you woulda have had ta do was hand over our stasis pod ta us. That's all we wanted," the rat spoke up to Onyx.

"I would advise you not to move if you value not becoming charred Maximals."

Without panicking, Rattrap strafed and ducked Onyx's shots. Reacquiring his aim, he fired a few of his own blasts back at the Predacon horse. Suddenly, the master marksman found himself being pushed by Frilla, almost stumbling over his own feet, but he quickly realized why. Seeing the bombardment of gun and missile fire coming at them and Onyx, the two small Maximals would get caught in the blast. Rattrap deliberately fell to the ground with his back toward the explosion, covering his head with his weapon still in his grasp. As soon as the heat retracted, he sat up and turned around, frantically searching the area to see what happened and who was left standing. "You all right, Frilla?" he called to her, but his optics on Onyx's direction. Noticing some rustling in the trees, Rattrap thought he spotted a white tiger getting tossed around. "Is that Wintersong?" Rattrap suddenly fired more shots at Onyx as he got to his feet to keep him distracted from Wintersong since she probably already had her hands full with the two femmes. Where was Dinobot? He couldn't see him from where he was through all of the trees, and he kind of blended in despite his blue armor.

(( OOC: Hope I didn't miss anything or get confused. Had a lot to catch up on with RT. ))

Onyx watched the white tiger as she took a nasty plunge and shook his head, her form didn't even seem fit for climbing and now it seemed she had indeed suffered injury while dodging Starshadow's attack. But this distraction was enough to get a few hits from Rattrap and the black horse mech turned, narrowing his optics at the rat for a moment though heard a new voice and briefly looked from the corner of his optics seeing Glowstick, quite unusual to see a transformer so transparent and somewhat slimy looking but his main focus was the two small Maximals. "I would suggest you leave now Maximals, an empty pod is not worth fighting for and certainly not worth risking your hides." He said calmly but aimed his Friction Rifle once more, ready to fire if needed. "Though your sneaky friend over there may not last long if she keeps damaging herself." He remarked gesturing to Wintersong.

Frilla nodded,"Yea I'm alright Rattrap." She replied looking at him before glancing at Onyx as he aimed at them once more. This was getting out of hand and seeing the Levianthan made her spark drop. "Glowstick is here plus the Levianthan and yea that being Wintersong I don't think we can last. Dinobot let's get out of here we're completely outmatched." She called watching Onyx but didn't like the look he gave Rattrap."Or let's make sure he doesn't try and fry us again, beast mode!" Transforming Frilla hissed, opening her jaw as her frill went out to make her look bigger and she shot a blast of ink at Onyx's optics hoping to distract him long enough for some plan of action.

Glancing upwards as a few charred branches fell nearby Wintersong knew remained beneath the tree would be suicide. Putting her rifle down she pushed herself up with her good arm then picked her weapon up and put it away, growling at Starshadow in warning."Back off Starshadow! I really have had more then enough headaches when it comes to you." She said coldly not about to let this panther get her down without a fight. This time she had her wrist launchers ready, her good arm at her side and Wintersong watching the panther closely.

"Hai, Glowstick-kun!" Cecaelia took over the pilot seat as ordered.

*****

I swear Star, it's like you draw trouble to you sometimes.

"That's what I do best. Afterall, black cats are bad luck."

Brought you a present. Try not to shoot me with it.

"Aww..you shouldn't have!" Starshadow kissed the right side of Glowstick's faceplate and took the gun. Hearing Wintersong's warning, she pointed the weapon at her. "Ooo Winterbells got a boo boo?"

"What are you a sparkling?" Wintersong said rolling her optics at Starshadow's baby talk, she really was annoying sometimes. Glaring a bit at the squid near her the tigeress focused on the panther for now,"I swear Star you have some interesting accessories, here's a little present of my own." She said and raised her good arm and firing two mini-missiles but jumped aside as some debris fell nearby, turning to ash from the fire.

She hated seeing the environment destroyed and guessed this was why the aliens hated them, they were causing so much damage with the war but she could only sigh. Watching Starshadow she waited to see what would happen but winced as she felt the joints healing and were moved back into place though she'd still need time for the repairs to finish.

(ooc: Has anyone heard from Alak? I think he's been MIA since the hurricane swept through..)

Ironclaw wrote:"I'm from Cybertron. I was working on a Star hopper when it decided to bring me here of all places. Thats what I do, I'm an engineer.

"That is pretty cool! I'm sort of an engineer myself as well," Aurora exclaimed before Ironclaw continued.

Ironclaw wrote:I'm also the decendant of the great Autobot Ironhide. Like Optimus primal is the decendant of Optimus Prime, I am the decendant of Ironhide.

Aurora's expression changed to that of a puzzled one. Ironhide? She had yet to look into the history of the transformers as a species, so she knew little to nothing about Ironhide and the other Autobot heroes from long ago when the war had brought the opposing columns to Earth. But since Ironclaw had brought it up, she figured Ironhide had to be one of the more famous Autobots, so she quickly caught herself and gave a respectful nod.

Ironclaw wrote:Although I don't think I can live up to that like Optimus can"

"Give yourself some credit," Aurora responded. "You managed to navigate a damaged starhopper all the way from Cybertron to this planet, which is certainly not a feat to scuff at."

Looking him over she added, "And you seem to have made a good choice for your alternative mode," with a playful grin on her face. Although he was quite a bit bigger than her, his badger form belonged to the same family of animals as her own ermine form.

She then brushed a lock of fur that constantly dropped down into her face away before turning to Whitegracer.

"Seems like the others have been gone for a while," she mused, suddenly recalling that Rattrap, Frilla and Dinobot had left to investigate that other fallen pod. "Should we go after them to make sure they're okay?"

Meanwhile Nemesis had accessed the computer panel in her quarters, and was looking up the information the computer had gathered about this world they were now stranded on. If they were stuck here, she certainly wanted to find out more about this planet. She scrolled through page after page of information, only stopping when something caught her optics. These aliens had created a rather lethal clone of Optimus Primal and there had been reports of other encounters with alien technology. Perhaps these aliens would, in one way or another, provide her with the assistance she needed..

The female Predacon turned off the monitor, grabbed her weapons, and left the room. As she walked through the corridors to the exit, she noted that most of the Predacons were still gone. They probably wouldn't be for long, so she hurried out, transformed to beast mode, and flew in the direction of where Primal had been taken away for the cloning process. Hopefully there would be some pieces remaining of the alien technology there..

Ironclaw stared straight ahead and had completely forgotten about the negavtivity of his acestry. What Aurora had just said to him made him feel very embarrassed and he found it hard to keep his expression blank. He couldn't help himself so he took a quick glance and realized he shouldn't when he saw Aurora's playful grin. This is what gave him away and he had to leave before anything else happened.

"I'm going to go and....look at the rear end - I mean the engine, yes the engine" He fumbled his words as he didn't look either of the fembots. Ironclaw gave in to temptation and took another quick look. He saw Aurora move the fur from infont of her face. After he swunf his head back around and smiled to himself.

He really did want to stay and chat to Aurora about engineering but he didn't know how to handle the situation. He thought he was getting ahead of himself. However he did have every intention of checking the enigne over. He had dealt with these ships before back on Cybertron. Ironclaw was comfortable when surrounded by tech.

By the time Ironclaw had walked away he was unable to hear what the rest of the fembots were talking about.

OOC:

Optimal Optimus Primal wrote:(( OOC: @ Blackrosefencer: Awwwe. The poor bunny. I hope she feels better soon. I hate to see my pets feeling umcomfortable or sad. Makes me feel so bad. ))

Me too. I didn't want to do it to begin with, but I knew she'd live a longer, healthier life if I did. She looked like she was in a lot of pain the first few days, but she seems to be doing better now. Every time I bring her out to play she keeps escaping from her little play pen so she can't be in too much pain anymore.

(( OOC: Not to rush Arachnitron or anything, just want to keep things moving and have OP speak with Ironclaw and Whitegrazer (although, she'll have to pull Optimus aside for that since he isn't aware that she wants to warn him about something), and catch up with everything else that has happened. Unless Arach's dark side comes out soon. ))

Well, I wasn't going to originally....but then something OP said jumped out at me and as I was typing, it just...happened. I think it'd just make sense for it to happen now. But she's fighting it....so we'll have to see how the Maximal commander handles this. (Incidentally, you totally stumped me. So this took a LONG time to formulate in my mind).

BIC:

"I think Megatron would have different intentions. He isn't one to throw away an opportunity of which he might be able to use against us without consideration of your own well being."

Arachnitron contemplated this for a moment. She hadn't thought about that. She guessed that the Predacons might inform Cybertron of her whereabouts compelled by greed for some kind of reward or to make sure that the experiments continue. Strengthening the Predacon troops is something any other Predacon would be most anxious to do. The experiments had been designed to combine all the best qualities of the Maximals and the Predacons together in order to create some sort of "Super-bot." This would be very appealing to the Predacons so they could very well turn her in with some added..."incentives"...so that the experiments are not stopped.

But she considered the Maximal's thought process and frowned. "You're right," she responded sadly. "They'd want me just the way I am now...unstable and unpredictable. I'm the perfect weapon. They would definitely not want to share such a find with the Tripredacus Council. They wouldn't contact Cybertron at all. If I were in their place right now, that's what I'd do too."

She suddenly felt ill. She had never thought of herself as a weapon before and the thought completely crushed her. She really had been buying into this "second life" thing, but she suddenly saw even the tiniest glimmer of hope disappearing instantly. This was exactly what the Preds wanted. They wanted her to be here with the Maximals. Maybe she wasn't a failed experiment at all....maybe this had been the plan all along....push her to her breaking point so she'd run off to join the Maximals and destroy them completely.....unintentionally. It would be an easy victory for them, but what if she did the opposite? What if she went to the Predacons instead? That would be glorious retribution for her! Single-handedly destroy the Predacons!

She stopped listening to Optimus speak as she had another thought. There was another course of action that the Predacons could take. They could decide to continue the experimentation themselves. Another good reason to stay far far away from them. This was a hopelessly complicated situation and Arachnitron's face did not hide her feelings from Optimus.

"Thank you, Arachnitron, for explaining everything to me. I know it must be difficult for you to trust anyone, no matter which allegiance they belong to. So, would you like to look around our ship? Or would you rather have some time alone? Just remember that if you remain in robot mode too long, the raw energon fields will build up on your systems and disrupt them, quickly putting you into stasis lock."

She frowned and shook her head in defeat. She suddenly was having second thoughts about this whole situation. She couldn't go in and risk destroying the Maximals. She couldn't stay outside by herself and risk being discovered by the Predacons. It wouldn't take them long to put two and two together at the first showcase of her unstable nature.

She backed away from Primal slowly. Her face wore the same expression of terror it had worn before by the tree. "I....I don't know what to do," she was scared and confused. She spoke quickly and her voice was filled with insurmountable fear. "I...I'm a weapon....I can see that now...." If a Cybertronian had the ability to cry, Arachnitron was to that point now. She felt so helpless and lost and this new realization only added to her anxiety.

Out of nowhere, a flier flew above them. "A SPY!" she thought to herself. She pulled out her energon pistol and raised it in self-defense not knowing the flier was a Maximal.

But the added element of surprise, pushed her over the edge. All this time, she had been fighting the rage as it swelled inside her as she had promised Optimus she would. There had been some pain, but it wasn't too much. But now as she realized the true nature of the experimentation, the outcome if the Preds would ever discover her secret, the fact that all her life all she had ever been to anyone was a weapon and a test subject, the frustration she was feeling towards this whole situation....it all piled up until the pain of holding back "The Rage" was unbearable, it surged through her body from her feet to her head. She cried out and doubled over in pain as "The Rage" took her. She dropped her energon pistol on the ground and fell to her knees, her optics were white and unseeing. Her entire body quivered.

"No! I must fight this! I can't let the Predacons have their way!" she told herself. She held her face in her hands as she screamed in agony and for a brief moment, her optics flashed their normal color as she struggled to fight back the demons inside her. She wanted desperately to hold this off not just to prove to Optimus she could, but because she felt like every time she let it take hold of her, she was losing some unseen battle between her and her previous tormentors.

Starshadow's shoulder was hit by the missle, sending her to a boulder. "Ugh!" the catbot put a hand behind her head and looked at the tigress. She kept her gun and got her blades ready. Starshadow roared and charged towards Wintersong and pushed the blades in the maximal's wrists.

"Had enough yet?"

"I met Ironclaw earlier but no I haven't met Aurora yet. She must have came online shortly after me and Cheetor left to check out the Star Hopper." Feralnight said as she stood straight looking over at Aurora. "I'm sure the three of them are fine, despite how much they may not get along in Rattrap and Dinobot's care they're some tough bots. Hopefully they didn't run into too much trouble." She answered though had a feeling they might have with the Levianthan having been around, with that around there was always a chance for trouble. In fact they didn't know it had gone back to base. "Then again they had the Levianthan, and the rest of us know the predacon craft is nothing but trouble." She said now a bit concerned.

((OOC: I didn't expect school to be this... utterly mean this year. Or maybe I'm just going about it the wrong way. At any rate, I will try my best to write a response tomorrow. I shouldn't have as much stuff to do.))

"Seems like the others have been gone for a while," she mused, suddenly recalling that Rattrap, Frilla and Dinobot had left to investigate that other fallen pod. "Should we go after them to make sure they're okay?"

New Moon wrote:"I met Ironclaw earlier but no I haven't met Aurora yet. She must have came online shortly after me and Cheetor left to check out the Star Hopper." Feralnight said as she stood straight looking over at Aurora. "I'm sure the three of them are fine, despite how much they may not get along in Rattrap and Dinobot's care they're some tough bots. Hopefully they didn't run into too much trouble." She answered though had a feeling they might have with the Levianthan having been around, with that around there was always a chance for trouble. In fact they didn't know it had gone back to base. "Then again they had the Levianthan, and the rest of us know the predacon craft is nothing but trouble." She said now a bit concerned.

"Rattrap and Dinobot are capable men but it wouldn't hurt to contact them to give us a status of their situation and see if they need backup."

"I'm going to go and....look at the rear end - I mean the engine, yes the engine" He fumbled his words as he didn't look either of the fembots. Ironclaw gave in to temptation and took another quick look. He saw Aurora move the fur from infont of her face. After he swunf his head back around and smiled to himself.

Whitegrazer just nodded, sensing his emotions, "All right, Ironclaw but I still need to assign you some quarters." Whitegrazer looked at Aurora, "After we check on the others, I will show you some quarters and I hope you wouldn't mind if you help Ironclaw with that whenever he is done with the engines." Ironclaw seemed to be really comfortable towards Aurora.

"All right, Feralnight, where actually are they?" Whitegrazer smiled. She hoped the others were okay and walked to the console, waiting for Feralnight's response.