Author's notes: Please don't get insulted over my innacurracy of the whole 'who was there someone was Fuzor/Transmetal' thing, (and my spelling) please keep in mind, as I am writing this story, we're only up to 'The Trigger (Part Two)'. So I think that going on with this is a bit of an achievment. Should you wish to give out to me, or feed my spark (feedback) send anything to jennifmoore@hotmail.com. All comments gratefully accepted.
He ached all over. His metallic form bristled with ignored pain. He tried to get up, and instantly regretted the move. Ignored pain tried once again to get attention, and it had his full attention. He gritted his teeth and stood up, much as he could. His surroundings were tiny. He winced as a small, teasing thought entered his head. 'Rattrap could fit in here no problem'. The tiny cell was dark, but his green eyes easily adjusted to the lack of light. 'Ya know, aren't cats supposed to be able to, eh, see in the dark, kiddo?' Maybe Rattrap was right. He could see perfectly in the dark, a quality shared only by one other Maximal, another feline. When it became quite obvious what had happened, Cheetor winced and tried to fall asleep again. No such luck.
"What happened, Optimus Primal? He just disappeared. Damn!" Dinobot slammed his fist as hard as he could down on the table in front of him. Rhinox winced; he would repair the rather large crack the fuming Predacon-come-Maximal had made in the table later. Right now they had to find out what had happened. Rattrap's suggestion that they just gate-crash the party the Predacons must have been having after they must have captured Cheetor immediately received a very cross look from Optimus. He had been scouting when he sent a distress signal back to the base. It was cut off abruptly, and Airazor came to the site ten cycles later to find evidence of a quite large assault. She had relayed images of the site, and it didn't look good. There were bits of Cheetor all over the place. Even Dinobot had shivered when he saw it. Rattrap sighed as he noticed that all of the pieces, put together, made up the kid's tail-blade. He told this to Optimus, who then asked the obvious question,
"Can he transform without it?" Rattrap thought for a moment.
"Eh, I don't think so. It wouldn't do much good anyway, there'd be a little bit stickin' out, if ya know what I mean." Optimus nodded.
"So it's a safe bet he sustained Energon damage due to exposure." Rattrap nodded now. Optimus' heart sank. "See if you can get through to Tigatron. He's the best tracker we have." Rhinox went straight to it, and within five cycles, Tigatron was off. But it was very strange. They had been battling the Preds when all communication was lost with the Maximal. So if the Predacons didn't do it, who did?
"Megatron! There is a ship orbiting the planet! It is directly above our heads!" Scorponok yelled out as his sensors stared beeping as loudly as their little tiny buzzers could muster. He pointed to a large dot over the surface of the planet on his screen.
"Is it a ship of Cybertron's?" Scorponok studied it for a while, scanned it several times, and tapped several buttons. After a while, he said,
"I-I don't know." A little yellow blip flashed on the close-up of the ship. Scorponok's eyes widened, such as they did. "Megatron! The-the sensors-a Maximal! On board the ship!" Megatron smiled for a moment.
"Which one, Scorponok?" Scorponok tapped a few more buttons, and after a few more clicks, came to the conclusion.
"I think it's Cheetor, Megatron." Megatron looked away from the screen, eyes lost in thought. He smiled.
"Pussycat, hmmm? It looks like the Maximals are short one flyer. Well, now may be the time to strike!"
"B-but, Megatron - Blacharchnia, Inferno, Terrosaur and Tarantulas are beyond communications range! We haven't got the numbers!" Megatron seemed to dwell on this for a moment.
"We shall strike as soon as possible. They need the pussy as a flyer! We shall strike in five megacycles! Will that be enough time for our troupe to return, Scorponok?" Scorponok nodded, morbidly wondering what would happen to him if he told the truth and said no.
Cheetor, to amuse himself, had experimented trying to transform. He had wedged himself in a couple of times, but after that, he was fine. He decided that robot form was just fine for the moment. What was going on? Where was he? He didn't know that all would become clear soon.
Optimus was pacing across the room. He had had no reason to believe that Cheetor was dead, yet the main feeling was that he was. Rattrap hadn't spoken a word in hours, (Optimus knew something was wrong when he had many chances for sarcastic comments, but they never came), Tigatron had disappeared off into the forest to think, Airazor was sitting quietly in Cheetor's room, feeling particularly subdued, even Silverbolt was unusually quiet. He had not known the young Maximal long, but he still felt the loss. Rhinox was alone with Optimus in the control room.
"You know, you'll wear a hole in the floor if you continue on like that, Optimus." Optimus turned towards him, and smiled lightly.
"Perhaps you're right, old friend. But - I can't help feeling that something's missing." Rhinox agreed.
"It was all too perfect. He sent out a distress signal, and when we came to investigate, there were pieces of him everywhere. At least, so we thought."
"Or were meant to think." Rhinox frowned; it wasn't like Optimus to grasp at straws.
"Yeah, maybe. But really, all those pieces were really only his tail-blade. And it looks like he may have been using it at the time. It certainly wasn't on him. And there's absolutely no trace of him whatsoever." Optimus nodded, understanding what Rhinox was getting at.
"But I'm still a little sus - what's that?" He said, as the long-range scanners picked up something and started beeping loudly. Alarm klaxons blared, and within five mini-clicks, everyone who was in the Axalon was in the room. Optimus would always remember the thought that entered his head. 'If only we could move that fast in a fight.' Then he sighed, as he realised, with a slight tinge of sadness, 'Cheetor could.' Rattrap asked,
"Hey, what's up, Rhinox? Any news on de kid?"
"Maybe. Just maybeeeeee..." Rattrap frowned.
"Whaddya mean? I asked a question, not a riddle." He was becoming quite irritable. Rhinox then answered,
"Well...I'll be!! It's Cheetor!" In response, he received a multiple,
"Wha...." He explained,
"Well, not quite Cheetor, and he's a little out of reach. There's a ship orbiting the planet! I - I think it's - human!!" There was the sound of several jaws dropping.
"But humans haven't ventured into space for years!!! That's our job!!! It was becoming increasingly dangerous!" Everyone agreed.
"No - this is different. This ship is hundreds of years old. I would even venture to say it came from the 20th Century!!!" Jaws dropped again, and Rattrap rubbed his chin. He said,
"How do you know?"
"Well, keep in mind that we don't know what time-zone we've landed in. We don't know where we are or anything. The wormhole that brought us here could be occurring at different times, and from different time zones." Optimus nodded thoughtfully.
"Now, the hailing codes we use today were invented in the 22nd Century, and since this ship didn't recognise them when I sent them out, and since space travel was only achieved in the 20th Century, that has to be what it is."
"Yeah, maybe it is, and maybe it isn't. I mean, all this is fascinating and everything, but eh, it still don't help us out on the Cheetor front." Rhinox held up a hand.
"Now be patient, Rattrap. Look at this." He punched in a few numbers onto the Axalon's tired command keys, and after a second, a tiny yellow dot started flashing. Cheetor. Optimus almost jumped.
"You did it, old friend. You found him."
"Not quite."
Something suddenly occurred to Cheetor. He had no weapons. Whoever had him was thinking. He remembered them destroying his tail gun. What strange weapons they had. No lasers. He sat down in the tiny space and tried to think what the weapons were. His internal database told him. They were machine guns. Who used machine guns? They were old, expensive, and ineffective. Well, they were thought to be ineffective, anyway. They had made light work of his tail blade, blowing it to smithereens. Then one of them had conked him from the behind with what felt like an elephant, sending most of his systems into stand-by. He still had a particularly large dent in the back of his head. He was surprised to see that his captors had been humans. He hadn't seen humans since they set out onto the Axalon.
Strangely enough, it had actually occurred to him that he may have been in the same time zone as the humans had come from. He didn't know where he was. And then, he was blinded by artificial light entering his poor excuse for a cell.
"Whaddya mean, not quite?" Rattrap said pointedly.
"We know where he is, but we can't get to him. I've re-arranged the long-range scanners so that it can detect Cheetor's condition. It looks like he's very badly injured..."
Megatron tackled the rough terrain with ease. He flew over them. He found himself wondering how he ever managed without his jets. He chided himself. 'Don't ask stupid questions, Megatron'. By the time he had reached the Axalon, the others were waiting for him. He smiled.
"What exactly is it?" Dr. Jackson asked innocently. He was the only civilian aboard the ship, along with fifteen Air Force officers, and five Navy Seals.
"We don't exactly know yet, Dr., however we think that it is some sort of robot." Jackson gave the Major in front of him a 'a what?' look.
"A robot? A - a robot. Er, I know I wasn't down there but that thing didn't act like one. I mean, I know that we're out in deep space and everything, but last time I checked, robots couldn't think." Major Samantha Carter looked up to her superior, Colonel Jack O'Neill, and said,
"Well, you're right on that point, Dr., but"
"Please, we've been here five months, my name is Daniel."
"Right. Well, this one can. Just look at these weapons!" She displayed them all to everyone there. It was obvious that they were extremely advanced. Daniel thought hard.
"Well, might I butt in here a second? I know you're all amazed and everything, but I was only brought along because I could greet aliens provided they were from diverse human cultures, and I could do it peacefully. I doubt that capturing the first one we meet was very smart. We may have ticked off anyone it knows. And I believe that, relatively speaking, it's only an adolescent. I know what that sounds like, but it's true. Granted it's a robot, but if you look at its head, you'll see that its face is that of a teenager. I swear, it's true. I know you all think of me as 'the civilian', but I know what I'm talking about." Everyone there just stared at him, and Colonel O'Neill glanced at Colonel Maybourne. He turned back to the young anthropologist.
"Maybe you should get some sleep, huh?" Dr. Jackson shrugged him off, and left the room in a huff. Major Carter went after him, but he was gone. Daniel Jackson had sneaked down the hall towards the holding cell where Cheetor was. He opened the cell, and was slightly surprised to see the robot didn't make a bid for freedom, instead it blinked in the light. Jackson almost smiled. Obviously the robot hadn't found the light switch. Well, he couldn't find it in the dark, which presented a bit of a paradox. He asked,
"Don't you have a light on you somewhere?" as he switched on the light. A young voice answered.
"It's broken." Daniel started with a few questions.
"Umm, I have to ask you a few questions, just to see what we know about you." The creature nodded.
"What's your name?"
"Cheetor."
"How, uh, how old are you?"
"I was first programmed sixteen years ago." Daniel smiled, he had been right. "Look, I know you're probably really interested and everything, but do you have a repair station? These really hurt, you know." He showed Daniel multiple holes all over him. He gasped.
"What happened to you?"
"Not you exactly, but you all shot at me! For no reason, either! Man, that's not fair!" And he let out a little growl, very cat-like.
"You can feel pain?" Daniel asked, incredulous.
"Wish I couldn't," Cheetor answered, truthfully. Daniel's face was blank, unreadable. "What? What did I say?" Cheetor was getting a bit impatient with this person. It was obvious that he was only around thirty. He decided that he wanted to know. "Who are you, anyway?"
"My name is Dr. Daniel Jackson."
"Dr. as in medical, or Dr. as in a scientist?"
"As in a scientist."
"Look, I know this sounds like a really weird question, but what year is it?"
"What? I mean, it's obvious that you're much more advanced that us, and you don't know the time?"
"Oh, I know the time, but we came to this world through a space anomaly, a wormhole. We don't know what year it is, because we haven't met anyone or anything that could tell us what year it is."
"Oh. Well, in that case, it's the year 2002." Cheetor nodded. That seemed about right. "Do you know where we are?"
"Well, all I know is that we set out two years ago, and we have discovered how to get light speed. Long-range scanners on Earth detected huge energy source, one that could power the planet for years to come. Here."
"Energon," Cheetor breathed.
"What?"
"Energon. It's a raw, extremely powerful energy source. It's all over this planet, but it's extremely unstable here. Can I show you something? I can't do it in here." Daniel nodded. He took him outside the room, into the hall. The door at the end was locked, preventing Cheetor from escaping. Suddenly, the robot yelled out, "Beast Mode!!" And he began to change. Right in front of Daniel's blue eyes, he turned into an aqua-blue and yellow cheetah. Daniel guessed that's where he got the name.
"Why do you do that?"
"Well, we've been doing that for centuries, from robot into vehicles, and then we sort of stopped doing it, because we didn't need to any more. But we, and the Predacons, have to do it here, because when we're in our robot forms, after a few minutes exposure outside our ship, the Axalon, we start to short out." Daniel noticed he had no tail.
"Where is your tail?"
"You guys blew it to pieces. It's actually a kind of a weapon." Daniel made an 'oh' face."
"Um, I don't want to appear stupid here, but who are you, anyway?"
"We're the Maximals. We're the good guys."
"Who else is there, besides you, Cheetor?"
"Well, our leader's Optimus Primal. Our scientist is Rhinox, and there's Rattrap, Airazor, Tigatron, and, oh yeah, there's Dinobot. He used to be a Predacon, they're the bad guys, but he changed because he had a fall out with the leader, Megatron. With them there's Tarantulas, Blacharachnia, and loads others." Daniel frowned at the young robot. He was beginning to get a bit vague. And then Cheetor did a very strange thing. He quietly said, 'Maximise', then he walked back into the cell, sat down, brought his knees up to his chest, and wrapped his arms around them. He started to rock back and forth, and began to whimper softly to himself. Daniel looked at him with an overpowering sense of guilt. And then a very commanding voice broke through.
"~Hey, kid, you there?~"
Rattrap worked feverishly on the console in front of him. He jumped when the whole downed ship shuddered. They were under attack. He yelled out, to no one in particular, "Slag! Any time but now! I almost got it!" Optimus ordered everyone to defend the base, and kept Rattrap at his job. But he had to ask,
"Almost got what, Rattrap?" Rattrap didn't even look up.
"I think I can supercharge the long-range scanners, the bounce it off the comm satellite. Long story short, we can communicate with Cheetor. Rhinox programmed the back up scanners and they can check his diagnostics. His comm is online." And proceeded to fade into a barrage of 'almost there, come on's' until at last he jumped up in happiness.
"Yo, Optimus! It worked! It worked!" And he pressed the switch. "Hey, kid! You there?" For a moment, there was only the sound of depressed whimpering, and then Cheetor's welcome voice hissed into the comm unit, over the speakers.
"~Rattrap?~" Rattrap felt like jumping for joy. In fact, he did jump for joy, and nearly tripped over his chair. The Maximals on the ground and in the air heard his voice, crackly but crystal clear in their minds. He was alive.
<
Megatron was surprised to see the Maximals skid to a halt, be they on the ground or in the air. The overall effect was quite comical. He had to laugh as the Maximals stopped completely. Even from here, as he was battling Dinobot, he could hear the voice of the youngest Maximal saying, 'Rattrap?'. He cursed; it looked like the pussy was back. And then he realized he had thought too soon, and he was shot by Dinobot before the traitor raced back to the base, along with the rest of the Maximals. He could swear that Dinobot grinned as he said,
"Auto weapons on!" Megatron shouted as quickly as he could,
"Fall back!" Before the weapons fired in a frenzy of lasers. He knew, without looking, that Blacharachnia had a face on that said, "I told you so."
"What was that?" Silverbolt asked. "I heard-"
"Cheetor," Airazor finished for him. Rattrap looked up triumphantly.
"I found da kid. Hang on a second. Cheetor?"
"~Rattrap - that – you~?" The voice was fuzzy with static, but the words were audible.
"What - happened?"
"Cheetor, this is - "
"~Optimus. I - can - hear - you - fine. You're - a - little - fuzzy, though~."
"So are you. Cheetor, where are you?" Rattrap adjusted the dial on the speakers, and Cheetor's voice came through clearly.
"~On some sort of human ship.~" Rhinox beamed. "~I - I think it's the year 2002. And we're not on Earth. They're from Earth. And they came rather a long way. One of them is with me now. His name is Daniel Jackson. Actually, he's Dr. Jackson. He's an, um, an anthropologist. They completely shot up my tail-blade. It's in pieces. And they burnt half my hand off too. It's dead, it won't work.~" Optimus spoke up.
"Can we speak to Dr. Jackson?"
"~One second.~" A small, slightly nervous and stuttering voice came through.
"~H-hello? Um, who am I speaking with?~"
"I'm Optimus Primal, leader of the Maximals. Are you Dr. Jackson?"
"~Yes, that's me.~"
"Are you the leader of your crew?"
"~Noooooooo. If anything, I'm at the bottom. See, they're all in the military, and I'm a civilian.~"
"Well, dat's all fine and dandy and all, but why did you take da kid?"
"~What?~" There was a bit of scuffling at the other end.
"~Rattrap?~"
"Yeah kid?"
"~Shut up.~" Rattrap was taken slightly aback. Even though he was in one of the worst situations, he still bickered with him. Rattrap looked around to see everyone trying to stifle a grin, and only Rhinox was succeeding. Optimus spoke up again.
"He didn't have to say it quite like that, but I think what Rattrap was getting at, Dr., is there a reason why you felt it necessary to abduct Cheetor?"
"~Oh, well, um, I can't answer that. I didn't do that. That would be Colonel O'Neill. He's the commander of this operation. Do you want me to get him? He probably won't listen to me, but I can try.~"
"Okay. You do that." After a moment, Rhinox asked the inevitable question.
"Cheetor?"
"~Hey, Big R.~"
"How badly are you damaged?" He held his breath, and after a few moments, Cheetor's solemn voice came through.
"~My communications circuitry is almost completely fried. It's amazing I can hear you guys. My internal sensors are gone, so I'm not getting any actual damage reports. I just sort of poked around.~" Rhinox was taken aback. Looked like Cheetor knew more about robotics than he was letting on. "~I think my locking chip is fried. I can't transform properly either. I could a while ago, I can't quite now. Anyway, I look a little stupid without my tail, and there's no Energon up here, so I can't get any more damage than I already have. But I'm running out of energy, and - ~" and he was cut off with a loud scream. His own. Colonel O'Neill stood over the limp form of Cheetor, the gun still smoking, his eyes glaring. Daniel Jackson came running into the room, and shrieked with horror.
"What the hell did you do that for?"
"He was communicating with his home base. We can't let him do that. He could have already ordered an all-out attack. Don't you ever think, Jackson?"
"No! You don't understand! I know! They contacted him, not the other way around. They just wanted to know what happened!" He was about to go on, when a voice rang out.
"~Cheetor? Cheetor?~"
"~Optimus, what happened?~"
"~I don't know, where's Jackson?~"
"I'm here, Optimus."
"~Listen here, this has gone far enough. Bring us back da kid, huh? And what just happened?~"
"Uh, Rattrap, that was my fearless leader, who was so scared of your concern for one of your own that he felt he had to shoot Cheetor to pieces." At that point, down on the surface, Rattrap boiled over.
"~WHAT THAT SLAGGIN' HELL DID YOU DO THAT FOR!!! HE'S ONLY A SLAGGIN' KID!!!~"
"~Jackson~?"
"Yes?"
"~This is Rhinox.~"
"You're the scientist." ~
"~Yup, that's me. Can you move right over to Cheetor?"
Jackson walked over to the body of the robot, and said, "Yeah?"
"~Look at the head of the cheetah. Can you see a tiny switch in next to it? Flick it up" Daniel did so, and the head quietly fell off.
"~Did the head fall off?~"
"Yeah. What do I do now? There's a small screen in front of me, and a few buttons."
"~Press the backup emergency button. It should be to 'off'.~"
"Yes, I see it. I'm pressing it now." A small whirr was heard on both the Axalon and the ship. "A lot of lights have turned on." Rattrap let out the breath he didn't even know he had been holding. Cheetor was online and working. Well, as much as he could. Rhinox spoke.
"~Run internal diagnostics check on circuits.~" Cheetor lit up for a few moments, and then his internal computer spoke with a few blurbles, it was damaged.
"Extensive damage to Maximal. Detect foreign object in vicinity of spark. Identified as : Class A titanium bullet; from a Colt 45 handgun ; circa the year 2000. Spark damaged extensively. Will continue to deteriorate unless repaired. Spark will terminate in 2.3 megacycles."
"~No!~" Rattrap cried out.
"I take it that's bad?" Jackson asked, glaring at the sheepish Colonel holding the handgun in question.
"~A megacycle is similar to an hour, only longer. The units are different, they are using the Metric system. 2.1 megacycles is all Cheetor's got,~" Rhinox answered. "~If we don't get him down here to the repair chamber, he's gone for good. his spark will be destroyed.~"
"If you don't mind me asking, what is a spark?" Carter had by now come in, followed by everyone else. Colonel O'Neill had jumped when he discovered that she had followed him down. Daniel gave her a quick explanation of what was happening.
"~Who's the lady?~" Rattrap asked.
"Major Samantha Carter, US Air Force."
"~Rhinox, answer her question.~"
"~Oh. A spark is what makes us what we are. All Cybertron, Predacon and Maximal have one. Each is different. Cheetors is 16 years old. He's the youngest among us. A spark is a very fragile thing. We have a chamber that can repair it, but we are lacking time. We need to get Cheetor to our base, the Axalon, before his spark fades, or before the Predacons find out what's going on. I don't know which is worse.~"
Colonel O'Neill said, "Look, I'm sorry, but I don't buy into this. This really strikes me as crap, if you don't mind me saying. I mean, this could all be a trick. This thing you call Cheetor, you act like it's alive. It's a robot, for crying out loud. It can't talk, it's can't think, it just runs programmes!" A faint voice countered.
"No I don't." "~Cheetor?~" Rattrap yelled.
"Yeah. Look, I need to go home." And he was gone again.
Daniel said, "Look, I don't care what the hell is wrong with you, but this robot really needs to go home. And he's young! He deserves a chance." O'Neill waved his hand in a 'yeah, whatever' gesture, and walked out. Daniel thought with anger, "Pompous idiot". And then it was action stations.
Go on to Part 2 Coming soon!