Subject: [FANFIC 4/10] Lord of the Flies Starring the Transformers Date: Fri, 23 May 1997 00:00:00 GMT From: David Filip Organization: University of Washington Newsgroups: alt.toys.transformers Lord of the Flies Starring the Transformers By David Filip Part Four: The Politics of Fear "EVERYONE! BACK TO THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN! NOW!" After hearing Windcharger's call on the megaphone, many of the kids returned. The airborne Cybertronians flew back and transformed into their robot modes. Skids, First Aid and Brawl climbed out of their cave. Many of the Micromaster teams who weren't on the mountain before came to it quickly. Wheelie and Beachcomber walked out from their refuge in the forest. Afterburner shut off his protective force field and surveyed the area. When enough of the assembly returned, Windcharger started to speak. "I don't think I have to tell you why we're having this assembly. Things are definitely going wrong here." He suddenly discovered that he didn't have his entire speech planned, so he passed the megaphone to Bumblebee's raised hand. The yellow robot simply repeated what he said in shock only moments ago. "You wanted a ship Starscream? There's your ship." "Oh, shut up!" "I've got the megaphone," Bumblebee said in a hurt voice. "I've got the right to speak." Those who looked at him did so with eyes that lacked interest in what they saw, and ears tilted in the direction of the fire. Many of the boys, including Bumblebee for a moment, glanced nervously into hell. "We have to let that burn out for now. That was our EnerFruit supply. I'm scared--" Skywarp turned his eyes away from the fire. "You're always scared. Yeah, Cockroach?" "I've got the megaphone," Bumblebee replied bleakly, "isn't that right Windcharger?" Unwillingly, Windcharger removed his eyes from the awful, yet splendid sight. "What's that?" "The megaphone. I got a right to speak." "Sure. Of course." Bumblebee decided to address the audience again while his leader swam in an ocean of incomputible data. "Every time something new happens, you all go howling off like a pack of kids! How can you expect to be rescued if you don't put first things first? We should have had the shelters done by now, we should have kept the beam on at a lower setting, and we should have made sure we didn't set the whole island on fire." By now they were listening to the tirade. "Won't we look funny if the whole island burns up? We'll all have exploded EnerFruit and roasted Quintessons to eat. That's no joke! You all made Windy your chief, but you don't give him time to think. You rush off like a pack of...of..." The fire growled at them while Bumblebee decided to start over. "That's not all. What about the littluns? The Micromasters. Who took any notice of 'em. Who knows how many we got." Windcharger felt ready to speak now. "I told you to do that." "How could I? Any time we found something new to do they all ran off. How was I to tell which was which?" Suddenly Windcharger became concerned. "Then you don't know how many of us there ought to be?" Bumblebee replied indignantly. "How could I with you and the rest running around on your projects, never keeping track of the--" The knowledge that their actions were too rushed by his own dictates made Windcharger bitter. "If you didn't do your job, you didn't." He took back the megaphone, but Bumblebee wasn't through yet. "Then Starscream steals my face and ruins half of my optic visor--" Now Starscream was angry. "You shut up!" "...and some littluns were wandering around down by the fire. How do we know they still aren't there?" A murmur rose among the boys and died away. Something strange was happening to Bumblebee, for they could hear his energon respirator and the grinding of his axle. "That littlun who turned into the front half of a space shuttle. Where is he now?" The crowd was now as silent as death. "Him that talked about the beastie. Where is he now?" An EnerFruit cluster exploded off in the distance, tossing some creepers into the air. The younger boys imagined a beastie when they saw this movement and screamed. Bumblebee continued. "He turned into the front half of a space shuttle, and we don't know his name. What happened to him?" The boys looked at each other fearfully, unbelieving. "Where is he now?" Bumblebee repeated. No one even knew Phaser's name, let alone his whereabouts. Windcharger had spent the last few minutes preparing a speech about the boys' duties, but now muttered a reply as if in shame. "Maybe he went back to the...the..." He shook his head. "It's getting dark out. Let's go back to the shelters." Afterburner asked for the megaphone. "The particle beam went out due to shrapnel damage from the purple ship. We're going to have to spend some time repairing it." "Fine," Windcharger replied. "The weather isn't too bad yet, we can just stay out here for the night. We'll charge up on energon and get ready for the repair operation." Starscream started passing around the pieces of the Quintesson meat to be internally processed by the Transformers. He told some of the Micros to help out by separating the metal parts from the organic ones. Skids, First Aid and Beachcomber were apprehensive when they first received their apportionment. "I don't think I should be morally obligated to take something that you went out and killed--" "Take it, Beachcomber. We went out for you. We hunted for you. Now EAT!" Starscream tossed a lump of Quintesson meat to each of the three. Skids still felt uncomfortable. "But we don't want to--" Numberless and inexpressible frustrations combined to make Starscream's rage elemental and awe inspiring. "I stole up! I held the blade! You didn't do anything! If you want to starve yourselves into deactivation waiting for Rumble and Frenzy to get back with their EnerFruit, that's fine with me. But if not, show me some respect. NOW EAT!" This tirade convinced First Aid to open the processing compartment in his flat faceplate and to digest the Quintesson meat. "Okay Starscream, you're right. It's good meat, too! At first I wasn't sure if we should go out to hunt, because it's against my code of ethics to kill, but after getting this taste--" "Hey," Beachcomber interrupted. "I was against it from square one! But now--" "I know what you mean!" Skids said, putting a large piece of the Quintesson in his mouth and letting the organic juices dribble down his chin. "We must apologize to you Starscream. We had no way of knowing how good Quintesson flesh could taste. It's like there's a party in my mouth and everyone's invited!" "Yeah," First Aid agreed, "We'd do anything to help you out and get more meat if you want to hunt again tomorrow." Starscream nodded his head to his new friends and continued passing the meat out. Several of the hunters started to help their leader and took meat off his hands. Afterburner asked Dirge what was wrong when he noticed a few missing fingers gripping a portion of Quintesson flesh. "What was that? Were you dumb enough to hold onto the blade instead of the handle?" Dirge frowned. "Well, when I opened the Swiss Army Matri--" "No, no, no," Starscream lied. "It was far more interesting than that. The Quint went out and bit off his fingers while he tried to hold the creature still." "How courageous!" First Aid exclaimed, proud of the warriors and providers in his midst. "I think I'll reattach them for you." Dirge nodded his head and thanked First Aid while Starscream continued. "You see, there must have been thousands of them. Quintessons were everywhere, but they didn't notice us because we flew in low. Then three of us jumped in to stop him, but the big one kept running. Then it dragged Thundercracker around for miletrons--" "Actually, I was only dragged a few--" Thundercracker was interrupted by his leader for the sake of the adventurous story. "As I was saying. When Thundercracker let go, Skywarp started fighting the Quintesson." "Yeah," the black robot butted in when he heard his name, "it was a tough one. I got in some good shots, but it hit me with a left. Another left, a right, a jab, I thought we were done for!" Ramjet decided to add his own piece to the story. "Then I went over, and I gave the thing a head butt, but not before it lifted Dirge over its head and threw him into Thrust! Then I got it with a roundhouse kick-spinning back kick combination. Nothin' stopped it though. We thought it was invincible." "BAZOIT!" Warpath exclaimed, sitting by the creative storytellers. "I want to hear more about the hunt!" Starscream opened his mouth to speak, but noticed Rumble and Frenzy returning from their trip screaming. They obviously lost their fruit baskets on the way over. "It was the scary--" "Beastie thing. We saw it and it was--" "Really scary, and uh, it tried to--" "Kill us and stuff." Half of the biguns and all of the littluns froze. First Aid looked away from his work and accidentally welded a line across the top of Dirge's hand. Dirge, who had all but two fingers reattached, dropped his jaw in horror of the news and ignored his structural damage. Windcharger grimly looked at his fellow exiles and tossed the megaphone to the two frightened cassette-robots. "Now slow down and tell us exactly what you saw." The blue robot started. "Well, we were picking EnerFruit by the mountain and--" "We saw the ship crash! It was uh...uh..." "Exploding right by us and then--" "We saw the beastie looking at the ship!" Windcharger looked back at the boys and noticed that they were all paying attention. Calling a new assembly at this point would have been redundant. He tried to muster his calmest voice, if only to hide his own terror. "What did the beastie look like?" The red twin started by spreading his arms. "It was this big--" "No bigger! And it had wings--" "It was big and grey and blue--" "It had a strange metal beard--" "It was freakin' ugly!" "When he saw us, he whipped out a rifle!" "If we didn't use our pile drivers and sonic scream, we'd be goners!" Powerglide stepped forward curiously and addressed Frenzy and Rumble. "Wait. Which of you used the pile drivers and which used the sonic scream?" He knew that Rumble possessed the former ability and Frenzy possessed the latter, so he hoped his indirect question lead to a discovery of which robot was red and which was blue. Both of the twins answered simultaneously. "BUT THE BEASTIE STARTED SHOOTING AT--" Powerglide tried to be more direct when he interrupted them. "Forget about who used what power. Complete this sentence: Frenzy is painted with the color--" Windcharger cut Powerglide off. "They've got the megaphone Powerglide. Besides, that's very insensitive of you." To the twins, he asked "Where did the beastie go?" "I don't know--" "He could have gone to a cave on the side of the mountain." Afterburner was instantly on his feet and received the megaphone with a toss from the twins. "I just thought about something. I can modify the particle beam system so we can use it as a heat ray if the beastie tries to get us!" "Excellen--" Starscream said before he was interrupted by Windcharger. "No. The signal is our top priority. Can it be repaired?" "Yeah, but it will take three hours or so. I can turn it into a heat ray in only one hour." "Yes!" Starscream shouted happily. "For the last time, we don't need a heat ray! But if the monster comes back here and tries to steal our beam generator before it's back on line, we'll be stuck. We'll have to take it off the mountain tonight." Huffer, Skids, and First Aid nodded their heads while Afterburner disassembled the device. Then Bumblebee took the megaphone. "How do we know if there is even a beast? Where does it live?" "Yeah," Dirge agreed. "Starscream's been everywhere on this island." Thrust shivered. "But didn't you hear the twins? He's in a cave on the mountain." Rumble raised his hand to speak, but was not seen or heard. "We didn't say that exactly, it just kind of looked like--" Huffer emitted a high-pitched scream at Thrust's comment. "I hate all of you! If we didn't shoot down that ship, we wouldn't have to worry about a beast!" "But I have the megaphone," Bumblebee said defensively. "Just listen for a second. It doesn't make sense for a beast to be here after all the searches we've done, that's all I'm saying." Skywarp lunged forward and tore the megaphone from Bumblebee's fingers. "You've said enough, Roachboy! I think we should go out and check for sure. If there is a beast, we'll rip him to shreds. Isn't that right Thundercracker?" Skywarp passed the megaphone along to his fellow choir boy, expecting support. The blue Decepticon played his guitar quietly on a rock. He stopped in the middle of the intro to "The Thrill Is Gone" to take the megaphone. He clearly did not expect it. "Well, I...uh...what if..." Some of the kids started muttering to themselves, but Windcharger shouted their complaints down. "He's got the megaphone. He speaks." Unnerved by the sudden authority he received, Thundercracker looked up and spoke quietly. "What if...maybe it's only us? We could be sort of..." Thundercracker became inarticulate in his effort to explain everyone's newfound mental illness. Inspiration came to him suddenly, but it still didn't express his feeling that the beast was an imaginary enemy. "What's the lamest thing there is?" Starscream stole the megaphone quickly and tried to sidestep Thundercracker's statements. "So what if he's got the megaphone. The beast is still out there, and we should only let people speak if they have a plan. We're going to go look for the beast tonight! Isn't that right Windy?" The kids applauded this idea, and Thundercracker realized the futility of his effort while the leader spoke. "First we have to get the P-beam down by the shelters. Then we'll have to organize some search parties to look around the mountain to see if, IF the beast is real." He waved his arms while his neural processor attempted to formulate a new plan. "Until then, we'll just do whatever needs to be done in the meantime. It's getting late, so half of us will stay home and sleep, the rest of us will go out and search for the beast." Bumblebee took the megaphone for a moment to make an additional comment. "Back on Cybertron, I read a disk given to me by my Auntie, and it--" Bumblebee was amazed not to hear the Windcharger's usual response of "Sucks to your Auntie," but saw his leader looking out at the fires while he spoke. Continuing, Bumblebee said "it said that the days and nights on Quintessa are only five hours each. You'll only have a few hours until the next day." Windcharger took the megaphone back and nodded. "All right, we'll have to move quickly." Many of the transformers looked up at the darkness that their sky was becoming and shook with fear. "I'll only ask for volunteers to get the beastie tonight. We'll take ten biguns, and the rest of you can stay. Who's coming with me?" "You can count on all of my hunters," Starscream said. "BLOINK! I'll go!" "Squawk!" Windcharger looked out at the sea of faces, knowing he'd need one more. To everyone's immense surprise, Huffer stood up. "I'll come with you." * * * While the other boys went down the path to the shelters, the ten volunteers spent some preparation time to check their knives. Thundercracker walked slowly to Starscream, almost afraid to speak. "I...I didn't volunteer for the hunt. I won't back out if you want me to stay, but I just don't like to kill. Or to see death." Starscream nodded his head and had a feeling that Thundercracker might not be as valuable a team player in combat as he had been in the choir. "You don't think I should have killed the Quintesson back there, do you?" Thundercracker seemed quite morose now, ever since he returned to smoking his EnerWeed. "No, I think we all should have just donated a little Energon, and then just go out to eat more EnerFruit when we need to replenish our systems. We didn't have to kill. We could have just bargained with each other." Starscream looked both ways before continuing. "Can you hear me right now?" The voice Starscream used was unconcerned with Thundercracker's worries, but quiet. This shocked Thundercracker because his lead singer almost always spoke with emotion and feeling in his voice. At an equally low volume, Thundercracker replied with "yeah." Starscream continued in the same voice, and enunciated each word slowly and clearly. "I...don't...bargain." Thundercracker looked off as he watched some of the littluns carry his guitar case down to the shelters. "Why are we hunting? Why are we trying to kill the beastie?" He lamented his last comment. "It used to be about the music. You've changed, man!" "How so?" Starscream's voice remained emotionless, but Thundercracker suspected that he may have been doing this on purpose, as if Starscream knew that it was a question he couldn't or wouldn't answer. "I don't know" was all Thundercracker could say. Starscream's reply was simply to tilt his head. This silent gesture compelled Thundercracker to attempt to explain himself. Whether the attempt was successful, Thundercracker could not tell. "When I dream, I dream about guitar playing, and flying, but what I'm really dreaming about is freedom. Freedom to...no, it was freedom from..." Thundercracker's faculties failed him yet again, and Starscream patted him on the shoulder. "I expect to see you in the air when we brake into the two teams." Starscream walked over to the others. "I...I just don't believe in nothing any more," the blue Decepticon continued, but Starscream already moved away. "I've had it. I'm going to law school." Before he left, Thundercracker hoped to see a vision with the help of his EnerWeed. He received the clearest premonition of the future yet, but slumped where he sat and wondered what should be blamed when good people do bad things. Thundercracker knew he would never enter law school. * * * Scourge 4033 exited the cave. He found the dead body of the Cybertronian pilot and the shuttle's fight recorder. Unfortunately, he had no scanning equipment to read either item of interest, and did not recognize the holographic projector mounted on the flight recorder. The dead Autobot body certainly wasn't going anywhere, and the Cybertronian black box was certain to go nowhere -- he mashed the body of his dead friend, Cyclonus, into a large ball and placed him on top of the box. He doubted anyone, even these crafty Cybertronians could move the flight recorder without being crushed by the mass of Cyclonus' heavy body and the rocks placed inside it. Scourge decided that he was a genius at this moment, and went out to find an army. He walked over to the patch of Quintessons, grazing in a field of EnerFruit trees. Since he made no sudden moves, they did not run. The blue robot synthesized a cough to get their attention and spoke to the Quintessons. "I need your help to capture the Cybertronians." The five faced creatures started to put down their fruit. Curious about Scourge, they hovered to him slowly. Finally, one said "Bah weep gra nah weep nini bon." Scourge was confused by this statement. "What? What's that? I told you I needed your help." The Quintessons started to look at each other and spoke with voices of confusion. "Dock...zaah...unit...zaah..." "Of course," Scourge slapped his forehead with his right palm. "These are wild Quintessons. I could waste a lot of valuable time by going back to the city for translators, but..." Scourge developed a brilliant plan. If these Quintessons could not understand plain English, they might understand plain English if it were enunciated and spoken very loudly. He even broke some monosyllabic words into more than one syllable. "II-IIII...WOULD LII-IIKE...YOU TO KILL THE...CY-BER-TRON-I-ANS!" The Quintessons looked at each other again. "Plick click cleek click Sikes," one of the Quintessons commented. "Excellent," Scourge laughed to himself, "these soldiers will help me to hasten the Cybertronians' downfall." He laughed evilly at the perfection and simplicity of his plan. * * * The boys separated into two teams, each with an air and land patrol. Warpath and four of the hunters were patrolling the outlying areas by the mountain, while Laserbeak, Windcharger, Huffer, Starscream and Thundercracker were closest to the caves. The two leaders and Huffer walked their way through the jungle while their two friends flew up above. Starscream worried that Thundercracker might be feeling some undue stress and might choose to run rather than act as a team player if they got in trouble. Although he wondered if Thundercracker shouldn't be on the ground instead, they had patroled for several hours, to the point where the sun started to rise again on Quintessa's horizon. No problems introduced themselves. Huffer cleared a path expertly by rotating his wrists and opening his four fingered claws for use as mighty weed wackers. By the time they finally approached the sheer marble rockface, Laserbeak and Thundercracker landed to report. "Skreek! Skreek!" "Really Laserbeak? I suspect that my hunters would have seen--" Thundercracker shook his head. "No Starscream. This thing doesn't leave energy tracks like a Quintesson. It's different." Laserbeak chirped louder. "Yes," Windcharger said to the robotic condor, "we know you found tracks. So what? That doesn't prove anything--" "SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!" Huffer was very worried. "By the cave? This has to be the thing the twins told us about!" Thundercracker frowned. "Yeah, but I don't know. Maybe it's just a--" "Of course Thundercracker!" Starscream nodded his head knowingly. "It's a ghost-beast! It can take a physical form as well as a spiritual one! It will be a tougher enemy than we thought, but at least we know why we didn't see it on the island until now." Windcharger didn't buy it. "I think you're jumping to conclu--" "No! It explains everything! It's all falling into place. If we just kill it now, while it's in a corporeal form, we can rid ourselves of its menace forever." "Come on. Hey Huffer, you don't believe this stuff do you?" Since Huffer was known to doubt everything, the response came as a complete shock. "Yeah, Windcharger. I think Starscream's making a lot of sense. I say we go to that cave and check it out." If Windcharger were a human, his eyebrows would have raised. "All right then. Let's go into the cave. I don't expect to find much of anything though." Laserbeak and Thundercracker lifted Huffer and Windcharger to the cave's entrance. Starscream had already transformed to a jet and back again at the cave before the others were halfway there, and they saw him kneeling by the tracks when they arrived. "...Those markings are from the shuttle crash..." Starscream said this to himself as much as any of the boys. "...and this marking is from shrapnel that skidded across the mountain...but this mark..." He looked up to his audience. "It's definitely a footprint. It's has to be a large creature who made this print, and we know unconditionally that it wasn't one of us. Just look at it!" Windcharger felt his first genuine pangs of fear from this beast, and was shocked even more when Huffer made a suggestion. "I think we should go inside and kill it." "There are tracks coming and going, so I don't know what to expect inside the cave. No matter what though, I expect this will be a real hunt!" Starscream reveled in the thought. Windcharger only shook his head. "We've only got the knives from our Swiss Army Matrices. What good do you think they'll be?" Starscream stood up and sneered down at the shorter Autobot. "Are you frightened?" "Of course. Who wouldn't be? What we have to do is make a plan. Do we know if all the littluns are safe at the shelters?" Starscream coughed out a short laugh. "Sucks to the littluns!" "Somebody's got to look after them!" "Nobody has so far!" "There was no need! Now there is. Laserbeak, I want you to find the other hunters and tell them we might need backup. Thundercracker, I want you to go back and tell Afterburner to get the particle beam ready and Bumblebee to keep all the littluns that he has inside the shelt--" "That's right. Keep Bumblebee out of danger." Starscream knew that Thundercracker didn't want to be near the danger, and now felt no problem with letting his guitarist out of sight. He did, however, despise even the mention of the irritating yellow and black robot. "Have some sense Starscream. What can Bumblebee do with one eye?" Laserbeak, Huffer and Thundercracker looked back and forth between their leaders nervously. "We don't even know if it's going to be here," Windcharger tried to convince them. "I don't think it's a ghost. Maybe it swings around through the trees like what's his name." Huffer persisted. "Let's go in there. Just the three of us will look for the beast. If we see it, we'll surprise it." Starscream nodded his head and all eyes focused on Windcharger. He felt this was a of test of his leadership abilities, but did not want his companions to feel the same way. He offered a nonchalant shrug and made an attempt at a calm voice. "Fine. Just the three of us then." To Laserbeak and Thundercracker, he added "Just remember to do your jobs too." Before leaving, Thundercracker spoke quietly, almost apologetically to Windcharger. "I don't believe in the beast." The gray and red Autobot replied politely, as if agreeing about the weather. "No. I suppose not." * * * "Look out there," Scourge gleefully said to his army. "With the corrosive acid on the ends of those darts, you'll be able to damage the Cybertronians, possibly even kill them. It's a good thing I keep this kind of stuff with me for emergencies." He noticed that three of the Cybertronians had entered the cave that housed their flight recorder and Cyclonus' body. The sooner he could arm his soldiers, the better. "Wugga wugga wugga!" came the Quintesson's imperceptible reply. "No matter," Scourge said. He picked up several hollowed reeds that he found elsewhere on the island. "Just put these in your mouths, and then spit the darts out. You need target practice. Shoot at that tree." The first two volunteers held the reeds in their mouths as blowpipes and slid the dart down the barrel. "Well? Why aren't you shooting at the tree?" Rather than uttering an incomprehensible reply, the two Quintesson volunteers dropped the pipes and fell to the ground choking. Scourge examined the empty pipes and realized what just happened. "You're not supposed to swallow the darts! Idiots!" Just when he thought this was a no win situation, he noticed a metallic condor flying overhead. He looked back at his Quintesson army before he transformed into a futuristic hovercraft and left. "Stay right here, and see if you can block the back end of the reeds. I'm going to test the level of our competition." "Tooshka tooska, Solo." * * * To his disappointment, Laserbeak visited the other team and found them sharing stories instead of watching for the beast. "SNAP! CRACKLE! POP! It sure takes a lot to kill a Quintesson!" "Yeah," Dirge said breathlessly, "but then it got even tougher. The Quintesson started breathing fire--" Thrust cut in quickly. "I was the first to get hit with the fireball. It got me at point-blank range, and I fell back at least thirty metertrons." "I figured out a way to stuff it's mouth with EnerFruit so he wouldn't be able to do that anymore," Skywarp added. "Then we--" Laserbeak landed on a nearby tree and squawked a couple times at the warriors. Skywarp never liked to be questioned. "What do you mean Laserbeak? I'm sure there are plenty of fire breathing Quintessons. Maybe you were just too stupid to notice 'em when we were studying back in school. You're a also a loser." He considered an additional insult for a moment. "You're a stupid loser!" Laserbeak ignored the comment and chirped again. "But we ARE on patrol," Dirge fibbed. Thrust pointed a finger at the robotic condor. "And why are you breaking off from your team Birdie? Maybe you're just...chicken?" Since he felt it would be best to let the insult pass, Laserbeak waited for the laughter to stop before he continued in his unique language. Skywarp was the first to stop laughing. "You mean the beastie is real? That's no matter, we'll just kill it the same way we got the Quintesson. Right?" "ZORK! THEXDER! DOOM! It'll be a fun fight! We'll nail 'im" Ramjet pretended to be the Quintesson or the Beastie while Laserbeak watched and the others made a ring. The ring started to circle Ramjet as he made vague gestures to approximate failed escapes. The song of war continued. KILL THE QUINTESSON CUT HIS FUEL LINE SPILL HIS ENERGON The song got louder as they whipped out their Swiss Army Matrices and flicked out the sporks. These weapons were used to approximate their attacks on the Quintesson, but Ramjet soon felt that this was more than a simulation. "Hey guys, watch it. You're starting to damage me!" The curved side of a spork whipped across the back of his neck, knocking him to the ground. "Hold him," Skywarp told his friends. They each grabbed one of Ramjet's appendages while Skywarp switched his matrix to knife mode. He stared at the blade fondly as the chanting grew louder. KILL THE QUINTESSON CUT HIS FUEL LINE SPILL HIS ENERGON "No...no..." the captive spoke with true terror on his voice, and Laserbeak too joined in the protest with squawking of his own. He flew down to take Skywarp's Swiss Army Matrix, but Skywarp dropped his blade quickly past Ramjet's head before Laserbeak left the tree. It took Laserbeak a couple astroseconds to turn around and realize that Skywarp had only pretended to stab the white and red robot, and the other four dropped Ramjet to the ground. "Oh, my bum!" Skywarp grinned slowly, stumbled for a moment, and giggled uncontrollably. "That was a good game." Laserbeak clucked angrily. In defense of his friends, Ramjet spoke up. "Back off 'Beak, it was just a game. I think it would be better if we had someone else as the Quintesson though. Not that you guys hurt me or anything." Dirge nodded his head. "Yeah, or someone could pretend. One of us could dress up like a Quint, and then he could pretend to fall over and stuff." Looking at his damaged body, Ramjet brushed himself off. "No, you've got to have a real Quint, because you gotta kill 'im." Skywarp's next comment made Laserbeak groan and everyone else laugh. "Just use a littlun." Laserbeak cleared his throat and delivered his message again. "Right," Thrust said, "we have to help Starscream. So all we have to do is--" The red transformer stopped when he noticed an energy bolt turn his left leg into a brief eruption of shrapnel. Falling over, he yelled, "We're under attack!" Through the trees, the boys could see a hovercraft of an unfamiliar design transform into a large blue robot with a demonically sharp and large wing on each shoulder. This robot also held a powerful rifle that shattered two of the nearby trees. Skywarp ducked under a short salvo and yelled out to the others. "We're going to have to scrap the mission! The beastie's already gotten Starscream and Windcharger, and now it's after us!" Dirge panicked and transformed quickly. "We're done for!" Laserbeak clucked a contradictory statement, but decided that running might be the best choice at this time. He quickly grabbed Warpath and activated his rockets while the other boys transformed into their jet modes and took to the skies. Thrust's VTOL engines helped him to fly, albeit clumsily, even thought his left leg's thruster had been destroyed. Their escape may have been a success, but Scourge felt no anger. "They don't have any weapons. This is going to be easier than I thought." A grin slowly came across his face. "Maybe Cyclonus was right all along." He considered the possibility while he planned a Quintesson attack on the cave. He should be able to fix their blowpipes in a matter of astrominutes. -----David Filip------------------------ grimlock@u.washington.edu ----- Are you tired of conformity on the internet? You can rebel against the culture of the net in four easy steps! 1) Thank and encourage crossposters. 2) Discuss politics politely. 3) Support censorship. 4) Praise Apple Computers, Intel, Microsoft, AOL and the entertainment industry for a job well done.