~{ Beast Wars Chronicles }~
~{ Merger }~
By Eliot Lefebvre

Gilator was already wishing that he was somewhere else.

Thickskull laughed deeply as Whiplash snared Fadeout with his 
twin whips.  He grinned sinisterly, and sent an electric pulse 
through the whips.  Fadeout contorted as the surge hit him, but 
quickly regained his balance and grabbed both of the whips, then 
quickly brought them upward.  Whiplash was flung up and over 
Fadeout, and released his grip on his whips.  Fadeout freed 
himself, then activated his cloaking mode and disappeared.  
Whiplash cautiously staggered to his feet, grabbing his whips, 
and was thrown forward as Fadeout reappeared behind him, 
following through with a roundhouse kick.

*Every slagging day,* thought Gilator, absently munching on an 
energon crystal and trying to forget what would happen when the 
two were caught.  *I think Scorponok made us a team just as a 
cruel joke.*  He thought about Scorponok for a moment.  *Or 
because he was distracted by a flashing light.*

The door to the room slid open, and the tall, imposing figure of 
Komodo stormed in.  Gilator sighed and activated his self-repair 
systems in advance.

"IDIOTS!!!" bellowed Komodo, smashing both Whiplash and 
Fadeout into the ground.  "You want Megatron to turn us into 
smelting rocks?"  His question was answered by Whiplash 
sending an electrical surge up through his arm.  Komodo growled 
and released Fadeout, then started in on Whiplash.  Fadeout 
aimed for Whiplash and fired off a sonic burst from his rifle, but 
missed and hit Komodo.  It was only a few seconds before the 
three were all eagerly at each other's throats.

*Smelting rocks.  Sounds like a preferable career choice.*  
Gilator finished the crytal as Thickskull made a leap into the fray, 
for no reason except to beat down on somebody.  Gilator sighed 
and waited.  It was only a matter of time before someone hit him.

As it turned out, that someone was not one of his teammates, but 
Megatron.

Gilator had never experienced one of Megatron's stun-blasts 
before, but he had to say that if that was a stun blast, he would 
REALLY hate to get hit by a real blast.

"You morons," he growled, glancing them over distastefully.  
"Can't you PRETEND to get along?  I gave you ORDERS for 
something to do, and you IGNORED me!  You're lucky I don't 
dissassemble you right here!"

*That depends on your defenition of "lucky",* thought Gilator.

Megatron sighed.  *Why couldn't I have found five warriors that 
operated efficiently?* he thought.  Then again, when dealing with 
a criminal orginization like the Predacons - referred to as the 
"Cybertronian Mafia" by the humans - your choice of comrades 
was already limited, and becoming a criminal even in Megaplex's 
eyes meant you pretty much had to take what you were given.

"When the stun blast wears off," said Megatron slowly, obviously 
making an effort to avoid decimating the lot of them, "I want you 
to go outside and patrol for any stasis pods until I tell you to 
return."  He glared at them, and it was obvious he meant for 
them to get out of the Soundwave and STAY out for a while.  
"You may want to bring a few energon crystals," he offered.

Megatron stormed out of the room.  *Actually,* thought Gilator, 
*that went suprisingly well.*  He stared up in the ceiling, still 
paralyzed.  *I wonder if I can fool everyone into thinking I'm still 
paralyzed for a couple more megacycles...*

	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*

"GIVE THAT BACK!"

Cloudspin laughed.  "Catch it!" she called, tossing it up and over 
Skydive's head.  Skydive made a swing in the air to catch it, but 
Windrider sprang up and caught the small device in mid-air.

"Come on, can't you catch it?" teased Windrider.  He fully 
intended to give it back to Skydive, and Skydive knew it, but 
sometimes he and Cloudspin needed to have a little fun with the 
intellectual member of the Aeriomals.  Stormcloud and Wingspan 
didn't really approve, and Optimus wasn't to happy about it either, 
but they all knew that they could only stop them if they were 
there, so they let most of it slide.  Windrider landed deftly, then 
slung it like a baseball towards Cloudspin.

Skyfall quickly reached out and snatched the device in midair.  
"Let's not get into THAT," he said sternly, making a low toss back 
towards Skydive.  Skydive looked relieved as he stooped over to 
catch it, but was cut short as Cloudspin dived in between him and 
the device, catching it like a football.

"I'm open!  I'm open!" called Windrider, running in front of the 
door.

"Go long!" shouted Cloudspin, hurling the device towards him.

Wingspan began to step through the door, ready to reprimand his 
subordinates.

The next few klicks were a bit of a blur.  All that was really clear 
was that after everything, Windrider was lying across Wingspan, 
Wingspan's faceplate was blackened, there were little bits of 
metal all around Wingspan's head, and Skydive had blacked out.

"This doesn't look promising," said Cloudspin slowly, watching 
Windrider get off of Wingspan.

"You are COMPLETELY correct," snarled Wingspan.  "Now I 
want EVERYONE outside.  NOW."  He got to his feet and 
stormed out.

"He's really pissed this time, isn't he?" asked Windrider 
somewhat rhetorically.

"Uh-huh," said Cloudspin.

"By the way, it's your fault," said Skyfall, glaring at Cloudspin and 
Windrider.

	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*

A meteor streaks towards the planet.

It's a small meteor, not enough to really mess up the planet.  But 
it is a decent size anyhow.  As it flies, it accidentally flies into a 
laser beam transmission, cleaving it in half, and breaking the 
transmission into useless static.

(AUTHOR'S NOTE: I know someone is going to ask me if I don't 
say this, so just to put your minds at ease, the message, roughly 
translated, said "This is the Earth satellite 'Voyager VII', calling all 
sentient lifeforms."  Think about that one for a while.)

The two halves now move away from each other, streaking 
towards the planet.  As they fly, they each hit a small cluster of 
three stasis pods, damaging the pods severely.  Their outer shell 
cracked and melted, the pods begin a slow, looping fall towards 
the planet's suface.

	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*

Wingspan had only intended to reprimand his team briefly - and 
rather loudly.  However, when they sighted the Reptilicons, it was 
obvious that the Predacons had been sent to attack the Axalon, 
so the Aeriomals had engaged them.  Or more accurately, 
Windrider had engaged them and pushed the rest of the team 
into the conflict.

While the teams normally would have loved to join and take each 
other out, they had decided instaed to take a slightly more long-
range approach.  Crouched behind a large row of rocks, the 
Aeriomals rained firepower on the Reptilicons, who took 
advantage of a slight dip in the ground and used it as a sort of 
foxhole.  Wingspan discharged his cobalt ion cannons, Windrider 
released his talon missiles, Cloudspin fired her plasma lance, 
Skyfall fired the mortar cannons in his chest, and Skydive sent 
out waves of force with his sonic disrupter rifle.

On the other side, Komodo used his powerful graviton cannon, 
Whiplash sent low-level electronic pulses through the air, 
Fadeout strafed the area with his multi-gun, Thickskull fired the 
missiles housed in numerous ports on his body, and Gilator 
raked the air with his flamethrower.  Both sides were entrenched, 
and it was obvious that neither was going to make the move to 
try and take the other side.

Then the rules changed.

Six stasis pods fell through the sky, bruning and tumbling wildly.  
With large smoke trails behind them, the pods crashed into a 
forest, smashing through the trees and letting loose one last 
plume of flame.

Komodo and Wingspan stared at each other.  Each was sort of 
gauging the other, trying to figure out if they could attack them 
when their team went for the pods.  At last, they broke their gaze 
and dashed into the forest, splitting apart.

	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*

Skydive knelt over the pod.  "This thing is nearly gone," he said 
solemnly.  "The spark seems to have suffered extensive damage 
from outside sources... the pod itself is in bad shape too.  It can't 
even scan for lifeforms."

Wingspan sighed.  "Is there any way you can save it?"

"Actually," he said, "I think there is.  If my guess is correct, the 
other pods suffered similar damage.  If I can link a couple more 
pods to this one by the sparks, then I can create one lifeforce to 
keep them all alive.  It's risky, but it might work."

"Gotcha."  Wingspan turned to Windrider and Cloudspin.  "You 
two think you can retreive the other pods?"

"Bank on it," replied Windrider.  "Not only will we come back with 
two others, we'll get the other three and scrap the Preds in the 
process!"

"Don't make this a battle if you can avoid it, Windrider," cautioned 
Wingspan.  "The primary concern here is being able to try and 
keep these pods alive.  Taking out the Reptilicons has to take a 
back seat for now."

Windrider shrugged.  "Whatever," he said, disappearing into the 
forest, with Cloudspin close behind.

Wingspan sighed as he kneeled to help Skyfall and Skydive.

	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*

"How do we keep this thing alive?" snapped Komodo.  "If this pod 
dies, it's coming down on YOUR head, Fadeout."

"Relax," said Faadeout calmly.  "All I need is a couple more pods 
so that I can link their sparks together.  There are still five more 
out there - it's not that tough to get two more."

Komodo nodded.  He didn't quite get the idea, but then again, he 
knew that he had to find more pods, and that gave him a general 
direction.  "Okay.  Fadeout, you stay here.  The rest of us will go 
and look for more pods."

The Reptilicons transformed to their respective lizard modes and 
scampered off into the forest, evil grins on their faces.  On the 
open plains, the Aeriomals had the advantage.  But in here, it 
was THEIR game.

	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*

Windrider grinned as he saw the pod.  "Great," he said.  "Now all 
we need is one more.  This was too easy."

As Windrider stepped forward to pick up the pod, he was cut 
short as a pair of whips wrapped themselves around him and 
yanked him back.  A electric pulse coursed through his body, and 
he jerked involuntarily.  Extending his talons, Windrider tore 
through the whips, then sprang forward and turned towards his 
assaulter.  Whiplash smiled as his whips regenerated, then drew 
them back and lashed them at Windrider.  Windrider ducked 
below the whips, then slashed upwards and aimed his missiles at 
Whiplash.  Fring, he sprang backwards as Whiplash flew 
backwards from the blasts.

His whips regenerated again, Whiplash wrapped his whips 
around Windrider and sent as powerful discharge through them, 
causing Windrider to thrash wildly and uncontrollably.  Whiplash 
sent another surge out, and Windrider began to smoke.  
Windrider finally regained his footing, then grabbed the whips 
firmly and whirled around and around, slamming Whiplash into 
tree after tree, then finally tearing through the whips.  Whiplash 
smashed into a tree again, and crumpled to the ground, but 
began to get back up as his whips regenerated again.  Windrider 
gasped.  *How does he DO that?* thought Windrider in shock.

Windrider could see that this strategy wasn't working.  Despite 
the thin, almost gaunt build of Whiplash, he seemed to be 
capable of withstanding - and dealing out - far more punishment 
than Windrider.  Still strafing Whiplash with his rockets, 
Windrider slowly stepped back, then decided to try and even the 
playing field.  Extending his arm's talons to the fullest, he drew a 
pair of odd looking weapons, composed of a handle inside a full 
fist covering, with large blades extending off of them.  Mounting 
them securely on his arms, he lunged towards Whiplash, 
swinging the blades elaborately.

Moving like greased lightning, Whiplash struck out towards 
Windrider, but Windrider quickly raised his arm and twisted it, 
slashing through the whip, then sprang Whiplash.  Driving his 
other arm towards Whiplash, he was suprised at the incredibly 
thick armor that Whiplash was gifted with.  Grumbling to himself, 
he launched himself in a torpedo motion towards Whiplash, and 
finally managed to pierce the armor, slashing into Whiplash with 
a sudden jerking motion.  Shocked, Whiplash twisted away.  
There was a snapping noise, and WIndrider was shocked to find 
that the blades on his left arm had snapped clean away.

Whiplash snarled, and discarded his whips.  Grabbing Windrider, 
he sent a massive discharge through his arms into Windrider.  
The Maximal twisted, jerked, and screamed, smoke rising from 
his joints.  Excercising every bit of self-control that Windrider had 
in him, he sent a hard, two-foot kick into the already weakened 
section of Whiplash's thick armor.  The armor splintered and 
cracked.  With great effort, Windrider kicked again, and the 
armor split and shattered.  Whiplash fell back, dropping 
Windrider.  He glanced at his injuries, then converted to beast 
mode and scampered off.

Windrider slowly got up.  The electrical surge was extremely 
painful, and he was certain that his neural net had been 
damaged.  He was fairly certain he hadn't taken enough of those 
to mess with his Spark, though.  He got up rather jerkily, and 
grabbed the pod, then began heading back towards the spot 
where the other waited.

	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*

Cloudspin advanced slowly.  Keeping to the cover of the trees, 
she slowly came towards the pod, rifle in hand.  As she crouched 
in the treetop, she saw Gilator, already dragging the pod away.  
*That'll happen,* she thought, aiming and firing.

Gilator flew backwards as the shot hit him, but quickly recovered.  
Although Cloudspin's rifle was more powerful than most, it was 
still not much to a robot with as massive a frame as Gilator.  
However, Cloudspin had more than a few tricks up her provebial 
sleeve.  Shoving her rifle into subspace, she dropped down from 
the tree and began letting loose strafing rounds from her particle 
cannon.  Gilator managed to throw up a quick forcefield, then 
drew his flamethrower and blasted a torrent of flame towards 
Cloudspin.  Cloudspin dove aside as the flames engulfed the 
trees, then continued to strafe Gilator.

With a lunge that was suprisingly fast for a robot his size, Gilator 
tackled Cloudspin, slamming her hard against a tree.  Clouspin 
reacted noticably - she was a sniper, not a brawler.  Dropping her 
particle cannon accidentally, she brough her elbow down hard 
onto the back of Gilator's neck.  As Gilator backed off, she kneed 
him in the crotch, then grabbed her particle cannon and started 
firing on him again.  Unprotected by his force field, Gilator was 
hurled backwards by the barrage of shots.  Stumbling to his feet, 
he raised his force field again as Cloudspin let loose another 
volley.

Not waiting for Gilator to attack again, Cloudspin began springing 
towards him, firing with remarkable accuracy.  Letting loose a 
full-charge blast on the force field, she opened a weak point long 
enough to give her a clear, unblocked shot.  Before she could 
take advantage of it, Gilator swung forward, backhanding her into 
a tree.  Smashing into the tree, Cloudspin slumped to the ground 
in a remarkably feminine fashion, and slowly tried to rise to her 
feet.  Gilator grabbed her by the throat, then hurled her into the 
forcefield.  The energy crackled around her as she hit with a 
loud, electrical snap.

Once again slumping to the ground in a heap, Cloudspin's vision 
was beginning to lose its focus.  She saw Gilator advancing, and 
expending a great deal of effort, she brought her arm up and 
blasted him in the chest.  Unprepared, Gilator was knocked 
backwards, and Clouspin slowly regained her footing.  *You want 
to play hardball, we can play hardball,* thought Cloudspin as she 
reached into her subspace pocket.  Grabbing a concussion 
grenade, she yanked out the pin and gently tossed it towards 
Gilator, then leaped backwards to one side of the force field as it 
exploded.

Gilator slowly rose again, his eyes flashing brilliantly.  Burning 
(pun unintended) with rage, he unleashed a wide swath of flame 
in Cloudspin's general direction.  Springing backwards, 
Cloudspin landed off-balance, and painfully jarred her leg, 
snapping the ankle servos and knocking her down.  Gilator saw 
and began slowly and deliberately advancing, the flame licking 
dangerously close to Cloudspin's crimson and silver finish.  
Charging her particle cannon to its highest setting, she rolled 
backwards, then propped herself against a rock and unleashed 
the blast.  GIlator was sent flying backwards through the trees, 
and could faintly be heard transforming and running off.

Cloudspin examined her leg.  Transforming to beast mode for 
autorepairs, she pulled an energy towline out of subspace, 
attached the anchor to the pod, and turned it on, then began 
slowly plodding back towards the other Aeriomals.

	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*

"Where are the Aeriomals?" asked Optimus, perplexed.  He 
hadn't sent them on any missions.

"Don't look at me," replied Stormcloud somewhat coldly.  "It's not 
my job to keep track of where your troops are.  That falls under 
your job description."

"Oh, lighten up!" said Vixen, playfully pushing Stormcloud.  She 
noticed him pause for a moment, then resume what he was 
doing before.  *Like a block of ice...* she thought morosely, 
distraught at the fact that her attempts to get Stormcloud's 
attention seemed to fail without exception.  Only once did he 
even slightly open up to her, and she wondered if that was an 
isolated incident...

"Wingspan said he was taking them out for some advance 
training about thirty cycles ago," said Rhinox.  "They seem to be 
right in the vicintiy of the downed pods."

"Then I assume they're already taking care of it," said Optimus, 
satisfied.  The Aeriomals could impress him, no doubt about it.

"Maybe, maybe not," said Stormcloud in a distinctly disintrested 
voice.  "The scanners also indicate the Reptilicons.  We'll just 
have to wait it out."

Vixen stared at him sadly.  *Stormcloud... you don't even realize 
how much you do this to yourself...*

Optimus semi-glared at Stormcloud.  "All right.  Send Wolfang 
and Bonecrusher out to their location to provide backup."

"Roger," said Rhinox, saluting.

	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*

"Is the procedure going all right?" asked Wingspan.

"As near as I can tell," replied Skydive, checking the various 
displays on the pod.  "I had to give them a gestalt form, but it 
looks like they'll come out of this all right."

"Another gestalt?" asked Skyfall, a little suprised.

"I'm sure that Optimus would approve, under the circumstances," 
said Windrider.

Wingspan nodded.  "How long until they're ready to go?"

"About ten cycles," replied Skydive.

"Too long," said a voice from the forest.  The Aeriomals turned to 
see the Reptilicons, accompanied by three other warriors.  Each 
stood about the same height.  One was green and purple with a 
massive wingspan.  Another was purple and maroon, with hard, 
bony protusions covering his body and large, oversized arms and 
claws.  The third was a heavily-built brown-purple warrior with an 
elaborate headpiece.

The Reptilicons flew upwards, forming their respective 
components with distinct snaps and rips.  The other three came 
together, and seemed to coalesce into a single being with 
amazing speed.

"Prepare to suffer," said Reptilitor.

"Nay, prepare to DIE at the hands of TRIPREDACUS!" shouted 
the other, leering at the Aeriomals.

"Form SKYKING!" shouted Wingspan.  The Aeriomals quickly 
shifted into their component parts, and came together in their 
massive gestalt form.

Tripredacus slashed a massive claw towards Skyking.  Blocking 
the blast with his left talon, Skyking stumbled as Reptilitor lashed 
his whip across the massive robot.  Tripredacus raised one claw 
and fired a pair of blades towards Skyking.  Throwing himself to 
one side, Skyking blasted a quick pair of shots towards the duo, 
then ran at Reptilitor with his talons extended, hoping to run the 
Predacon gestlat through.  He was cut short as Tripredacus 
grabbed him and held him in place by his shoulders while 
Reptilitor lashed him with the whip.  Drawing his cannon from 
subspace, Reptilitor aimed it at Skyking's head.

Despite his size, Skyking was blessed with being an extrememly 
fast and agile gestalt, allowing him to pull off otherwise 
impossible maneuvers.  Lifting his legs off the ground, Skyking 
kicked backwards into Tripredacus, and used the momentum to 
hurtle himself into Reptilitor.  The two original gestalts fell 
backwards in a tangle of limbs.  Trees snapped as they fell, and 
Reptilitor delt Skyking a massive backhand, knocking him away.  
Tripredacus and Reptilitor advanced towards the downed 
Skyking, but Skyking quickly sprang to his feet and blasted 
Reptilitor.  The gestalt seperated, and the components fell to the 
ground.

Turning to face Tripredacus, Skyking was greeted by a swift kick, 
then a sudden and unexpected headbutt.  Staggering and trying 
to regain his balance, Skyking left himself open to an attack.  
Tripreadcus tilted his head laser towards Skyking's midsection, 
and fired, leaving a massive scorch mark.  Tripredacus thrust his 
claws towards Skyking, but Skyking managed to bring up his 
talons in time to block the assault.  Skyking kicked Tripredacus 
backwards, but was cut short as Tripredacus clendced one of his 
claws into a ball, then swiftly uppercutted Skyking and sent him 
stumbling backwards.

*We can't take much more of this,* thought Skydive.

*We can't take ANY more of this,* corrected Skyfall.  *He's about 
to finish us off.*

With a malicious grin (as if he ever really had any other 
expression on his face, Tripredacus stuck out one claw and 
prepared to run Skyking through with it.  Skyking's head was 
drooped.  He had lost.

So he was as suprised as everyone else when Tripredacus 
received five missile blasts to his exposed flank.

"Need a hand?" asked the gestalt standing where the pods had 
been resting before.

Skyking nodded, and the two of them turned to face Tripredacus.  
"You dare to hurt me, nameless one!" shouted Tripredacus.  
"You will pay for this affront!"

"I have a name," said the new gestalt.  "It's Magnaboss."  So 
saying, he drew a massive sword out of subspace, and took a 
quick, low swing at Tripredacus.  Tripredacus tried to block the 
swing with his claws, but as he did, Skyking blasted him in the 
gut with his cannon.  Falling backwards, Tripredacus  stumbled 
slightly, then launcehd a spray of blades and laser blasts.  
Skyking took more of the blasts then Magnaboss, and seperated, 
seeming to collapse as the gestalt split up and returned to its 
seperate parts.  Tripredacus turned his attention towards 
Magnaboss, and Magnaboss returned the focus in full.

Opening up twin launchers on either side of his chest, 
Magnaboss unleashed a barrage of missiles towards 
Tripredacus.  The Predacon dodged them easily, but was left 
unprepared for the sudden swing of Magnaboss's sword.  The 
sword cut deep into Tripredacus's flank, and was followed by 
Magnaboss punching Tripredacus in the face.  Tripredacus 
grunted in pain, then suddenly blasted a pair of claws point-blank 
into Magnaboss's chest.  Withdrawing his sword, Magnaboss 
stumbled back, then raised his sword again and began to take 
another swing at Tripredacus.

With amazing speed, Tripredacus knocked the sword out of 
Magnaboss's hand, then made a punch towards his head.  
Magnaboss slid aside, then quickly flipped a pair of tusks 
forward, digging into Tripredacus.  Slamming a fist into 
Tripredacus's chest, Magnaboss dislodged his tusks from the 
Predacon, but was cut short from his next action as Tripredacus 
blasted him in the chest with a blast from his head laser.  
Launching more claws in Magnaboss's general direction, 
Tripredacus made a vicious double-handed uppercut, then 
kicked him down.  Grabbing Magnaboss's sword, he prepared to 
run Magnaboss through with it.

Flipping his side panels open again, Magnaboss unleashed 
another barrage of missiles, sending Tripredacus flying 
backwards.  As Tripredacus dropped the sword, Magnaboss 
deftly caught it, then rose to his feet.  Tripredacus braced himself 
and let loose a hail of claws, but Magnaboss barely seemed to 
notice the damage.  Magnaboss swung the sword crosswise, but 
Tripredacus blocked the blow with a claw.  Dislodging his sword 
from the claw, Magnaboss brought the sword over his head, and 
made a vicious downward chop.  Too late to block, Tripredacus 
could only seperate into his component parts as he broke up and 
landed on the ground.

Magnaboss seperated as well, preparing for the ground battle, 
but found that it was already over.  Bonecrusher held the 
Predacons back with a hail of missiles, while Wolfang, 
Cloudspin, and Skyfall stayed behind him, providing fire support.  
The Predacons quickly retreated, running as fast as they possibly 
could.

"You guys ready to head back to the base?" asked Wolfang, 
shoving his crossbow and shield back into subspace.

"And then some," replied Cloudspin, gingerly touching her injured 
ankle.  She glanced at Skydive.  "Trust me, that was the LAST 
time we play catch."

"I appreciate it," said Skydive.  "Of course, it doesn't really matter, 
considering that I wasn't going to let you ever come within fifty 
feet of my lab ever again, but it's a nice sentiment."

Wingspan glanced at Magnaboss's three components.  "Say, we 
never found out... who are you guys, anyhow?"

"Ironhide," replied a stocky, powerfully built robot.

"Prowl," replied a moderately-built yellow robot with an odd set of 
"wings" extending from its back.

"Silverbolt," replied a lightly-built robot with a massive wingspan.

"Waitwaitwaitwait," said Wolfang.  "Are you THE Ironhide, Prowl, 
and Silverbolt?"

"You betcha," said Ironhide.

"Affirmitive," said Prowl

"The one and only," said Silverbolt.

"I'm going to enjoy filing the report on this mission," said 
Wingspan, smiling.  "It's been somewhat interesting."

	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*

Gilator was finally happy.

When they had gotten back, Megatron's rage was somewhat 
calmed by the fact that the Reptilicons had brought back three 
new Predacons - and combiners, at that.  However, it didn't do 
much to stop him.

"You IDIOTS!  Can't you do ANYTHING right?!?!?  You LOST to 
MAXIMALS!!!  I cannot believe the cosmic stroke of bad luck that 
made me send YOU bumblers out!  There were SIX pods!  You 
should have been able to activate one after the other and quickly 
overtake the Maximals!  You MORONS!  I'm sorry that I waste 
energon on keeping your pathetic little selves FUNCTIONING!"

Et cetera.  Gilator wasn't sure exactly when Megatron stopped 
ranting.  It wasn't anytime soon, though.  When he finally had, 
though, he had sent all of the Reptilicons down to the "dungeon".

The "dungeon" was extremely uncomfortable for a variety of 
reasons.  One of the biggest ones was the fact that it was 
housed in a part of the ship that was directly exposed to the hot 
magma seething below the Soundwave constantly.  This was not 
only paticularly uncomfortable to the cold-blooded alternate 
modes of the Reptilicons after a while, but also meant that 
plumes of hot gases would occasionaly shoot up, making your 
cage far from safe.

But despite all of this, Gilator was still happy.  His beast mode 
was more used to the hot temperatures, so it wasn't quite as 
affected by the heat increase.  But that wasn't even the real 
reason he was happy.

For the first time since their activation, the team wasn't fighting, 
and Gilator could finally - FINALLY - get a chance to finish "War 
and Peace".

*I could get used to this,* he thought as another column of gas 
erupted.