Beast Wars and all characters and things related are copyright and trademark of Hasbro and Mainframe Entertainment. This work, however, is the original work of the author.

Note: This story takes place shortly after "Deep Trouble".

Transmetal Madness

By TVfan

Predicon Base

"The first frame is ready, Megatron," Ravage reported as he pressed a button on a small computer console that once Scorpinok's lab on the Darkside.

"Excellent," the large red dragon transformer smiled as he moved to examine the robotic frame that stood on a raised platform in front of him, "Does it have the improvements I added to the design?"

Ravage slowly nodded, "Yes Megatron, all that remains is to test the 'transmetal driver'."

"I still don't see WHY we are doing this," Tarantulus grumbled as he stepped behind the Predicon tyrant, "We failed miserably the last time we tried this."

Megatron ignored the transmetal spider's comment. Tarantulus chose to continue.

"You're likely to be beaten again," Tarantulus said.

"That is a most likely outcome," Megatron answered with a half humorous tone, "But again, you have failed to grasp the BIG picture."

Tarantulus backed away quickly as Megatron turned to face him.

"This," Megatron said gesturing to the work that Ravage was doing, "Is to prepare us for later operations against the Maximals. If these constructs kill a Maximal or two, that would be perfect, but I have no doubt that they will overcome these constructs. Optimus has a bad habit pulling off tricks like that. The point of this exercise is to test the transmetal driver that Rampage and Depthcharge, while we had him, recovered. Then while the Maximals wrestle with the constructs, we can tend to far more… important manners."

Megatron's face then became deadly serious, "Now, Tarantulus, do you understand or should I explain it to you again?"

Tarantulus watched to see that Megatron had opened the compartment in which he stored his and Rampage's spark fragments and quickly shook his head.

"No, Megatron," Tarantulus said very quickly, "I understand perfectly."

"Good," Megatron said coldly, once again turning his back on Tarantulus.

"The 'transmetal driver' is ready," Ravage reported, indicating to the recently discovered alien device hooked up an energy projection unit.

"Excellent," Megatron smiled again, "Activate the device."

Ravage nodded and pulled a nearby switch with his left hand. The transmetal driver immediately began to glow bright red as the devices it was connected to began to activate the device. How the alien and Cybertronian technology were so easily compatible was unexplainable to the Predicons, but Megatron didn't largely care. He saw the device work and saw the results it produced, and those results were exactly what he predicted.

"Excellent," Megatron smiled.

The Valley

Dinobot and Rapther slowly moved through the thick bushes of the large valley they were in. As they went they occasionally saw a few early humans moving about in larger clearings. Rapther noticed that one large early human was carrying the axe-like weapon that Dinobot had used in their first battle in this valley.

Then as they turned to leave the valley, Dinobot stopped suddenly. Rapther noticed and stopped as well.

"What is it?" the transmetal female asked.

"Something is moving in those bushes just opposite us," Dinobot answered, "I can see it."

Rapther focus her own optics to see that the male raptor was correct. There was something moving amongst the plants, making them move.

"Rapther to base, is there anyone else on patrol in this area?" Rapther asked.

"No," came Rhinox's voice over the radio, "Blackarachnia and Silverbolt are ten clicks to your north and Cheetor and Rattrap are five clicks to your south. Are you in any danger?"

"Not at the moment," Dinobot answered, "But something is moving slowly ahead of us. Like it is hunting."

"Keep your distance," Rhinox advised, "It may only be an animal hunting."

Just as Rhinox finished giving his advice, two red laser blasts came from the area in which Dinobot had spotted the movement. The blast sent both Maximals flying as Dinobot was thrown against one tree while Rapther was thrown against another.

"It isn't an animal," Rapther yelled back quickly, "Whatever it is, it just shot at us."

Rapther and Dinobot quickly transformed to robot mode and fired their primary weapons in the direction of the where the lasers came from. Their fire did nothing as Dinobot quickly noticed that whatever it was had moved shortly after it fired.

"Do you need assistance?" Rhinox asked over the radio.

"Not at the moment," Dinobot answered as he fired his optics lasers in the direction of where he saw the movement.

Dinobot heard a screech as his lasers hit their mark, but he soon saw that whatever it was was still moving, as if they had no affect on it.

"What is this?" Dinobot snarled as he eyed the creature's movements.

The attacking force then fired again. Dinobot saw the blast in time to avoid being hit, but Rapther was hit again and skidded to a stop a few feet from the male raptor.

"Slag," Rapther cursed, "Where is it, should be the question. It moves too fast, too much for my rockets to be able to hit it."

"We must get it to reveal itself first," Dinobot snarled, "I will not close in close combat with something when I don't know what it is."

Almost as if he had asked it to appear, their attacker then appeared. Leaping from the tall grass a white and blue colored raptor with red eyes practically flew through the air until it landed on Rapther's back and dug its talons into her. Rapther hissed with pain as the creature's talons cut through her transmetal armor like it was nothing. She tried to throw it off of her, but it forced her to the ground so that she was laying face down.

"What the…?" Dinobot exclaimed before he could fully react to what had just happened.

The raptor the reached out with its jaws and clamped down on Dinobot's arm before he could raise his sword to strike the raptor. Dinobot screamed with pain as the attacking raptor nearly bit through his arm completely. Dinobot then fired his optics lasers at the attacking raptor's head, hoping to destroy it completely. He only succeeded in getting it to release his arm from its vice-like grip. The section of his arm that was bitten was hanging by a few wires and pieces of robotic skeleton. Dinobot then lunged forward and plowed his other shoulder into the attacking raptor, knocking it off of Rapther.

"We need to get out of here," Rapther said, "It's going to kill us if we don't leave."

"No," Dinobot answered, "I will remain. You report to Optimus that…"

"You will come with me back to base and that is final," Rapther said slowly and icily, "That thing bit off half of your arm and it clawed me in the back at the same time. We aren't in any condition to be fighting this thing on our own."

Dinobot sighed and slowly began to follow Rapther back toward the Ark. Strangely; the attacking raptor did not follow them. Dinobot inwardly sighed at his own act of cowardice, but kept going. If it followed them, he might have to provide cover anyway.

Predicon Base

"Excellent!" Megatron smiled in triumph as he watched the raptor clone send both Dinobot and Rapther running toward the Ark through a set special video recording systems that where in the raptor clone's eyes, "Not only does the transmetal driver work, but it appears that at least one of the clones is superior to both a transmetal and the old technology."

"I wish you'd let me do the killing though," Rampage grumbled in front him.

"There will be plenty for you, later, yes," Megatron laughed, "Switch cameras. I want to see how the other clone is doing."

"Yes sir, boss," Quickstrike answered and then began pressing a few buttons, causing the screen that Megatron was watching to change from the raptor clone's camera to another clone's camera.

Before Megatron could fully enjoy himself watching how the next clone did, Waspinator flew into the Predicon base's command center and landed right in front of Megatron.

"Report," Megatron commanded.

"Waspinator has carried out Dragonbot's command to take transmetal driver to secret lab," Waspinator answered.

"Good," Megatron smiled, "That will be all for now. Just sit back and enjoy the show. Things are about to get interesting."

Rocky Gorge

Silverbolt and Blackarachnia, both in robot mode, walked casually along a narrow canyon. Like Dinobot and Rapther's patrol, they had so far come across nothing unusual. There was nothing more then rocks laying about.

"How can you do this?" Blackarachnia complained, "Walking around looking at nothing."

"It's a patrol," Silverbolt answered, "Our duty is to patrol the ground that we control and make sure there are no enemy Predicons out here."

"I'll tell you now there are no enemy Predicons out here," Blackarachnia said back, "This area is a wasteland and of no interest to Megatron."

Almost as if on cue, a laser shot came out of nowhere and knocked Silverbolt to the ground.

"What the…?" Blackarachnia exclaimed while looking back at Silverbolt and then looking around the walls of gorge they were in.

"I should have seen that one coming," Silverbolt mumbled from the ground before picking himself up and speaking into his radio, "This is Silverbolt to base. We have enemy contact in Grid Chasm."

"Do you know how many there are?" Rhinox's voice asked over the radio, "Dinobot and Rapther were just attacked by some unknown force about ten minutes ago."

Silverbolt scanned the area and sighed, "Unfortunately, no."

"I'll have Depthcharge get up to your position," Rhinox answered, "Optimus will be back from his patrol shortly and then he will join you."

"That won't be necessary," Silverbolt answered, "Blackarachnia and I can take care of it."

Then another laser shot was fired. This time Silverbolt managed to see that it was coming from inside a cave at the top of the gorge. The fuzor immediately took the air and fired two feather missiles into the cave. He saw the explosion they caused and he saw several rocks tumble out of the cave, but he didn't know if he hit what was shooting at Blackarachnia and himself. He was proven that he had missed before when a laser blast came out of the cave and hit him squarely in the chest as he flew past the cave entrance. Silverbolt fired another round of feather missiles into the cave as he was blasted back to the earth below, and while he was pretty sure he missed his target yet again, he saw that they completely destroyed the structural integrity of the cave itself. The cave collapsed upon itself and both Blackarachnia and Silverbolt then watched a massive explosion take place after the rocks had fallen in.

"Scratch one Predicon," Blackarachnia laughed.

Silverbolt nodded and began to fly up again. He had to bring some evidence back to base that a Predicon was destroyed and to identify which Predicon it was.

Predicon Base

Megatron sighed heavily as the spider clone was destroyed.

"I told you this would fail," Tarantulus cackled from the back end of the command center.

"Again, the clone's mission was to test the transmetal driver," Megatron said harshly, retrieving the energon cage, "This is merely a little fun to occupy our time before the real work begins. Any Maximal that is destroyed is simply a bonus."

Megatron then squeezed the energon cube and sent Tarantulus sprawling to the floor.

"We should make further preparations for the next part of the overall plan," Ravage advised, "Even though this is merely a distraction for the Maximals, it is likely that they will learn about our possession of the transmetal driver."

Megatron nodded, "Take care of the preparations, yes. Do you have the list of instructions that need to be done?"

"Yes, Megatron," Ravage answered, holding up a data pad.

Megatron took the data pad and handed it to Waspinator. Waspinator gulped as he held it and as the Predicon tyrant gave his next command.

"You and I will have some work to do, Waspinator, yes," Megatron smiled, "Inferno, Ravage, you two are to maintain command here. Tarantulus, you are to lead the remaining clones in minor skirmish in the valley to make sure the Maximals do not interfere with my plans."

"Yes, Royalty," Inferno saluted.

Megatron transformed to his beast mode and flew out of the Predicon base with Waspinator following close behind.

"Could you send instructions to the remaining clones, telling them to wait for me at the edge of the valley?" Tarantulus asked to Ravage.

Ravage nodded, but also indicated for Tarantulus to get going. The transmetal tarantula then left at high speed in his vehicle mode.

The Ark

"Amazing," Rhinox said in a voice that was filled with awe as he examined the fragment that Silverbolt and Blackarachnia had brought in.

Strangely it looked like a spider's leg.

"What is it?" Optimus asked.

"First of all, it wasn't a Predicon that was destroyed in that cave, at least not a Predicon in the way we would think," Rhinox explained, "Especially if it anything like what Dinobot and Rapther encountered. It's probably a clone, like the clone that Megatron tried to use to infiltrate our base early in the war."

"How do ya know that?" Rattrap demanded.

Rhinox held up the leg.

"This fragment for one thing," Rhinox answered, "It's clearly a spider-like leg, but its armor is more like Optimus's, a transmetal 2, which Tarantulus, the only spider fighting for the Predicons at this time isn't."

Rhinox watched the others nod before continuing, "Dinobot and Rapther's encounter is another thing. They were attacked by a raptor, like themselves, yet it didn't talk and more importantly, it didn't transform. No transformer would engage in such combat without taking on its robot form first, and no clone can transform."

"And most Predicons always seem to taunt their opponents while they fight," Optimus sighed, "Attacking in 'beast mode' and not taunting is rather unusual behavior for a Predicon. So we're dealing with clones again. Any ideas as how we can destroy them?"

"More importantly, how was Megatron able to make them transmetal twos?" Dinobot growled, "He does not have access to the original Megatron or Optimus Prime."

"The transmetal driver," Depthcharge said weakly from the back of the room.

"What?" Optimus asked.

"While Megatron still had me under his control, he sent Rampage and I on a search to find something he called a transmetal driver," Depthcharge answered, "Saying that it was the aliens who invented transmetal technology and therefore had to have a driver to do it."

"He's using alien technology," Optimus sighed, "Prime."

"Uh, guys," Cheetor cut in, "I don't mean to interrupt the important conversation and all, but sensors indicate that two metallic beings left the Pred base and headed east while there are three metallic beings at the edge of the valley where Dinobot and Rapther were attacked."

Optimus sighed again, "Prime. Dinobot, Cheetor, I want you two to follow the two that just left the Predicon base. Move as fast as you can, but do not engage."

Cheetor gave a nervous glance at Dinobot, who looked very agitated ever since he came out of the CR chamber but nodded and followed the male raptor out.

"Rapther, Depthcharge, Rattrap, and Silverbolt, you're with me and we'll deal with the Predicons in the valley," Optimus commanded, "We'll try to catch up to Dinobot and Cheetor afterward. Rhinox, Blackarachnia, guard the base."

Optimus and the others then left at high speed to deal with the new Predicon threat.

The Valley

Tarantulus scanned the valley with his optics. There was no sign of any Maximal in the nearby region and he sighed before the two remaining clones before him. One was the white and blue raptor clone that had attacked Dinobot and Rapther and the other was brownish colored cheetah clone. The transmetal spider did see, however, that there were several early humans in the area.

"Come then," Tarantulus sighed and switched to his vehicle mode once more and charged toward the early humans.

The clones ran quickly after them.

The laser fire by the clones quickly attracted the attention of the Maximals headed to stop them. Optimus, Depthcharge, and Silverbolt were the first to arrive.

"There they are," Silverbolt pointed, "One raptor clone and apparently one cheetah clone and Tarantulus is leading them."

"Take Tarantulus out," Optimus commanded, "He's likely to be the brains behind them. I'll deal with the clones directly."

Silverbolt nodded and readied his wing missiles and then fired them down towards Tarantulus. The explosion made the Predicon tip upwards and exposed much of his back to Deptcharge, who took his shark blaster and hit Tarantulus with a single shot. The transmetal tarantula was blown into a nearby tree.

Meanwhile, Optimus in vehicle mode dove down and began to strafe the two clones with his blasters. The raptor clone was knocked to the ground, but the cheetah clone was fast enough to avoid taking any serious hits. Both fired on Optimus as he flew overhead, but his speed through air made both shots go behind him. Optimus quickly circled around to make another pass.

Rapther and Rattrap arrived right as Optimus began to turn and looked at the situation. The two clones were trading shots with Optimus while Tarantulus was firing his shoulder mounted machine guns at both Silverbolt and Depthcharge.

"Man, why does Megabutt gotta clone people?" Rattrap grumbled, "You and Dinobot are enough to deal with. Why does he got to add another saurian."

Rattrap then fired a series of shots from his blaster at the raptor clone. It forced the robot to take a few steps back, but did no real damage.

"Look at it this way," Rapther offered as she fired a barrage of her rockets at both clones, "At least you can shoot this raptor."

"And dat is half the fun," Rattrap smiled as he fired again.

The combination of Rapther's rockets and Rattrap's shots knocked the raptor clone to the ground, and a second strafing run from Optimus blew it back a few more feet. The cheetah clone in response fired at Optimus again, but the transmetal-two gorilla flew faster then the clone's laser and began to turn around again. Then, the clone noticed Rattrap and Rapther standing nearby, and began running at a dead sprint toward them.

"Uh oh," Rattrap muttered as he saw the clone coming right toward them.

The transmetal rat fired several blasts at the charging clone. Most hit, but the clone's armor protected it and it kept on coming. Once it got half way to the two Maximals it fired its lasers from its eyes and knocked Rattrap back into a nearby tree. Optimus meanwhile noticed the clones attacked and lined himself up hit it before it had a chance to close on Rattrap and Rapther.

Tarantulus saw the Maximal leader's move and decided to counter it. With a quick burst of machine gun fire, he forced Silverbolt to dodge in front of Depthcharge, taking away any chance the transmetal manta ray had to shoot the Predicon. Then Tarantulus simply waited for his own shot to develop.

Optimus had nearly gotten into position where he could fire on the charging cheetah clone, when he suddenly felt hundreds of machine gun rounds impacting the guns that were on his back while in vehicle mode. Those guns were not as well protected as the rest of him, and Optimus cringed as he felt one of his blasters shut down as the impact of the bullets damaged it. On top of this, the bullets knocked him off his intended flight path and the Maximal leader ended up crashing through several trees before he was able to right himself.

Meanwhile the raptor clone had recovered and looked up to see two Maximals flying in the air above him. One was a transmetal manta ray and other, a fuzor. Both were focused on something else and weren't paying attention to him. The raptor then activated his lasers and fired.

Depthcharge had finally gotten a clear shot at Tarantulus when he felt a powerful laser blast hit him in his right beast mode fin, which served as a wing while in robot mode. It pushed him into Silverbolt, sending his wing missiles off target. Another laser blast hit his lower leg flipping the transmetal manta ray over and a third blast hit him squarely in the chest, sending him plummeting to the ground below.

"Depthcharge!" Silverbolt yelled.

The fuzor then looked to see that the clones had divided their forces. The raptor clone was standing alone on a hill, with its eyes glowing red. It was this clone that had shot Depthcharge down.

"Oh this simply will not do," Silverbolt sighed and dove toward the clone, his wing missiles ready.

Once it was close enough, the cheetah clone leaped at the two Maximals. It flew through the air, paws extended and landed on top of Rapther. The transmetal female managed to get her hands up and block the clone's attempt to sink its fangs into her neck, but she new that much was only a stalemate. Her beast mode arms, which functioned as her rocket launchers in robot mode, were pinned beneath her and the clone could fire its lasers at any time.

"Hey Rattrap, some help would be nice!" Rapther called out as the clone's eyes began to glow red.

"I'm comin'," Rattrap grumbled as he pulled himself up from the tree that he had been knocked into earlier.

He looked to see the cheetah clone trying to bite Rapther's neck. Rapther had a firm grip on the clone's neck and was preventing the clone from biting, but it was preparing to fire its lasers on her.

"Oh no ya don't," Rattrap growled and fired six shots from his own blaster.

The shots hit the clone in its side and where successful at knocking the clone off of Rapther. Rattrap's victory was short lived however, as the clone then fired its lasers at him and knocked him back again. Rapther sat up and fired another barrage of her rockets at the clone, but was only successful at forcing the clone to take a step back. The cheetah clone prepared to leap at Rapther again when a large hand suddenly grabbed it by the back of the neck.

"That is a strict, no-no," Optimus said coldly shaking a finger at the clone.

The Maximal leader then maneuvered his grip so that he was holding the clone's head with both hands. It struggled and clawed at the sides of his hands, but that did little and its lasers couldn't hit him unless he changed the angle at which he was holding the clone. Optimus then put the squeeze on the clone and after a few seconds, the clone's head was crushed. Optimus then dropped the offline clone to the ground.

"One down, and one to go," Optimus sighed.

A round of machine gun bullets then flew through the air and ricocheted off of Optimus's armor and Rapther was forced to take a step back as a few rounds hit her.

"I'm beginning to get tired of him," Optimus groaned as he turned toward Tarantulus.

"Rattrap and I will take care of him," Rapther said, "You deal with the other clone."

Optimus nodded and moved toward the open area where Silverbolt and Depthcharge where dealing with the raptor clone.

The raptor clone dodged Silverbolt's first attempt at attacking it, but the explosion of the fuzor's feather missiles allowed Depthcharge to recover his gun and fire at the clone. Depthcharge's attack hit it in the head and knocked the clone over. It got up and fired its lasers at the transmetal manta ray and forced Depthcharge to take a step back. The clone also began to charge toward Depthcharge as he was the closest Maximal that was on the ground.

Silverbolt circled around again and fired his feather missiles again. This time he hit the clone in the back with both missiles, but only made it stumble slightly. Its charge toward Depthcharge continued unchecked.

The clone was about half way to Depthcharge when a powerful energy blast hit the clone in the side and knocked him to the ground. The clone looked up to see that Optimus had now joined the battle against him and had fired on him with the one blaster he had left. The clone fired on Optimus before it even got up. Optimus only activated the jet boosters in his feet and flew over the clone. He then activated the one blaster he had left and fired again.

This attack cracked the clone's outer layer of transmetal-two armor. Depthcharge meanwhile aimed his own blaster at the wounded clone and added his firepower to Optimus's. The blast from Depthcharge's shark blaster knocked the damaged pieces of armor off of the clone and exposed its internal framework. From the air, Silverbolt saw his chance and fired his feather missiles at the damaged section of the clone's armor.

The missiles hit their target and when they exploded the clone was essentially blown in half as the missiles easily penetrated through the interior armor of the clone very easily. Optimus and Depthcharge looked on as the clone went offline.

"That takes care of him," Optimus sighed.

"I could have taken care of him on my own," Depthcharge snorted.

Optimus nodded, ignoring him, "Come on. We got to make sure that Tarantulus is beaten as well."

Tarantulus growled in frustration as he fired his machine guns at the two Maximals he was facing. Optimus had literally crushed the first clone and had now gone on to defeat the second clone. Rapther and Rattrap were now advancing on him and firing on him when he had the chance. The transmetal spider finally called it quits when he saw the other clone explode.

"I'm not going to stay here and get slagged by five Maximals," Tarantulus thought to himself and with a closing salvo, he switched to vehicle mode and speed off in the direction of the Predicon base.

"Yeah, run ya chicken!" Rattrap yelled after him as Tarantulus speed away.

"Alright, enough of that," Optimus said calmly as he walked up.

"What now, Optimus?" Silverbolt asked.

"We have to continue with the plan and try to figure out what Megatron is up to with this transmetal driver," Optimus answered, "Rattrap, Rapther, I want you two to take the remains of these clones back to the Ark. The more Rhinox has to examine, the better chance we have of understanding this technology."

Rapther and Rattrap nodded and began walking back. Optimus meanwhile turned to face Silverbolt and Depthcharge.

"Meanwhile, the rest of us are going to try and catch up with Dinobot and Cheetor," Optimus said in a firm voice, "While our scanners indicated that two beings went east from the Predicon base, we have to assume that at least one of them is Megatron. We need to figure out what he's up to."

"Wouldn't it be wise to at least send one of us back to guard the base?" Silverbolt asked, "This could be some diversion. With us here and two headed east it would leave the Ark practically unguarded. I'll even volunteer to go back myself."

"Yeah," Depthcharge agreed, "Megatron would attack the Ark the way we are now. Two out near his base. Five here in the valley and two more at the Ark. With five at the Ark and four near his base, Megatron might not be so willing to attack."

"Agreed," Optimus nodded, "I'll need you to stay behind then, Silverbolt. I'll need Depthcharge's firepower, and he has a slight advantage on you in speed."

Silverbolt nodded and returned to beast mode and began flying toward the Ark.

"Come on," Optimus sighed as he transformed to his vehicle mode again, "We've got a lot of ground to cover."

Elsewhere

"We're never going to get there in time to figure out what Megatron is up to," Cheetor sighed as he and Dinobot ran toward the mountains to the east of the Predicon base, "We've got to move carefully to avoid being detected by Sentinel. On top of that Megatron has a head start and we have to travel farther. And I can't fly with you going with me."

"A true warrior does not fear long odds, but accepts them as a challenge of his skill," Dinobot answered, "Megatron is at heart a coward and bully. While devious and cunning, finding out what he is up to is the least important issue we have. We must be able to stop him once we get to him."

"Optimus told us that we're only supposed to find out what he's up to," Cheetor answered, "And besides, neither of us have any weapons that would be good against Megatron with that new transmetal-two armor of his."

Dinobot then ignored the transmetal cheetah's comments and kept running.

Predicon Base

"I knew this would fail," Tarantulus grumbled as he made his way back into the Predicon base.

The transmetal tarantula found Inferno walking balk and forth in the style of a military guard near Megatron's command chair while Ravage worked on some computer panel. Quickstrike and Rampage were absent from the area.

"Well, I've finished my part in Megatron's grand failure," Tarantulus announced.

Both Inferno and Ravage turned to look at him.

"Good, you have returned," Inferno said simply and returned to 'guard duty'.

"I would not assume that the plan is a failure from what you have encountered," Ravage said calmly and returned to his work.

"So that driver works," Tarantulus grumbled, "All of the clones were destroyed and I very nearly could have."

Ravage ignored him.

"What more can Megatron possibly do?" Tarantulus demanded.

"Activate the protoforms that were recovered earlier," Ravage answered in a calm voice.

Secret Predicon Lab

Waspinator plugged two red wires into a port on the side of the second stasis pod that Megatron had recovered. The Predicon wasp then brought up a welding torch and welded the stasis pod's metal frame to the wires so that the wires could not be removed. Once he was done, he turned to Megatron, who was looking out the lab's entrance.

"Waspinator has finished preparatory work on the stasis pods," Waspinator announced in his buzzing voice.

"Excellent," Megatron smiled and turned to face the two stasis pods.

Megatron slowly advanced toward the two pods and opened the doors revealing the two sparkles protoforms inside. Megatron then opened the compartment where he normally kept the energon cages for Rampage and Tarantulus's sparks. What he produced however was not two energon cages, but what looked like two actual sparks.

"It is time that my plans for final victory to be unleashed!" Megatron announced triumphantly as he inserted each spark into a protoform body.

Megatron smiled again as he saw the two sparks come to life inside their new bodies. He then shut the stasis pod doors.

"Now to begin the activation process," Megatron smiled.

To be Continued…