Chapter 8

There are always Thieves

Under the cover of night a form moved through the trees, slinking from shadow to shadow. Glowing green eyes were the only thing to give it away so it ducked its head and kept close to the ground for cover, its tail slowly shifting from side to side just above the grass. It leaped up onto a fallen log and stretched out to its full height as it scanned the surrounding area.

Yes. Leopard had to admit as he surveyed from his perch. Tonight was a quiet one.

The planets moon was only half full and had dipped low to the horizon, making the world beneath the foliage of Pinwheel Forest a near dark one. Most of the Pokémon who inhabited the area were long gone, leaving him alone to his thoughts.

It was times like this that he could truly imagine he was somewhere else. Not on Cybertron; their homeworld was too different, made almost entirely of metal and rock. But somewhere else. Another, safer organic world, like where they were supposed to be right now. Stupid Predacons.

He had signed up as the pilot, and an extra technician. The only person on board he had actually known was Optimus, an old family friend. He hadn't signed up for this; been trapped on an alien world with no way home, under attack from both the native life and rouge Predacons- both capable of killing him with ease.

It wasn't fair! But hadn't the humans once said that life isn't fair?

Besides, if none of this had happened, he would have never met White, would have never been able to train with Dinobot… would have believed everything they had told him about Predacons (Which he could now see wasn't entirely true). And oh how that hurt.

He shook his head; he needed to return to the Axalon, he had been up for almost a full solar cycle now and desperately needed a defrag.

He leaped down from the log and traced his way back to their ship. It was only three klicks away, not far by Cybertronian standards.

Still, by the time the exploration ship was in sight. Leopard was ready to drop. He called down the lift and clambered on, sprawling onto his belly in exhaustion.

The cat-bot heaved himself to his pedes as the lift shuddered to a stop, noting the presence of several other Maximals.

'Hey Optimus! Where you all going at this megacycle? The sun isn't even up yet.'

'Dinobot is heading out on patrol. I was going to investigate some odd readings from an island to the south. Centinox?'

'Meeting up with Cheren. With White gone he's our best source of information.'

Optimus nodded before throwing a quick scan over the youngest member of their crew. 'Go get some rest Leopard; you look like you need it.'

He just nodded and left, too tired to even bother to transform until he reached his room. He was out the moment he was on his berth.

Rattrap jumped, distracted from his electronic version of Poker as the proximity alarms went off. A quick check of the ships chronometer proved it couldn't be any of the other Maximals; it was too early for Dinobot to finish his patrol, Optimus and Centinox wouldn't be back until evening at the earliest and both Leopard and Airazor were still in defrag. So who was outside the ship?

He switched the screens to the cameras they had attached to the outer hull and flipped between them, looking for unusual shapes and movement. It was still relatively dark; dawn was still a good megacycle away, so it was difficult to see much beyond the slight shifting of the shadows created by the surrounding trees.

There didn't appear to be anything out there but this was the time of the solarcycle in which the camera systems couldn't be trusted, the lighting at its worst as the world around them prepared for dawn. It was also the time when both diurnal and nocturnal Pokémon were out and about at the same time.

He flicked through the cameras a second time before settling back with a quiet vent. He hated been on this shift of monitor duty, it was the one best known for false alarms after all. Rattraps optics flickered as a message popped up on his internal scanners; he needed to begin defrag, preferably within the next megacycle or so.

He vented again and returned to his game, missing the sound of metal ripping and tearing from near the back of the ship. After all, there were two forests, at least one mountain and several towns and cities between them and the Predacons so it wasn't like they had anything to worry about out here in the heart of Pinwheel forest as long as they avoided the more powerful wild Pokémon…

Airazor's systems pulled her out of defrag as her sensors registered the sounds of tearing metal. She leaped up off the berth, her weapon systems automatically powering up and she paused, frowning at the lines of battle code running through her systems. That wasn't normal…

The sound of something banging against metal snapped her back to awareness and she moved towards the doors to her room, several systems she didn't even know she had powering up: battle systems. Hadn't she heard Primal mention once that she had originally been designed as a war build?

Sensors primed to the max, she opened her door and peaked out. Several doors down the hall a hole had been ripped through the hull and she watched as several small black and white forms dropped through. Were these Trainers? She had never actually seen one up close before- Primal been more focused on perfecting flight techniques in her new Beast Mode to let her go with the others into Nacrene for practice with the local Trainer population.

But what were they doing on board the Axalon? She ducked back into her room and, after a bit of fumbling with the unfamiliar system, activated her Xtransceiver.

'This is Airazor calling any and all Maximals, can anyone hear me?'

'Primus Airazor! Don't startle meh like dat!'

'Apologies Rattrap, but we have intruders in the quarters corridor, I'm guessing their Trainers. From what I can see they've ripped a hole through the outer hull.'

They were interrupted by a third connection, it was Centinox.

'I've tried to connect Dinobot but he doesn't seem to be responding and both Optimus and I are too far away, you're on your own for now. Centinox out.'

His face disappeared from the view screen as quickly as it had arrived and Airazor cut her own connection, the Xtransceiver transforming back into her forearm and out of sight.

She was on her own for the moment. With that thought she leaped out into the corridor and turned the face the opening, wrist blasters up and ready to fire.

Something smashed into the back of her helm she fell to the ground with a crash, her optics offlining as she hit the ground.

When Leopard exited defrag, he expected to see the light grey walls of his room with their smattering of Cybertronian posters and images of Pokémon. Instead he was greeted by smooth dull grey metal walls. He jumped up of the metal floor of the cage and shoved his head against the bars that lined one side of the cage.

As far as he could tell he was in some sort of warehouse filled with countless other cages, most of which appeared to hold Pokémon of all types. He couldn't recognise most but from those he did identify he guessed none of them were really 'common' Pokémon.

It wasn't hard to figure out why he was here; whoever had botnapped him were Pokénappers, stealing and capturing harder to get wild Pokémon and selling them off to the highest bidder. He let out a whine; this was not good, really not good.

'Leopard! Is that you?'

A voice called out from the next cage over and he shoved himself even harder against the bars, trying to get a look at his fellow Maximal. He managed to get a good enough look at the faux-Unfezant to see a wing wrapped tightly against her side; she was hurt.

'Airazor, are you alright? Where are we?!'

'Not sure pussy cat, but I'm guessin' nowhere good.' Rattraps voice called from higher up, sounding rather distracted. 'Gimme a minute and I'll get us a betta look 'round.'

Leopard sunk down to the floor of the cage, listening intently to the faint skritch-click coming from Rattraps general direction, it eventually ended with a solid 'thunk' and a shout of 'finally' before the small Maximal dropped down in front of Airazor's cage and knelt down, carefully examining the lock.

'Hopefully dis won't take long too long ta open…'

He was interrupted from any further analysis by the sound of voices. Someone was coming.

'Rattrap, get out of here. Find the others and get help!' Airazor hissed through the bars.

'Heh, ya don't have ta tell me twice! I'm outta 'ere!'

He vanished from Leopard's sight, leaving them with nothing more than the quiet sound of scampering feet.

Leopard settled down to wait. After all, it wasn't like Rattrap would just leave them here. Would he?

'So, why are these two here? I thought we were only transferring semi-rare Pokémon out of Unova.'

'Hmmm, according to this, they're supposedly some of the rarest Pokémon out there. Only a dozen of this lot in the world, at least according to the Unovan Pokémon Researchers. They're also really powerful from what I've heard; they'll go for a high price once we figure out how to get them out of their disguises.'

'What, like a Ditto or a Zorua?'

The two men had stopped in front of the cages holding Leopard and Airazor and one of them crouched down to get a good look at the former. The faux-Liepard hissed and pulled back, causing the man to chuckle. He reached out again only to be stopped by his partner.

'Hey, come on, we've got to check out the rest of this lot before the boss starts bringing through the regulars.'

Leopard watched the two walk past with partially shuttered eyes before curling up as far away from the walls as possible. Rattrap, please do something good for once and get help. Staying still like this for too long is the pit incarnate!

He wasn't used to such small spaces, it hadn't been a problem on the Axalon because of his smaller size and here of the Pokémon world there was plenty of space to run and hunt in to satisfy his Beast Mode's instincts. But in here…

He slipped his head under his tail and wished for the world outside.

I take back everything I said before, anything is better than this!

He had been a Pokémon smuggler before the boarder laws had been introduced into Unova several years ago. Back then he had smuggled Pokémon from Hoenn into Johto and Kanto for a living but when he had discovered the massive and unique market of Unova with its border controls he had seen it as the perfect opportunity to expand.

As far as he knew, he was the only big time smuggler of Unovan Pokémon and it made him a fortune.

He was especially pleased with his latest find. Upon hearing the report of a new Pokémon species he had sent one of his men to investigate Pinwheel forest. Instead his employee had come back with something completely unexpected. The new Pokémon were far stronger then he could have ever imagined and there were so few of them. Oh the money he could make from even one of these creatures…

The fact that he now had two in his possession was a pleasant surprise. But before he could sell them off he had to figure out how to get them to transform.

Which was where he was now, overlooking an underground battle ring. In the centre was the one disguised as a Liepard. The large cat was pacing back and forth, its head whipping in every direction, looking for possible danger- if they hadn't found it in the remains of the Alien Pokémon's ship he would have believed it was nothing more than an ordinary Liepard. Such a clever disguise.

He heard something move behind him but didn't react as another person, just as faceless as he was in the dark that shrouded the area, sat down beside him.

'I heard you had some new Pokémon to tempt me with.' Ah, one of his regulars. He recognised that voice all too well, even if he didn't have a name to put to it.

'Yes, I thought you would be interested in some rather interesting Pokémon we picked up recently. Perhaps a demonstration?'

He pulled out a remote and activated the doors lining the walls of the arena, releasing a number of rare Pokémon. A number of wild Pokémon shot out of the cages they had been kept in; a Duosion instantly targeted an Axew while two Deinos ganged up on a Larvesta. But his eyes were locked solely on the pretender in the centre of the ring, who had found himself under attack from a rather nasty Rufflet. This would be an interesting battle to watch.

Leopard was scared. He had been scared when they had dragged him from the cage and away from Airazor, he had been scared when they had dumped him in this giant empty room and he had been scared when a number of Pokémon had been let loose in here with him. Suddenly the room hadn't seemed all that small after all.

He ducked under the talons of his opponent; a small blue and red bird with a massive white mane of feathers, and took off, dodging around several Pokémon before something slammed into his side, knocking him over.

Leopard rolled, pulling himself back to his pedes he settled into a battle stance White had taught him. Across from him was what appeared to be a Pansage, like one of the few he occasionally saw wandering around the forest, only this one was far larger then any Pansage he had ever seen before; more rugged and menacing, almost as if it had evolved. But that was impossible! He had seen really powerful Pansages, he had seen one take down a Scolipede once, if it was capable of Evolving then he would have seen the Evolution at some point during his many explorations!

Unless… Energon. It had to be the answer. One of the many different types of energon must have an effect on the Pansages which now left him in a rather difficult situation; evolved Pokémon were always far harder to take down.

It came at him and he was forced to duck under the swipe, remembering to keep his tail low and out of the way- he really didn't need a repeat of that first battle. He twisted around and bit down on the Grass Types legs, pumping energy through his fangs. The Pokémon screeched and brought down a fist on his head, jarring his processor.

He let go and stumbled back, trying to at least stay out of reach as his sensors reorientated themselves.

Something slammed into his side, almost knocking his off balance again and he saw a flash of white as it wheeled away. Damn, the bird was back.

Leopard had found himself in a rather difficult situation; he was stuck in a double battle with two Pokémon species he didn't recognise and no partner to back him up- it was a bad situation for any Trainer to be in, but he was on his own this time.

He only had one option left to him.

'Leopard, MAXIMISE!'

His current customers' attention was pulled from the pair of Deinos as a loud screech echoed across the arena, capturing the attention of every Pokémon within.

'What was that?' He was all too happy to point to the other side of the arena where an unusual sight was taking place.

The Maximal disguised as a Liepard was shedding it disguise to protect itself.

It was fascinating to watch the twist of body parts as the Maximal grew in size, taking on a humanoid form. Such a transformation should have been impossible or at the very least painful but the Pokémon pulled it off effortlessly. At least a head taller than a human, it towered over the pre-evolution Pokémon, scaring several of the weaker ones off. Truly a sight to behold.

'What in the name of Arceus is that Pokémon?'

'That, my friend, is a Maximal. One of the newest Pokémon species to be discovered in Unova they come in all shapes and types, the only way to tell one apart from an ordinary Pokémon is if it transforms into its true form, which is what you see here.'

'So, like that Zorua you sold me a while back?'

'Yes, but unlike a Zorua they can only disguise themselves as one other Pokemon and can hold that form for as long as they want. There is nothing that can force them to unwillingly reveal themselves. Their true form is incredibly powerful, and the best part is that they are incredibly rare, only a dozen in existence!'

'Interesting, I suppose this is the only one you have access to?'

'No, I have another if you're interested.'

'Hmm, we'll see.'

'Don't wait too long, or I'll have to pass them onto another client, can't keep them around here forever after all.'

Leopard had no idea how long he had been here but it must have been a long time, his tanks were running low. The only way to pass the time here in these cages was to talk with Airazor and he had quickly found himself telling her tales of Cybertron. She had been fascinated by stories of the Great War, asking as many questions about it as she could- though he was unable to answer most of them, he didn't know too much about it himself. Never really been interested.

But now she was in defrag, leaving him to his thoughts.

Why was all of this happening to him? He was barely more than a youngling for Primus's sake! Why had they been picked to chase after Megatron? Why couldn't they have sent actual warriors after the Darksyde instead of a simple exploration ship? Why, why, WHY?

A shout echoed through the warehouse, followed by several loud bangs and a screech of metal. Leopard jumped to his feet as more shouts filled the air, accompanied by the cries of Pokémon. Was it Optimus? Had the rest of the Maximals finally arrived to save them?

The sounds of battle got closer until several men in blue and white tunics ran past, each with at least one Pokémon by his or her side, shouting orders to each other at a rapid pace- too fast for his translation programs to follow in his energon deprived state.

Some of them began checking the imprisoned Pokémon, calling for food and medical supplies. One of them opened his cage when they saw his wounds, rummaging through a bag which he guessed contained the spray bottles or herbs that he often saw White use during training. The moment he saw an oppertunity, Leopard took a chance and rushed out of the cage, shoving the man aside as he went.

The man let out a shout of surprise, catching the attention of the people around him. Leopard didn't care; he was already in front of Airazor's prison and ripping at the lock, trying to free his comrade. Airazor was awake, optics wide as she pulled back out of the way- there was nothing she could do from the inside to help.

'Hey! Hey! How did that Liepard get out! Somebody calm him down before he hurts someone!'

The faux-Liepard whirled around as the Trainers approached; dropping into a crouch he growled and lashed his tail out instinctually to keep them away.

'Trainers stay back. I free friend. Trainers go!' He growled, his systems were running entirely on foreign programs, ones that had not been there before their arrival on The Pokémon World, it frightened him.

His optics glowing almost white as he fought back against the array of unfamiliar lines of code, every circuit in his frame primed to attack, even as his processor fought back. This wasn't him, this was wrong!

'Get back! All of you! Get. Back. Now! Give the Liepard some room!' A new voice shouted out and the new Trainers retreated, letting a young man- roughly the same age as White- through. The teen was dressed in simple everyday clothes, bright green hair partially covered by a cap.

He slowly knelt down, calm radiating off him in waves, and smiled.

'It's ok, no need to be scared. You're safe, you and your friend.' He motioned to Airazor, not once taking him eyes off Leopard who in turn held his gaze; using him as a still point to work from, pulling apart the new lines of code and locking them away for Centinox to deal with later.

Once the programs were properly locked away he relaxed and nodded to the man in thanks. He slowly moved forwards and reached out a hand, never once shifting his eyes away from the young Maximals optics.

It was Leopard who broke visual contact between them first. Dropping onto his haunches as several warnings popped up. He was in a bad shape.

It took him a moment to recover and then he looked back up. The green haired man hadn't moved any closer.

'Leopard.' He finally spoke. 'I Leopard, that Airazor.'

'You can call me N'

He nodded as N's hand reached out to hover over Leopard's head. He pushed forwards, his head connecting with N's hand momentarily, brushing over an ear, before had pulled away and began to properly study the lock.

Calm, he had to stay calm.

He only knew some basics about wiring and electronics. Rattrap (and surprisingly enough, Dinobot) had been teaching him more so they could speed up the repairs to their ship, not that it was doing much in the way of getting the Axalon back into the air. Really it was unlikely it would ever fly again, let alone survive the trip to the nearest Cybertronian colony.

The lock on the cage was simple, designed merely to keep even the smarter Pokémon from escaping. He easily wrenched the cover off with his teeth and rearranged the wires with some difficulty (damn paws).

He stepped back as the door swung open, allowing Airazor to flop out onto the ground. He nudged her back to her feet and the two turned to look at their saviours. The Trainers in uniform had all moved off, checking the conditions of the imprisoned Pokémon. Several larger Pokémon were already removing the cages from the building.

Oh, that's right; he had to call the rest of the Maximals off before they attacked the wrong people!

'N. Stand back. No fear. Please.' The teen nodded and allowed Airazor to pull him out of the way, the seeker recognising what he was doing.

'Maximise.' For N sake he simple spoke the transformation command instead of shouting it like a battle cry. These were allies after all (he hoped).

He watched the teen's eyes widen and he took a step back, a look of awe on his face, especially when Airazor followed Leopards' lead. The femme sat down next to the Trainer and smiled.

'Thankyou for getting us out, I was afraid we would starve before help arrived.'

'You're Predacons?'

Leopard scowled and turned away, focusing on the Xtransceiver in his forearm. Airazor shook her head.

'No, we are Maximals, though I do not blame you for mixing us up. It is impossible to tell us apart from looks alone, the sheer variety in appearance does that. The best way we have at the moment besides symbol' she pointed out the blocky wolf head near the inside of her wrist joint 'is by individual. There aren't that many of us so it's not hard to keep track at the moment.'

They were interrupted by an exited shout from Leopard.

'Optimus! Can you hear me?'

'Leopard, are you and Airazor alright? We're half a Megacycle away at most. We'll have you out of there soon.'

'Minor injuries and energon starvation but nothing serious, someone else just showed up and saved us. Oh, so don't attack the Trainers in blue and white uniforms, they're the good guys.'

'Understood. Its good to hear you. Optimus out.'

The three of them were standing outside, waiting when Primal dropped out of the sky, landing gracefully of the ground in front of them.

N gaped at the sight of his Beast Mode.

'You're… you're Reshiram!'

He dipped his head in confirmation, shifting slightly to let the other three down from his back. Centinox immediately moved over and transformed, scanners already checking the damage to Leopard's frame.

'But, I thought Reshiram and Zekrom were just a myth, after the stone failed to activate…'

'Every legend has a grain of truth to it little one, sometimes it just might just surprise you.'

Leopard frowned, that didn't sound like Optimus…

'So, the ancient war between truth and ideals? Was that even real?'

And so Optimus began to speak. The tale he told was that of The Great War, Leopard realised as he listened. Their leader spoke the truth as they knew it, but worded it such that it sounded like it had taken place here, weaving in his knowledge of the legends. It was clever, it was cunning, it was… not the Bossbot.

The words, the tone; it just didn't sound right.

'So you're not the first Reshiram? There were others?'

'Only one, we merely follow in our ancestors' footsteps.'

'Corruption and Equality… I never thought about what truth and ideals could have stood for in the legend.'

The teen had moved to sit down against the wall of the building earlier on and now he ducked his head in thought.

They were finally interrupted by Centinox, much to Leopards relief (he just wanted to get some rest!).

'Optimus, we should return to the Axalon. The younglings need energon and rest.'

'Of course Centinox.' The dragon turned back to the green haired Trainer. 'Thankyou again, for saving my men today. Maximals, return home and get some rest.'

It wasn't until they were in the air that Leopard found the energy to ask.

'Are you ok Optimus?'

'Prime Leopard, just… Prime.'

Sitting on their leaders back, the Maximals didn't see the frown stretched across his face.

Author's notes:

And so this is what happens when write an entire chapter without any real motivation, lose it just before you go to post it and have to rewrite the entire thing from scratch just after your Grandpa dies.

Yeh. I hate life right now.

This is a chapter that has hated me right from the start. I think the feelings mutual.

I'm not happy with it; this chapter has caused me more grief than any other chapter, even chapter two. However it is highly important for the plot of the next few chapters.

The quality's bad, I can't even find the motivation to properly edit it but bear with it and I'll come back with some better stuff next time (though I don't know when 'next time' will be exactly), maybe even come back and rewrite it at a later point.

Please, to all my readers out there, help me find the motivation to continue writing this or I'm just going to end up going back to the time travel fic I'm currently working on and ignore this story.

No, seriously, you guys are the only reason I have to keep going with these stories and not give up. Please don't forget that.

And to the guest who happened to be the only person who reviewed since I put the last chapter up: yes, those were the best names I could come up with. I don't know much about the various Cybercats from G1 and the Comics, or any of the various characters portrayed there so I could hardly make use of them. It took me six months to come up with anything remotely decent for the purpose of this story before I even started writing the damn thing. As for the headcanon explanation; in the canon, Cheetor is often shown as somewhat unimaginative and childish, especially during the early days of the Beast Wars (I mean, who names themselves a cheater? Really?), I'm just following on with that. Its my way of pointing out the fact that Liepards look a lot like a Leopard to me...

If you really think its that bad then perhaps you could send me some other ideas for renaming the Maximals and the Predacons? Or I might just go back through the entire story and rename him like I did Black (who has been written as White since the posting of chapter 3).

(And if you hate those names that much, I wonder just how badly your going to react to some of the later additions to the Unovan Wars...)

But really you could have worded your response a lot better, it looks a lot like a flame from here...

~EclipseSeeker