Unnatural Disasters

by Okami-chan

Chapter 5

While You Were Sleeping

Soundwave blinked once. He touched the console in front of him and keyed in for the sensors to perform another scan. Nothing. Not a blip. Soundwave fiddled with the buttons and levers, attempting to make the signals reappear. Air whooshed out of his ventilators in a sigh and he opened a channel to the Air Commander's lab.

"What is it?"

Oh how he despised that squawky voice. "The Combaticons have vanished."

A pause. "You had better be mistaken, Soundwave."

"Negative. There was a brief reading of Bruticus' energy signature, then it vanished, with no sign of the Combaticons. The sensors also detected an Autobot transmission, which is being decoded as we speak."

"First the Stunticons, now this." Soundwave knew that Starscream feared Megatron's wrath, especially with rumors of the Decepticon Commander's imminent arrival here on Earth. Megatron viewed the Stunticons differently from any of his other Decepticons. They were special, the last Transformers to be created before the flight from Cybertron. He would not be happy if Starscream had lost them. Not that he was ever happy with the Air Commander, hence the assignment to this sludge ball of a planet. Soundwave idly wondered if he might have somehow offended his commander as well. No, no, Megatron trusted him to keep an eye on Starscream. Oh, right, the idiot was talking. ". . . I want you to look into this personally Soundwave. Use your Eyes and Ears if you have to. Then report to me. We must find out what is happening over there. It'd better not interfere with my project-" this last came as a muttered afterthought, cut abruptly short with the closing of the channel.

Soundwave ejected the necessary Cassettes and gave them their orders.

Acres of trees covered the Yagyu estate, an inheritance from Nasuti's grandfather, dead for nearly two decades. Enough space for the large cat that made the mansion its home. Enough space for the five men to practice their crafts. Enough space to hide three fifteen foot tall robots.

Tarps hid two of the giants, the third's green armor created a gleam in the shadows of the trees. Two giant condors settled in the nearby trees, toes sinking into the soft bark. Keen eyes took in the shattered chest plate that exposed the wires and gears underneath. Red eyes gazed out from the brush, ears turned to the conversation of the two humans climbing onto the robot.

The humans clambered over the top of the shattered green chest. Thin fingers grasped a pipe, gesturing as the blue-haired man spoke, "It's no wonder we can't keep these brutes down, Shu." Fine lips frowned down at the mess of metal and mostly immobile moving parts. "Man, what can we do about this?"

Grey eyes blinked in confusion down at the hole. "Well, damn, Touma. What in the world are you seeing. Looks the same as it did when we first brought them here yesterday." A thick finger prodded at the innards.

Touma reached in and slid his hand underneath a line with pink liquid flowing through it. He rubbed his thumb across a thick glob of the pink fluid. "This used to have a hole in it, and," he followed the line to a valve, "it used to be only partially connected to this."

"Shit, Touma, are you telling me these things can heal themselves?"

Blue eyebrows lifted in surprise. "Isn't that what I've been saying?" Touma then fingered the edges of the cracked plating. "Guess they can't do anything about their exterior."

"Do you think the other two are repairing themselves?" Shu's face paled briefly. "Are they going to wake again?"

Touma shrugged. "I'm not certain, really. These aren't like anything we've encountered before. Though, I wonder what would happen if I . . ." Touma reached in and wrapped his fingers around a bundle of wires and tugged expectantly. Then he pulled. Touma put his back into it, bracing a foot on the chest plate, his muscles straining against his shirt. The wires stubbornly stayed in place.

Shu laughed, taking the bundle from the other. "Need some mus-uhl." Shu glared down at the wires he grasped. Tug tug. It didn't budge. even at his full strength, the grey eyed man couldn't pull the wires free. "Dammit, what's holding it in?"

Touma reached into his back pocket and pulled out a pocket knife. he flipped the blade up and sawed at one of the wires. A few moments later he looked at the blade and promptly threw it over his shoulder. It clattered to the ground, pinging off the robot's plating. "Well, that ruined my best knife. Still . . . we managed to hurt them with our weapons." The man stood and stretched out his hands. "Busou, Tenkuu!"

The condor's red eyes blinked at the sudden appearance of sakura. Several definitions of that phrase filtered past their optics, finally settling on 'Arm, Sky/Firmament'. Seemingly from nowhere the man suddenly wore a dark blue armor.

"C'mon Touma, these youja give me the creeps."

:Youja- no definition found. Breaking kanji down: Japanese characters flashed by the condors' optics. :No match found. Suggest kanji reference to define: The birds rustled their wings in annoyance and the men looked up.

"Man, those are some big birds."

Touma reached behind his shoulder and a golden arrow appeared in his hands. "I didn't know Ueno Zoo had them." He reached down and pulled the arrow's blade through the bundle of wires. "Yes! Success!" He continued slicing and sawing at the wires. "They're condors. They're native to the Americas. There that should do it." The armored man stood and began climbing down the green robot.

"Condors, eh? Maybe we should call Byakuen. He might scare 'em back to their cages." The thick man laughed as he jumped to the grass. He grabbed the tarp and easily slung it over the robot's inert form.

Touma was already heading for one of the other tarp-covered forms. Shu secured the one covering and followed Touma, clutching his side painfully. Beneath the tarp, blue flashed right where the eyes would be. The two condors dug their toes deeper into their perches, activating their weaponry systems.

A roar announced the arrival of a large white tiger. Ears back, teeth bared, the tiger snapped at the two birds. A black panther burst out of the bushes, charging the tiger. A golden arrow buried into the ground right in front of the panther. Red eyes glared up at another arrow pointed in its direction. The black cat snarled and the condors took to the sky, briefly shedding their feathered disguise to pelt the incapacitated Autobots with laser fire.

"Shu, watch out!" Touma grabbed the other man and swung him about, protecting him with his armored back.

The condors shrieked and wheeled out of range, covering their metal bodies in feathers again. The white tiger turned to the panther, a growl rumbling through its chest.

A black and white figure stepped out of the shadows. "I don't believe it!" Shu exclaimed, shoving Touma to the side, his body suddenly covered in a less ornate, orange armor.

"Kokueno, what are you-"

The black tiger hissed at his counterpart, then approached the black panther silently. The white tiger wandered over to the humans, nudging Shu's arm. The panther snarled, and swiped at the nose the tiger had thrust forward. Kokueno snorted and shook his head, rubbing his bleeding nose on the ground. Suddenly the panther charged the humans, his flesh disintegrating to reveal the sleek metal form beneath. Missiles erupted from his hip launchers, swirling toward the two men. Touma grabbed Shu and leapt, clearing the tops of the trees. The missiles arced toward them, following them. One, then two, the missiles exploded, sending out billowing clouds of smoke.

White and black the tigers pounced the robot. The white tiger's claws and teeth sliding off the sleek metal hide. The panther yowled, turning on the other tiger, his black metal rent open form the tiger's claws and teeth. Kokueno dropped bits of the panther's armor plating. Power surged from the white tiger and teeth clamped onto the panther's shoulder and threw the robot into a nearby tree.

The panther shook itself, its processor working overtime to give reason to these two flesh creatures' abilities. They should not be able to so much as scratch him. Red eyes looked up and his ears flattened. Smoke billowed around the two floating humans, a bubble encasing them. WHAT WERE THESE CREATURES?

The two tigers stood side by side, snarling, hissing, spitting. The panther evaluated its two opponents. Then he charged the white tiger. Metal teeth sank deep into the white throat.

"Byakuen!"

A black paw smacked the panther away. A golden arrow buried itself into its shoulder. The robot turned and hooked its claws into the armor plating on the tiger's back, its shoulder grinding in pain. The black tiger reared up, dragging the panther with him. He wrapped his forelegs around the panther and the world shifted.

The black panther found himself at the feet of a dark grey giant. Motormaster sneered down at the small cassette. His optics glowed green.

"Slag."

Prowl slumped into his office chair. Ratchet just had to run off and give them more bad news. He glanced at the report on his desk. And Hound and the Twins had failed to report in this morning. They were supposed to head back to base today. His white fingers picked up the datapad and glared at it. Apparently they were in the hands of some humans, hopefully none connected to the Earth governments. He so did not need this right now. But he could deal with it. The Aerialbots having located their missing comrades, continued searching for the Decepticons Skyspy had picked up. If they were damaged enough for humans to hold, he would need to send a medic. As for the Decepticon presence, Skyspy had picked up a gestalt signature. Prowl opened a channel.

"First Aid, report to my office." Then he switched channels. "Grimlock, I have a job for the Dinobots."

He needed to get his people back so they could deal with Megatron. He'd need all the fire power he could get.
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Author's Notes: Kokueno refused to cooperate with me. He said, no, I'm not fighting the panther, I'd rather do this. I whined back at him, but he remained stubborn. Stupid cat. My reasoning for the tigers actually hurting Ravage, is that neither are normal beasts. My proof? Byakuen is over a thousand years old (he was there when Kaosu banished Arago the first time). Kokueno is a spirit beast type thing. 'Nuff said. I'm kinda stretching out the Infiltration time line (I do realize it has not been a week in the comics since Ratchet left with the humans and issue 5). For those interested, this is about 16 years since the events of Kikoutei Densetsu, but the Troopers kept their original armors, and Message never took place. (after all, can't pull of the whole looks-like-bots in the new armors). Thanks to SpartanCommander, Puffball and Maximus Wheeljack for their reviews. v