Continuity note: this fanfic takes place after every of my stories I posted so far. In the BW continuity this takes place between 'The Spark' and 'The Trigger'. If anyone feels I got  the size of the BW characters (compared to the other characters popping up in here) wrong, sorry. I wrote this story some weeks ago.

Author's Warning: English still isn't my first language (it's German) so there are grammatical errors and typos here for sure.

Copyrights haven't changed at all. They all belong to Hasbro, Kenner, Alliance and Mainframe. Midnight, Nightmare, Sphere, Ralyk and Sparks are my creations. Their copyrights belong to me. Firefall and Rikkochet are Jenn Kretch's characters and their copyrights belong to her.

Flames can go to my address, though I'd prefer not to be cooked alive. I know I did a lot to the characters people won't agree with, but that's just me. Gimme a break! Comments are welcome though.

Enough blabbering. Enjoy.
 

Somewhere

:: Coordinates locked down ::
:: Program activated and running ::
:: Launching ::

* * *

Cybertron

Sparks was frustrated and she had vented her frustration in a long stroll through the maze of tunnels under the South Port complex, exploring her home as thoroughly as she could. Her frustration originated from one person: Megatron. The Decepticon leader had bodily thrown her out of his office and told her that if he even saw a whisker she would pay dearly.
Wossname! she thought, unconsciously adopting Bat's speech pattern. She wasn't responsible for her pet side and she hated it even more than Megatron to be drawn back to her 'owner', which he wasn't.
Sighing, she ventured into the doorway chamber, where she found Melissa Witwicky and Nightmare, as well as Sphere. Mel smiled as she saw her and Sparks felt ways better immediately. A welcome smile was always good on frustrated cat nerves, especially when the last thing she had seen before she had left Megatron's office had been his angrily glowing optics.
"Hi, Sparks. Trouble with him again?" Mel asked by ways of greeting.
Sparks sighed deeply. It was obvious, wasn't it? "Yes," she answered nevertheless and watched Sphere and Nightmare work on the doorway structure. "The usual. And more."
"More?"
"He proposed to get me an insignia." Sparks wrinkled her nose in disgust. "He wants me to be marked as a Decepticon."
Mel raised her eyebrows. "Does he?" she asked rhetorically. "So?"
"So I told him 'up yours' and that I won't get marked as anyone's property -- and left."
The human broke out laughing. She knew about Sparks' disgust with her pet side and getting an insignia was just as bad as getting a collar for the cat.
"We are ready to run a trial," Nightmare said and looked pointedly at Mel. "You two better wait outside. No sense in endangering you."
Mel nodded and gestured at Sparks to follow her.
"What are they doing?" Sparks asked.
"Sphere is running the centerway through a trial of different coordinates to test whether it still reacts to destroyed doorways," Mel explained.
They heard a low hum from inside the chamber.
"They don't know if there's backlash energy when the centerway bumps into  dead doorway, so they will try it out." She shrugged. "Could be important to know."
Sparks nodded and her eyes ran over the different doors along the tunnel. Only one door was known to lead anywhere and that was right to Vector Sigma. All the others had
not yet been opened and no one had even tried or knew how. The cat walked lazily over to the closest door, inspecting the lock. It was quite a complicated mechanism, but she thought she recognized it. Like on automatic, her mind began to key into the tiny security system and tinker with it.
Mel approached her and watched her work. Sparks didn't do much, but the lock suddenly seemed to be alive with color coded keys and the rapid display of activated keys told the human what Sparks was doing.
Suddenly there was a soft 'click'. Sparks gave a cat smile and looked at Mel, who raised both eyebrows. The door swung slowly open. Sparks stuck her head in and then gave a 'meow' of surprise.
"Will you look at that!"
Mel shoved her aside and took a look as well.
The room was large and covered in the same quartz-like material as the doorway chamber, though this one seemed to have a silver hue to it. And there was no alien structure in here, though the room itself looked pretty alien. It was circular, she saw, smooth and lit only by the silver and blue light coming out of the walls and floor.
"Wow!" she muttered. "What do you think it is?"
Sparks looked around, her tail moving slowly from left to right. "I have no idea."
Both walked into the room, Sparks making sure her tinkering with the lock had set it into a mode that kept the door open.
And then it happened.
The room seemed to flare with silver light and Mel threw up her arms to shield her eyes. Sparks meowed in protest. Something flashed through the room, enveloping them, tearing them away. Mel had no time to react, to think, to scream. From one second to another she ceased to exist.
 

Several meters away, the centerway connected to a broken doorway -- or at least it tried to connect. The connect call was returned, amplified by the destroyed doorway, which channeled the energy that had destroyed it and which had been stored in the broken pieces, toward Cybertron. The centerway bled off energy, forcing it into the emergency storage tanks, but it was nearly too much for them to take.
Sphere watched in shock as warning signs popped up on the control panel, then her world became white
 

Midnight had just initiated the Gating process when something hit his Gate, which he had opened inside the South Port complex. He tried to close it immediately, but it was too late. Energy enveloped him, pulling him into the Gate. The Gate closed after him with a resounding bang.

*

The overload tore through Ralyk like a hot knife and it screamed, curling away from the output.

-- Warning --
-- Warning --
-- Severe power output --

The entity hissed softly and stretched toward the rupture, trying to close it.

-- Initiate damper fields --
-- Damper fields initiated --
-- Warning --
-- Rogue doorway opening --
-- Transfer starting --
-- Recall initiated --
-- Recall impossible --

Ralyk helplessly watched more power wash out of the rupture, sloshing toward it. All shields were up and the overflow chambers were handling most of the power output, but still......

* * *

Somewhere

Space was a velvety blackness with a myriad of stars glowing softly in the dark. The planets of the unknown star system rotated slowly around their only sun and the only planet with two moons and no rings looked like a blue and green marble ball. Clouds covered a good part of the northern hemisphere, but the southern hemisphere was clearly visible, as were the land masses and oceans, islands and mountains.
A sudden flare of silver and green energy disturbed the darkness of space, lighting it for seconds. The phenomenon had the overall look of a part of space getting sucked into a narrow hole, then blown out again. With the explosion came a strange, golden colored object, which streaked straight for the blue and green planet. It was roughly egg-shaped and had no visible propulsion system, though it moved at an astounding speed.
The object entered the atmosphere of the planet and descended toward one of the continents. No one saw it, either by radar or visually.

* * *

The planet

The day had been frustratingly long and devoid of any distraction -- like a Predacon attack. Dinobot sighed softly and looked over the rough terrain before him. He was on perimeter patrol, something that took him away from all the other Maximals and something he cherished now and then. Patrol gave him time to think, to ponder, to flash back. His situation was as unique as it was worrisome for him. He had been borne a Predacon, had lived as a Predacon, but now he was allied with the Maximal force who had crashed onto this unknown planet, which they didn't even have a name for. As much as he was different from the Maximals, being a Predacon still deep inside, being an enemy, he had to admit he felt more at home with their small force than he ever had under Megatron's command.
Dinobot drew his lips back over his razor sharp teeth in a sneer. Megatron. He hated the Predacon leader with everything he had and he would never return to the Predacon forces while he was in command. He had shown Megatron quite clearly what he thought of him and, given the chance, he would not hesitate a second to kill him.
He continued his patrol, his steps taking him further into the rock desert wasteland with its deep crevices and rugged formations. None of the Predacons ever came here. And why should they? No energon deposits and nothing but dry and inhospitable soil. But it was still Maximal controlled ground and this alone might trigger an unhealthy interest from their enemies. Optimus Primal wanted these coordinates patrolled as regularly as any others.
Dinobot scanned the horizon, his mind flashing back to the first meeting with the Maximal leader. He had tried to overthrow him, but had failed, though even today he doubted if he had ever wanted to kill Optimus like this. His logical mind told him that the Maximals would not have followed but might have destroyed him after their own leader's death. He would never know about the outcome of the duel because Megatron had interfered, nearly killing them all, and since then he was one of the Maximals. Optimus trusted him to a certain degree and Dinobot had to admit, grudgingly though, that his respect for the young leader had grown quite a bit. He would defend Optimus' life to his death, if necessary, and that wasn't something he did for everyone.
The former Predacon checked his position. He was at the outmost border of Maximal territory and if he tracked back now he'd arrive somewhere around early morning back at the base. If he put some speed behind it he would be there in a few hours maximum, but he was in no hurry. Hurrying meant getting back to be bugged by this thrice-damned rodent Rattrap. He was in no mood for that now, though it could change when he was back.
Suddenly some movement caught his eye. He stopped, his head swiveling toward the position he had seen the movement. Curious. There had never been any activities reported from here. He carefully approached the cluster of rocks behind which, he knew, began a shallow stretch of rather rocky ground. The ground rose again into a small mountain area about one kilometer ahead.
Dinobot stopped behind some rocks and peered around his cover.
Nothing.
Weird. He was sure he had seen something. And then he saw it again. It was a dull flash of sunlight on metal and it was moving through the field of large rocks.
Dinobot smiled, feeling elated. An enemy! Maybe he would get some distraction after all and his energon levels, which were high and tense, would even out again. Optimus had once told him that he had too short a temper after being still for too long. Dinobot had replied that he was a warrior, not an explorer. He had been borne to fight and sitting still was killing him.
The former Predacon moved gracefully through the field of rocks, approaching the last position he had seen the metal glint at. He was still in beast mode because he knew only too well what prolonged exposure in robot mode would do to his circuits.
He never saw it coming.
Something slammed into him with the force of a sledge hammer, ramming through the base of his neck and taking him down with a force that was unparalleled. Dinobot gave a roar of outrage, rolled around, aware of the alien object sticking right through his neck. Mech fluid began leaking out of the wound and the spear hampered his transformation quite effectively. It ran right through one of the rotating parts, blocking the piece in question. He got to his feet, balancing precariously with the stick in his throat.
And then he saw his enemy.
Dinobot stared at the mechanical creature in a mixture of surprise and fear. It looked like a smaller twin of the probe that had landed here months ago. But this one was clearly mobile and very clearly armed. Dozens of surgical looking weapons, as well as unidentifiable instruments poked out through the partly opened shell.
He snarled at it, aware he was inferior in this form. He had to get rid of the spear, which was troubling him more and more each second. It had penetrated one fluid tube, which was leaking badly, mostly into his chest cavity, starting to clot his oxygen filters.
The probe hovered closer and he moved back. Several of the weapons or whatever they were rotated and whirred. One of them aimed at him, firing a short burst of darts.
Dinobot jumped out of the way, one of the darts grazing his leg, but inflicting only superficial damage to the synthetic skin. Still,  it burned slightly. Moving was hard with the spear in his throat and he decided to do the only possible thing: run.
He had come as far as the mountain range when something hit him with the same force as before, this time in the back. He knew it had been another spear, well aimed and very painful. He clenched his teeth together to suppress a cry of pain as the spear went into his body, running straight through the damper chip, which gave him a certain sense of immunity to the deadly energon levels around him when he was in robot mode, and destroying a few other circuits in the process as well.
He crashed to the ground, coughing and groaning.
The probe hummed softly as it approached him. One of the extension touched the shaking Maximal and Dinobot moaned in pain as the probe slowly moved the spear back and forth, as if testing whether it was stuck tight or not. Then it seemed to connect to the spear and the pain became a throbbing agony. Dinobot ground his teeth together, willing himself not to scream as he felt how the device tore into his central core, violating it beyond belief. He rolled his eyes, trying to watch what the machine did and maybe find an opening to attack it at this close proximity. Its smooth, dull golden surface glinted slightly in the setting sun and he witnessed how several more extension reached toward him, one of them touching the now more burning wound the dart had left. The moment the extension touched it, it burned even more. He bared his teeth, tensing every muscle cable there was. If that thing was about to take him apart it would not do so without a fight!
Dinobot exploded from the ground in a last, desperate attempt and managed to break two of the spider leg-like extensions off the probe. The probe moved back and he stumbled away, mech fluid running out of his wounds in great quantities. He was peripherally aware of his damage report giving him all the gruesome details of his injuries, but his main focus was on the probe. It moved in on him again.
There was a blinding flash of pure, white light.
Dinobot screamed in pain as the light stung in his eyes. He stumbled back, losing his footing and crashing heavily to the ground again. The spear in his throat twisted painfully and he nearly gave in to the velvety relief of shut-down, but he was a warrior; he had to fight.
He saw something move in front of him.
Target.
His claws lashed out.
He felt something tear under his sharp claws.
A scream.
His feverish mind registered with mild surprise that something had screamed, which was not what he had suspected of the probe.
Then he shut down.

* * *

Cybertron

-- Stabilizing doorway --
-- Doorway stabilized --
-- Transferring --
-- Transfer successful --
-- Shutting down --

* * *

The planet

Mel felt a moment of complete disorientation. She stumbled a bit, her feet encountering something she identified as rocks and sand instead of metal. Puzzled she blinked several times to get rid of the lights dancing in front of her eyes. The white spots cleared into a dry and barren landscape.... and something she had seen only a few times in old books.
A claw flashed toward her.
She ducked.
Her exo-suit took the brunt of the attack, but it still hurt and the force of the strike threw her to the ground. She gave a cry of pain and rolled instinctively away from the attacker, her mind nearly on overload. Part of her tried to rationalize what had happened, another part tried to handle a sheer tidal wave of emotions coming her way. She gasped and her shields came to full life as the emotions washed over her, glancing off the shields. Mel opened her eyes.
Everything had taken no more than a second and when she got back to her feet again, the weapons of her exo-suit ready, she was greeted by the same unusual sight as before. Melissa's eyes narrowed.
Her enemy was a dinosaur, a velociraptor to be precise. She knew about raptors, mainly because as a child she had been fascinated with dinosaurs. And since she had Dinobots to play with, she had learned about them. Silhouette was a raptor in her dinosaur mode, but she didn't look so ..... real -- and so large!. This raptor was striped in two shades of brown and his skin looked organic! Well, he also had a spear rammed into his back and one through the neck. A yellowish fluid stained the skin.
The velociraptor stared at her and she clearly sensed his emotions. And this told her one important thing: it was a robot. Suddenly the his eyes rolled up and he keeled over, landing hard on one side, and Mel winced as she saw more fluids spill out of his neck wound. She approached him carefully and when he didn't move, the inspected him carefully. The skin was artificial just like Sparks', she discovered, her medically trained mind filing everything away for later evaluation. Beneath the thick layer of skin were artificial bone structures, as well as a normal body. From the overall design she could guess the transformation sequence and she was sure this guy was rather large; his second mode was large already! Suddenly his eyes opened and the raptor snarled at her, his reptile eyes feverish bright. He tried to lift his head, his teeth bared, his whole demeanor one of defense and threat.
Mel did the only thing she thought of instinctively and one she always used with frightened patients: she touched the mind. The raptor's mind was a confusing mess of bright yellow and sharp purple. Somewhere buried beneath this pain and fear lay his logical mind and she touched it softly, telling it to calm him, that she was no threat. The raptor's eyes rolled up and he lost consciousness again. Mel exhaled slowly, checking once more if he was completely under and then continued her examination.
"Mel!" someone suddenly called and Mel jumped, whirling around.
It was Sparks.
The cat walked carefully closer to her, her eyes fixed on the motionless raptor. Her black fur was ruffled and full of dust and sand, but otherwise she was fine.
"You are here as well?" Mel asked.
Sparks nodded, her eyes never leaving the raptor. "What happened?" she asked and Mel wasn't sure what she meant: the raptor or how they had gotten here.
"I have no idea what is going on here," she confessed, "and I equally have no idea who or what this guy is. He attacked me right after I arrived, but he didn't do much damage, thanks to the exo-suit. He's also pretty out of it and needs help." She gestured at the spears. "I haven't had time to take a closer look yet, but I guess they did a lot of damage."
Sparks sniffed carefully at the prone body, still keeping her distance, and nodded. "I woke a few feet away from here." She sat down and looked questioningly at her human friend. "So what now?"
"I want to take care of him first," Mel explained. "You could find out where we are, if you want to help. I don't think you can aid me and I can handle him." I think, she added silently.
Sparks gave her a critical look, then nodded. "Okay. Just be careful." With that she bounded over several stones and disappeared.
Mel sighed and set to work.

* * *

"Energon surge detected."
The soft, somehow female voice rang through the almost empty command room and Megatron turned in his chair, looking at one of the stations.
"Where?" he asked.
Tarantulas, who was manning the station, punched several keys. "Epsilon sector," he reported. "But we also detected a much weaker surge on the opposite side."
Megatron frowned. "An energy surge," he muttered. "Very interesting, yesss. Who is closest to the coordinates?"
"Waspinator is closest to the stronger surge. The other coordinates are in Maximal territory." He looked at his leader.
Megatron smiled a bit. "That won't be an obstacle, no. Contact Waspinator. Tell him to investigate the power surge."
Tarantulas turned to his station and worked quietly for a few seconds, then shook his head. "Energon interferences make contact impossible."
Megatron slammed his left hand on the arm of his chair, muttering an inaudible curse. "Try it again!"
The result was the same. Megatron got off his chair.
"If you want something done," he growled, "do it yourself." With that he transformed. "Keep on contacting Waspinator," he ordered. "I will be on my way to the coordinates."
"Alone?" another voice asked, sounding hesitant.
The t-rex turned and faced his second-in-command. "Alone? No, Scorponok, not alone. I have found a volunteer." The large dinosaur smiled at the hapless Predacon, showing his sharp, dagger-like teeth.
"Mmm......me?" Scorponok wanted to know.
"Of course," the Predacon leader said pleasantly, but his red eyes held a dangerous glow.
Scorponok shivered slightly, then nodded. He followed his leader as he left the broken ship.

* * *

The probe was puzzled and its mind was running through all the possibilities of what might have happened. One moment it had been ready to continue the tests with its specimen, then it had been displaced by a massive surge of energy. Its memory circuits told it that there were no energon deposits anywhere near-by and nothing it knew on this planet could have done what had just happened.
It checked its location again and was greeted with the same answer as before: it was several hundred kilometers south of its former position. That was really no problem at all, but it was disturbing.
The probe scanned its data files and was pleased to see that all the data it had collected was still there. It ran a comparative scan with the data it had been programmed with and was surprised to see that there were differences between the last test specimen and this one. The differences weren't all that big, but they were there. Still, it had completed its assignment with this specimen. It stored the data file and launched itself, flying slowly back into the test site. Maybe the test specimen had had powers they had not been able to determine at the first visit; or maybe their first specimen had not known about this one's powers. Possible, but highly unlikely. Still, it could not be excluded.
The dull golden shape flew at an almost lazy pace and scanned the area for a possible new specimen. The first one would die soon anyway. The damage done to its structure would result in major fluid loss and since it couldn't transform without doing even more damage to itself, there was no reason to believe it would survive. If it didn't die of the gruesome wounds and the shock, the infection would surely end its existence. The probe had not planned to kill the specimen, only to get it into a fight for its life. That had been one reason why it had shot at it first, effectively disarming it by denying it transformation, then infecting it. Well, it had put up a bigger fight than expected and the wounds inflicted were rather serious, and it would not survive the viral strains now running free in its body. Still, there were more specimens and it would have more material to examine before it had to report back.

* * *

Optimus Primal watched the second moon rise and felt his own worries rise with it. Dinobot should have reported in hours ago and even though he was a loose cannon sometimes, he could be trusted in confirming his position and reporting at preset times. They were at war, as the former Predacon always reminded Optimus, and he lived by the rules of war. They always had to know where each member of a team was. Now Dinobot had missed his prearranged time twice.
Heavy steps could be heard and Primal didn't have to turn to know that Rhinox had joined him. "Nothin'?"
"No. I'm worried."
"Hey, ol' Chopperface can take care of himself," Rattrap declared and waved away Optimus' worried look. "He's a grown boy and fer cryin' out loud, he's a Pred. Okay, former Pred," he added as he saw Optimus silent look.
"Yes, he can take care of himself," Optimus agreed. "But I wish I knew why he wasn't reporting in!" He drummed his fingers against one of the support beams of the Axalon, the heavily damaged exploration ship.
"We should wait until tomorrow," Rhinox rumbled. "At a leisurely pace he would be here early this mornin' anyway. Maybe it's energon interference."
Optimus sighed again. "Maybe." He didn't sound convinced.
Too much weird stuff had happened on this planet in the last year and then there were always the Predacons. Megatron wanted to see Dinobot terminated because of their mutual past. Dinobot had tried to usurp the Predacon leader's place and Megatron had nearly destroyed him. Now he was on the Maximals' side and this was treachery in Megatron's eyes.
Optimus turned and slowly walked back into the ship.
Rattrap looked at the much larger Rhinox. "Think Dinobutt is in trouble?" he asked carefully, trying to keep his own worries out of his voice.
Rhinox slowly turned his massive head, his eyes unreadable. "Possible," he only muttered, then followed his leader.
Rattrap stared into the darkness. He might not have many friendly feelings toward the Predacon, but he had come to accept him as one of the team in all the time they had been on this planet now. Maybe something had happened. Maybe he was in trouble. Maybe...... He shoved those thoughts out of his mind and then walked back into the ship as well.

* * *

Cybertron

"What do you mean there is no trace?"
Nightmare stared at Rodimus Prime and the young Autobot commander felt a slight chill run down through his circuits. Those icy red optics gave him a good impression of the former Assassin's personality.
"We found no trace of either Mel or Sparks or, for that fact, Midnight," Rodimus repeated, his outward demeanor calm and professional. "After the sudden power surge from the doorway, none of the three showed up again." He leaned forward, fixing Nightmare's optics. "What happened down there exactly?"
Nightmare clenched his hands into fists. "A mistake," he answered darkly. "We experimented with the doorway, to see how the broken doorways reacted to an opening call."
Rodimus' optics narrowed. "Without precautions?" he asked coldly.
"No, of course not!" Nightmare looked back angrily. "The overflow storage tanks were ready and Ralyk had been informed. Something went wrong anyway and ...., and now this!" He began to pace the room to relieve some nervous energy.
"Overflow tanks?"
Nightmare shook his head. "Later. We need to find the missing persons!"
Rodimus smiled wryly. "We are working on it. We have no idea where exactly Sparks and Mel were at the time of the overflow, but we knew Midnight was in the complex and about to Gate. Labyrinth said there are no traces of him anywhere, which lead me to believe he wasn't destroyed."
Nightmare winced and Rodimus felt with him. He and Mel were very close friends.
"Where could they have been at the time of the disappearance?" the Autobots' second asked calmly.
"I don't know! Anywhere in the corridor between the doorway chamber and the elevator!" Nightmare looked frustrated.
"Could they have been in any of the other rooms?" Rodimus probed.
"Impossible! These doors are locked!"
Rodimus smiled humorlessly. "We are talking about Sparks, Nightmare. She managed to break every of Megatron's code locks...."
"She couldn't break any of those locks!" Nightmare insisted.
"What if she could? What is behind the doors?" Rodimus pressed on.
The Gatekeeper sighed, shaking his head.
"What?" Rodimus demanded.
Nightmare clenched his hands into fists. "I can't tell you."
"What if Mel and Sparks really managed to get into one of these rooms? What is behind the doors?" Rodimus' voice rose slightly.
Nightmare's optics flickered a bit. "Storage and overflow units," he whispered then. "Most of them anyway."
"And the others?"
"I can't tell."
Rodimus stared at him in disgust. "Okay, let's say they walked into an overflow unit. What then? Could the energy running through it kill them?"
Nightmare shook his head. "No. Doorway energy displaces matter, it doesn't destroy it."
"Then where did it displace Mel and Sparks to?"
Nightmare sighed deeply. "I have no idea."
"What about Ralyk's logs?" Rodimus wanted to know.
"Sphere is checking them already, but not in that regard. I'll get her on it."
Rodimus nodded. "Thanks." When Nightmare had left his office, he sank back with a sigh. Now for the call he had put off for too long. Optimus Prime had yet to be informed of the latest problem. Rodimus punched in his personal key code and waited for the line between Cybertron and Earth to establish.

* * *

The planet

Mel sat back and chewed on her lower lip, a bad habit of hers. She always did it when faced with a major problem and right now she had one. The raptor was in bad, bad need of medical surgery and repair. One fluid tube was severed, releasing its liquids into the robot body and starting to close the oxygen intakes. The spear going through the raptor's back had severed more circuits than she could count and from what the small computer in her exo-suit could tell her, some of those chips and circuits were very important for his continued survival. She just had no real means to repair them properly and she had to make due with the limited resources in the emergency kit of her suit.
And then there was the rather small wound on the left leg, looking like it was a shot wound. The wound was inflamed, which was unusual for a synthetic skin. How could it get infected if it wasn't really alive, just a copy of the real thing? Still, it was infected and the infection was spreading down the leg of the raptor, leaving the skin sensible to touch and warm from the inflammation.
Mel sighed deeply. She would have to worry about that later. First came the spear wounds. She hated patch-work, but she had to, and it was a gruesome task because she had to cut part of the skin off. Well, first priority was to remove the spear in the back. The one in the throat was effectively closing the severed tube and if she pulled it, the liquids would flow all too freely. Bad move.
Mel shook her head and ran a last check, then set to work. Wherever they were, she didn't care right now. She was a medic and there was her patient.

* * *

Midnight looked around, puzzling over where exactly he was. All round him was nothing but wild nature. One second he had initiated a Gating process, the next he was here -- wherever 'here' was.....
"Any idea?" he asked.
Steve, who had phased out of him, shook his head. He was clad in a full encounter suit and scanning the immediate area. The air around them was crisp and cold, but the sun was shining. A few clouds covered the sky. All in all a beautiful day. In the distance was a low mountain range and all around them was short, dry grass covering the rough ground.
"None, to be completely truthful. Looks like we Gated somewhere, but, well, the coordinates I read before we materialized were all garbled."
Midnight sighed. "Well, then how about we take a look around?"
Steve nodded and Midnight transformed The pilot climbed into the cockpit and the jet took off into the clear, slightly clouded sky.

* * *

Night had come sooner than expected, but it wasn't as dark as Mel had thought it would be. Many stars were visible tonight and both moons reflected the sun's light quite well enough to see by. But for her task she needed more than that. Her exo-suit's helmet had several feature which were not standard equipment and which she needed all. A display of surgical information ran up one side while the center of her focus was on the enhanced frame on the screen and which showed her those delicate circuits in all clarity. She worked calmly, methodically and also quickly, because every minute counted. Mel had removed most of the damaged circuits, had circumvented those destroyed pathways and piled the salvageable parts on one side, while the remains were occupying another spot. She had removed the skin around the chest area completely, opening the chest cavity and giving the liquids, which had run into the oxygen filters, a chance to flow somewhere -- even if it was the sandy ground. All around her were large puddles of cooling liquids, fuel and something she had identified as 'blood' that kept the skin fed. The design bordered a bit toward Midnight's and she worked with her knowledge about the Sentinel leader in mind.
The leg injury had grown worse and she wished she had something like antibiotics for robots. She racked her mind if Skywolf had ever told her about something similar to treat an infection on Midnight's skin, but she couldn't remember. She also wondered why the repair and anti-body systems of the raptor didn't kick in. Self repair was one of the most basic programs, as was the anti-body program, which expelled foreign material out of a robot's body quite effectively. After another hour of hard work she found out why: they had been disabled! Cursing lowly she started to reconnect them.
Sparks had not yet shown up and she was too encompassed in her own work to notice anything around her. Her patient was going critical, with the major fluid loss and the shock, as well as a strange phenomenon which she could only call energy overload. It took her half the night to finally find out what she was facing, beside a dying central core, a defective self-repair and virus defense system, as well as a spreading infection. This planet was incredibly rich in energon and the energon radiation affected the robot body. The skin was like an insulation and because she had removed so much to work on him, she had destroyed part of the insulation. This had led to a change in tactics and surgery, and now she worked in segments, replacing the skin after she was done and only removing the next piece when she was ready.
All the time her mind was also watching over her patient's. He was dying and he felt it, and a part of him fought valiantly against the threatening terminal shut-down. Another part of him was in incredible pain and this pain weakened him and his barriers were breaking. Mel's hands worked automatically on his body, while her mind was trying to keep him from slipping. She still had no idea who he was, but she thought she knew him. Empathically speaking. She wasn't telepathic and even then she would not have been able to read his mind like that. There was no such thing as real mind reading anyway. No one could filter a being's thoughts so clearly as to get words and sentences out of the mess inside a mind. Interface partners were able to touch each other's mind and 'talk', but they weren't telepathic. They used one special bond, nothing more, nothing less. Empathy was hard enough for Mel, sorting through a myriad of emotional nuances and trying to focus on helping the patient without getting lost in his or her own problems and sensations.
The sun was already rising when she finished with the last part concerning the spear wound inflicted on the torso. Stretching, Mel tried to work the kinks out of her back. She winced as her rather badly bruised shoulder started to sting. The raptor had not really broken through the armor, only dented it, but the blow had been enough to bruise the flesh beneath. She felt tired and worn and this reminded her that she needed to give herself another 'shot'. Throughout the night, when she had nearly slipped, she had started to take stimulation drugs to keep herself alert. Her exo-suit was equipped with them and she knew exactly how much her body could take and for how long. She could run four days without much more than a two hour doze while on these drugs, then her body would demand rest. And this demand would not be ignored. She'd simply collapse.
She felt the drug run its course through her system and turned her attention back to her patient. The spear in the neck was presenting a major problem because it hindered transformation and had also severed and closed a major liquid feed. Pulling the thing out meant another loss of fluids, this time maybe a fatal one, and it meant destroying parts she could not repair easily; at least not under these circumstances. Pondering her options she decided to leave the spear inside and only cut it down to a maneuverable size. She set to work.

* * *

AirRazor let the winds guide her to a higher altitude, then used her wings to stabilize herself at this level and her eyes scanned the ground for any evidence of Dinobot. Optimus Primal had not heard or seen anything of him and he had been and still was pretty worried by time the sun had risen halfway to noon. AirRazor understood his worries, even if certain members of the Maximal force did not. She didn't know Dinobot all that well and there were different point of views concerning him, but she knew one thing for certain: he would not miss a report or come in later than the latest possible time of arrival if nothing had happened. Optimus had sent her and Cheetor out to cover the territory Dinobot had patrolled and while Cheetor was approaching from the point where Dinobot had started, AirRazor was coming the other way. Maybe that was the reason why she discovered them first.
The female Maximal held her position as she suddenly discovered the two life forms, one very clearly Dinobot and also clearly in a state she could only describe as disastrous. He lay on the ground, not moving and in his beast form. Another, much smaller and bipedal figure was close by. AirRazor couldn't say what this figure was, but it looked robotic and it was covered in mech fluid, as was Dinobot and a large area around his prone body. Her keen eyesight told her even more and showed her the gruesome details.
AirRazor hesitated. She had no idea who the stranger was and she had no clue as to what had happened to Dinobot and who was responsible. Maybe it was the stranger, maybe someone else. She had to get help! The falcon turned slowly and took in the scene one more time, then flew back the way she had come. She tried to reach the Axalon.

* * *

:: Specimen located ::
:: Data files activated ::
:: Sensors on full ::
:: Scanners ready ::

The probe moved in.

* * *

Cybertron

Sphere was utterly frustrated and everyone around her felt it. Starscream was currently the only one in the doorway chamber. Nightmare was up in South Port and Raven was with Cyclonus on Charr.
"There is nothing in the log but a garbled mess!" the female Key exploded, slamming her hands on the quartz control cube. "I know the transport was recorded somewhere, but I can't find the entry! Everywhere I go I'm greeted by this nonsense!"
Starscream laid a calming hand on her shoulder. "Maybe you should ask Ralyk for help," he suggested. "It controls the system...."
Her emerald eyes flared angrily. "Don't you think I already tried? I'm not getting any answers and I'm close to going in there," she pointed at the wall separating the doorway chamber from Vector Sigma, "and rip the data out of it!"
Starscream smiled and it drew another angry flare out of her.
"What's so funny?"
"Oh, nothing. It's just that you always preach to me how I should relax, take it easy and go with the flow. Now you are ready to charge into the Vector Sigma chamber and threaten Ralyk?"
Sphere stared at him, then smiled slightly. "Okay, okay," she sighed. "Maybe I'm overreacting. But Mel, Sparks and Midnight are missing and we have no idea if they are ..." She stopped, shook her head and turned back to the control cube. "I need to know where the backwash transported them to."
Starscream squeezed her shoulder and nodded. "You can do it," he told her.
She turned her head and smiled slightly. He smiled back, then left the room. Sphere worked better alone.

* * *

The planet

Cheetor scanned the area, but found nothing. Not a single sign of Dinobot. He sighed. Well, off to the next stop. Cheetor ran down the small pathway and then aimed north. He'd soon arrive in the area AirRazor was already covering and if she hadn't discovered their friend ..... Cheetor had no idea what to do then, except to go back to the Axalon and tell Optimus. He sighed. Not only Optimus was worried about Dinobot; everyone was, even if some Maximals didn't and would never admit it. Cheetor respected the former Predacon, sometimes even admired his skills.
Something slammed into him and he was thrown back, lying sprawled in the dust. The Maximal shook his head.
"Mrow! What the....? Holy cats!"
His optics widened. In front of him hovered something that looked suspiciously like a smaller brother of the probe that had landed on this planet several months ago. Right now part of it opened and unfolded strange instruments and devices. The dull golden skin reflected only a bit of the sun and it looked as alien as it looked dangerous. Cheetor got to his feet, slowly moving away from the probe, which hovered a few feet above the ground. The spider leg-like extensions moved slowly, lazily, and then the probe approached at an almost leisurely pace.
Cheetor growled. He had no idea what this thing was, but it looked very dangerous, and recalling what it had done to Dinobot and Optimus months ago it might not be such an unwise idea to get some distance between the probe and himself.
But it was too late.
One of the extensions shot toward him and only Cheetor's lightning fast reflexes kept him from getting speared.
"Hey, meow! No fair play! Cheetor, maximize!" He transformed and aimed at the probe. "Let's see what you make out of a target that shoots back, buddy!"
He lost several shots toward the probe, but they all glanced off harmlessly. The probe stopped for a second, then unfolded a new weapon and returned fire.
"Yeow!" Cheetor went for cover as hot laser blasts exploded around him, showering him with sand and rock fragments.
The fight continued and no party gained or lost any ground, but Cheetor's weapon was running out of charge and he was running out of time. The energon damper chip had a limited time and the longer he stayed in robot mode, the greater was the risk of suffering damage from over-exposure.
"Too hot a party! I think I better go for reinforcement!" he muttered, losing a few more shots at the probe. Then he went back to beast mode and ran away.
Cheetor came as far as fifty meters, then was struck by an incredible force right in the back. He gave a shrill cry of pain as the hot energy destroyed his skin, the metal beneath it and started to melt the outer circuits. He tried to get back to his feet, even tried to transform, but both was impossible. The probe hovered into his field of vision and one of the legs prodded him. Cheetor hissed a growl. Something else unfolded out of the depths of the alien object and he shuddered.
No......
Darkness descended upon him.

* * *

Cybertron

Adam 'Spike' Witwicky paced the floor of Optimus Prime's office on Earth, his face a pale mask. Optimus watched him, knowing the worry and fear the human had to be going through. Spike had been informed of the accident on Cybertron right after Optimus had received the call from Rodimus. Since his second had been unable to supply him with much information, Optimus had told Spike all he knew -- which was regretfully not much.
"There is no trace at all?" Spike repeated his last question.
Optimus shook his head. "None. We believe that the doorway energy took them all somewhere. Sphere is working on it."
"I want to go to Cybertron," Spike decided, his brown eyes pinning Optimus with a decisive stare.
The Autobot leader nodded. "We have a shuttle ready for you and Carly. You can leave right away."
Spike inhaled deeply at the thought of his wife. Carly had not been with him at the time of the call. She was still at home -- or on the way right now -- while Spike had been in the city near Metroplex. He could imagine how she would react, though Carly was far from a hysterical fit. She had been through too much in her life to break apart at the news of this mishap. There was no proof that Mel was dead.
"Thanks," he finally said.
Optimus nodded, wishing he could leave for Cybertron as well, but he had too much work to do here. When Spike had left the office, Silhouette detached herself from the wall she had been leaning against, her facial expression pure compassion. She had been very silent throughout Optimus' explanation of Mel's 'accident' and the following conversation.
"He's taking it well," she said softly, looking at Optimus.
He nodded. "Spike has dealt with a lot in his time with us," he said, almost absent-minded. "He won't go for the death explanation until he sees a body."
"And how are you taking it?" Sil probed.
Optimus head snapped up and he looked at her. He frowned a bit. "I have no idea what you are asking me."
Sil sighed a bit. She had been on Earth for some time now, keeping an eye on Optimus and helping him out whenever he needed her help. Most of the time this help came through having an open ear and listening when he needed a listener. And that was exactly her role: a listener. Silhouette knew him too well to fall for the calm exterior and controlled persona. Like Rodimus, she was a kind of open ear on legs and he could sound off to her, though he rarely did at the first run. Optimus was a very closed person and only two people knew how to unlock the doors so far.
"You have been under a lot of strain lately," she said.
"Who hasn't?"
"Optimus, please," she said calmly. "In the last two decades we had one crisis after another. You came back, Hot Rod turned into Rodimus Prime once more, Vector Sigma hit you in the face with his revelations about your origin and the Creators, the doorway system activated, Firefall showed up .... the Tji ..... We thought everything was going normal for some time and now this. It was an accident, okay, but it was a bad one."
Optimus regarded her calmly, but inside several circuits twisted. Silhouette had hit the nail right on the head. "Accidents happen, Silhouette. We have to deal with them."
"Sure we do. But we don't have to deal with them alone." She smiled. "I'm preaching this to Rodimus every time he gets into a crisis and tries not to show how much it affects him, and I will continue to preach it to both of you until you understand that you are not alone." She leaned forward over the desk. "I know this affects you, just like everything affects you. You are the leader, Rodimus is your second-in-command. You have to decide, to pass judgment and to deliver the bad news."
He looked into her compassionate blue optics and smiled slightly. "Rodimus is lucky to have you," he said softly.
Silhouette was caught off guard and stared at him. Then she collected herself, aware what he was talking about: the loss of Aleeta One, though he had not said so directly. He was still suffering this loss.
"Tell him that when he starts complaining that I seem to get inside his head too easily," she told him with a faint chuckle.
Optimus gave her an amused look. Then he leaned back in his chair. Silhouette straightened, still smiling.
"I think I'll go and talk to Spike," she decided and then left the office.
Optimus nodded and watched her go, his thoughts returning to the report Rodimus had sent him about the accident. He punched up the latest email entries and tried to get a hold of Rodimus. Maybe they had found out some more.

* * *

The planet

Sparks was surprised, to put it mildly, and crouched down in case someone was watching. Just in front of her was a large, unnatural construction: a space ship. All the time she had strolled around and had scouted the area -- throughout the night as well -- she had not seen a single trace of civilization here. And now this. A space ship. Her optics ran over the rather bad looking hull, but she discovered no symbol. All in all the ship looked like it had crash landed here. There were burn marks, missing hull fragments, broken supports...... Sparks pondered what to do. She had no idea who these people down there were and she had no idea where she was anyway. Either they were hostiles or they were friendly.....
She would take a chance, she decided.
That was the moment a large falcon passed overhead and Sparks ducked back between the rocks. But it was too late. The falcon had apparently spotted her and was circling in low, making another approach. At the same time Sparks saw several figures leave the space ship. She had no time to give them a closer examination because the falcon transformed.
Sparks tensed her muscles, ready to bolt as the large, bipedal figure approached her.
"Who are you?" the figure asked, the voice female.
Sparks went through several possibilities, then decided to at least say something. "Sparks," she answered warily. "Who or what are you?" The symbol this robot was wearing was strange and completely unknown to her.
"My name is AirRazor and I am a Maximal."
Sparks backed away as she saw two large and one smaller figure approach. The small figure was a rat, the other two were a gorilla and a rhino.
"Who is this, AirRazor?" the gorilla asked and looked at Sparks with a puzzled frown.
"Her name is Sparks," AirRazor answered. "I saw her approaching the Axalon when I came here."
"Her?" the rhino asked, giving Sparks an intrigued look.
The gorilla stepped forward. "My name is Optimus Primal," he introduced himself and Sparks had to hold on to herself not to give an exclamation of disbelief. Optimus Primal? "These are Rhinox and Rattrap. Where did you come from?"
Sparks' mind was working furiously. Who were these guys? What was a Maximal? Why was he called Optimus? How much could she tell them?
"I can't tell you," she finally said.
"Can't or won't, sister?" Rattrap asked, his eyes full of suspicion.
"Maybe she's from a stasis pod." That had been Rhinox.
"None came down," Optimus reminded him.
Rhinox nodded slowly. "But she has the synthoid skin protection."
"Maybe she's a Pred," Rattrap growled.
Rhinox cocked his head. "I wouldn't say so, no."
"Listen, I have no idea who you are or what you are talking about," Sparks told them, "but I need help. A friend of mind and someone else are way back there," she gestured vaguely into the direction she had come from, "and whoever he is, he is hurt."
AirRazor stared at her. "Dinobot?" she exclaimed.
"I have no idea how he is called, but he nearly took a piece out of Mel"
"Sounds like Lizard Lips, all right," Rattrap said with forced cheerfulness.
Optimus turned to AirRazor. "You reported in that you found him. How bad is it?"
"Very bad," the female replied. "I'm no medic, but he didn't really look good."
"He never did," Rattrap quipped.
Optimus shot him a sharp look and the smaller Maximal shrugged slightly. "Predacons?" the Maximal leader then turned back to AirRazor.
"I don't know."
"Do these Predacons throw spears?" Sparks asked.
"Eh?"
"No," Optimus answered slowly. "Why?"
"Because your friend Dinobot looked like a needle patch when we found him," the cat explained. "Now, I can explain this to you in all the gruesome details or we can get moving and help Mel with your friend!"
"The lady's got a point there," Rattrap muttered.
Optimus nodded. "I'll fly ahead with AirRazor, you will follow. Optimus, maximize!"
Sparks jumped back as the gorilla unfolded into what looked like a vague copy of the Optimus Prime she knew, at least where the head was concerned. He ignited his thrusters and launched himself into the air. AirRazor transformed and led the way.
"Well," Rattrap said. "Now if the lady wouldn't mind leadin', we could follow....."
Sparks nodded and started to walk back the way she had come. Rhinox and Rattrap followed.

* * *

Cybertron

Starscream stood in front of the door leading to the chamber of Vector Sigma and tried to work out how to get inside when the door slid open without any trigger. He hesitated, then stepped inside. The door closed silently behind him. The globe containing Vector Sigma and Ralyk sat silently on the pedestal, pulsing slowly.
-- You came to talk --
He flinched as he heard Ralyk's voice inside of him. "Yes," he said aloud. "Where did the backwash take Midnight, Sparks and Mel?"
Silence reigned again.
"Where?" he demanded. "You know it! I know you do! Every doorway runs through you and the logs prove that something opened! They are just all garbled! Where did they go?"
-- Ask the logs --
"They are of no use!" Starscream yelled. "I just told you they are garbled! But you know!"
Silence.
"Why remain silent? What if they are in danger? What if they are dead?!"
-- They aren't --
Starscream was close to losing his temper completely now. He raised his gun and aimed at the globe. "Where. Are. They?" he hissed.
-- Foolish -- Ralyk whispered and the former Decepticon was  suddenly struck by a blinding light from the globe. Starscream gave a gasp of pain and went to his knees.
-- I hate to hurt you, child --
"Oh, I see," he managed. He looked up and stared at the globe in utter rage and disgust. "Where are they? Why won't you help us?"
-- I can't answer these questions --
-- Yet --
The Gatekeeper got to his feet, optics alive with angry fire. "When?" he demanded.
-- When it is time --
Starscream clenched his hands into fists, shaking.
"And who decides when it is time for you to tell us something?" he yelled. "You always keep us in the dark, don't you? You love to play games and let us handle the brunt of a crisis! Afterwards you simply explain that it was supposed to happen! Not this time! I won't leave until I have an explanation! Where are they?!"
The globe pulsed stronger now, but no answer was forthcoming. Instead Starscream was suddenly enveloped in a bluish golden light. He gasped and tried to move back, but he couldn't.
-- I have no answers to your question, child -- the soft voice of Ralyk echoed in his head.
Starscream struggled even more. "Why should I believe you?" he growled.
-- Why shouldn't you? --
"Because you have lied to us before!"
Ralyk chuckled. -- I never lied --
"Oh, no!" Starscream mocked. "You only warped the truth, didn't you?"
Another chuckle. -- In a way --
"So how much are you warping the truth now?" the trapped Gatekeeper hissed.
-- Not at all --
Starscream snorted.
Suddenly the room around him seemed to disappear and when he could see again, he was in the doorway chamber, kneeling on the floor.
"Starscream?" Sphere's worried voice cut through his confusion. "What happened?"
"I wish I knew," he whispered and got to his feet, rubbing his forehead.
"Ralyk?" his sister asked.
He gave a bark of laughter. "Of course."
She smiled. "You threatened it."
Starscream grinned wryly. "Of course." He looked questioningly at her. "And how are you faring?"
A frustrated expression crossed her features. "None the wiser," she sighed.
He only nodded slowly as if he had expected this answer -- and he had.
 

Ralyk felt sad. It had told Starscream the truth: it couldn't tell anything him yet...... because Ralyk itself had no idea where the rogue doorway had taken the three missing persons. It knew only one thing: they were no longer in this dimension. This meant one problem: if the doorway had placed them into another dimension, how could they retrieve them without a stationary doorway?

* * *

The planet

Midnight was flying at cruising speed, his scanners running on full. There had been various traces that there had to be intelligent life on this planet, like a crude radar dish up on a mountain, but he had yet to find those who had put it up. They had passed the line separating night and day once and it was shortly after sunrise here.
"Wow!" Steve suddenly exclaimed. "Will you look at that?"
Midnight was as surprised as Steve when he discovered the object of his partner's amazement. It was a wasp. A very large wasp flying at a leisurely speed not far away from them.
"Natural life form?" Steve hazarded.
"I hope not," Midnight muttered. "If the insects grow that large.... how large are the other animals?"
They watched the wasp fly on. Suddenly Midnight was struck by something like an electric jolt.
"Yeow!" he exclaimed.
"What's wrong?" Steve asked in alarm.
"Energon overload! But how?!"
They were quickly losing height and Steve became aware of several circuits going on sudden and very massive overload. He cursed heartily as wires burned through, taking important circuits with them. Midnight went into a dive and transformed in mid-air, touching down a little less gracefully than usual and nearly went down on his knees. He managed to stay upright, though.
"Oh, geez!" Steve breathed and checked everything as self-repair set in. "Everything is going back to almost normal!" he then exclaimed. "What the ....."
Midnight accessed his damage report and was as surprised as his Interface partner. The moment he had transformed, the energon overload had stopped. His body was trying to compensate for the sudden overflow, but no new energon assaulted him.
"Strange...." he muttered.
"You better not transform as long as I try to work out what has caused this," Steve advised.
Midnight nodded. "Okay. Let's see.... how about that way?" He started to walk, feeling a bit dizzy from the recent experience, but all in all fine.
The Sentinel didn't see the large spider hiding behind some rocks and he didn't see it come out into the open and watch him.
 

Black Arachnia watched the stranger walk away from her hiding place.
"A robot," she mused. "Neither Maximal nor Predacon. Intriguing....  And he doesn't possess a beast mode either. Just who are you, stranger?"
She followed him.

* * *

Waspinator had seen the strange jet follow him for a few minutes, then move away and finally experience energon overload. The Predacon had witnessed the transformation and with puzzlement had tried to make sense of the symbol on the wings. He had no idea who this robot belonged to and where he had come from, but he knew that Megatron might be interested in this. He changed course and flew back to Predacon HQ.

* * *

The probe closed the file and gave the prone body one last glance. It had all the information it needed about this life form and it needed only one more to complete its test run. With an almost inaudible hum it moved away from the test subject and gained speed.

*

The motionless form of Cheetor lay on the fluid covered ground, unconscious. The Maximal's systems had shut down to the most basic levels because of the shock. Some systems were valiantly trying to start repairs, others kept him under. It would take time to get Cheetor functioning again, but at least it was possible.

* * *

Cybertron

Megatron had returned from Charr several hours ago and had spent all the time in his office, working through the latest mail entries and reports. Now he looked up, drumming his fingers on the table top. Something was wrong, but he couldn't put his finger on it. His optics roamed his office and finally returned to his desk again.
The cat.
He frowned. Normally it took about half an hour for Sparks to show up when he came back from Charr -- if she hadn't stowed away on his ship to follow him. She was a prime nuisance and neither threats, nor bodily force had been able to discourage her from following him. He knew that it was her pet program and that she was unable to fight against it for long. The machine creating her had programmed her with his patterns, telling her pet side that she was his property. The personality who had apparently been supplied by Ralyk was working against that whenever it could. Sparks was not obedient, she wasn't stupid and she sure as hell wasn't easy to have around. But still, she wasn't an unwanted companion, as he had found out in the last months.
Now she wasn't here.
He frowned, his fingers still drumming on the table top. Maybe she had finally overcome this program and had stopped being a nuisance, though following First Aid this was impossible. The program was meshed with her personality core and if someone tried to remove one, he might delete her complete personality program with it.
Megatron rose from his chair and left his office, strolling through the corridors, thinking. That was when he ran into Rodimus. The Autobot looked a bit disturbed and when he saw Megatron, the worry increased.
"What happened?" the Decepticon leader demanded, knowing that something must have happened -- something that had not been mailed to him with the latest reports.
Rodimus gestured him to follow him as he continued his walk. "My office," he said briefly and Megatron nodded, keeping his temper in check until they were safely behind closed doors.

* * *

Cybertron

Optimus saw the two figures minutes before he landed and his fuel pump missed a beat as he discovered what state Dinobot was in. This was no simple injury; this was very serious.
"Oh, no," he whispered and reversed the thrusters, landing softly a few meters away. AirRazor did the same.
The figure AirRazor had reported and who was much smaller than he had thought it would be, jumped as the two robots touched down. Optimus had no idea who it was, except that it was apparently called 'Mel', and the size puzzled him. Mel was working on several circuits, which looked like they had been stomped on several times and then fried.
He raised both hands. "We are friends," he told the figure. "Sparks told us you are here." He tried not to look at the severely damaged robot behind the stranger. "My name is Optimus Primal, leader of the Maximals. This is AirRazor." He indicated the female Maximal at his side. Both were in robot mode.
"Where is Sparks?" the figure asked, its voice female and very suspicious.
"She is with two of my team, coming here by foot. She told us your name is Mel ...."
"That's correct."
The suspicion was still there and Optimus gave the barely eight feet tall figure a closer look, but there were no visible weapons. The black and dark blue colors gave her a slightly menacing look and the featureless face didn't help either. The head looked a bit swept back, longer in the back, and leaving the neck apparently unguarded, except for a collar. There was no symbol anywhere on the body that identified Mel as a member of any group.
"How do I know you tell the truth?" she asked cautiously.
"We could have attacked you first and asked questions later," AirRazor answered, smiling slightly.
"Sure. But you could also try to talk me into surrendering my patient to you and then blow me away," Mel said pleasantly.
Optimus gave the small figure an amused look.
"And don't think I can't defend myself -- and him," Mel added and suddenly held some kind of bo-staff in her hands.
Optimus moved back a bit. "He is our friend," he repeated. "We are not your enemies."
"We will see that when Sparks gets here to identify you," she answered, holding the staff in front of her and Optimus wondered what it could do. It looked small enough not to inflict too much damage.....
"Sparks is coming here on foot with Rhinox and Rattrap," he told the stranger. "It could take a while."
"I have time," she answered calmly.
Optimus glanced at Dinobot's still motionless form. "What about him?"
Mel hesitated and moved protectively toward the injured Maximal, her weapon still ready.
"We are his friends," the Maximal leader repeated. "We won't hurt him, only help him....."
Mel still hesitated, but suddenly seemed to flinch. Dinobot shuddered a second later and a groan escaped his lips. Optimus' head whipped around and he stared at his friend. Dinobot's eyelids fluttered. Mel flinched even more and lost her grip on the staff, which fell uselessly to the ground. She staggered a bit and turned to the suddenly slightly moving Maximal.
"What .....?" AirRazor started, but Optimus held up his hand. He had no idea what was going on himself, but something was clearly happening which he didn't understand.
"Damn!" Mel whispered. "Not again."
She was at Dinobot's side in a flash and stretched out one arm. A part of her armor slid back on the forearm and revealed a little panel, which was immediately showing strings of data.
"Not good," she muttered. "He's running a fever. The skin's aflame!"
Dinobot had quieted down again, lying limp and unresponsive. She turned to Optimus.
"Listen, if you really are his friends, then we need to get him to your base or whatever," Mel said forcefully and gestured at Dinobot. "He's in a really bad state and it's getting worse."
Optimus slowly approached the prone body and winced slightly. Bad wasn't the word for this. He was no medic, but the pools of dried fluids, the open chest, the spear through the neck, the inflamed looking leg and the overall patched up look gave him a clue.
"Who did this?" he asked tonelessly.
"The spearing? I have no idea. I only tried to keep him alive until someone came here...." Mel looked at him, the black visor unreadable. Optimus wished he could see beneath that visor.
"You did this?" AirRazor exclaimed.
Mel managed to look offended even without a visible face. "Hey, I'm a medic, okay? I just don't have the equipment and this patch-work is normally not my style, but he was dying -- and he still is!"
"No one accuses you of anything," Optimus said calmly. "We were just surprised. You really are a medic?"
She nodded. "It might not look like it, but yes. I hope you don't want my credentials or references; I forgot to bring them along. Now how about getting him to somewhere more like a med bay?"
"I have my team coming here. I can't lift him. Dinobot is just too heavy."
"Dinobot?" the small female echoed. "That's his name?"
Optimus nodded.
He heard steps and turned, discovering his team, as well as Sparks. The cat moved immediately over to Mel and the other female gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder. Rhinox transformed and stared in horror at the injured Dinobot. Even Rattrap was shocked into silence for a second.
"Oh, man.....," he muttered. "What hit him?"
Rhinox knelt down and gave the motionless body a quick scan. "He's comatose, Optimus," he reported. "And I've never seen a robot in such a bad state before. It's a miracle he held on for so long. He should already be dead, by all scientific means; if not from the energon overload because of prolonged exposure, then from the shock of losin' so much fluids. We have to get him back to the Axalon."
"Be careful with the neck spear," Mel warned. "If you remove it without proper instruments to staunch the flow, he will lose too many fluids! And he seems to be running some kind of infection as well. His leg is getting worse and worse."
Rattrap stared at the motionless form and shuddered slightly. Something had hit Dinobot all right, hard and without remorse. Dinobot could take a lot, he knew, and it was hard to take him out like that. Whatever it had been -- either it had surprised him or it was a lot stronger.
"She's right, Optimus," Rhinox told the young leader. "We have to be careful. It would be better to fly him back."
"He's too heavy."
"Maybe if we both carry him," AirRazor said. "It's not such a long flight...."
Optimus looked at her. "Are you sure you can do it?"
She smiled. "If you are sure...?"
He nodded. "Let's do it."

* * *

Cybertron

Sphere had copied the last log entries into a separate file and was using one of the terminals in the lower levels of South Port to page through it. She ignored the entries of the usual activities of the doorway throughout a day, which consisted of the low energy flow it sent out and the echoes of other doorways. She called up more pages and found nothing amiss in the energy flow of the hours just before the garbled string of entries that had been recorded at the time of the accident. Everything had been normal up to the point of the trial run!
She accessed the last page, which was the unreadable mess. Sighing, she concentrated on it and began to run it up against other activation entries. There were symbols, strangely slashed letters and numbers, repeating strings of weird combinations. The stuff in-between the weird things looked faintly like coordinates, but she recognized none of them.
Why?
Sphere frowned. She had a full data file of coordinates inside her and the control cube had them as well, even the remotest ones. She would recognize coordinates everywhere....
Everywhere?
The Key frowned. Maybe... No! Too weird! But maybe not.....
Sphere deleted everything on the file but the last entry and then accessed one of her own Key programs. Doorways could move matter in time and space, she knew. What if they could also move it through dimensions? She stared at the soup of letters and numbers, suddenly seeing a light at the end of the tunnel she was walking. Dimension jump!
She began to scribble down notes and compared them to the program she had never used because it had always appeared senseless to her. Suddenly everything seemed to come together! After half an hour of hard work, Sphere had a workable theory and she shut down the terminal, running toward Rodimus Prime's office.

* * *

The planet

Megatron hadn't gone very far when Waspinator met up with him.
"Megatron!" the airborne Predacon buzzed, sounding very excited. "Wazzzpinator zzzaw jet plane!"
"A jet?" Megatron echoed. "Where?"
One of the insect legs pointed toward the coordinates Megatron was aiming at. "Wazzzpinator zzzaw him go down. Energon ooooooverload. He hazzz the weirdezzzt zzzzymbol. Wazzzpinator not know him."
"A stranger, yesss?" Megatron was fascinated. A power surge and a stranger who had no identifiable symbol and was also a jet in second mode. "Where is he now?"
"Wazzzpinator show you!"
The Predacon turned and Megatron followed him in a ground-covering run.

* * *

It was hard work to get Dinobot back to the Axalon and Optimus was glad that there was no interference in form of a Predacon attack. They had problems enough already. He deactivated Sentinel, the Axalon's security system, as they approached and then touched down, followed by AirRazor. The falcon Maximal looked worn and tired, transforming back to beast mode immediately to replenish her power. Optimus saw a cloud of dust in the distance and knew it were the others coming back at full speed. He began to drag Dinobot onto the elevator platform, careful not to harm him more than he already was, and activated it, lifting them both into the ship. He had just managed to get the badly injured Maximal out of the elevator when the second one was raised. It were Rhinox, Rattrap, Sparks and Mel.
Mel ran over to her patient and checked him. "Uh-oh," she muttered. "Getting worse. Separated too long..." She shook her head, then turned to Rhinox. "You have to stabilize him now or he will slip from coma to death without a second's hesitation!"
Rhinox nodded and walked over to Dinobot, lifting him gently and carrying him to the med bay. Optimus knew there was no use in getting him into the CR chamber. The damage was too great for the chamber to heal and Rhinox had to get this mess straightened out first, then they might be able to employ the help of the chamber. Mel followed him swiftly.
Rattrap transformed and watched them disappear. "Ya think it's wise to let her run around like this?" he asked Optimus.
"Why?" Sparks answered instead of the Maximal leader. "Afraid she might fall into an open repair hole? Wouldn't be surprised, looking at this tub."
Rattrap turned toward her, appearing offended. True, the Axalon wasn't in prime shape. The transwarp drive was completely destroyed and beyond repair, and structural damages to the hull were too great to ever think the ship would fly again, but it was still their base.
"Who asked you, kitty cat?" He gave her a challenging look. "Yer not here to criticize the outfit!"
Sparks snorted and hopped onto the plotting table. She looked around the room, taking it in. Optimus was intrigued by her, especially since she didn't seem to come from a stasis pod and had synthoid flesh covering her robot form nevertheless.
"Now that the first problem is solved," he said, "and since none of us can help Rhinox, how about answering a few questions?"
Sparks sat down and looked expectantly at him. "Shoot."
Rattrap grinned. "Don't tempt me."
Sparks shot him a withering look.
"Where did you come from?" Optimus wanted to know, ignoring Rattrap. "You said you didn't come out of a stasis pod, but I also never saw you before. Where do you belong to?"
Sparks wrinkled her nose. "I belong to nobody!" she told him forcefully. "Even if certain people think so." Her tail flickered from left to right. "As to where I came from, that is quite complicated and I'm not sure how much I can tell you."
"What can you tell us?"
"That it happened through an accident and that I have no idea where we are."
Rattrap frowned. "Accident? What accident?"
"Energy overflow. Mel and I were in the wrong place at the wrong time." She shrugged. "Think of it like a transporter, a doorway."
"I see," Optimus muttered.
"I have no idea how we could get back and I don't know if Mel has. Since we encountered your friend here first, it confronted us with a problem we hadn't thought we would encounter." The cat sighed again.
"Can you tell us the planet you come from?" Optimus wanted to know.
Sparks hesitated. "Could we wait with this answer until I know a bit more about you?" she asked carefully.
Optimus and Rattrap exchanged a quick look. "Okay," the Maximal leader finally said and then gave her the short version of what had happened to them.
He noticed her reactions to several names and wondered what she knew and he didn't. When he had finished, Sparks looked thoughtful.
"I think," she said slowly, "Mel and I have a big problem."
Rattrap frowned. "Why?"
"Because if what you are telling me isn't all a big hoax, the two of us are from somewhere else completely." Her emerald eyes were very serious now. "We are from another dimension."
"What?" Rattrap explained. "That's ridiculous!"
Sparks smiled sadly. "What if I told you I come from the same planet you do, but there are no Maximals or Predacons; that Optimus Prime and Rodimus Prime share Autobot leadership; that for the last decade we peace reigned between Autobots and Deceptions because our race is threatened by even greater threats than civil war; that Vector Sigma no longer holds god-like status?"
Optimus and Rattrap stared at her. Sparks smiled sadly.
"Another dimension," Optimus finally muttered. "But how?"
"Like I said: an accident." Now it was Sparks' turn to give a brief version of what had happened to her and Mel.
Optimus thoughtfully rubbed his chin. "How do you want to get back?"
Sparks looked at him. "That," she said calmly, "I have no idea of."

* * *

Cybertron

"A dimension jump?" Rodimus asked, his blue optics showing his confusion. "But how?"
Sphere shook her head. "I have no idea, but I know that if we can translate all coordinates and align the centerway, we can retrieve them!" She glanced briefly at Megatron, who had been in Rodimus' office when she had breezed in.
"Are you sure?" Rodimus asked.
She nodded with conviction. "I am. I can do it if I get the leeway to use the centerway."
The Autobots' second frowned. "What if you hit another backlash?"
Sphere looked hesitant. "I don't know, but it's their only chance, Rodimus!"
The Autobot gave her a long, intense look. "I want Starscream and Nightmare down there as well, just in case you hit something we don't want to have here."
Sphere nodded. "Thanks."
He smiled. "Just get them back."
"I will!"

* * *

The planet

Midnight stopped dead in his tracks when he came upon a body.
"Oh, geez!" Steve muttered.
Midnight approached the prone body slowly. It looked like a cat, though a rather large one, and if he wasn't all that far off, it was a cheetah. Steve agreed with him. The cheetah was partly a robot, partly covered with flesh, which had been destroyed on the back and belly.
"Oh, yuck!" Steve muttered as he examined the damage. "Looks like he encountered something nasty."
"But he survived," Midnight told him. "His fuel pump is still on-line, as is the brain unit. The spinal column is undamaged." He slowly touched the synthetic skin. "Feels like my own skin, though he has artificial hair as well."
"Like Sparks," Steve supplied and chuckled, then grew serious. "What now?"
"I don't know......"
Suddenly he felt vibrations running through the ground and a split second later he heard heavy steps. Midnight rose and turned, facing a large, purple colored dinosaur. A tyrannosaurus rex, to be correct, though this one had no similarities to the only other t-rex he knew: Grimlock. At the dinosaur's side was the large wasp he had seen not so long ago and a equally large scorpion.
"Hello, stranger," the t-rex said, smiling gruesomely.
Midnight materialized his gun and aimed at the t-rex. "Who are you?" he demanded, feeling Steve's alarm and suspicion.
"Oh, I apologize," the t-rex said pleasantly. "My name is Megatron, leader of the Predacon forces." The small arms gesture elegantly at himself. "And these are Scorponok and Waspinator, two of my warriors."
Midnight frowned in confusion. Megatron? "Predacons?" he echoed.
Megatron nodded slowly. "Yesss. Now, my unnamed friend, who are you?"
"My name is Midnight.... I'm a Sentinel," the Sentinel leader explained warily. "What is this planet? What is its name?"
Megatron smiled. "The planet has no name. How did you come here? We didn't see any ships landing, no."
Midnight felt strangely suspicious of this guy. He didn't know why because Megatron had not done anything suspicious at all, but still.....
"No ship," he said slowly. "I had an accident."
"Ah, an accident, yesss. A mishap. And I see you had another ....accident." He indicted the body behind Midnight.
"I found him like this. Your friend?"
"Friend?" Megatron echoed. "Not a friend, no. He is a Maximal. Scum. The lowest life form there is." He looked disdainfully at the prone figure. "Sadly enough, he is already dead."
<< What a charming character >> Steve whispered through the Interface link. << I have no idea what he is up to, but I don't like him >>
<< Same here. But what now? >>
<< No idea. We could fly away. Your circuits are all repaired and I think I have a theory concerning the energon overload, which I'll gladly explain to you later. But we also have this .... Maximal. He's their enemy and I'd hate to leave him to their mercy >>
<< Agreed >> Midnight thought furiously. What could they do?
"Maximal izzz alive, Megatron!" the wasp, Waspinator, suddenly hummed.
"Ah, how unfortunate for him," Megatron said pleasantly. "We shall put him out of his misery, shall we not? Megatron, terrorize!"
Midnight watched the dinosaur transform into a tall robot, who was about his own size. The dark purple and black colors glinted in the sun. The former t-rex head was now the right hand and he aimed at the defenseless cheetah with it. That was the moment Midnight decided he sure as hell didn't like this Megatron and he aimed his gun at him.
"I beg to differ," he said, his voice as smooth and pleasant as Megatron's.
Megatron's head whipped around and he stared at him. "So you want to stop me, yesss? How unfortunate for you as well."
The arm aimed at him all of a sudden and Midnight jumped out of the way as Megatron lost a blast. The laser shot pulverized a rock, showering them with fragments. Waspinator and Scorponok transformed as well and began to attack the Sentinel, who fought back, using all his unique talents. The three Predacons would have had no chance -- normally. But Midnight needed to protect the cheetah as well and this hampered him.
<< Gate! >> Steve whispered. << Get him and Gate! >>
Midnight fired furiously at the two attackers and then jumped for the cheetah, catching him with his free hand, feeling slick fluids running down his arm as Megatron's shots hit his left arm and severing some of the yellow veins. Midnight cursed. Steve was blocking the transformation of his soft skin into metal-like shields against shots like this.
<< Steve! What are you doing? I have to harden the outer layer! >>
<< No! >> Steve hissed. << Don't! Your organic skin is the only insulation you have against the energon overload! >>
<< What?! >>
<< Trust me! >>
Of course he trusted his partner -- explicitly.
Another shot came too close and he looked wildly around. Gate! It was the only way. He accessed his Gating mechanism and entered, hoping he had the coordinates right.
 

Megatron stared at the spot the black stranger had just been at and which was now empty.
"Wazzpinator confused!" Waspinator muttered. "Where did he go?"
"Scorponok not know either!" the Predacon second supplied, rather unnecessarily and Megatron gave him a look of slight disgust.
"I do not know," Megatron then said slowly. "But I will find out, yess! Back to the base!"

*

Black Arachnia had witnessed the fight and also the stranger's sudden disappearance.
"Interesting," she simply muttered. "Very interesting."
She kept a low profile as Megatron, Scorponok and Waspinator transformed and went back to Predacon HQ.

* * *

Rhinox was working quickly and effectively, removing the insulating skin from Dinobot's structure and getting him hooked up on various monitors, feeds and back-ups. He had put a special device around Dinobot's badly inflamed left leg, which was bombarding the infected area with anti-bodies to keep further inflammation in check. He would have to handle everything else concerning the leg later. The spear wounds had priority.
The strange female, Mel, was watching him and giving him a hand here or there. He had to confess she knew her stuff; it was only the size he had to get used to. She was just about half of Rattrap's height, but her body was strong, though part of her shoulder armor was dented; and from the looks of it, the attacker had been Dinobot.
"You did very well," he told her while examining the repairs she had done. It was patch-work, but it was perfect. With the limited resources at hand she had managed to prolong his life until professional help could be applied. Well, she was professional help, just  without the necessary equipment to do a proper job.
"Thanks," she said and he thought she smiled behind that visor.
Rhinox began to close down the throat fluid tube and then extracted the spear. He was very careful. It was delicate work. Dinobot didn't move throughout the whole procedure and he had not shown any reaction at all since he had been brought here. Rhinox knew he was in a coma, induced by shock, pain and fever, but his mind was also like a steel ball, closed and impenetrable. It puzzled the scientist because Dinobot's mind should be a mess of pain, fear and confusion, but he was calm.
Why?
Mel sat down on the second bed in the med bay, watching him. He kept an eye on her, well, at least half an eye, while most of his concentration was on Dinobot and the necessary repairs.
"How did you know what to do?" he asked conversationally.
She shrugged. "I'm a medic. I also studied engineering. And I'm talented," she added with an amused undertone.
Rhinox chuckled. "Yes, you are. But still, it puzzles me that you knew which circuits were responsible for what and how to keep him functionin' on the most basic level, repairin' not too much and not too little."
Mel sighed. "Like I said: I studied it and I've been working with guys like you for years now, though mostly consultation."
"Consultation?"
"I'm working with the patient before and after surgery, sometimes even throughout surgery to relieve stress." She watched him replace destroyed circuits. "I'm not a doctor by title; I'm a medic. I can repair things and do so frequently, but I'm more of a consultant. Mind work." She tapped a finger against her helmeted head.
Rhinox nodded. "You seem to be quite good at goin' up against impossible odds with your skills," he said calmly. "Lookin' at these injuries and knowin' that Dinobot had no pain killers whatsoever, he should be either dead or crazy with pain. He isn't. Those monitors show me that his mind is as calm as if he were sleepin'." He gave Mel an imploring look.
Mel showed no reaction. As he looked at her he also saw how her body radiated fatigue and how she held herself upright with force.
"I think you should recharge," he told her softly, never ceasing his work.
She chuckled. "Recharge? I think not." At his frown she shook her head. "Maybe I should explain this a bit better, though I believe I should wait until you aren't up to your elbow in his innards."
Rhinox did some last connections inside Dinobot's chest and then leaned forward. "Well?"
Mel touched the helmet covering her head and he heard a slight hissing sound. And then she lifted the helmet.
Rhinox stared at her, glad she had told him to finish his work before revealing what was beneath that helmet. He wouldn't have noticed Dinobot bleeding to death for this one second! That was no robot face. It was organic!
"You.... you are...." he stuttered.
"Human," Mel supplied helpfully and smiled. "Yes. Surprise."
Rhinox nodded slowly. "It certainly is."
He studied her, noting lines of fatigue around her eyes and lips, the pale complexion and the pain in her eyes, though it didn't look like physical pain.
"You are tired," he said calmly. "Even if I don't know humans, you look like a tired one."
She smiled again. "I am, but I can't sleep now."
"Why?"
She hesitated, then shook her head. "Get working on him and worry about me later," she told him. "When he's safe, I'll tell you all you want to know."
Rhinox looked at her, then nodded. "Okay," he agreed. "Deal."
Mel gave him a tired smile.

* * *

Cybertron

Carly had finally fallen asleep, the long hours of getting to Cybertron and then waiting for results taking their toll. Spike didn't think he could even catch a quick nap. He was far too agitated. Shanygn walked over and held out a cup of coffee to him.
"Drink," she told him. "You can't sleep anyway."
He took it with a thankful smile, glancing at his sleeping wife. She had taken it all very well and he knew that there were few things that could shock her into a crying fit. There was no proof Mel was dead and if everyone was correct, she had been transported into another dimension, not killed. But what if that dimension was dangerous? What if the transfer had been okay, but the dimension had killed her? He banished those thoughts. It was no use to hang onto speculation.
"How are they coming along?" he asked Shanygn after the first few sips of coffee. It tasted terrible. He didn't know why, but no one on Cybertron had yet managed to get a decent cup of coffee together.
"Sphere thinks they will start trial runs in a few more hours," she answered, rubbing her forehead.
"Headache?" Spike asked sympathetically.
"Roddy," she answered with a wry smile. "He's just as worried as everyone, but he tries not to show it. But he's projecting."
Spike nodded in understanding. Rodimus had been helpful, answering all their question, giving them a clear idea of what was going on.
"How is Nightmare taking it?" he finally asked.
Shanygn gave him a surprised look. Of course, Mel and Nightmare were close friends and had always been ever since the equine robot had met the two year old toddler, but it was also no secret that the Witwickys had looked at him with worry because of this friendship. Spike and Carly had long since accepted the unusual partnership, but, and Shanygn was sure of that, they were afraid she might want to wander along the same paths their son had once tried: becoming a part of a robot. Daniel had been a Headmaster for some time. True, Nightmare had shown no inclination to join with an organic life form, but the fear was there and had always been. Shanygn was also sure that nothing like that would ever happen.
"He's worried," she finally said. "And I think he blames himself for the accident. He sent Mel out of the chamber to get her to safety and she vanished because of it."
Spike nodded slowly, playing with the cup in his hands. "We haven't called Danny yet."
"I don't think it's necessary," she said softly. "Not now anyway."
Spike frowned a bit, then nodded again. "I wish we could do something. Sitting around uselessly never was my favorite past time."
Shanygn chuckled. "I know, but right now we would only be in the way."
The older man sighed and leaned back in his chair, staring out of the window. There was really nothing else to do.

* * *

The planet

Midnight shook his head and tried to clear his optics. The Gating had been the strangest experience he had ever had and he thought it had to do with the rather high concentration of energon all around him. It might also be an explanation as to why he wasn't where he had thought he would exit. Midnight had aimed for the coordinates he had arrived at, but now he was in the middle of the arctic!
"Oh, great!" he muttered angrily and laid down the motionless form of the cheetah he had carried.
"Well, it's better than where we just were," Steve told him with a smile. "Though it's also much colder."
Midnight nodded and scanned the horizon, seeing nothing but more snow. "Let's worry about this later," he finally said and knelt beside the cheetah.
Steve materialized beside him and began checking the torn skin and circuits. "Self-repair has set in," he reported after some time. "Looks like only a few circuits need a more extensive care, but he should get back on his feet soon."
He looked up at his partner. Midnight looked worried. "I wonder who did this to him," the Sentinel muttered. "It wasn't the Predacons because this Megatron character was just as surprised as everyone."
Steve shrugged. "Talking about Megatron, is it me or are we not in Kansas anymore?"
Midnight smiled. "I noticed that as well. Predacons...... I have no idea what or who they are. And even if he bears Megatron's name, he has nothing in common with him."
Steve nodded and cleaned some of the open wounds of the cheetah, puzzling over the alien circuitry. If it came down to it, the basic levels were the same, but several things were completely different. He knew by those circuits he saw that the cheetah was a Transformer, but none he had ever seen before.
Suddenly he stiffened. << Look over your left shoulder. Slowly >>
Midnight did so and discovered a new life form, standing not far away from them, watching them curiously. It was a white tiger.
<< Another one of them? >> Steve asked carefully.
<< I don't know. I read energy signatures. It is robotic all right, but I have no idea whether it's a Maximal or Predacon -- or someone completely else >>
The tiger didn't move and they all stared at each other, Midnight trying to look neither threatening nor like an easy target. He knew other life forms' reaction to his exterior and he couldn't help it when his aura flared now and then.
"You are not Predacons," the tiger finally  said, the male voice soft and dark, almost gentle.
"No, we are not," Midnight answered and rose to his feet, keeping himself between the cheetah and the tiger. "My name is Midnight, I'm a Sentinel." He spread his hands away from his body to show the tiger they weren't about to shoot.
The tiger gave him a curious look. "The name's Tigatron. Maximal." His eyes were drawn to the motionless cheetah. "What happened? How did you get here?"
"You are a friend of his?"
The tiger transformed all of a sudden into a green and silver colored robot, who was slightly smaller than Midnight. There was an unknown symbol on his forehead and Midnight guessed it meant his affiliation with those Maximals.
"Yes. His name is Cheetor. What happened?" he repeated.
"I have no idea," Midnight answered warily. "We found him like this."
"We?" Tigatron looked at Steve, a puzzled frown on his face.
"Steven Parker," Steve introduced himself, aware he was right out in the open but also not willing to show he could phase back into Midnight just yet. "Midnight's partner."
Tigatron continued to look puzzled, but concentrated back on his friend again. "How did you get here? Cheetor was not supposed to patrol here."
"Errr.... he wasn't here when we found him. I brought him with me when I Gated," Midnight explained, slightly reluctant.
"Gated?"
The Sentinel sighed. "Long story. Do you have somewhere we can take him for repairs? I'll explain on the way."
Tigatron nodded. "He has to be brought back to the Axalon. It is a long way."
"I'll carry him."
The Maximal gave him a close look. "You can transform?"
"Yes, but it's not advisable for me. I lose my insulation against the energon fields when I transform because my skin turns hard. I can walk, though. No problem."
Tigatron nodded and transformed back into the tiger again. "Follow me."
Midnight picked up the limp body of Cheetor and did.
"As for your story," Tigatron continued with an amused voice, "I am listening."
Midnight chuckled and began to relay what had happened, leaving out a few things he thought he needed to check first, like his planet of origin.

* * *

Cybertron

Sphere exchanged a look with Raven, who nodded. The two doorway teams were down in the chamber and ready to run the first trial with the interdimensional coordinates. Ralyk had not reacted to any of her questions and what she had heard from her brother about the entity's reaction to his inquiries, it was not inclined to be helpful. So they had to try it on their own. They had attempted to enter the coordinates directly, but the centerway had not moved to the commands and Sphere suspected that it was impossible to connect on a direct way. They had to go to the place they wanted to go by circumventing it until they hit a channel leading them there.
The inner ring of the bottom structure moved slightly and then locked into position. The centerway began to hum softly. The outer ring moved as well, taking the second one with it, then stopped, though the second ring continued sliding noiselessly until it had its position as well. The ceiling ring stayed motionless.
Nightmare nodded at Starscream, who stood left of the doorway. They knew that if they hit something hostile they had to drive it back. Both were armed and ready.
The centerway exploded into a column of light, humming still and showing no backwash tendencies. Raven nodded in satisfaction began to lock the doorway in this position.
"The connection is established," Sphere said calmly, addressing Rodimus Prime, who was watching everything with worried optics. "We'll start scrolling for the right coordinates now. It could take a while."
He nodded. "I have time."
Shanygn, who had accompanied him down here against his will and better judgment, watched the proceedings with interest. The plan was to connect the centerway to another dimension and then run it up and down the coordinates scale to see when it hit the right ones. Sphere was watching the read-outs of the control cube for the correct hit and Raven concentrated on keeping the centerway stable and brushing by dimensions steadily and regularly. If they hit the right coordinates, who matched the alphabet soup in the last log entry, they would lock the doorway on that spot and send a scout through.
She settled back against the wall. Well, it could take some time.

* * *

The planet

Megatron watched Tarantulas use all the scanners they had available to get the coordinates of the energy surges. His mind was on what had happened. The alien robot had simply disappeared without using something like a traceable transporter! Looking back at it now, the robot had been rather strange to begin with. There was the skin covering his robot mode, not his alternate mode, which Megatron guessed was an aerial one, judging from the wings on his back. Then there was the utter blackness, which he had thought seemed to stretch out around him like a living shield. It could have been his imagination, but Megatron didn't believe so. The black aura had been there. And last but not least there had been the symbol on the wings, which he had not been able to identify at all. Nothing like it was in any of the data banks.
"There are three locations of energy surges. One is a energon geyser, the other two are weaker, but not mapped anywhere. Both on Maximal territory and one is moving."
Megatron leaned over Tarantulas' shoulder and looked at the two most likely spots. Both weren't that far apart and up north. The weaker one was moving at a steady pace. Inside Tigatron's patrol perimeter, he mused. He turned to his only two flyers.
"Waspinator, Terrosaur, check the coordinates for the stranger. Don't engage him, simply report back to me immediately. I will deal with him then."
Waspinator managed a salute and Terrosaur simply transformed, flying out of the headquarters with the second flyer in tow. Megatron turned back to Tarantulas.
"We need a weapon to keep our friend from disappearing again, yesss," he told the scientist.
Tarantulas seemed to frown, but that was hard to determine on his rather expressionless face. "Depends on his method of transporting," he muttered.
"I was more thinking of a powerful enough blast to stun him," Megatron said pleasantly.
Tarantulas nodded and moved over to his work station. Megatron smiled. Whoever the stranger was and wherever he had come from, he'd soon have him in his hands to ask him these questions -- and get answers!
Yesss.

* * *

"Any word from Cheetor?"
Rattrap shook his head and checked the com lines again. "Not a peep outta him. Think the kid got lost?"
Optimus frowned. He had been worried since they had found out about Dinobot's attack. No one had any idea who the attacker was, but they all had realized that he was very powerful to take on Dinobot and win. He had been quick to hinder Dinobot's transformation and then strike him down completely.
"I don't know. He should be back by now. AirRazor went out to look for him, but she hasn't found anything so far." The Maximal leader sighed. "Something's going on here and we have no idea what it is!" Optimus knew he sounded frustrated, but he also thought he was entitled to.
Sparks entered the command room, hopping onto the table again. "Rhinox is almost done with your friend Dinobot. Any trace from Cheetor?"
"No," he growled.
She winced a bit. "My, my, aren't you in a good mood. Relax! If something has happened, you can't change it now. If nothing happened, you are getting all unnerved for nothing. Wait until you know what is going on, then react."
"The kitty cat's got a point there," Rattrap nodded. "We don't know what happened to Cheetor. He might just have taken a detour to stretch his legs, for all we know."
"No." Optimus shook his head. "He wouldn't do it. Maybe he did it in the past, but he learned."
Rattrap had to grudgingly agree. Cheetor had learned his lessons in the past and had grown into a more responsible person. "Then somethin' happened," he muttered.
Rhinox strode into the room, looking at the two present Maximals and the cat. He was carrying a part of the spears stuck in Dinobot when they had found him,
"How is he?" Optimus asked immediately.
"Holdin' on. He needs a lot of recovery time and I still haven't replaced the damper chip. Transformation is out of the question until he has replenished his energon. The infection is no longer spreading. I'm still working on the cause for this fast fever he ran." Rhinox held up the spear. "But I examined this spear and I don't think you will like it."
Optimus grimaced. "Well?"
"The spear is not made by either Predacons or Maximals, Optimus. The alloys are completely unknown to me. But it has a distinct similarity to ....the probe."
Optimus stared at him. "The probe?"
"What probe?" Sparks wanted to know.
"Not the probe, man!" Rattrap exclaimed.
"Mind telling me what you're talking about?" the cat asked, exasperated.
Optimus gave her a quick summary of the events from months ago. Sparks frowned.
"Wait  a second. Dinobot was attacked by the probe or whatever, but you said that last time you were gently examined and that the probe even brought Dinobot back to your ship to get repaired. There were no attacks, only examinations."
"True, but I think this was no normal attack," Rhinox told her, holding up the spear again. "I brought back the one Mel pulled out of his back as well. The one in his neck hampered transformation, the other one was special. The head contained sensor equipment and the other end had an interface option, enabling something to connect to this ... probe, for a better word, and read the information it collected."
"What?! Optimus exclaimed.
"Looks like the thing was rammed into him to get information about his inner workings." Rhinox' voice was very serious now.
"They coulda had that an easier way," Rattrap muttered.
"True." Rhinox looked seriously at Optimus. "I believe the infection was also spread by the probe, for whatever reason. The computer is running an analysis on the virus, but I'm sure the result will be something like this. If another probe came here, and I suspect it did, we didn't register it. And it is not as benevolent as the first one."
Optimus was reminded of what Megatron had said months ago. 'Not all aliens are beneficent'. Yes, that was true.
"That's just prime," he muttered. "See if you can contact AirRazor," he then told Rattrap. "Tell her that there might be another probe out there which might have got to Cheetor. Then get ready to leave. We are looking for Cheetor!"
Sparks jumped down from the table, transforming and showing her robot mode to the Maximals for the first time. Optimus blinked at the black and white female. The color scheme she had had as a cat was true with her robot mode as well. Her hands were white, as were her legs up to her knees, giving her the look of someone wearing boots and gloves. A white triangle was on her chest, pointing down. The emerald optics were almond shaped and standing slightly vertical. Rattrap gave her an appreciating look, then grinned as she shot him an angry glare.
"I'll help," she declared, looking up at Optimus again.
Optimus was about to contradict, then simply nodded. They would need the extra help. He turned to Rhinox. "Stay here with Dinobot."
The scientist nodded. "Will do."

* * *

Tigatron led Midnight and Steve down the slippery slopes and out of the icy mountain area. The Sentinel walked steadily with the added weight in his arms and Steve had long since phased back into him, which had been a bit of a surprise to Tigatron. Midnight had explained a few things about Interfacing to the Maximal and Tigatron had accepted it. He was a very calm personality, Midnight had discovered, very centered and gentle. Tigatron had also given him a better idea of what he was facing here; an unknown planet with too much energon than was good for a robotic life form, two crashed ships, who were enemies, and no way off this weird place.
"We could risk a short flight," Steve informed his partner. "Your circuits are all right again and I can give you a maximum time frame of about ten minutes if we don't encounter a higher concentration of energon."
Midnight nodded and calculated whether or not he could carry both Maximals. It would be possible. Tigatron frowned a bit.
"Flying?" he asked, sounding not very enthused.
"Give me the coordinates of the Axalon and I'll fly there, or at least cover as much ground as possible in the time we have. I don't want to risk Gating. Last time I came out at your place and didn't even aim for it." He smiled wryly.
Tigatron chuckled. "The energon can do weird things to your systems," he agreed. "All right, I'll fly with you. How do you want to carry us both?"
Midnight laid Cheetor on the ground and transformed. "Secure him behind my cockpit on the left. You can even out the weight and get on the right side."
Tigatron nodded and followed the instruction, finally taking his seat right behind the cockpit. Midnight went through a last calculation and ran it by Steve as well to be sure. His Interface partner gave his agreement to the calculations and Midnight ignited his engines. The dark jet gained speed and took off. Midnight had a bit of trouble at first, since the added weight was considerable, but he managed and they were on their way.

* * *

AirRazor was the first to discover them and she gave a surprised exclamation as she saw the dark jet set in for a landing on the uneven ground. It was slightly assaulted by energon overload and when she discovered Tigatron and Cheetor hanging on to the plane, she was completely confused. Tigatron transformed, got Cheetor off the plane and then the plane transformed. She decided to risk exposure and flew closer. Tigatron discovered her first.
"AirRazor!" he called.
She landed and transformed, seeing the state Cheetor was in and was reminded of Dinobot. "What happened?" she asked. "Who is this?"
"His name is Midnight, an unwilling visitor to the planet like we are."
AirRazor gave the black robot a closer look and shivered slightly. Was it her imagination or was the black color like a shield for him, an aura? He seemed to suck in the light around himself, creating a protective cloak of darkness. Strange, yellow veins ran through what looked like organic skin.
"Cheetor was attacked by something and Midnight saved him from the Predacons, though it wasn't them inflicting those wounds," Tigatron went on. "We need to get him back to the Axalon, but energon overload forced Midnight to land."
"Everyone was out in search for Cheetor," she explained. "I'll contact the others and you bring him back to the Axalon. We already have two visitors there."
"Who?" Midnight asked sharply.
"Someone named Sparks and Mel."
"Oh, great!" Midnight groaned. "Looks like more than me were involved in this accident."
AirRazor gave him a curious look once more, then transformed and flew in search of Optimus, simultaneously trying her com link, which most of the times didn't work because of the energon disturbances all around them. This time though she was lucky and reached Optimus, giving him the news. The Maximal leader told her to stay with Tigatron and the stranger while the search party returned home.

* * *

The probe finished its recordings, stored them in separate files, then deactivated the sensor rods, retracting them out of its latest test subjects. Both of them were out of commission and wouldn't regain functioning status for at least one day.
:: Tests complete ::
It folded all scanning equipment back into its body and brought up a map of the continent. The retrieval point wasn't very far from here and it should be able to reach it within a day. It moved on.

* * *

"Mid!" Mel stared at the black Sentinel in surprise. "I'll be damned!"
"Hi, Mel. How are you?"
"Fine. What are you doing here?"
He smiled. "Same you do. I was involved in a doorway accident, as were you and Sparks."
"And here I was hoping you had developed a method to Gate between dimensions." She sighed.
"Dimensions? So we jumped dimensions, eh? Great!" He shook his head. "Should have thought so immediately. Too much weird stuff. And no, Gating doesn't work between dimensions. It's hard enough to hit coordinates on this planet anyway." A wry smile danced over his lips.
"Anyway, I'm glad to see you. If you weren't so damn big I'd hug you!" She grinned.
Midnight smiled back and watched Rhinox give the injured Cheetor a quick scan. "Looks worse than it is, Optimus. He's all right and the CR chamber can handle the damaged circuits easily," the scientist reported. "Strangely enough his damper chip and transformation circuits are untouched."
Optimus Primal frowned. "The probe again?"
"Possible."
Rhinox carried the still unconscious robot over to a large pod, which opened with a slight hiss, and placed him inside. This had to be the CR chamber.
"How is Dinobot?" Optimus then asked.
"Still comatose. The infection is under control, though."
The Maximal leader looked grim, then turned to Midnight. "Thank you for rescuing Cheetor from Megatron."
Midnight shrugged. "No problem. Could I ask you a favor?"
"What?"
"I'd like to take a look at your logs concerning this planet. We arrived here by unconventional means and I'd like to know if there are any conventional means to get back to our dimension."
Optimus nodded. "Rattrap can show you the files."
Rattrap gestured for the larger Sentinel to follow him to one of the stations. Mel rubbed her eyes and returned to med bay. Sparks lay curled up on one of the empty chairs. Optimus watched Mel disappear and shook his head.
"It still amazes me that she is human," he told his friend.
Rhinox smiled. "A quite extraordinary human," he told his leader. "I also believe she is much more than what she tells us."
"How so?"
Rhinox gave Optimus a brief run of what he had discovered while working on Dinobot and how he was too calm for a being in such pain and fear.
"And your theory?" Primal wanted to know.
"I have none," Rhinox confessed. "She is spending all her time in med bay without sleep and I think she keeps herself awake with drugs, though I have no idea why. She trusts us and Sparks would protect her, but she doesn't relax. Her whole concentration is aimed at Dinobot."
Optimus tapped his chin. "Very strange. Keep an eye on her."
"Already have. Now I'll better get back to my patient. I still need to fix some minor stuff."
Optimus nodded and Rhinox left as well. When he turned he discovered Sparks watching him.
"She isn't hurting him," the cat said calmly.
"I wasn't thinking that," the Maximal leader replied. "But what is she doing?"
"It's her decision to tell you or not," Sparks replied. "She is human, if you doubt that, though."
He smiled. "No, I didn't doubt that, though I have to confess I haven't seen many of her kind."
Sparks tilted her head. "How come? Aren't Earth and Cybertron allied planets in your dimension?"
"They are," he explained, "but humans rarely have a place on Cybertronian exploration vessels like ours. Many ships often have only one race manning it."
"I see."
"A relationship like Midnight has with his human Interface partner is completely unknown on my world as well," Optimus added.
Sparks nodded. "I saw that from your reaction to us." She sighed. "I hope we can get back soon."
The cat jumped off the chair and walked over to Midnight, who was working his way through the files. Rattrap gave her a narrow-eyed look and Sparks replied with haughty snort. Then she settled down beside Midnight and simply watched.

* * *

Cybertron

Ralyk watched the proceedings of the two teams in the doorway chamber and it knew they were on the right way. It couldn't help them with the search, but it helped every time they touched another dimension by locking the entry of the opening the connect calls created, denying whatever was close to the opening access to it. It had to do so several times and none of the robots in the chamber ever felt it. Of course they could have fought it back as well, but that would have resulted in too much time wasted and Ralyk thought it owed them at least something.

* * *

The planet

Mel was beyond tiredness; she was completely exhausted. The stimulation drugs were no longer working and administering another dose would gain nothing. Her body was full of them right now and it wasn't reacting anymore. Everything in front of her was swimming and her hands were trembling.
Concentrate.
If you lose, he loses.
Remember what you were taught.
But that was the whole trouble! She was self-taught and all everyone had ever been able to supply was some good advice. There were no other known limited empaths like her and her parents had no extraordinary talents whatsoever. There had been no schools, only life to teach her. She had fallen into cold water and learned not only to stay on the surface, but also to swim great distances.
Mel closed her eyes and breathed deeply, but the all-penetrating exhaustion only increased. She felt herself slip a bit and Dinobot twitched.
If I lose his mind, he will become aware. If he becomes aware, he'll panic because he can't support himself. He's hanging by a thread and doesn't know it. He doesn't know he's dying anymore because I'm shielding him from everything.
Rhinox, who had been working steadily on the severely injured Maximal stopped for a second, frowning. Dinobot had not shown any reaction and he had been in this coma since they had arrived, so what did this mean? He checked the readings on the monitor and was greeted by the same near flatline as before. No changes. Maybe it had been just an unconscious muscle twitch.
And then Mel lost control. Her mind went completely blank for a second and she dropped into a kind of 'split second' sleep, waking again immediately. But this was enough for Dinobot's mind to become aware and to react to everything around him.
Memories rushing in.
Pain!
Fear.
Pain!
Stress.
Pain!
No air. Can't breathe. Oxygen intakes clotted.
Can't breathe!
He began to choke.
The relaxed muscle cords, oxygen intakes and fluid tubes suddenly contracted and encountered several problems at once, all of them coming down to one: he couldn't breathe.
Rhinox was struck by the strong raptor tail and stumbled back, losing his surgical instruments in the process. Dinobot's eyes were open, wide open, panic mirroring inside, but not understanding. He was awake, but not aware on a really conscious level. He tried to breathe, but he couldn't because he tried too hard. If he had relaxed immediately, he would have been able to get oxygen, to stop his muscle cords from cramping, but it was all a vicious circle.
Rattrap, who had been on the way to med bay just to steal a quick look as to how the former Predacon was faring, arrived right at that time. Mel clung to a support, her face pale, the lips starting to turn blue. She was gasping for air just like Dinobot, who was thrashing around and destroying everything in his reach.
"Damnit, she's still in!"
The curse had come from Sparks, who had transformed and was kneeling down in front of the humanoid. Mel, Rattrap reminded himself. Sparks gently took her shoulders.
"Mel? Mel! Get out!"
"Can't!" Mel choked and gasped again. She would have fallen to her knees, but Sparks kept her upright. "If ...I leave... he ...slips!"
Rattrap stared at Dinobot, who was losing his battle to get some oxygen and to gain control over his contracting muscles. Fluids, who had been laboriously replaced in the last hours, were spilling over the floor again.
"Stun... him!" Mel begged.
Can't breathe. Choking. Dying. Help me!
Rhinox stared at her. "If I stun him, his systems will shut down completely and he'll fade!" he protested.
"No!" Mel groaned. "Won't. Do it!"
Don't slip. Relax.
Sparks looked at Rhinox, her emerald optics glowing fiercely. "Do it! She can hold him! She did it all the time and she can do it again!"
Rattrap suddenly knew what they were talking about, though he had no idea how the human could have accomplished it. Sparks held Mel tightly now. Rhinox got out a small instrument and charged it, then aimed at the trashing Dinobot. He fired.
"You have to stay with him!" Sparks breathed in the meantime, her whole concentration on Mel.
"I ...know....but so hard..." Mel closed her eyes, trembling badly.
Sparks put all the confidence she felt into her voice. "You can do it!"
"Can't ...breathe!"
"You can breathe. Tell him he can breathe. Show him!" Sparks' voice was intense and commanding.
The stun ray hit Dinobot and the Maximal collapsed, lying motionless once more. And suddenly everything calmed down. Mel fell against Sparks, no longer aware of the real world around her, only of the mind she had to keep calm. The near-flatline on the monitors went completely flat for a second, then started up again.
Rhinox and Rattrap stared at the human and the unknown robot.
"What did she do?" Rhinox started.
Sparks shook her head, lifting Mel and placing her on another bed. "Later. You concentrate getting him back on-line and stable. I'll explain later."
Rhinox accepted this, but Rattrap gave the cat a suspicious look. Sparks sighed and gestured him to follow her. When they were outside, she started to give Rattrap the brief version of what had just happened in there.

* * *

"Empathy?" Optimus Primal asked, stunned.
"Limited empathy," Sparks explained, still in her robot mode. "She can pick up certain life forms only."
"Robots," Rattrap added.
Sparks nodded. "She's no telepath," she continued as she saw Optimus' alarmed expression. "She works on emotions and she has to concentrate very hard. Few are easy. Dinobot took a lot out of her."
"She kept him alive, Optimus," Rhinox told his leader. "She kept the pain and fear in check and controlled the emotions he felt. If she hadn't, he would have surrendered to the stress on his systems a long time ago and would be dead now."
"I see." Optimus gave Sparks a sharp look. "Why didn't you tell us right from the start?"
The cat sighed. "Because I had to be sure about you guys. Think about it from my point of view: we were dragged into another dimension, immediately attacked, found out how hostile this world is toward robotic life forms, you come along, and we should trust you immediately and explicitly?" She shook her head. "I'm a cat and curious by nature, Optimus, but I'm also careful. Now I am sure about you. Anyway, the empathy thing would have come up sooner or later anyway. The little scene in med bay showed only too clearly what she is capable of if she's fixed on a person."
"What are the consequences for her and Dinobot now?"
She shrugged. "Now that he is okay she's able to leave him alone for a time. She might try and help him through the emotional aftermath if he lets her, but she won't force him. Like she told Rhinox, she's mostly working as a consultant."
Optimus nodded. He felt clearly unwell about the whole thing, but he accepted it. Sparks transformed.
"I'll keep an eye on the two of them," she said and walked back into med bay.
Optimus watched her go.

*

Rhinox didn't look happy when Optimus saw him the next time. The scientist was running a medical program, he saw; something to do with breaking cells down to their molecular level and analyzing them.
"What's up, Rhinox?" he asked.
Rhinox turned, his red eyes serious. "I completed the run on the virus Dinobot contracted. Like I said it was artificially induced. It's nothing you'd find anywhere on this planet."
Optimus frowned. "The probe?"
"Most likely. The virus bears every mark of a genetic construction. It attacks the host body immediately, but it needs an open wound to get in. It's also very host specific, meaning it wouldn't act in any other body at all."
"A programmed virus?" Optimus mused aloud. "But why? And why Dinobot? Why not Cheetor as well?"
The scientist frowned. "I have no answer to that. I only know that it was programmed with his molecular code and that it is not deadly. The infected person runs a fever and energon burn-up rates go up, but the anti-body programs would have killed off every trace of the viral strain within cycles. It didn't happen with Dinobot because his self-repair programs had been destroyed."
The Maximal leader rubbed his chin. "Then what is the point of infecting us? It's not virulent as such, it doesn't move from the original host body, and it's no match against our internal defense programs."
"Not yet anyway," Rhinox rumbled. "Think about the first probe. It scanned you, took you apart, then set you free -- like a lab specimen. Take something from the wild , analyze it, then set it back into the habitat."
"You think someone is running an experiment here?!"
"Sounds like it," Rattrap said and walked into the room. "S'cuse me for eavesdropping, but I told ya before it's like a mousetrap. There's no sense in infecting one of us with such a specific strain and then let him conquer it so easily. That's why they destroyed the defenses inside Dinobutt's body. They wanted to test him if he can fight the infection without it."
"Then why leave him in such a bad state? The probe had to know that he was dying through fluid loss already!" Optimus told the smaller Maximal.
"What if it didn't?"
"The probe scanned me, Rattrap, it knows our basic structure."
"Uh-uh," Rhinox made. "It knows your basic structure, Optimus, not everyone's. We are individuals and everyone has different circuits installed in the base."
"And Dinobot's a Pred," Rattrap added and immediately lifted his hands. "No derogatory remark. Fact."
Optimus nodded slowly. "So what does this leave us with?"
"More questions than before," Rattrap answered and Rhinox nodded.
"We have no idea why the probe did this to Dinobot and Cheetor at all," the large Maximal rumbled. "Just like before we are none the wiser."
"That's just prime," Optimus mumbled and sighed.

* * *

Dinobot woke. It was a slow awakening and it took ages for his systems to go on-line. He accessed them one by one and got a nearly complete report, though this was even more confusing than the surfacing memory fragments. He opened his eyes.
He was in med bay, he realized seconds later, and everything was empty. Dinobot frowned slightly as he discovered that his body -- in beast form -- was hooked up to an energon feed and surveillance monitors. And then he saw the occupant of the second bed. Curled into what seemed to be a thermo blanket lay a small, almost fragile looking body of an organic being. Brown hair hung over the humanoids eyes and obscured the face. Not far away on the large bed lay a mechanical suit and with the discovery of the suit came more memories.
The bipedal figure in the black and blue suit.
Someone who helped.
Someone who had been there.
Dinobot frowned and tried to get up, but the various feeds and restraints kept him down. With an angry snarl he tucked at the feed. Energon dripped onto the floor. Next came the restraints, which were not really there to imprison him, he saw. They had been placed around him to keep him from dislodging stuff taped to him.
"Dinobot! What are you doing?"
Rhinox strode into the room, looking a bit angry.
"What does it look like?" Dinobot hissed.
"You need to rest and wait until your energon levels are back to an acceptable level!" the scientist told him seriously.
"I am fine!"
"You are not!"
Dinobot slipped off the table and had to hold on for a second because his legs didn't want to support him, especially his left leg, which was stiff and slightly unresponsive. He immediately knew that transforming was out of the question until his beast form had healed the damage done to him. And then there was the fact that someone, most likely Rhinox, had put a restraint around his transformation circuits, effectively keeping him in beast mode. A slight panic rose and he squelched it immediately.
"See?" Rhinox said mildly. "Take it easy. We nearly lost you."
"Too bad you didn't stay lost," Rattrap piped up and leaned against the entrance to med bay.
Dinobot snarled at him. "Maybe we should lose you, vermin!"
"And maybe we should leave the room and discuss this somewhere else," another voice said and Dinobot was greeted by the sight of a black and white cat striding into the room. The cat glanced briefly over to the second bed, then back at Dinobot. "If you want to yell at each other, do it outside where people aren't trying to recover."
"What in the Inferno is that?" Dinobot hissed, lowering his head a bit.
The cat gave him a haughty look. "'That' is Sparks who will smack you over the head if you don't keep the volume down!"
Dinobot snorted. He still felt rather weak, but not weak enough to let this .... cat talk down on him.
"Which broken stasis pod did you crawl out?" he growled.
Sparks frowned and her emerald eyes glinted dangerously for a moment. "The only broken thing in this room will be your neck if you don't leave!" she returned.
Before Dinobot could say something on that, Rhinox stepped in. "She is right that we should discuss this somewhere else," he said calmly. "We have another patient here and she needs all the rest she can get."
Dinobot looked at the humanoid again, wondering who she was and where she had come from. He had the strangest recollection of memories and they weren't helping. With a last, withering look at the cat he left. He needed all his concentration not to trip anyway.
"Old Chopperface doesn't look like he's all that much on line," Rattrap remarked, watching the larger Maximal trying to suppress a limp.
Rhinox nodded. "He isn't."
They left the med bay and the sleeping human.
 
*

"That's it!"
Optimus flinched at the exclamation.
"What is what?" he asked.
"This stone structure! It's like one of the very old stationary doorways, though I have no idea if it at all comparable." Midnight was downright exited. "Look at how they are arranged! It looks like a key hole and Nightmare once told me that the first, the very ancient doorways look like this." He held up a print of what he was talking about.
The Maximal leader frowned. "The Standing Stones?" He eyed the print. Yes, the structure had the rough look of a key hole....
Midnight nodded. "I need to take a closer look! I might not be a Gatekeeper or Key, but I have an idea what to look for!"
Optimus frowned a bit. He had no clue what a Gatekeeper or Key was, but it could be dangerous for Midnight to go there since the Standing Stones belonged to neither group's territory and was of interest to the Predacons as well, even though the structure had been partly destroyed the last time. Both groups were still watching the Standing Stones for new activity and if they went there now....
"Not alone," he finally decided. "The Predacons might have a spy there."
"Fine, okay, no problem." The Sentinel seemed to radiate darkness again and Optimus tried not to flinch away. Midnight stopped and his blackness reduced a bit. "Sorry," he muttered. "Unconscious reaction."
Optimus shrugged. "I think I just have to get used to it. You are a bit different from the robots I know."
The Sentinel laughed wryly. "Even some of my own kind think I'm too strange for them. Few ignore this darkness around me. Few can."
Tigatron walked up to them. "I can. And I will accompany Midnight to the Standing Stones," he volunteered. "AirRazor needs recharge time and you might be needed here."
Midnight gave him a smile. "We just want to take a look, Optimus, nothing major. If these stones are what I think they are, then we might have a way to get out of here."
"Who is this?" a voice hissed suddenly and Optimus whirled around, a pleasantly surprised look on his face.
"Dinobot!" he exclaimed. "You are up!"
Dinobot gave Optimus a disdainful look. "Of course I am up, Optimus." His eyes turned back on Midnight and they were full of wary distrust. "Who is this stranger? Who are any of these others?" he demanded.
"Dinobot, this is Midnight, a visitor from another dimension." The Maximal leader watched Sparks enter the room, her whole being radiating that she owned this place. He was slightly amused by the cat's behavior. She seemed to take everything in a stride and nothing really baffled her. Either she played this very well or she couldn't be easily shocked. "Sparks you already met."
"And the human," the former Predacon added with disgust.
"She saved your life, Scaleface," Spark told him angrily. "Show some gratitude."
Dinobot glowered at her.
"We can discuss this later," Optimus decided. "Right now we should see that Midnight gets to the Standing Stones and back without Predacon interference."
Midnight nodded. "If this Megatron shows up I can get both Tigatron and myself out of there in a split second, though I won't guarantee where we arrive," he turned to Tigatron with a wry smile as he added the last piece.
The Maximal shrugged, smiling as well. "We should go now and see if your theory is correct."
Midnight nodded and they left the Axalon. Dinobot watched them go, suspicion still alive in his eyes.
"What's going on?" a rather sleepy voice asked and Mel stepped into the room. She looked at Dinobot and smiled. "Oh, great, you are standing on your own again."
He looked down at the small human and bared his teeth. "If I fall, it will be on you," he snarled.
Optimus sighed. Dinobot had another one of his rather bad days. Agreed, he had just come out of a coma and maybe it gave him the right to be cranky, but still.....
"I didn't know you were suicidal," Mel shot back and wriggled her taloned hands. She was dressed in her exo-suit.
"Oh, I'm sooo afraid," Dinobot hissed and then turned, limping toward the quarters.
Mel shook her head, a slight smile on her lips. Then she turned to Optimus. "Now, what was this about a way back?"

* * *

"Wazzzpinator don't feel good," the Predacon flyer muttered.
And he looked even worse. Megatron had no idea what had hit his warriors, but it had been major, taking out Terrosaur completely, making a loner recuperation time necessary, and banging up Waspinator so hard that he had been unconscious until a few minutes ago.
"What happened?" he demanded.
"Probe," Waspinator muttered still. "Hit Wazzzpinator and Terrozzzaur."
"A probe?" Megatron was surprised. "What probe?"
"Looked like other probe but it shot back!" Waspinator told him, his optics flickering and his speech slurring. He was close to shutting down again.
Scorponok had already dragged Terrosaur over to the recuperation tanks and Waspinator couldn't be denied this recharge and repair time for very much longer, lest they'd risk his complete shut-down.
"A new probe, yesss," Megatron thought aloud. "Intriguing." He gestured at Scorponok to get Waspinator into the tank as well. "And it looks like it hit the Maximals as well," he went on, remembering Cheetor's state, which had been very much like Terrosaur's. Waspinator had come away much better.
"What now, Megatron?" Scorponok asked.
"We will investigate this new probe, yesss."
"But what about the stranger?"
The Predacon leader gave his second a toothy t-rex smile. "He will be with the Maximals, won't he not? Having saved one of their own..... And the Maximals will investigate their comrade's injuries, following traces of the probe, yesss. We also have traces of the probe, isn't that so, Tarantulas?"
The scientist chuckled slightly and punched up a map where several spots had been marked. "I found all traces of the weak energy pattern. It could have been missed if we hadn't looked for it," he explained. "It's currently on the way to the Standing Stones!"
"And so will be the Maximals," Megatron concluded. "Predacons, prepare to leave the base! Tarantulas, see if you can contact Black Arachnia!"
Tarantulas nodded. Black Arachnia hadn't called in for some time now, but this was normal. The black widow spider always kept on her own and was more or less a loose cannon, but as long as she followed orders, Megatron had no problems dealing with her, though he kept a very close eye on the female.
The Predacons left the crashed ship moments later. When Black Arachnia joined them, Megatron only gave her a neutral glance, but his suspicion was as always there and he found it an unwise move to turn his back on her completely. He sent her to scout ahead.

* * *

The Standing Stones were a very impressive sight, Midnight had to confess, and he simply looked at them for a time. He knew about the events from months ago and this was the place the first probe had arrived at. It reminded him that there might still be one of these probes around here and it kept him on his toes. Tigatron had transformed and had his weapon ready, but everything was calm and quiet. Night had fallen and the stars shed the only light. The Sentinel activated night vision and infrared, scanning the stone structure and recording everything. There were no inscriptions and the center piece of the structure had been destroyed months ago. All in all it really looked like one of those early stationary doorways Nightmare had told him about once. But how was it activated?
Suddenly his audio sensors picked up a soft hum. He turned to Tigatron and saw his alarmed expression.
"Predacons?" he whispered.
Tigatron shook his head. "No," he said in the same low voice.
And then they saw it. It was small, roughly egg-shaped and colored a dull gold. Tigatron had never seen it before, but like Midnight he recognized it from the files of the Axalon.
The probe.
"Damn!" Steve said heartily and Interfaced completely.
Tigatron stepped back from the approaching probe and tried to contact Maximal HQ. Midnight materialized his weapon and aimed at the probe, which had stopped, hovering several feet away from them. Then it unfolded several nasty looking extension and closed the distance.
<< Doesn't look all that friendly >> Steve commented.
Midnight only gave a mutter.
The probe made the first move and fired at him. Lightning fast reflexes kept him from getting speared and he rolled around, firing his own weapon. Tigatron did the same. Midnight hissed in surprise as he saw that Tigatron's shot left no mark at all, but his own gun dented the surface of the probe a bit.
The probe stopped, as if confused, then approached again. More weapons unfolded from its inside and it began to attack them with a new one. Midnight was way to fast for it, using all his Interface capabilities and shooting off the extended weapons one after another after he found out that he seemed to be able to hurt it the most. Tigatron had adopted the method of firing continuously at the spots Midnight had hit before. Midnight's blasts weakened the structure and Tigatron's shots suddenly had an effect. The probe stopped once more and then moved away.
"It's retreating!" Tigatron yelled and then discovered a spot on the horizon, coming closer fast. It was Optimus.
The Maximal leader was using his jet pack and didn't hesitate when he saw what was going on. He joined in, firing at the probe.
Being attacked from two position, the probe turned, confused, and the confusion earned it a few more hits. Midnight knew that in time they would pierce the skin of the alien device and might be able to explode it. But how much time did they have?
The probe hummed angrily all of a sudden and Optimus Primal gave a scream of pain, as did Tigatron. Both Maximals lost control over their bodies and Optimus fell helplessly out of the sky, crashing on the ground -- hard. Tigatron simply collapsed. The probe turned toward Midnight again.
<< Uh-oh >> Steve muttered.
<< Yep >>
The Sentinel prepared for the next attack, which came swiftly. But back-up came just as fast. To his surprise, which lasted only for a second, Dinobot was among the arriving Maximals, as were Sparks and Mel. Only Cheetor was missing. Everyone transformed, except for Dinobot. Sparks stayed close to Mel, who was in her full exo-suit. Midnight wondered briefly how they could have allowed her to come along, then sighed deeply, reminding himself that getting Mel to stay somewhere was a test of patience. She usually had her own ideas where to go and what to do.....
The probe spun around and emitted the hum again. The Maximals writhed in pain and collapsed, some of them blacking out completely. Sparks wasn't affected, just like Midnight moments before. The probe seemed to know Maximals quite well, but had no idea what it was facing with the Sentinel and the cat. Still, Sparks was unarmed and as if the probe knew it, it launched several of the spears protruding from its backside at Midnight, at the same time moving for Sparks. Midnight jumped out of the way of the spears, rolling away and coming hard up against one of the standing stones.
Several laser blasts raced toward Sparks and she jumped aside, pushing Mel out of the way, just to the opposite side. The human rolled around as well, coming to her feet within a matter of seconds. Sparks had to jump further away because the probe attacked her relentlessly. Then it spun around and charged Mel. The human had no time to react as the dull golden egg-shape attacked. She could only stare.
And then a large shape loomed up beside her.
Something silvery white flashed, penetrating the hull of the probe in one of the badly weakened places, which had been pummeled by shots from Midnight, Optimus and Tigatron. It was a sword. The probe screeched loudly and stopped, spinning a bit, then it crashed to the ground.
Mel felt her heart starting to beat again. But she caught her breath as she heard the whining sound coming out of the probe, witnessing smoke drift out of the hole. The sound climbed in intensity.
"Oh, no!" she groaned as she recognized it.
The thing was going to self-destruct!
Whoever it was who had saved her, he grabbed her roughly and then ran away from the probe. Strong fingers were curled around her armor.
An incredible explosion ripped through the night, the sound deafening everyone, and the shockwave threw Mel and her protector to the ground. She was nearly crushed by the weight of the one above her, though he was already holding her protectively and rolling away, shielding her still. She knew she had blacked out momentarily, but it had been only for a few seconds. With a groan she opened her eyes and forced herself to turn her head. She was still held in a tight grip, which reluctantly relaxed now. She toppled to the soft ground and groaned as her bruised shoulder greeted her.
"Mel!"
That was Sparks and she heard the cat's light steps. Mel got to her knees.
"I'm okay," she muttered and tried not to moan as her body protested against every movement. Her shoulder seemed to be aflame with pain and she dimly wondered if the collar bone might have broken since the structural damage of the armor had weakened this spot.
"Worry about the others," she told Sparks, who gave her a critical look, but then went over to Rhinox, who was slowly coming around as well. Rattrap and Tigatron were already back on their feet and Midnight was fussing over Optimus. Mel turned and saw who has rescued her.
By method of excluding those who were around her and judging from the pattern on the synthetic skin this could only be one person: Dinobot.
"I thought transforming was out of the question," she told him, smiling a bit. He couldn't see it because of her closed helmet.
The large Maximal -- she only now saw how large he really was and he towered above her and everyone else now that he was on his feet -- stared down on her with disgust. The red optics glowed deeply and the expression on the face was far from friendly. His left arm was hanging at his side as if it was only a useless attachment and remembering the injury, he was probably still battling the aftereffects of the infection. He had been limping before......
"Hey, it was only a remark," she added. "You were critical this morning."
"We no longer have this morning," he told her and she saw the razor-sharp needle teeth.
"True," Mel admitted with a shrug. "But you should still take it easy. As far as I understood Rhinox, you beast form enables a better healing process than robot mode. That's why we put the restraints on. And your leg ... errr ..... arm is still not completely okay."
"I'm perfectly fine." He leaned forward a bit, his red optics glowering even more. "If I ever need a fleshling's advice, I'll shoot myself first!"
Mel sighed. "Okay, okay, no problem." She picked up his emotions all too clearly and wished she knew how to severe connections once established through intense consultation work within seconds. But as always this would need time for both to separate. "By the way, thanks for pulling me out of there."
He snorted and transformed back to beast mode and limped off with as much dignity as was possibly, ignoring her.
"Charming," she muttered.
Rattrap stepped beside her. "That's just Dinobutt." He gave her a closer examination, wrinkling his brow as he saw the damaged armor. "And he wasn't all that careful with ya. Yer armor looks dented."
"I feel dented," she confessed. "You don't wanna know what the internal damage report says. That guy is strong!"
Rattrap nodded, grudgingly admitting this as a fact. Mel's armor was mostly to protect her skin and body from a dangerous environment; it deflected light blasts, it could enable shields, but it was not strong enough to keep her from getting crushed by a powerful hand. Nightmare had once remarked about this and she had made a note to talk to Shanygn. Rodimus Prime's Interface had an armor that could take almost everything, even a direct blast from a cannon. Well, she now had the proof that she truly needed to strengthen the structure.
The others now approached the burned and blackened spot the probe had self-destructed in. Nothing had been left; nothing at all. Optimus looked worried.
"Whoever sent this probe -- and the first one -- we now know they aren't beneficent at all," he told his team. "They examined me the first time and then came back to finish their tests, more gruesome and more violently than before. I wish I knew what to think of it."
They looked seriously at each other. Who was their enemy and what did they want?
 

Megatron looked disgusted and turned to his warriors. "There is nothing for us to gain here, no," he told the three Predacons. "The probe is destroyed. Return to the base!"
"But ... but what about the strangers?" Scorponok asked, clicking his claws nervously.
"The Maximals might be weakened now," Megatron told him, his red eyes glittering, "but they outnumber us. An attack would be futile. We will have a new chance soon, yess."
Black Arachnia watched the Maximals leave the Standing Stones, her eyes fixed on the black stranger. Then she turned back as well and followed her leader, her mind working on several theories at once.

* * *

Cybertron

"Got it!" Sphere locked the doorway and turned to the two Gatekeepers. "That's the opening! The coordinates are correct!"
Shanygn jerked out of her doze and was wide awake, looking at the brilliant column of light. Nightmare and Starscream were tense and ready for whatever might come through, but nothing did.
"What now?" Rodimus asked.
"We need to send someone through," Raven explained. "We have no idea what we are facing there and where our people have arrived. We might be miles away from them right now."
"I'll go," Shanygn decided.
Rodimus gave her a shocked look. "No!" he then told her forcefully.
"Why?" she asked. "Because I'm a woman, because I'm a humanoid or because I'm your interface?" Her blue eyes burned challengingly.
"Neither of all three!" Rodimus shot back. "We have no idea what we are facing and sending you over might result in your death!"
"Oh, of course, but if you go I won't die, though it might hit you, right?" she asked sarcastically. "Anyone who goes through there might die and you just won't admit that you hate it if I go, right?"
[Of course I don't want you to go, Shan!] he told her. [I don't want you to get hurt!]
[I'm a grown woman, Roddy, so relax. I can handle myself and I'm not without protection]
He sighed. "All right," he muttered. "Go. But be careful and report back in ten minutes."
She nodded and closed her helmet, activating her life support systems in case she was not encountering a breathable atmosphere. Then she inhaled deeply and stepped into the bright light.

* * *

The planet

Mel had retreated to the med bay again and was currently trying to get her exo-suit in shape again. The severe dent in the shoulder area needed to be straightened and some structural damage had occurred as well, which gave her an ill feeling about the whole structure as such. She needed to mend the cracks and strengthen the suit before she could even think about wearing it again. Rhinox had left her his equipment, though the size made some of the instruments impossible to use on the delicate circuitry of her suit. She was so involved in her work that she didn't hear Dinobot limp in, hesitate, then approach her. She flinched as she felt his breath in her neck.
"Geez! Wear a bell around your neck!" she exclaimed. "You nearly gave me a heart attack!"
"Too bad it was only nearly." A sarcastic smiled crossed his scaly lips. "A warrior should always be on his toes."
She scowled at him. "I'm not a warrior, I'm a medic. That's a difference even you should be able to see!"
He grinned at her, then looked at the exo-suit. She followed his eyes and shrugged.
"You did a good job getting everything squashed."
"I should have finished the job," he told her with a growl.
"Ohhhhh, you are scaring me," she muttered and closed a crack.
Dinobot watched her work silently for some time and she was aware of his indecision, which was hanging around him like a cloak.
"What do you want?" she finally asked.
Dinobot bared his teeth, then moved a bit away from her, circling her, as if distance helped. She noticed that the limp was no longer as pronounced, but she knew from Rhinox that the infection was only slowly retreating. The viral strain was persistent and since Dinobot refused to lie down long enough, insisting he was okay, he would be troubled by the limp for a few more days.
"What did you do to me?" he snarled.
"Do? I didn't do anything to you. I saved your life, if you're talking about at that." She frowned. "And if you don't like it, I can see to it that it ends in a second."
He lowered his head and hissed at her. "Don't become too obnoxious, human. You are living a dangerous life already."
Mel poked her finger at his nose. "So do you, Lizard Face. Don't think this human is helpless." A low rumble came out of his throat. "Do something about your bad breath instead," she mumbled.
"You know what I mean, flesh creature. What did you do to my mind while I was comatose?" he demanded.
"I didn't do anything to you. I didn't invade your mind, I didn't plunder your thoughts, I didn't mess with your self." Mel sighed. "The others told you, right? About the empathy."
He shook his head. "I heard it without them telling me."
"It's called eavesdropping."
Dinobot bared his teeth again. "What did you do?" he repeated.
"If you want to know: I kept you from feeling anything and I held you from slipping away until professional help arrived and your system was able to take the strain again!" Mel said forcefully, anger clouding her voice. "I'm not a mind reader, I don't exploit what I feel from a patient and I sure as hell don't blab it out to others!"
Dinobot's head moved back in surprise. Melissa's anger was like a physical wall.
"I'm a professional in my field, Dinobot!" she went on, feeding on her anger. "I don't want to blackmail you with what I might have felt! I used my abilities to save your life, not to record your mind somewhere and sell it to the highest bidder!"
He lowered his head again. "Then why are you still there?" he asked with a snarled hiss, touching his temple.
Mel inhaled deeply. "Because it takes time for the healing bond to dissolve, that's why. I was connected to you, and only you, for too long because disconnecting or slipping meant your death. I couldn't let you become aware and feel the pain and fear your body was trying to send your way! This feeling you have will soon dissolve and the moment I'm back in my dimension, it'll disappear completely."
He looked at her, then transformed, his red optics staring at her with an intensity she had only seen Nightmare show now and then. He was afraid of the remaining bond he still felt, mainly because it opened him to her. His claws clenched and unclenched, the left arm of more use than before, but he still couldn't move it as before.
"Killing me won't help you either," she added, testing him.
"I won't kill you, human germ," he hissed. "Too messy. Though it would be a relief to all kind."
"Don't flatter me," she shot back, smiling secretly. She had expected that reaction.
"Just keep out of my mind!"
"I'm not even in it."
He growled something and then left the med bay. Mel sighed softly. It was the usual reaction of fear she encountered in those whose emotions she was able to read. Well, she had told him the truth. The moment she was gone, so was the bond. Distance always worked -- or time. Whatever came first.

* * *

Waspinator had been the first to recover and Megatron had sent him out to watch the Standing Stones closely. The Maximals would return, he knew. They had come to the structure before the probe and then encountered it. He was sure that they had not expected it and that they had planned to do something else completely. What it was, was everyone's guess. But it was connected to the strangers, of which there were three. He was still thinking hard about the three different looking figures, two of them covered with synthetic skin, but not from a stasis pod. The ship's computer had been unable to give him a satisfactory answer when he had run a search for Sentinels. Deep in the old archives of Cybertron had to be a file concerning them, but not in his ship's library.
Megatron read the few lines again and again, finally closing the file. Who were they? And where had they come from?

* * *

Somewhere

:: Probe has self-destructed ::
:: Cause unknown ::
:: Data transmission unsuccessful ::
:: Data lost ::
:: Suggest launching new probe ::

* * *

The planet

Midnight drummed his fingers on the console and frowned at the computer, who was running several trials for him after he had programmed it with the correct data. Everything came up with the same result. The structure was a doorway, though very different from the ones he knew from his dimension. This one had no controls anywhere and from the reports in the Maximal data base, it had been activated remotely when it had retrieved the first probe. Even if it had an activation mechanism, would he know how to control it? The answer was simple: no. He wasn't a Key.
"Nothing?" Sparks asked.
He looked at the smaller robot and shook his head. "Remote controlled," he told her. "We can't do anything with it unless someone opens it from the other side."
She sighed. "Oh, goody."
He nodded and rose from the chair. "I know the others will look for us and that they will hit this doorway sooner or later, but we need to watch it. If they come through, we have to act fast."
Sparks agreed. Both went to find Optimus Primal.

*

The loud voices couldn't be missed, even by a deaf person. Optimus Primal stopped in the doorway to the Axalon's repair shop.
"Get your hands away from that module, human!"
"Why? Afraid that I might get it to work?" was the acid reply.
There was a hiss which Optimus recognized. Dinobot was close to blowing any minute now. From the sound of it, the fight had been going on for some time now.
"No, you might damage it permanently," the former Predacon snarled.
Optimus dared to look into the room. Melissa Witwicky stood by the broken radio transmitter, something Rhinox had been working on for some time now. It was regularly blowing, though. Mel had tried to be helpful around the Axalon and since she had extraordinary repair skills, as Rhinox had told Optimus, he had agreed to let her take a look at some of the stuff he was working on. She was intrigued by the energon overload problem and had theorized the night away with Rhinox as to how to increase damper chip output and maybe shield communication lines against energon influence. Optimus was impressed by the small human, who had no problems standing up against the much larger robots and worked with them as if she had never done anything else. Well, from what he had heard about her background, she had.
Right now Mel was looking at Dinobot, who towered over her in his robot mode, but she didn't seem to be intimidated by either his size, or his dangerously gleaming eyes. Dinobot was several times Mel's size and she about reached his knee level.
"There is nothing left to damage, Scaleface. This ship is a wreck! I think I can help repair some stuff."
"You mean you can wreck havoc," he sneered.
Mel's eyes glowed angrily. Rhinox joined his leader, giving him a knowing look.
"How long this time?" Optimus asked.
"Oh, they skipped the introduction and were immediately at it," Rhinox explained with a fine smile.
"I see." Optimus shook his head. "One day it will come to blows."
"I don't think so, Optimus," his friend contradicted. "He wouldn't hurt her."
Optimus looked at the former Predacon again. Dinobot was a dangerous person, but he also had a definition of honor that would have made him a great Maximal had he been on their side right from the start. Primal trusted him to a degree and the two of them looked at each other on a mutual basis of respect and wary trust. Dinobot had shown that he cared in the past, though he'd deny it if ever confronted with the fact that he felt anything beside the necessity to be with the Maximals for his survival. There had been enough chances in the past for him to take over command or worm his way back into the Predacon ranks; he had taken none. And if he had, it had been to help his new friends.
"I'll wreck havoc with your circuits in a second if you don't stop it," Mel could be heard.
"Oh, yes?" Dinobot sounded amused.
"Oh, yes. I know your inside workings, remember?" The woman grinned devilishly. "And if you don't stop annoying me right now I'll make sure you'll find your parts scattered all over this planet!"
He leaned forward, his optics glowing just as dangerously as Mel's eyes. "Try it."
"Don't tempt me!"
"Squishy worm!"
"Lizard Breath!"
Optimus shook his head. Dinobot had recovered, though he still wasn't back to his old form. He could transform without problems and his energon level remained steady, though he would tire in a fight. Rhinox estimated another day of rest and he would be back completely. But this condition didn't keep him from trading insults with Mel whenever they met. Rattrap had once stared open-mouthed at them. Normally he was the one to pick on Dinobot for apparent reasons. Dinobot looked at her with suspicion and disgust because she was a 'flesh creature' and she shot back every time he taunted her about it. And now Dinobot looked like he was just short of squashing her, though somehow Primal thought that he might be in trouble if he tried. She wasn't without combat experience and she was a skilled engineer, as Rhinox had attested. He also sometimes wondered about her empathy skills and whether Dinobot really knew what she had done to save him.
"If you weren't so damn big and if I had my exo-suit I'd kick you out of the Axalon!"
Dinobot chuckled nastily. "A lot of ifs, little one."
"I might not be able to compensate for the size, but give me a minute and I get my suit!" Mel told him.
"It doesn't even work."
"Yeah, and who's responsible for it?"
"I tried to save your life!" Dinobot retorted angrily. "Big mistake. Remind me not to do it the next time."
"There won't be a next time!"
"I really hope so."
Mel stomped out of the room and Dinobot looked after her with a strange expression on his face.
"Pain in the diodes, right?" Primal asked conversationally as he stepped into the room.
"Yes," was the absent-minded answer.
Optimus frowned a bit. Even though the two so different beings fought a lot -- more or less constantly -- there was something else between them and Optimus had yet to find out what it was.
Midnight broke into his thoughts as he entered the room. "Optimus?"
"Yes?"
"I think I worked out how the doorway works," the Sentinel told him, ignoring the glowering look from Dinobot. "But I also discovered a problem: it can't be activated from this side."
Optimus frowned. "And what do you want to do now?"
"Wait for our people to find us."

* * *

Shanygn experienced a slight nausea as she used the doorway and had to breathe deeply for a few moments to clear her head. Then she looked around, surprised by the nightly beauty all around her. She was standing inside what seemed to be a circle of standing stones and it reminded her of the Stonehenge circle she had once seen a documentary about at Spike's place. This circle was larger though and the stones were gigantic. In the middle of the circle was a shallow crater, which looked like the result of an explosion. Large, round stones littered the ground and she detected faint energy signatures around the area.
Shanygn left the stone circle and walked around the structure, scanning for something..... anything. Except for the stones there was nothing else. Of course there was a lot of landscape, but no signs of civilization. She discovered a blackened spot on the ground close to the outmost circle which was giving off light heat radiation and which proved that someone had been here, just like the crater did. The radiation pattern was not of fire, but of laser blasts.
She frowned. What had happened here -- and not too long ago either? She opened a com line and began sending two signals, one that would come in over Midnight's personal come line, the other one over Mel's. Shanygn didn't get a reply, but she had not expected one either. Her suit beeped softly, reminding her that it was time to get back and report to the others. Reluctantly she approached the spot she had arrived at and then was torn back along the tunnel she had traveled before.
 

Waspinator was intrigued by the arrival of the stranger inside the Standing Stones and he immediately returned to Predacon HQ to report the short visit. Megatron would love to hear about it.

* * *

Somewhere

:: New probe launched ::
:: Estimated time of arrival? ::
:: Fourteen planetary months due to energy storms on perimeter ::
:: Proceed ::

* * *

The planet

"Yikes! Energon surge! Major one!" Rattrap keyed in a few commands and a map popped up in the middle of the display table.
"The Standing Stones," Optimus muttered.
Cheetor, who had been released from the CR chamber and was fully functional again, stared at the display. "Another probe?" he asked, dread in his voice.
Optimus didn't know. He only knew that if that was another probe coming through, they had problems. Cheetor had told him about the attack and had confirmed Dinobot's version of what had hit him. The probe had not been gentle with any of the life forms it had encountered.
"Let's hope not."
Midnight leaned forward and studied the display. "Could be my people finally making contact," he muttered.
"Whatever it was, we have to find out," Optimus decided.
Dinobot snarled a bit. "Unwise," he decided. "If it is another probe, it will vaporize us!"
"Awww, scared?" Rattrap taunted.
Dinobot's head whipped around. "I'll show you scared, vermin!" he hissed, baring his teeth and flexing his claws.
"Now I'm shakin' with dread," the smaller Maximal chuckled.
"I'll go alone," Midnight decided. "With the damper chip Rhinox supplied in place I can fly there faster than any of you. If it is a probe, I'm also better equipped to handle it. Whatever the first probe did, it examined you down to your weapons systems and knows how to shield the others. My weapons are unknown. If it's not another probe but my friends, I'll go back and get Sparks and Mel."
"No way you are going there without me!" the human made herself heard.
"You and Sparks are staying!" Midnight told her.
"And I said no way!" She stared at him.
Midnight turned to Dinobot, a cold look on his face. "Keep an eye on her." With that he strode toward the elevators and let himself out.
Mel gave an angry hiss and started to follow. "If you think you can...."
A strong hand grabbed her and lifted her unceremoniously onto the table. She glared at Dinobot, who simply glared back.
"You stay," he growled.
"Since when are you taking orders from Midnight? Or anyone?" she challenged.
He snarled at her. "You stay here."
"Oh, yes? And you think you can make me?"
He transformed and gave her a toothy smile. "Which leg do you want to lose?"
"Which eye do you want to lose?" she shot back and unsheathed the claws of her repaired exo-suit.
Optimus stepped between them. "Midnight is right with his reasoning. Still, I will follow him," he added with a fine smile, then turned to Mel, "but you stay."
She grimaced. "Yeah, right, only because I'm human."
"That's not true....," the Maximal leader started.
"Oh, sure, tell me another one. You know how long it took me to get Nightmare to see past my 'humanity'? Ages!" Mel crossed her arms. "What are you still doing here? Go and keep an eye on Mid!"
Optimus chuckled and left. Mel looked at the raptor in front of her.
"What?" she demanded.
Dinobot bared his teeth. "I was thinking that maybe biting your head off would be a gift to all kind," he hissed.
She leaned forward. "Watch your tongue or you'll find it nailed to the ship's hull tomorrow morning!"
Rattrap leaned against the display table, shaking his head. Rhinox only shrugged.

* * *

Cybertron

"Very high energon readings," Rodimus muttered. "Too high for my liking." He turned to Shanygn. "And there was nothing but this stone circle and a burn mark?"
"Two moons, loads of green stuff called grass and trees, and rocks," she said with a wry smile.
He grimaced, then turned to Sphere. "How long can you keep this doorway connected?"
"As long as we don't encounter something unforeseen," she replied.
"Like what?"
"Energy surge," she told him. "But we have it stabilized right now and I can keep it open as long as you want. What are you planning?"
"I want to start a search for our friends," Rodimus replied.
"What do you want to do against the energon on that planet?" Shanygn asked. "It will overload you within moments."
He nodded. "But we have shield units in our stores which were used in the past to protect miners from strong radiation patterns. I'm sure we can adjust them to block out energon for an amount of time."
Shanygn didn't look convinced, but she nodded as well. "Let's do it!"

* * *

The planet

The Standing Stones were quiet and peaceful. Midnight had his scanners on full, but nothing registered. He gave a frustrated growl. Optimus Primal was at his side, in beast mode, and watching carefully if something hostile was approaching them.
And something hostile was near.
The first shot ripped open the ground in front of Optimus and he jumped back, his eyes flying to the tall figure standing not very far away. "Megatron!"
"Oh, yesss. Prepare to die, Maximal!"
"Not just yet!" Optimus growled and transformed.
Midnight dove for cover as well as several volley came too close. Optimus opened a com line and called for help.

* * *

Cybertron

Ralyk watched the proceedings carefully, helping Sphere adjust the doorway and keeping it stabilized. The interdimensional gravity pulled on the fragile connection and it took all its concentration not to lose it. It channeled some of the excessive energy it had stored from the rogue connection into the doorway.

* * *

The planet

"We will not be denied this chance!" Megatron thundered angrily and fired volley after volley at the Maximals. They outnumbered their enemies, who were missing AirRazor and Tigatron, but the Maximals had the help of the three strangers. Well, of one of them anyway. The two smaller ones were not armed and protected by the Maximals. "Destroy them!"
 

Midnight and Optimus Primal were up in the air and battling Terrosaur and Waspinator. Dinobot kept back, Rattrap noticed, and he was right between Melissa and the fight. His eye lasers discouraged everyone from running his way, but he was also not charging into battle like he did every other time. Rattrap wondered what had happened between Dinobot and Mel to get him so ... protective. The small Maximal smiled devilishly as he fired several shots at Scorponok. He could use that to tease the former Predacon later.
Suddenly a soft glow seemed to come from the Standing Stones, too soft to be seen right away, but Rattrap noticed it because he had taken cover behind one.
"What the freakin'.....?" He moved away from the stone, which pulsed once, then quieted down.
Instead something fiery hot tore past him and he heard a strangled cry. He whirled and saw Tarantulas fall back against another stone, a smoking hole in his chest. Rattrap whirled back as he heard a gasp of surprise and his jaw dropped open. In front of him stood a large, black and dark blue colored robot, one shoulder marked by a strange symbol he didn't know, the other having a Decepticon one. Cheetor stood behind him, also slack-jawed. The stranger turned away and fired at several of the attackers.
"Cripes! Who is this guy?"
Cheetor only shook his head. And then they had their second shock as a fiery colored robot blasted Scorponok. This one was wearing an Autobot symbol.
"Oh, man!" Rattrap breathed. "She told the truth!"
 

"Nightmare!" Mel exclaimed as she discovered the large dark robot. "How did you get here?"
Dinobot had his sword and shield up, ready to defend the human if necessary.
"He's a friend!" Mel called and banged against his leg with her fist.
"Are you all right?" Nightmare asked.
"Of course I am. Only problem right now are the Predacons."
Nightmare looked at those Predacons still able to fight and smiled. "Well, let's see what we can do about that."
"Who is this?" Dinobot hissed.
"My friend. Get the hostility turned down, Scaleface, or focus it on the enemy. He isn't it!" Mel told him.
Dinobot shot her a withering look, but he went into battle again.
 

Megatron had witnessed the sudden appearance of one stranger and one very familiar person, though this version of Rodimus Prime looked slightly different from the one he knew. He got himself together and gestured for Black Arachnia to stop the newcomers. One of them had already taken out one of his warriors. A cruel smile crossed his lips as he lifted the special missile created by Tarantulas. It was time to even out the odds a bit. He aimed at Midnight, who was tackling Terrosaur, and fired.
 

Midnight saw the missile too late and was struck full force right in the stomach area. He gave a gasp of pain and surprise as the missile overloaded him with energon and effectively paralyzed his systems. He couldn't do anything anymore, not even Gate. Steve was immediately taken out by the blast and the Sentinel crashed to the ground, yellow fluids spilling out of the wound.
 

"No!" Rodimus yelled in protest as he saw his friend go down.
His optics narrowed and he looked at the one who had shot the missile. With an angry snarl he aimed his own weapon at the purple and black colored robot and squeezed the trigger.
Megatron was thrown back by the blast, but he recovered immediately and shot back. Rodimus went for cover.
 

Optimus Primal was able to take out Waspinator, but Terrosaur, deprived of his own score, had turned on him as well. His shots came too close for comfort and the prolonged exposure to the energon fields was getting to his circuits. He cursed softly and aimed for the Standing Stones, planning to lose his adversary between them. But Terrosaur didn't fall for it. He showered the Maximal leader with blast after blast and one hit the jet pack. Optimus went down, crashing not as hard as Midnight, but still hard enough to stun him.
"And so it ends, Optimus Primal!" Terrosaur screeched in triumph, aiming his shoulder cannons at the downed flyer.
"Exactly," a dark voice rumbled.
Optimus heard the screech of pain as Terrosaur was struck by a blast, then the muffled sound of him crashing into a stone. He looked up.
"Are you okay?" the tall robot asked.
Optimus nodded and got to his feet, his optics locking onto the Decepticon symbol. "Who are you?" he asked, stunned.
"My name is Nightmare," the robot introduced himself. He looked around and Optimus followed his gaze. The tide of the battle had turned and the Predacons were now outnumbered, falling back. Like Rattrap and Cheetor a few moments ago, he was shocked once more as he discovered the brightly colored Autobot.
"Ah...." he stuttered, too stunned to say anything anymore.
Rodimus Prime was tackling Black Arachnia and had sustained several scratches and one open wound, but Rhinox had already aimed his gun at the female Predacon and the second she was once again thrown away from the Autobot, he yelled,
"Duck!"
Rodimus did as he was told, even though he couldn't have had an idea who was the one calling, and Rhinox peppered the arachnid with bullets. Black Arachnia screamed in protest as her spider legs were blown off and her torso turned into a sieve. She stumbled back and finally retreated. Megatron roared in anger, but he called back his troops.
"This will not be our last confrontation, Maximals, no!" he snarled as he fled.
Optimus sighed. "I know." Then he turned and took in the state of his own troops. Everyone seemed more or less fine, with the occasional dent, scratch or burn mark.
Nightmare had already turned away from him and run over to the downed Sentinel. He was kneeling at his side, checking the damage. Optimus felt the first jolts of energon overload and transformed, just like every other Maximal. Dinobot approached the visitors, Mel in tow. Sparks was with Rhinox.
Rodimus Prime scanned over the Maximals, looking a bit confused, but he no longer had his gun in hand. Then his eyes fell on Sparks. "Care to explain what is going on here? Shanygn didn't report anything about a war on this planet."
Sparks shrugged. "It's a long story," she said. "How's Mid?"
"Stunned and overloaded," Nightmare told her as he straightened. "That missile only destroyed a bit of his skin and shell, but it overloaded him so much that not even Steve could help."
"You better get him back now," Rodimus said.
Nightmare nodded and lifted the Sentinel. He walked toward a specific spot. There was a flash of light and he was gone.
"Meow!" Cheetor exclaimed, staring at the empty spot. "What's goin' on?"
"Doorway," Mel explained. "Though rather unusual."
Rodimus smiled wryly. "This is a rather unusual dimension as well." He glanced at the Maximals. "And when we're back I want to hear all about it."
"So the dimension hopping explanation is true," Optimus Primal muttered. "I didn't really believe it until now." He tried not to gape or stare at the Autobot.
Rodimus nodded. "And I wish we could stay longer, but the dampers might run out any moment and everyone back home is pretty worried." He looked at Sparks. "You better go back as well. You had some people pretty upset."
Sparks snorted and muttered something under her breath, which sounded suspiciously like 'old wossname'. She turned to the Maximals.
"It was nice meeting you guys, even you, Lizard Lips." She flashed a cat grin at Dinobot, who shot her a nasty look.
"Obnoxious fur ball," he growled.
Sparks disappeared the same way as Nightmare.
"Thank you for taking care of everyone," Rodimus addressed Optimus.
The Maximal leader shrugged. "I think we have to thank as well." He smiled as Mel, who raised both eyebrows.
Then the human turned to Dinobot, patting his leg. "See, you're getting rid of me sooner than you think."
"Not a minute too late," he snarled.
She chuckled. "Come on, Roddy, let's get home before you blow a circuit in this energon laden environment. I don't want to have to explain this to Sil or Shanygn."
"What about this doorway?" Rhinox rumbled. "Will it stay open?"
Rodimus shook his head. "No. We are keeping it open by artificial means. The moment everyone is back home we close it down and lock it again."
"Just checkin' in case the Preds try somethin'," Rhinox told him.
"No danger of that then." Optimus was relieved.
The Maximals watched them go and Dinobot seemed to wince almost imperceptibly as the human disappeared. Then he turned his back on the Standing Stones and walked into the rough direction of the Axalon. Optimus frowned a bit, wishing he knew what had gone on just now. Instead he gestured for the others to follow them. It was time to get back home and let the past events run by in quiet.

* * *

Cybertron, two days later

Sparks sat in Rodimus Prime's office, aware that Megatron was glowering at her from his position behind her. Mel was present as well. Midnight had recovered from the blast, which had really just taken off some skin and paralyzed him. Perceptor believed that the missile had had only that intention in the first place: to stun him and make escape impossible, at least for a while. The Sentinel had been called back to Alean and had sent his report of the events by email. Melissa had been checked into med bay and given a close examination. She had more bruises all over her body than unharmed skin and her parents had been rather fussy in the first few days of her homecoming. The worst bruise was her shoulder and it still ached now and then.
Rodimus looked at the black and white robot, who was once again in her cat mode, looking back at him with calm, emerald eyes.
"First I have to say that I'm glad you are all back safely," he told the two females. "You had us worried for quite some time. But on the other hand," he went on, "I'm not sure I can let you get off the hook so easily, Sparks."
The cat gave him a surprised look. "Me?" she asked. "Why?"
"It was your breaking into the overflow chamber that triggered all these events," the Autobots' second explained. "I always thought that locked rooms meant the same in every definition."
Sparks looked at her paws. "I was just curious," she muttered.
"And curiosity killed the cat," Rodimus told her seriously. "Now, neither of you were killed, but it could easily have been the result if it hadn't been a doorway energy overflow chamber. If it had been only you, okay, but you took Melissa along as well, endangering her life."
"Oh, come on!" Mel protested. "I'm grown up! And I did it voluntarily."
"Which is just as bad," Rodimus told her, turning his serious blue optics on the human. "Not everything here is safe for humans or even for us. Cybertron is a planet we don't know anymore and I, for my part, spent a long time on it. You know the dangers as well as everyone coming and working here. We don't issue warnings just for fun. Locked doors are supposed to stay locked, especially those who lead to unknown rooms."
"Okay," Sparks muttered mutely. "I'm sorry."
Rodimus smiled a bit. "Just keep your paws off more of these doors, Sparks."
She nodded.
"As for you, Mel," Rodimus turned to her.
"Stand in the corner and think about what I did wrong?" Melissa hazarded.
The Autobot grinned. "Nope. I'd rather advise you to get some R&R. You need it. And then I want to get a report from each of you what happened over there."
They both nodded and Sparks turned to leave the room. She looked at Megatron as she passed him and who followed her out of the office. Mel walked down the opposite corridor and left the two alone. Megatron stubbornly kept his silence and Sparks sighed deeply.
"Okay, spill it!" she finally growled. "What's going on in that pea brain of yours?"
He swiftly reached down and grabbed her by the scruff of her neck, holding her up to eye level. "If you ever get me in such a situation again, I'll skin you alive, fur ball!" he snarled.
"Hey, what situation?" she exclaimed, dangling in his strong grip. She briefly mused about introducing him to her claws.....
"You are associated with me because you little pest keep following me around," he hissed. "So if you get into trouble, this is automatically associated with me as well! I don't need this!"
Sparks gave him a close look, then smiled. "You were worried! How cute!"
Megatron gave a noise of disgust and dropped her. Sparks landed gracefully on her legs, watching him stride away from her. She chuckled to herself and followed in a respective distance.

* * *

The planet

Rattrap found Optimus outside the Axalon, watching the stars come up one after another in the slowly darkening sky. The Maximal leader appeared thoughtful.
"See anythin' interestin'?" Rattrap asked and sat down beside him. "Like for instance a rescue ship?"
Optimus smiled slightly. "No." He sighed softly. "I was just thinking about the other dimension....."
"Yer not alone with that, I think," Rattrap told him. "Dinobore is behaving weirder than usual since they left."
"I think he and the human shared something more than we'll ever know."
"Yeah, they were both ready ta tear each other's throat out," Rattrap quipped.
Optimus chuckled in amusement and gave the smaller Maximal a knowing look. Usually it was Rattrap picking on Dinobot whenever he had the chance, but with Mel doing the job for him, he had taken some time off.
"Where do you think our dimensions went apart?" Optimus asked then, seriousness reigning his expression again.
Rattrap shrugged. "Dunno. Somewhere. A shared leadership with two Primes, sheesh! Did ya see how different the kid looked? And Sentinels? Geez! Never heard of 'em!"
Optimus nodded. He had noted the difference, as well as a few other things. "And it looks like a lot has happened in their past we can only guess." He once again saw the robot with the two symbols. Nightmare. A Decepticon and something else.
Rattrap sighed. "Well, no use musing about it now. They're gone, so is the doorway, and we couldn't have used it anyway. Megatron's beaten once more, but he'll sure be cookin' up a new scheme."
Optimus nodded. "And the probe is gone as well again," he added softly.
Rattrap winced. "Yeah.... think there will be another one?"
Optimus shrugged. "They sent a first probe to determine who were were, they sent another probe to determine what we are made off -- literally. The second probe failed to return. What will be the consequences?"
Rattrap had no answer and Optimus watched the sky again. Maybe one day they would have a way off this planet.
He really, really hoped so.
Before another, even better armed probe arrived.

*

Black Arachnia studied the Standing Stones.
A doorway.......
This called for further and more intense observation......