//------------------------------// // Busting the Zoo // Story: Cybertron Girls // by SonicSpeedster97 //------------------------------// “I’ll be honest; even now, this plan is crazy,” Rainbow remarked. The Autobots had finished reformatting the Dinobots to look more realistic, but there were still those in the team who had their doubts. “Exactly what I’ve been saying.” Prowl pointed out. “Sideswipe, this plan is foolish.” “No, it’s not,” Sideswipe assured. “We drop them in Russia, Baroness picks ‘em up and takes ‘em home, they bust out with Tigatron and his part of the Omega Lock, and we bridge ‘em all back here. Nothing simpler.” “Well, when you say it like that…” Prowl remarked. “It sounds even more stupid.” “I understand your concerns Prowl, but we have no better plans,” Optimus assured, turning to Grimlock. “You understand your role in this plan, correct Grimlock?” “Sure. Dinobots play savage, snake lady takes Dinobots prisoner, then Dinobots escape.” Grimlock nodded. “See? Even Grimlock understands the plan, and his neural net is fried.” Sideswipe remarked. “That doesn’t make it any smarter,” Twilight muttered. “Agreed. We should at least have some sort of backup on our side.” Hound remarked, quickly turning on his comlink. “Hound to the Pit. Put me through to General Hawk.” It took a few seconds before the general’s voice came through. “Go ahead, Hound.” “General, we’re ready for our plan to bust Tigatron out of the Baroness’s mansion, but we may need some assistance from the Joes.” Hound informed. “Requesting the Arctic team to meet us at the following coordinates.” He transmitted them over his comlink immediately. “Received. I’ll send them out ASAP, and have them rendezvous with the Oktober Guard.” “Oh great, Red Star.” Hound rolled his optics. “Understood.” He signed off and looked back at the others. “‘The Oktober Guard’?” asked Sunset. “The eastern equivalent of G.I. Joe; mostly from ex-Soviet states.” Hound answered. “Their field commander Red Star has had a serious hate-on for Baroness’s family for years, which is why I’m not overly excited to see him again.” “No choice, looks like.” Red Alert shrugged as he opened the GroundBridge to the coordinates Hound had sent to the Joes. “Alright, let’s make this quick,” Hound ordered to the Dinobots, leading the beasts through the portal. “We are not missing this, are we?” Rainbow asked seriously. “Oh, absolutely not.” Rarity nodded as she led the girls through the vortex after the Dinobots. They arrived in the frozen north of Russia to find five men in white around a large white artillery half-track. “I figured you girls would follow us.” Hound smirked. “Like we’re gonna miss this. Giant robot dinosaurs tearing apart a building? Where do we buy tickets?” Rainbow smiled. “Right here.” one of the humans remarked as he looked up at them. “I’m Sub-Zero; first lieutenant in charge of the Arctic team. That’s Snow Job, Iceberg, Blizzard, and Frostbite. All we need now is the Oktober Guard and we’re ready to go.” “No need to wait long.” a Ukrainian voice remarked as a large truck rumbled in, allowing several soldiers overboard. “You are our friends for this mission?” “You know it, Red Star.” Snow Job remarked. “Your guys clear on what to do?” “Da, we provide cover for Dinos when they escape.” Red Star nodded. “Push the Cisarovnas and Cobra scum back to their castle while you escape.” “As simple as can be, Star.” Hound nodded, turning to Grimlock. “You guys know what to do. Go be vicious.” Grimlock nodded and led the Dinobots out into the snow, where they put on a good show; roaring at seemingly nothing and bashing at each other. The girls all whooped and cheered at the display. “Please tell me someone brought popcorn,” Rainbow said seriously. “Got some right here.” Pinkie smiled as she pulled a bucket out of her hair, which she quickly passed to the others. At the estate, the Baroness was still reveling in the success of her having captured Tigatron and his component of the Omega Lock when a sentry raced to her side. “Baroness, you’re never going to believe this,” he reported. “There’s a massive group of dinosaurs not two miles from the manor.” “You’re kidding.” the Baroness said seriously. “No ma’am, I’m serious.” the sentry reported, bringing up a camera feed from outside, showing the disguised Dinobots rampaging in the frozen wilds. The Baroness seemed a bit suspicious of this scenario, even as she saw the disguised Swoop soaring around the head of the large Apatosaurus. “Have you run this through the Spark filter?” “N-No ma’am.” This answer swiftly earned this sentry a bullet in the chest, sending him to the ground in pain. “I will not have incompetent fools working within my home.” the Baroness said coldly as she set her gun down on the side table, glancing to the two other sentries at the door. “One of you clean that up. The other, overlay a Spark filter on this footage.” The first of the two guards grabbed the pained guard by the shoulders and dragged him from the room as the other moved to the computer and brought up the special Spark-recognition filter Destro had provided, showing that these dinosaurs were indeed the Dinobots. The Baroness smirked as she saw this. “I’m sure Megatron would have said something if he were to be sending Decepticons in the form of dinosaurs to take collection.” “Which means it is an Autobot assault.” the sentry understood. “I’ll scramble the HISS team and have them brought in for lockup.” “Nyet. I want them annihilated.” Baroness ordered. “And have scout teams search the surrounding snow. I doubt these are the only Autobots around.” “As you wish, Baroness.” the sentry nodded as he left the room. The Baroness smiled as she sneered at the tiger in the cage. “So much for your rescue, my small friend.” The tiger merely snarled in anger as it swiped at the bars, merely eliciting a curt chuckle from the Baroness. Outside, Snow Job looked through the scope of his sniper rifle and watched the house as Sub-Zero kept his eye on the Dinobots. “Everything’s green for now.” Sub-Zero remarked to Hound. “Shouldn’t the Baroness have taken the bait by now?” asked Rainbow. “Relax Dash, sometimes these things just take time.” Hound assured. It was then that Snow Job went rigid as he looked through his scope. “Contact.” “How many?” Sub-Zero asked as he looked through his binoculars. “I count at least ten HISS tanks.” Frostbite counted. Sunset looked through her own scopes and saw the large tanks racing toward the Dinobots… where they started firing on them. “Oh great. Looks like they got made.” Blizzard scowled. “Change of plans; we fight our way into the building and do things the old-fashioned way,” Sub-Zero ordered, grabbing up a large machine gun. “Fine by me,” Rainbow smirked as she revved her engines. “Try to keep up.” She shot ahead with a massive burst from her thrusters. “She always like this?” asked Glacier. “More than any of us care to confess.” Applejack remarked as she transformed to truck mode and roared in after her. “She’s got the right idea though. Let’s rock.” “Right.” Hound nodded and got on the coms. “Grimlock, change of plans; drop the animal act and munch metal.” “Me Grimlock think you never ask!” the T-Rex bot smirked and roared at the tanks, charging them as they blasted apart the disguises on all of the Dinobots, revealing their metallic finish. “Dinobots, attack!” The Dinobots all roared in rage as they charged, bashing the tanks aside for the girls and the rest of the team to race toward the fortress. The Cobra troops fired on the girls, but all their shots just bounced off as they raced for the large garage. “Door!” Twilight ordered. “All over it!” Frostbite smirked as he jumped to the controls of the team’s half-track, which promptly fired a missile that promptly blew the door to scrap, allowing the team straight in where they transformed and screeched to a stop, weapons at the ready. Quickly, the girls all dropped their armor and found cover. “Rainbow, you get Fluttershy and Applejack to the Baroness’s room; free Tigatron and get his capsule,” Sunset ordered. “The rest of us will stay here and cover you.” “Got it.” Rainbow nodded as she quickly grabbed Applejack and Fluttershy by their wrists before the three raced through the halls of the house. Once they were gone, the rest of the girls returned to their bot-forms and started firing out at the Cobra guards. It was just then that Glacier spotted a GroundBridge opening not far from the group and a familiar police car driving through it. “We got company!” he called. Hound glanced over and saw the GroundBridge closing in. “Oh scrap,” he remarked and quickly turned on his coms. “We’ve got a problem team; Barricade’s here and from the looks of things, he brought the cavalry.” Indeed he had, Barricade was racing through the snow with most of the Stunticons and a large team of Vehicon troopers. “Well, this is interesting. The Baroness needs our help.” Barricade smirked. “Let’s do this one by the numbers, boys; Wildrider and Breakdown, take your team down the left flank; Offroad and Dead End; take the right. My guys, with me; we’re goin’ straight down the middle and trashing this whole place until we get that capsule.” The Decepticons split up exactly as they were ordered and started firing on the Autobots and the Joes. “Optimus, this is Hound; we are desperately outmatched here and we need some serious backup!” the jeep roared into his coms, his guns firing in every direction. It didn’t take long after that before a GroundBridge opened at the Autobot’s side that let the Wreckers all race through before they transformed and landed in the snow alongside Hound, the Joes, and the Oktober Guard. “Alright guys, let’s wreck n’ rule!” Springer roared as his team’s guns roared to life, blasting away at all the Decepticons. “Springer, I hate to be that guy-!” Broadside remarked. “No, you don’t!” Whirl countered. “But there’s no way we can keep this sort of momentum up forever.” Broadside finished. “I hate to say it, but you’re right.” Springer scowled. “Sub-Zero, any chance you can get some heavier Joe ordinance out here?” “In these conditions, the Snow Cat’s the heaviest ground-based ordinance we can manage.” Sub-Zero shrugged as he pointed to the half-track. “How about your guys, Red?” “Nyet, we have only what is here.” Red Star countered. “And that ain’t gonna last forever.” Snow Job remarked as he continued popping heads off Cobra soldiers with his rifle. “Hopefully everything’s goin’ alright inside.” Inside, it was something of a hard search for Rainbow’s team to find where exactly Tigatron was locked up, but they eventually found it when they saw the beast in a cage in a large sitting room near the outer wall. “Huh. Hard to believe we missed this place; feels like we did three laps around the perimeter.” “Well, long as we get ol’ Fuzzy here back to base, I think we’ll be fine.” Applejack shrugged. “I’m afraid that won’t be happening.” The girls all froze when they heard the Baroness across the room from them, aiming an Uzi at their heads. “I should shoot you right here for invading my home, but I think… I will make it fun. I’ll let you each watch each other die.” Rainbow just smirked. “You can try.” With that, she raced over and planted her shoe directly in the Baroness’ midsection, sending her flying back as she accidentally fired her gun into the ceiling. “AJ, cage!” “On it!” Applejack nodded as she raced to the cage and ripped the door off, throwing it through the window for a quick exit. Then she grabbed the capsule and tossed that through the window as well. “Sandstorm; second-floor window, north side!” “On my way!” Sandstorm nodded as he quickly transformed into a large armored dune buggy and raced through the snow, catching the capsule in his cabin just as it arced down to him. “Cargo’s secure; buggin’ out.” Quickly, he transformed to his VTOL form and buzzed away. “Oh no ya don’t!” Wildrider smirked as he opened fire on Sandstorm… only to take fire from the rest of the Wreckers. “We’ll be takin’ the kitty too, if’n ya don’t mind.” Applejack smirked as she slung Tigatron over her shoulder and leaped out the window, quickly shifting to bot-mode and landing perfectly. Rainbow and Fluttershy followed her lead as they all made it to the ground in the firefight with the others. “You guys okay?” Rainbow asked Twilight. “It’s all relative.” Twilight shrugged as she fired a barrage of missiles out of Spike’s weapon-form. “We have Tigatron?” “Yeah, but he seems a bit shaken up.” Applejack remarked as she set the tiger down in the snow, at which point he recoiled in fear. “Oh great, a scaredy-cat,” Rainbow remarked. “Fluttershy, see what you can do to mellow him out.” “Oh uh, okay.” Fluttershy nodded as she shifted back to her human form and knelt next to the tiger. “Sh-sh-sh, it’s okay. It’s okay, Tigatron; we’ll be alright.” The tiger merely growled to her, and what she heard thanks to her geode power surprised her, so she quickly turned back to bot-mode and grabbed Rainbow’s shoulder. “We have a problem.” “Yeah I know; we’re outgunned here,” Rainbow remarked. “And the Baroness set up coms-jammers after the Wreckers piled in, so we can’t call for any backup.” “Uh no, another problem,” Fluttershy remarked. “This tiger isn’t Tigatron.” “What?!” Rainbow asked in surprise. “Cease fire! Cease fire!” Everyone quickly stopped shooting in confusion when they heard this, even the Decepticons. “What’s this; finally surrendering?” Barricade remarked. “Not on your life. But why fight over an ordinary tiger?” Rainbow remarked. “What?” asked Twilight. “I just spoke to the tiger we saved, and she’s not Tigatron; she says Tigatron named her Snowstalker,” Fluttershy said simply. “What?” Sandstorm asked incredulously as he held up the capsule. “But she had this.” “She says he gave that to her for safekeeping,” Fluttershy explained. “But… if this isn’t the Maximal, then where is he?” asked Breakdown. A paw crunching the snow behind the Decepticons answered that question, though not nearly as well as the voice that followed; “Right here.” Everyone looked and saw a tiger identical to Snowstalker behind the Decepticon lines. Then came the command; “Tigatron, Maximize!” With a snarl, the tiger transformed in a very similar way as Cheetor, but revealed bright metallic cyan trim and a cat-like faceplate under his white and black crown. He quickly raised a blaster similar to Cheetor’s and started firing, knocking Barricade on his back as the others were stunned by his appearance and moves. Springer smirked as he saw this and raised his own gun. “We’ve got some breathing room, people! Light ‘em up!” he ordered, prompting a massive wave of gunfire to resound at the Decepticons, leveling the remaining Vehicons and leaving only the specific soldiers. “Retreat! Retreat!” Barricade ordered as his team transformed back to vehicle mode and roared away through the snow. “Soundwave; GroundBridge, now!” The vortex opened immediately upon that order. “Oh no ya don’t! You forgot your party favors!” Rainbow smirked and fired two high-explosive missiles from her wrists at the vortex… which went through behind the Decepticons just before it closed. After seeing their heavy guns retreat, most of the Cobra forces scattered to avoid arrest. “Well, that was fun.” Tigatron smiled as he returned to his beast-mode and plodded over to the other bots. The girls all reverted from their bot-modes and smiled at the tiger. “Nice entrance.” Sunset smiled. “Gotta admit; we were a bit worried for a second there.” “Uh, while we’re talking, how did you manage to make it seem like your signature was coming from Snowstalker?” asked Rainbow. “Signal transference clip.” Tigatron explained simply. “I slipped it onto one of her claws months ago. When you’re on the run in the middle of a war, it’s important to keep your enemy off-balance.” Fluttershy examined Snowstalker’s paws and found the small ring-like object on her claw that Tigatron was obviously referring to, which she promptly removed and deactivated, making the Spark signature revert to Tigatron himself. “Well, at least everything’s okay now.” Twilight smiled. “Cmon, Optimus and Airazor will be eager to see you.” “I- I’m sure they are, but… no,” Tigatron said simply. “‘No’? What do you mean ‘no’?” asked Rainbow, though she was shivering a bit as the cold was finally starting to get to her. “I have been alone out here for quite some time, so… I feel like I am more tiger than Maximal,” Tigatron said simply. “Until I feel I have full control over my animal instincts and bot capabilities, I feel my place is here, in the wilds with my own kind.” He plodded over to Snowstalker and rubbed against her, which seemed to soothe the tiger. “But you may count on my loyalty; that much I assure you.” “Sounds like a fair deal to me.” Springer shrugged. “Arctic field agent never hurts.” Snow Job agreed. “You would know, Snowy.” Hound smirked. “Well, in that case… we’ll just tell Airazor you said hi.” Rainbow smiled as they made their way back toward their rendezvous point. “But come down and visit us sometime soon, okay?” Tigatron nodded with a feline smile. “Let the trails lead where they may. I will follow,” he said simply, which was enough of an agreement for the girls as the GroundBridge opened and the Autobots returned to their base. When they arrived and explained Tigatron’s decisions, Optimus and Airazor understood well, as Twilight predicted, and Optimus swiftly used the Matrix to unlock Tigatron’s capsule, revealing its contents to be a small metallic post. “What’s this thing?” Rainbow asked as she looked it over. Twilight examined the thing for herself and raised a metallic eyebrow. “If I were to hazard a guess, I’d say it was the central connection axis.” she theorized, though the look of confusion from the others told her she had to be more specific. “Uh, think of it as… I dunno; model glue. Once we have the last piece of the Omega Lock, we connect all the components around this and it’ll link up into one piece.” “Then we’d better get to work in finding that last piece,” Jetfire remarked. “And the AllSpark.” “Lucky for us, there are only two more Maximals on Earth so if we pick them both up, we’ll win the search.” Bumblebee smiled. “Yep; just down to Botanica and Rattrap now.” Rhinox nodded. “I just hope Rattrap isn’t the one who’s actually carryin’ the AllSpark,” Cheetor remarked. “We’d never hear the end of it.” “Only one way to find out.” Elita shrugged as she looked at Optimus. “I say we redouble our efforts to locate them.” “Agreed.” Optimus nodded. “Autobots, until the remaining Maximals have been located, all other projects are on hold save for locating Relics of Iacon.” “Speaking of which, how’s that been going?” asked Sunset. “Slowly. The encryption has been difficult for me to crack, but I believe I have now located at least one relic.” Optimus noted. “We’ll prepare a search party for it tomorrow,” Prowl assured. “In the meantime, I suggest everyone go home and get some rest.” “Not gonna get any argument from me.” Sunset shrugged as she made her way to the door, patting Grimlock on the snout before she left. “Nice meeting you Grimlock. See ya around.” Grimlock just gave a low growl at the affection as the girls left the base. “Man, y’know the Baroness is probably tearing into Megatron right now for her house getting trashed,” Rainbow remarked. “What I’d give to be on the line for that chat.” Rarity agreed with a smirk… no one noticing the black Jaguar E-Type idling at the side of the road as they drove past toward the city. And sure enough, the Baroness was voicing her tremendous displeasure over the situation to Megatron. “An excellent job, Megatron!” she roared. “Thanks to your men’s incompetence, not only did you lose yet another component of your Omega Lock, but my family home has been blown apart! Do you have any idea how much it is going to cost me to have these damages repaired?!” “My sincerest apologies, Baroness,” Megatron noted. “I assure you that the Autobots will pay for this affront to your home and organization. I will send the Constructicons to assist in the repairs and refortifications of your home as soon as possible.” He nodded to Scrapper off-screen who bowed and quickly moved to assemble his team. “I trust this will prove my… commitment to our alliance.” “It proves that you believe you need us if you wish for victory in your little war.” the Baroness scowled. “But make no mistake; if you truly wish to have our assistance, you must assist Cobra in its own projects.” “As I fully intend to. Though unfortunately, I have my own goals to see to. Until next time.” The transmission terminated with that, and Megatron sighed into his hand as he turned to Sky Shadow. “This alliance is growing more and more tiresome by the cycle, Sky Shadow. Cobra tries my patience evermore with their incessant whining prattle.” “As I have been attempting to tell you all along, Lord Megatron,” Starscream assured. “Complaining is all humans are truly good for. We should just wipe them all out and be done with it.” “I believe, Starscream, that Cobra has done its part.” Viper remarked. “They promised to assist the Decepticons and they have.” “Oh yes, of course, Viper,” Starscream remarked sarcastically. “I completely forgot how they assisted in losing a weaponized Energon Harvester, or how they assisted in losing us another component of the Omega Lock. And let us not forget their most terrible act of assistance; nearly depriving our master of his duel against Optimus Prime!” “Silence, Starscream!” Megatron roared, bashing him away with his flail. “I am loathe to say it, but you make an excellent point. Cobra has been somewhat lax in their true assistance.” “You must not expect the same sort of results from them as you do from us, Lord Megatron.” Sky Shadow assured. “After all… they are only human.” “Which is exactly why they test me so.” Megatron scowled. “I only hope this alliance need not last much longer; I have heard disquieting whispers among the crew. Something about… an attempted mutiny.” Starscream’s optics immediately went wide at the sound of that as he quickly stood up. “I’m sure these rumors are false, master,” he assured. “Why would any aboard wish to betray the noble cause of the Decepticons?” “Why indeed.” Megatron scowled. Starscream wasn’t sure whether or not the warlord was onto him, but he didn’t dare press his luck. “Well… if there is nothing else, I believe my Seekers will be returning from patrol in a moment. I shall be on the upper deck if anyone needs me.” With that, the Seeker commander left the bridge. “Why would we ever need him?” Sky Shadow asked derisively. “Better to have him with us than against us.” Megatron scowled, glancing across to his communications experts. “Soundtrack, increase your surveillance on Starscream; I want to know his every move.” “As you wish, Lord Megatron.” Soundtrack nodded and bowed before she strode from the bridge, leaving her brother to work. “Soundwave, report,” Megatron ordered. “Iacon decrypting proceeding slowly,” Soundwave reported. “Only one set of coordinates decoded.” “Tell Onslaught to assemble a dig team; I want this relic no matter what,” Megatron ordered. “As you command, Lord Megatron.” Soundwave nodded. On the upper deck, Starscream was right about one thing; his brothers and the other Seekers had indeed returned. “Well?” their commander asked. “We have her, brother,” Thundercracker reported as he and Skywarp stepped aside, allowing two Seekers to toss a rather unusual looking bot on the ground; she looked less like any sort of animal and more like foliage, with root-like feet, a wide green collar around her pale faceplate and claw-like fingers. “So… you are the one they call Botanica.” Starscream sneered down at her. “As if wildlife weren’t enough; now you Eukarians take flora as alt-modes? Disgusting.” He spat on the bot’s face and stood up. “If you believe you can hold me, I dare you to try.” Botanica scowled. “Oh, it’s not me you have to worry about,” Starscream smirked as he turned to Skywarp. “Is everything ready?” “Just as you wanted, brother. I’ve informed them to prepare for us.” Skywarp nodded. “The calibrations are still a bit confusing, but we should be able to find out the correct frequency to open the capsule. And if nothing else, we can probably extract the information we need from her through… other means.” “Good. Then let us away. To Cybertron.” Starscream sneered, filling Botanica with dread; she knew exactly who was waiting for her on Cybertron, and what treatment she would face in his hands.