//------------------------------//
// Aw Rats! 
// Story: Cybertron Girls 
// by SonicSpeedster97 
//------------------------------//

It didn’t take long for the Autobots to locate Rattrap; aside from Botanica, his were the only coordinates left in Airazor’s files, showing he was hiding out on an uninhabited island off the northwestern beach of Australia. It only took a few moments for Broadside – now in a fitting third form of a massive aircraft carrier – to carry Sunset, Twilight, and the Wreckers’ remaining flyers just off the island’s shore. “Yeah, this is the place alright.” Airazor nodded, sitting on Sunset’s shoulder as they looked out at the island.

“I can see why Rattrap chose this place, not a lot of ground for the Decepticons to cover and try to take his capsule,” Springer remarked in his chopper-form.
“And rats aren’t exactly the most social animals.” Twilight agreed. “Think Rattrap will be glad to see us?”
“Who knows with him?” Airazor shrugged. “We’d better check it out.”
“Right. Broadside, think you can get us any closer?” Sandstorm asked the ship.
“This is as good as it gets; otherwise I might beach myself on the sandbar.” Broadside returned.
“Guess we’re under our own power from here.” Rotorstorm shrugged. “Just hope we don’t get into any trouble out here.”
“I hope we do.” Whirl countered, already spinning his rotors.
“Safeties on, Whirl; that’s a friendly on that island.” Springer reminded as his rotors spun, Twilight and Sunset climbing into his cockpit. “Broadside, prep anti-air weapons and get ready to shoot down anything that gets in our way.”
“Understood.” Broadside grumbled as the rest of his team took off from his deck, flying toward the island.
“Spin those scanners, Wreckers; let’s see what we find,” Springer ordered, prompting all the sensors the Wreckers had to activate.
“I think I got something,” Rotorstorm reported. “Small energy signature; might be a Scraplet.”
“On an organic planet? Unlikely.” Sandstorm countered. “Hang on; I got it too.”
“Us too,” Twilight noted as she looked at her handheld sensor. “From the distortions, I’d say we found our rat.”
“We ain’t the only ones; we got one big momma incoming with a flock,” Whirl remarked as he spun around in the air. The whole team looked and saw Megatron flying toward the island in jet mode with a whole squadron of Seekers on his wing.

“Oh jeez. Broadside, get your aft up here; we’re gonna need more firepower!” Springer ordered. “That goes for you three too.”
“We’re on it.” Twilight nodded as Springer opened his side door, allowing the girls to leap out and transform, taking to the air on their boosters as Airazor soared alongside them.
“Let’s make this quick.” Broadside grumbled as he shrank down to a manageable bot-size and transformed to jet-mode, quickly taking to the air with the rest of his team and firing, but their blasts barely even scratched the Decepticons as they returned fire, knocking several of them off-balance.
“We need some serious support out here!” Springer remarked. “Sandstorm!”
“On it!” the VTOL nodded and turned on his coms. “Sandstorm to G.I. Joe; we need air support at our coordinates. The Cons are here.”
“I figured. Air support is already en route.” General Hawk replied before the line went dead.
“Triple-Changers on the ground; everyone else stay airborne!” Springer ordered as he began descending, Sandstorm and the girls following him down.
“Well, this is gonna be fun.” Broadside grumbled. “Us against Megatron and a Seeker wing.”
“I know; isn’t it great?!” Whirl smiled maniacally, laughing as he fired his guns indiscriminately at the Decepticons. That didn’t seem to do anything so he flew above one of the Seekers and transformed in mid-air, slashing its wing off with his claw before he moved on to do the same with several others.
On the ground, the rest of the team was more than a bit concerned as they saw Whirl do this. “Is he always like this?” asked Twilight.
“You just kinda learn to tune it out and get on with the mission.” Sandstorm shrugged in return. “Speaking of which, where’s our rat?”
Airazor had switched back to beast-mode and was soaring over the island, scanning for Rattrap’s spark with her optics until she locked onto something. “Got him.” Quickly she shot down to a tree branch and swooped up with a rat in her talons.

“Gah! Hey, watch it ya puffed-up chicken!” the rat struggled with an accent that almost sounded like he was from Boston.
“You know I can always drop you.” the falcon countered.
Rattrap seemed surprised to hear the falcon speak. “Airazor? Hey, birdy, it’s been a long time!” he smiled.
“Brought some friends along. And some enemies.” Airazor pointed out to the Decepticons in the air.
“Then how about we show ‘em what we can do?” Rattrap smiled.
“Thought you’d never ask. Airazor, Maximize!” The falcon screeched and transformed, allowing Rattrap to grab onto her foot as she flew.
“Rattrap, Maximize!” Rattrap squeaked loudly as his sides opened and his rodent head flipped onto his chest, revealing an almost bronze-like body wielding a small SMG. Rattrap smiled and fired madly at the Decepticons.

“Still got your capsule?” asked Airazor.
“You know it.” Rattrap smiled.
“Good. Then that’s our cue to leave.” Springer noted. “Soon as we get clear of the Cons.”
“We can handle that, Springer.” Ace remarked over the coms as a wing of Skystrikers flew into the area, an aircraft carrier larger than Broadside soon approaching.

“This is Admiral Keel-Haul; commander of the G.I. Joe ship USS Flagg.” an officer called over the coms. “Autobots, you are clear to evacuate; we’ll keep ya clear back to American shores.”
“Copy that Admiral; thank you.” Sandstorm reported. “Alright, you heard the man Wreckers; we’ve got our exfil. Move, move, move!” The whole squadron flew toward the ship, except for Whirl who was still having the time of his life slashing apart Seekers with his claws.
“Whirl, fall back; that’s an order!” Springer barked.
“Aw cmon, just a little longer!” Whirl asked, wanting more fun.
“Whirl…!” Springer warned.
“Oh alright fine!” Whirl fussed in annoyance, transforming to copter-mode and hovering toward the Flagg. “Just suck the fun out of everything, why don’t ya?”
“Flagg, we’re gonna need some heavy support to keep Megatron off our tail,” Springer remarked as the Skystrikers were blasted away by the warlord.
“I think we got something for that. Let me make a call.” Keel-Haul remarked. It only took a few minutes before the team heard a massive sonic boom and a large projectile hit Megatron square in the back, knocking him off-balance and nearly clear out of the sky.
“Whoa! What was that?!” asked Sunset.
“Unless I missed my guess, that was a railgun,” Whirl remarked, earning some intrigued looks from the organics. “What? I’ve got an ear for weapons.”
“And a good one at that!” Keel-Haul – an older man in an admiral’s uniform with a thin mustache – called to them over the sound of their rotors. “Yeah, that shell was fired from a few hundred leagues away and still hit the mark. That’s solid naval marksmanship for ya.”

“Hope it doesn’t take too long to reload, Admiral; cause we need to go right now.” Sandstorm reported as the Wreckers landed.
“Understood.” Keel-Haul nodded and turned on his commlink. “Shipwreck, get us goin’ north and prep the stealth field; I want as many leagues between us and Megatron as possible.”
“Aye-aye captain.” The ship slowly turned about as the railgun fired at Megatron again, this time blasting him clean out of the sky.
Megatron snarled as he stood up, seething as he saw his shield only intercepted a small amount of kinetic energy from the shells that had just hit him. “Soundwave, track that ship. Wherever it goes, I want to know.”
“Tracking vessel.” Soundwave reported. “Error; vessel has cloaked. Unable to track.”
“GRRAGH!” Megatron roared. “Decepticons, search all possible courses that ship may have taken. And bring me Springer’s head on a pike!”
Thankfully, the Autobots had planned that sort of thing and were swiftly GroundBridged from the deck of the Flagg back to the Ark where Optimus was waiting with the others. “Well done, Autobots.” Optimus nodded. “Now we need only race Megatron for one final capsule.”
“And I’ve got a good bet Botanica’s capsule will be the one holding the AllSpark,” Rainbow smirked as she watched Optimus activate the Matrix, opening the capsule and allowing a small metal ring to drop from it. “Looks like I win.”
“And it looks like we have our next stop set.” Cheetor smiled. “We just need to get the AllSpark and steal the other parts of the Lock back from the Cons, and we’re on easy street.”
“Sometimes that street ain’t as easy as the name makes it sound,” Ironhide warned.



He was right to issue that warning as a SpaceBridge opened through to Shockwave’s lab on Cybertron, and through it stepped Starscream. “I trust you have progress to report, Shockwave?”
The cyclops seemed a tad surprised to see the air commander but nodded. “Through careful trial and error, I have determined a precise energy wavelength required to imitate that of the Matrix of Leadership,” he reported.
“Excellent. Bring the prisoner; I wish for her to see the Decepticons’ great victory.” Starscream smiled. Shockwave relayed that order to his soldiers and two guards stepped into the lab with Botanica, who looked haggard and abused. Starscream couldn’t help but chuckle condescendingly. “My-my-my, whatever have you been inflicting on poor Botanica here, Shockwave?”
“You are as aware as I am that finding Eukarians off their planet has been rare since the war began.” Shockwave reminded. “And since most of them choose animals as their alternate forms, I wished to examine a floral Eukarian; see what made it tick, if you will.”
“Ah, I understand.” Starscream nodded, glancing at the Maximal. “I want you to watch, cyborg scum, as the Decepticons conquer the world. Activate the wavelength.”
“Lord Megatron should be present for this.” Shockwave insisted as he made his way to the SpaceBridge… only to be promptly shot in the back by Starscream.
The guards holding Botanica were surprised by this action, but this surprise gave way to pain as one of them was electrocuted and the other had his neck broken. They fell to the ground and revealed that Skywarp and Thundercracker had been the ones to do the deed. “Lord Megatron will never know about this. We’ll make sure of that.” Thundercracker assured.
“Oh, quite the contrary, brother.” Starscream smiled as he pressed a few buttons. “I fully intend for Lord Megatron to see this. My glorious rise to power as leader of the Decepticons.” With one last pull of a switch, a massive bolt of almost sickly-looking blue energy shot at the capsule and forced it to open, revealing a small orb of raw blue energy.

“At last. The power of the AllSpark is mine!” Starscream smiled and reached out his hands, allowing the AllSpark to fall into his hands, filling him with his power. “YES! YES! ALL HAIL STARSCREAM!” The raw power flowed through his body and he transformed into a silhouette that looked almost cosmic, and he was more than ready to test this power out by any means necessary.
Botanica had already struggled away in fear, through the SpaceBridge to the Nemesis. “Forgive me Alpha Trion; I have failed you.” And she knew that failure – no matter how much it wasn’t really her fault – would return to haunt her momentarily.