Beast Hunters

(Project Predacon) Misty-blue's POV

It's been a few days since the destruction of Darkmount. Sire Dreadwing is recovering well, still not combat ready according to sire Ratchet. But he has been well enough to take me flying, it's so much fun. Sire Dreadwing has changed his colour scheme to match mine, still has the same vehicle mode, now bares the autobot insignia and has an autobot signal. His optics are now blue like mine, instead of red. Farther proof he is now an autobot.

Though Auntie Arcee, Uncle Bulk and Jackie seem to still be wary of him. Along with Ultra Magnus. But Optimus, Bee, Smokescreen and Sire Ratchet trust him. After all sire Dreadwing is a bot of his word and he swore his loyalty to Optimus. And to the autobot cause. Aunt Arcee he broke his word once when he left the decepticons, what's to stop him from doing it again?

But it's different here. Optimus would never give Sire Dreadwing a reason to break his word. Like Megatron did. Besides, I am here and he wants to be with me. It's hard having two sires around, especially when they are both very protective and strict. I wish one of them was more carefree. They bicker occasionally about what I should learn. Sire Ratchet thinks I shout learn theory only, where as Sire Dreadwing thinks I need to learn to defend myself as we are still at war. Honestly, the only time they agree on anything is when they are punishing me for joking around with Smokey or my safety was involved.

Anyway, I am currently sitting on Sire Dreadwing's shoulder enjoying my breakfast. While Sire Ratchet bridges Ultra Magnus and Wheeljack back from out old base. We all gather around as they appeared and Bee takes the energon from Ultra Magnus. Allowing him to transform.

"We didn't find much else in the rubble of the former base" Ultra Magnus states.

"You call this not much else?" Wheeljack asks as he appears. He throws the lob ball at the unprepared Bulkhead. It bounced off him and nearly crashed Jack & Miko. It ended up lodge in Agent Fowler's door.

"Wheeljack! You could've caused serious damage!" sire Ratchet snaps at him.

"To me!" Miko adds shrilly.

"What were you thinking, soldier?" Ultra Magnus asks him.

"I was thinking Bulk would catch that lob" Wheeljack answers.

"Allow me to make myself clear. As Optimus Prime's second-in-command, I have no intention of tolerating Wrecker behavior" Ultra Magnus tells him.

"Some things never change" Wheeljack mutters.

"Need I remind you that it was Optimus Prime himself who assigned me to command your Wreckers back on Cybertron and get you loose cannons under control? An effective combat unit begins with discipline. If you won't accept that, feel free to choose the path of least resistance As you did before" Ultra Magnus tells him.

"If my ship weren't a twisted wreck at present, I'd do that sir" Wheeljack sneers. He stalks out of the room.

"SO any word from Optimus?" Ultra Magnus asks like noting happened.

"Big meanie" I whisper to sire Dreadwing. He shushes me.

"He's investigating recent Decepticon activity, hopefully an Energon mine" Sire Ratchet tells Ultra Magnus.

"How rad would it be if you all had jetpacks like Optimus?" Miko asks.

"Quite rad, Miko" Sire Ratchet tells her. "But the Forge has been depleted of its power to do that" he reminds her. "Now it's only good for pounding out dings" Bulkhead adds. Just then a car speeds into the base, it's blue. I squeak and hide behind Sire Dreadwing.

"Smokescreen" Auntie Arcee says and the bot transforms. I relax when I see she is right. It is Smokescreen, he has just changed his paint job.

"Aw, what gave me away?" he asks her whining. They all give him a deadpan look. "Come on, robots in disguise, right?" he asks them. I fly over to exam the new paint.

"Where have you been, soldier?" Ultra Magnus demands.

"Scanning new war paint. Thought it'd be proactive to follow Optimus' lead and Bumblebee's" Smokescreen tells him. "What do you think Misty-blue?" he asks me.

"You're blue, I like it" I say smiling.

"Now you can look your best while stacking those empty cubes" Ultra Magnus orders him.

"Yes sir" Smokescreen says and heads over to him. As Sire Ratchet calls me over. I fly over.

"No flying in the base" Ultra Magnus tells me.

"You're not my sire, you can't tell me what to do" I tell him. "Besides Optimus has no trouble with me flying inside the base" I state.  I reach sire Ratchet and notice he is working on something.

"What was that about a Prime?" he asks Smokescreen. Who had been muttering to himself.

"Uh no, time. Time to stop acting like a rookie" Smokescreen tells him. Then gets to stacking the energon cubes.

"Smokescreen was the only one who went back" Aunt Arcee states. "If it weren't for him, Optimus might not be with us today" she adds.

"Arcee, we were under the strictest of orders" Sire Ratchet reminds her. "The three of you had your human partners to protect. I had Misty-blue to care for, not mention Dreadwing to fix" he explains. "But we are fortunate that Smokescreen is inexperienced enough not to have followed protocol" he adds.

"What do you need Sire Ratchet?" I ask.

"Time for your lesson, go see Rafael" he tells me. I pout, but do so. Raf hands me a tablet and I log in, then start today's lesson.

(Time skip)

Optimus finally returned. I cheer happy of an excuse to stop studying. I fly over to him and the others gather around him. Excited by his return. "Optimus, did you find energon?" Sire Ratchet asks him.

"No. But I did uncover this" Optimus says placing an object on the table. It looks like some sort of head, made of rock.

"It cannot be" Sire Ratchet says.

"Be what?" I ask with Jack.

"The ancient remains of a Predacon" Optimus answers.

"What's a predacon?" I ask.

"Giant flying fire-breathing robot lizard" Miko tells me.

"I'll explain later Misty-blue" Sire Ratchet states. "Though it remains unclear why such a skull would be found on your planet, its presence reveals all too much about the Predacon which Megatron recently sent in pursuit of us" he states.

"You mean that dragon bot we put on ice?" Miko asks.

"Except that Predacons have been extinct since, well..." Sire Ratchet thinks.

"Since before most life began on Cybertron" Smokescreen finishes.

"They're like Earth's dinosaurs" Raf states.

"Which means, for you guys, running into one would be like us meeting a T-Rex" Jack adds.

"So then what were dinobots?" Miko asks.

"Totally different" Bulkhead tells her.

"I know how this ended up here" sire Dreadwing announces. "This is not the remains of Predacons. But, rather, the remains of Predacon clones" he tells us. "The recent predacon wasn't the first bestial super-soldier Shockwave ever attempted to breed from prehistoric matter. During the war for Cybertron, Megtron sanctioned the dispatch of a small army of these preda-clones to Earth to unleash the beasts on unwitting Autobot forces stationed here.

"Once they accomplished their mission, the surviving Predacons held sentinel on this very world for ages to come, guarding the Energon reserves they had managed to secure while awaiting Megatron's arrival. Of course, their reunion here was much delayed, and it would seem we lost the beasts to the ravages of time. But not the predacons endo-matter, from which Shockwave will be able to extract their very CNA" he explains.

"With Megatron's seeming new interest in the excavation of prehistoric skeletons and a certain scientist back among the Decepticon ranks" Sire Ratchet says.

"It would stand to reason that Shockwave cloned the beast from one such find" Optimus adds. "And now Megatron's looking to clone another" Ultra Magnus states.

"Looks that way" sire Dreadwing agrees crossing his arms.

"What makes you think bucket head would stop at just one?" Wheeljack asks him.

"We could have beast wars on our hands" Bulkhead adds.

"Not a comforting thought" Sire Dreadwing mutters.

"And if Shockwave only requires a single strand of CNA from which to clone a beast" Sire Ratchet says.

"He does" Sire Dreadwing states.

"Then he already possesses what he needs to engender this one" Optimus tells us. "Autobots, we must become Beast Hunters" he states.

"I'm in" sire Dreadwing says.

"No" I say and cling to him. "You not ready to fight, you stay here with Sire Ratchet and I. Where it's safe" I state.

"Ratchet?" Optimus asks.

"He is ready for active duty" Sire Ratchet states.

"No" I say pouting.

"Misty-blue, behave" Sire Dreadwing tells me firmly. Putting me down and kneels before me. "You gotta be a good girl and stay here with sire Ratchet" he tells me.

"But what if you get hurt again?" I ask him trying not to cry.

"I'll be fine" he assures me stroking my head. "I will always come back to you, always" he states. Locking his new blue optics with my own. "Promise to stay here like a good girl?" he asks. I nod and pats my head.

"Dreadwing, do you know how to find these fossils?" Optimus asks.

"Knowing Shockewave, he probably chipped them. But I don't know the frequency" sire Dreadwing answers.

"I'll scan this one, see what I can find" Sire Ratcthet states. Picking up the fossil. "Misty-blue get back to your studies" he tells me. I pout and look up at sire Dreadwing.

"You heard him, go" he tells me. I sigh and get back to my studies. As everyone starts looking for decepticon activity and predacon bones. Sire Ratchet did some research Cybertron's history of predacons. They looked like metal creatures from Earths Greek mythology and medieval literature. Illustrating once again that the pasts of Earth and Cybertron are inextricably linked. According to Optimus.

We soon get two locations from agent Fowler. Ultra Magnus and the wreckers went to Scotland to investigate. While Optimus, Bee, and Smokescreen went to an oil field outside of El Paso. I finish my studies and see sire Ratchet is busy working on synthetic energon. So I head over to the computer to read the data we have on predacons.

Sire Dreadwing soon joins me and gives me more energon. I accept it and fly up to his shoulder. And we study the predacons together. Honestly, they look kind of cool. I hope I can meet one in future. Maybe it'd play with me. 

A/N

Picture above of Dreadwing new colour scheme.

Ps, six chapters left until the end of Transformers Prime Beast Hunters. Then there will be a few chapters based on Predacon Rising.