One With the Wild By Josh Miller Tigatron prowled among the thick underbrush on the forest. The only sounds that could be heard were the natural sounds of the forest. Tigatron enjoyed it out here, on the outskirts of the known land. He was far from the war that was constantly fought on this planet. The war between Maximal and Predacon, the war he wished to have no part of. The Tiger was not looking for anything in particular, he simply enjoyed honing his skills as tracker and hunter. He came to a clearing; a small mountain range was now visible through the tree tops close by. Tigatron altered his heading to take him to the mountains. The cliffs were a good place to exercise his jumping abilities, something Tigatron had not done in a while. Just before reaching the edge of the clearing, he suddenly stopped short. Something was out there, something not entirely natural. Tigatron wondered for a moment if it could be one of the Predacons, for despite being far from the main fighting grounds he was still within the area patrolled by his enemies. Even though there was the possibility of a battle he stayed in his beast form. The white tiger sniffed at the air. There was a rustle in the brush ahead of him. Tigatron growled and backed away form the edge f the clearing. Without warning, a large black cat leapt into the clearing in front of Tigatron, who was somewhat taken back by the creature. It appeared to be some sort of Panther but there were spots on it's body where there was no fur, instead there were mechanical bits visible. The fur around these patched was rough, as if it had been torn off. The second odd thing about this creature was his back. Unlike a normal cat this one has a large arched back, like the spine was twisted out of place. One thing Tigatron was sure of, this cat was from Cybertron the same as him. He did not recognize the creature as anyone he recognized though. "Who are you?" asked Tigatron in a low rough voice. The creature snarled at Tigatron and curled up its lips to show its large fangs. "Are you a Maximal? Or a Predacon?" asked Tigatron. The Panther started to pace around Tigatron. "Are we the same?" asked the Black cat. His voice was deep and raspy. "We are of the same race if that is what you mean." replied Tigatron, who watched the other animal circle around him. "Why can I understand you? I have tried to communicate with the other creatures, but they never speak back." "That is because we are not like other creatures, this is our language." "Our language?" questioned the Panther. "Yes, we are not of this world, there are others like ourselves on this planet," explained Tigatron. "Like ourselves?" "Yes, I will show you. Tigatron, Maximize." The White tiger sprang up on two legs and parts of his body shifted around and when the process was complete he was a humanoid robot, his Tiger head located on his chest and his forelegs hanging off his back. The panther was taken back by this transformation. "You are like the other one! What are you? Get out of my forest!" snarled the panther, before springing towards Tigatron. The panther tackled the robot then bonded off into the forest. "Wait! You don't understand, I'm not here to hurt you!" cried out Tigatron, but the other cat was already out of site. "I must make him understand. Tigatron, beast mode." Tigatron's body reconfigured to his alternate Tiger form and he took off into the forest after the creature. Tigatron noted that they were headed in the direction of the mountains nearby. Tigatron had still not caught site of the panther when he reached the clearing at the foot of the mountains. He did see someone else he recognized though. At the cliffs was the Predacon Inferno, who was buy with a crashed stasis pod. The pod was overgrown with plants and had obviously been there for quite some time. "Tigatron, Maximize," Tigatron spoke the voice code quietly as not to attract the attention of Inferno. The Tiger reconfigured to robot mode and pulled out his hand blaster. His search for the creature would have to wait for now. Tigatron leveled his blaster on the stasis pod, he could not risk Inferno discovering any of the Maximal's secrets from the pod. Just before pulling the trigger however he readjusted hi aim on Inferno, Tigatron could not tell from this angle if the pod was actually empty and he didn't want to risk destroying an innocent protoform. He let off a shot towards the Predacon, who was startled by the sound of the shot and looked over just in time to take the shot head on. Inferno was knocked back away form the crashed pod. Tigatron emerged from the forest and started towards the Predacon. Inferno sat up, dazed a bit, but still functional. Tigatron fired a second shot at the Predacon, but Inferno came to his senses just before the impact and leapt into the air. The Predacon activated the rocket and copter pack on his back and pulled out his flame-thrower. "Come to have yourself burned Maximal?" cackled Inferno as he started to fire off balls of fire from his flame cannon. "Leave this area Predacon, I have no wish to fight you. But this pod is Maximal property," said Tigatron. "Mwa ha! This belongs to the Royalty now Maximal!" Inferno continued to sprat the area with fire blasts while Tigatron ran for cover. "Why do they always have to make this so hard?" Tigatron asked himself before turning form behind the rock he was using for cover and firing a few shots off at Inferno. He looked around for someway to disable his adversary, but could find nothing. Inferno continued to fire shots off in Tigatron's direction but returned to the stasis pod to finish off what he was working on. The Predacon no longer had time to carefully work on removing the Maximal technology form the pod and instead simply jabbed his fist into the control paned and grabbed pulled out as much of the computer system as he could. Tigatron saw this and aimed for the pod with his next shot. He had to keep the Predacon from stealing the Maximal technology. The Tiger-bot fired off two shots into the pod causing it to explode, this blasted Inferno high into the sky. Tigatron walked over to the remains of he explosion to see if there had been a protoform in the pod. He was relieved when he did not see remains of an unformed Maximal among the wreckage. He then remembered the creature he had seen and decided the pod had once belonged to it. Tigatron looked around for anything he could salvage, but found nothing. He then returned to beast mode to continue his search, but just before leaving the wreck he was hit by a ball of fire. "I'm not through with you yet Maximal," cried out Inferno, who was badly damaged but still able to fly. The Predacon landed over Tigatron, who was lying on the ground still a bit stunned form the blast. Inferno lowered his blaster on Tigatron's head. "Time to feel my flame," said Inferno evilly. "Tigatron tried to clear his head and looked up to se the Predacon ready to fire. Suddenly the large black cat leapt form the forest and growled at Inferno. "You again? Bwa ha! Haven't had enough yet? Don't worry, I have enough for both of you," said Inferno. The panther was not sure what to do but he was sure that the Ant-bot was his enemy. He had fought with this enemy before though and lost, the only thing he could think to try was what he had seen Tigatron do. "Maximize!" cried out the panther. The animal reconfigured its shame into a more humanoid robot form. His front paws became his arms, his hind legs became his robot legs, and he was also taken back when his vision shifted to a different robot head. The panther-bot's natural instincts kicked in and he charged Inferno. Inferno cackled madly and turned his gun on his new adversary. He fired off several shots, but the panther-bot seemed unfazed despite taking two of them directly. The panther reached Inferno an jabbed one of his clawed hands into the Predacon's chest. "Leave this place, whatever you are. This is my forest and my mountain, you are not welcome here," snarled the panther-bot. He twisted his claw in Inferno causing sparks to shower out, before shoving the Predacon away. Inferno fell back and converted back to his giant red ant form before going off line. The panther-bot stomped over to the unconscious Predacon to finish the kill. "No," moaned Tigatron. "He was here before, he was terrorizing the creatures around here, I must finish him so he does not return. That is the way here." "No, you must not. He was one of us, originally, he was a Maximal once, we can not kill him," pleaded Tigatron. "I do not know about what you talk about. I am not one of these things you speak of, a Maximal, I am only myself," said the panther-bot. "Whether you fight with us or not, you cannot deny what you are. Come back with me to the others, we can help you," explained Tigatron. "I do not need you help, I can survive alone," the panther returned to his beast form. "You have been damaged though, we can heal the bare spots in your fur. Plus we would appreciate your help." "No, I cannot, this area is my home, it is what I know. I must defend it." "I understand. If that is what you wish. At least spare Inferno, for now. We may have the chance to someday return him to his true Maximal self." The panther paused for a moment. "Very well, but when he awakens, if he does not leave immediately and if he ever returns, I will kill him." The panther started back towards the forest. "Please, before you leave, at least tell me your name," requested Tigatron. "My name is Bane. But I do not plan to see you again. I saved you this time, but next time may be different. I will protect my domain from all outsiders," said Bane. After he finished he ran off into the forest at full speed. "You saved my life, friend, I only hope one day I may be able to return the favor," said Tigatron, despite that Bane was too far away to hear. He then started walking back in the direction he had originally come from, back to the Maximal base. He decided he would not tell the others about this Maximal, at least for now. Tigatron knew what it was like to want to be away from everything, to want to simply be alone, and at peace.