The Autobots returned the Chambers after a week's worth of taking Optimus to look around at their work, where Omega Scion was seen making calibrations on the Orb of the Future.

"Omega, we've returned."

"I see you have. Are you prepared to see more of your descendants?"

"Yeah. Let's see more of the Maximals getting up and ready to kick Predacon aft!" Bumblebee spoke.

"Very well... take a seat."

The Autobots take seats around as the Orb eventually glows and expand enough for everyone to see into the future once more...

Back at the Axalon, Optimus Primal and Rhinox had just finished working on a strange device.

"Good work Rhinox" Primal commented.

"Well,  it still needs a field test." Rhinox wearily replied.

"Test?"

Cheetor arrives in Beast Mode, jumping on the table like an eager kid.

"I'm your Bot, whatcha got?"

"Rhinox cobbled together a new com-link. It's going to solve our long range communication problems."

"Communication problems?" Ultra Magnus asked.

"Their comms have been limited to a hundred meters due to the Energon fields interfering with their channels." Ratchet answered.

"If it works." Rhinox commented.

"Let's find out." Cheetor says then picks up the device. When he inspected the device close to his face, it sends a shock to keep him away.

"Wow, Ultra-Gear." Cheetor says in amaze.

"Cheetor It's a valuable piece of equipment. Take care of it." Optimus notifies.

"I copy Big Bot."

But Cheetor carries the device with uncertainty. He asks "What do I do?"

Optimus grabs the device and attaches it to Cheetor's foreleg, prompting the device to automatically wrap a steel bearing around the leg.

"The device is voice activated. Just talk into it and we'll hear you." Optimus answers.

"We hope." Rhinox says.

"He's saying that as if he doubts that the kitty will take care of it." Knockout commented.

"Knowing the kid, it's unlikely he will." Wheeljack said.

Optimus turns to one of the Axalon's computers and sits in saying...

"Head away from the base at Vector Omega and check in every 10 micro quads. We'll see how far we can track you. If you encounter any Predacons, return immediately."

"I'll be moving too fast for them to see me." Cheetor growls and leaps off the Axalon.

"You're setting your bar too high, kid." Bulkhead says.

"He'll do fine." Rhinox adds wearily.

Meanwhile, after excavating from a rock formation, Scorponok finds a strange device lodged in a pile of rocks. He struggles to pull it out of the debris in his Beast Form.

"Megatron will reward me for finding this."

But the device did not budge for even an inch.

"If I can ever get it out of this blasted rock!" He tries to pull again, only to give and back off when the device still does not budge.

The young Autobots chuckled.

"I wonder what THAT is. Another weapon of the Predacons?" Ratchet asked.

"Possibly. Decepticons aren't one to leave a weapon like that unless it suits them." Arcee said.

"Scorponok! TERRORIZE"

Scorponok transforms to his Robot Form and prepares a pair of missiles.

In the distance, Cheetor runs around for his patrol assignment and hails on Optimus via comms.

"Cheetor to Optimus. Do you read me?"

"Yes." Optimus replies.

Back at the Axalon...

"And he's over 5 micro quads away Looks like it's working."

"So far." Rhinox complimented.

Back at Cheetor, he hears something going off in the distance...

"I just heard some kind of explosion. I'm gonna check it out. Talk to you in a minute." 

"Explosion? Wait, Cheetor, don't ..."

But Cheetor did not reply and instead runs off. Optimus sighs and says...

"He's moving again. I'm going after him. If he calls in tell him to get out of there, now!" then leaves the Axalon to go after Cheetor.

"Why is it that some recruits are willing to disobey orders to prove themselves to their commanding officers?" Optimus asked, clearly unpleased with Cheetor's showcase of impulsiveness but remaining indifferent.

"It's to showcase to us that they're a lot more worth than they're capable of, Commander." Ultra Magnus answered.

"Those chances can wait, you know." Bulkhead said.

Cheetor took cover to avoid detection as Scorponok was finishing digging the device; which was revealed to be some kind of weapon.

"Uh oh. This is trouble. Cheetor- MAXIMIZE!"

He transforms to his robot form. And opens his comms.

"Cheetor to Optimus."

"Optimus is on his way. He said you should get outta there." Rhinox answered.

"No can do baby blue."

The Autobot higher-ups were displeased.

"Scorponok's here and he found a mega-cannon. Must have come from their ship. I've got to stop him before he gets it back to their base."

"At least wait for backup before you go in, squirt." Bulkhead commented.

"Cheetor out."

Scorponok inspects the weapon in Beast Mode.

"Still operational. Megatron will be pleased." Scorponok gleefully commented.

"And you'll be slag..."

He turns around to see Cheetor aiming his gun at him.

"...if you don't stay right where you are clawful."

"Come on kid, you can't be that dumb to take on a Predacon alone." Bulkhead says rolling his eyes.

Smokescreen and Bumblebee looked at further to see how would it go.

"Clicking makes me twitch."

Scorponok didn't reply.

"And there's a full charge in this beauty."

Still no reply, Scorponok bitterly murmured at the humiliation of being caught off guard by a Maximal.

"Away from the big boomer, plug ugly." Cheetor ordered.

"Cheetor to base. I've got the gig in hand. Tell Optimus to home in on my signal."

No reply from Rhinox so Cheetor hails again.

"Cheetor to base. Come in Rhinox." still no reply from base.

"Maybe that's cause you're too far away from base?" Arcee suggested.

Scorponok clicked his claws.

"You're making me twitch again."

Unbeknownst to Cheetor, Tarantulas sneaked up behind him and proclaims...

"And I'll make you scream!"

Panicked, Cheetor fired at Tarantulas, but the spider moved out of the line of fire, allowing for...

"Scorponok, TERRORIZE!"

the scorpion Predacon to transform to his Robot Form and fires a missile right at Cheetor, knocking the young Maximal out of action.

The older Autobots facepalmed, Optimus more so, while the younglings 'ooohed' at the immediate explosion.

"And I believed I taught Hot Rod to be more cautious than that..." Optimus commented, disliking Cheetor's recklessness.

"If he could have just returned to base..." Ultra Magnus agrees.

"Yes!" the Predacon lieutenant cheered.

"Better grab that weapon while you can and get it back to base." Tarantulas speaks suggestively without being spotted.

Scorponok hears jets roaring in the distance and proclaims...

"Optimus is coming."

But he talked like he was replying to ghosts.

"Don't give me orders. I'm second-in-command. You will take the cannon back and I will see to Optimus..."

No reply, Tarantulas might have been gone.

"You hear me?! Tarantulas?... Tarantulas?..."

Still no response, so Scorponok hauls the megacannon back to base by himself. Again.

The young Autobots chuckled.

"For a second in command, Scorponok's just likely to take orders from subordinates, doesn't he?" Arcee replied, amused.

"It seems the Predacon chain of command is a loose end compared to the Decepticons." Ratchet commented.

"Wow, and I thought I was the one giving Starscream orders." Knockout sardonically commented. 

In-flight, Optimus in his jet mode, flies to where Cheetor was last located.

"Cheetor. Cheetor."

No reply, so Optimus surmises...

"His signal's stopped. Could be Energon interference. Better use scan mode."

[Target spotted, locking in.]

Optimus lands at the last location to find Cheetor on foot.

"Cheetor! Cheetor!"

To his shock, he found Cheetor knocked out with a missile point blown at his chestplate.

"NO!"

In the dreams of the out cold Maximal, he imagines himself cornering Megatron's gang as if the Predacon crime lord was predictable. Megatron, Terrorsaur and Waspinator fired, but they missed Cheetor, who pulled out a cool trick with his gun and fired, blasting away Terrorsaur and Waspinator.

"Now it's just you and me Mega-jerk."

Cheetor fired, blasting Megatron to pieces.

Optimus sighs... "Younglings. Always will they dream of possibilites that will never be reached."

"They never learn."

"And when will YOU learn, pussy cat?" Tarantulas taunted.

Cheetor fires but Tarantulas was not there, and so...

"Scorponok, TERRORIZE!"

A missile flies straight at Cheetor, haunted with Scorponok's laughter as the missile closes in onto the cheetah, waking up the youngling to reality. He screamed and was promptly shoved down to his bed.

"There. Good as new." Rhinox commented.

Ratchet rolls his optics. He's had younglings like Cheetor scream when they wake up.

"Yeah. And twice as loud." Rattrap commented in his beast form.

Cheetor looks up to see a displeased Optimus Primal in Beast Mode.

"Hey Big Bot. What happened out there?"

"You took a Predacon missile right in the chestplate. Guess you ain't as fast as you thought, eh kiddo." Rattrap explained then mocked the cheetah Maximal.

"And you got my com-link trashed." Rhinox added.

"Hey at least I proved it worked." Cheetor replied.

"Rhinox said you reported something about a mega-cannon?" Optimus said.

"That's right. It must've blown off their ship in the crash." Cheetor reported. "Scorponok found it, so I catted in and got the drop on him."

Smokescreen and Bumblebee chuckled at the 'cat' pun.

"I'd say that you were the one who got dropped." Rattrap commented.

"Tarantulas was there too. He got behind me. When I tried to take him out..." Cheetor continued but-

"Scorponok capitalized on your mistake." Optimus interrupted, unimpressed with Cheetor's life-threatening stunt.

"Yeah, I guess so." Cheetor says, his head hung in shame.

"Rhinox worked on that com-link for a month and he doesn't have the components to build another one." Optimus says beratingly.

"That long, huh? We've just had our new comms made in a day." Bulkhead stated.

"Guess who trashed his own while lugging that big load of Energon." Wheeljack said.

"Hey, I couldn't let that thing zap my audio receptor!"

"Yet still how in all of Primus were we going to hail you if you stomped your com link? Ratchet screamed 'I needed that!' while he was fixing it."

Bulkhead grumbled while Optimus and Ratchet shook their heads.

"You've cost us an advantage..."

"I couldn't let them get away with that cannon." Cheetor explained.

"Oh, yeah, you took care of that real good kiddo." Rattrap mocked.

"Can't believe I agree with the rat." Arcee said.

Cheetor turned to Beast Mode and threatens Rattrap...

"Back off RatFace! Or I'll have a little vermin-on-a-stick for lunch!" 

Rattrap didn't look intimidated by the threat even as Cheetor growled at him. But Optimus broke off the possible fight by dragging Cheetor to his face.

"You back off, NOW!" he says harshly.

"Sorry Optimus, I..." Cheetor says like a guilty child but Optimus interrupts him.

"Sorry isn't enough. We're in a war for survival and you treat it like a game." then drops Cheetor.

"If you had obeyed orders, all of this could have been avoided."

Optimus announces...

"I'm going to call Dinobot in from the perimeter. We'll need his knowledge of the Predacon base to do something about that mega-cannon."

"I can get inside their base. Let me do it Optimus." Cheetor begged.

"You've done enough." Optimus refused and walked out, leaving Cheetor ashamed but still determined.

"I better come up with a plan. If I know Optimus he'll want to move fast." Rhinox says.

"Better hope that's a good plan, or else you're all scrapped." Knockout comments.

"Yeah, with me in front. No thanks partner. The pussy cat got us into hot oil." Rattrap commented, reminding the gang how Cheetor got them in a bad spot.

"Let him dance into Predacon H.Q." 

"At least I'm not afraid to do it." Cheetor replies.

"Ya know, that is why you mess up kiddo. You don't have the sense to be afraid." Rattrap speaks back.

"Coward." Arcee and Bumblebee said.

"And to think Starscream was that much fearful..." Knockout says, shaking his head while dipping his fingers in his temple.

"Oh yeah? I'll show you what I have the sense to do motorhead. You and Big Bot!" Cheetor proclaims with confidence then leaps off the table.

"What -- ?"

"You know what he's gonna do." Rhinox says.

"Aw, he's just grinding his gears." Rattrap retorts rudely. "Even he's not dumb enough to disobey the great Optimus again."

"Somehow, I think he will.." Wheeljack says.

"Uh huh." Rhinox says, not buying Rattrap's act.

"Okay, okay okay! I'll stop him." Rattrap says out of frustration, then leaps out... "If I can catch him! Sheesh, ah, the rotten little guys..." then leaps off, leaving Rhinox smiling.

On the outskirts of the Darksyde where the Predacons are installing the cannon, Cheetor stalks by...

"Got to move quickly."

"Not again. You should know better Cheetor." Ratchet chastised.

"Rattrap will come. Don't worry. He might be able to compensate for his cowardice for... other talents." Knockout assured.

"Not helping, Knockout."

"Just saying."

"All I have to do now is wait for the right moment." Cheetor says sneaking in closer, but a glaw grabs him by the hindleg and pulls him down.

"Wha -- ?!"

"Welcome." greeted Tarantulas.

Cheetor later wakes up in an underground lair, being caught in a web he can't pull himself out.

"Oh brother, you need a maintenance bot badly."

Tarantulas chuckles amused and replies "You're in a stasis web. It drains away the energy but leaves the flesh alive. At it's current setting this will take only a few moments But I find a slower pace makes the vital fluids taste so much better."

Optimus scratched his chin...

"Perhaps this stasis technology they have can certainly help, Ratchet?"

The old medic replied "It would, for both medical and non-lethal purposes, regardless of whose hands it falls."

"You are one space happy spider. Cheetor! Maximize!"

But being trapped in the cyberweb proves that transformation could not occur. Tarantulas laughs sadistically.

"I'm afraid the web makes that impossible. Cat you are and cat you stay. And when your energy's gone..."

Knockout laughs slightly at the cat puns. "Clever."

Tarantulas clicks his mouthplates, looking hungry...

"I feast."

Cheetor widens his eyes, shocked.

The Autobots, especially Arcee, looked at with disgust.

The blue femme of the Autobots grimaced; that reminded all too familiarily of an old rival.

Back at the Axalon where Optimus and Dinobot are looking at a screen where the weapon is being emplaced, making plans to destroy the mega-cannon.

"Frontal assault, now, before Megatron has a chance to use the cannon against us." Dinobot suggests.

"Impossible. The modifications would be too extensive." Optimus counters. "He's more likely to emplace it as a defensive weapon."

"Question is... where? Rhinox, this is your specialty, take a look."

Rhinox complies.

"And where's Rattrap? I'll need him to scout." Optimus asks.

"Still talking to Cheetor." Rhinox replies.

Dinobot snarls and replies...

"We waste too much time talking. We must act." he suggests.

"Rushing in head long won't help" Primal reasons.

"He is right for a reason. A weapon that large cannot be underestimated." Optimus comments.

"No, no, no! Destroy them!" Dinobot argues.

Meanwhile...

"Oh man, Oh man!"

Rattrap skitters forth in the wasteland, looking for Cheetor.

"I must have a bug in my program to be doing this for that dumb feline."

He stops and notices his stench in Cheetor's last known position nearby.

"I can smell his stink even in this sludge box."

Rattrap goes down the hole to investigate.

"Something's weird here."

"No scrap, Sherlock." Arcee's dry joke made Smokescreen and Bumblebee laugh.

"Not long now."

Rattrap sneaks in to see an underground lair, hearing Cheetor...

"This is a dumb plan, Webface. I don't have any real blood. Just mech fluid."

"Oh, my filters will adjust. It is the act I enjoy more than the nourishment." Tarantulas retorted with extreme glee.

"Ya know, you are one sick bug, eight-eyes!" Cheetor insulted.

"I thought Airachnid was sick, but this bug made her look like a lady." Arcee commented.

Eventually Rattrap leaps in and jumps on Tarantulas.

"The rat!" Tarantulas hisses in surprise.

"You got it."

Rattrap proclaims...

"Now what say you let my pal go?"

Instead...

"Tarantulas! TERRORIZE!"

Tarantulas transforms.

"Rattrap! MAXIMIZE!"

Rattrap does the same.

"Now he'll have YOU for lunch, web breath!" Cheetor taunts even while being captive.

But Tarantulas shoots first, forcing Rattrap into cover, until the latter came up with a plan that includes removing some kind of box from his arsenal stores. He smirked and placed it, waiting for the Predacon to come close.

"Thermal scan."

Tarantulas moves closer, weapons in hand, until he moves and realizes that the rat hiding there was a trap.

"Fell for the old hot-box." Rattrap comments then blasts Tarantulas out temporarily. He turns to Cheetor and attempts to deactivate the webbings holding him "Hang on kiddo."

[Unable to respond. Incorrect energy signature.]

The computer constantly repeats this message even as Rattrap tries mashing some buttons, but the computer would not recognize his energy signature; realizing that only Tarantulas can operate the controls.

Knockout says "Brilliant idea. Locking the computer to only the creator's signature so that no one else can use it. It might be