This part took forever, I know. But I hope it was worth the wait. School has been keeping me really busy lately and I haven't had much time for this. I hope you enjoy this, the last part. It's hard to believe I know, but all good things eventually have to end.
** equals an addition
*Part 40: Grand Finale
“Who’s that guy, Big Bot?” Cheetor asked.
Optimus figured there was only one answer. This must be the Visser Three that the young humans had been worried about! He had probably been waiting all this time for the perfect opportunity to strike. Jake had mentioned his forces were limited since arriving after the accident.
Megatron also noticed the new arrival, but he wasn’t as in the loop as Optimus was. He had yet to witness anyone morphing and had no clue what an Andalite was. So the sight in the distance was enough to render him speechless. And that was something that did not happen often.
Visser Three’s changing form was enough to bring the conflict between Maximal and Predicon to a complete standstill. Every single set of optics was on the Visser who was growing larger and larger.
“Big Bot,” Cheetor asked, “What…what is that?”
None of the Animorphs were around to identify the creature that Visser Three was becoming. If they had been, they would have known in an instant, but none of them would have been able to speak. The creature was none other than the one Visser Three had used to murder Prince Elfangor.
The creature was massive. It had enormous teeth, a huge head and long arms. Inferno barreled towards it screaming in his usual fashion. Visser Three swung an arm and practically knocked Inferno from the sky.
“Waspinator does not like this!” Waspinator buzzed and he swooped to avoid going near the creature.
It was evident that Megatron was not happy with the situation either. As the large creature took a swipe at Terrorsaur and then Air Razor, Megatron realized he was going to have to do something he did not like.
“Optimus Primal!” Megatron shouted.
“Now is not the time, Megatron!” was Optimus’ annoyed reply.
“I believe you will want to listen to this, Maximal,” Megatron said, “yeesss.”
“Make it quick, pred!” Rattrap sneered.
“I was not speaking to you, vermin,” Megatron shot. “Optimus, since it appears we have a common enemy, I wish to proprose a….truce.”
Now it was Optimus’ turn to be rendered speechless.
“A truce?” he questioned.
“Temporarily, of course.”
“Of course,” Optimus replied as he thought.
There was no harm in accepting the offer. Though he was surprised Megatron had been the one to put forth the suggestion. If Megatron had decided that the Predicons could not handle the creature alone, however, then maybe this was an offer to be snatched up quickly.
So, both Maximal and Predicon turned to face the new threat. It would seem that the Animorphs would be getting more time after all. That was if the new combined forces were enough to hold back Visser Three.
Meanwhile, inside the base, the Animorphs and the two Maximals were approaching the laboratory. The voices of the two Predicons were a lot clearer now, and for the moment the group remained undetected.
“I suggest that Tigatron and myself enter first,” whispered Dinobot, “in order to draw their fire.”
Jake was unsure what to think for a moment. Was Dinobot placing himself under Jake’s command? It sure seemed that way.
Ok, replied Jake. Ax, you go for the device. The rest of us will distract those two Predicons.
Let’s…
Don’t say it, Rachel! Warned Marco.
…do it.
Marco groaned with annoyance while Dinobot and Tigatron got into place. For a brief moment, there was a pause. Then in a split moment, the two Maximals went bursting into the room with weapons at the ready.
Tarantulas and Black Arachnia whipped around. Suddenly the proximity alert was blatantly obvious. Why hadn’t they heard it before? Of course, they had been too absorbed in trying to reveal the secrets of the device. All else had been pushed from their minds and ignored.
As Dinobot predicted, the first thing the pair did was open fire. This was cut short as Marco swung a massive fist in Black Arachnia’s direction.
“Why don’t you Maximize, Optimus?” she exclaimed.
Wrong gorilla, said a voice out of nowhere.
The brief stunned pause was all the time Marco needed to swing his other fist and sent Black Arachnia flying across the room.
Tarantulas came to the fast realization that he was grossly outnumbered, but he couldn’t let them get the machine! What else could they have possibly been there for? That was when he saw the strange blue creature reaching to pick it up.
“Noo!” he yelled and raised a weapon in Ax’s direction.
I don’t think so! Bellowed Rachel, and eight hundred pounds of grizzly bear went barreling at Tarantulas.
Prince Jake! Ax exclaimed. I have the device!
Great! Said Marco. Now let’s get out of here.
Jake was happy the machine was in hand, but he couldn’t help but think how ridiculously easy that turned out to be. Though the hard part was yet to come. Even though they had the device, they still didn’t know how to use it to get home. Especially since they learned the machine was never meant to be a time machine in the first place. The whole thing was a freak accident.
Let’s get back outside! Jake said.
Back outside, it was hard to determine who was winning the fight. The combined force of Maximals and Predicons were firing at Visser Three, but it was hard to determine if the creature was taking any damage. Waspinator had been ripped clean in half. His torso could be heard off to the side whimpering.
“Why this always happen to Waspinator?” was the piteous lament.
Everyone was too busy to answer him, though. Air Razor and Terrorsaur were launching a combined attack in the air. While on the ground Rhinox was whipping out both machine guns.
Rattrap let out a triumphant whoop as Megatron’s laser sheered one of the tentacles off. Then he caught himself. Why was he cheering for a Pred? He would be happy when the whole ordeal was over and things went back to normal. Teaming up with the Preds just wasn’t right.
“Look, Big Bot!” Cheetor yelled. “It’s the others!”
Optimus turned briefly enough to see the Animorphs racing away from the Predicon base. Clutched safely in Ax’s hands was the machine. They had it! But now that they did…what would they do with it?
Ax was surveying the scene with all four of his eyes. The first thing he noticed was the Abomination looming over all in the form he had used to murder Elfangor. The thought made Ax seethe inside, but he had to force himself to set aside that emotion. Prince Jake was relying on him to get the group home. That was when he saw one of the few remaining human controllers attempting to defend herself with a dracon beam.
A dracon beam was what had caused this whole mess in the first place! Perhaps, Ax thought, perhaps if he were able to recreate the cause of the accident…that might be enough to reverse the process. It appeared that Tarantulas had restored the machine to the state it had been in when the Yeerks had it.
Prince Jake! Ax announced. I have an idea!
That’s great, Ax! What is it?
I require that dracon beam! Ax said. I believe I can use it to recreate what brought us here.
Jake’s first instinct was to ask if Ax was absolutely sure about that idea. But at that point, Jake was tired of the whole thing and was willing to try anything that might get them back home. He was finally getting used to working with the Maximals, but enough was enough.
Cassie, distract that controller! Jake ordered. Rachel, Marco! One of you get that dracon beam!
Got it, boss, Marco replied.
One can only guess what must have been going through that one controller’s mind as a wolf, bear and gorilla came racing at her from three different directions. What was certain, however, was that she had had enough. Her reaction was to drop the dracon beam and run the other way. She was beyond caring what the Visser did to her.
Though she didn’t have much to worry about, as Visser Three was more concerned with the robots assaulting him from all sides.
Marco reached down and snatched up the dracon beam. He raced to get it back to Ax, but when he was halfway there one of Visser Three’s tentacles whipped him away and the weapon went flying out of his hand.
Marco! Jake yelled.
Ax went into full gallop after the weapon. He tucked the machine under one arm and reached down to pick up the gun with the other. Trying not to break it before necessary, Ax put the machine on the ground and tried to get sufficient distance before he fired at it. He also wanted to be sure that he hit none of his friends.
Visser Three finally noticed what was happening and paused in shock for a moment. He watched as Ax backed up and aimed the dracon beam at the machine. With lightning reflexes he whipped a tentacle in Ax’s direction.
It was too bad that Ax was faster. He was already in the act of pulling the trigger as the Visser yelled.
Don’t you…
A small explosion wracked the area and a bright white light blinded everyone in it.
Here we go again! Marco yelled.
When the flash subsided, the Maximals and Predicons looked around. The animals were nowhere to be seen. Neither were the humans nor the aliens. They were all gone.
Megatron glanced around before turning and pointing his weapon at Optimus.
Optimus rolled his eyes and said, “Haven’t you had enough for one day, Megatron?”
Megatron gave this some consideration before lowering his weapon and saying, “Perhaps you are right, Primal. Another time, then.”
Without another word, the Predicons gathered themselves up (quite literally in Waspinator’s case) and made their way back into their base.
The Maximals, back in beast mode, were making the journey back to their own base.
“Do you think they made it back?” Cheetor asked after a long period of thoughtful silence.
Optimus pondered it over for a moment before he smirked and said, “I think so, Cheetor.”
None of the Maximals said anything, but each of them would secretly miss the brave group of young humans.
Optimus wished he could have spoken more to Jake about their struggle. Cheetor had wanted to talk to Marco more, he had seemed ultra gear. Tigatron would have liked to talk with Tobias and Cassie. They seemed to share his peaceful spirit.
Meanwhile, Dinobot silently saluted Rachel. She would be thrilled to know that, in his mind, Dinobot regarded her as a fellow warrior of honor.
On the other side, when the bright light faded, the Animorphs were greeted with a sight they did not expect. They hadn’t appeared in the lab where the whole ordeal began. Instead they were in the woods by where they had stashed their clothes. In stunned silence they demorphed and changed.
When they looked around, the machine was nowhere to be found. In truth, it was a smoldering and unsalvageable wreck back by the Predicon base.
“How did we get back here?” asked Cassie.
“Any idea, Ax?” Jake asked.
I do not know, Prince Jake, Ax confessed. It is a mystery to me.
“If it’s a mystery to Ax,” said Marco, “then us humans have no chance of figuring it out. I say we just be glad we’re back.”
“I still free,” said a voice.
The group turned and saw Dak standing a ways off. Apparently he had been close enough to them that he had been transported there as well.
“Hey, Tobias,” said Jake. “Think you could show our friend to his new home?”
No problem, Tobias replied. Follow me, Dak. I can take you to other free Hork-Bajir. You can live there.
Before Dak walked away, he faced the group and said, “I fellana. I thank you.”
“Anytime,” Jake replied.
Erik informed the group later, when they were telling him their story, that Visser Three and the remaining controllers had appeared back in the lab. He was pretty certain that Visser Three wouldn’t be trying anything with time machines again in the near, or far, future.
“Hey, Jake?” Marco asked.
“Yeah?”
“Can we just go back and play video games now?”
**As the Animorphs walked away, they were unaware that they were being watched. The man, if he could be called that, smiled in a knowing way. Little did anyone suspect that the "time machine" was nothing of the sort. If things had been left to play out on their own, the "accident" would have been nothing but a mere explosion with no time traveling results.
Things on the Maximal and Predicon side had been a little more tricky to manipulate. False memories had to be programmed into Tarantulas as well as false files in his computer. It was necessary to add the erase protocol if Tarantulas delved too deeply. So, in truth, Tarantulas had never designed such a machine and neither did Starscream. It had all been planted.
In usual circumstances, the group should have appeared where they began the ordeal. Though the man thought that the group had endured enough. They did not need a renewed battle with the Visser upon their return. So the man graciously returned them to where they had originally began.
Yes, he had bent the rules. He was not supposed to interfere, but they would never know. This mission had served a purpose. The group had grown and learned.
Yes, the Ellimist thought. They have learned well.
THE END
