"Log-Date: 8-5-12: It's been a month since I arrived and when I met the Maximals. Since that, my only means of shelter was destroyed, but they allowed me to live with them in their ship which is called the Axalon. I have made some friends here, which kind of act like a weird family despite knowing them for a short time. Here's what I've gathered so far."

"The first one that I met is Cheetor; one with a cheetah alt-mode. In the family aspect, he is like the youngest brother who tries to prove that he can be responsible, and seeks validation, he's also kinda reckless, but funny. Ever since he found out about the Italian language, he's been wanting me to teach him, annoying me to the point until I agree. I don't know whether or not I should laugh or be angry at every word he got wrong. And I don't know if I should tell him about me knowing German, 'cause Rattrap knows. And weirdly enough, in exchange for not telling Cheetor and teaching him, he offered to eat my garbage? Although I'm not against the idea to get rid of my trash another way, I find it weird."

"Anyways, speaking of Rattrap -- one with a rat alt-mode -- he is like the middle child that is sometimes bark and no bite; taking into consideration of his slight cowardness, but he is still a good ally and friend, who comes up with funny remarks. For some reason, when I teach him German, I always imagine that rat from the Cuphead game and the Cuphead show; don't tell him I said that, I don't know what his reaction would be if he found out who that is. He is the shortest one out of the Maximals here, but he is only 2 meters taller/7 feet taller than me. I hate it."

"The next one is Rhinox -- one with a rhinoceros alt-mode -- who I believe is the second-in-command and the heavy lifter of the team. With his beast-mode, he might as well have the strength of a semi-truck running you over, backing up, and running you over again. He is like the oldest child that is the main person with responsibility. He's also good in inventing and a good teacher because I asked him if he could teach me to read their language so then I can build a gun and other things from Cybertronian schematics. That way, I won't be confused when looking at something that looks like algebra that got possessed by a Latin demon and might as well have gotten a lobotomy in the process."

"Up next, we have the other newest addition to the group, besides myself, is Dinobot; one with a velociraptor alt-mode. He used to work with Megatron and the other Predacons, before he was kicked out for challenging Megatron's leadership. He's had his ups and downs with the group -- mainly downs-- and almost crushing one of us with a stalactite in the process with his laser eyes. But, it's fine; everyone makes mistakes! At least he has honor, because that was the only reason Optimus is still here."

"And finally, we have the big man himself, Optimus Primal -- one with a silver-backed gorilla alt-mode -- the father-figure of the group. He cares for his team, and he always gives an order that he would be willing to do himself; His words, not mine. He's the kind of person who would sacrifice himself for the sake of others. How chivalrous of him. He can also pack quite the punch from what I've seen."

"This is all I have to say for now. End of log."

I sighed before the door to the main room opened up in front of me, and I walked through. "Good work, Rhinox!" Optimus congratulated. "Well, it still needs a field test." Rhinox informed. "'Test'?" Cheetor asked, his voice echoing from the hall before he quickly ran into the room in beast-mode, landing on the table. "I'm your Bot, whatcha got?" He questioned.

"Rhinox cobbled together a new comm-link. It's going to solve our long-range communication problems." Optimus informs. "If it works." Rhinox added. "Well, let's find out!" Cheetor stated, snatching the device out of Rhinox's hand. He took a close look at it, with bits of static electricity coming from the top of it. "Wow, ultra-gear."

"Cheetor, it's a valuable piece of equipment. We need you to take extra good care of it." I stated, leaning against the table, pointing at him. "I copy, lil' buddy. What do I do?" The transforming cheetah asked. "The device is voice activated." Optimus informed, strapping the device onto the front left leg, at the top, on Cheetor's beast-mode. "Just talk into it, and we'll hear you." He added "We hope." Rhinox added. "And don't call me that, Cheets." I added.

Optimus sat down in a chair, and mechanically, went towards one of the panels of the command center, and turned on the monitor. "Head away from the base at vector omega and check in every 10 micro quads. We'll see how far we can track you." He explained. 'I think I just had a stroke listening to that' I thought to myself. "If you encounter an Predacons, return immediately." Optimus added.

Cheetor let out a dry laugh, "I'll be moving too fast for them to see me." He stated in a bragging manner. He hopped off the table and left. Rhinox shook his head, to which Optimus chuckled at. "He'll do fine." He said before turning his attention back to the monitor.

I walked down the stairs and headed to my room and test the prototype for my gun again. I entered my room of the ship, grabbed my supplies and headed for the top of the Avalon.

I loaded in the magazine, put my index finger on the trigger, ready to pull the trigger, and aimed at one of the rocks that I had marked for target practice.

"Ready... Aim... Shoot!" I counted down, firing a bullet. I set it down, grabbed my binoculars, and saw that I missed the center by 6-inches. I put it down and grabbed the gun. "Can't have that. Just gotta tune the scope a bit more..." I said as I turned the knob a bit before aiming again and fired. I looked through the binoculars once more, and this time, I caught a bullseye. "Finally!" I exclaimed, a smile slowly growing on my face. "But to make sure that it wasn't just luck~" I said in a singing tone before I aimed and fired again, but at a target that was farther away. I took a look, and it was indeed a perfect shot.

I took out my tape recorder from my pocket. "Log-Date: 8-6-12: I finished the test for my first gun was a success! Now time to start on my second project; a hoverboard so then I won't be so slow or can't keep up when retreating the battlefield. End of log."

I put the gun back in its case and walked back into the base, heading to my room.

(Time-skip)

We were in the med bay, and Cheetor finally woke up after he was repaired, with a scream. Rhinox pushed him back down onto the table, and finally finished the last but of repairs. "There. Good as new." He said. Rattrap, in beast-mode, jumped on his back, looking over his shoulder at Cheetor. "Yeah, and twice as loud. Ow!" Rattrap added, rubbing his right ear.

Cheetor slowly sat up again after he took notice of Optimus standing on the other side of the examination table. "Hey, big-bot... w-what happened out there?" Cheetor nervously asked, sounding like he'd just got caught staying up at night playing on his phone.

Rattrap spat out a piece of a rotten apple he'd just finished eating. "You took a Predacon missile right in the chest-plate. Guess you're not as fast as you thought, kiddo." Rattrap explained, adding a bit of mockery into the mix. "And you got my comm-link trashed." Rhinox added. "Hey, hey! At least I proved it worked." Cheetor stated. "Word of advice, bud; don't do what dumb whites do in horror movies, dammit!" I scolded, pulling myself onto the examination table, grabbing the sides of his head and shook it aggressively back and forth before letting go. "You worried us for crying out loud." I added before jumping back down to the floor.

"Rhinox said you reported something about a mega-cannon." Optimus reminded. "That's right! It must've blown off in the crash. Scorponok found it, so I cat-ed in and got the drop on him." Cheetor bragged. "I'd say that... you were the one that got dropped." Rattrap said, eating the rotten apple core in go.

"Eh- Tarantulas was there, too! He got behind me a-and when I tried to take him out-" "Scorponok capitalized on your mistake." Optimus finished, glaring down at the rookie. "Yeah... I guess so." Cheetor muttered aloud, averting his optics away from his leader. "Rhinox worked on that comm-link for a month! And he doesn't have the components to build another. You've caused us an advantage." Optimus scolded. "I couldn't let him get away with that cannon!" Cheetor retorted, only to get scoffed at by Rattrap. "Oh, yeah! You took care of real good, kiddo." Rattrap sarcastically said in a teasing manner, chuckling at the end.

"OW!" Rattrap yelled when something got thrown at him. He looked down to see a shoe. He then looked over at me, the only person who can wear that kind of thing, only to see me holding my other one, ready to be thrown at any given moment. "That's enough, Rattrap." I stated, glaring at him.

"I'm sorry, Optimus. I-" Cheetor started but was cut off, who was now in animal form. "Sorry isn't enough! We're in a war for survival and you treat it like a game. If you had obeyed orders, all of this could've been avoided." Optimus scolded. "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." Optimus said, turning around to walk out of the med-bay. "Well- I can get inside their base! Let me do it, Optimus." Cheetor pleaded, begging to prove himself.

"You've done enough." Optimus said before the doors closed. "I'd better come up with a plan. If I know Optimus, he'd want to move fast." Rhinox said. "Yeah, with me up front. Heh, no thanks, partner. The pussycat got us into hot oil. Let him dance into Predacon HQ." Rattrap said. "At least I'm not afraid to do it!" Cheetor retorted. "You know, that's why you mess up, kiddo. You don't have the sense to be afraid." Rattrap remarked.

"Oh, yeah?! I'll show you what I have the sense to do, motorhead! You and big bot!" Cheetor stated before he jumped of the examination table, running down the hall. Rhinox hummed while shaking his head. "What?" Rattrap questioned. "We all know what he's going to do." I muttered tiredly. "Nah, he's just grindin' his gears. I mean, even he's not that dumb enough to disobey the great Optimus again." Rattrap stated. "Uh-huh." Rhinox said in an tone that you just know is saying "are you sure about that?"

Rattrap sighs in defeat, "Okay, okay, okay. I'll stop him. If I can catch him. Sheesh. that rotten little guy." As Rattrap left, I followed. "And as his best friend, I have the right to lay it into him like a best friend should. And it gives me the excuse to use my gun for moving targets if we run into Predacons."

(Time-skip)

We walked up a hill, maneuvering around rocks as we tried to locate Cheetor. "Man, oh man. I must have a bug in my program to be doing this for that dumb feline." Rattrap muttered. "Well, it's your fault for giving him that idea, so you fix it." I stated as Rattrap sniffed the air for the cat's scent. "I can smell his stink even in this sludge box." He complained. "Well, makes sense 'cause you have the form a rat, and rats have 1,700 olfactory receptor-" "Hush!" He exclaimed.

I rolled my eyes, rude I thought. "Something's weird here." He muttered before he pushed the rock out of the way, revealing a secret entrance and instantly headed down. I shrugged, jumping in after him. Once we reached the bottom, it led us into a dark cavern. "Well, I can cross out 'Go spelunking' off my bucket list." I muttered, taking out my gun.

We traveled down further and saw Cheetor stuck in a web while in his alt-mode, and a huge ass spider that almost caused me to scream in fright.

"Not long now." The spider laughed; Tarantulus I believe. "This is a dumb plan, web face. I don't have any real blood. Just mech fluid." Cheetor groaned. "Oh, my filters will adjust. It is the act I enjoy more than the nourishment." Tarantulus informed. "You know, you are one sick bug, eight eyes." Rattrap said, revealing us both as I pointed my blaster at the buggy freak.

Tarantulus yelped in surprise, turning in our direction. "The rat and flesh creature!" He exclaimed. Rattrap smugly chuckled, "You got it."

"You know, I don't know what kind of level of sadistic kink this is, but this is ending now. Release the cat." I demanded. "I'm surprise you're handling this bug-phobia of yours very well." He muttered. "I'm internalizing a lot of things right now." I replied, voice shaking.

"Tarantulus, terrorize!"

"Rattrap, maximize!"

Tarantulus pulled out a gun from behind his back and started firing at us. We jumped out of the way, only for it to hit one of the stalagmites. We started firing from our cover, and Tarantulus did the same behind a control panel.

"Now they'll have you for lunch, web breath!" Cheetor remarked. Tarantulus pointed his gun at the cheetah, but then pressed a button on the panel, increasing the speed of life drainage. But while he was distracted, I told Rattrap that I'd sneak by and try to free Cheetor.

(Also, the only reason Tarantulus' thermal scan doesn't work on you is because you aren't supposed to exist during this time period, so you're basically invisible)

As I carefully sneaked by, I would occasionally glance over my shoulder to see what's happening behind me, but with how dark the cavern is and how far away it is from the only source of light is, it was tough to see other than the explosions from Tarantulus' weapon. Just as I arrived, an explosion shook the whole cavern.

"Okay, cavern's falling apart, but that's fine. Everything's fine! Just gotta deactivate the machine and we get out of here..." I muttered to myself before humming in confusion. "But which one is the right one?!" I asked myself in a panicked tone, clutching my head.

That's when Rattrap came running over. "Do you know how to work this?" I asked. "You haven't turned it off?!" He questioned. "IDON'TKNOWHOWYOURTECHNOLOGYWORKS! I'm useless in this situation!" I screamed, voice filled with stress. "Fine! Let me do it!" Rattrap exclaimed, pushing me out of the way and pressing random buttons. ":: Unable to respond. Incorrect energy signature. ::" The computer said. Frustrated, Rattrap continues press random buttons as the computer repeats 'incorrect energy signature' every time.

A whirling sound came from the machine, and we heard a choked gag from Cheetor. We started abusing the panel by Rattrap shaking it aggressively and me kicking it. That's when it hit me. "Stand back, Rattrap. Time for my signature." I said, pulling out my gun and aimed at the machine dead center and fired, making it fly off the ground and into the abyss. Rattrap laughed in victory.

Cheetor woke up as Rattrap had cut him out of the web and fell into his hold. "Hey, rat face. Hey, lil' bud. What's the good word?" He tiredly greeted as rattrap carried him to the exit. "Game over, vermis!" Tarantulus spoke up, pointing his gun at us. "Give my regards to the inferno!" He exclaimed, firing a missile at us. We ran out of the way, making the missile hit web and cause an explosion.

We got up and ran out of there as fast as we could like gingerbread men as the cavern finally collapsed, hopefully taking out that damn abomination.

(Time-skip)

Secretly returning to base, we walked into the main room where the rest of the gang were planning their attack on the Predacons. "Hey, fearless leader, what's the haps?" Rattrap asked, gaining their attention. "Where've you three been?" Optimus asked. "Uh, just hocking around." Rattrap said. "Yeah, you know, Cheetor needed some activity after drilling Words of Wisdom into his head. To make sure he doesn't do what he did today again. Ever. You were a little too harsh on him, sir. After all everybody's made mistakes before, even great leaders such as yourself." I added, mentally praying that he believes me.

"Well, maybe you're right. I'm sorry, Cheetor. I shouldn't have been so harsh." Optimus said. "No, you were right, big bot. I messed up, but I won't do it again. From now on, this cat is a team player." Cheetor pledged. "I'm glad to hear it." Optimus said before turning back to the battle plans as we turned back down the hallway iwht the doors closing behind us.

I released a held in sigh of relief. "Hey, uh, thanks for not telling him about-" "Save it, kiddo!" Rattrap exclaimed, making me jump in surprise. "If I told Optimus about your little play date with Tarantulas, he'd kick my sweet, pink butt too. And one more thing: If you ever pull a stunt like this again, I will personally rearrange your spots." Rattrap warned. "Now, get outta my way. I got Y/n's garbage to munch." He concluded, walking away.

"Well, I'm gonna go to bed. It's been a long day for us. And FYI, I would be the one to reach you before Rattrap could if this happens again, and tweak your optical programming to be seeing strange hallucinations for weeks. And I mean that in an endearing way as your best friend. Goodnight." I said, walking away yawning.

"And thanks for saving my life... pals." Cheetor muttered.

---

Found something on Tumblr. Credits to dinoserious; this is not mine