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Bluestar lead her small patrol quietly through her territory, her hackles raising warily with every pawstep. The dawn patrol had reported a strange bright, unexplainable green glow coming from Sunningrocks. Only one thing could cause such a thing as far as she could figure – two-legs, and if they were that far into their territory… she shuddered to think of the consequences.
“Bluestar,” Fireheart mewed softly as he caught up with her, her previous apprentice looking somewhat apprehensive, “What if this isn’t the work of two-legs?”
“What else could it possibly be?” her gentle blue eyes narrowed, looking across at the ginger tom, “RiverClan couldn’t make a glow like the one Mousefur described, and Yellowfang agrees that not even StarClan would do something so strange.”
He paused, pondering her words for a moment before continuing, “Okay, so what if it is two-legs? What are we going to do about them?”
“Chase them out, I hope,” a deep growl sounded from just behind them, Tigerclaw’s amber eyes fierce as he kept pace in his position behind his leader, “Two-legs don’t belong this far into our territory.” Bluestar noticed Fireheart flinch slightly, the fur on his back prickling, but he made no comment. She wouldn’t disgrace him by making comment either.
“Be rational, Tigerclaw,” Whitestorm interjected from the rear of the patrol, “If two-legs are involved we need to be careful. They’re unpredictable, and dangerous.”
“Hopefully it won’t come to that,” she mewed in an attempt to close any argument before it could begin, looking forward again, “We’ll find out what’s going on first, and make a plan to deal with it when we know more.”
*~*~*~*~*~*
Optimus groaned, his vision focusing slowly as he came back around. He and his team had been fighting Decepticons when… well he wasn’t really sure what’d happened, but he’d find out.
“R-Ratchet?” he called as he lifted his head, his body feelingly oddly…odd, in a way he couldn’t explain, “Bumblebee? Bulkhead-?”
“Optimus!” he heard Bulkhead’s familiar voice coming from his left, and he looked around, only to see a swirling river next to him. He wouldn’t have been surprised, rivers were fairly common on Earth but this one was gigantic. At least, it looked so from his perspective. Just what was going on here? Looking down at himself, he quickly realized what the problem was.
He was adorned with red, blue and grey fur that he was fairly certain he hadn’t had a moment ago. Moving an arm to his face, he felt a soft paw run over his new muzzle, and strange wire like extrusions coming out from him.
“Prime,” Bulkhead finally manage to scramble his way up the rock-face, or at least, Optimus suspected it was Bulkhead. Standing before him was a large, long-furred, green, black and grey feline, its tail swishing side to side almost nervously, “You too?”
“It appears so, Bulkhead,” Optimus got to his paws shakily, looking around to try and find the rest of his team, “Is everyone else…a erm…?”
“An Earth cat, yes,” that disdainful voice could only be Arcee. The lithe blue and pink feline leapt nimbly up to join them, the yellow and black form of Bumblebee following close behind her. Noticing that the yellow tom had a starburst scar on his neck Optimus swallowed. Whatever crazy place this was, it was clear Bumblebee was not going to be gifted with his voice back.
“Where’s Ratchet?” Optimus asked, his own tail twitching slightly. That felt odd.
“Accounted for,” the medic grunted as he finally clawed his way up to join them, white and red fur dripping with water, “If anyone wants to tell me what the frag is going on, that’d be fantastic.”
“All I can remember is the space bridge appearing then – nothing,” Bulkhead shuffled away from the soggy medic, clearly not eager to get his own fur wet, “Until I woke up here like this.” Bumblebee nodded furiously, sitting down and wrapping his tail around his paws.
“It wasn’t our space bridge though was it,” Arcee growled softly, eyes narrowing, “It was the ‘Cons. If this is one of Soundwave’s tricks-”
“Then it’s certainly one of the strangest, but as of yet we have no proof of that,” the Prime interjected, “For now we need to find a…” he trailed off when he heard threatening growls coming from the treeline. Apparently, they weren’t alone.
*~*~*~*~*~*
Bluestar padded out of the bushes to confront these strangers, her strong patrol filing out behind her. “This is ThunderClan territory, who are you?” she growled, glaring at the group standing a-top the Sunningrocks.
“We apologize for the intrusion, we didn’t intend to invade any territory,” Optimus mewed placatingly as he hopped off the rocks to greet the other cats, “We’re actually looking for help, where exactly are we?”
“Our leader has already told you your on ThunderClan territory,” Tigerclaw snarled, “You’re problems are not our concern.”
“If the Decepticon’s followed us through the space-bridge, they soon will be,” the blue she-cat remarked, joining her leader on the ground. Their words, even their voices sounded foreign. Must be rogues.
“Who are the Decepticons?” she demanded, glaring at Tigerclaw to keep him silent, “And why would they give rogues a reason to be on our territory?”
“Rogues?” the red and white tom’s tail lashed, “Who are you calling rogues?”
“So are you Clan cats then? I’ve never seen cats like you in RiverClan,” Bluestar’s eyes narrowed with annoyance, “Because you very clearly aren’t kittypets, which would make you rogues.”
“We are not of this…world,” their leader tried to explain, clearly hoping that the rest of his team would keep their own tempers in check, “We don’t know where we are, or how we got here, but I promise you we mean you and your kind no harm.”
“Not of this world?” Fireheart piped up from his leader’s other side, looking thoroughly confused, “Are you from beyond the mountains?”
“Primus, and I thought the human’s scope of reality was limited!” the old-cat huffed, “We come from space, you know the stars.
“You are StarClan cats?” Whitestorm’s eyes widened, “How- How is that possible?” Bluestar glanced from cat to cat. Clearly these cats weren’t a threat, but there could be one coming.
*~*~*~*~*
The Decepticons weren’t fairing much better. Megatron paced through the trees in his new found form, several annoyed looking ‘Cons trailing behind him.
“These new organic forms are disgusting,” Knockout griped from the rear of the group to no one in particular, “Even my good looks can only go so far.”
“I don’t think how pretty you are is the main problem here,” Starscream snapped, and Megatron was becoming increasingly grateful for the silent servant padding ever faithfully beside him. Soundwave had remained silent, even throughout this experience, a dedication that some others could apparently only dream of achieving, “So why don’t you apply your considerable efforts into figuring out how this happened, since apparently Soundwave doesn’t know.”
“Perhaps it’s an Autobot trick,” Breakdown suggested, glaring at the back of Starscream’s head.
“If it is then they’d better hope I don’t get back in my real body,” Knockout snarled, not soothed by Breakdown’s casual flank brush, “Because I’ll strip their paintworks off each of them individually.”
“Will you all shut your vocalizers?!” Megatron snapped, “I want answers, not your pathetic bickering!”
“My liege, I’m afraid we have no answers, besides perhaps an issue with the space bridge,” Knockout responded, glaring off to the side petulantly, “Which would only raise more questions.”
“Like why Soundwave hadn’t noticed this kind of an issue?” Starscream added scathingly.
“Starscream if you have no explanations, then shut up,” Megatron hissed, pausing to turn and face his bots, “If none of you know how or why this happened, then tell me something you do know?”
“We appear to be Earth felines,” Knockout stopped beside his partner, a wariness settling over the group. An annoyed Megatron could turn violent at anytime, “These are creatures usually kept by the organics as pets, but we don’t appear to be any organic’s playthings.”
“How do you know that?” Breakdown asked, looking over at the red and black tom.
“Ravage was a cat, I speculated from there,” no one missed Soundwave’s flinch, but no one dared make comment either. Soundwave was more terrifying than Megatron when he wanted to be.
“Fine, but how does that information help us now doctor?” Megatron growled, his claws sinking into the muggy soil. It was a disturbing sensation.
“Perhaps if we found some organics, we could use them,” Breakdown suggested, his whiskers twitching thoughtfully.
“To what end? Do you wish to work with the flesh bags, Breakdown?” Starscream’s lips drew back in disgust at the suggestion.
“Would you like to find out what this furry body can do to you, Starscream?” Breakdown’s fur stood on end, his own claws extending, “I’ll happily give you a demonstration.”
Knockout pushed between them, speaking directly to their leader, “Or, if by any chance the Autobot’s followed us we could use a human as leverage against them. Our new bodies will allow us to get closer to any humans a lot more easily…”
“And we all know how much Optimus hates anyone hurting the organics,” Megatron’s eyes narrowed with delight, eyes glowing in the dim light, “My dear doctor, I do believe we have an opportunity.”
And this, would only be the beginning.