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The sun was bright overhead as it hit its zenith position. The shadows of objects were at their minimum, bringing just about everything to light.

‘Good riddance.’ Skyglider didn’t need any convenient hiding places for Predacons to lurk. Of course, she hadn’t had any experience against them as of yet, but she’d heard enough about them from the other Maximals to dislike them. Why weren’t they happy enough with peace?

The dragon was currently on patrol along the boundary between Maximal and Predacon territory. It felt wonderful to run on her powerful hind legs and feel the strength of her pseudo muscles. Her sharp eyes picked up every little detail she could discern. The lack of Predacons didn’t bother her; in fact, she was quite happy to just explore the strange land.

A flash of color upon the ground caused the dragon to stop her loping as she studied the purple flowering plant. She had looked upon the list of plants the Maximal explorers had discovered as of yet, and this one did not look familiar. Perhaps Optimus and Rhinox would appreciate the new addition.

“Skyglider, Maximize.” The dragon stood straight on her hind legs as her body shifted from beast to robot. The tall gold and brown/grey transformer kneeled on the soft grass beside the plant and pulled out a specimen tube from her subspace pocket. Her red optics focused on the flower as she carefully placed the tube over it, then shoved the tube into the ground to extract the whole plant and the dirt surrounding it before she carefully lifted it and capped the tube.

It was while she was placing the tube back into her subspace pocket that she suddenly found shots from a blaster gun going off around her. She gasped and whirled around before grunting as she took a shot to the beast head on her chest. The tall femme fell back several feet and groaned as she pushed herself back onto her feet. She looked up to her attacker and her eyes narrowed to see a red and white flyer above her.

“Ha! Maybe you should watch your back, Maximal!” Terrorsaur cackled as he fired several more shots from his gun.

Skyglider growled and dodged the blasts before she kicked off from the ground, her jets activating to make her airborne as she quickly moved toward the Predacon. Terrorsaur’s dumbfounded expression revealed his surprise at the flying ability of his adversary, and he didn’t realize her intent until the tall bot rammed into him, shoving him several feet back as he gave a squawk of surprise.

Skyglider crossed her arms as she watched the indignant Predacon flyer right himself. “You fool! You think that’ll stop me? Ha! You’re a dumber mech than you look!” He fired off more shots.

The Maximal growled and dodged his blasts as missiles loaded in her launchers. “I…am not…a mech!” She launched her missiles and watched as Terrorsaur moved to dodge the various projectiles that came after him. However, he found out that it was hard to dodge twenty eight missiles, especially when each had a slightly different trajectory.

The dragon bot watched as five separate missiles impacted with Terrorsaur as he squawked from the shock of the impact. As the smoke from the explosions faded, she saw the now dark and crispy Predacon cough before he groaned and plummeted to the ground.

“Hmph…No one calls me a mech and gets away with it.” Skyglider turned and flew off for nearly a kilometer before she moved to land. She looked around at the terrain and sighed. More savannah…There were a couple scrubby trees in the distance, and she noticed the start of rocky land further away. All of the openness made her feet…exposed.

“Base to Skyglider,” the commlink on Sky’s wrist crackled to life and she sighed at hearing the rough voice of Dinobot.

“Skyglider here.”

“The scanners indicated you were in proximity with a Predacon. Report.”

“Well, I didn’t get scrapped, obviously…However, Terrorsaur, or whoever the red flyer is, will be regretting his mistake in determining my gender.”

“Hm…Yes, well…Terrorsaur isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed…Hmph, it’s good to hear that you do have some warrior spark in you after all. I was afraid you were nothing more than a…tree hugger.”

Skyglider growled at this. Well, perhaps he shouldn’t presume to know her! “Skyglider out.” She let her annoyance show through her voice.

The lovely day was already ruined for her after that attack by Terrorsaur and Dinobot’s comment hadn’t helped. She transformed back to her beast mode and stretched her wings before she began to run once more. The flat land with its grass swaying lazily in the breezes began to lose its appeal as she kept going and couldn’t find any new plants to stimulate her interest.

“I can’t wait for this patrol to be over…” Skyglider sighed to herself as she continued to run, soon making a turn as she began to make her way back toward the base on her last leg of the run. The journey was beginning to take its toll on her anger, though, as it faded into fatigue.

“If only I could fly…This would be so much easier…” The dragon grumbled this as she continued on, unwilling to stop and give in to her weakness. Instead, she thought back to her first couple days of life when she began to test what her beast form could do.

She stepped off of the lift once it lowered down to the ground outside of the base. She looked around at the landscape outside of the base, taking in the cliffs and the grassland in the distance and the river below. It was a lovely day, the bright blue sky covered only by a few white, fluffy clouds.

She unfurled her wings and looked up at one of them, noticing how the sunlight made the thin gray wingsail look almost translucent. How could such a delicate thing support a frame like hers? Or could it even do so? She wanted to find out.

The motions of how to fly were instinct in her beast mode. She took long, running strides as she kept her wings spread, focusing on the pull underneath her wings from the wind she created on herself. She ran for nearly ten meters before she kicked off and began to flap her wings, feeling the bones of her wings quickly pivot in the sockets on her shoulders.

She managed about ten feet in the air before she found herself suddenly the victim of gravity. A screech escaped her vocal processors before she landed face first and groaned, her body aching from the fall. What was wrong with her? She had the instincts!

Laughter made her look sharply toward the base and she growled as she saw Rattrap there, doubled over as he laughed his head off. He thought it was funny, huh? “Keep laughing, Rat Face. Just keep laughing till I sink my claws into your throat!” She then sighed and struggled with her wings to get herself upright and onto her feet. A sound of robotic feet approaching made her look over to see Cheetor approaching her.

“Hey there, need some help? Here.” The young Maximal grabbed her from under the connection points of her wings and shoulders and grunted as he helped to lift her up so that she could get her feet under her.

The dragon shook her head once she was able to stand and looked to the blue bot with a slight smile. “Thanks Cheetor.”

“No problem! Anytime.” The cheetah transformer moved off toward the base while Skyglider sighed and looked at her wings with disdain…

A sigh escaped the present day Skyglider as she came back to the present and found the base coming into sight. “Home sweet home…” The dragon Maximal found her stride changing as she went from the softer grass to the hard stone as she came closer to the base. At least she had a new plant to bring in. Optimus would be pleased…Maybe they’d let her keep it in her room.

Sky slowed down as she approached the base, now panting. That had been a long run! Still, she’d been glad for the exercise and now she was glad for the rest as she pressed the control to send a lift down to collect her.

The sudden difference between the brightness outside and the dimmer inside of the base made the dragon blink and narrow her eyes.

Rhinox turned in his seat at the console and smiled when he saw the new arrival. “Glad to see you made it back in one piece. Heard you ran into a Predacon.”

The dragon gave a small smirk. “I can’t be taken down that easily, especially when I have a new species of plant to bring back.” She maximized and pulled out the specimen tube with the purple flower before she moved to hand it to the green bot.

Rhinox’s expression showed his scientific curiosity as he took the tube and extracted the plant. “Hm…This planet is full of surprises and new discoveries.” He moved to the table to scan the plant while Skyglider moved her arms behind her back and toed at the ground with her foot.

“If the flower doesn’t die…Can I keep it in my room?” She asked this in her best cute wheedling voice, a bit of a feat considering her height and appearance, making Rhinox chuckle as he continued to scan.

“I don’t think it’ll die from a few minutes of scanning. Go find a pot and we’ll plant it.”

Skyglider grinned, unaware of the fact that her sharp teeth made the expression seem more intimidating than it was meant to be, and moved to go get a pot. She stopped short of just nearly running into Dinobot and the slightly taller bot rose a robotic brow before snarling slightly.

“I don’t see why you all waste time with plants when we should be thinking of strategies to destroy the Predacons! Perhaps I was wrong about you after all, dragon.” The blue bot snorted and moved to step past the femme, but suddenly found her blocking his way, her red optics glaring up into his own.

“I have only been here for four days, Dinobot. Do not even pretend that you know anything about me. I may be a scientist like the others, but remember that I do not have full Maximal programming, just the stuff that Rhinox downloaded to make me realize what I really am. Stop making unbased assumptions about me unless you have the proof to back them up.” She poked his chest to emphasize her point before she moved down the hall to get her pot.

Dinobot growled as he turned his head to watch her walk down the hall. That femme was intriguing and insufferable at the same time! That seemed to be the trait with femmes, Maximal or Predacon. Still, he couldn’t just stand and dwell upon whether the universe really needed femmes.

“I’m going out on patrol.” He didn’t even look to Rhinox as he walked over to the lift and took it down to the ground outside. Once there, he changed to beast mode and began his own run.

Skyglider returned to the control room and placed the small pot onto the table. She watched as Rhinox finished his scans and sighed irritably. “I swear…Doesn’t Dinobot ever think of anything other than destroying the Predacons? I mean, between Rattrap and Cheetor I know that he was a Pred and defected to this side, but sheesh…”

Rhinox simply shrugged as he moved to carefully place the plant into the pot. “Maybe…He is preoccupied a lot with our apparent incompetence in the war. Still, I’m glad he’s on our side and not theirs. You need to go outside and get some dirt for this.”

The dragon bot sighed. “I guess you’re right. But he just annoys me with his constant snide remarks about our explorations. And today he made a comment about the fact that I ‘must have a warrior spark after all’ and that I’m not the tree hugger he thought I was.” She grimaced. “I do understand his reasoning with training, but I don’t want him making assumptions about me!”

Rhinox merely tilted his head. “Then maybe you should show him what you’re really like. Either way, you still need to get the dirt.”

Skyglider gave a sheepish grin. “I guess you’re right…on both counts.” She moved toward the lift, but then stopped as an idea came to her. “Hey Rhinox, I have a question…” She turned to the green bot. “Do you think it’s possible to make…”

Ha! I’m gonna leave it at that.

I’m sorry for the short chapters. It’s easier for me to write them, and I know that many people would rather read smaller chapters that are more focused on one happening. If people want me to write longer chapters, then I shall certainly try! But you’ll have to review to tell me! :P

What’s Skyglider wanting Rhinox to make? Guess you’ll have to wait and see.

Also! This is where the voting can start! Should this be a DB/OC? I want you guys to decide!