Ghosts of the Present (Rescue Bots AU)

20. The Griffin in "Griffin Rock"

Earlier in the day...

Chase allowed Blades to lead him back up the hills, and then just as they once did, they dropped down the tunnel from surface level and slid down into the caverns.

"Whoa whoa whoa!" Blades hissed as he skidded to a stop at the bottom, Chase right behind him. "Whew! That never gets old!"

"Not the worst way to travel, I suppose," Chase muttered, dusting himself off. "Now what is it you wanted me to-WHOA!"

He yelped as Blades grabbed his hand and tugged him forward and around the corner; whatever it was they'd found, it had the youngest member of Sigma 17 excited. He was tugged along and down another tunnel they must've uncovered while he was absent, and then Blades slowed down.

"Where are you taking me...?" Chase whispered.

"The Oaken Crow wasn't the only thing that got stranded here..." Blades murmured, and then they turned the corner of the tunnel, and Chase's optics widened.

Within a large cavern were what looked like remnants of a home. Old furs and grass made a bed, scorch marks in the center suggested a central place for a fire, and tools of bone lined one side of the cavern.

"Based on the tools and the writing, most likely more cavepeople like Ira." Cody assessed, "But look at the writings on the wall."

Indeed, there were drawings and writings lining the walls. Pictures of people, a mountain, and a griffin settling on top of it. Chase had heard the folk tale of how Griffin Rock got its name, but this appeared to be a first-person account, based on the writings he was able to translate.

Chase read it carefully, reading of the occupant of this cave once seeing a whole flock of griffins flying overhead, carrying large, glowing stones with them. They and their family once sailed after them and reached Griffin Rock, but upon seeing the largest one, they fled back to this island and never returned to the Griffin's Nesting Grounds, but that one of his sons had collected a dropped tooth from one of them and brought it back.

"Does any of it make sense to you, Chase?" Blades asked, "My alien-dialect-translation skills were never that great."

Chase looked around the cave, before finding something glinting under the furs of one of the beds. He bent down and carefully collected it, finding a long, rusted fang. Organic teeth didn't rust... But metal teeth did. "...I think we may have a problem." He responded, "The texts say this tooth came from a griffin they saw on Griffin Rock."

"Really?" Cody asked with excitement, "That's so noble!"

"Perhaps, however..." Chase held the tooth up for Blades to look over, "...What kind of griffin would have a metal tooth of this size?"

Blades looked at the tooth, and when his optics moved back up to Chase, they were wide. "...Predacons. But what would they be doing here!?"

"What's a Predacon?" Cody asked.

"They're an ancient and extinct species from Cybertron." Chase informed, "Eons ago, long before we transforming cybertronians were created, the Predacons ruled the planet, before a great cataclysm wiped them all out."

"So like your version of dinosaurs."

"Indeed." Chase looked at the tooth again, "We know for certain though that they hoarded large amounts of energon like your tales of dragons hoarding gold... There was that large deposit under the island, and we know that if left unattended, refined energon can revert back to its crystalline state."

Blades nodded in agreement, "That would certainly explain why there would be a lot of them on the island at one time. To guard the deposit... But then what happened to them?"