Beast Wars Prime

Fossils, Friends, and Foes Pt. 3

Hello again everyone. To all those who've left reviews, favorited, and or followed the story, thank you. I'm going to admit I'm not overly happy with how this chapter turned out. Considering the characters that I had, I had a lot of improvising to do. Raf is the least detailed of the Autobots' human companions. Sierras' friend doesn't even have an official name from what I know of. And for some reason Ultra Magnus' character fought me the entire chapter. However, I hope you all enjoy reading it more than I enjoyed writing it. In addition, I hope I my representation of a panic attack is fairly accurate. Note: edited 3/15/22

The Amazon teams' arrival didn't go as smooth as they'd hoped. Exiting the space bridge onto the bank of the great Amazon River, the ground gave way from their sudden weight, dumping them all into the water. Climbing out Bumblebee gave a series of indignant beeps about Ratchets' choice of coordinates. Raf laughed. "I know Bee, out of the gate and into the drink."

Ultra Magnus shook some water off of his body. "Alright." He began, double checking a holo-map in his right wrist. "The temple the Decepticons are in is three miles downriver from our current location." He turned to Bumblebee. "Go on ahead and scout for any guards. We'll follow once you signal." With a salute Bumblebee took off on foot, the jungle foliage being too dense for his car mode.

Once left alone with the young Maximal Magnus decided to begin his secondary mission. Get to know the Earth members of the team. He cleared his throat. "So, nice weather out here." He winced, even to his own audio sensors that sounded horrible. "I mean."

Raf took pity on the bot. He guessed that Ultra Magnus might want to get to know them, even if his method was blunter than Bulkheads' wrecking balls. "I'm just glad there we're no Pirahna fish in this part of the river. I'm not sure they'd go for me or not." At Magnus' expression he explained. "They're a type of fish that can do to animals and humans what scraplets can do to Cybertronians."

Ultra Magnus shuddered. He'd found more than one scraplet infestation over the years. Apparently, the concept wasn't unique to Cybertron. "Alright. Is there anything else in this area that might pose a threat?" He asked, somewhat afraid of the answer.

Raf gave a small laugh. "There's a reason explorers call the Amazon the 'Green Hell'." He held his arms out. "Everywhere in this jungle are things that want to crush, sting, claw, bite, infect, and otherwise, murder you." At Magnus' horrified expression Raf put his arms down. "However, most of those things are probably more scared of you than you are of them, so I think we'll be all right."

Magnus looked out at the jungle around them. After hearing all that he now had a newfound respect for the natives of this planet. For such a fragile species, they had apparently been able to survive in this horrific jungle that seemed like it could rival the rust sea or sludge swamps of Cybertron in brutality. Still, he had a mission to accomplish and turned back to Raf.

Raf cut him off. "If you want to know more about me, just ask. There's no need to beat around the bush with me." There was a moments silence before Magnus nodded and Raf continued. "I was the youngest of four children, and mostly ignored." He mumbled the last bit; he was still bitter about being essentially abandoned by his family. "I was able to understand digital code by age 3 and grew my technological skillset from there. I like videogames and being with my friends, from both here and Cybertron."

Magnus looked at the young Maximal appraisingly. Apparently, Raf had a brilliant mind and, from what he was told about the humans' history, he wasn't even a fully developed human before becoming techno-organic. Now, throw in the strength he'd gained with his beast mode and the medical tools he had built into him, and you had someone with near limitless potential. "Do you have any idea what you want to do with your life now?" He asked.