One morning, Starscream discovered that Sheba had gone out without telling anyone.  He figured that she'd gone back to her cave for some reason or other, so he decided to go there and see what she was up to.  Just as he was getting on the lift, Skywarp and Thundercracker came into the Control Room.

"Hey, Screamer, where ya goin'?" Skywarp asked.

"If you must know, I'm going to see what Sheba's doing," Starscream replied impatiently.

Thundercracker and Skywarp exchanged amused glances, and then they proceeded to get on the elevator as well.

"WHERE do you think you're going?" Starscream objected.

"Awww, come on.  We wanna hang out with her, too," Skywarp pleaded, "It's not fair that everyone else gets all the fun."

Starscream sighed heavily.  "Oh, alright," he conceded.

***

Sheba's tail twitched rapidly as she stalked her prey--a large mule deer with a small rack of fuzz-covered antlers.  She had shrunk herself down to the size of an ordinary puma.  The deer lifted its head momentarily as it noticed the sound of Jets flying overhead.  It soon returned to eating grass, however.

***

"Hey, there she is!  What's she doing?" Skywarp said.  The three Decepticons landed nearby--but Starscream made certain that their presence did not scare off the buck.

"Hunting," Starscream informed him, "Just keep quiet and watch."

Sheba was now totally focused on catching her prey.  She crept toward it soundlessly, stopping every few feet to make sure that she wasn't detected.  

Soon Sheba was only a few yards from her quarry.  Suddenly, she sprang with a burst of speed that totally overwhelmed the buck.  In no time flat, Sheba had her target by the back of the neck, easily crushing its spinal cord in her powerful jaws.  The deer did not struggle any more after that.  Only then did Starscream and the others approach.

"Wow, that was amazing!" Skywarp commented, "It's too bad you can't pull that stunt on an unsuspecting Autobot."

"So what are you going to do with it now?" Thundercracker wanted to know.

"Eat it, of course," Sheba told him.

"I don't understand," Thundercracker said, "We've got energon back at base.  Why would you want to re-fuel on this?"

Sheba began laughing.  "Silly!  It tastes different from energon.  And there's nothing quite like eating something you've actually had to chase after and bring down yourself."

After Sheba had consumed her fill of the carcass and cleaned herself off, she flopped down on her side and let the others pet her.  The sound of her purrs was soothing.  After awhile, though, Skywarp sighed.

"Gettin' bored already?" Sheba asked.

"Well, I thought we were going to do something interesting today," he replied.

"Oh, okay," Sheba told him, "As a matter of fact, I think I have just the thing."  She cast Warp on everybody.  The scenery shifted--almost like ripples in a pool--and soon they were in very unfamiliar surroundings.  

"Where are we?" Skywarp wondered.

"Just a little place I know about," Sheba said offhandedly, "It's the perfect location for me to teach you how to use Magic."

"You're going to teach us how to use Magic?" Thundercracker exclaimed, "That's great!"

"Okay, good," Sheba said, "Now the first thing we need to do is junction each of you to a Guardian Force.  We'll start you out using one each so you can get used to it.  Hmmm..."  She used her abilities to check the compatability of each of her Guardian Forces to Starscream, Thundercracker, and Skywarp.

"Um, what exactly is a Guardian Force?" Skywarp wanted to know.

"It's a powerful entity that shares its powers with you when you Junction it--including the ability to use Magic," Sheba replied, "You can also summon them to attack the enemy for you if you need to use something stronger than your Stocked spells.  Okay, let's see--Starscream, it looks like the GF you're most compatible with is Quezacoatl.  That's a Thunder Elemental GF.  His Thunder Storm attack works very well against machines and Water elemental creatures.  
Thundercracker--you're most compatible with Ifrit.  He's a Fire Elemental GF, and his Hell Fire attack works wonders against Ice-elemental based enemies.  Skywarp, you get Diablos.  His Dark Messenger is a Gravity-based attack.  The amount of damage Diablos' attack causes is based on his level.  For example, when he's at Level 10, he can take off 10% of an opponent's HP.  When Diablos reaches Level 100, he can take 100% of an opponent's HP--but regardless of his level, his attack can only ever take off up to 9999 Hit Points."

When each of the Jets got junctioned to their new Guardian Force, they each claimed that it felt weird.  Sheba helped each of them set their abilities, including the Draw command.

"What's that for?" Thundercracker asked.

"It enables you to actually take a certain amount of spells from an enemy, and stock them," Sheba explained, "And the most you can hold of each kind of spell is 100 uses.  Your maximum limit is 32 different types of spells, so sometimes it's good to refine obsolete spells like Fire into more powerful ones like Fira.  But, since you're beginners, I'll have to start you off with the basics.  When we go into a battle, don't try to defeat the monsters right away.  Take the time to Draw some spells out. At first, this'll be a slow business because your MagicPower is pretty low right now.  Later on, when you stock enough spells, you can junction some of them to boost your Stats.  Once you've drawn all the spells you can from a monster, you can either blast it, use Magic to beat it, or Summon your Guardian Force to finish the job for you.  Summoning a GF is the most preferable of the three options because the more often you summon, the more compatible you and your GF become."

"What's this compatibility got to do with anything?" Starscream wondered.

"Compatibility determines how quickly a Guardian Force will appear once you summon it.  The higher the compatibility, the faster the GF will appear.  In between the time that you've summoned, and the time the GF appears, any damage directed at you will be taken by your GF.  If the GF takes too long to appear, it may lose all HP and thus be defeated.  A defeated GF must be revived before it can be summoned again, but they cannot be revived during a battle.  So, be careful.  Well, are we ready now?"

"Sure," Starscream replied.  So, he and Skywarp and Thundercracker followed Sheba as she wandered around looking for random encounters.  Suddenly, they were attacked.  The monsters were unlike anything Starscream had ever seen.  

"What are those?" he asked.

Sheba cast a Scan spell on the nearest monster.  

Bite Bug

Weak against Ice

HP 175/175

Not a very strong enemy

Stay calm and attack precisely

"You can draw Scan and Fire from these monsters, so get at it!" Sheba told everyone.

It was Thundercracker's turn after Sheba cast the Scan spell.  He concentrated on what he wanted to do, and several blue-white orbs rose up in a circle around him, accompanied by a ring of wavy green energy rising up from the ground around his feet.  Several purple orbs seemed to be sucked out of one of the Bite Bugs--leaving temporary trails of purple-blue energy--and were absorbed into Thundercracker.  He had received 4 Scan spells.  

Next it was Skywarp's turn.  Blue-white orbs circled around him as they floated up above a ring of wavy-green energy.  Purple orbs came out of the nearest Bite Bug and were absorbed into Skywarp.  He had received 5 Fire spells.  

When Starscream took his turn, he drew Magic and got 8 Scan spells.  

"Not bad for a rookie," Sheba told him, "Your Magic Power must be pretty high naturally."  It took awhile, but finally everyone had 100 uses each of Fire and Scan.  

Now it was time to finish these bugs off.  Skywarp summoned Diablos.  He and the others disappeared, and the sky became dark with thousands of bats.  These bats converged at a single point above the Bite Bugs, and when they did so, they merged into a black, sticky, shiny, oily-looking semiliquid ball.  A huge, semi-humanoid black-and-red creature--with huge bat wings, a long skinny tail, and a hideous horned head--seemed to slowly emerge from the bottom of the orb. Drops like oil dripped off it as it came out, and as it spread its wings all the 'oil' seemed to be shaken off.  Diablos immediately stuck one of its arms up into the black orb, and orange energy beams from his arm emanated into the orb.  He then threw the black ball--which seemed to stretch it out a little, like silly-putty--and it crushed the Bite Bugs under its weight.  Since Diablos was at Level 35, the attack had taken off 35% of the monsters' HP.  

When his Guardian Force vanished, Skywarp and the others simultaneously reappeared.  Starscream then summoned Quezacotl.  Storm clouds instantaneously appeared overhead, and a bolt of lightning struck the ground where Starscream and the others had been standing.  A huge, greenish-yellow featureless bird shape appeared from where the lightning bolt had struck the ground.  Electrical energy came from its head, surrounding the monsters.  This caused an enormously wide blast of lightning to hit the monsters, causing 1471 HP of damage to each Bite Bug.  That was more than enough to finish them off.  Starscream and the others then reappeared.  The battle didn't give them that many experience points, but Sheba assured the others that they’d gain a lot more XP from fighting much stronger monsters.

"What happened to us when the Guardian Forcess were summoned?  It felt like I was being teleported," Skywarp said.

"Well, you were teleported," Sheba told him, "Any time you summon a GF that uses an attack rather than a support ability, you get temporarily transported to a protective dimension.  It's something the GF does to keep you from being accidentally affected by the attack.  The only exception to this rule that I know about is Cerberus, who still puts you in the protective dimension during his Summon even though his Triple Rockets is a Support Ability, not an attack.  It affects you when you reappear."

"Weird," Thundercracker stated, "Cool, but weird."

"Okay, follow me," Sheba instructed, and she led the three Jets across the plain.  

Suddenly, they were attacked again.  There were two identical monsters--and they looked even more bizarre than the ones they'd just defeated.  Each of the monsters had a single central, gem-like purple eye, and their bodies were mottled white-purple-and-blue. They had two fins shaped rather like penguins’ flippers, coming out of each side of the top of their heads, and six "ribs" attached below the eye to a spiny tail that ended in a heavy, barbed spike.  This gave the monsters a rather skeletal appearance.  They hovered a few feet off the ground with little flutters of their fins.  Sparkles of green energy emanated from one of the strange monsters, and immediately a chunk of ice materialized over Skywarp and fell on him, taking off 53 HP.  

"What was THAT?" he exclaimed.

"Congratulations--you are the first Decepticon to feel the effects of a Blizzard spell," Sheba told him.

"I wanna know what that thing is!" Thundercracker stated, and cast Scan.

Glacial Eye

A floating monster that uses Ice magic

When running low on HP, uses Vampire to suck HP from opponents.

Lv. 20

HP 400/400

Very weak against Fire

No effect: Ice, Earth

"ALL-RIGHT!  It's weak against FIRE!!!" Thundercracker crowed.

"Not so fast," Sheba reminded him, "You should try to draw spells from it first.  Like that Blizzard spell that one of those Glacial Eyes just tossed at Skywarp."

"Didn't hurt that much," Skywarp said nonchalantly.

"Well, that's because a Glacial Eye's Magic Power isn't very strong, especially at its current level," Sheba stated, "If you tried casting the same spell, you'd probably do a lot more damage.  Oh, and have you figured out that you can immediately cast a spell that you've drawn?  That's especially helpful if an enemy is carrying Cure magic and you don't want to deplete your own stock.  The only downside is direct casting a drawn spell relies on the Monster’s Magic Power, not yours, to determine damage or the amount of healing."

"Oh," Skywarp said.  He discovered that the monsters were carrying Cure, Blizzard, and Scan magic, so he decided to draw and cast Cure on himself.  From then on, everybody was madly stocking Cure and Blizzard spells and topping up their supply of Scan.  All this time, the two Glacial Eyes either cast Blizzard -- taking HP off in only double digits -- or attacked by using their spiky tails as hammers, taking off even less HP than Blizzard.  

Then, when everybody was maxed out of the amount of those particular spells, Thundercracker summoned Ifrit.  The party disappeared, and a huge ball of fire appeared.  It dissipated, and a huge, brown humanoid Lion with long, black curved horns that were at least three-quarters the length of his body and a large red mane emerged from the flames.  Ifrit roared, and rose up into the air.  Underneath him, a big ball of fire materialized and also rose up with him.  High above the Glacial Eyes, Ifrit slammed the fireball in a hammerblow with his fists, sending it back down towards the monsters.  When it hit, it took 3250 HP off the Glacial Eyes--defeating them.

"Okay, now that we've all got a nice variety of spells, it's time to learn how to junction them," Sheba told everyone, "Quezacotl comes with a Vitality Junction already in place, Diablos has the Magic Junction, and Ifrit has a Strength Junction.  Play around with the different spells and see which one raises your stats the most."

Starscream discovered that Cure magic was the best to junction to Vitality of the spells that he had right now.  Skywarp picked Blizzard to Junction with his Magic stat, although it woudn't have made any difference if he'd picked Thunder or Fire; and Thundercracker junctioned Fire to his Strength stats.

"Oh, and I forgot to mention," Sheba added, "It helps a little bit with compatibility if you use spells that are associated with a GF's powers.  For example, anyone Junctioned to Diablos would be able to raise compatibility slightly by using the Demi spell on a fairly regular basis.  Of course, you guys haven't run across any monsters carrying Demi magic yet, but that will come when you're ready for them."

"Hey, what's this on the ground?" Thundercracker wondered.  He went over to where the monsters had been and bent down to look at something.  Sheba and the other two came over.  Thundercracker picked up what appeared to be a long, sharp canine tooth.

"Oh, that's a Vampire Fang item," Sheba said.

"I think one of the monsters dropped it," Thundercracker stated.

"Absolutely right," Sheba told him, "Sometimes when you defeat monsters, they leave items behind.  Some items are more rare than others.  You can also Steal items from monsters during the battle.  Both Bahamut and Diablos have these abilities, but I don't think Diablos has learned the Mug ability yet.  I think he needs like 50 more Ability Points in order to learn it."

"And then I'm gonna be a lean, mean, stealin' machine," Skywarp stated, grinning.

Sheba took to the air now, and led the others to a mountain with a large communications tower on the mainland.

"What are we doing here?" Starscream wanted to know.

"You'll see soon enough," Sheba assured him.  She walked up the path towards the tower.  Two big snakes crawled out of the bush and attacked them.

"Those are strange looking snakes," Skywarp stated.  He cast Scan.

Anacondaur

A large venomous snake that uses Squeeze attacks.  

Use caution when its HP are low; it spits poisonous fluid

Lv. 21

HP 2457/2457

Weak vs. Ice

Strong vs. Fire

Absorbs Poison

"So it's at Level 21, is it?" Sheba said, "Good--that means it's carrying Fira and Cura spells--which are far more powerful than Fire or Cure."

While everyone was stocking up on spells, the Anacondaurs took turns using their squeeze attacks, which didn't do very much damage.  However, Starscream was not a happy camper when they did it to him.  

“AUGH, GET THIS THING OFF ME!”  

He needn’t have worried, though, as the snake let go soon after attacking.  When Sheba and the others had finally sucked out all the Fira and Cura they could carry, Skywarp summoned Diablos, and then Starscream summoned Quezacotl.  That was enough to finish the Anacondaurs off.

"Hey, they dropped something," Skywarp realized, and picked something off the ground.

It was a small grey stone fragment.

"That's an M-Stone Piece," Sheba informed him, "It can be used in a variety of ways--including the manufacture of Stockable Spells.  They can even be used to modify certain kinds of weapons.  So hang onto it, it might come in handy later."

On the way to the top of the hill, there were several more random encounters with Anacondaurs, some of which yielded such spoils as Venom Fangs and Dragon Skin.  Sheba was particularly pleased to get the Dragon Skin, as it was a difficult item to find.  

"What's so great about an old piece of a Dragon's Hide?" Thundercracker snorted.

"Well for one thing, it's a GF Compatibility Item," Sheba told him, "Also, it's useful for making into other items, as well as modifying weapons and manufacturing Reflect spells."

"Oh," Thundercracker said sheepishly.  He was amazed at how much Sheba knew about all this stuff.

They finally reached the top of the hill.

"Well, here we are.  Now what?" Starscream asked.

As if in answer to his question, a huge, legless winged monster--with clawed hands and a grotesque chin that jutted out far beyond its nose--swooped down on them.  Before Sheba and the three Jets could do anything, it blew a tornado-like wind from its mouth that caught them up and spun them around.  When the monster's Storm Breath attack had finally dissipated, the four of them fell to the ground.  The attack had taken off several hundred HP off of each of them.

"OW, that hurt!" Skywarp complained.

Sheba quickly cast Scan.

Elvoret

A monster that lives in the abandoned Dollet Communication Tower.  

No one knows where it came from.

Level 11

HP 3523/3523

Immune to Poison

Strong vs. Magic attacks (high Spirit)

Starscream attempted a Draw.  "Hey, what's this?" he wondered, "It says that I can draw Thunder, Cure, Double, and Siren.  What's Siren?"

"Draw it and find out," Sheba replied.

Starscream concentrated, and several blue-white orbs rose up in a circular-spiral pattern around him along with a ring of green energy.  Five or six orbs of bluish-purple energy were sucked from Elvoret and absorbed into Starscream.

"OH!" Starscream exclaimed, "Siren is a Guardian Force!"

"Excellent," Sheba told him, "Now if I were you I'd stock up on Double and Thunder.  That's two spells you don't have yet."

While Starscream and the others worked on drawing all the Double and Thunder from Elvoret as they could, Sheba acted as a medic, drawing out Cure and casting it when necessary--Elvoret's Storm Breath seemed quite effective against them.  The monster also attacked with Thunder, which did significant damage.  At one point, Thundercracker's HP hit the Critical range.  

"Hey, what's happening to me?" Thundercracker asked.  All of a sudden, orange beams shot up in a circle around him.  The next thing he knew, a blast of fire spouted from one of his arm mounted lasers, hitting Elvoret and taking off about 700 HP.

"Well, whaddaya know," Sheba remarked, "It seems your Limit Break is the ability to use Blue Magic.  That was the Flamethrower attack, if I'm not mistaken."

"Too bad it's the only one I've got," Thundercracker sighed.

"Oh, you can learn more—but I’m not sure how your particular brand of Blue Magic works.  Usually it works by learning it by being attacked by an enemy that uses the ability on you, but there is another way.  Some items give the ability to cast a particular Blue magic spell when absorbed," Sheba informed him, "Okay, everybody got all the spells they want?"

"Yep," Skywarp announced.

"So do I," Starscream added.

"I'm done Drawing," Thundercracker stated.

"Okay good, now pummel that thing with your GFs!" Sheba said.

Thundercracker summoned Ifrit, and the Hell Fire attack took off 1200 HP.  Then Skywarp summoned Diablos, and Starscream summoned Quezacotl right afterwards.  Elvoret still wasn't KO'd, so Sheba summoned Shiva.  The Diamond Dust attack took off 1345 HP and finished off Elvoret.


The spoils of the battle with Elvoret included a G-Returner potion--which would restore a knocked out Guardian Force.  As for the newly-acquired GF, Sheba thought that Thundercracker should be the one to junction Siren.  The reason for this was the fact that Thundercracker had the lowest MagicPower of the group, and Siren had an existing Magic-Junction which could be used to boost that particular stat.  So, Thundercracker got Siren, and then junctioned Double to his Magic stats.  The others also adjusted their Junctions, because they now had some more powerful magic to boost their stats with.  

Next, Sheba took them to the entrance to Tower itself.  Just inside the doorway was an unusual phenomenon--several strands of purple light beams rose up in a continuous, circular-spiral pattern.

"I've never seen anything like it before," Starscream announced, "What is it?"

"That, Starscream, is your first encounter with a Draw Point," Sheba replied.

"Draw point???" Starscream wondered.

"It's a special place where you can draw spells from.  Go ahead, try it.  Pretend this is a monster that you're trying to draw Magic from."

Starscream activated the Draw command, and the beams shifted, rose above him, and seemed to almost pour something into him.  He received 7 Blind spells.

Sheba now led the three Seekers to a forest just south of the Communication Tower.  Before long, they were attacked by a strange, green, plantlike creature.  It had the jump on them, and it scattered pollen on them that had a strange effect.

"I feel like I'm being slowed down," Skywarp complained.

Sheba cast Scan.

Ochu

Likes to live in forests.  Attacks with tentacles and status-changing attacks.

Level 20

HP 4000/4000

Weak vs. Fire & Ice/ Immune to Earth

Thundercracker drew from the monster, and discovered new spells--Blind, Silence, and Confuse.  While he and the others busied themselves with stocking the new spells, the Ochu did a strange thing.  It seemed to suck a glowing purple orb out of Starscream.

"HEY!!!!  IT TOOK A SCAN SPELL!!!" Starscream exclaimed.

"That's the Ochu's 'Drink Magic' attack," Sheba informed him, "It'll do that now and then."

After another round of Drawing magic, the Ochu swatted Sheba with its tentacle, taking off 150 HP.  She growled, but did nothing--as the others weren't quite finished drawing out spells yet.  As soon as everyone was done drawing out as many spells as they could hold, Thundercracker summoned Ifrit.  The Hell Fire attack did 7600 HP worth of damage, easily beating the Ochu.

The Ochu had dropped no items, but that didn't matter.  Sheba showed Thundercracker how to junction Blind to his Status-Attack, which he now had thanks to his junction with Siren.  

"I noticed something weird," Thundercracker commented, "After I junctioned Double to my Magic stats, I was able to draw more spells out at a time.  Like, before, I was getting three or four--now I'm getting seven or eight at a crack."

"Oh yeah, well your Magic Power certainly makes a difference when it comes to how many spells you can draw from a target with each attempt.  Sometimes a Draw will even fail if you're Magic Power is really low, and especially if you're attempting to obtain pretty high-level spells," Sheba told him.

Sheba took them through the forest for a while longer, during which time they encountered such things as Funguar, Cockatrice, Wendigo, and Anacondaurs.  Of course, they even ran into the occasional Ochu.  The Cockatrice monsters supplied Thundara and Break, the Funguars had the Confuse, Silence, and Sleep spells, and the Wendigos had Protect and Berserk.  Skywarp even drew out Break from a Cockatrice to immediately cast on a Funguar, and was thrilled with the results.  

"Hey, that reminds me of that Immobilizer the Autobots invented," he said.

That reminded Sheba that they needed a certain spell in particular--one to cure negative status ailments.  It was right about then that Starscream complained,"When are we going to start fighting some machines?  These flesh creatures are hardly a challenge."

"Oh, so you want to fight machines, do ya?" Sheba said, grinning, "Okay, come with me."

There was a desert not far from the forest, and in the desert was a strange building.  Sheba blasted a hole in it and led the others inside.  Immediately they were attacked by some primitive-looking robots.  There were two of them, and they were yellowish with huge heads and what looked like boxing-gloves for hands.  Starscream cast Scan.

GIM47N

An older type of Galbadian weapon.  Has a laser cannon, but mostly punches using the steel orbs on both hands.

Level 23

HP 745/745

Weak vs. Thunder, Earth, and Water

Immune to Poison

"I wonder what the 'GIM' stands for in 'GIM47N'," Skywarp wondered.

"Galbadian Idiot Machine would be my guess," Sheba told him, as she dodged a punch from the one on the left.

Both the GIM47Ns were carrying Esuna and Life, and Starscream, Skywarp and Thundercracker wwasted no time filling up on these spells.

Starscream finished the monsters off with a Quezacotl summon.  That was not the only kind of robot floating around the place.  Another battle ensued, this time with a kind of machine that was sleeker, and less clunky.  This time it was Skywarp's turn first, so he cast Scan.

GIM52A

A machine made by Galbadia to support soldiers.  Attacks with magic and missiles.  The most advanced models used.

Level 25

HP 3100/3100

Weak vs. Thunder, Earth and Water

Immune to Poison

The GIM52A they were facing now had Slow, Haste, and Dispel ripe for the Drawing.  Sheba drew out Haste and cast it on the others to speed up the time between turns.  The robot mostly tried knocking into them, but at one point it flung several missiles at Starscream.  This took off most of his HP.  Sheba quickly cast Cure on him.  The robot kept doing this on each of its subsequent turns.  

Eventually, the missiles hit Sheba.  Her HP went into the critical range, and she found herself able to access her Limit Break.  She chose Light Pillar Beam, and fired it.  The GIM52A was instantly defeated.

"Hey, it dropped something," Thundercracker stated.  He went over and recovered the item.  It was a Missile.

"You can try to use that to learn a new Blue Magic ability," Sheba told him.

Thundercracker concentrated, and the Missile glowed brightly, then seemed to be absorbed into him.  

"Okay, good, now it's time to get out of here," Sheba told everyone.  
She led them back through the gaping hole in the building.

"All this action is great, but it's wearing me out," Skywarp complained.

"One more battle," Sheba said, and led them to the coastline.  "Starscream--equip Quezacotl's Card ability.  Just kick out the Draw ability, you won't be needing it."

Starscream did as Sheba asked.  They were then attacked by something very strange--all they could see were three fins sticking out of the ground.  Skywarp cast Scan.

Fastitocalon-F

A fish that swims in the ground

Only the fin can be seen

One theory says that it may be a shark

Level 25

HP 978/978

Sheba cast Thunder on the Fastitocalon-F that was on the far right.  That took off 700 HP, and suddenly it popped out of the ground, fully exposed.  It was yellow with reddish orange fins and in shape resembled a tropical fish, like an Angel fish, but it had teeth like a piranha.  "Now--use the Card ability!" Sheba told Starscream.  

Starscream did so, and several multicolored beams rose up from the ground and surrounded the Fastitocalon-F.  Seconds later, the fish-monster was gone and a card with a picture of the monster floated into Starscream's hand.  

"Now, all you need to do is whittle down these monsters' HP until it's weak enough to be turned into a Card," Sheba instructed.

Thundercracker cast Thundara on the next Fastitocalon-F.  That took off 840 HP.  

Starscream was then easily able to turn it into a card.  But when Skywarp cast Thunder on the last remaining monster, it sprang from the sand--and it looked a lot different than the other two had.  For one thing, it was a LOT bigger.  Its head was huge and seemed armor-plated, and its front fins were long and lined with spines on the edges.

"WHOA! What's that?!" Skywarp exclaimed, as the monster came over and bit him.

Sheba cast Scan.  

Fastitocalon

A fish that swims in the ground

Only the fin can be seen

One theory says that it may be a shark

Level 23/23

HP 817/817

"Isn't that what those other things were?" Thundercracker wondered.

"Not exactly," Sheba told him, "Those were Fastitocalon-F's.  This is a Fastitocalon.  It's a mature version of the other two, I think."  

Eventually they whittled down the Fastitocalon's HP using Blizzard spells--Sheba didn't want to take a chance of knocking it out.  Starscream used the Card ability just as it reached 140 HP.  Finally, the Fastitocalon Card was in their possession.  And at last, Diablos had gained enough ability points to learn Mug.

"Now what's so great about these cards?" Starscream wanted to know.

"Access Quezacotl's Card Mod ability and I'll show you," Sheba replied.

"Hmmm...one Fastitocalon card will make one Water Crystal," Starscream said.

"Do it," Sheba told him.

The Card glowed brightly and transformed into a crystal.  

"You can use this to learn Blue Magic:  Aqua Breath," Sheba said to Thundercracker.  So, Thundercracker absorbed the item and learned Aqua Breath.

Sheba thought they'd had more than enough excitement for one day, so she reclaimed her GFs that she'd lent out and teleported everyone back to Earth.

When they got back to headquarters, Thundercracker and Skywarp couldn't stop talking about the events of that day.

"She taught you MAGIC???" Blitzwing exclaimed. 

"Yep," Thundercracker said.

"What was it like?" Ramjet wanted to know.

"It was great!" Skywarp said enthusiastically, "I just wish we could use it to lay the smackdown on a few Autobots!"

"Do you think Sheba will let you use it against the Autobots?" Rumble asked.

"Probably not," Thundercracker sighed, "She took back her GFs just before we got back.  We can't use Magic without them.  Still, it was a blast while it lasted."

"Hey, when are you going to teach Magic to the rest of us?" Blitzwing asked Sheba.

"Oh, probably pretty soon," Sheba said, yawning.  She was tired, so she headed for her room.  Starscream followed her for a bit.

"Why do you suppose I have a greater Magic Power statistic than the others?" Starscream wanted to know.

"Offhand, I couldn't tell you, but it seems to me that it's like you were born to use Magic," Sheba said with a shrug. 

"BORN to use Magic?" Starscream echoed, with amazement in his voice.  He shook his head and went to his own quarters to sleep it off.


Sheba was so tired that she just flopped down on the floor the minute she entered her room, and was asleep almost immediately.  She had that dream again--the one with the grey images of the Decepticons, motionless as if frozen in time, in a barren wastleland tinted red by the dull light.  A pulse of energy, emanating from a hooded creature standing on the edge of a far-off cliff, swept towards the images and destroyed them.  Sheba felt like she was there and it felt like she was getting blasted to bits.  She woke up.

"ROWRROWRRROWRRRR!"

The sound of Sheba's yowl echoed throughout the base.  A few minutes later, the door to Sheba's quarters opened, and Megatron stepped into the room.

"Let me guess--you had another bad dream," he commented.

"Yep," Sheba replied.

The Decepticon Leader bent down and began stroking Sheba to calm her.  Automatically she began purring.  Megatron continued petting her until she was asleep, which he could ascertain by the fact that she was no longer purring.  Then he returned to his own quarters.


When Sheba awoke the next morning, she was vaguely wondering why Megatron had been in her quarters after she'd awoken from that nightmare.  She changed to her robotic form, and then headed for a fuel storage room.  She took an energon cube back to her quarters and started lapping the contents up.

Blitzwing came into her room.  "Energon for breakfast, eh?" he said.

"Mm-hmm," Sheba said between licks.  

Blitzwing waited until she was finished drinking all the energon from the cube.

"So I hear you took Starscream and the others out to a place where you taught them how to use Magic," he began.

"And you want to learn some, too, I suppose," Sheba stated.

"Well, of course," Blitzwing said.

"To make the trip worthwhile I'll need to drag one more person along with," Sheba told him.

"Hmm," Blitzwing said thoughtfully.  He had secretly hoped she'd take just him.  "Do we have to?" he asked.

"Well, it'll make fighting the monsters much easier," Sheba pointed out, "Some of them have pretty debilitating attacks, and it helps to have more people to either attack or act as a medic."

"Well I guess we could take Astrotrain as well," Blitzwing said.  

"And I'll get Starscream to come too, because he needs the practice," Sheba announced, "Besides, I am his guardian."

Blitzwing sighed.  Personally, he found Starscream to be annoying, but Sheba had a point--this was her trip, and if she decided to bring him along, there wasn't much Blitzwing could say about it.  His desire to learn Magic was a lot stronger than any personal enmity he had against Starscream.

* 

"You want to do WHAT?!" Starscream exclaimed.

"You heard me," Sheba told him, "I'm going to teach the Triple-Changers how to use Magic."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Starscream asked her.

"Don't worry about it," Sheba told him, "They won't be able to use it without Guardian Forces, and I always take those back after the training session is over."

***

Astrotrain looked hesitantly at his fellow Triple-changer.

"C'mon, Astrotrain, it'll be great!" Blitzwing urged, "We'll get to learn how to do the kind of attacks that Sheba uses.  And you've seen how she mopped the floor with the Autobots using those powers of hers."

"Yeah, but," Astrotrain said, with a hint of protest in his voice.

"But nothing!" Blitzwing told him, "Don't you want to be powerful like Sheba?"

"I don't suppose any of us could be as powerful as her," Astrotrain stated, "Not even Megatron."

"Well at least give it a try.  There's no harm in that."

Astrotrain sighed, and finally gave in.  "Oh, alright," he agreed.

* 

Sheba transported the group--Starscream, Blitzwing, and the reluctant Astrotrain--to the same world as she'd taken Starscream, Thundercracker, and Skywarp the day before.  Then she assigned GFs.   Starscream got Quezacotl, Blitzwing got Pandemona, and Astrotrain got Cerberus.  After doling out a few spells for the purposes of Junctioning, Sheba led Starscream and the Triple-Changers over the plains near a large city where all the train tracks seemed to converge.  

After wandering around there for a bit, they were attacked by two strange flying creatures that had two wings on each side of their bodies.  The wings were leathery like a bat or pterodactyl's and each monster had a head like a vulture.  It was Starscream's turn first, so he cast Scan.



Thrustaevis

A flying monster found on the Galbadian Continent.  Usually swoops down to attack enemies, but also bites and causes wind gusts when it's angry.

Level 21

HP 709/709

Weak vs. wind

Immune to Earth

The Thrustaevis on the right grabbed onto Astrotrain and bit him several times, doing only 88 HP worth of damage.  That made Astrotrain furious.

"All right, that's it!  I'm blowing this thing away," he stated.  He fired his Ionic Displacer pistol, but the monster easily dodged the blast.

"Patience, Astrotrain," Sheba told him, "Make sure you draw all the spells that you can carry first."

Sheba had Diablos junctioned, so she mugged the first Thrustaevis, slashing with her claws and taking 2 Shear Feathers in the process.  The attack did 1100 HP damage, and that Thrustaevis was K.O.'ed.  That left one to draw spells from.

Blitzwing was getting the hang of drawing out Magic.  He started out by getting all the Aero spells he could carry, then moved on to Blizzara, Float, and Scan.  It was taking longer for him to stock spells than it was for Starscream or Astrotrain, since Pandemona has no Magic Junction ability to raise a person's Magic Power stats.

Finally, after everyone got all the spells they wanted, Sheba got Astrotrain to summon Cerberus.  This would serve to raise Astrotrain's compatibility with the GF.  When he did so, several large green orbs with red cores spun around him in a circular pattern before scattering in all directions.  He and the others disappeared, indicating that the GF had transported the group temporarily to the protective dimension.  The background seemed to melt away, revealing the black gates of Hades.  Cerberus charged through the gate the minute it opened, and howled.  Three beams, one from each of its heads, rose into the air.  Cerberus vanished, revealing the party, and Cerberus' beams fell back down to earth, putting everyone in Double and Triple.  

Then Starscream summoned Quezacotl.  The giant, vaguely bird-shaped form emerged as a huge bolt of lightning struck the ground.  It shot electrical energy from its 'head', causing a massive surge of lightning to come down from the sky and blast the remaining Thrustaevis.  The Thunder Storm attack did 7535 HP of damage to that last monster, easily defeating it.

Astrotrain stood there in awe.  "That was incredible," he said, almost as if he was in a daze, "I almost feel as if I got a little stronger." Sheba cast Scan on him.

"Ah," she realized, "you went up a Level.  Naturally you'll feel it when you gain enough experience to level-up.  See, these little trips into Magic-Land have more than one purpose.  Learning to use Magic is only a very small part of it.  Since you never seem to win very many battles against the Autobots, it doesn't look like you've gained very much experience to level you up.  But out here where you can actually win, it's a different story."

"Oh," Astrotrain remarked.  

Sheba continued to lead the other three around the Galbadian Continent, battling Wendigos, Thrustaevis, Funguars, and Cockatrices. Blitzwing also gained a level as well as the battles went on.  When Sheba grew tired of battling those, she took the others to some cliffs in the area just outside Winhill.  Immediately they were attacked by two strange reptilian creatures.  Sheba cast Scan.

Grendel

A smaller type of dragon, sometimes appearing in groups of two.  May be more dangerous than other dragons.

Level 30

HP 7250/7250

Weak vs. Earth, Wind, & Holy

The Grendel on the right attacked by using Tail Blade--doing a backwards somersault towards Starscream, which enabled the creature to slash him with the razor-sharp underside of its tail.  That took off 1400 HP off.

Both Grendels were carrying Blizzara, which Blitzwing and the others were eager to stock up on.  However, the two Grendels' Tail Blade attacks were very powerful and something needed to be done to disable them.  After Astrotrain drew out 5 Blizzara spells from the Grendel on the left, Sheba cast Blind on it.  

The next time it attacked, it missed completely.  Starscream cast Blind on the other Grendel immediately after that.  Only when the Grendels used their Breath attacks did Sheba and the others have to use Cure or Cura to heal up.  Pretty soon everyone had stocked all the available Magic.  Sheba got Astrotrain to summon Cerberus, then Sheba cast double Zombie on the Grendels.  She then got Starscream and Blitzwing to skip their turns, then cast double Life.  Both monsters were defeated.

"Wow, that was impressive!  How did you defeat them so easily?" Blitzwing wanted to know.

"Any monster that is under the Zombie status effect reacts to Curative magic as if it was undead," Sheba explained, "It's kinda like casting Death on a living monster.  Undead creatures are damaged by Cure magic or items and totally knocked out by Life Magic or items.  It's a pretty cheap way to win, but it's also a great desperation tactic."

"I'll have to remember that," Starscream remarked.

Sheba took them to a few more battles before returning everybody to Headquarters.  In that time, both Starscream and Blitzwing gained a level.  

Astrotrain had lost most of the reservations he had about this whole magic business, to the point of being very disappointed that Sheba was taking back the Guardian Force she'd lent out to him.

"Do you have to?" he complained.

"Yes.  I have to," Sheba said firmly, "You don't have enough experience to be running around this world with Guardian Force abilities still junctioned.  That could cause more problems than you even know."

"Are you sure?" Astrotrain persisted.

"Trust me."

"Oh, alright," Astrotrain sighed.

***

Thrust was walking down one of the outer corridors of the base when a pulsating green light caught his optics from outside one of the windows.  He went right up to the window and stared into the briny depths that surrounded the sunken starship.  The light was coming from a crevice only a few hundred meters from where he was standing.

"I wonder what that is," Thrust wondered to himself.  He tried to estimate the location of the source of the light, and then he hurried to the docking tower.  Once he'd exited the base, he dived into the water and soon found the crevice where he once again saw the green glowing light. Thrust reached in and his fingers closed around a smooth, round object. It was about the size of a baseball.  He drew it out and examined it--it turned out to be a green crystal orb that seemed to possess a great deal of energy.  His sensors couldn't fully analyze the object, so he put it into an empty space in his arm-mounted laser to store it.  The minute he did that, he felt a strange sensation.  He shrugged it off and returned to headquarters.

"Where have you been?" Starscream demanded, as Thrust showed up dripping wet in the control room.

"Just outside," Thrust snapped.  Starscream was going to press the issue, but Megatron walked in and demanded everyone's attention.

"Thrust, Ramjet, Dirge!  Go to the Solar Power Plant and secure its energy for us!" Megatron ordered.

"All right!  Some action!" Thrust said.

***

Ramjet and the others were about halfway through making energon cubes when the Autobots showed up.  Prime was in the lead, and he had brought along Ironhide, Prowl, Jazz, and Blaster.

Quickly the Decepticons got their weapons ready.

"FREEZE, AUTOBOTS!" Thrust shouted, and motioned towards them.  A very odd thing happened.  Several concentric green circles appeared on the ground around the dark red Conehead, and the light stretched up almost to Thrust's knees.  White particles like snow appeared in the air around the Autobots.  The particles converged on Optimus Prime, and seconds later, a huge chunk of ice materialized around him in a bright purple flash. The ice spread on the ground a bit, then it all shattered with a blue energy-ring pulsing out around where the ice had been, roughly at Optimus Prime's chest level. 

"AAAAA!" Prime screamed.  The attack had taken off 1200 HP, and Prime was now unable to move; as if he had been frozen in time.  All the Autobots stopped what they were doing and stared in amazement.  Dirge and Ramjet looked at Thrust with their jaws agape.  Thrust stared at his hand, even more puzzled as to what had just happened.

"W-w-w-was that.....MAGIC?!" Dirge stammered.

"Sure looked like it," Ramjet replied.

Suddenly it dawned on Thrust--the ice had appeared when he'd said 'freeze.'  Perhaps doing so again would get the same results.

"OPTIMUS!" Ironhide called out, "Why you dirty decepticreep!  I'll....AAAAA!"  He was interrupted by a Freeze spell being cast on him, which took off 1439 HP.

Emboldened, Thrust began casting Freeze again.  This time it hit Jazz, and in addition to causing 1525 HP worth of damage, Jazz discovered that he could not move.  Because of that, he couldn't even get off a sound-and-light show.  

"AH, HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!  I'M INVINCIBLE!  TAKE THAT, AUTOBOTS!" Thrust gloated.  But when he went to cast Freeze once again, although the green concentric circles appeared, the ice did not.

"Hey, what's going on?" Thrust hollered in protest.

Prowl and the others noticed, and took the opportunity to fight back.  By this time, Optimus was able to move again.  The odds were now tipped back in the Autobots' favor.  Thrust discovered the hard way that he couldn't take as many hits as he used to be able to.  Ramjet and Dirge had to drag him out of there, unconscious, without any energon cubes for their trouble.

"What a complete disaster," Dirge snorted, on the way back to headquarters.

***

When they got back to base, Dirge and Ramjet were still carrying Thrust.  He was still knocked out.

"What in the universe...?!  I sent you on a simple energy-gathering mission, and you come back with nothing to show for it?" Megatron growled.

"It wasn't my fault," Ramjet protested, "Something really strange happened."

"Explain." Megatron demanded.

"It looked like Thrust was using magic," Dirge stated, then he told Megatron what had happened during the battle.

"Magic?!  HOW?!" Megatron shouted.

"I don't know," Ramjet replied.

Megatron turned to Soundwave, who had been standing there listening intently.

"Send Laserbeak to fetch Sheba," he ordered.

The dark blue cassette-commander pushed the button on his shoulder to eject the red cassette vulture.  “Laserbeak, prepare for flight.  Operation, retrieval.”  

Laserbeak cawed and flew off.  Moments later he returned, with Sheba following behind.


Megatron glared at Sheba when she walked into the control room. "Perhaps you'd care to explain how Thrust managed to use magic today," he said crossly.  

Sheba's eyes went wide and her jaw dropped nearly to the floor. "WHAT?!" she exclaimed.

"I know you've been teaching some of the Decepticons how to use magic," Megatron continued.

"But not Thrust.  Not yet, anyway," Sheba stated, "He shouldn't be able to.  He hasn't got any Guardian Forces junctioned.  If he used magic, it wasn't from me.  By the way, where is he?"

"In the repair bay.  He hasn't moved since Dirge and Ramjet brought him in," Megatron replied.

"Well let's go and see him," Sheba said.

***

Thrust was lying unconscious on an exam table.  Sheba cast Full-Life on him to revive him.  He sat up and moaned.  

"Ohhhh, what happened?" he asked.  

"Explain yourself, Thrust," Megatron demanded angrily, "How is it that you were able to use Magic?"

Thrust gulped nervously.  "I-I'm not sure," he said.

"Is somebody going to tell me what happened?" Sheba cut in.

Megatron told her what Dirge and Ramjet had relayed to him earlier.

"Green concentric circles, huh?  And ice that causes people to stop moving?  Sounds familiar," Sheba mused.  She sensed a power source emanating from one of Thrust's shoulder-mounted lasers.  

"Alright, open it up," Sheba said, "Show me what's in there, and hand it over."

Thrust sighed, then opened the storage compartment in his weapon.  He took out the green orb and gave it to Sheba.

"Ahh, just as I thought.  Thrust found a Contain Materia orb," Sheba realized.

"Materia?" Megatron asked, puzzled.

"It's another way to use Magic," Sheba explained, "Where did you get this?"

"Outside headquarters.  It was just sitting in a hole on the ocean floor," Thrust told her, "And how come it stopped working all of a sudden?"

Sheba cast Scan, and discovered that Thrust's maximum hit points were a little lower than they ought to be.  She also found out that he had 0 Magic Points.

"You ran out of Magic Points," Sheba informed Thrust flatly, “Without Magic Points, you can’t cast that spell.”  She turned to Megatron.

"We better get everybody in here," she said, "There's a lesson in all this that needs to be learned, and the sooner the better."

Once all the Decepticons were assembled, and had been told what had happened to Thrust in the latest battle with the Autobots, Sheba took charge.

"Alright everybody, this is probably the best example of why I don't let you guys run around using Magic unsupervised," she began, "What happened to Thrust wouldn't have occurred if he knew what he was doing.  Magic is very dangerous in inexperienced hands.  Thrust didn't realize that green Magic Materia takes off a certain percentage of maximum Hit Points, or that using the Materia Freeze Spell uses up Magic Points.  And he had no way of replenishing those Magic Points during the battle.  That's most of what got him into trouble.  The minute he ran out of Magic Points, the Autobots regained their advantage.  But there's more to it than that.  The energy of Materia carries other risks.  Not so much the orbs themselves, but if one of you stumbled across raw Mako energy and tried to absorb it, you could wind up crazy, dead, or both.  So from now on, I want all of you to promise me that if you discover something strange--especially if it could have something to do with Magic--that you leave it alone and come get me.  That is for your own safety.  There are a lot of things out there that are very powerful, but it won’t do you much good at all if it ends up killing you."  She gazed intently at her audience.

Megatron spoke up.  "Anyone who disregards this advice will be in more trouble than he ever dreamed," he informed everyone sternly.  His crimson optics lit up brightly with a warning flash, to drive the point home.

***

"Thrust was using magic?!" Spike exclaimed.

"Yes," Optimus Prime told him, "And the strange part is that Sheba wasn't there.  But if the Decepticons have gained the ability to use Magic, we have a lot more to worry about."

"He wasn't using it for very long though," Prowl stated.

"Yeah, that was odd.  It was like he ran out of power or something," Blaster commented.

"I dunno, you guys.  Sheba never seems to run out of power.  Why do you suppose it happened to Thrust?" Jazz wondered.

"I don't have the answer to that right now," Prime said, "But maybe someday we will."

***

The other Decepticons were a lot more wary about Magic since Thrust's mistake.  Even Starscream seemed a little edgy about it now.  Sheba had to reassure them all that as long as she was there to supervise and instruct, there would be no problems--or at least, she was fully capable of handling any problems that could forseeably arise.  What happened to Thrust was unlikely to occurr again, so long as they trusted Sheba instead of trying to acquire magical powers on their own.  And Megatron had plainly--and publicly--told Thrust that if he ever used Magic without Sheba's supervision ever again, he'd be dismantled and put in storage.

"Sheba, I need to speak with you privately," Megatron requested.  He led her into a room that was mostly used for interrogations.

"Gee, you were pretty rough on him," Sheba said, referring to the rather stern lecture that Megatron had given to Thrust.

"And with good reason," Megatron told her.

"Which is?" Sheba wanted to know.

"Thrust is not the only Decepticon that's ever found a way to use Magic against the Autobots," Megatron stated, "Long ago, a similar mistake was made."

"What do you mean?"

"It was many years ago on Cybertron, at the start of the War," Megatron replied.  "One of the Decepticons had access to a very powerful attack spell, and he used it in a critical battle against the Autobots.  At first, the advantage was clearly ours.  But, as the fighting continued, the continuous casting of that spell quickly depleted the spellcaster's Magic Points.  No sooner had that happened, than Guardian Robots showed up and decimated our forces.  There wasn't even enough Magic Points left over to cast a simple Life spell on even one of the fallen Decepticon warriors.  The battle was lost, and many Decepticons were either destroyed, or captured by the Autobots."

"What happened to the guy that was casting all the magic?  What spell was he using?" Sheba asked.  Then she noticed the downcast look on Megatron's face.  "That magic user--that was you, wasn't it?"

Megatron sighed heavily.  "Yes, it was I.  Normally, I find an advantage and exploit it to the fullest against our foes.  Because of the nature of the spell I was using, nobody suspected that I was using Magic, but I soon learned that this wasn't quite as simple as I had anticipated.  That night, Elder Prime came to me in a dream and warned me that never again was I to use Magic attacks against the Autobots.  He said that if I continued to use Magic, that the Autobots too would start using it.  If that were to be the case then the Matrix would tip the odds in the Autobots' favor and it would be a war I could never win.   But there is another reason I called you in here Sheba--to give you this."  He handed Sheba a green translucent stone that had a red core.  It was a magicite shard.  

Sheba took it and examined it closely.  "Phoenix?  Then the spell you used........was Fire3?"

Megatron nodded.

"How come you're giving me this?" Sheba asked.

"I only just recently learned all the spells from it," Megatron explained, "And it seems you might need to learn them."

"Oh.  Yeah, and Life3 is going to be really handy once I learn it," Sheba said, then paused as a realization came to her.  "Hey, wait a minute!  Your spontaneous resurrections after everyone thinks you're dead--that reeks of Life3!"

"That is true," Megatron stated, "And the restorative spells are the only ones that I dare use.  Everybody thinks I am almost completely indestructible.  Nobody suspects Magic when I reawaken after presumably being deactivated."

"Heh, nobody except me.  I thought it was pretty obvious," Sheba, said with a grin, "But anyway, where did you get magicite?"

Megatron sighed.  "It was given to me by an old friend a long time ago," he told her.  The tone of his voice was uncharacteristically sorrowful.

"Painful memory, eh?  I better not go there then," Sheba commented, "Ok, are you all finished?"

"Yes," Megatron replied.

"Good, because it's almost time for “Make it so”," Sheba told him, and hurried out.

Megatron stood there, alone, completely confused.  "Make it so?"

***

Soundwave was sent with Starscream, Thundercracker, and Skywarp to get some energon cubes.  This time they managed to get away with some, and nobody used any Magic.  As well, Starscream's presence made the Autobots apprehensive; the last thing they needed was to be thumped on by his Guardian Force.

"You should have seen those pathetic Autobots attempt to stop us," Starscream chuckled, once they were in the control room, "It's like they weren't even trying anymore."

"Heh.  I wouldn't be trying either, if it meant Sheba would come and kick my afterburner halfway across the planet," Thundercracker snickered.

"I'd never thought I'd be saying this, but we should have Starscream along on every mission.  We can't lose," Skywarp said gleefully, as he dropped his load of energon cubes unceremoniously on the floor.

***

Prime and his crew rolled in to Autobot Headquarters, looking rather ashamed of themselves. 

"Prime, what happened?" Huffer wanted to know.

"We couldn't do anything.  Starscream was there," Prime told him, "If we had attacked him, Sheba would have appeared."

"Well you were able to stop the Decepticons last time," Spike said.

"We got lucky last time," Ironhide snorted.

"If this goes on for much longer, we will no longer be able to keep the Decepticons from getting the energy they need to fully take over Cybertron," Optimus Prime realized.

*

"Megatron calling Cybertron.  Are you there, Shockwave?" 

Shockwave's featureless face appeared on the viewscreen.  

"Shockwave here.  Proceed, Megatron,"

"Be prepared to receive another shipment of Energon Cubes to Cybertron.  When will the Space Bridge be reopened?" Megatron asked.

"In 15 billion astroseconds, at these co-ordinates," Shockwave replied, and an image of the place where the space bridge was set to appear was put up on the screen.  It was in the middle of a desert.

"Excellent, Shockwave!" Megatron said approvingly.

***

"Hey, what's this?" Chip wondered, as he was working on something using Teletraan 1.  The computer had suddenly popped up an alert about Decepticon activity.  Quickly he typed to get more information.

"Hey, Teletraan 1 says that another Space Bridge will be appearing soon," Chip told Ratchet, who was busy fixing Gears.

"Oh wonderful," Gears grumbled, "Where?"

"In Death Valley, it looks like," Chip stated.

"Death Valley?  That doesn't sound good," Ratchet stated.

"It's probably named that because we're all going to die there," Gears said, "The sand will get in my relays, the heat will warp my tires and ruin my paint job, the glare of the sun will blind us all so we can't see the enemy to shoot them, and-"

"If you don't cut that out Gears, I'm going to short-circuit your mouth," Ratchet snapped.

***

Megatron surveyed the place where the Space Bridge was to appear.  For miles around there was nothing but sand and rocks.  No humans, no life forms, and no Autobots--yet.  It was the perfect location.  Theoretically, he could have sent Astrotrain to Cybertron, loaded up with energon cubes.  But that was uneconomical compared to the Space Bridge.  Not even Astrotrain and Blast-Off put together had that much cargo room.  And there was always the possibility of Astrotrain getting intercepted by Omega Supreme.  So instead, he divided up the load between his warriors and brought them to the transport site.  Sheba was too tired to come along; in any case she would be instantly summoned if anyone attacked Starscream.  He watched as Thundercracker and Skywarp were unloaded by Reflector, Rumble, and Frenzy, and the cubes added to an ever-growing stack.  Thrust and Dirge just came in with their loads.  Starscream, as usual, was ordering everybody around and being picky about it to boot.  Blitzwing and Ramjet were standing guard over the cubes, having been some of the first to be unloaded.

Blitzwing spotted something in the distance.  A dust cloud was being raised, like when a bunch of cars drive down a dry dirt road.  But in a few minutes it was obvious what that causing the dust cloud.  

"Megatron!  AUTOBOTS!" Blitzwing shouted.  Seconds later, the Space Bridge appeared.  

Reflector's three components hurried, and managed to place a small stack of energon cubes into the Space Bridge.  It did not close and activate yet.

Optimus Prime and a whole contingent of Autobots were now upon them. 

"Autobots, TRANSFORM!" Optimus Prime ordered, while doing so himself, "Now, remember the plan!"

All the Autobots got their weapons out and began firing.  The Decepticons were rather heavily outnumbered, and soon it became obvious what the "plan" was:  not one Autobot was trying to blast Starscream, but they were eagerly blasting everyone else.  Optimus Prime took care of Megatron, knocking him out totally with a stun blast from his laser rifle.  

Several Decepticons--Skywarp, Blitzwing, Dirge, and Thundercracker--fell backwards into the Space Bridge field and didn't get up.  Pretty soon Starscream was the only one left standing.  

"Now Autobots!  Destroy the energon cubes!" Optimus Prime commanded.

"NO!  NOT THE CUBES!" Starscream hollered, and ran towards the stack.  

Several blasts from the Autobots' weapons hit the cubes in the huge stack outside the space bridge, and they all exploded when Starscream was only a few feet away.  He was thrown backwards into the Space Bridge.

"Prime, there's more cubes in the Space Bridge!  What do we do?" Hound called out.

"We go and get them, before they get transported!" Prime told him.  He and Hound, Perceptor, Mirage, Tracks, and Sideswipe ran into the Space Bridge, intent on destroying the cubes.  

Sheba appeared immediately in front of Starscream, just as the doors to the space bridge closed.  She began to summon a Guardian Force, but something odd happened.  They were sucked into the Space Bridge pathway and they could see they were headed towards Cybertron.  But the minute the Guardian Force--Quezacotl--appeared, a warp hole opened in their path and they were all swept inside.  The next thing they see that they were not on Cybertron.  Nor were they anywhere on Earth.  They couldn't see any sky; it appeared they were in a large cavern.  And oddly enough, the cavern appeared to be well-lit as though it were daylight.  Torches were evident on the walls, though they seemed to be giving off a disproportionate amount of light.  There were two exit tunnels, on opposite sides of the cavern.  Even more strangely, there appeared to be a wooden treasure chest in one corner of the chamber.

Sheba blinked, as though she was just waking up.  The Autobots stared at her intently.

"Why did you bring us here?" Optimus Prime demanded.

"Wha...?  Me?  Bring you here?  I didn't do that!  I just woke up!" Sheba protested.

"It happened while you were in the act of Summoning that huge bird," Sideswipe stated.

"I guess that means I shouldn't be summoning Guardian Forces in my sleep," Sheba sighed.  She looked around and saw the Decepticons that had been brought with them.  They were all knocked out.  She cast Full-Life on Starscream first.

"What happened?" Starscream said as he got to his feet.  Then he saw the unfamiliar surroundings.  "Where are we?!" he wanted to know.

"I haven't got a clue," Sheba said, as she cast Full Life on Thundercracker, then Blitzwing, then Skywarp, then Dirge.  There was a brief standoff once all the Decepticons were revived.

"I was afraid she was going to do that," Perceptor sighed.

"Oh great, now what are we going to do?" Hound asked Prime.

"We're going to get out of here," Prime replied.

"Well, no time like the present.  I don't like the atmosphere around here," Tracks sniffed, and went to one of the tunnel openings.  The instant he reached it, an invisible force threw him backward.

"HEY!" Tracks complained, "What was that?"  Quickly he ran to the other entrance.  The same thing happened.

"Looks like the Autobots are stuck here!" Blitzwing gloated.  He headed for the tunnel that was closest to him.  But he had no better luck than Tracks had before him.

"AAAAGH!" Blitzwing shouted, as he was repelled backwards from the doorway.  "That's it, I'm BLASTING it!"  He got his weapon out and fired at the doorway.  The laser beams went through the tunnel.

"Hey!  How come my laser blasts can go in but I can't?" Blitzwing complained.

"Perceptor!  Can you figure out what's causing that?" Optimus asked.

"Right away, Prime!" Perceptor replied, and he approached one of the doorways.  He stopped short of it and tried to stick his hand into the tunnel.  It bounced back, almost as if it hit an invisible wall.  Quickly he transformed to microscope mode and examined the wall surrounding the exit.

"Whatever is blocking this passageway is not a solid wall, and there are no holograms in here," Perceptor said at last, "I can find no scientific reason for this barrier.  There's no obvious power source for any kind of forcefield.  And a forcefield shouldn't let laser blasts past it.  As for the walls, the composition is unlike anything I've ever seen.  Blasting through it would be impossible because of the density of the molecules."

"Hmph," Skywarp snorted, "Maybe you guys can't get out, but I can!"  A blue light enveloped him, and he vanished.  But a microsecond later, he reappeared exactly in the same spot he'd been standing in.  "Hey, what gives?" he complained.

"Sheba, why don't you try to warp us out of here?" Starscream asked.

Sheba concentrated and cast Warp.  Nothing happened.

"Why didn't it work?!" Starscream wanted to know.

"I don't understand; it should have worked.  My Full-Life spell is working fine.  Wait, hold on.  When I was trying to cast the spell, I was thinking of Earth," Sheba told him, "Lemme try again."  Sheba cast Warp a second time, and a blue light enveloped her.  She vanished, and appeared again a few dozen feet away. 

"Ok, so now we know there's nothing wrong with my teleport spell.  Skywarp, try teleporting again--just a few feet away."

"Okay," Skywarp told her, and teleported.  He appeared again, a little farther away.

Sheba looked thoughtful.  "Hmmm, looks like nothing's stopping us from teleporting within the area.  That means something must be blocking us from teleporting out.  That probably explains why I'm still here."

"Well, well.  Looks like we're stuck here," Optimus pointed out.

"Wait a minute!  If that barrier has nothing to do with science, maybe it has something to do with Magic," Sheba realized, and she went to one of the tunnel entrances.  Gingerly she put out a paw and slowly moved it towards the mouth of the tunnel.  Strangely enough, her paw did not bounce off anything.  She was able to put it down inside the tunnel.  She
walked forward, and found she was able to go into the tunnel without any resistance.

"Seems okay now.  Okay Blitzwing, try coming in," Sheba said.  But as before, Blitzwing could not enter the tunnel.  So, Sheba ran back into the tunnel to explore it.  A few minutes later she returned.  "It looks like a dead end," she told them, "There's a switch on the floor, but when I pressed it, it didn't do anything obvious."

"That's strange," Mirage commented.

Sheba came outside the tunnel and cast Dispel, hoping to shatter whatever forcefield was in place.  But Blitzwing still couldn't get into the tunnel.

"Well if we can't get out of here, let's make sure the Autobots never get out either," Dirge suggested.

"Good idea!" Starscream said.  He and the other Decepticons raised their weapons at the Autobots.  Prime and the others did the same.

Sheba walked into the exact center of the cavern between the Autobots and Decepticons, flopped down, and curled up.

"What are you doing?" Starscream snapped impatiently.

"I don't think there's any point in fighting," she replied.

"And why not?" Starscream asked, in a tone of voice that indicated increasing irritation over the situation.

"I don't think we'll be able to get out of here without them," Sheba told him.

"WHAT?!" Starscream and the other Decepticons sputtered at once.

"No, really, think about it.  Separately, nobody was able to go into the tunnel except me.  We tried blasting it, we tried casting Dispel--nothing works.  But there is an option we haven't tried," she explained.

"And what's that?" Starscream demanded.

"Try sending in an Autobot and a Decepticon in together," she suggested.

"ARE YOU CRAZY?!" several voices practically screamed at her.

"Well if any of you have a better idea, I'd love to hear it," she growled.

So, Perceptor and Starscream--eyeing each other warily--both stepped towards one of the tunnel entrances.  This time nothing blocked them--they were able to go right into the tunnel.  They turned around after a few steps and came back.

"Now let's try the other tunnel," Sheba said.

This time, Thundercracker and Optimus Prime went towards the other tunnel.  Neither of them had any trouble going inside.  They came right back out.

Sheba suddenly realized something.  "Of course!  Why didn't I see it before?"

"What are you talking about?" Starscream asked.

"Two tunnels, one with a dead end and a switch, one we haven't explored yet--but I'm willing to bet there's an identical dead end and switch somewhere in the other tunnel," Sheba explained, "I've seen this kind of thing before.  Someone has to stand on the switch, to open the path in the other tunnel!  This is definitely that kind of situation.  We just might get out of here after all."

"All right, all we need to do now is split up," Optimus Prime stated.

"Hey wait.  Shouldn't we explore this main room first, to see if we can find anything useful?" Sideswipe pointed out, "Like that treasure chest over there, for example."

Skywarp had already wandered over to the chest and got ready to open it.  It was locked, so he used his laser to blast the lock off of it.

"Skywarp!  Don't open that just yet!" Sheba called out, and ran towards him.

Skywarp totally ignored her and opened it anyway.  A flash of light emanated from the inside of the chest, and a yellow creature resembling an oriental-style dragon emerged from it and attacked Skywarp.

"Oh great," Sheba moaned, and she doubled her speed.  The dragon's wind-based attack nailed Skywarp for 1700 HP worth of damage before she reached them.

Skywarp staggered backwards and shouted for help.

Sheba sprang on the monster and started ripping it with her claws.  The creature had tough hide, so it was difficult to cause much damage.  She leaped off and faced it, growling savagely.  Quickly she cast Scan.  The information only gave her the Level, HP, and MP of the monster.  Suddenly, two little angels floated down and touched her and Skywarp.  Immediately they were down to only 1 Hit Point each.  Sheba recognized the attack--"Fallen One"--and suddenly it dawned on her what she was up against.

"OH NO!  It's a DOOM DRAGON!" she exclaimed.  She hurriedly cast Curaga on herself.  The Dragon responed with an Ice-based attack called N. Cross.  Skywarp was frozen by the attack.  The only way to remedy that was for Sheba to cast a low-level Fire spell on him, but she was unwilling to do that because he still only had 1 HP and any damage at all would knock him out.  So, she cast Magitek Cure2 instead, and just in time too.  The Cure2 gave her 2500 HP, and gave Skywarp 2475 HP.  The dragon's next attack was called S. Cross.  That took 372 HP off of herself, and 1470 HP off of Skywarp--and fortunately it had the effect of thawing him out.

"Skywarp, QUICK!  Teleport out of the battle!" Sheba ordered.  Skywarp was only too happy to comply.  He reappeared beside Thundercracker and the others.  All eyes were now on Sheba and how she would handle the monster.

At her next turn, Sheba cast Regen.  This would slowly restore her HP in case the Doom Dragon decided to use Fallen One again.  Instead, the Doom Dragon tried N. Cross but Sheba was immune.  Since Doom Dragons have 18,008 HP, it was going to take a very powerful attack to take it out in one hit.  So, she summoned Eden.  The Eternal Breath attack took off 25,091 HP, which defeated the dragon.  With the monster gone, Sheba was now able to check out what was in the treasure chest.  It was a bottle containing Megalixir--a medicine used for restoring Hit Points and Magic points for an entire party.  She carried it in her mouth and gave it to Starscream for safekeeping, directing him to put it in his chest compartment.  Then she went over to Skywarp and cast Curaga on him to restore his HP.

"Now, what did I tell you about touching magical things in strange places?" Sheba scolded.

"Alright, alright," Skywarp sighed, "I won't do it again."

"I wonder if there are any more monsters like that around here," Tracks said.

"Probably," Sheba told him.

"And we likely wouldn't stand a chance against them," Mirage pointed out.

"Well there's only one thing we can do about that," Sheba stated.

"And what's that?" Prime wanted to know.

"I'm going to have to loan out some Guardian Forces to Starscream and the others," she replied.

"What on Earth for?" Prime asked.

"Last time I checked, I can't be in two places at once," Sheba said flatly, "Obviously if I'm the only Magic user, whoever I don't go with is going to be at a serious disadvantage--they might not even make it out.  But don't worry--these guys know that if they use their Magic against you, they won't get out of here either.  And then I'll give them a thrashing to remember."

Ifrit and Siren were given to Thundercracker, Diablos and Shiva were given to Skywarp, while Starscream got Quezacotl and Leviathan, Blitzwing got Pandemona and Alexander, and Dirge got Cerberus and Doomtrain.  In splitting up, it was decided that Sheba would not go in the same party as Starscream.  That was because Starscream was almost as powerful a Magic User as Sheba was and had the most experience with it of all the Decepticons--and an experienced Magic user would be essential in both groups.  In any event if Starscream were in jeopardy then Sheba would automatically come to his rescue anyway.

The first party consisted of Sheba, Mirage, Thundercracker, Perceptor, Dirge, and Tracks, while second party was made up of Starscream, Hound, Skywarp, Optimus Prime, Blitzwing, and Sideswipe.

“Mirage, you should use your invisibility if you run into anything that uses very powerful physical attacks,” Sheba advised, “There’s no point in staying invisible around a monster that attacks with magic, though.”

“Gotcha,” Mirage replied.

"We're going to need to keep in radio contact," Optimus Prime told the other Autobots, "If we are going to have to trigger some switches in order to get out of here, we need to know when."

Starscream and the others had almost gotten to the switch Sheba had mentioned, when a group of monsters attacked them.  They looked like huge disembodied heads.  One of them directed a strange red, almost heart-shaped energy ball at Sideswipe, who was suddenly unable to move.  A pinkish aura surrounded the Autobot.

Starscream cast scan on one of the monsters.  “It’s called a Face, and it’s weak against Ice magic,” he stated, “Each one has 4550 hit points.”

“A Shiva summon should take care of that,” Skywarp stated, “DIAMOND
DUST!”

Immediately the party vanished as four beams of ice circled down to the ground, forming a focal point from which a chunk of ice emerged.  Shiva, contained within the ice, opened her eyes, and the ice shattered, falling off her.  A blue-and-yellow tinged energy ball formed in her right hand, and she drew it back, as if winding up to pitch a baseball.  It grew in size and energy as she did so, and then she threw it forward with both hands.  The Face monsters were struck by the blast, and ice formed over them and then broke.  However, the attack only took off about half their hit points.  Each of the three Faces cast 1000 Needles on Skywarp in retaliation, taking a serious chunk out of his health.  

It was Blitzwing’s turn next, and he cast Curaga on Skywarp to heal him.

“I think we’ll need a diversion,” Hound remarked.  He used his holographic projector to create multiple images of himself.  One of the Face monsters charged at a holographic Hound, wasting its turn.  Another tried using its stop-inducing Smirk attack on yet another Hound image, to no avail.

Optimus Prime tried shooting at one of the Faces, doing minor damage, certainly not enough to finish it off.  He ended up getting a torso full of 1000 Needles for his trouble.

Starscream sighed, then he summoned Leviathan.  The party vanished to the protective dimension, and Starscream concentrated hard to boost the Guardian Force’s Tidal Wave attack during the summon.  Fortunately it was enough, and the resulting blast of water cascading upon the Faces defeated them.  Then finally, Sideswipe was able to move again.

When the Autobots and Decepticons reappeared and the defeated monsters vanished, Starscream noticed there was some strange, primitive-looking gold currency and two Phoenix Down potions lying on the ground.  He collected the spoils and reached the switch, pausing.  “Starscream to Thundercracker.  Acknowledge,” he radioed.

“Thundercracker here.  Go ahead, Starscream.”

“What’s going on over there?” Starscream asked.

“We’ve just hit a dead end,” Thundercracker replied.

“I’m about to step on the switch.  Let me know if anything happens,” Starscream said.  He stepped on it, and there was a rumbling sound over Thundercracker’s comlink.

“Yeah, there’s suddenly a new passageway in the wall,” Thundercracker radioed back, “We’re going through it.”

TO BE CONTINUED!