Darkness.


Frigidness.


Silence.


In the abyss’s deep depths, a still figure pinned beneath a mound of aged moon rocks fights to beat back the approaching darkness at the edge of his consciousness. His fuel pump whirred loudly with a sickening sound as the vital component struggled to compensate for the damage obtained from the battle and fall into the crevice. Temperature control readings scrolled across his static-filled visual display revealing rapidly decreasing temperatures in his superstructure; slowing system functions. With an effort of thought, he activated his internal engine to help regulate his core temperature in the vacuum of space. Soon, numbness fled from aching limbs, but doing little to relieve the pain rippling through his body.

I’ve failed them…His foggy mind thought. Now…now they’re alone up there battling against the Dinoforce. Blacker…Laster…I’m sorry…I..I should have been…m-more careful…

Pain renewed its assault causing Braver to gasp hard, his black hand clenching the rocks in front of him as if it would help him keep a grip on reality. On the back of his helm, a sharp throb announced its presence again ten-fold. Despair filled him as he could not hear the events of the battle above him taking place. Silence reigned around him, only physical contact with the rocks, causing a vibration through his metal frame, reassured him he was still on the moon in a pitch-dark rift and not dead in the Pit.

By Primus, I’m a Brainmaster, an elite warrior! How could I just let myself be pushed into this crevice? He vented a strained sigh, jaw clenched tight. Now, Blacker and Laster wouldn’t be able to form Road Caesar…

They don’t stand a chance against twelve Decepticons…

The wounded Brainmaster tilted his head upward, noticing that the view above him was not pure darkness like his prison. Stars twinkled and twittered on their own accord, unperturbed by the bloody battle taking place.

Braver focused his dimming optics on the outline of the rift, filled with stars, to distract his fading mind from his predicament. Slowly, a wave of calmness overcame the anxiety eating away at him and relaxing his body enough to make the pain more tolerable. He held on to that imagine of the starlight like a lifeline, unconcerned of the soreness forming in his neck.

Suddenly, the calm sea of stars was shattered as stray laser fire flew across the rift’s opening; knocking more loose debris onto Braver. Head snapping forward from the impact with a small boulder, Braver shuttered and nearly passed out right then and there. It was as if a spike had been rammed into the back of his head.

Finally, losing the fight against the encroaching darkness, the Brainmaster gave out a small plea before succumbing.

I pray that they’re alright…

*************

Voices.

Voices filtered their way through his cortex. But that was impossible; there was nothing around him but silence.

-ny luck?-

-o, not ye-

-k..ep…rying-

His sluggish mind suddenly realized. Internal Comlink!

-Fo..nd…him!-

Laster…

The voices grew more distinct as the grievously injured mech became more aware.

-be careful with his head-

Blacker...Of course.

Hands gently cradled his head as debris was shifted off his frame. Gradually, he was raised into a sitting position supported by strong arms. Somehow his muddled cortex worked up the energy to power up his optics dimly, but saw little other then the shadowed forms of his comrades. In front of him shone kind blue optics, seemingly driving away the darkness. A soft, gentle, but relieved voice came over the comlink.

-Don’t worry, Braver, we’re here now-

Star Saber…chief…

Managing a bare nod of acknowledgement, Braver surrendered peacefully to stasis as he was lifted out of the crevice that was denied to be his grave.

The last thing he saw with his fading conscious was his friends’ optics glowing and the starlight in the rift glistening behind them.


The End.

_______________________________

For those not familar with Victory...

This drabble is based on a scene in the first episode of the Victory, where the Autobots are fighting the Decepticons on the moon. Braver, a Brainmaster, falls into a crevice during the making, making it impossible for Blacker, Laster, and him to combine into Roadcaeser. The Decepticons they are fighting are the Dino Troopers, Pretender transformers whose shells can fight independently of the smaller bipedal robot forms creating a total of 12 'Cons instead of 6. Also, Star Sabre is the Autobot Leader.

I quite like it. A nice little side story that expands on the established events. Are you going to do anymore?

I actually wrote the story this past summer, though in the past week I've been thinking of doing another one. Just haven't decided were in the series I'd like to do it.

This is just a random suggestion I thought up after rewatching some of Victory, but how about the episode in which Great Shot turns up.

It could be his thoughts on tracking his 'friends' and watching the Autobots, deciding when to intervene and so on. Maybe.

This may well be a bad idea, but it just sprang to mind, what do you think Stormraider?

hhhmmm, that's not a bad idea. Great Shot is a favorite character of mine, even though he doesnt' show up much in the series. I'll have to watch that episode again to get a better idea.

For the most part, I've seen plenty of places where I could add a short scene of my own, it's just none of them were jumping out at me like the scene of Braver falling into the crevice and seemly forgotten about for the rest of the episode.

Another idea that i've had is to do with Victory Leo. About his inner struggle with the remnants of God Ginrai trying to break through the more emotional, bestial nature of the new lion-bot form. I'm not sure about how to fit it in as I've got to rewatch Victory and haven't yet managed it.

What do you think?

hhmm I'll admit I'm quite confused on how to interpret the whole process of God Ginrai to Victory Leo. I think some parts of the concept was lost in the translation from Japanese to English since I've watched the dubbed version. It would be an interesting persective to explore though.

I may do a little more research on specifics.

After watching the Metrodome subs, I don't think the concept is any clearer in Japanese. All I can work out is that God Ginrais body is reformatted and for some reason, his memories are gone, or suppressed and a new, more feral personality takes over. This makes him far more aggressive and eager for combat, along with being very unresponsive to any orders given to him. He stays this way until Jan ends up in trouble and calls out to God Ginrai, which somehow awakens the dormant GG personality, sort of. Or at least VL remebers part of being GG, mostly the part about his freindship with Jan. This makes Victory Leo more responsive and aware. And less feral, but doesn't really explain what's happened to God Ginrais mind. That's about all I can figure out.

You know this has gotten me thinking even more at the possibility of Victory Leo having a few identity issues on top of everything. Bringing in a slight connection from Masterforce, God Ginrai started out as just a non-sentient transector and at the end of the series became a living transformer with what I believe is an imprint of the human Ginrai's memories and personality. To me this equals a very confused Victory Leo struggling to figure out who or what he is if some of the human memories surface as well. May the more bestial side could have resulted from the human persona somehow.

I am still figuring out the details, but I'm sensing a brainstorm on the approach. I thinking I need to watch the last episode of Masterforce too for this piece.