View source for Riders and Rebels

'''Riders and Rebels''' is an episode of ''[[Transformers: Renegade Rhetoric]]'' described on the ''[[Renegade Rhetoric]]'' [[Facebook]] page.

==Synopsis==

==Source Text==
The following was posted on Facebook on January 27, 2016. <ref>https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=978139675575860&id=959112720811889</ref>

{{quote|Dear Cy-Kill, After the Robo Rebels came on the scene, were the Secret Riders still around?

Cy-Kill: Indeed yes! In fact, I came quite close to conquering Gobotron recently thanks to their rivalry. On their Command Center, patrolling the outer moons of Gobotron, Twister was complaining to Tork about their current duty. Tork agreed, grumbling that the Robo Rebels had been getting all the best assignments lately, though Tri-Trak told them that no assignment was unimportant. "They also serve, who only stand and wait." As if on cue, three Renegade Thrusters emerged from hyperspace right in their patrol sector!

On board the lead ship, Cop-Tur, Crasher, and I detected that a single Command Center stood between us and our objective, the Scientific Moon of Gobotron. I was after Professor Von Joy's latest invention, a Macroscopic Continuum Distorter. "Easy picking," I observed, and ordered Pocket's Thruster to proceed to the moon while mine and Re-Volt's would destroy the Guardian irritant.

Tork, fool that he is, wanted to fight off all three Thrusters by himself, though, sadly, cooler heads prevailed. Tri-Trak put out a distress call before engaging in a delaying action. By staying just out of reach, he was able to stay alive long enough for two more Command Centers to arrive. Faced with even odds, and hearing Pocket's report that the Distorter was in Renegade hands, I broke off the engagement.

That should have been the end of it, but the Secret Riders were disturbed to discover that one of the two Command Centers that came to their rescue was piloted by none other than the Robo Rebels! To make matters worse, Super Couper laughed at their rivals, while Raizor mocked them for their lack of spine. Leader-1, the commander of the third Command Center, told them to knock it off, they were all Guardians here, but the ill-will remained. After he departed to survey the damage to the scientific moon, Twister challenged Bent Wing to see which of them could track down the Renegades to their base and retrieve the Distorter first. Bent Wing, predictably, accepted the challenge. Tri-Trak tried to calm things down, but his followers were adamant and he chose to accompany them rather than let them get into mischief on their own. When Leader-1 emerged from the scientific moon, he witnessed two Command Centers streaking off without authorization. All he could do was sigh.

In hyperspace, Pocket reported to me that there was sign of pursuit. This was unusual, normally Guardians are smarter than that. I smirked, noting that there were soon going to be two fewer Command Centers.

The not-quite good natured sniping continued between the two Command Centers. Only Tail Pipe and Tri-Trak refrained. They emerged from hyperspace hot on the tails of the three Thrusters. Although having numeric advantage, the Thrusters continued to retreat, which worried Tri-Trak to no end. They had come far enough and weren't about to back down now, though. Soon they realized their folly, when a half dozen more Thrusters lowered their Stealth Devices and the Guardians found themselves surrounded.Both tried to fight their way out, prompting me to fire a disabling shot and short out the Robo Rebels' Command Center's engines and the Secret Riders' Command Center's navigation system. Both ships, adrift, were towed onto Rogue Star.

Soon, all seven Guardians were brought before me. Not only had I gotten my hands on the most powerful Guardian invention in recent years, but I now had seven hostages. I gloated to them that I would be exchanging them for Leader-1 and [[Zeemon]] in the near future, and then use the Distorter to eliminate the rest of the Guardians once and for all! I had them taken to cells while we transited back to Gobotron to make our demands, leaving [[Dactyl (GoBots)|Dactyl]] to guard them.

At first, the Robo Rebels and the Secret Riders continued to snipe at each other, until Tri-Trak made a speech about how they were all Guardians and needed to work together. Once they were unified in purpose, Tail Pipe was able to walk Twister through picking the lock on the cell. Once they opened the door, Dactyl rushed at them, but they were able to slip out and seal him in behind them.

Freed, they split up into teams. Tri-Trak, Super Couper, and Raizor found and disabled the Macroscopic Continuum Distorter. Bent Wing, Tailpipe, Twister, and Tork made their way to the docking bay and transferred the intact navigation systems from the Robo Rebel's ship to the Secret Rider's ship.

Cop-Tur, Crasher, and I realized that trouble was afoot, and tried to stop Tri-Trak's team from getting to the launching bay. Unfortunately, Bent Wing's team hit us from behind and we had to withdraw. They escaped back to Gobotron, where they assured Leader-1 they'd learned a valuable lesson about the dangers of an unhealthy rivalry with fellow Guardians.}}

==Cast==

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==References==
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[[Category:Fun Publications stories]]
[[Category:Transformers: Renegade Rhetoric episodes]]