#nightfright

Dear Batty Bountiful,

Nightfright was the brother of the Predacon known as Screechwing, and shared his alternate mode of a large cybernetic bat, though he was red in color. As a bounty hunter, Nightfright was well known for taking jobs from the Predacon Council where he was tasked with hunting down turncoats to the Predacon cause.

I've already told you of how he slew the Dinobot Terrorsaur and was slain by Grimlock in retribution, but Nightfright's targets were many. In one particularly harrowing job, he was sent after a mark by the name of Bonecrusher, a former Predacon who transformed into a bulldog. Nightfright tracked Bonecrusher to the refuse reclamation center he'd come to live in, and though the canine Maximal fought viciously, he succumbed to Nightfright’s phobia-inducing hypno-waves; Bonecrusher was overcome by visions of his greatest fears, leaving him defenseless to the bounty hunter.

Still yet another victim of Nightfright's was the grasshopper Maximal, Kickback. A craven coward, he left the Predacons and cozied up to the Autobots with promises of secret intel. Nightfright discovered that Kickback had a taste for organic snacks, and set a trap for the ravenous Insecticon… by ensnaring some aliens to use as bait. While Kickback devoured them, Nightfright snuck up behind the Maximal and blasted him.

There is one last job of Nightfright's, however, which truly lays bare his vile barbarism—his hunt for Apelinq, a particularly noble Predacon who deserted over moral objections' to the Council's cruelty. Apelinq did not resettle among the Autobots, but instead took refuge on a distant planet, where he became protector of a group of indigenous natives. Rather than target the formidable Apelinq directly, Nightfright terrorized his protectorate, picking them off after sundown one by one… until Apelinq was near-catatonic with grief and guilt, unable to muster the will to defend himself against the bat Predacon.