Off Duty

This was, in Terrorsaur's ever-so-humble opinion, the best way to spend a sunny afternoon when one was trapped on a grubby planet with a beast mode instead of something properly metallic. He didn't exactly regret the difference at the moment. He'd probably had more fun in his original alternate mode back on Cybertron, but right now he couldn't think of any one time that compared. Well...one that didn't end with a crash of some kind, anyway. Not to say that this might not end in an explosion as well, but for now it was fun just to go with the flow.

He put on an extra burst of speed with his jets and transformed to his beast mode as an updraft hit his face. Red wings spread to catch it, and Terrorsaur chuckled smugly to himself at the combination of warm sunlight above and the cool rush of air from below. Ah, perfect. Now all he had to do was figure out where Waspinator had disappeared to and all would be right in his world…until they got back to the base and Scorpinok caught up with them. It just made his enjoyment of his play all the richer picturing the scorpion's righteous indignation over their skipped shifts. Poor Scorpinok had to cover for the delinquent Predacons. Boo-hoo.

He cackled.

Eventually he pulled his thoughts lazily back to the missing wasp. It was easy to let his mind wander on days like this, but he had come out here for a reason at one point: catching Waspinator before he got himself slagged. How the hyperactive 'bot could outfly him without blinking today and run straight into a wall tomorrow was a mystery he thought he'd solved. Unfortunately, he also had a hunch that his solution was pretty useless. Megatron would most likely veto the idea of feeding Waspinator pure glucose before fights with the Maximals no matter how powered-up the wasp got. With the Predacons' luck in battle lately, Waspinator would probably do great until somebody fired a nice shiny missile. 'Ooo, Wazzpinator likezz shiny—' KABOOM!

He really needed to stop laughing out loud at his thoughts. Somebody was going to hear him and think he was as loony as—as—well, slag. Who HADN'T gone a little crazy? About the only one he could think of was Rhinox, and even that was just in comparison. As far as he was concerned, a Maximal was a few bolts missing by definition, and following that stupid ape of all 'bots just closed the case. Okay, fine. Of all the Maximals, who were lunatics to begin with, Rhinox seemed the sanest. Then again, Terrorsaur only knew that from fighting him. For all he knew, Rhinox turned into a polka-dotted fool the moment the Predacons weren't looking. He and Cheetor were probably a matched set!

…if he didn't stop snickering, someone was going to mistake him for Tarantulas.

He shook his head, amused and horrified at the thought. They were all insane, really. The Maximals were, well, Maximals, plus their individual glaring personality defects, although in Dinobot's case he was willing to cede the 'personality' part. That left the Predacons to supply the sane side of the Beast Wars, and slag all if THAT was going to happen. Tarantulas WAS a mad scientist, after all. Hehehe. Maybe that had been in his resume: 'will invent like an overenergized Wheeljack and chuckle like a mechanical hyena.' Hmmm…of course, Scorpinok's apparent aim of becoming Megatron's footstool rated him at the intelligence level of said piece of furniture, but he usually was no worse than Tarantulas. Unless there really was a shrine to Megatron in his quarters. Was obsession was a mental disorder? It had to be. It couldn't possibly be healthy, anyway. Focusing that completely on Megatron just wasn't right. Megatron was incompetent, overbearing, obnoxious, and he talked to that blasted head-hand of his. It was creepy, even if he could ignore the tyrant's yes/no speaking disorder. And then, just to complete the set, there was Blackarachnia. She was…female.

Terrorsaur had the feeling that he was forgetting someone as he rolled in midair and scanned the ground below almost absent-mindedly. Crazy Maximals? Check. Predacons who just happened to have mental problems? Not all of them were insane. For instance, the yellow and black wasp buzzing around down there was obviously in his right mind, nevermind the fact that he was cruising upside-down wearing flower garlands on every available surface and chasing his shadow. Plainly he was perfectly fine. Really.

Good thing he was alone up here. He'd hate for anyone to think he giggled like this normally. They'd think he was crazy!

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This was entirely too much fun to write. Getting into Terrorsaur's head when he's being a delinquent is dangerous; you start giggling randomly, not to mention to the urge to dive-bomb Megatron.