Chapter 9
Changes

"Well, well. If it isn't my old charge." Stalker said, "Ready to serve your new master?" Paraleasion glowered up at Stalker, the restraints keeping her from attacking.

"Lead me not into temptation," she said, her face sober.

"Why not?"

"I can find the way myself." Stalker gawked at the small femme. This wasn't the Paraleasion he remembered. The Paraleasion he once knew never cracked joke. He had to remind himself that there would be no name for her when he was done. She would have no purpose except to serve him.

Rampage paced, trying to think. Soon he would be a mindless creature if Stalker and Megatron had their way. Though the only one he would be serving would be Stalker. He had to do something, anything to stop the psycho penguin. Paraleasion as strong, but not strong enough to resist the change. Rampage had to find a way to make the two of them stronger...and fast or else he would have no choice at all.

A trio of screams echoed through the Predacon base. Stalker drew back from Paraleasion, reaching for another tool.

Dinobot was peacefully watching the monitors when a large arm pinned him to its owner's chest. He struggled but could not get free. Another hand came out, reaching for his spark container. The protective plating was peeled back easily. Dinobot watched with dimming eyes as Rampage took an energon knife to it and started to cut it in half.

Rampage felt the full effect of the pain when he cut into the spark. He steeled himself. He was immortal, what was a little pain now and then to spice up eternity? He had considered just taking it for himself but that would only delay the inevitable. Stalker would use Paraleasion to punish him and the purpose would be lost. He had also considered taking back bits of his spark from hers. He would have a harder time extracting the parts from hers. Then why was he giving her half? Why not kill her and add hers to his? No, it would not work because she could potentially take over his body. Was there no way he could get rid of her?

Paraleasion closed her eyes, ignoring the blinding pain that she felt. Stalker had tried to force her to control Rampage. The minute she felt in his mind what he had planned, she refused and Rampage had rejected her. Stalker had left her alone for a few cycles. He had forgotten a programming device, so she had a few minutes in peace. She heard the door slide open and opened her eyes, expecting to see Stalker. Instead Rampage was there, holding a pulsing blue ball. He came over by her and knelt down.

"How ya holding up?" Paraleasion asked.

"Fine." Rampage replied, "Show me your spark." She looked up at him half afraid, half resigned to the fact that he could very well kill her. "Open your spark box." Her midsection gave way and a spark pulsed. He placed his next to hers. It was greedily snapped up, the two becoming one. Her abdomen closed. He stood, giving her room for what he knew would happen.

Paraleasion's body jerked and she moaned. Her body became more defined as though she wore perfect, custom fit plate mail. The emblem of a purple crab, pinchers raised and holding a symbol of death appeared on her torso plate, announcing to the world who she was attached to. A similar design appeared on Rampage ´s torso plate, but instead of a crab there was a black cat whose wings held up the symbol.

Stalker walked past the control room and saw Dinobot lying on the floor, lifeless. That was when he realized his mistake. Stalker sprinted to the room where he had left the fuzor femme, thinking he might beat the crab to her. The door slid open and he found that he was too late. They were gone. The shackles lay on the floor and something was marked on the wall where Paraleasion had been. The number two. He wondered who had number one, and was grateful that they had given him time enough to live for even a few cycles longer.

Megatron would not be happy with Stalker at all. He had failed, and that would most undoubtedly get him scrapping rights. Maybe his best alternative was to just disappear. Leave and rejoin the Maximals, though that would be unlikely. Why would they trust him? He had betrayed them before. His options were slim and time was going to be against him soon. That is, if they weren't already after him.

Megatron was alone in the control room. He stood near the disassembled body of Dinobot. Whomever had taken apart Dinobot had carefully placed the spark casing on the control panel, showing that it was empty. Megatron shuddered, if Rampage had done this then Megatron was in serious trouble. The base was eerily quiet. Inferno and Quickstrike were off on a scouting mission. Waspinator was more than likely in the CR chamber. Stalker was with Paraleasion and Dinobot was scrap. Megatron was alert, every noise filtered through his audio system. Every bump, creak or groan a potential footstep.

"Megatron to all units. Return to base immediately." he ordered.

"They won't be able to help you." a voice warned. He whirled around, coming face to face with Stalker. "They've set out to kill you first because you kept him submissive for so long."

"Who?"

"Why, Rampage and Paraleasion of course."

"Are you really so stupid as to not read the writing on the wall?" Paraleasion purred. She lounged very catlike on a beam overhead. She looked over at Stalker, gaze steady and bored. "Though you must have ignored it, silly creature."

"Maybe he didn't understand it," Rampage said, laying a hand on Stalker's shoulder.

"You're right." She turned her attention to Megatron. "Now, Megatron, I'm giving you several choices. Either let us have Stalker or we scrap you instead." The Predacon tyrant looked from Rampage to Paraleasion. The crab was eager while the fuzor was calm.

"Him. Take him." Megatron said. Already he was devising a plan to rid of the pair. Paraleasion hopped down, smiling.

"Good choice. Now, see this?" she asked, pointing to the blood red circle with the downward pointing sword held in the crab's claws. He nodded. "If you should get the notion that you can recover your friend or send someone to destroy us; expect to find this in your quarters. This means I will personally scrap you. Understand? Good."

"Hey, Big Bot, you gotta see this." Cheetor exclaimed.

"What is it?" Optimus asked.

"We've got some new signatures showing up on the scanners." Optimus walked over and bent down next to the young cat, peering at the screen. "There's also a Pred with them."

"Any idea who they are?"

"The computer says that the Pred is Stalker. The new ones are supposedly Rampage and Paraleasion."

"I want someone to check it out. Alert Depthcharge and Blackarachnia. Have them meet me at these coordinates." He pointed to a grid on the screen. "I want to know what those three are up to."

The trio of mismatched transformers marched through the woods, towards the lake. Stalker, their prisoner, kept wisely silent. Plans of escape ran through his circuits, one as preposterous as the last. The thing that he really needed was his captors to make a mistake, preferably one that was so large that he would get away unscathed.

"Maybe we could take him apart, piece by piece." Paraleasion suggested.

"You really are an amateur." Rampage scoffed, "We slowly melt away his exostructure, after we have disabled his stasis lock command of course, then drip acid on his neural network. He should be screaming for a very long time."

"Ooh, you truly are a master."

Blackarachnia, Depthcharge and Optimus met at the clearing again.

"Any luck?" Optimus asked.

"None." Depthcharge replied.

"They could be using a dampening device to hide from us." Blackarachnia suggested.

"Possibly. Keep searching. Meet me back here in a megacycle if you don't find anything. If you do find them, radio me and I'll be there as soon as I can." Optimus said, "Something about this doesn't feel right."

Rampage and Paraleasion looked down at the body of Stalker in disappointment. Halfway through the torture, he set off his self destruct device.

"Well, it was fun while it lasted." Paraleasion sighed.

"He was giving off so much fear too," Rampage said, wistfully.

"I'd better clean this up before it attracts any animals." She nudged the body with her foot, hoping it would miraculously spring to life. No such luck. The large hole in Stalker's chest and the ruined spark casing told the duo that he was well and truly dead.

"There are always others."

"True." Paraleasion grabbed the body by the wrists and started to haul it out of her cave.

"Shh, listen." Blackarachnia whispered. The others stopped what they were doing and looked expectantly at her. "You hear that? Sounds like someone's dragging something."

"It's coming from over there. Let's check it out." Optimus said. The three made their way towards the sound. They peered through the trees to make out a small black figure.

"Who is it?"

"Paraleasion. At least, I think it is." Depthcharge said.

"You're not sure?"

"She looks different than when I saw her last."

"Great. How many more Transformers are going to pop out of the woodwork?" Optimus and Depthcharge looked over at Blackarachnia, an odd expression on their faces. "What? It's the truth. Oh, nevermind." She threw her hands in the air in exasperation. "So, what do we do with her?"

"She could be hauling stuff from her ship." Optimus suggested.

"Her wreck is several clicks in that direction." She pointed the direction Paraleasion was going. The three waited, watching as Paraleasion dragged her burden closer to them. She finally dropped it, straightening up and walked away. As she went out of sight, the three went to see what she had dropped. They were horrified to find the mangled body of Stalker.

"Are you sure it was wise to let the Preds get her, Primal?" Depthcharge asked. Optimus, eyes locked on the body, said nothing.