At this point I'd like to add a thanks to the reviewers.
Lady Dementia in particular. If it wasn't for her constant questions of
"WRITE MORE NOW!!" and "Where's the next chapter?!" I probably would have
let this fic rot away on my hard drive. As it is I'm afraid to NOT finish
this. I don't think she'd ever forgive me if I didn't *grin*
Portal problems, inventive conversations and a caffeine
deprived chimera
"What? You don't like the company?"
Lashana growled under her breath from where she was leaning back against the wall and resisted the urge to rip one of those chairs out of the floor and beat the rat unconscious with one. Actually, that has merit.... hehe....
"Lashana! Stop grinning like that!! It's scary."
"Duncan, will you please shut up? I'd like to live to see my next birthday!" Zelgadis hissed, glaring at the Immortal. True, that insane 'I'm gonna hurt someone' look in the Elf's eyes didn't exactly inspire confidence in her ability to control her temper, but at least she wasn't acting on it. The chimera suspected that she was only partly serious, if she had truly wanted to hurt someone, she would have done so already. "Lashana?"
"Yo."
"What's the plan?"
She sighed and looked over to where Rhinox was examining the two fragments. "I don't have one.... yet." Silence fell over the bridge as she closed her eyes, retreating into her thoughts. If we can't get that thing back together, then we're stranded here until someone back Home gets a clue and has Telca come after us. Granted that could be a while since she has no real idea where we are.... and Kenshin can only give her so many details, he can't go into the precise weavings of the portals.... Another sigh escaped her as opened her eyes and stared at the floor. If I could only force my storage portal open we'd at least have weapons and...ugh... a change of clothes....
~What's stopping you?~
Zelgadis saw her jerk slightly as her eyes widened in shock. "What?"
"Mewtwo..." 'Two? C'mon back, por favor.
Optimus turned from where he had been talking with Rhinox about the strange readings from the broken artifact, blinking at the flash of blue light that preceded Mewtwo's teleport back onto the bridge. "Welcome back."
The pokemon eyed him warily for a moment before smirking and giving the Maximal Commander a curt nod. That done, he looked over at the Elf and sighed. ~Sorry. I didn't mean to startle you.~
"S'okay. I suppose I should be used to it by now...."
"Suppose?"
"Oy, shut up Zel."
"Would you mind explaining this again?" Rhinox asked, drawing the four visitors gazes as he held up the two fragments. "I know you're probably sick of repeating yourselves, but there's a few things that don't add up... See this?" He pointed to one of the screens that showed the latest scan of the talisman. "There's two different energy readings coming from these things."
Mewtwo frowned at the screen for a moment before looking at a still silent Lashana. ~Could it be that the talisman sealed your portal magicks within itself?~
"Maybe..." She shoved herself away from the wall and walked over to pluck one of the fragments out of Rhinox's hand, toying with it as she stared at the readings. "You tried to scan my aura before... did you get any readings?"
"Who knows? He," Rattrap jerked a thumb at Mewtwo, "fried the scanner."
"He had his reasons," the Elf murmured, staring at the screen for a moment longer before glancing over at the pokemon. "Can I see your part of the fragment?" When all she got in response was a barely audible mental whisper, she frowned and turned to look at him fully. "What?"
He actually coughed and looked away. ~I don't have it with me.~
Zelgadis looked at him. "What?!"
Lashana closed her eyes and took a deep breath, counting to ten. "Where is it?"
~.....I'm not entirely sure.~
Moving quickly, Rhinox took the fragment from her and set both pieces on the table before reaching out to stop Lashana from going for Mewtwo's throat.
By the time everything was 'under control' again, Mewtwo, Zel and Duncan were cowering in the far corner of the room, Rattrap had his blaster aimed at the Elf, Dinobot was nursing a bruised ego because she had thrown him across the room when he had tried to help restrain her, and Optimus and Rhinox were certain that their arms had gained an extra three inches of length from trying to hold her back. Cheetor just sat there calmly, not fazed at all by the bloody homicide that had been so narrowly averted, all of his attention was centered on the two fragments he was looking at.
"Rattrap, put that away," Optimus muttered as he shoved the Elf down onto a chair.
"Nuh uh. No way boss monkey," the smaller Maximal protested, refusing to return his blaster to it's subspace compartment. "She goes nuts again and there's no telling what she'll do."
WHAM!
Everyone jumped at the sound, their gazes travelling around the bridge before coming to rest on the Elf that had just slammed her forehead against the control table.
"I hate my life."
"I'm sure it hates you too," Zel grumbled from the far side of the room, gulping when she rose her head and glared at him.
"Hey! I got it!"
Lashana's eyes widened in shock when the triumphant yell was accompanied by a spark of magick that pulled at something within her, seemingly goading it out of a deep slumber. "W-what was that?"
Cheetor looked over at her and held up the now considerably larger piece of the talisman. "The two pieces melded together. You just needed to figure out where they connected."
Worried by the look of catatonic disbelief in her eyes, Duncan slowly crept closer to the Elf, frowning at her as he waved a hand in front of her nose. "Lashana? What is it?"
She swatted at his hand and slowly got to her feet. "I don't know. Let me try something..." Taking a deep breath to steel herself, she closed her eyes and rose her right hand, frowning in concentration as she carefully wove the strands of a spell together.
"What the... By the Gods!" Zelgadis gaped as bluish white energy crackled at the fingertips of her outstretched hand, watching in shock as the sparks slowly formed into a small doorway. Inch by inch, the portal widened, though it was as if she had to fight to weave every ounce of energy into the spell. But at the moment, Zel didn't really care about that. "Yes! That's it!"
The Immortal darted around the stunned 'bots and grabbed Lashana as her knees buckled, holding her upright as sweat broke out over her forehead, her fangs bared in a grimace as she looked at the portal through narrowed eyes. "Lashana! Stop it! It's not working!"
"It'll damn well work...." she hissed, throwing more energy into the spell. She had never had to constantly fight to hold the spell together. Every bit of power she wove into it seemed to almost immediately unravel, making it a constant effort to keep the doorway stable while simultaneously guiding it to it's source and widening it enough for someone to fit through. This has got to be the stupidest thing I've ever done....
"Ack!" Duncan stumbled back into Optimus as she slammed her elbow into his ribs, breaking her hold on him as she leapt up onto the table and threw herself into the portal mere seconds before it imploded on itself. "Hey!"
"That bitch! She left us here!" Zelgadis snarled, hands closing into fists. "When I get my hands on her I'll--"
~Would you shut up? That wasn't a normal portal,~ Mewtwo growled, glaring at the chimera until he fell silent. ~If you'd looked closer, you'd have seen it was only her storage portal.~
"Storage? Like a subspace compartment?"
~Mostly. Except it seems to have unlimited space,~ the pokemon answered, looking over at Rhinox. ~I just don't know if she'll be able to come back. I've never seen her have so much trouble opening a single portal befo-- ~
The reappearance of the portal cut him off. As did the scream that came from it seconds before Lashana was unceremoniously spat out and left to bounce off the table and crash to the floor, three swords and a backpack quickly following her before the portal sputtered once, then vanished. The shocked audience stared at the space where the doorway had been mere breaths earlier, then leaned forward to look at the Elf, wincing when they saw how badly she had landed.
"Uuunhhh.... check please...."
~*~
"Are you sure you're okay?" Duncan asked worriedly as he looked over at the Elf as she walked onto the bridge again, a grumbling Rattrap following her. After she had managed to peel herself off the floor, she had grabbed the backpack and taken over one of the spare quarters on the ship to change her clothes, resulting in the subsequent punting of Rattrap when he tried to follow her in. It made the Immortal edgy that she hadn't actually said anything yet. "Lashana?"
She glanced at him as she shifted the weight of the backpack that was slung over her right shoulder. It felt good to be in clean comfortable clothes again, especially since her current outfit of black hiking boots, faded blue jeans frayed at the knees and a navy blue tank top that read 'Don't tick me off! I'm running out of places to hide the bodies!' in light blue letters constituted as one of her favourite 'kick-ass' outfits. Granted I'd be happier if my ribs would stop hurting.... "I'm fine."
"Are you sure? That was a pretty bad fall," Rhinox murmured, sighing when she rolled her eyes.
"I'm fine."
~Liar,~ Mewtwo growled.
"Well, yes. But what are you gonna do about it, hmm?" When no one said anything, she smirked and dropped the backpack onto the floor, looking around for a moment before frowning. "Where the hell is my sword? I damn well know I brought it, the hilt whacked me in the head."
Zelgadis blinked at that and walked over to her, ignoring her questioning gaze and the identical 'are you insane?' looks from the others as he reached out and lifted her bangs aside, frowning at the goose bump he uncovered. "Why didn't you Heal yourself? Here, hold still." Not waiting for an answer, he lightly touched the bruise and murmured an incantation, watching as the bluish light that emanated from his hand slowly mended the obviously painful bump. "Better?"
She nodded and pulled away, reaching up to rake her nails through her hair. "Yeah. Thanks."
"That little stunt cost you, didn't it?" Optimus asked, more of a guess than anything, but judging by the look that she sent him, he had hit it right on the mark. "How bad?"
"Nothing that can't be fixed," she growled, crouching to pull a set of four jewel talismans out of the backpack, a necklace, two bracelets and a buckle that attached to her belt. "Besides, it's happened before. I think... it was a few months ago. 'Member, Zel?"
"You mean when we were on a beach on an island near Hawaii and you drained yourself by magickally forcing the volcanoes to fall dormant so you could get a tan without worrying about getting killed?" He chuckled wryly. "I think most of the dimension remembers that."
"It was worth it. Best semi-vacation I've ever had," she grinned.
"You're kidding, right?" Cheetor frowned, looking at each of them in turn. "You call that a vacation?"
"The best we can get," Duncan chuckled, resting the blade of his katana against his right shoulder. "Granted they're mostly memorable occasions. Except for that time with the dragon."
"Don't even mention that!" Zelgadis growled warningly. "I hate that dragon with a passion!"
Lashana snickered and winked at the Maximals as she pulled the talisman necklace over her head. "He's just peeved cuz the dragon thought he was an oversized chew toy." Smirking at the rather stunned looks that Rhinox and Optimus were sending her way, Lashana grabbed the two bracelets and easily slid them onto her wrists, taking a moment to admire the sapphire jewels before attaching the final talisman to her belt. "That ought to do it."
Rattrap snorted derisively. "For what? A beauty pageant?"
"No, you moron. These were tailored so they'd boost my magicks." She paused and gave him a fanged grin. "Want a demonstration? No? Then kindly shut up. Gods... Optimus, how can you live with him?!"
"Patience. Lots of patience."
"Hmpft. You should just let Dinobot kill him. For the greater good an all that," she grumbled as she reached into her backpack to grab a hair clip, using it to pin her hair into a loose ponytail.
"I have to agree with the Elf, Optimus. It would be in everyone's best interest if I merely ripped out his core processor and..."
Zelgadis paled at the rest of Dinobot's sentence and rested his left hand on the hilt of the sword that was attached to his belt. True, he didn't know the full meanings of all the terms the 'bot had used, but judging by the rather evil grin Dinobot had and the looks of horror on the Maximals faces, he pretty much got the gist of it.
Lashana, however, wasn't fazed at all. "Dinobot, isn't that anatomically impossible?"
~Lashana!~
"What?" She looked at a frazzled Mewtwo and blinked innocently. "It's a valid question!"
~No it's not!~
"Sure it is! Cuz, I mean, the way Dinobot said it, he'd have to--"
Everyone except Dinobot and herself screamed in horror and backed away. "Don't say it! Don't say it!!"
"Hehe."
~*~
"I knew memorizing all those reruns would be worth it someday," Lashana grinned as she hopped off the lift and walked out from under the ship, sighing happily as she headed out into the open. Sometime between saving the clone and her consequent unconsciousness, day had given way to night, and while she had been hoping for clear blue sky, the sight of the numerous stars were still a comforting sight.
She stole a quick glance behind her to make sure no one had followed her before smirking and sprinting towards one of the many rock outcroppings that littered the landscape. It had been easy to sneak away while everyone was screaming in horror - even Dinobot had been laughing too hard to be paying any attention to her - and since she was never one to pass up an opportunity, she had immediately used the distraction to her advantage and escaped. I need some time to think things out without having to worry about the Guys reactions or trying to restrain the urge to fireball something....
Figuring that she'd gone far enough, she chose one of the larger groups of boulders and easily scaled up the side of one, smiling to herself as she lay down on it and stared up at the sky, lacing her fingers behind her head. Okay. Problem uno : Mewtwo lost his part of the talisman somewhere between here and where he first arrived in his dimension. Dos : unless that other part of the talisman holds a huge amount of power..... we're stuck here. Tres : Thanks to that little stunt I pulled, I'm practically useless in the magick department. My talismans will compensate for most of that, but they only hold so much power.... Frak. She sighed and sat up, sitting lotus style and resting her elbows on her knees, a single fang protruding from her lips as she cradled her chin in the palm of her right hand. And of course there's the ever present problem of the Predacons. Because we've gotta search everywhere Mewtwo's been to find that shard, and that means we have to go back to their base....
"You're a fool to sit out in the open like that."
"Eh?" She blinked and looked around, seeing no one. Luckily she wasn't tricked so easily. There were perks to Elven hearing. "Dinobot, get out from behind that rock. What the hell are you doing out here? Can't you people leave me alone for a little while?"
"You shouldn't leave the range of Sentinel's shields. Considering that the Predacons tend to conduct surprise attacks against the Axalon, it's foolish to make yourself a target just to stare at some stupid stars," he growled as he emerged into her line of sight.
She quirked an eyebrow at him when she saw that he had reverted to his beast-mode. He apparently didn't know that his beast-mode belied any and all of his attempts at hiding his inner feelings. Luckily, after living with a draconian for a year, it was easy for her to catch the slight twitching of his killer claws and the irritated flicking of his tail. "I happen to like looking at the stars. And if the Preds make half as much noise as you do, I won't have any trouble hearing them coming." Okay, so that was a lie. But what does he know? "What do you want, anyway? I find it hard to believe that you merely came out here to chit-chat."
When he didn't answer, she shrugged and returned her attention to the sky. It was only when her ears caught the unmistakeable sound of a sword being pulled from it's scabbard that she turned to look at him fully, blinking when she saw that he was inspecting her sword.
"You don't take proper care of it. The blade's starting to become dull."
"Kang stole my whetstone. I was planning on stealing it back sometime this week," she said, watching him curiously as he rose the blade, the light from the quarter moon flashing off of it. Okay, this... is interesting... "So. Did the others stop screaming yet?"
"Mostly. Though the purple one... what did you call him? Mewtwo? He said something about 'bad mental images'."
"Oh." A snicker escaped her. "Poor bastard." At the raptor-bot's look, she smirked. "He's telepathic. Even though he doesn't listen in on people's thoughts, there are times where he accidentally picks up mental images from other people. I think he got a mindful from you when you went into that greatly detailed speech."
A chuckle actually rumbled out of the raptor's chest. "That explains the looks of complete horror he was giving me. Here." He sheathed the sword and tossed it to her, watching her as she casually reached out to snatch the belt and scabbard out of the air before she rose to her feet and tied the belt around her waist. "Why did you come here?"
"What? 'Here' here, or here 'this dimension'?"
"...both, I suppose."
"Well," she drawled, sitting back down again. "Originally only Mewtwo and I were supposed to go through that portal. We were going to come here, get the clone and get ourselves home without anyone overly noticing us. But we stumbled on Zelgadis while he was trying to take the talisman, and we tried to get it away from him, and then Duncan stumbled onto us.... and well, the entire lot of us ended up falling through that bedamned portal. The talisman must've broken apart while we were falling through, I suppose. You mostly know what happened after we... er... dropped in on you. ...As for right now, I was just hoping to get a few minutes alone so I could try to figure out how the hell we can get home."
He was silent for a moment, digesting what she had just told him. "That.... clone. Why is it important to you?"
"She.... it.... whatever.... is a clone of my best-friend. Granted it's warped. Telca is not sickeningly sweet. I actually wanted to leave it here. But Mewtwo, being the pain-in-the-arse that he is, made me agree to come 'rescue' her." She paused for a moment, then chuckled. "All this'll be worth it just to see the look on Telca's face when we introduce her to her very own clone. I'll never hear the end of it and probably have to dodge a few fireballs and an axe, but it'll be worth it!"
"If what you say is true and she's a complete opposite of her clone.... I believe you. If you survive the experience, be sure to send us a holovid."
She glanced at him, surprised. I wasn't aware he was capable of having a sense of humour. Hmm. This may not totally suck after all. "Deal. Granted I have to get home first. And that damned talisman.... I don't know if it'll be enough. And I sure as hell can't force another portal open. Not for a few more days anyway."
"You said the talismans that you wear now would boost your magicks," he frowned, stepping back a bit when she back flipped off the rock and landed in front of him.
"They do. But considering that I'm nearly completely out of energy and that these things only have a finite amount of power...." she trailed off and shrugged. "Granted, I have other ways to raise my energy, but in the long run, they'll cost me. TANSTAAFL, y'know."
He frowned and moved to walk by her side as she headed back to the ship. "What?"
"TANSTAAFL. 'There ain't no such thing as a free lunch'," she explained with a grin. "That explains magick perfectly. The spells need energy to form. Whether that energy comes from the caster or the environment around the caster, there's always a price to be paid. Personally I tend to use my own energy, which means that if things backfire, I can end up the way I am now. Drained. I don't like using the energy of the world around me, it tends to damage the wildlife and the forests."
The raptor stared at her for a moment before growling. "You knew this would happen to you, didn't you? Yet you still went ahead and forced that portal open. For what? A few measly weapons?"
"First of all, my sword is not measly," she said, accenting the word with a growl of her own. "And I went ahead and pushed myself because I knew that the only thing I had to defend myself with is magick, and I damn well knew that I needed a backup. As for the others, Duncan is a master-swordsman. Granted socially he can act like a total loser, he's one of the best. Zel's right behind him on that. And unlike you and the others on this planet, we're not walking battle-ready robots. It's not like we can transform and simply blow things up with lasers that shoot from our eyes," she looked at him as she said the last part, smirking knowingly. "Now can we?"
"I should hope not!" He grinned toothily and smirked at her. "The landscape would never survive the experience."
"Oh har har and har some more."
~*~
"I still can't believe that you lost your piece of the talisman," Zelgadis grumbled as he looked over at Mewtwo, not phased in the least at the glare the pokemon sent his way. "Don't you realise that we're stuck here until we can get that thing back together?"
~Of course I know that! What, do I look like I've been knitting this whole time?! I well aware of the current situation, thank you!~ He growled under his breath and sulked back against a wall, folding his arms over his chest as he closed his eyes and generally ignored the entire group of people around him. I know I had the fragment when I was trying to find Lashana.... so it has to be somewhere in the vicinity of the Predacon ship....
Duncan looked up from where he was cleaning the blade of his sword with the corner of his shirt, looking from the group of Maximals that were looking over some sort of information they had gotten from the scan of the talisman to the pokemon and the chimera. "Um... where's Lashana?"
Rattrap froze and turned away from the screen. "Oh slag.... she's not loose in the ship is she?!"
"Rattrap! Geez, learn some tact or something!" Cheetor groaned, smacking the smaller Transmetal Maximal upside his head before glancing at the human. "I haven't seen her since Dinobot did that.... er.... 'speech'."
"Eh, lizard-lips is missin' too." The rat paused and smirked. "Maybe they went off an-- urk!"
~Finish that sentence and you'll have a first class demonstration of the power of telekinesis,~ Mewtwo told him as he opened his glowing blue eyes and looked over at the rat, frowning as blue power formed an aura around the Maximal and lifted him until his back was pressed against the ceiling. ~Is that understood? Lashana is Soul-Bonded to another, to even suggest that she would do something so.... so.... vulgar.... ~
"Uh oh... Uh, Mewtwo? You're crushing him," Cheetor muttered, gazing up with wide optics at the aura that was slowly constricting around Rattrap.
"Mewtwo. That's enough," Optimus said sternly, obviously used to having to bail Rattrap out of whatever mess he had gotten himself into as he looked over at the Pokemon patiently. "Put him down."
~Fine.~ He made a slight gesture, banishing the power that was holding the Maximal, watching emotionlessly as the 'bot fell from the ceiling.
"ACK!" WHAM! ".....ow."
When Optimus glared at him, Mewtwo merely smirked. ~What? He's down, isn't he?~
"I've got it!"
Everyone blinked and looked towards Rhinox, who turned to grin at them. "I know where the last fragment is."
"Where?!"
He took a step back in shock from the unified voices, then pointed at the screen. "Half a klick inside Pred territory."
Mewtwo peered at the computer screen for a moment, then nodded. ~I know where that is,~ he murmured as he pushed away from the wall and looked at Zelgadis and Duncan. ~Let's go.~
"Hey. Whoa. Wait a minute. You can't go alone!"
~Why not?~ he asked, looking at Cheetor curiously. ~Well, we should find Lashana first, she'd never forgive me if I left her out of this, but other than that, there's no real reason why we shouldn't go.~
"The Preds defend their perimeters with deadly force. There's no way you can get in undetected."
"You're assuming that we care," Zelgadis smirked, resting his hand on the hilt of his sword as he met Optimus's gaze. "We can handle ourselves."
Duncan snickered. "This coming from the person who's undergoing caffeine withdrawal." He ducked the punch and easily deflected the sword slash with his katana, eyes widening a little when he realised that the chimera had gone for a decapitating blow - the only thing that could truly 'kill' him.
"Zelgadis Greywards!" Everyone jumped at the yell, but Lashana ignored the majority of the group in lieu of glaring at the chimera as she stalked off the lift and advanced on him. "I flamin' well saw that! Try to kill Duncan again and I swear that I will personally glue you to Telca's clone! Is that understood?!"
He whimpered and nodded frantically.
"Good! Now here," she dug the caffeine pills out of her jean pocket, grabbed his right hand and dropped two life-saver sized candies into the palm of it. "Take these. Maybe the boost in caffeine will help you get your head out of your ass."
~Where've you been anyway?~ Mewtwo chuckled as Zel chewed the hardened candies and then tried to steal the rest of the pack from Lashana.
"Outside," she shrugged, distractedly smacking Zel away from her, then wincing as she tried to shake feeling back into her hand. "Needed a few minutes of alone time. Granted I didn't get much of that," she added with a smirk as she glanced over at Dinobot. "But nevermind. What's going on? Or are you not going to tell me? Cuz then I'd have to start making indelicate guesses and...."
"I think we've had enough of that sort of conversation for one day," Optimus grimaced with a pointed look at Dinobot. "Rhinox did a scan of the area. We found the last fragment, but it's in Pred territory."
"Slag," she growled, whacking Zelgadis aside again when he tried to reach into the right pocket of her jeans. "I suppose it was too much to hope that it was somewhere where we wouldn't get shot at.... excuse me a moment. Zel!"
"Yipe!" The chimera backed away from her and tripped over his cloak, ungracefully crashing to the floor. Unfortunately Lashana was still stalking towards him, so the only thing he could do was crawl backwards until his back was pressed against the wall, effectively trapping him.
"There should be laws against this," Duncan muttered to the 'bots as Lashana grabbed the chimera by the front of his shirt and lifted him off the floor so he was at eye-level with her. The look in her eyes was downright frightening, and while he couldn't quite make out what she was whispering to Zel, judging by the terrified expression on Zel's face, he didn't want to know. "The psychological trauma can't be healthy."
"Do tell," Optimus murmured as Zelgadis screamed and bolted for the lift, leaving a good portion of his shirt behind in Lashana's hands. "What did you say to him? Wait, we don't want to know, do we?"
"Probably not," Rattrap grimaced, not liking the rather evil gleam in the Elf's eyes as she turned to bare her fangs at them in an insane grin.
"Let's just say that I merely warned him of the consequences of trying to deprive me of caffeine," she said innocently, seeing Dinobot hide a snicker out of the corner of her eye. "Besides, I don't think I want to totally corrupt Cheetor's mind. That'd turn him into Rattrap, and no one wants that."
"Hey! I resent that!"
"She does, however, make a valid point."
"Oh shut up, Chopperface."
Ignoring the two who were now trading insults, Mewtwo shuddered and backed away from the Elf, eyeing her warily. ~You projected.~
"Oh? Did I? Hehe. Sorry."
~No you're not.~
"Well, no. Not really."
Optimus exchanged glances with Rhinox and Cheetor before returning his gaze to the Elf. "You're evil."
She grinned. "Thanks! Now, shouldn't we either be trying to find Zel or going to get that fragment? Um... do they know they sound like an old married couple?"
Dinobot and Rattrap both froze in mid-yell, eyes widening in horror and disgust at what she had just implied. Very aware of the laughs from the others, the two slowly turned and looked at the Elf that was standing before them.
A smiled tugged at the corners of her mouth as she folded
her arms over her chest and quirked an eyebrow at them, very aware of the
indignant anger in their glares. "Well. You do," she shrugged, seeing Dinobot's
killer claws twitch, matching the twitch that was starting to affect his
right eye and incidentally, Rattrap's left optic. "Oooh, look! They even
twitch in sync. Hehe."