* * * * *
Part Three
Depth Charge narrowed his eyes and cursed silently as his wide fins scraped along the underwater tunnel's walls. His beast mode wasn't made to swim in close confinement, he was finding out, but he still kept going. Somewhere in this maze was the entrance to Overdose's cave system, and he needed to find it. He could only hope the femme was actually in her caves. Optimus and Rhinox hadn't been able to find her energy signature while she had been in the Maximal base before, so they hadn't been able to scan for her. They were guessing that she had returned to her home base to torture her victim.
Even a Predacon like Tarantulas didn't deserve to be tortured.
A part of his mind wondered over the concern he felt. Before Overdose literally crashed into his life, revenge on the then-X had crowded out every single thought not concerning it. As the crazy femme had forced him to see, people had become obstacles in his path to revenge; things that weren't important and didn't matter. Before Overdose had come into his life, Tarantulas' fate wouldn't have meant anything to him, despite what he knew might happen.
Before Overdose had changed him, he had been becoming more and more...like X. Or Rampage, as he was called now. The femme had brought him up short and forced him to look at his life; for that he owed her. He never wanted to end up like Rampage.
That same part of his mind puzzled over the crab. What was Overdose to him? Why would a monster that could destroy starbases and decimate entire colonies protect a childish 'bot that had fallen into the Beast Wars? Depth Charge amended that thought as soon as his mind presented it; Overdose was no child. There was something...if not in her like a parasite, then part of her. Something pitch black and as dangerous as Rampage, but it wasn't ALL of her like Rampage. Rampage was dangerous, murderous...but Overdose was more than that. And now that the ray had seen them together, he wasn't willing to say that Rampage was all he seemed, either. There was more to both of them, but he had to agree with what the femme had told him: he should never trust her, and he would never trust Rampage.
But that didn't mean that he could simply end the thoughts there. He was searching the underwater tunnel maze for an entrance to the caves, but his mind was searching for an answer to the femme inside.
"Optimus to Depth Charge!"
His radio jolted him from his thoughts. "Depth Charge here. What do you want, Primal?" he asked roughly. "I'm busy!"
"So are we, Depth Charge," the Maximal leader snapped back, for once letting some of the exasperated anger he felt when dealing with the ray come through in his voice. The ray's eyes widened a little in surprised respect, but the ape didn't give him a chance to say anything back. "I wanted to tell you that we may have found a way in, but there's some kind of shield in place that won't let us through. However," Optimus hesitated, and when he continued his voice had lost its anger, "we can hear someone screaming. Rattrap...Rattrap says it sounds like Tarantulas."
"Then we might be too late," Depth Charge said softly. He paused for a moment to turn to slip through a particularly narrow part of the tunnel. "What do you know about Overdose?" he asked when he had squeezed through, ignoring the raw sting some of the rocks left him with.
There was a silence over the radio that gave the ray the impression Optimus was trying to decide to tell him or not. Then, "Not enough, Depth Charge. What I know is what she's told us or let slip. Blackarachnia thought she might be able to get closer to her, but after this, I'm not sure it's worth the risk. What do you know?"
He ducked under an outcropping of rocks. "Not much more. I know some of what X's prison was like, and even then it was through high security. No details, but that facility was full of interplanetary terrorists and people too dangerous to put in a less guarded jail. In order for Overdose to survive...in order to have gotten IN there, she must have done something spectacular enough to earn it."
Optimus seemed to have followed his thought, and his question was thoughtful, "If so, why haven't we heard about her?"
Depth Charge let the question slide for the moment. "Ask Rattrap if he knows anything about her, but if you'll excuse me, I have things to do."
* * * * *
The ring on the floor was still there, but Tarantulas didn't have time to study it before Overdose had tied him down again. It probably didn't matter; he doubted she would have used a ring he might possibly be able to pull from the floor. He doubted he would have had the chance to, anyway.
Only a small corner of his mind was observing this as the crazed female turned away to pry the forked knife from the ceiling. The rest was almost gibbering with terror. He had a hard time holding in a whimper as she turned back to him, her smile wicked beneath swirling eyes.
"Now, about those questions..." she purred, fins darkening but smile remaining. He stared up at her, hopelessly tugging at the bonds around his wrists as she knelt down beside him and twirled the knife between her fingers. The colors in her eyes whirled faster, almost hypnotically, as she leaned closer. "Why are you here, Eightline?" She held up a hand as he started to stutter out an answer, "And don't tell me that the Tripedicus Council sent you this time. I KNOW that."
He wretched his visor away from looking into her brilliant optics and shuddered hopelessly. He couldn't tell her the answer to that question. He had sworn what loyalty he had to the Council, and he couldn't just abandon it because some psycho sea slug wanted to know. "Slag you," he rasped.
"Ooo, feisty!" Overdose giggled, her beast mode's fins darkening even more but her smile growing with undeniable pleasure that he dared defy her. "Good. I like that in my victims." She lowered her head suddenly to look straight into Tarantulas' turned-away face. "At first."
He looked away helplessly as the knife twirled, descending slowly towards him. Then again... "They sent me to keep Megatron under control," he temporized.
The forked knife stopped just above his chest. "Oh, really?" Overdose only sounded mildly interested. "Tell me more."
"They...they thought he could be more trouble than he was worth. If the Maximals traced him back to them, the Council could be discovered and war could break out before we're ready." Which was true, but it wasn't the real reason he had been sent here to ancient Earth. He just hoped desperately Overdose wouldn't guess that.
The femme lifted the fork enough to test its points with an orange-red finger, all of her attention apparently focused on that all-important task. "Is that all?" Tarantulas nodded frantically, visor locked on the tool of torture in her hand. "Such a shame they wasted Lieutenant Eightline on such a small assignment, now isn't it." It wasn't a question, and her smile was completely viscous with gloating triumph. "A pity you won't be returning to Cybertron to tell them about their error." The disinterested eyes with their whorls of violet and yellow-green turned to study him. "Just think what a waste it is, sending a Lieutenant to do the job of an assassin. It's funny, though; I've never known the Council to misuse its personnel before."
Tarantulas stared up into those eyes and went cold. She KNEW...
He didn't have any time to wonder how she had found out because the hand she had been using to test the forked knife made an abrupt motion that ended with a tiny hand laser slicing across his legs, and after that all coherent thought stopped.
His screams echoed through the caverns.
* * * * *
Right, right, left. Left again...no, right again.
Depth Charge made a tight turn into the right-hand tunnel and slammed into nothing. The impact made the water in front of him shimmer a hard green so briefly he hadn't been sure he had seen it at all, but then he swam forward again more cautiously and swept a fin against nothing. A quick trail of green followed his fin, disappearing almost as soon as it appeared.
The ray swam silently in place, considering. He had apparently run into the shield Optimus had told him about, and if what the ape had updated him with later was right, it went all the way around the caves. A solid, invisible bubble of force field the Maximals had to get through. Rhinox was working on something, but the rhino was doubtful it would work.
That left them waiting.
* * * * *
Deft fingers pulled open the first layer of armor and dipped into the wiring underneath. "Now, let's see...was it green or magenta..." Smile never fading, Overdose shrugged, picked a color, and tugged it out a little farther from its protective shell. Tarantulas' high-pitched scream told her she had picked correctly; a neurocircuitry wire lay in her grasp. "This ought to be fun."
Tarantulas arched off the floor the best he could, his throat raw already from the screams being forced from him as Overdose delicately scraped her fork against the wire. Sharpened, hard metal sliced the very top of the wire open, then another layer, and another...
The bared nerve-wire shrieked its pain-messages into him, and the darkened femme's low laugh rumbled in counterpoint. The pain twisted inside him, continually renewed and deepened with each flick of the femme's wrist. Tormented, it seemed to go on forever to him, but eventually the darkness hovering at the edge of his vision swept inward and swallowed him up, leaving him with a last look at the smiling face of his tormentor.
The smile faded into a pout as Tarantulas' visor went black and his body suddenly went limp. Peeved, Overdose slapped him. "Wakey, wakey! Eightline, this isn't over yet!" When there was no response, she sat back and folded her arms. "Hmmph. Usually I can draw it out longer than that. Oh well!" Cheerful again, she put away the fork she had been using and selected a knife with a jagged edge. It would be entertaining to use this on his--
"Yo, dudette."
Her train of thought derailed, and she couldn't seem to find it again. Not surprised, she looked up at the ceiling to where her computer was stuck. "Whaddya want, Bob?" she giggled, not even remembering why she was holding a knife but happy to have it anyway. She began to clean her nails with it, absently noting that she should paint them again.
"Time for, like, some totally gnarly pills."
Overdose shot to her feet and clapped her hands, carelessly dropping the knife in her hands. "Really?!" She reached into a subspace compartment and retrieved her clipboard, pen, and a couple bottles of pills. "Well, gee, I don't really remember what the side-effects of this one had...I'll just put 'yodeling spaceships manned by albino robots.' That ought to tell them lots!"
Overdose! Don't waste your time with this. I find it hard enough to control your insanity as it is. Continue torturing Eightline...
"But I'm supposed to stay on the drug program!" Overdose argued.
That's never stopped you from ignoring it before.
She shrugged and put away everything she had just gotten out. "True." Then she looked down. "Oops. You really shouldn't be there, you know." The knife she had dropped remained embedded in Tarantulas' leg despite her miffed pronouncement. Grumbling, she reached down to pry it free, then paused in fascination. "On the other hand, this sort of kinda maybe is an artistic representation of my life at this point and I need to preserve it! Isn't it that right, Bob?"
The computer on the ceiling scanned the offline Predacon. "Dudette, you've, like, said that, like, Lieutenant Eightline's life isn't, like, worth the energy it'd take to, like, kill him."
Caught up in her artistic side, the crazy sea slug's fins broke into multiple colors. The voice in her head demanded that she return to torturing Tarantulas, but she blithely told Venom to take a hike. Instead of taking the knife out of the Predacon's leg, she went off to find something to keep it there.
* * * * *
He looked away from Optimus and stared out over the open sea. 'Whatcha want me ta say, Fearless Leader?" he said softly. "Dat part of my life's over."
The Maximal leader looked down at Rattrap and saw some of the discomfort his question had caused. It was no secret that the rat had previously lead a shady life for a Maximal; Optimus had reviewed those part of his files before deciding to let him join his crew. "I don't want you to compromise yourself, Rattrap," he said, choosing his words carefully, "but if you know anything about Overdose that may help us..."
Rattrap turned to study his leader. There was genuine concern on the big 'bot's face, and he bit back the defensive words that immediately leapt to mind. There was no reason to be defensive. He was just as much a part of this team as anyone else, and he probably owed it them to give over any information he had.
That didn't mean he had to be comfortable about it.
The rat glanced around carefully, noting that Silverbolt, Cheetor, and Rhinox were out of hearing. "None of dis came from me, okay?" He turned to look at Optimus until the larger 'bot nodded. "Alright." Folding his arms, he walked a little further from the group of Maximals to lean against a boulder. He knew Optimus had followed him, so he didn't bother to stop staring out to sea. "I never heard much, ya know. Just bits an' pieces."
"Anything could help."
He waved a hand impatiently. "I know, I know! It's just dat...seein' Overdose, well, she fits what all da rumors said, but I never heard nothin' 'bout someone like HER doin' da stuff I heard 'bout. I mean, I never even heard her NAME. Dis is just puttin' two an' two together, ya know?"
Optimus slowly shook his head. "No, I'm afraid I don't. What do you mean?"
Rattrap squinted up at him for a moment. "Eeehhh. Dat's right. Ya wouldn't know." He looked away again. "Look, I ain't always been on da right side of da law, but I think 'bots who do, like da Kid and ya, don't really know what Cybertron's like. Dere's an Underground. Not for petty stuff, like da stuff I did. It's a criminal network. I never got real deep in it, but I saw some pretty ugly stuff, an' everybody in it heard da rumors."
The small Maximal seemed to be caught in his memories, so Optimus asked, "Rumors?"
He shook off his thoughts a little. "Yeah. Rumors. Bodies found in da streets of 'bots missin' days before. People walkin' real careful after a couple shops went up in a bomb. Stuff stolen from major companies and da security teams found half-way 'cross da planet wit' no memory of how dey got dere." Rattrap shook his head again. "An' none of dat stuff even made the news. Somebody big in da Underground covered it all up by da time da Cops got dere. Everybody knew somethin' happened, but nobody could prove it!" He chuckled a little. "Drove da Cops crazy, I'm tellin' ya..."
"But how do you know it was Overdose if nobody knew what was going on?" Optimus pointed out reasonably.
Rattrap shrugged. "Everybody knew it was somebody in deep. One of da big names. Whenever somethin' came up dat didn't have any of da others' signs on it, dere was always one 'bot it got blamed on."
"But how do you know it was Overdose?"
He shrugged again. "Don't. Nobody ever wanted to talk 'bout any of dose rumors wit' somebody like me. I wasn't in deep enough. But afta what Rampage was sayin' and dis whole t'ing wit' Tarantulas...can't think of anyone else it could be."
Optimus nodded slowly. "So how do you suggest we deal with her now?"
This time Rattrap's squint was thoughtful. "Find somethin' she wants, an' bargain," he said.
The Maximal leader stared at him for a long moment. Something she wants... "Rattrap, you may just have it!" He spun on his heel and walked quickly back to the others. "Come on!"
The rat looked out to sea one last time. "We're all gonna die," he sighed, wishing he had kept his mouth shut. Then he followed after Optimus.
* * * * *
"...well, then, how DO I bond it to him?"
"Like, dudette, I don't, like, know."
"I suppose I could just heat him up to 350 degrees, couldn't I? Er, except I don't know how I'd do it. But I could find a giant--hey, you're awake again! Now stay still, I have something I want to try. Hehe, although I don't think you could really move tied up the way you are; still it's polite, so you'd better slagging well not move! Hehehehe!"
Tarantulas shut off his optics as the voice changed from anger back to giggling and wondered if he could force himself to go back offline. He was just about to try when something was forced past his mandibles, and he swallowed automatically before he could think. It wasn't something he usually had to guard against, after all, but now that he had a beast mode and a digestive system...
False energy sparkled through him and lit up his optics, making him gasp in shock. His internal computer began to flash error messages at him, informing him of injuries in BOTH his legs and an unknown virus spreading from his beast mode's stomach. It updated the error message even as it flashed through his mind, though: not a virus, a DRUG.
A bright, happy face hovered over him. "Any side effects yet?" Overdose chirped, poising her pen above the clipboard. Her eyes swirled cheerfully with yellows and pinks along with the fins on her head, and her body was back to its normal colors. Tarantulas would have wondered if there was a connection between her torturing him and the dead black she had been colored, but right at that moment the pain in his legs was distracting him.
It seemed to, no, it WAS getting worse!
His damaged throat protested, but he screamed anyway.
Overdose just nodded and jotted down something. "Enhancement of pain. Interesting! While we're talking," she added absently, still writing, "do you know of anything I could use to turn you into a sculpture? I was going to try using a polyresin, but it needs to be heated to 350 degrees to set correctly, and I don't have anything that could heat you up that hot." She frowned and tapped the pen against her lips. "Although I could try using that volcano behind the Predacon base. Do you think that one guy...uh...what was his name again? Something starting with that one letter..."
Venom listened to Tarantulas' continued screaming and smiled inside Overdose's mind. The idea of enhanced pain was too much to resist...Rainbow Child, perhaps now would be a good time to continue your revenge for Goomba's death.
The colorful personality paused and darkened in remembered anger, and Venom knew she had judged correctly in suggesting, not demanding. This insane 'bot was easily influenced, but was stubborn when ordered to do something. The sane mind laughed softly; she was beginning to understand how to control Overdose...
You can always make a statue out of whatever remains of him. I believe I would like that. A small momento of your vengeance.
"Yes," Overdose muttered as her body's colors faded into dull black, leaving only her eyes dancing with colors. "Yes, I think I like that idea. My dear Eightline--" She paused and frowned. She sounded too much like that one guy. The Predacon leader, whatever his name was. "Tarantulas," she corrected herself. "Tarantulas?"
The pained screaming went on.
Sighing, Overdose pulled out a remote and selected a button. "Eenie, meenie, minie, moe...gotcha!"
Tarantulas arched off the floor again, visor wide in sudden agony, then collapsed as it let off again. Stunned, he stared in mute pain at his torturer. She smiled back at him unpleasantly.
"Shall we begin again? I still have questions, after all." The colorful eyes narrowed as she abruptly yanked the embedded knife back out of Tarantulas' leg. He shrieked, then choked as one hand clamped onto his already-injured throat and the other poised the freed knife over his visor. "Lots of questions."
* * * * *
"It's ridiculous!" Depth Charge snapped.
"Can you think of anything else that might work?" Optimus snapped right back. He had run out of patience with the manta ray. "Right now our biggest concern is getting Tarantulas out of there. If you can't hear it from where you are, let me fill you in on his condition."
The ray's eyes narrowed in confusion as the radio went silent, but then they widened again as a faint scream came through. It sounded like it was echoing, but that made sense if the Maximals were in a cave. "Alright, Primal; you've made your point. But I still don't think it'll work!"
"We've got to at least TRY."
* * * * *
"Like, dudette."
Overdose looked up in annoyance at the computer. Bob was competing with Tarantulas' shrieks to be heard, so she frowned and slashed at the spider's throat with her current knife. It didn't slice in far enough to stop the screeching, but it exposed the voice box. A simple tweaking of a wire cut the volume considerably. "Whatcha want, Bob?" With the constant noise gone, though, the sound of weapons' fire was audible. "Hey, where's that coming from?"
"Like, that's what, like, I was trying to, like, tell you about. The Maximals are, like, attacking the shield, dudette."
She frowned again. "Why? That's a waste of time."
Maximals are foolish that way. They must want to save Lieutenant Eightline for some sentimental reason.
Overdose considered that. "Well, that's pretty stupid."
For once, Overdose, we are in agreement.
She gave it some more thought as the blasting sounds continued and concluded there must be some other reason for the assault. "Hey, you." She poked an exposed wire in the tortured form on the floor and received his immediate, terrified attention. "Why would the Maximals want to rescue you?" The spider's mandibles moved, but only a harsh rasp came out. "Answer me, you freak!" The rasp repeated. "Okay, obviously you don't learn very quickly. What the slag were YOU doing when I was teaching you what would happen when you don't answer me?!" Tarantulas cringed, one half of his visor dead and shattered from one such lesson. A faint whimper followed the rasp this time, but Overdose's eyes burned blood-red with anger.
Her hands were steady as they picked a neurocircuit out of one of the cuts now criss-crossing his legs and pulled slowly, nails scraping along its surface. The spider writhed, shuddering in torment, but the sea slug robot blinked in puzzlement when he didn't scream. Instead, a funny little sound almost like a whistle came from him.
"Huh. Wonder why he did that?" she mused out loud.
"'Cause you, like, pulled the connection to, like, his voice-box," Bob supplied helpfully, and Overdose blinked.
"Oh. Yeah." The angry reds faded from her eyes. "That would explain why he didn't answer me..." She let go of the nerve wire and fiddled with the wiring in his exposed throat instead. "Aaaaaaaaand...there!" Giving the helpless spider an stern look, she asked, "Now, what do you have to say for yourself?"
Tarantulas coughed and trembled, body still wracked with pain. "I tried to answer. I tried! Please, PLEASE stop! Overdose, please..."
"Oh, whatever." Waving a hand impatiently, she ignored his moan of fear when she picked up a small welding laser. The distant sound of chain guns was starting to irritate her. "Why are the Maximals trying to save you?"
"I-I don't kn-know!" the spider stammered, the remains of his visor bright with fear. "M-maybe they want t-to get you?" he added desperately when the reds reappeared in her eyes.
Uncertain suddenly, she looked over her shoulder. "Me? What'd I do?"
"You, like, broke into, like, those dudes' base."
"Oh. Right." Overdose put her chin into the hand not holding the welding laser and thought hard. Chain guns echoed through the caverns. It sounded like there was another attack on the shield from the sea entrance, too. Finally, she came to a difficult decision. "I like the Milky Way better," she said. "Bob, make a note of that."
"Like, okay, dudette. The note is, like, totally made." The computer paused. "Would that, like, be the candy or, like, the Milky Way galaxy?"
Her eyes opened wide, and a shimmer of colors lit up her fins for a moment. "There's a Milky Way candy?!"
"Like, yeah. It's, like, mentioned in, like, my files."
"Cool. I'll have to try it sometime. But I mean the Milky Way galaxy. Er, I think so, anyway. Did I know that there's a Milky Way candy?"
"Like, probably."
"Oh." Overdose blinked. "Well, I think I meant the Milky Way galaxy. Or maybe I meant that I like stars. I like stars a lot. They're sparkly. Or maybe just Red Giant stars, 'cause they're big and pretty. And really destructive to any planets nearby. Hmmmmm. I'm gonna have to remember that purple guy's name eventually if I want to talk to him. If I want to talk to him. Actually, just forget about the note, okay?"
"Like, okay, dudette," Bob said with patience only a computer could have in the face of Overdose's babbling. Tarantulas had already dimmed his half-visor and tried not to think about what was going on. Listening to his torturer's mood swings only made his head hurt worse, and he didn't need any more pain.
"And I'm gonna go see what the Maximals want, too," she added.
"Dudette."
"Stop call me that!"
"Like, okay, dudette."
"Have I mentioned that I'm going to reprogram you?"
Part Three
Depth Charge narrowed his eyes and cursed silently as his wide fins scraped along the underwater tunnel's walls. His beast mode wasn't made to swim in close confinement, he was finding out, but he still kept going. Somewhere in this maze was the entrance to Overdose's cave system, and he needed to find it. He could only hope the femme was actually in her caves. Optimus and Rhinox hadn't been able to find her energy signature while she had been in the Maximal base before, so they hadn't been able to scan for her. They were guessing that she had returned to her home base to torture her victim.
Even a Predacon like Tarantulas didn't deserve to be tortured.
A part of his mind wondered over the concern he felt. Before Overdose literally crashed into his life, revenge on the then-X had crowded out every single thought not concerning it. As the crazy femme had forced him to see, people had become obstacles in his path to revenge; things that weren't important and didn't matter. Before Overdose had come into his life, Tarantulas' fate wouldn't have meant anything to him, despite what he knew might happen.
Before Overdose had changed him, he had been becoming more and more...like X. Or Rampage, as he was called now. The femme had brought him up short and forced him to look at his life; for that he owed her. He never wanted to end up like Rampage.
That same part of his mind puzzled over the crab. What was Overdose to him? Why would a monster that could destroy starbases and decimate entire colonies protect a childish 'bot that had fallen into the Beast Wars? Depth Charge amended that thought as soon as his mind presented it; Overdose was no child. There was something...if not in her like a parasite, then part of her. Something pitch black and as dangerous as Rampage, but it wasn't ALL of her like Rampage. Rampage was dangerous, murderous...but Overdose was more than that. And now that the ray had seen them together, he wasn't willing to say that Rampage was all he seemed, either. There was more to both of them, but he had to agree with what the femme had told him: he should never trust her, and he would never trust Rampage.
But that didn't mean that he could simply end the thoughts there. He was searching the underwater tunnel maze for an entrance to the caves, but his mind was searching for an answer to the femme inside.
"Optimus to Depth Charge!"
His radio jolted him from his thoughts. "Depth Charge here. What do you want, Primal?" he asked roughly. "I'm busy!"
"So are we, Depth Charge," the Maximal leader snapped back, for once letting some of the exasperated anger he felt when dealing with the ray come through in his voice. The ray's eyes widened a little in surprised respect, but the ape didn't give him a chance to say anything back. "I wanted to tell you that we may have found a way in, but there's some kind of shield in place that won't let us through. However," Optimus hesitated, and when he continued his voice had lost its anger, "we can hear someone screaming. Rattrap...Rattrap says it sounds like Tarantulas."
"Then we might be too late," Depth Charge said softly. He paused for a moment to turn to slip through a particularly narrow part of the tunnel. "What do you know about Overdose?" he asked when he had squeezed through, ignoring the raw sting some of the rocks left him with.
There was a silence over the radio that gave the ray the impression Optimus was trying to decide to tell him or not. Then, "Not enough, Depth Charge. What I know is what she's told us or let slip. Blackarachnia thought she might be able to get closer to her, but after this, I'm not sure it's worth the risk. What do you know?"
He ducked under an outcropping of rocks. "Not much more. I know some of what X's prison was like, and even then it was through high security. No details, but that facility was full of interplanetary terrorists and people too dangerous to put in a less guarded jail. In order for Overdose to survive...in order to have gotten IN there, she must have done something spectacular enough to earn it."
Optimus seemed to have followed his thought, and his question was thoughtful, "If so, why haven't we heard about her?"
Depth Charge let the question slide for the moment. "Ask Rattrap if he knows anything about her, but if you'll excuse me, I have things to do."
* * * * *
The ring on the floor was still there, but Tarantulas didn't have time to study it before Overdose had tied him down again. It probably didn't matter; he doubted she would have used a ring he might possibly be able to pull from the floor. He doubted he would have had the chance to, anyway.
Only a small corner of his mind was observing this as the crazed female turned away to pry the forked knife from the ceiling. The rest was almost gibbering with terror. He had a hard time holding in a whimper as she turned back to him, her smile wicked beneath swirling eyes.
"Now, about those questions..." she purred, fins darkening but smile remaining. He stared up at her, hopelessly tugging at the bonds around his wrists as she knelt down beside him and twirled the knife between her fingers. The colors in her eyes whirled faster, almost hypnotically, as she leaned closer. "Why are you here, Eightline?" She held up a hand as he started to stutter out an answer, "And don't tell me that the Tripedicus Council sent you this time. I KNOW that."
He wretched his visor away from looking into her brilliant optics and shuddered hopelessly. He couldn't tell her the answer to that question. He had sworn what loyalty he had to the Council, and he couldn't just abandon it because some psycho sea slug wanted to know. "Slag you," he rasped.
"Ooo, feisty!" Overdose giggled, her beast mode's fins darkening even more but her smile growing with undeniable pleasure that he dared defy her. "Good. I like that in my victims." She lowered her head suddenly to look straight into Tarantulas' turned-away face. "At first."
He looked away helplessly as the knife twirled, descending slowly towards him. Then again... "They sent me to keep Megatron under control," he temporized.
The forked knife stopped just above his chest. "Oh, really?" Overdose only sounded mildly interested. "Tell me more."
"They...they thought he could be more trouble than he was worth. If the Maximals traced him back to them, the Council could be discovered and war could break out before we're ready." Which was true, but it wasn't the real reason he had been sent here to ancient Earth. He just hoped desperately Overdose wouldn't guess that.
The femme lifted the fork enough to test its points with an orange-red finger, all of her attention apparently focused on that all-important task. "Is that all?" Tarantulas nodded frantically, visor locked on the tool of torture in her hand. "Such a shame they wasted Lieutenant Eightline on such a small assignment, now isn't it." It wasn't a question, and her smile was completely viscous with gloating triumph. "A pity you won't be returning to Cybertron to tell them about their error." The disinterested eyes with their whorls of violet and yellow-green turned to study him. "Just think what a waste it is, sending a Lieutenant to do the job of an assassin. It's funny, though; I've never known the Council to misuse its personnel before."
Tarantulas stared up into those eyes and went cold. She KNEW...
He didn't have any time to wonder how she had found out because the hand she had been using to test the forked knife made an abrupt motion that ended with a tiny hand laser slicing across his legs, and after that all coherent thought stopped.
His screams echoed through the caverns.
* * * * *
Right, right, left. Left again...no, right again.
Depth Charge made a tight turn into the right-hand tunnel and slammed into nothing. The impact made the water in front of him shimmer a hard green so briefly he hadn't been sure he had seen it at all, but then he swam forward again more cautiously and swept a fin against nothing. A quick trail of green followed his fin, disappearing almost as soon as it appeared.
The ray swam silently in place, considering. He had apparently run into the shield Optimus had told him about, and if what the ape had updated him with later was right, it went all the way around the caves. A solid, invisible bubble of force field the Maximals had to get through. Rhinox was working on something, but the rhino was doubtful it would work.
That left them waiting.
* * * * *
Deft fingers pulled open the first layer of armor and dipped into the wiring underneath. "Now, let's see...was it green or magenta..." Smile never fading, Overdose shrugged, picked a color, and tugged it out a little farther from its protective shell. Tarantulas' high-pitched scream told her she had picked correctly; a neurocircuitry wire lay in her grasp. "This ought to be fun."
Tarantulas arched off the floor the best he could, his throat raw already from the screams being forced from him as Overdose delicately scraped her fork against the wire. Sharpened, hard metal sliced the very top of the wire open, then another layer, and another...
The bared nerve-wire shrieked its pain-messages into him, and the darkened femme's low laugh rumbled in counterpoint. The pain twisted inside him, continually renewed and deepened with each flick of the femme's wrist. Tormented, it seemed to go on forever to him, but eventually the darkness hovering at the edge of his vision swept inward and swallowed him up, leaving him with a last look at the smiling face of his tormentor.
The smile faded into a pout as Tarantulas' visor went black and his body suddenly went limp. Peeved, Overdose slapped him. "Wakey, wakey! Eightline, this isn't over yet!" When there was no response, she sat back and folded her arms. "Hmmph. Usually I can draw it out longer than that. Oh well!" Cheerful again, she put away the fork she had been using and selected a knife with a jagged edge. It would be entertaining to use this on his--
"Yo, dudette."
Her train of thought derailed, and she couldn't seem to find it again. Not surprised, she looked up at the ceiling to where her computer was stuck. "Whaddya want, Bob?" she giggled, not even remembering why she was holding a knife but happy to have it anyway. She began to clean her nails with it, absently noting that she should paint them again.
"Time for, like, some totally gnarly pills."
Overdose shot to her feet and clapped her hands, carelessly dropping the knife in her hands. "Really?!" She reached into a subspace compartment and retrieved her clipboard, pen, and a couple bottles of pills. "Well, gee, I don't really remember what the side-effects of this one had...I'll just put 'yodeling spaceships manned by albino robots.' That ought to tell them lots!"
Overdose! Don't waste your time with this. I find it hard enough to control your insanity as it is. Continue torturing Eightline...
"But I'm supposed to stay on the drug program!" Overdose argued.
That's never stopped you from ignoring it before.
She shrugged and put away everything she had just gotten out. "True." Then she looked down. "Oops. You really shouldn't be there, you know." The knife she had dropped remained embedded in Tarantulas' leg despite her miffed pronouncement. Grumbling, she reached down to pry it free, then paused in fascination. "On the other hand, this sort of kinda maybe is an artistic representation of my life at this point and I need to preserve it! Isn't it that right, Bob?"
The computer on the ceiling scanned the offline Predacon. "Dudette, you've, like, said that, like, Lieutenant Eightline's life isn't, like, worth the energy it'd take to, like, kill him."
Caught up in her artistic side, the crazy sea slug's fins broke into multiple colors. The voice in her head demanded that she return to torturing Tarantulas, but she blithely told Venom to take a hike. Instead of taking the knife out of the Predacon's leg, she went off to find something to keep it there.
* * * * *
He looked away from Optimus and stared out over the open sea. 'Whatcha want me ta say, Fearless Leader?" he said softly. "Dat part of my life's over."
The Maximal leader looked down at Rattrap and saw some of the discomfort his question had caused. It was no secret that the rat had previously lead a shady life for a Maximal; Optimus had reviewed those part of his files before deciding to let him join his crew. "I don't want you to compromise yourself, Rattrap," he said, choosing his words carefully, "but if you know anything about Overdose that may help us..."
Rattrap turned to study his leader. There was genuine concern on the big 'bot's face, and he bit back the defensive words that immediately leapt to mind. There was no reason to be defensive. He was just as much a part of this team as anyone else, and he probably owed it them to give over any information he had.
That didn't mean he had to be comfortable about it.
The rat glanced around carefully, noting that Silverbolt, Cheetor, and Rhinox were out of hearing. "None of dis came from me, okay?" He turned to look at Optimus until the larger 'bot nodded. "Alright." Folding his arms, he walked a little further from the group of Maximals to lean against a boulder. He knew Optimus had followed him, so he didn't bother to stop staring out to sea. "I never heard much, ya know. Just bits an' pieces."
"Anything could help."
He waved a hand impatiently. "I know, I know! It's just dat...seein' Overdose, well, she fits what all da rumors said, but I never heard nothin' 'bout someone like HER doin' da stuff I heard 'bout. I mean, I never even heard her NAME. Dis is just puttin' two an' two together, ya know?"
Optimus slowly shook his head. "No, I'm afraid I don't. What do you mean?"
Rattrap squinted up at him for a moment. "Eeehhh. Dat's right. Ya wouldn't know." He looked away again. "Look, I ain't always been on da right side of da law, but I think 'bots who do, like da Kid and ya, don't really know what Cybertron's like. Dere's an Underground. Not for petty stuff, like da stuff I did. It's a criminal network. I never got real deep in it, but I saw some pretty ugly stuff, an' everybody in it heard da rumors."
The small Maximal seemed to be caught in his memories, so Optimus asked, "Rumors?"
He shook off his thoughts a little. "Yeah. Rumors. Bodies found in da streets of 'bots missin' days before. People walkin' real careful after a couple shops went up in a bomb. Stuff stolen from major companies and da security teams found half-way 'cross da planet wit' no memory of how dey got dere." Rattrap shook his head again. "An' none of dat stuff even made the news. Somebody big in da Underground covered it all up by da time da Cops got dere. Everybody knew somethin' happened, but nobody could prove it!" He chuckled a little. "Drove da Cops crazy, I'm tellin' ya..."
"But how do you know it was Overdose if nobody knew what was going on?" Optimus pointed out reasonably.
Rattrap shrugged. "Everybody knew it was somebody in deep. One of da big names. Whenever somethin' came up dat didn't have any of da others' signs on it, dere was always one 'bot it got blamed on."
"But how do you know it was Overdose?"
He shrugged again. "Don't. Nobody ever wanted to talk 'bout any of dose rumors wit' somebody like me. I wasn't in deep enough. But afta what Rampage was sayin' and dis whole t'ing wit' Tarantulas...can't think of anyone else it could be."
Optimus nodded slowly. "So how do you suggest we deal with her now?"
This time Rattrap's squint was thoughtful. "Find somethin' she wants, an' bargain," he said.
The Maximal leader stared at him for a long moment. Something she wants... "Rattrap, you may just have it!" He spun on his heel and walked quickly back to the others. "Come on!"
The rat looked out to sea one last time. "We're all gonna die," he sighed, wishing he had kept his mouth shut. Then he followed after Optimus.
* * * * *
"...well, then, how DO I bond it to him?"
"Like, dudette, I don't, like, know."
"I suppose I could just heat him up to 350 degrees, couldn't I? Er, except I don't know how I'd do it. But I could find a giant--hey, you're awake again! Now stay still, I have something I want to try. Hehe, although I don't think you could really move tied up the way you are; still it's polite, so you'd better slagging well not move! Hehehehe!"
Tarantulas shut off his optics as the voice changed from anger back to giggling and wondered if he could force himself to go back offline. He was just about to try when something was forced past his mandibles, and he swallowed automatically before he could think. It wasn't something he usually had to guard against, after all, but now that he had a beast mode and a digestive system...
False energy sparkled through him and lit up his optics, making him gasp in shock. His internal computer began to flash error messages at him, informing him of injuries in BOTH his legs and an unknown virus spreading from his beast mode's stomach. It updated the error message even as it flashed through his mind, though: not a virus, a DRUG.
A bright, happy face hovered over him. "Any side effects yet?" Overdose chirped, poising her pen above the clipboard. Her eyes swirled cheerfully with yellows and pinks along with the fins on her head, and her body was back to its normal colors. Tarantulas would have wondered if there was a connection between her torturing him and the dead black she had been colored, but right at that moment the pain in his legs was distracting him.
It seemed to, no, it WAS getting worse!
His damaged throat protested, but he screamed anyway.
Overdose just nodded and jotted down something. "Enhancement of pain. Interesting! While we're talking," she added absently, still writing, "do you know of anything I could use to turn you into a sculpture? I was going to try using a polyresin, but it needs to be heated to 350 degrees to set correctly, and I don't have anything that could heat you up that hot." She frowned and tapped the pen against her lips. "Although I could try using that volcano behind the Predacon base. Do you think that one guy...uh...what was his name again? Something starting with that one letter..."
Venom listened to Tarantulas' continued screaming and smiled inside Overdose's mind. The idea of enhanced pain was too much to resist...Rainbow Child, perhaps now would be a good time to continue your revenge for Goomba's death.
The colorful personality paused and darkened in remembered anger, and Venom knew she had judged correctly in suggesting, not demanding. This insane 'bot was easily influenced, but was stubborn when ordered to do something. The sane mind laughed softly; she was beginning to understand how to control Overdose...
You can always make a statue out of whatever remains of him. I believe I would like that. A small momento of your vengeance.
"Yes," Overdose muttered as her body's colors faded into dull black, leaving only her eyes dancing with colors. "Yes, I think I like that idea. My dear Eightline--" She paused and frowned. She sounded too much like that one guy. The Predacon leader, whatever his name was. "Tarantulas," she corrected herself. "Tarantulas?"
The pained screaming went on.
Sighing, Overdose pulled out a remote and selected a button. "Eenie, meenie, minie, moe...gotcha!"
Tarantulas arched off the floor again, visor wide in sudden agony, then collapsed as it let off again. Stunned, he stared in mute pain at his torturer. She smiled back at him unpleasantly.
"Shall we begin again? I still have questions, after all." The colorful eyes narrowed as she abruptly yanked the embedded knife back out of Tarantulas' leg. He shrieked, then choked as one hand clamped onto his already-injured throat and the other poised the freed knife over his visor. "Lots of questions."
* * * * *
"It's ridiculous!" Depth Charge snapped.
"Can you think of anything else that might work?" Optimus snapped right back. He had run out of patience with the manta ray. "Right now our biggest concern is getting Tarantulas out of there. If you can't hear it from where you are, let me fill you in on his condition."
The ray's eyes narrowed in confusion as the radio went silent, but then they widened again as a faint scream came through. It sounded like it was echoing, but that made sense if the Maximals were in a cave. "Alright, Primal; you've made your point. But I still don't think it'll work!"
"We've got to at least TRY."
* * * * *
"Like, dudette."
Overdose looked up in annoyance at the computer. Bob was competing with Tarantulas' shrieks to be heard, so she frowned and slashed at the spider's throat with her current knife. It didn't slice in far enough to stop the screeching, but it exposed the voice box. A simple tweaking of a wire cut the volume considerably. "Whatcha want, Bob?" With the constant noise gone, though, the sound of weapons' fire was audible. "Hey, where's that coming from?"
"Like, that's what, like, I was trying to, like, tell you about. The Maximals are, like, attacking the shield, dudette."
She frowned again. "Why? That's a waste of time."
Maximals are foolish that way. They must want to save Lieutenant Eightline for some sentimental reason.
Overdose considered that. "Well, that's pretty stupid."
For once, Overdose, we are in agreement.
She gave it some more thought as the blasting sounds continued and concluded there must be some other reason for the assault. "Hey, you." She poked an exposed wire in the tortured form on the floor and received his immediate, terrified attention. "Why would the Maximals want to rescue you?" The spider's mandibles moved, but only a harsh rasp came out. "Answer me, you freak!" The rasp repeated. "Okay, obviously you don't learn very quickly. What the slag were YOU doing when I was teaching you what would happen when you don't answer me?!" Tarantulas cringed, one half of his visor dead and shattered from one such lesson. A faint whimper followed the rasp this time, but Overdose's eyes burned blood-red with anger.
Her hands were steady as they picked a neurocircuit out of one of the cuts now criss-crossing his legs and pulled slowly, nails scraping along its surface. The spider writhed, shuddering in torment, but the sea slug robot blinked in puzzlement when he didn't scream. Instead, a funny little sound almost like a whistle came from him.
"Huh. Wonder why he did that?" she mused out loud.
"'Cause you, like, pulled the connection to, like, his voice-box," Bob supplied helpfully, and Overdose blinked.
"Oh. Yeah." The angry reds faded from her eyes. "That would explain why he didn't answer me..." She let go of the nerve wire and fiddled with the wiring in his exposed throat instead. "Aaaaaaaaand...there!" Giving the helpless spider an stern look, she asked, "Now, what do you have to say for yourself?"
Tarantulas coughed and trembled, body still wracked with pain. "I tried to answer. I tried! Please, PLEASE stop! Overdose, please..."
"Oh, whatever." Waving a hand impatiently, she ignored his moan of fear when she picked up a small welding laser. The distant sound of chain guns was starting to irritate her. "Why are the Maximals trying to save you?"
"I-I don't kn-know!" the spider stammered, the remains of his visor bright with fear. "M-maybe they want t-to get you?" he added desperately when the reds reappeared in her eyes.
Uncertain suddenly, she looked over her shoulder. "Me? What'd I do?"
"You, like, broke into, like, those dudes' base."
"Oh. Right." Overdose put her chin into the hand not holding the welding laser and thought hard. Chain guns echoed through the caverns. It sounded like there was another attack on the shield from the sea entrance, too. Finally, she came to a difficult decision. "I like the Milky Way better," she said. "Bob, make a note of that."
"Like, okay, dudette. The note is, like, totally made." The computer paused. "Would that, like, be the candy or, like, the Milky Way galaxy?"
Her eyes opened wide, and a shimmer of colors lit up her fins for a moment. "There's a Milky Way candy?!"
"Like, yeah. It's, like, mentioned in, like, my files."
"Cool. I'll have to try it sometime. But I mean the Milky Way galaxy. Er, I think so, anyway. Did I know that there's a Milky Way candy?"
"Like, probably."
"Oh." Overdose blinked. "Well, I think I meant the Milky Way galaxy. Or maybe I meant that I like stars. I like stars a lot. They're sparkly. Or maybe just Red Giant stars, 'cause they're big and pretty. And really destructive to any planets nearby. Hmmmmm. I'm gonna have to remember that purple guy's name eventually if I want to talk to him. If I want to talk to him. Actually, just forget about the note, okay?"
"Like, okay, dudette," Bob said with patience only a computer could have in the face of Overdose's babbling. Tarantulas had already dimmed his half-visor and tried not to think about what was going on. Listening to his torturer's mood swings only made his head hurt worse, and he didn't need any more pain.
"And I'm gonna go see what the Maximals want, too," she added.
"Dudette."
"Stop call me that!"
"Like, okay, dudette."
"Have I mentioned that I'm going to reprogram you?"