Another chapter, another sleepless night. My nights and days are now so mixed up. I go to bed at like 7 am here then wake up at 4 or 6 pm. Must go to bed earlier tonight. I'm trying to write 3 different stories at once. Ever heard of Richard Cheese? He makes funny music. If you want a cheap laugh, look him up.

Megatron laid down on his bed feeling crappier than ever. He was thinking the day over. Tarantulas did operate on him but did he remember to remove the virus? There'd be no way to find out till he got over this stage. Inferno had left him alone. He was just thankful that Samantha wasn't there. He hoped that Samantha would warm up to Inferno. There were times when Samantha wouldn't allow herself to get intimate with anyone. But if she denied herself that pleasure, it would build up and she would go crazy. Maybe a week would be too long for her to wait. It was Inferno's problem now.

Waspinator was playing with Samantha. She never had a fever; she was just warm from sleeping with a blanket over her head. She hid from him under the covers while he tried to find her. Waspinator tried hard to get to her but she held the edges of the blanket.

"Not fair. Zzammy cheat."

"Am not. You just can't get to me."

"Oh yeah?"

Waspinator grabbed her body and flipped her on her back exposing her belly. He moved the blanket from her face and licked her.

"Got you."

"No fair."

"Now you know how Wazzpinator feel."

There was knocking at the door. Waspinator left Samantha in his bed and answered. Inferno asked if he could have Samantha back. Samantha couldn't really hear anything. She didn't care at that moment in time.

"Wazzpinator not give her up. Wazzpinator finally has alone time with Zzammy. Megatron and Ant-bot not have all the fun." (That came out wrong)

"I'm just going to take her outside for a while. I'm not going to hurt her."

"Wazzpinator hear that from Megatron. Not trust Ant-bot."

"Very well." Inferno left Waspinator's room to go back to the royalty in defeat. "Damn Waspinator."

Megatron got up for the day. He may have felt like shit but he still had things to do. Inferno walked in and nearly knocked Megatron over.

"Forgive me royalty."

"It's alright, yesss. Neither of us was paying attention."
"That's not the only reason I want you to forgive me. Waspinator refuses to let Samantha go."

"Then let him have her for a while. I have other things I need to take care of before I need to see her."

"Royalty?"

"The Maximals have gathered on a nearby cliff. We must intervene before they complete their mission."

"Are you sure you're up for this Royalty? Perhaps you should sit this one out."

"I think I can handle this Inferno. Or are you saying I'm weak?"
Inferno stopped talking. He didn't wish to upset Megatron any further. He just knelt before him.

"Forgive me royalty. I forgot my place."

Inferno felt Megatron brush past him. He followed after a short while. He didn't speak after that moment.

Megatron and the others had positioned themselves just above the Maximals. You could tell they were looking for more energon. Rattrap had finally lost patience.

"You mean we came all this way just to look at da scenery?"

"Deal with it rodent."

Megatron felt it was his turn to chime in. Scorpinoc shot into the crowd. Some went flying into the wall and some almost fell off the cliff.

"Nowhere to run and no place to hide, yesss. Obliterate them."

(I love / hate the camera angles in this episode. You either think the bouncing is great or it makes you sick.)

There was a fierce battle raging on the rocks. Rattrap was not only fighting the Predicons, but Dinobot at the same time. He had verbal fights with him all the time.

"We've got no other choice, we must attack."

"You're on the wrong wave-length there leather lips. We run."

Dinobot stopped firing and looked at Rattrap. "Oh, and where would we run, rodent?"

Megatron stopped firing and watched the arguments. The aim of their enemy seemed to be slightly off.

"It shouldn't be this easy, no. But mustn't complain." (I love that line. Scary that this episode is mostly coming from the top of my head.)

The Maximals were trying even harder to hit something now. Cheetor couldn't take much more of this.

"Rhinox, shoot straight for crying out loud, you're missing them by a parsec."

Little did anyone know Rhinox was firing straight. Why aim for one person when you can take them all out? Rhinox continued to fire just above their heads, causing a rockslide. All the Predicons were buried under the rubble.

"There's more than one way to skin a cat, so to speak."

Rattrap and Cheetor both looked at him. Cheetor was more out of slight anger than Rattrap's, oh my god he actually said something that stupid.

"Well done old friend. Quick nerves and steady thinking."

"Comes with the job description."

"No I'm serious. If you had gone further in school you would have made one prime leader."

"Thanks anyway. But I'd rather just tag along behind and smell the flowers."

Some of them laughed and headed away from the rockslide back towards their own base.

Megatron shifted under the rocks. He managed to get his head out.

"The rhinoceros. I do believe I've underestimated him, yesss. And I could find use for someone like that. Tarantulas…"

Tarantulas came over and started to dig Megatron and everyone else out.

Tarantulas had his orders, he was to stalk Rhinox and bring him back to the base. What he really wanted to do was get Rattrap but he'd have to face the rest of the Maximals and would have proved to be a problem. Rhinox wasn't too far from the others but still a fair distance that if he was in trouble, it would take them some time to help him. Tarantulas hung on the wall just above him. He couldn't help himself. He had to laugh. Rhinox looked around. Dammit. Gave himself away. It was time to trap him anyway. Tarantulas trapped him in a cocoon of webbing, climbed down and bit his neck, injecting him with venom and having him pass out.

Rhinox woke standing up in a strange looking machine. Megatron was in his floating chair laughing at him. Rhinox got fed up with him.

"If you're going to kill me then do me a favor. Shut up and get it over with."

"Finish you Maximal? No, I have a much better plan for you."

Megatron hit his chair and caused the machine to fire up. You could hear Rhinox scream throughout the whole base. Samantha awoke from her slumber and fell out of her little hammock. She was pretty high off of the floor so when she made contact, it made a loud sound. She got up and held her back, pushing her body forward.

"Ow. What the hell was that?"
Rhinox's scream finished and his eyes were a different color. He said things that were totally out of character for him.

"Is this a private club or can anyone join?"
"Let me be the first to welcome you. Everyone, meet our new Predicon."

Samantha walked down the hall into the main area. She saw the machine in the direct center of the base and ignored it. Megatron didn't notice her. He was too busy messing with the controls. Rhinox was beside him trying to help.

"Now maybe you can tell us about what things the Maximals have been working on. You've already seen our base and now it's time for business."

"What's in it for me?"
"Why the satisfaction of playing a leading role in the destruction of your former comrades."

"Destruction… yep. Destruction is always good."

The holo-globe started to malfunction and the image was gone.

"Something wrong?"

"There must be a malfunction the decompression protocol ray."

Megatron started messing with the buttons on his chair.

"Gee… hope it's under warrantee."

Megatron glared at Rhinox then sent him away. Rhinox went down on one of the floating platforms and found Samantha staring up at him. He stepped down to talk.

"Hey Samantha. How have you been? They treating you good here?"

"I'm doing okay. Why are you over here?"

"I'll tell you later. You know… there are some things I haven't finished asking you the last time I saw you. Maybe I'll come by your room later and you can help me with the answers."

Megatron cleared his throat. Both Samantha and Rhinox looked up to see Megatron looking down at them. Rhinox bent over to her ear.

"I'll see you later okay. Maybe you should come over to my room instead."
Rhinox walked off, leaving Samantha by herself on the floor.

"Samantha, would you come up here please."

Samantha hated those platforms. She couldn't control them. She got on the platform but didn't touch the handle. Megatron pressed another button on his chair and it lifted to him on command. Samantha was soon standing beside him.

"Feeling better?"

"I wasn't sick. I was just tired. Why's Rhinox here?"
Megatron held out his arms and Samantha took his hint. She sat on his lap.

"He's here to help us out for a while."

"So he's a Predicon now."

"How long were you listening to our conversation?"
"Long enough."

Megatron rubbed his nose against hers. She cuddled against him and noticed a slight power failure. She pushed against his chest.

"I should go and help Scorpinoc with the computers. There's something wrong and he isn't small enough to get inside."

Megatron could feel himself losing control. He had to get Samantha away from him. He put her back on the platform and lowered her. She blew a kiss up to him and ran off.

"Just six more days, just six more days."

Rhinox walked in on Scorpinoc messing with some of the motherboards.

"The chief wants to know how long this is going to take."

"Well tell him not to get his software in a snarl. First I've got to figure out what the slaggin problem is." Scorpinoc went to the nearest computer and opened the plating. "Hang on, the redactor modem's missing."

"No. You shock me Scorpinoc."

When Scorpinoc moved out of view, Rhinox crushed the chip he needed. He positioned himself on the other side of stacked computers. He slightly pushed them over but not far enough to knock them completely over.

"Scorpinoc, over here."

"Hey, you wanna be careful there."

"Oh I'm being real careful. See, I'm on this side and it's all gonna fall that way."

Rhinox pushed all of the computers towards Scorpinoc. He tried to run away from the falling objects but couldn't quite make it. Rhinox laughed and headed out the door. He ran into Samantha halfway down the hall. She was knocked onto the floor.

"Sorry Samantha. I didn't see you."

"What are you doing down here?"
"Megatron wanted me to check on Scorpinoc to see what went wrong and he's still looking into it."

"Okay. I have to head over there anyway to try and help out."

"Good luck. And don' forget about what I said."

Samantha watched him walk away. He was just too calm about everything. She didn't like it. She went into the computer room and saw it was a disaster. At first she thought it was because he was looking in all the computers but soon found him lying underneath a stack of computers. Samantha got on her little walkie-talkie thing and contacted Megatron.

"Megatron you might wanna come and see this."

Megatron lifted the rest of the debris off of Scorpinoc then poked him, trying to see if he would respond.

"Idiot, what have you done?"

"Idiot doezz not rezzpond. Idiot is comatose."

"Get him to the restoration chamber."

Waspinator started to drag Scorpinoc off. Megatron saw Samantha looking around the corner. He went over to her and looked into her eyes.

"Do you know what happened here?"
"No. I came here and found him like this. I wouldn't hurt him Megatron. Honest."

"I'm not saying you did. I just want to know the truth."

"I'm telling you the truth. I ran into Rhinox before finding Scorpinoc on the floor."

"Rhinox was here."
"I think so. He's been acting weird lately."

"Thank you Samantha. Now listen to me. Don't talk to him. If you do, make sure someone is with you. Come straight to me if he tries anything."

Scorpinoc was being lowered into the CR chamber and Waspinator left him there by himself. He thought of going outside with Samantha to go get some fruit. He wasn't really paying attention to where he was flying and got into contact with one of the computers tied up to the roof. He flew backwards and hit the wall. He was hit so hard he became disoriented and couldn't fly straight.

"Heads up."

Rhinox went off to find his next victim. Waspinator continued to hit the ceiling and walls all over the base. He looked like a life-sized pinball machine. Terrorsaur saw him and now understood everything that was going on. Waspinator continued his air assault. He went into the main control room and flew around in circles.

"Destroy all Autobots."

Megatron turned from his work with Black Arachnia to see what the hell he was doing.

"Waspinator, what are you buzzing about?"
"Waspinator? Negative, negative, negative I am Shrapnel Decepticon hero."

Black Arachnia looked like he was nuts. His buzz had subsided.

"Shrapnel? That was a Decepticon from the Great War three centuries ago. He's wacko."

"Wacko? No. Wanko, Wanko the sane." Waspinator started to hit himself in the head. Samantha came into the room and Waspinator saw her. He flew down and tackled her. He rubbed his head all over her. She didn't understand what was going on.

"You're back and safe."
"What are you talking about?"

"Samantha, you're missing to uncover what the Autobots have been working on. You're our little spy. What did you come up with?"

Samantha looked up at Megatron who watched with great interest. She tried to push him off.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"You've been working for us for years Samantha. Don't you remember? Megatron and Starscream were arguing on whether to even let you go. Us Insecticons stood by you and said that we could get you in. You helped us get the Dinobots on our side."

Megatron looked down at her. That made sense in history. The Dinobots were on the Decepticon's side for a time. This was interesting. Samantha shouldn't have been there.

"Please tell us how this ended Samantha."

"I have no idea what he's talking about. I think he's delusional."
Waspinator looked at her and kissed her without thinking. He pulled away and spoke for the last time.

"I told you, I would always be here for you. Whether you chose Megatron or one of Soundwave's cassettes, I'd always be here for you."

Megatron jumped off of his chair and decked Waspinator, sending him flying into another wall.

"Now what was that about?"