Megatron growled in frustration. Since the newcomer Overdose was in his CR Tank, the Predacon tyrant had thought it would be a simple thing to mess with her circuitry or something of that sort to at least influence her towards the Predacons.
He had thought wrong.
Rampage had deliberately placed himself between the currently off-line Overdose and any attempts Megatron had made. Despite Dinobot's use of his half-piece of Rampage's spark to torture the crab, he hadn't given in. And even though the crab was brought to his knees by the pain, Megatron still wasn't willing to risk Rampage's firepower.
Finally he signaled for Dinobot to stop, letting his half-brother recover. "Very well," Megatron snarled at him. "Bring her to me when she has completed her time in the CR Tank." With that, he turned and stomped off, fuming at his thwarted plans.
Rampage watched Megatron stalk off with hatred in his eyes, but his expression changed when he looked at the CR Tank. He couldn't allow Megatron to bind Overdose to him like the tyrant had done to him.
Three reasons had made him endure the torture that had come from that decision: First, he naturally didn't want Overdose to be under that idiot's power. Second, Rampage wasn't certain there was any way to fool around with Overdose's circuitry without doing her irreparable harm or even killing her. And third...
Rampage suppressed a shudder as he remembered what had happened to others before Megatron who had tried to control the femme. It had ALWAYS failed, no matter how it was tried. Overdose's insanity couldn't accept being controlled, and she would snap her fragile childlike mask of mild looniness to show the danger underneath.
Rampage wouldn't necessarily mind the carnage, but if Overdose went completely ballistic he probably wouldn't be alive to appreciate it...

Tarantulas braced his hands against the computer console and tried to think around the haze of fear clouding his mind. That fear had one source: Overdose. The crazy femme was well known to the Predacon Secret Police (PSP), with him being no exception.
But in a way he WAS the exception. He knew more than most about her. At the moment he wished he didn't know quite so much as he recalled the agonized screams of her tortured victims that she had occasionally recorded and sent to the PSP Headquarters as a warning to stay away from her. The recordings had varied from a couple hours to days long depending on whether she had noticed any of the PSP Officers trailing her, or if she had actually caught any of the PSP Officers in question.
Tarantulas shook himself out of his terror-stricken thoughts. He had to plan. He had to find some way to get some degree of safety. That was going to be difficult, especially since Overdose had a large variety of strange skills that she would undoubtedly use to find him. And she would use them ALL to get to him, he knew.
Overdose would be a danger to any PSP Officer, but for him...

Rampage waited impatiently as the CR Tank raised Overdose out of the liquid. Sea slugs were not meant for land, he noticed. The colorful frills and ruffles that waved around gracefully underwater lay flat against her rubbery body, giving her a flattened look.
Her antenna moved around, checking out the area, and she slid off the platform silently. She ignored his presence and oozed across the floor.
"Overdose?" Rampage was about to ask what she was doing when he saw the tiny pile of sugar Waspinator had spilled earlier. He relaxed and chuckled as Overdose's notorious sweet tooth drew her towards the sweet.
After she finished, Overdose transformed. "How'd I get here?" she asked quietly, looking at her surroundings calmly. "The last thing I remember is, is," she frowned and thought. "Talking to that Megatron guy about, um, factions." She tilted her head to the side and gazed at Rampage out of her swirling eyes. "So?"
*Ding!*
"Just a minute," Overdose sighed. She pulled out some bottles, a clipboard, and something to write with. She wrote down the code for the drug she had tested last, and blinked at the questions. "Uh, side effects?" She looked up at Rampage helplessly.
He was watching her current calmness warily, but responded to her query. "Memory loss and depression," he supplied.
"Thanks." Overdose smiled at him for a moment, then turned back to her clipboard. "Depression?" she asked absently as she wrote.
Rampage smirked a little. "You started crying."
Her head snapped up. "I did not!" She looked at the pill bottle uncertainly, "Um, did I?"
He just smirked wider.
"Oh, whatever," she grumbled, and put away the clipboard. "Hmm, what luck," she mused, looking at the label for the next drug. "This is an anti-depressant..." Overdose popped off the cap and swallowed the contents of the bottle.
Rampage thought for a second about what an anti-depressant might do to her. "Er, Megatron wants to see you right now..."

He had no more options.
Tarantulas shivered, feeling his time running out. There wasn’t anywhere he could go that he knew she wouldn’t be able to find him. There was only one place he could go that he had a chance of being protected.

Overdose was feeling great by the time they got to the control room. So great, in fact, that she started doing cartwheels down the corridor, singing the latest fad in music at the top of her voice. Offkey. Rampage had to run to keep up with her, but she didn't mind.
"Hi, everybody!" she shouted as she careened into the control center. Her backdrop of fins was changing colors and designs rapidly, making it hard to stay focused on her for very long without becoming distracted. She bounced around the room, greeting the shocked Predacons, "Hihihihihihihihihihihi!!!"
"Stop!" Megatron finally yelled.
The hyperactive femme ignored him, and continued treating his frozen troops as a gymnastics obstacle course. "Wheeeee!"
Megatron restrained himself from shooting her because he wanted her to join thePredacons. Instead, he turned to Rampage, who was howling with laughter at Overdose's antics. "Stop her!" he ordered.
Rampage shrugged helplessly, still laughing. "How?"
"I don't know!" Megatron growled. "Do something! You know her, don't you?!"
Overdose's commlink beeped before Rampage could answer.
"Like, dude."
She skidded to a halt and groaned in dismay. "Not you!"
The voice from her comm seemed to be a computer's emotionless voice, but none of the Predacons had ever heard a computer speak like this!
"Dude, like, water isn't good for, like, circuitry."
"I know, I know." Overdose sighed. "Have I mentioned that I'm going to reprogram you one of these days?"
"Like, yes."
"Stupid computer."
"Dude?"
"Oh, shut up."
"Like, shutting-"
"I said shut up!"
"-up, dude."
Overdose glared into space. "Look, you hunk of junk. When I say shut up, I mean don't talk any more! Got it?"
Silence.
She blinked in confusion. "Computer? Can you hear me?"
Silence.
Sudden understanding bloomed in her eyes. "You can talk now, computer," she said tiredly.
"Dude."
Overdose fingered one of her antenna. "I can't win, can I?" she asked no one in particular.
"Dude?"
"Go away. I don't care if water is bad for you." She waited until her comm beeped to signal its cut off, then threw back her head and SCREAMED.
The assembled Predacons winced as her shriek pierced their audios painfully.
Overdose noticed and stopped. "Sorry," she mumbled. "That thing just makes me so angry..."
"Ah, yess." Megatron jumped on that. "And what exactly was that thing?" he asked.
She looked at him blankly. "A computer, of course. A completely wacko one, but it’s still a computer."
"Where is this computer?" Megatron asked as patiently as he could.
"In my ship."
He wanted to strangle her. "Where is your ship?" he gritted out.
"Underwater." She smiled brightly at him.
"Where-Argh!" Megatron threw up his hands in frustration and turned to the chuckling Rampage. "Get some sense out of her!" he growled at him.
Rampage sighed, and looked at the femme, who was starting to bounce in place. "Overdose?"
Bounce. "Yeah?" Bounce.
"Can you show me where you left your ship?"
Bounce. "Why?" Bounce.
Rampage shot a look at Megatron, and looked back at her. "I’m curious."
Bounce. "Hi, Curious. I’m Overdose." Bounce.
"Huh?" Rampage stared at her for a moment, and shook his head. "You know what I mean..."
"Sure!" Overdose turned and skipped down a corridor. "Follow me."
Megatron pointed to Dinobot as Rampage shrugged and followed her. "You go, also. Convince her to become a Predacon if you can, but kill her if you can’t," he quietly told the raptor.
Dinobot snarled, and ran after them.
The Predacons still in the control room could hear their voices echoing back.
"It’s this way, Curious."
"My name isn’t Curious."
"Well, okay. Can I call you George?"
"Wha-NO! My name is Rampage!"
"Okay, okay! Geez, have a hissy fit why don’t ya..."
"*snarl* Shut up, female."
"Back off, Dinobot."
"Hey, uh, Dinobot? Did you know you look like a can-opener collection?"
". . . ."
". . . ."
"You guys have no idea what a can-opener is, do you."
Quickstrike looked at Megatron. "Are y’all sure ya want her to be a Predacon?"
Megatron didn’t have an answer.

Tarantulas thought hard, trying to find some other way, but he failed.
Transforming, he walked up the ridge, coming into view below. The guns turned towards him.
He slowly pulled out his weapon and dropped it onto the ground. Then he spread his hands and deliberately kept his spider legs/machine guns in a nonthreatening position. He started to walk down the ridge.
Optimus Primal cautiously landed in front of him. "What do you want, Tarantulas?" he warily asked. Blackarachnia and Silverbolt kept the guns trained on the Predacon talking to Primal.
Tarantulas forced the words out, "I’ve come to surrender."

"You could just give me a ride." Overdose smiled endearingly.
"No."
"C’mon, please?" She pouted a little.
"No."
"But-"
"No!" Dinobot snarled. "You can walk."
She smiled again. "Well, then don’t complain when I can’t keep up!"
He stumbled, surprised she had the brains to use his own argument against him. Dinobot recovered and looked at her from the corner of his eye. He might have to rethink how intelligent Overdose actually was...
She giggled and ran to catch up with his half-brother, who was in tank mode up ahead.
"Hey, wait up!" Overdose jumped on top of Rampage. She laid down on her front and hung her face in front of him. "Why’re you going so fast?" she asked curiously. She didn’t seem to notice that her antenna were in danger of being dragged in the dirt.
"I’m not going fast," Rampage answered, but he slowed down anyway. He recalled something. "What happened to your vehicle mode?"
"Vehicle mode?" Overdose rolled onto her back and thought lazily. "Hmm...I dunno," she said finally. "Why?"
Rampage’s mind hatched a small plan. "If you still have one, we might be able to lose Dinobot."
"But didn’t that purple guy, uh, what’s-his-name..." Overdose stared off into the sky, completely forgetting what she had been thinking about.
"Megatron."
"Hmm?" She snapped back to the real world. "Oh, yeah." Her colors shifted restlessly, "Um, what was I talking about?"
He suppressed the urge to snap at her. He knew from experience it wouldn’t help any. "Your vehicle mode."
"Right. I probably still have one." She paused uncertainly. "Did I have one before?"
"You said you did." Transformation locks at the prisons hadn’t allowed her to show it off, but she had told him she did.
She shrugged. "Okay, so I should have one." Overdose reached behind her head and pushed herself into a flip, landing in front of Rampage.
Right in front of him.
He braked hard, skidded, and turned over onto his side in an effort to miss her. "Look out!"
She watched his antics calmly. Then she concentrated.
Rampage transformed just in time to see her transform.
Overdose bent forward, letting her back fins sweep down against her sides. The rest of her body shifted into a two wheeled shape between the colorful shields. "Hey, look! I’m a motorcycle!" She revved her engine. "Cool!"
Rampage stared at her as she moved in circles, testing out her maneuverability. She went faster and faster, turning into a blur of colors.
Dinobot ran up beside the crab. "Is that Overdose?"
He nodded wordlessly.
"Wheeeee!" Overdose flattened her circle out into a straight line, letting the jets along her back speed her along. "This is fun!" she screamed back at Rampage.
Something strange was happening...the faster she went, the lighter she felt...
Dinobot and Rampage both gasped as Overdose’s side flaps drew away from the rest of her motorcycle-like body, hardening from their normal waviness into wings. Her wheels left the ground as her stiffened fins acted like a hang-glider.
Overdose laughed and started singing, "I’m flying..."
Dinobot snarled as he got over his initial surprise. "She’s wasting our time in her childish play," he growled at Rampage.
The crab’s eyes followed the loops and dips Overdose was doing in the air. "So?"
"Megatron ordered us-"
Rampage turned to him. "I really don’t care what Megatron ordered," he said quietly, his voice a challenge.
Dinobot touched his own chest in warning. "You should." He gestured at the far-away femme, "He ordered us to destroy her if she doesn’t become a Predacon."
"What?!" Rampage’s eyes opened wide in shock. "No!"
Dinobot nodded. "Yes."
"But-" Rampage swallowed the rest of his protest. Dinobot was too loyal to listen. Instead, he turned back to look at Overdose.
She wasn’t there.

"Ack!" Overdose pushed the remains of a tree off of her leg. "Note to self: learn how to fly." She looked around at her crash site.
Trees were missing leaves and branches, and the ground had a nice trench were she had ‘landed’. Something brown and red was partially in that trench.
Curious, she dragged herself to her feet and hobbled over, muttering, "If the secret to flying is missing the ground, I’m not doing so great. I seem to hit it every time-Oh, no." Overdose stared down mournfully.
A doe lay in the trench, her twisted neck and bloody hide showing that she was definitely dead.
Overdose slid down next to her and checked anyway. When she couldn’t find any sign of life, she started crying. "I-I’m so s-sorry," she sniffled, all her joy at flying gone. She slowly stroked the deer’s head, closing her eyes at the sensation of the doe’s fur against her hand. "You shouldn’t be dead," Overdose whispered. "You had a life to live."
After a while, she forced herself to get up and climb out of the trench. She looked down at the dead doe, and then turned away. There wasn’t anything she could do...
Her foot hit something soft, and she glanced down to see a panicked fawn struggling to get out from under her flame-colored boot.
"Oops, sorry!" Overdose carefully removed her foot. "Hey..." She caught the fawn as it tried to run away. "That was your mother, wasn’t it," she said, looking back at the trench and the dead doe.
The fawn kicked at her. It couldn’t have been more than a day old.
Overdose’s chaotic thoughts whirled, and settled on one idea. Her grief gone, she cuddled the fawn close. "I’m going to be your new mother," she purred softly. "I’ll take care of you."
Determined to raise the little fawn, she settled it in a new position in her arms so she could walk back towards where she thought she had left Rampage and Dinobot. She didn’t think about the fact that she had never cared for a deer before. It didn’t matter. She had raised baby pets before...
"Hey, maybe Rampage can help!"

"I don’t believe this," Dinobot muttered. "We took our eyes off her for a couple nanoclicks, and she disappears." He sniffed the air in the forest carefully, and growled. "Nothing." He slashed at a tree in frustration. "How hard can it be to find a rainbow child like her?!"
Rampage kept his thoughts on that to himself, since he knew Dinobot wouldn’t believe him. If Overdose didn’t want to be found, nothing they could do would find her.
"Hi!"
Rampage and Dinobot whirled around to see Overdose right behind them, holding some kind of animal.
"Where have you been?!" Dinobot snapped.
She ignored him and held the animal out to Rampage. "Look what I found!"
He looked down at it, but didn’t touch it. "What is it?" he asked cautiously. His experience with things Overdose found usually wasn’t good.
She giggled. "A fawn, silly!"
Dinobot eyed it. "Looks tasty." He reached out to poke at it.
Overdose slapped his claw before he had a chance. "Don’t even think about it, you son of a lawnmower and a blender!" She glared at him.
He growled and stepped closer. She stuck out her tongue at the raptor.
Rampage unexpectedly found himself in the role of a peacemaker. "Cut it out!" he yelled. They looked at him. "We’re supposed to be finding Overdose’s ship, remember?"
Dinobot reluctantly nodded and stalked off. Overdose smiled smugly after him.
Rampage sighed. "Leave the animal, and let’s go," he told her. He turned to leave with Dinobot.
"No."
He looked back. "What?" Rampage had a nagging suspicion what she was doing...
"I’m keeping it." Overdose hugged the fawn protectively.
...and he was right. "Not again," he groaned. From experience, though, he knew better than to try and argue with her about it. "Fine. Come on."
"Don’t ask," he snarled at Dinobot when they caught up to him. Overdose was riding Indian style on the top of his tank mode, holding the fawn close.
Dinobot had apparently had enough of arguing, because he just stomped on. Overdose just cooed to her new pet, ignoring the exchange.
Rampage had to feel relieved that at least this pet didn’t have foot-long fangs...

"He’s WHAT?!" Blackarachnia felt like someone had hit her in the back of her head with a board.
Optimus didn’t seem to notice. "He’s surrendered."
"Why?" she blurted out.
"How can ya believe him?" Rattrap said at the same time.
The Maximal leader shook his head. "I’m not sure I can, but Rhinox locked him in an empty room with Cheetor as a guard. As for why?" Optimus sighed. "I’m not sure, but whatever it is, he’s scared to death about it."
Blackarachnia thought about that. Scared? The Predacon spider hadn’t seemed scared from where she had been manning the guns, but Optimus had seen him up close. What would scare Tarantulas?
She slipped away while Rattrap was yelling his usual ‘Never Trust A Pred’ speech.
Blackarachnia didn’t know, but she intended to find out.

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