It was past midnight when Just Insane and I fell asleep. We were figuring on sleeping past noon, just to make up for all the sleep we had both missed. For some reason, being trapped in a Vok ship is not great for sleeping...

So there we were, comfortably asleep in my big double bed, when the noises at the end of the hall started. I lifted my head and checked the clock; 5:00 AM. I was NOT getting up. I buried my head under a pillow. Next to me, I could feel Just Insane going through the same actions I had just done, and she apparently decided the same thing.

The noises got closer to my bedroom door as we drowsily listened, and they separated into individual voices. The Beast Warrior’s voices, to be exact.

Not AGAIN...

"We have to get them up!" That must be Megatron. Funny, after the last time he tried to get me up, I didn’t think he’d try again.

"Them...there’s more than one..." I could almost hear Dinobot twitch. He certainly seemed horrified enough.

"Eh, well how do ya suggest we do dat?" Rattrap sure sounded cynical today. Wonder what got his tail in a knot?

"First, we can enter her room." With that, Rhinox opened the door and stepped inside. Yeesh, he didn’t even knock! What a RUDE rhino!

The Beast Warriors came into my bedroom one by one. I could tell because Rampage shoved Cheetor and Rattrap through when they stopped to look at something, and they all started to bicker. Loudly. At least I could be glad Depth Charge wasn’t in any condition to be fighting with Rampage...

"Now what?" Terrorsaur walked over to the side of my bed. "Um, Lady Dementia? It’s really important that you get up right now..." If I opened my eyes I could see out from under my pillow to where he was standing. Actually, I could only see his legs. I clamped my eyes shut again.

Waspinator sighed. I knew it was him because only HE can buzz while sighing. Suspecting what might happen, I curled my hands into fists full of bedcovers. Next to me, Just Insane was doing the same thing. When Waspinator yanked at the covers, they didn’t go anywhere.

HA! I CAN learn from the past!

"That didn’t work," Cheetor laughed. "Here, lemme try something..."

As near as I could tell, it took the Beast Warriors the next half an hour to realize that wheedling, begging, threatening, bribing, and commanding wasn’t going to get us up. Just Insane and I steadfastly half-dozed through it all, clinging to our pillows and bedcovers. We were determined to wait out the transformers. They would have to leave eventually, which would allow us to go back to sleep. At the moment, nothing was more important to us than sleep.

Tarantulas finally stepped forward after everyone else had given up. "This is more important than my pride, I guess," he said, and the rest of the Beast Warriors all gave him slightly puzzled looks. I know because I was peeking out from under my pillow at the moment, because I was just as puzzled.

The Transmetal spider sighed. "Lady Dementia, I’ll, um, bake you brownies for breakfast if you just get up right now."

Screw sleeping; chocolate was WAY more important than that! I sat up quickly, Just Insane at my side and grinned. "You’ve got yourself a deal!" we chorused and bounced out of bed. I was still wearing my ‘Don’t Annoy The Crazy Person’ tee-shirt, but Just Insane had grabbed my ‘Mental Patient #1’ last night for a night shirt.

"What’s so important?" I asked as Tarantulas led us down the hall towards the office/sewing room. "I mean, the guys are NEVER going to let you forget this!"

Tarantulas grimaced. He had found that he liked cooking a while ago, but had done all he could to hide the fact from the rest of the Maximals and Predacons. Even as we left my room, I could hear Rampage collapsing in laughter. Cooking just wasn’t something your average mad scientist does to relax, I guess...

"Tim is calling for you," was all he said about it.

Not good. Not good at all.

Just Insane glanced at me, and I shrugged. I didn’t know what was going on either. She nodded as we entered the room with Tim the HASBRO supercomputer in it and tapped Tarantulas on the shoulder. "You had better go make those brownies. I have a feeling we’ll need them."

I sat down at the computer as he left and pressed a key. "What’dya need, Tim?" I asked. "And how are your repairs going?"

Tim’s screen lit up. "The Vok have transmitted a message. Internal systems still 60% offline."

"Well, that’s just peachy," Just Insane grumbled.

"Let’s see it." I shared my clone’s feelings towards the aliens. Not enough that the Vok had abducted me and Cat, but they had also cloned me, and then killed one of the clones! I was just a little angry.

Okay, okay. So I was about ready to go ballistic when I thought about it.

Tim’s screen shifted to show a message. In the Vok language.

That was helpful. "Tim, would you mind decoding that?" I sighed.

The letters rearranged into something I could read. It read:

‘To: Lady Dementia, The Demented Angel

Your hostile actions towards the Vok’s

ambassador has come to our attention. Your

behavior has been judged unacceptable, and

a Vok ship is currently on its way to the

Vok-owned planet Earth to retrieve you

for return to your dimension and time. Your

cooperation is requested and required. Any

further hostile actions will be met with deadly force.

Repeat: Any further hostile actions will

be met with deadly force.

Sincerely,

The Vok

"What am I?" Just Insane fumed. "Dog meat? They don’t even acknowledge I exist!" She looked down at our dog Lusha, who had perked up at the mention of food. "I was kidding, mutt."

I hissed in annoyance and anger. "It was THEIR ambassador that tried to kill ME," I growled. "And they say WE were hostile?" I ran my hands through my hair as I thought. The Vok had apparently given their ambassador orders to clone me and then kill me. Now they were pretending it didn’t happen, and they were coming to take me away. Strange, I always thought men in white lab coats would do that, not an alien race...

Just Insane leaned forward and read the message over again. "Tim, send a copy of that to HASBRO," she said suddenly.

"Very well."

"Hmm?" I thought that move over and smiled. "HASBRO didn’t mention anything about the Vok taking us back, did they. In fact, they only said that they were only considering moving us." I looked at Just Insane. "You think the Vok are doing this without HASBRO’s approval?"

She nodded. "Yup. In fact, I’m counting on it."

I frowned as something from the message popped out at me. "Tim, what did the Vok mean by ‘your dimension and time’? I know we’re in a different dimension, but..." Something didn’t make sense about that...

"Lady Dementia, if you were returned to your dimension, you would be brought back to the exact time HASBRO transported you to this dimension."

Well, at least my brothers wouldn’t have had any time to destroy the house. Oh, but wait a minute...

Just Insane moaned. "You mean we have to spend another whole summer with our BROTHERS?!" Hadn’t this summer with the Beast Warriors been enough?!

Tim beeped just then. "Message received. Sender: HASBRO."

"Display it," I ordered.

‘Dear Lady Dementia,

Thank you for informing HASBRO of the Vok’s

intentions. They have no right to evict you from the

planet, since HASBRO has already paid the rent for

the rest of the summer. Their actions are illegal, and

we have made that known to the Vok.

Since the aliens are still insisting on having you

removed, you may soon have a choice,

Lady Dementia. If you wish to, you may leave the

Beast Wars Universe and go back to your life as it

was before. Unfortunately, your clone would not be

allowed to go with you. She would either have to be

destroyed or some other solution would have to be

found.

Hopefully, HASBRO will be able to compromise

with the Vok, so those choices will not have to be made.

Have a nice day.

Hasbro.’

"Destroyed?!" Just Insane shrieked.

I snorted. "As if. I never thought I’d say this, but I’m glad to stay."

"Huh?" Tarantulas walked in, carrying a pan of brownies. "You’re staying? Why wouldn’t you?" He came over and looked at the letters still on Tim’s screen; the HASBRO and Vok messages. "What’s this?" The other Beast Warriors followed him in, some still chuckling after watching him bake. They looked over his shoulder at the computer screen.

Just Insane and I exchanged a look while they were reading, and then we grabbed the brownie pan and sprinted out the door.

Terrorsaur found us a couple hours later, when the sun was rising. We were perched on the roof over my room, eating brownies and petting the cats. We didn’t know how the cats had gotten on the roof. Just Insane and I had climbed up the brick work, and the cats had appeared. We didn’t ask...

The silver-and-red transformer landed next to us as we were ‘Ooing’ and ‘Ahhing’ over the brilliantly colored sunrise. He didn’t interrupt us. I usually never get up early enough to see a sunrise, so he knew better than to try. Instead, he sat down beside us and reached for a brownie to snack on.

When the sun was far enough up that we couldn’t justify ignoring him any longer, we started to gather up all the stuff we had hauled up onto the roof; a blanket, a brownie pan (it was empty now), a couple flashlights, and other various things. Terrorsaur silently helped for a few minutes.

"Would you really leave?" he asked after a while.

"Why? Wouldn’t you want me to?" I asked teasingly. After all, most of the Beast Warriors had told me at some point during the last summer that they wished I had never come and when was I leaving, anyway?

Terrorsaur got this funny look on his face. "Um, well..."

Just Insane frowned as I started climbing back down the side of the house. "The cats aren’t leaving. Should we help them down?" She watched the cats sit there and stare at her. "Go on! Get back down!" She tried to shoo them away, but they didn’t move. They just stayed there, staring at her expectantly.

I was on the ground looking up at them. "Yeah. Try catching them. Maybe Terrorsaur can airlift them down..." I lifted an eyebrow at him in silent questioning. He nodded, still with that strange look on his face.

"Okay." Just Insane started coaxing my little old white cat closer. "C’mon, Georgia...the nice transformer’s gonna give you a lift...closer...closer...just a little bit closer...gotcha!" She triumphantly captured Georgia and gently gave her to Terrorsaur.

He flew down and handed her to me. I cuddled my kitty close while Just Insane attempted to lure His Majesty Thunderbutt closer so she could send him down, too.

He wasn’t cooperating. He stayed just out of reach, and my clone crept after him as he confidently walked farther along the roof.

I followed after them, circling around the corner of the house. I had to walk farther back to see over the edge of the roof to them. Just Insane was on her stomach, wiggling her fingers at Cat in a futile effort to lure him closer, and I started laughing.

"You look...so...funny!" I gasped out. Just Insane and Terrorsaur started laughing at her absurd position, too, and soon I had sank down to the ground with a severe case of the giggles.

Then somehow in the confusion of our laughter, Cat found his way back down to the ground and came over to me. That sent me into fresh peals of laughter, and Terrorsaur almost fell over backwards when he saw my clone look over the edge of the roof and shake her fist at His Majesty Thunderbutt.

She was giggling, too, still staring down at the impossible feline, and I squinted up at her to see her sillouhetted against the sky above the roof, her grin shining in the face that was also mine. Behind her, though, there was a dot against the clear blue sky. No, not a dot, a blob. No, the blob was rushing closer; rushing DOWN, and it wasn’t a blob, anymore!

My thoughts weren’t quick enough, and Terrorsaur had his eyes closed with laughter. My grinning clone was still giggling when my face registered shock, and my scream of warning came too late. The Vok spaceship’s fiery engine exhaust incinerated her and half my house before she knew what had happened.

She died laughing.

Terrorsaur and I were lucky we had put room between the house and us in order to see up on the roof. In fact, it was all that saved us, although my face immediately turned red with the heat, and my short hair curled.

The spaceship was in the same style as the diagram of the ship I had just been on the day before. My clones and I had found the diagram hanging on a wall, so that was how I recognized the space ship as the Vok’s. It had landed partially on my house, crushing what looked like, from where I was, my bedroom, my parents’ bedroom across the hall, the dining room, the piano room (Blackarachnia wouldn’t like that...), and part of the kitchen. More than crushed it, though; BURNED it.

Just like it had burned my clone. There wasn’t a single trace left.

I sat there on the ground, staring at the spot where my clone had been. Just Insane was gone. My cats pawed at me, desperately purring, trying to comfort me. Terrorsaur was gaping at the ship.

I stood slowly as a hatch opened near the driveway side of the ship, and a ramp unfurled. That was the length of the house away from where I was currently. I would have to cross that space, climb up the ramp, and go up the ramp in order to strangle all of the Vok on board, my mind thought dispassionately.

To that end, I slowly started walking. Maximals and Predacons were pouring out of the front door, and I counted them as they emerged to stare at the ship. They were all there. They must have still been in the unaffected parts of the house when the Vok ship landed.

That was good, wasn’t it? Yes, that was good.

Part of my mind was paralyzed with grief, another part was boiling with rage, but another part was completely calm. That part was thinking over reasons why the Vok were here. Had HASBRO sent them? Were they here illegally?

Would they prefer to be sliced or diced? Or both?

Terrorsaur caught my arm as the other transformers saw me and ran towards us. "Lady Dementia! No! You can’t--"
"Don’t tell me what I can’t do," I said. My voice sounded like someone was mixing broken glass on a metal surface. That was weird. When had I started sounding like that? "I’m going to kill the Vok. I CAN kill the Vok." Or at least try...

The Beast Warriors who were close enough to hear that jerked to a stop in startlement. That gave me another ten feet towards the ship. Then Megatron stepped in front of me.

"Lady Dementia, they’ll kill you if you attack them," he said urgently.

What? Oh, yes. The message. ‘Any further hostile actions will be met with deadly force.’ Did that matter to me right now? To put it bluntly: no. I kept walking.

Cheetor and Rattrap put their hands on my shoulders to stop me. "Lady Dementia, don’t! They’ll--"

"I don’t care."

The others were around me now. Hands held me back. I twisted and kicked someone’s feet out from under them. Another three feet were gained. That much closer to my goal. Only a little space lay between me and the two generic humans (hey, they were better than Bill Clinton...) who were now at the bottom of the ramp, watching me expectantly. Only a little farther...

The Beast Warriors were grabbing me, trying to keep me back, yelling that I’d die if I attacked the Vok. I kept repeating, "I don’t care, I don’t care..." as I fought my way, step by step, to the Vok standing there watching.

Finally Rampage managed to haul my arms up behind my back, and someone forced me down to the ground. I struggled all the way. The Vok were RIGHT THERE! The aliens who had just killed my clone! Only a few feet more!

Rampage was speaking in my ear. Even he wanted me to stop! "Just stop! You can’t do anything if you’re dead!"

"I don’t care!" I screamed and jerked myself up to a kneeling position, preparing to lunge for the Vok.

Blackarachnia was in front of me, her pincers braced against my shoulders to keep me still. "But we do!" she yelled in my face. I stopped struggling and stared at her in stunned silence. "We care," Blackarachnia whispered, and the other Beast Warriors had fallen silent, so her whisper was clearly heard.

I slowly turned my head, looking at them all, and each of them nodded (some reluctantly) in agreement. Cheetor, Terrorsaur, Silverbolt, Inferno, Rattrap, Dinobot, Optimus, Rhinox, Tarantulas, Quickstrike, Waspinator...even Rampage and Megatron.

But all summer they had been telling me that they hated me, or just plain disliked me. Why were they suddenly telling me different? Maybe...maybe it was like me and Depth Charge; I said I hated him, but I really didn’t. If he needed help, I’d help him, but I’d probably grumble and moan while I was doing it. Perhaps that was what was going on, now. After all, we had just spent the summer together...

I looked past Blackarachnia to where the Vok were still impassively waiting. "I hate you," I said simply, and I really, really meant it. Then I slumped over and started crying, mourning for the loss of a part of me. Someone picked me up and brought me towards the house. It might have been Rampage or Silverbolt, but I couldn’t tell through my tears.

Dimly I could hear Optimus telling the Vok, "Whatever you came for can wait for a little while."

I curled up on the couch, staring at the floor and thinking random thoughts.

The Beast Warriors had left me alone for the moment, and only Depth Charge the mini-manta ray was in the room. He was anxiously watching me. Rampage or Tarantulas must have told everyone who my fish was, because Rattrap had told him what had happened. A pity. I suppose that meant I had to change him back...

The Vok were going to wait two hours, Optimus had told me. They hadn’t told him what they had come for, but we all had a pretty good idea of what they wanted. After what had just happened, I wasn’t about to let myself be abducted without a fight.

A side effect of the Vok landing their ship on my house had become known as we had come into the house. Apparently, only the upper story of the house had been crushed and burned. The downstairs was still intact...sort of. A door had been jarred loose of the wall it was in. One door should have been unimportant. It really should have been. Since most of the downstairs area was the Brother Zone, however, that one door was VERY important. A green, slimy, slug-like thing had been climbing up the stairs as we had come into the house. Waspinator had fainted. Tim had barely been able to put a containment field over the entire downstairs area, but the field sometimes flickered alarmingly. Someone was standing guard over the staircase.

My room was gone, but Rhinox and Tarantulas had transported all of the ‘Just In Case’ supplies Tim had put in my closet before the supercomputer crashed to the TV Room. I was laying on the couch in the TV Room, so I was staring at the ‘Expandable Tubing’ and ‘Sealant’ and all that other stuff.

My mind was a haze of grief and anger. The Vok had killed Just Insane and Crazy Lady, and they were going to get away with it! Of course I was angry! But...I had a philosophy: Don’t get angry; get even. How could I get even? All I had to work with was a half-damaged supercomputer, ‘Just In Case’ supplies that I mostly didn’t know how to use, the Beast Warriors, a mostly-crushed and burned house with a basement full of scary things, and...and...wait a minute...

I vaguely felt an idea stirring under the haze over my mind, so I let it form while I got up and walked to the fish tank. I idly dabbled my fingers in the water while I thought. Depth Charge either decided I needed some reassurance or that my fingers looked like a back scratch, because he began swimming around under my fingers, letting me pet him. I decided that it was too bad I’d have to change him back to his normal self; mini-manta rays are cute!

My idea was taking form, and I was liking it more and more. My grief was damping down into a manageable form, and my old mindset (demented) was taking over again. I picked up the fish tank and brought it to the sewing room/office. I set it down in front of Tim.

I smiled at the HASBRO supercomputer. "I’m gonna need some help..."

Depth Charge hid behind the plastic plant.

"Do you understand?" I looked seriously at the assembled transformers, including the newly-restored Depth Charge. "This goes here," I pointed to a spot on the diagram I had drawn. "Tarantulas starts working here..." another spot, "...and that connects here." Another spot.

Even Waspinator nodded. It was a simple plan.

"Okay." I took a deep breath and told the knot of grief and rage inside me to go away. "Let’s get started."

I walked to the foot of the Vok’s ramp. "Hello-o-o?" I drew out in my most mocking voice. "Anyone there?" I saw a motion out of the corner of my eye, but I refused to look. That would be Tarantulas...

A couple VERY generic humans appeared in the opening to the ship. They were identical, and so normal looking I can’t really remember their features anymore. They looked...dull. "Lady Dementia, The Demented Angel?"

I crossed my arms and rolled my eyes. "How many humans do you see wandering around here?" I asked sarcastically. "Well, besides yourselves, of course, but you’re not REALLY humans."

The Vok exchanged a glance and came towards me. "We are here to take you back to your--"

"--dimension and time. Yeah, I know. And if I don’t want to go?"

They stopped at the foot of the ramp. "Then we will take you by force."

"Well aren’t you the nicest people. And what about HASBRO?" Gotta keep them talking. There were muffled sounds coming from around the corner of the Vok ship, but someone was throwing pans and other things around inside the house, so they drowned out the noise.

One of the Vok sniffed contemptuously. "HASBRO has no control, here. The Vok--"

"--are a bunch of fatheaded capitalists with a superiority complex that makes the moon look like a flea," I said in a completely bored tone of voice. "You do realize that the transformers living on this planet have no place to go if you kick them off, right? And that just by abducting me, you’re violating a whole bunch of laws?"

The human-shaped Vok lost their jaws. "You...you can’t talk to us like--"

Heeheehee, watch me! "Oh, by the way, your ‘ambassador’ told me all about your plans to clone me just so that you could kill me and send a clone back to Earth to take my place as your puppet," I mentioned casually. "He also told me that he was going to dissect my other clone. He also blew up his ship after making sure there was no other way off of it, which I think is legally attempted murder on his part. He managed to kill one clone, but YOU just killed the other when your ship landed on my house, which I think is considered ‘destruction of property’." Of course, I was going by the laws on my dimension’s Earth. I didn’t know if those laws still applied in this universe. All I was talking for was just to waste time...

Their eyes widened in surprise at my words, but then they whirled around in startlement as shrieks started to come from the open hatch in their ship. They ran back into their ship with only a brief hesitation. Something green appeared as they reached the top of the ramp, and the Vok turned and ran the opposite way as the slug-like thing chased after them.

Rhinox sprinted out of the house and up the ramp. He slapped something onto the hatch, and it closed and, hopefully, locked.

I smiled and walked around the edge of the Vok ship. There, out of sight, was Tarantulas, pizza-cutter-weapon in one hand and a welding torch in the other. He was standing next to a long, makeshift tube-thing that stretched off into the ruins of my house and was connected to the Vok ship. More specifically, it was connected to the hole in the Vok ship Tarantulas had cut and an opening in the containment field Tim had put up around the Brother Zone.

It had been a risk, but I apparently had been right in thinking that the Vok were so arrogant they wouldn’t even think of someone cutting into their ships. So now, according to the screams that had come from the hatch before Rhinox had closed it, the...things...from the Brother Zone were merrily crawling/oozing/whatevering their way into the Vok ship via the tunnel-thing Tarantulas, Rhinox, and I had slapped together from the ‘Just In Case’ supplies.

OOooooh, revenge was sweet...

Tarantulas looked up from checking the seal between the ship and the tube and shuddered. "Will you please stop doing that?" he whined.

"What?"

"Smiling!"

I sighed. "Okay, okay." Yeesh...

I walked into the house. "What a mess."

The rest of the Beast Warriors looked up at me innocently. Well, Rampage didn’t even try, but the rest of them attempted to.

"You told us to," Megatron pointed out, absently throwing the remains of what might have been a china plate over his shoulder. It landed in a pile of similar shards of dinnerware. "How else did you expect us to make so much noise?"

"Yeah, I did," I grumbled. "But did you have to make such a mess?" I looked around at the kitchen. The floor was covered in things that were usually kept in its cupboards and drawers; pots and pans, silverware, dishes, cups and glasses...they were all scattered around. A lot of it was broken or twisted beyond recognition. There was a fork driven half-way through the wall...

"How long d’ya expect da Vok will be busy?" Rattrap asked, picking through the emptied refrigerator. The rest of its contents were on the floor where he had throw them.

I shrugged. "I don’t really know. Hopefully, long enough--"

"*Beep!* Priority message from HASBRO!" Tim announced.

Priority message? Everyone headed for the office/sewing room. Tim’s screen was flashing, and I hit a key.

"What the..?" I stared at the message, and the Beast Warriors read it over my shoulder.

‘Dear Lady Dementia,

A compromise has been found. The Beast

Warriors will stay on Earth, but you must leave

immediately. HASBRO is sorry, but this is

non-negotiable.

Other arrangements may be made later.

Have a nice day.

HASBRO.’

I was leaving? Going home? I blinked, half-expecting the letter to go away, but it stayed. Normally, I would have leaped for the chance to leave, but now...I wasn’t quite so sure I wanted to go.

"You are leaving? Good," Dinobot said.

Rattrap smacked him. "Eh, shaddup!" There were other mutters of agreement.

"Demented Lady not really leaving Waspinator?" Waspinator anxiously looked at me. "Demented Lady not go!"

I looked at the Beast Warriors and sighed. They were all looking at me expectantly. What did they expect me to say? That I wouldn’t go? If I didn’t go, any compromise made by HASBRO and the Vok wouldn’t work, and they wouldn’t be able to stay on Earth.

But why were they staying on Earth, anyway? Hadn’t the end of the last Beast Wars season shown some of them getting off the planet?

My pets came in the room as I glanced at the computer screen again. "Tim, why are the guys staying on Earth? Isn’t there going to be a Season Four?" His Majesty Thunderbutt jumped into my lap so I could pet him.

"No. HASBRO has decided that new characters will be used in a new setting."

News to me! And to the Beast Warriors, apparently, since they were giving the screen shocked looks. "Why?" I asked plaintively. "Did I really corrupt them that much?" That was what the Vok had told me...

There was a moment’s pause. Then, "Partially. Also because of an inept writer..."

I stared at Tim in surprise. That was one way to describe Bob Skir... "Tim, are you developing a personality?" I asked jokingly.

Another pause. "Possibly."

Whoa, now that was interesting...

I leaned back into my chair as I considered everything while petting Cat. To leave or not to leave; that was the question. A blinking icon at the bottom of the message caught my eye. Attachment? HASBRO sent something along with its letter?

"Hey, Tim, open that, willya?"

Tim disappeared. Cat was sucked off my lap into the vortex that had suddenly appeared where Tim had been. Georgia and Lusha slid in after him, meowing and barking in protest all the way. I clung to my chair as the thing pulled at me, but the stupid chair was on wheels so I rolled into the vortex anyway.

And people were always telling me to check attachments for VIRUSES! Apparently HASBRO was taking me home one way or another!

The thing was whirling in a descending spiral, though, so I tumbled past my pets as we slowly slid towards the hole at the bottom of it. Georgia and Cat sunk their claws into me, and I grabbed Lusha’s collar in one hand while screaming for help. I twisted myself around until I was facing in the direction I had fallen into the vortex.

There were the Beast Warriors, clinging to office furniture and the sewing machine. Cheetor was working his way hand over hand to the edge of the vortex as I watched. Rattrap grabbed his foot, and he let go, flying into the vortex and reaching for me.

I was only a couple whirls away from falling through the hole at the end of the vortex...

Quickstrike clamped his hand/feet onto Rattrap’s ankle and sank the fangs of his cobra head into the filing cabinet, and Rattrap let go. Cheetor’s hand came closer and closer.

My feet were IN the hole! "HURRY!" I yelled.

Depth Charge and Rampage linked hands, the ray-bot let go with one hand to grab Quickstrike’s cobra head, which let go of the filing cabinet. Cheetor’s hand inched closer. I reached out my free hand as the vortex dropped the rest of me into the hole...

...our fingers brushed...

...and he was gone.

I never ever got a chance to say goodbye.

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