A star hopper drifted through space. Well, it had the general shape of a star hopper. The rest of it wasn’t recognizable as anything a sane person would be using.
For one thing, the paint job had obviously been done by someone with a short attention span and a variety of paint colors. It was...multicolored. A ‘bumper sticker’ that had seen better days informed anyone who could read it to, "Keep yelling. I’m reloading."
The structure of the ship itself had been expertly and repeatedly, if not strangely, patched up and repaired. Right now, all the repair work the owner of the star hopper had done was pretty much useless, since her ship was out of fuel.
Still, the being inside the ship didn’t seem to care that much. She was fighting with a space map she had picked up at the last place she had docked.
"I could have sworn there was a space station around here somewhere," she muttered, trying to open the rare paper map. She finally found the section she wanted. "This is the last time I steal one of these...Okay. ‘Thank you for buying,’" she snorted in disgust at the thought of actually spending money on the stupid thing. "Hmm, I’ll just skim this section... ‘blah blah blah...’ Ah, here it is: ‘This scenic vacation resort has...’" She looked around at the blank space she was slowly drifting through, "No, it doesn’t."
She glanced at the computer readouts, and then at the map again. "Hmph. No wonder. Wrong coordinates." Shredding the map, she sighed. "Well, so much for sight-seeing. Must have taken a wrong turn somewhere. And I took all my stuff along for a vacation, too..."
A whirling vortex suddenly appeared in front of the star hopper, pulling the ship towards it.
The being inside stared at it, "Ooo, pretty..."
The vortex sucked her in.

A blip appeared on the Maximal scanners.
"Yo! Big Ape!" Rattrap shouted across the remains of the Axalon’s bridge.
Optimal Optimus walked over. "What is it, Rattrap?"
The Transmetal rat looked up at him, "We got incoming!"

A blip appeared on the Predacon’s scanners.
"Royalty!" Inferno saluted.
Megatron sighed, and turned away from talking to Dinobot. "Yess?"
"There is an object approaching the planet!"
"HeehEheHehhehEHhEhehhe...I should go greet this new arrival," Tarantulas chuckled.

The vortex spit the deranged star hopper out above a blue splashed planet, and it immediately got caught in the gravitational pull.
"Whoa, cool," she breathed, staring down at the planet.
"Like, dude, like, brace for impact, ‘cause, like, we’re gonna crash."
"Shut up, computer," she muttered absently at her ship’s wacked-out computer.
"Like, shutting up, dude."
She gave a half-irritated snarl, then ignored it. She swept her arms around her junk-filled ship, stuffing everything into subspace pockets as her ship plunged into the atmosphere.
"Ooo, we’re heading towards one of those pretty blue patches..."

Megatron watched the ship dive down into the sea. It landed beyond the horizon, in one of the deeper areas. He snarled and turned to the large crab next to him. "Find it," he ordered. "And bring the passenger to me." He thought a second. "Alive," he specified.
Rampage shot a glare at Dinobot, muttered something under his breath, and scuttled into the water.

"Megatron will send Rampage to find the ship," Optimus said worriedly. He was hovering over the ocean, talking to a floating manta ray.
"I’m on my way!" Depth Charge shouted, and he swam off.

The star hopper came to rest against a large rock formation. The loud ‘clang’ from the impact scared almost everything away, leaving a few strange deep sea creatures. A yellow scanning beam sprang from the ship and circled. It briefly lit up the area, showing a couple of weird fish, a large squid, and a rippling sea slug.
Since she was still conscious, the passenger got to choose her beast form.
"Interesting, interesting, ugh is that thing ugly, ooh..." She stared at the computer screen in delight. "I don’t know what that thing is, but it’s got ‘ME’ written all over it."
The poisonous, color-changing sea creature slowly swam away.
"Like, dude, DNA sequence is, like, complete."

Rampage walked along the ocean floor, thinking evil thoughts about everything in general and Megatron in particular.
"One day I will get my spark back, and then I will make that fool pay!" he told himself. Another thought struck him. "But for now, I shall teach this new arrival to fear me."

Depth Charge swam towards the general area of the crash, scanning for Rampage and any survivors.
*Beep!* "X detected," his computer told him.
He immediately abandoned his casual search for the ship and returned to his main goal: killing X.

The resulting explosions disturbed the water around the star hopper as the new arrival emerged. She listened for a moment, and then ignored them.
She wanted to look over her ship. And she wanted to get used to her graceful new form.
The giant, brilliantly colored sea slug waved her large soft skin flaps and fanned her way through the water around the ship. She used her two antenna to check for cracks in the hull. As she kept looking, she noticed that some of the returning fish convulsed in her wake and died.
She watched attentively, concluding that she gave off some sort of poison from her skin. Her bright colors rippled and rearranged at her happiness.
"This is so cool!"
The ship’s computer beeped. "Like, dude, underwater is not, like, a good thing for, like, the ship."
"Oh. Right." She looked at some exposed wiring that had been pulled partially out of the back of the ship. "What the slag, it can’t do any more damage." She slid her new beast form in among the wiring, and pushed against them. The ship slowly slid after her.
"Tally-ho!"

Depth Charge and Rampage were, of course, still fighting. They had forgotten all about looking for the ship.
The Maximals and Predacons had found each other on some beach, and were also fighting.
"Oh, slag!" Tarantulas growled, looking out over the ocean from his position on a cliff. "I don’t have a chance of retrieving it."
He watched the fight on the beach below him. "Hmm, but perhaps I can steal it from whoever does..."

"Hiho, rope and woe," the sea slug was singing as she pulled her ship in a random direction she had picked. The ocean floor was gradually sloping upward, and she was finding it harder to pull the ship with her frilly body.
Up ahead she spotted the bottom of a cliff.
"Oh, goodie," she sighed. "Well, I guess this will be where you stay for now." She slipped out from among the wires.
"Like, dude, the water is not, like, good for wiring," the computer insisted.
"I know, so shut up."
"Like, shutting up, dude."
The slug made a graceful but still crude gesture with her antenna. "Have I mentioned that I’m going to find the time to reprogram you someday?"
"Like, yes."
She grumbled something uncomplimentary and glanced around. Her star hopper’s slightly dinged state didn’t disguise the fact that its colors were a beacon for anyone looking for it. She didn’t know why anyone would, but it never hurt to take precautions. So she swirled herself through the sand on the sea floor, throwing it up onto the ship.
When it settled again, it seemed only slightly less noticeable.
She studied it for a moment. "Better. Okay computer, you know the drill. Defend the ship only if attacked and all that."
"Dude-"
"I’m leaving now." And the sea slug swam up the cliff, hopefully heading towards shore.

Depth Charge and Rampage had fought their way onto the same beach as the rest of the Maximals and Predacons by now.
"Where is the-" both faction leaders said at the same time, pausing in their fight.
"How should I know?!" yelled the ray and crab at the same time.
They all went back to fighting.
"Wazzpinator zeezz zzomething!" Waspinator shouted, pointing at the ocean under him. Of course, at that moment Rattrap shot him, so he ended up falling right where he had been pointing. In several pieces.
A colorful bunch of flowing frills rippled past him. "That’s gotta sting."
Tarantulas spotted the large multicolored blob in the ocean from his position on the top of the cliff. "What the slag is that?!"
By the time the sea slug had reached the beach everyone except Rampage and Depth Charge had stopped fighting. She oozed her way into the shallows and was still.
"That is not a natural creature, nooo," Megatron said. The rest of the Predacons (except Rampage) assembled behind him. That included Inferno, Quickstrike, Dinobot, and even Waspinator, since he had crawled back out of the sea.
"Brilliant observation, Grape-Face," Blackarachnia said sarcastically. She stood by Silverbolt, who was helping Rattrap stand back up after being shot down by Dinobot. The only Maximal missing was Rhinox, since he was guarding the Ark.
"Hey, Big-Bot!" Cheetor exclaimed. "Do you think that’s who crashed?"
"It seems likely," Optimus answered. He warily stepped towards the colorful animal, keeping an eye on the Predacons. "Greetings. I am Optimus Primal of the Maximals."
Colors whirled and shifted.
"And I am Megatron of the Predacons." Megatron smiled ingratingly at the slug, whose antenna turned towards him.
There was an awkward moment of silence. Rampage had thrown Depth Charge across the beach, so they weren’t fighting at that second.
Without a word, the sea slug transformed.
The sea slug body reared up and split down the stomach, letting out a slender purple-blue female body with an oil-on-water sheen to it. The beast form almost appeared to peel back from the robot one and settle behind her. All the frilly skin flaps made a gently waving backdrop from above her head to her feet, framing her in shifting colors. The antenna from her beast mode’s head moved to her robot one’s in passing, planting themselves in the middle of an unruly mop of medium short fins in brilliant colors. It created a sort of Martian look enhanced by her large, exotically tilted almond eyes that slowly swirled with colors. The rest of her face was almost that of a human’s, except for the color. She also had elbow length gloves and knee-height boots of a startling flame red-orange.
She looked like a color-coordinator’s nightmare, and a sculptor’s dream. She was undeniably beautiful, just...odd.
Depth Charge forgot to attack Rampage.
Megatron and Optimus lost their jaws.
Rattrap and Quickstrike whistled in appreciation.
Blackarachnia hit the stunned Silverbolt over the head.
Waspinator and Cheetor stared in awe.
Dinobot and Inferno just shrugged.
Tarantulas uneasily watched the colorful new robot. "She looks familiar..."
Rampage did a double-take, and then gave a whoop of laughter. "Overdose?!" He walked forward cautiously, "Is that you?!"
She inspected herself carefully and looked at him. "Looks like it. Who’re you?"
He chuckled, "Don’t you recognize me?" He glanced down at himself, "Then again, I do look different." His eyes returned to her, "I’m X!"
Overdose tilted her head to the side, "X?" She blinked for a moment in confusion.
"Overdose? Oh, no." Tarantulas’s mind reeled. "This is not good..."
"Hmm, gimme a minute..." Overdose muttered. "My memory ain’t so great..."
Megatron recovered enough from Overdose’s astonishing transformation to ask a question, "You two know each other?"
She walked up the beach, stopping in front of Rampage. They looked each other up and down, Rampage more down and she more up by the necessity of heights. She was a little more than three fourths as tall as him.
"X...as in the homicidal maniac who destroyed Omicron?" Overdose put her hands on her hips as he nodded. "You son of a vending machine! I had family there!"
"Err, oops?" Rampage actually seemed ashamed as the shorter femme glared up at him.
"What?! You leveled an entire colony, and you only care that you killed one family?!" Depth Charge shouted.
Rampage turned partially around to smirk at the ray-bot, "Pretty much, yeah." He turned back around in time for Overdose to grab those little horn things on both sides of his head.
"This is for my sister!" she yelled. Her knee shot up at the same time she yanked his head down, slamming them into each other. "And this is for my brother-in-law." She lightly slapped him, and then let him go.
He dazedly stumbled back as she dusted her hands together in a satisfied manner. The Maximals and Predacons, who had been recovering from the shock of her appearance, lapsed back into stunned silence.
Overdose grinned at Rampage, apparently over the death of her family members. "So, did you trash our prison cell on your way out?"
"Oh no, oh no, oh no." Tarantulas crouched in place, watching the scenario below him. Overdose. Here. Now.
His life now had a rather short time limit on it.
Rampage rubbed at his aching head, "Did you have to do that?"
"Yes." She smiled cheerfully at his snarl. "I-"
*Ding!*
"-have to do something right now." Overdose pulled out a clipboard and a writing tool. It was shaped like a pink flamingo. "Cool! I wonder where I got this...I’ll worry about that later. Let me see, this was, what, #10032SB?" She took out a small bottle and looked at the label, "Yep. Hmm, ‘How did this sample affect you?’ Alright," she started writing, " ‘Slight disorientation’...maybe that’s how I ended up here instead of at the vacation resort..."
Megatron shook himself out of his amazement again and walked closer to where Rampage was patiently watching Overdose fill out the clipboard. "What is she doing?" he hissed to the crab.
Rampage barely glanced at him, "Filling out a questionnaire."
The rest of the Predacons and Maximals silently decided on a temporary truce for the moment, and gathered around. Even Depth Charge was too curious to continue fighting.
Rattrap crept up behind Overdose and started reading the form over her shoulder. "What da..? ‘List any harmful side affects...’" He yelped as a large hand picked him up from behind.
Rampage looked down at him in amusement. "It’s generally not a good idea to sneak up behind her." He dropped the Maximal rat, too busy watching to try to kill him.
Quickstrike scratched his head in puzzlement, "Why in tarnation is she doin’ that?"
Megatron turned to Rampage. "Yesss. Who is this person?"
The crab-bot shrugged as he became the center of attention. "She used to share my prison cell."
Megatron glared at him for a moment before glancing at Dinobot meaningfully.
"Okay, okay!" Rampage snarled. "Overdose got out of prison when she signed on for some experimental drug program. All she had to do was sign some form that said that she couldn’t kill anyone, although," he looked thoughtful, "it didn’t say anything about her hobby."
Blackarachnia gave him a suspicious look. He was way too happy about all of this. "What exactly is her hobby?"
Rampage laughed. "Torture." He shrugged at the shocked expressions on their faces, "She is completely insane."
"Yep!" Overdose put away the clipboard, and took out another bottle and a datapad. She handed it to Depth Charge, since he was the closest. "See? I even have an official statement that says so!" She concentrated on unscrewing the cap on the bottle while the ray-bot read the datapad to the others.
" ‘Patient Overdose has been diagnosed as a Class One mental case...’" Depth Charge’s eyes widened in alarm, "By the Pit! Class One?!"
"What doezz Clazz One mean?" Waspinator asked.
Rampage answered him, "It’s the most extreme rating for insanity." He smirked nastily, "I’m only a Class Three."
Depth Charge scowled, but went back to reading. " ‘Due to the patient’s extreme psychological problems, mood swings, variety of skills, and random actions, it is recommended that the patient be boosted to the highest possible safety level of sedatives and moved to a maximum security containment facility. At the facility, the patient should be kept on a medium level of sedatives at all times.’"
"She was on sedatives?" Rampage frowned. "I didn’t know that..."
"They had me on sedatives when the docs diagnosed me, too." Overdose smiled innocently, "So they probably underrated me or something."
All the Maximals and Predacons shifted uneasily as that thought sank in.
Overdose ignored their reaction and peered at the label on the bottle. " ‘Experimental drug #6602GB. Take 2 pills every 4...’" She frowned, "That’s too complicated. I need something simpler."
"How much simpler can ya get?" Rattrap dared to ask.
She grinned, and chugged the entire bottle of pills.
"...oh."
Overdose burped.
Tarantulas was torn between staying to watch how this would turn out, or fleeing for his life.
Everyone backed away.
"Oh, don’t worry." Overdose walked over to Depth Charge and snagged her datapad out of his unresisting hand. "The drugs won’t kick in for another 10 minutes, more or less. ‘
"Ah, well then." Megatron slowly walked towards her. "My dear...Overdose...which faction do you belong to, yess."
She stared at him blankly. "Faction?" She turned to Rampage, "Faction?"
He sighed. "Maximal or Predacon."
"Oh." She considered, while everyone waited tensely. Still puzzled, she looked back at the crab-bot and shrugged.
He looked pained. "Gerat or Hernak."
Her face cleared of puzzlement, but now the Maximals and Predacons were all confused. Rampage saw that and made a face. "Gerat was a Maximal prison guard, and Hernak was a Predacon one," he explained to them.
"They were both jerks," Overdose snarled. She cast a considering look at Rampage, "So, which are you?"
"Predacon," Megatron said quickly before the crab could say anything.
She blinked at him. Looked at Optimus and the Maximals, and blinked again. "Do I have to choose one side?" she asked plaintively. "I’ve never belonged to faction before, why do I have to now?" Tears shimmered in her eyes, and her frills changed colors rapidly into darker shades of color that whirled restlessly. "I don’t wanna!" She sat down and began to cry.
Everyone gaped at the sobbing femme.
Tarantulas decided to get out of the area and search for some place Overdose wouldn’t look for him once she found out he was here.
He quietly left.
"Is this one of those sudden mood swings?" Blackarachnia whispered to Depth Charge.
He shrugged. "Like I know."
"I think it's the pills," Rampage said suddenly. He started towards her, but stopped when     Silverbolt stepped in front of him.
"Halt," Silverbolt said gallantly. "You shall not harm this lady."
"Lady?" Rampage stared at the fuzor for a moment, then doubled over in laughter. "D-did y-you just call Overdose a LADY?!" he managed to say.
"Of course," Silverbolt said. "She is-"
"-absolutely nothing like a lady," Rampage interrupted. He gave an irritated sigh, "I’m not going to hurt her, if that’s what you’re worried about." He shook his head, "I’m not stupid."
Depth Charge seemed to growl.
Rampage smirked for a moment. "I probably wouldn’t survive trying," he said bemusedly, thinking of several incidences in the past involving Overdose. He snapped back to reality, snarling at the stubborn Silverbolt, "Will you get out of my way?! I’m going to take her to a CR Tank, that’s all." He gave the assembled Maximals and Predacons a disgusted look. "You can fight over her later."
With that he pushed past Silverbolt and gently picked the crying robot up.
"This isn’t over," Optimus determinedly told Megatron as Rampage left. "We Maximals will make sure she has a fair choice."
Megatron smiled smugly, "Of course."

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