Tarantulas’s experiment was at its most critical phase. He added another splash of a chemical as the steaming liquid in the small beaker suspended over the burner began to bubble vigorously. A strange white foam frothed along the surface, getting thicker every second.

"Uh..." Tarantulas watched the foam uneasily, since it was nothing like he had expected. Even as he watched, though, it started to fluff higher. It slowly rose towards the top of its beaker, the entire liquid inside turning to foam as it grew. The white substance spiked slightly in various places, resembling fuzz instead of bubbles.

He started to reach for the beaker, intending to take it off the heating disc before it overflowed onto it.

*Ding!* "TARANTULAS!" his computer roared with Megatron’s voice.

"Oh, slag you," the spider muttered, making sure to keep his voice down. He hesitated, torn between stopping the beaker from overflowing or answering Megatron’s call over his computer.

"ANSWER!!"

Volume won over caution. Besides, if the foam ignited and exploded his scientific curiosity would be satisfied. And, really, it wouldn’t be the first time one of his experiments detonated. Hmm, and it WOULD provide him with an excuse to end what was inevitably going to be an awkward conversation with his ‘leader’.

Maybe he shouldn’t have installed a screensaver in all the base’s computers that showed a detailed, slow-motion, animated cartoon of Megatron being blown up...

"Yes?" Tarantulas deliberately acted casual as he turned on the computer screen to confront Megatron’s furious face. "Did you need something?"

Off to the side of the screen, out of sight for both tyrant and scientist, the foam bubbled, frothed...and kicked. The beaker tipped over, safely spilling the substance onto the laptop, away from the burner underneath it.

The once-liquid separated into two white ‘puddles’, which didn’t stop moving for some reason. In fact, they gathered themselves upwards into round little puffs and seemed to become more solid and...furry.

Hugely proportioned crystal blue eyes opened amongst all the fluffy fur. A tiny pink dot of a nose could barely be seen between them. The eyes locked with the eyes of the other ball of white fluff. It was love at first sight.

"Treep!"

Tarantulas first heard the first high-pitched noise while he was still arguing with Megatron. Most of his attention was on the shouting match, but the part left over vaguely wondered what machine of his could possibly be making such cute noises and how he could stop it from doing so.

The noises multiplied for some reason and became more annoying, and Tarantulas’s vague wondering became irritated planning. First, he would smash the machine until it stopped making that overly cutesy noise. Then he would figure out why it had suddenly started making that noise, and he would make sure it never happened again. Then he would dissemble everything he owned and check to make sure that THEY would never make that noise, then--

"Treep! Treeptreeptreep!" several things squeaked softly at once.

"Tarantulas! Are you paying attention?!?!"

His mind was so occupied with the multiple annoyances that his mouth went ahead without it. "Of course not," he said absently (and honestly, which was almost never a good thing when dealing with Megatron).

The strained silence attracted the notice of his errant mind, which analyzed the bug-eyed look of fury on the local tyrant’s face and decided that staying in his squeak-infested lab for the rest of the day seemed like a good idea. He was deciding how to best experience ‘technical difficulties’ with his computer to cut off what looked like was going to be a spectacular fit of rage when Megatron finally exploded.

Tarantulas actually had to suppress the urge to hide under his console as the verbal abuse began. Megatron hissed, he roared, he threatened, and he generally used pure volume to drown out Tarantulas’s protests. According to what Tarantulas could make out through the incoherent cursing and shouts, he was being assigned to patrol for at least the next three weeks and in between patrols was going to take over Waspinator’s duties as the base’s floor scrubber, and whatever else Megatron could think of that was unpleasant and he knew Tarantulas hated doing--

--and the spider could STILL hear that irritated noise in the background. He could have sworn that there were more sources than before. And it was. Driving. Him. CRAZY!

Megatron was still raving on and didn’t seem to be running down at all. In fact, Tarantulas’s protests just seemed to make him get angrier. He mentally debated the issue (his pride V.S. the urge to kill whatever was making the noise), then sighed internally as the cutesy sounds got louder and grated on his nerves some more. In the interest of getting Megatron to leave him alone so he could stop the noise, his pride would have to be sacrificed...

"Treep!"

...which wasn’t a problem.

He began to make soothing noises and vague promises of good behavior that he had no intention of ever keeping. When he could get a word in edgewise between Megatron’s ranting, he pretended to be meek and said, "Yes, sir," like he really meant it (as if!). It worked. As soon as Megatron began to notice Tarantulas’s little act, his ego puffed up and made him feel important, which in turn made him calm down a little. That let him hear some of what Tarantulas was promising (he knew better than to believe the spider, but it made him feel better subconsciously) and that made him feel more forgiving.

In the end, Tarantulas got off with just a week of patrols and floor scrubbing. Megatron went back to whatever he had been doing before feeling mollified, completely forgetting what he had originally called the spider for until he looked at his computer screen again a couple minutes later. Seeing himself getting blown up reminded him quickly, but by then it was too late. Tarantulas’s computer dutifully projected an ‘Experiencing Technical Difficulties--Please stand by!’ message with cheery music that made Megatron want to be sick.

He grumbled, but he wasn’t going to go down to the spider’s lab when he was clearly expecting him and had time to prepare. He wasn’t about to forget the ‘accidental’ explosion he had walked into last time...

"Treep!"

"Treeptreep!"

"Treeeeeeep!"

Tarantulas turned away from the computer ready to smash some innocent machine of his into itsy-bitsy, SILENT pieces. His visor was red-rimmed with irritation from the noise, and he raised a large metal bar high as he whirled, about to launch himself towards the offending mechanical object.

Instead, he stopped before he even started, visor wide with shock.

Little white puffballs, his mind thought. MOVING white puffballs. With eyes. Big, blue, cute, darling eyes in the middle of all the white fur. Lots of the furballs. Dozens of them. Even as he watched, two collided with each other, and another one popped out of the thin air between them. Then another two did it. Again and again and again. HUNDREDS of the things. And they were tiny. He could probably hold a dozen or so in his hands at once.

Not that he would ever touch something that adorable, but it was a thought. Not a nice thought, or even a sane one (for him), but a thought.

While his mind was thinking all of this, his body was watching the advancing tide of multiplying white fluff with lovable blue eyes and was frozen in panicked indecision. They were between him and his tunnel system. They were INSIDE his tunnel system! He could see white puffballs tumbling down the passageways from where he stood!

Tarantulas was Transmetal. He had big weapons capable of mass destruction. He was inside his LAB, in the middle of the Predacon base, the most secure place on this mud ball planet besides his secret lab.

All that, and he was terrified, too.

"Treep!"

He backed away towards the door, eyeing the multiplying mass as it advanced towards him. Pure numbers were making the innocently cute creatures move towards him, but that only scared him more. He flung open the door, then screeched in horror as one of the ‘treep’ing things popped out of the air in front of him.

Out of pure instinct, he fired a missile. *BOOM!* Immediately feeling better as it exploded, he didn’t feel so helpless and scared. He turned, intent on exterminating the puffballs. Then he heard a sound behind him.

"Treep! Treep!"

"AAAAAAAAA!!" Tarantulas scrambled on top of the nearest countertop, standing up and looking down at the fur piling up on the floor in renewed terror. He fired another missile experimentally.

*BOOM!*

"Treep!"

"Treeptreep!"

"Treeeeeeep!"

"They’re indestructible!" he wailed, watching the unharmed Treeps roll past him, cutting him off from the door as they joined the other puffball still there. He pressed back against the wall behind him, temporarily safe as they poured out the door.

"Treep!"

Megatron looked up from fuming over the screensaver on his computer as the sounds intruded into his quarters. Puzzled, he got up and walked out of his quarters. The sounds got louder as his door opened, and he frowned in confusion. What the slag could be making such a nauseating noise?

Waspinator came buzzing down the corridor as the tyrant walked along it. He was holding something tiny and white in his hands. "Megatron! Look what Wazzpinator brought Megatron!"

Megatron’s eyes widened as he stared down at the puffy...thing...that looked back up at him. "What IS that?! It’s...it’s..." He couldn’t think of an appropriate word for the disgusting little ball of fuzz.

Waspinator cuddled it. "Izzn’t Treep cute? There’zz about a hundred more on the bridge," he said happily. "Wazzpinator think Zzpider-bot made them!"

His eyes narrowed at the mention of Tarantulas, but another thing caught his attention. "What’s a Treep?"

The thing in Waspinator’s hands made a noise happily and answered the question for him. "Treep!" it squeaked.

Megatron immediately smacked it out of Waspinator arms. "Die, you irritating bit of fur! Yesss!"

"Treeeeeeep!" It landed safely on the floor, apparently not hurt at all.

He would soon remedy that. He pointed his tail-hand at it and powered up his gun. *BLAM!*

"Treep!"

"...noooo..." Megatron stared in utter disbelief as the fluff happily squeaked again, not caring that it was sitting on a large area of flooring that was now burned black. It wasn’t singed at all.

"Crab-bot already try that," the wasp buzzed cheerfully as he picked up the cute thing again. "Crab-bot not like Treepzz. Crab-bot zzit in chair and make funny zzoundzz when Treepzz zzuround Crab-bot. Crab-bot can’t fly," he explained to the confused tyrant. "Crab-bot couldn’t get through pilezz of Treepzz."

Megatron blinked, then scowled very, very slowly. "Exactly how many of these ‘Treeps’ are there on the bridge?" he asked quietly.

Waspinator shrugged. "Wazzpinator lozz count at one hundred. Lezz than in the lower deckzz," he said when he saw he hadn’t helped out his leader. "Lower decks FULL. Fuzor-bot and reborn Lizard-bot mizzing. Ant-bot on patrol. Not zzeen Zzpider-bot."

He blinked again, then made a quick command decision. "Let’s get Rampage, first."

A couple minutes later he was wading through fluffballs and looking through the entrance to the command center. Through a chest-high sea of fur, he could barely spot Rampage, who was apparently standing on a chair and looking desperately for an escape.

"Rampage?" he called.

The crab’s head whipped around, and Megatron almost winced. He had never seen Rampage look panicked before. The sight wasn’t one that gave him a whole lot of confidence about the situation.

"Megatron?!!" Rampage’s voice cracked. "Help me!"

"Ooo, Crab-bot not look happy!" Waspinator picked up a couple more Treeps, dimly wondering why the other Predacons reacted with such disgust and fear to the cute, indestructible little creatures. HE liked them!

"He doesn’t, nooo," Megatron said thoughtfully. "He’s finally met his match for immortality, and now he’s outnumbered, too."

"Treep!"

"Help!"

"I’m coming," the tyrant sighed. He transformed to his flight mode and attempted to launch himself into the air. To his surprise and unease, his jets became clogged with furballs before he could lift off. "Er...Waspinator?"

"Yezz?"

"Can you dig those things out of my jets?"

"Zzure."

It took a while since whenever Waspinator tossed the Treeps to the side more bounced into existence and into the way, but Megatron finally had enough room to lift off. He shook off the white things clinging to his legs and tail when he was airborne, then flinched as more puffballs popped out of thin air as the originals landed. He maneuvered himself until he was hovering over Rampage.

"You’ll have to hold onto my legs," the Predacon leader said warily, torn between thoughts of not being able to lift off again because of Rampage’s weight and so having to watch the crab be smothered beneath the blue-eyed furballs already up to his chest and thoughts of what the crab could do to him since Dinobot wasn’t around.

Rampage’s strained nod gave him some reassurance towards what the crab’s intentions towards him were; he wanted AWAY from the Treeps, NOW!

The other thought, though...

"Treep!"

Tarantulas climbed to the top of another cabinet and gulped when his head hit the ceiling. He couldn’t go any higher after this.

He looked down at the rising tide of adorableness and shuddered. He was doomed. What a horrible way to die, smothered to death by cuteness. Even being smashed by boulders was better than this!

"Treep!"

Way better.

"I’ll honestly pledge my loyalty and life to whoever saves me!" he said loudly to no one, hoping against hope that someone was around. He didn’t care at this point who it was; it could be a MAXIMAL for all he cared! He was reduced to thinking that even being rescued by the Vok was better than this! Slag, he even meant it when he said he would swear his life and loyalty to whoever (or WHATever) got him out of this!

--which showed how much he expected to survive these ‘treep’ing little monsters. And explained why he almost had a spark-attack when someone actually ANSWERED him!

"Then you’ll be pledging yourself to ME, Tarantulas," said the most beautiful voice he had ever heard. "Again," it added sarcastically. "Although I suppose the first time didn’t really count in your mind. At least, that’s how you’ve been acting since you signed on."

Actually, it was Megatron’s voice, and he sounded rather tired and angry, but allowing for situational irony...

"M-Megatron?" Tarantulas’s head whipped around, trying to find the T-Rex. "Where are you?! Get me out of here!"

"I’m right above you on the next deck up," the voice said. "We’re coming down through the floor since the corridors are completely full of fur down there." There was a pause, then a bitter chuckle. "Now, I wonder why THAT is, yess?"

The spider cringed. "I didn’t MEAN to..."

There was a sigh. "I know, yesss. Not even you would release a plague of cuteness on us voluntarily. Especially not when you’ve trapped yourself with it."

"Treep!"

Tarantulas looked down at the noticeably higher fur sea and shuddered. "Hurry! They’re almost level with me!"

A squeal of protesting metal. Mutterings between different Predacons. The sounds of pipes and wires being torn out or cut. Then a panel of the ceiling fell on top of him.

"Ouch!" Tarantulas rubbed his head but didn’t complain beyond that. He threw the panel down on top of the blue-eyed, furry globes and chuckled as the heavy panel pressed the light fluffy things down a little farther away from him. Looking up, he saw Megatron, Inferno, Waspinator, and Rampage looking down at him through layers of more wiring and pipes. One of them had apparently put their foot down through the mess and kicked the panel loose.

They seemed nervous at the sheer number of Treeps in the room with him. "Help would be appreciated quickly," Tarantulas said pathetically as the ceiling panel disappeared into the fur.

The rest of the Predacons exchanged a glance and wordlessly began tearing at the obstacles between them. He watched them, then made the mistake of looking down at the Treeps now at his feet.

"Look out!" Inferno shouted too late.

A pipe hit the unprepared spider on the head and he lost his balance. "AAAAAA!!" he screamed as he tipped over. The very tips of his fingers caught the edge of the hole above him. "Help me!" he shrieked.

"Hold on!" Megatron yelled as the spider hung precariously, barely a fingerhold from sinking into the fluff and being lost forever. "Hurry!" he urged the others, who tore at the pipes.

"I’m slipping!"

"Treep!"

"Zzpider-bot muzzt hold on! Wazzpinator almozzt through!"

"I can’t!"

The Predacons watched helplessly as Tarantulas’s fingers slipped completely, he screamed...

...and vanished beneath the puffballs.

Rampage bowed his head, the urge to take sadistic joy at the others’ fear banished by the utterly disgusting cuteness of the situation. Inferno sank to his knees beside the hole they had created, eyes wide with disbelief. Waspinator put his face in his hands and sniffled.

"No!" Megatron grabbed a length of wiring they had so painstakingly ripped out of the hole and tied it to his waist. "I won’t lose another Predacon!" He had already lost Quickstrike beneath the smothering weight of the adorable menace. He. Would. Not. Lose. Another!

"Megatron, you can’t--"

"My Queen, let me--"

"Megatron izz not zzane--"

He tossed the other end of the coil to the others and dove through the opening, following Tarantulas down into the depths of cuteness. The Predacons protested too late, but caught the wire and dug in their heels. They watched the coil unwind tensely.

Finally, it reached it’s end.

"Hold on!" Rampage yelled, bracing himself. It almost wasn’t enough as they were dragged forward. He scrambled desperately as they skidded towards the edge of the hole and managed a foothold. Eyes wide, they all looked down at the mass of fur they had almost joined. They waited, the wire stretched out from them to the Treeps.

The wire shifted. Tugged. Then it was still.

"Treep!"

"The Royalty," Inferno moaned.

"Wazzpinator zzaid Megatron wazz crazy, but no one lizztenzz to Wazzpinator, nooo. Now Megatron AND Zzpider-bot are gone..."

Rampage just stared down at the area Megatron had disappeared into, watching the Treeps multiply and squeak cutely. The wire in his hands was motionless--

--but then it twitched. And it went just a little slack. In fact, it wasn’t even taunt anymore...

"Pull!" he bellowed, catching the others by surprise. He took up the slack in the wire and tugged carefully. If he was right, then it would--

"The Royalty is coming back!" Inferno roared as they pulled and something came up through the Treeps.

"Treep!"

Megatron’s head broke the fur barrier and he gasped for air. The Predacons cheered as they pulled, assisting his climb up the side of the cabinets as he dragged an unconscious Tarantulas after him by the spider’s ankles.

Blackarachnia looked down at the Predacon base and frowned thoughtfully. "Are you sure this isn’t a trap?" she asked Rhinox. "Megatron calling for help just doesn’t seem quite right."

The rhino looked at her adoringly. "I can’t be sure, my dear, but it doesn’t seem likely that he would seem that panicked otherwise."

She made a slight face as he called her ‘my dear’, but she was getting use to that after a week of ruling the Maximals. All of them called her something along that line...which was part of the reason she was in charge, after all. For some reason, they had all fallen in love with her one day. She had been confused until she had figured out it had something to do with a certain pink floral perfume she had found and used.

Then she had just naturally manipulated their feelings towards her for power purposes. Optimus had gladly given up commanding the Maximals after she had asked him to do that for her as a favor. None of the others had protested, and she had simply been getting used to her new position of power since then.

...and then Megatron’s terrified voice had pleaded for help from the Maximals in an all-channel com signal.

Now she was here, looking down at the Predacon base, which looked perfectly normal to her, and wondering what the slag was going on. Everything LOOKED fine, but Megatron had never sounded that panicked when she had been with the Predacons!

"This is too dangerous of a place for you, Blackie," Depth Charge said from behind her. He looked down at her with concern while she sighed and gave him a resigned smile.

"I can take care of myself, DC," she said. She was also getting used to the Maximal’s annoying tendency to try and wrap her in cotton and stuff her away in a secure area.

She turned away and opened an all-channel com signal. "Megatron?"

There was a moment of static, then the tyrant’s voice came back to her. It sounded a bit strained. "Blackarachnia?"

"The Maximals are here, Megatron. Any particular reason why?"

"Where’s Optimus?"

She smiled. "I’m in charge of the Maximals, now, Megs."

A moment of stunned silence. "Uh...right. I’m sure there’s an interesting story behind that, yesss, but I’m in a bit of a hurry. Can you help us? Please?"

The Maximals made a strange sound of disbelief at the Predacon leader saying ‘please’.

"What exactly do you need?" she asked suspiciously, made even more wary, now.

"I--excuse me. Hold the door, Rampage!"

Depth Charge flicked a confused glance at the Predacon base as he heard Rampage’s voice distantly in the background. "I’m trying! There’s just too many of them!" A crash. "They’re coming through! I can’t stop them!"

The Maximals all clearly heard Waspinator shriek, "Wazzpinator not want to die! Wazzpinator LIKE cute Treepzz!"

Megatron’s voice returned quickly. "Quite frankly, Blackarachnia, the Predacons need an escape route. We’re trapped in a room filling up with--well, it’s not important what it’s filling up with. We need to get out before we’re smothered to death!"

Blackarachnia smiled cunningly as more panicked sounds could be heard in the background. It sounded like Tarantulas was whimpering. "And what will you give in return for our help?"

"We’ll be killed!" Megatron yelled. "Maximals can’t--"

"Ah, ah, ah!" She was enjoying herself now, although the other Maximals looked uneasy. One look at her happiness calmed them down again, though. That perfume was really some great stuff... "Remember, I still don’t buy into the Maximal philosophies. Your deaths, well, it just wouldn’t distress me that much." She gave a tiny shrug that riveted the Maximals’ attention for a couple seconds.

Another moment of tense silence. Then, "What do you want?"

"Your complete and total surrender."

"WHAT?!"

"You heard me. All of you."

"I..." Hmm, he sure sounded strained. Blackarachnia vaguely wondered why...but then she snickered. "...I..."

"Treep!"

"Treeptreep!"

"Treeeeeeeep!"

"What the..?" The Maximals gaped, taken off-guard by the extremely cute noise.

"I accept! By the Pit, get us out of here!" Megatron screamed.

"Treep!"

Ending #1:

The Maximals managed to blow a hole in the side of the ship and extract all of the Predacons except Rampage, who refused to leave because half of his spark was still buried somewhere inside the ship. He reluctantly waded back into the Treeps to search for TM2 Dinobot.

Neither one was ever seen again.

The Treeps kept multiplying and multiplying, despite all that the Maximals and Predacons tried to do stop them. Eventually completely covering the globe with tiny white puffballs with big blue eyes, they smothered all other living creatures to death and put an end to the Beast Wars, and thus disrupting the timestream and calling down the Vok upon themselves.

The aliens made the mistake of kidnapping a couple of the fluffy things before launching the rest into space to wander for eternity by destroying the planet around them, and neither Treep nor Vok have been seen since. (Although some Treeps were sucked into another dimension by a big portal that mutated them into something uglier and a little less fertile before dropping them onto the unsuspecting populace of a planet known as 20th century Earth to multiply. The little horrors, now called ‘Furbies’, became briefly but immensely popular until they became, inevitably, too annoying and widespread to stand.).

Ending #2:

The Maximals managed to blow a hole in the side of the Predacon ship and rescue all the Predacons but Rampage, who wouldn’t leave without the other half of his spark. He went back into the ship from another entrance to try and find TM2 Dinobot while the rest of the Maximals and Predacons made an interesting discovery when a particularly clingy Treep on Megatron’s leg (a combination of static electricity and its long fur) fell off as he was flying over the lava.

The puffball hit the lava...and disappeared.

The next night and day were spent by the Maximals and the now-captured Predacons shoveling ‘treep’ing little furry creatures into the lava, where they quite happily disappeared back into the thin air they had come from. Rhinox kept one of the little fuzzy globes as a scientific discovery (carefully kept isolated!!), Waspinator kept one as a pet, and Depth Charge kept one to scare the slag out of Rampage when they found him and Dinobot buried under the fuzzies. Quickstrike was never seen again, and they assumed he threw himself into the lava to escape the Treeps.

The Maximals were delighted at how things turned out. They got back to Cybertron quickly, and since Megatron, Tarantulas, AND Rampage all had nervous breakdowns as soon as the last of the non-captured Treeps disappeared, it worked out well. Megatron turned into a vegetable with a nervous twitch who did whatever he was told (including give over his secrets to the Maximal High Council). Tarantulas was committed to a mental hospital for counseling since he had panic attacks whenever he saw something white or fuzzy (it was also thought that it had something to do with him sincerely swearing loyalty to Megatron, but that’s unconfirmed). Rampage just broke down completely. Something about his experience of being buried by the Treeps had snapped the ‘fear switch’ in his mind, and he started feeling the new emotion almost constantly. Dinobot was completely comatose (an overdose of cuteness was Rhinox’s diagnosis. Sad, but there was nothing they could do about it). Waspinator was perfectly happy when he was allowed to keep his Treep, even when he was sentenced to jail.

The Maximals were hailed as heroes, except for the ex-Predacon Blackarachnia, who disappeared with Silverbolt. Later there were rumors that Blackarachnia had seduced the Tripedicus Council and taken over (that perfume was GREAT!).

Meanwhile, on Earth...

"What is it?" the man asked eagerly as another man chipped away at what their scanners claimed was an ancient ball of hardened lava with two hollow, separate chambers inside. The scans apparently had something in them...

"Gimme a second here," his companion grunted, chipping one last time.

The hollows crumpled. The men leaned forward with anticipation.

Four huge, crystal blue eyes looked out at them from the separate compartments in the very old lava. The tiny white balls of fluff stared up at them silently, but then their eyes were draw to each other. Their eyes locked. It was love at first sight.

"Treep!"

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