Rattrap carefully checked over the computer systems one last time. Today was the day. No mess-ups allowed. With only twenty of the Cutting Edge’s crew left, including him and Depth Charge, everything had to be running perfectly. If this didn’t work, they’d all be dead.
If this worked, though, they’d be free.
Experienced and persistent hacking had gotten them enough evidence to expose the Maximal High Council’s involvement in the A.L.H Research Center. Visual records of labs, downloaded files, the security camera records from the ship itself; it was all enough to destroy the known universe’s generally high regard for the Council. A dirty little secret like this one might just cause the shaky relations with Earth (problems had been occurring since the diplomatic incident over the colonization of Mars) to end completely. That would most likely cause a lot of Earth’s colonies to also break off relations with Cybertron, which would cause...
Basically, it would do the Maximal High Council a lot of harm.
That was fine with Rattrap. In fact, he was looking forward to doing that harm with a measure of sadistic glee. Under normal circumstances, he didn’t have any particular feelings towards the Cybertronian government besides irritation if it did something or passed a law that was annoying to him.
These, however, were NOT normal circumstances. That government had killed his friends, who he had spent the time on ancient Earth and on the ship with, and was covering up their deaths. He didn’t mind so much that the Predacon prisoners had disappeared just as mysteriously as the crew was; in his mind they deserved it. But Optimus? Rhinox? The kiddo? Ever-noble Silverbolt? Slaggit, even Blackarachnia shouldn’t have been killed...for anything.
Rattrap had felt grief and anger when Dinobot had died. He had used the feelings to fight the Predacons. He felt those emotions again, this time, but they were much stronger. That was fine; he had a bigger and stronger opponent this time.
The Predacons had been captured, imprisoned, and were probably dead by now. Rattrap had every intention of making the Maximal High Council pay a similar price for the deaths of his friends...
Depth Charge walked down the corridor towards Rampage’s cell. One last inspection check before he left the Center...for good. The Security Teams placed around the Center had no idea that he had spent most of the time ground-side today planting a computer virus deep in the A.L.H Research Center’s programming. Rattrap and some of the more experience hackers in the Cutting Edge’s crew had spent day and night hacking through files and constructing the virus. The ray-bot hadn’t asked about the thing; he didn’t want to know for sure that the skills and techniques they had used were illegal.
The virus wouldn’t affect this area; even in the midst of a desperate escape Depth Charge wouldn’t take the risk of Rampage getting free. Oh, some, in fact, probably all of the guards would leave the area, but none of the locks and doors would go haywire like a lot of them were going to. The automatic systems would stay online, but the Security personnel would leave.
That’s why Depth Charge was here, checking things over. He REALLY wouldn’t like it if Rampage got free again...
"Everything’s still in order," one of the transformers on duty assured him. The Security Teams assigned to the Protoform X project were used to their Chief’s paranoid ways by now. They were also vaguely reassured by it. Despite being an outsider, they knew Depth Charge’s fanatical interest in keeping Rampage confined made him someone Admiral Jirex and Dr. Kilju trusted. Therefore, the Security people trusted him.
Depth Charge knew all of that, and he was about to betray most of that image. It was true that he was concerned with keeping Rampage under control, but he wasn’t blind to what the Center was doing like he pretended to be. It was just convenient for his escape plan to keep everyone thinking that.
A thought struck him, and he turned to where two Security personnel stood on either side of the thick door to Rampage’s cell. Since it would be his last time, he should at least see his worst enemy before he left...
"I’m going in," he said to them.
They exchanged looks and shrugged. In this area of the Center, what the Security Chief wanted, he got. To Depth Charge’s surprise, though, one of the guards reached into an alcove sunk into the wall nearby. When his hand emerged again, it was holding Rampage’s spark box...but it had a strange piece of machinery attached to it.
"Here you go," the guard said as he handed it over to the ray-bot. "I’d give you the speech about being careful and all that, but I think you already know it." He grinned as that brought laughter from the other transformer on duty.
Depth Charge ignored that and looked at the modified spark-box. "What is this?" he asked.
The other guard blinked. "Oh, yeah, that. Dr. Kilju’s doing another experiment, so that thing squeezes the spark every once and a while." He pointed at it. "See? There it goes!"
The guard was right. The attached machinery compressed slowly and let up again.
"Okay," Depth Charge said after a moment of puzzling over that. "Let me in." The jokester guard keyed the datapad, and the door slid open. The ray-bot started to walk in, but the guard held out a remote.
"I almost forgot," he said sheepishly. "This is for the gag. You know, if you want to talk to him, or something."
Depth Charge nodded and took it, then walked into the cell.
Rampage relaxed as the pain ebbed away again, back down to the constant level he was used to by now. He slowly dragged himself up from the floor and sat back down on the hard bed, almost unable to accomplish even this small action. He blearily stared at the floor between his feet and wondered how much more of this he could take.
The door opened, but he didn’t even lift his head to see his visitor. Who was it? Did it matter anymore? Was it Dr. Kilju? Back for another check-up, perhaps? Admiral Jirex, laughing at his torment again? Or maybe one of the guards for some strange reason? He didn’t care. He didn’t have enough energy to care.
"Rampage?"
That voice was familiar. Whose was it? He still didn’t look up. He couldn’t make himself look up. His view of the floor was slowly fading as his body demanded time to recharge. He just wanted to rest...to be free of the low level of pain throbbing throughout his body...
PAIN!
Rampage gave a hoarse scream and clutched his chest, only dimly realizing he could speak as the agony washed through him from his spark. The room snapped back into focus as the pain shrilled louder within him, pushing back the weariness for a brief moment, but then the pain itself made the room fade. His mangled spark pulsed within him, forcing raw sounds of agony from his throat as he doubled over and fell off the bed again, unable to fight the pain in any way except the futile action of curling up defensively.
The pain gradually eased back again, and Rampage’s shuddering eased with it. He stayed on the floor, though, not sure if he could climb to his feet again and trying to decide if he should attempt to. His tiredness returned twice as strong, making the choice even harder. The twinges of pain at each movement hurt, but he could deal with that. The weariness, though...
"Rampage?"
That voice again. How annoying. Why couldn’t it go away? He wasn’t interested in visitors. He vaguely remembered it exclaiming in surprise as his spark was compressed, but none of the guards or Dr. Kilju or Admiral Jirex had ever done that. So who was it? His voice was familiar...but he was too tired to worry about that.
"Rampage? Can you hear me?"
That voice was getting on his nerves. Why wouldn’t it go away so he could rest? And it seemed so familiar...
Depth Charge looked down at the large form on the floor and tried again. "Rampage?" There was no response. The only time the ray-bot had seen any response from the crab was when the spark-box had compressed. The pain from that action had shocked him; Rampage hadn’t reacted with such pain even when he was forced to surrender!
It could be a trick, but Depth Charge didn’t think so. The experiment that the guard had told him Dr. Kilju was doing seemed to have made Rampage extremely weak. Right now, the crab didn’t even look like he’d be able to lever himself up off the floor.
Still extremely cautious, Depth Charge slowly walked closer and prodded Rampage in the side with his foot. The Predacon groaned, but didn’t respond.
Something was poking him. That was even more irritating than the voice. Rampage considered the matter and reluctantly decided that he would have to move in order to stop the annoyances.
The question was, of course, whether or not he had enough energy left to get up...and if the pain would let him...
The ray-bot stepped back as Rampage slowly began to move.
He rolled over onto his front, first. That seemed to exhaust him for a moment, but then he started to push himself off the floor with his arms. They collapsed during the first try, so he changed tactics. He bent his knees slightly and used his hands to push himself back up onto his knees. Rampage stayed there with his head bent for a little while, apparently resting from the effort. Bringing one foot up, he braced himself and lunged upwards. After that he gradually straightened up and staggered to the side to lean against the wall.
Depth Charge watched in amazement. Simple movements for him looked like major struggle by his enemy. And there was something different about the Predacon...
"Rampage." He tried to get his attention.
Rampage slowly turned his head. He looked at the ray-bot blankly for a moment before finally recognizing him. "Depth Charge," he said tiredly. "I should have known." He leaned against the wall heavily as he walked carefully back towards the bed. His legs gave out just as he reached it, and he sat down hard. "So," he said dully, "have you come to gloat?"
"Gloat?" Depth Charge studied him. It was his attitude, he decided. The Predacon had always seemed to have an air of arrogance and pride. Instead of that, however, Rampage now just seemed worn out, like even talking required a huge effort. "Why would I gloat?"
Rampage rested his head in his hands. "You’re wish came true; I’m brought to justice. Aren’t you happy?" his voice held a faint note of mockery, but it was almost as if he couldn’t get the energy to insult the ray-bot.
Depth Charge frowned. "I suppose," he said slowly. He shook his head and started to say something more when the spark-box in his hand compressed.
Rampage shrieked in pain and fell forward off the bed as he curled up involuntarily, moaning as the device crushed his spark.
The Maximal stood there helplessly, watching the crab’s torment uncomfortably. There was something wrong about doing this to someone, even a psychopath like Rampage. He hesitantly stepped forward, acting before he thought, as the spark-box opened again and eased off the pressure. Depth Charge reached down and half-lifted the pain-filled crab off the floor and back to sitting on the bed.
Rampage feebly tried to help the ray lift him, but his strength was almost completely gone. When he was sitting down again, he looked up. "Why’d you...help me?" he asked slowly, getting each word past the lethargic fog that seemed to be covering his mind.
Depth Charge shifted uncomfortably. He didn’t really KNOW why he had done what he had done. "What is Dr. Kilju doing to you?" he asked instead. "You seem...drained."
A bitter laugh pushed past his weariness. "An experiment," he said just as bitterly. "He’s finding out how long I can survive without energon." At the blank look on Depth Charge’s face, Rampage sighed. "He’s starving me to see the results," he said bluntly.
The uneasy feeling in the ray-bot grew and strengthened to discomfort. Being deprived of energon was both less and more painful than having an overdose of the energy source. Being exposed to an overabundance of unstable energon shocked transformers painfully, but the shock also put them off-line quickly. It took much longer for a robot to go off-line because of LACK of energon...but the pain only built up slowly, not in an immediate shock like an overdose. Near the end the pain was constant, driving the starving transformer to desperate lengths to get energon. When pushed beyond that point, most transformers went off-line. But...Rampage obviously wasn’t off-line...
"He’s keeping you online with this, isn’t he," Depth Charge said, holding up the spark-box. "It’s programmed to compress at random times."
A faint nod answered him. "As a side effect, it prevents me from recharging," Rampage said tiredly.
The Maximal looked at him in both disbelief and pity. The huge ‘bot was in the power of a mad scientist. Only someone who was insane would inflict a ‘test’ like this on someone, even a convicted criminal. But if Dr. Kilju was doing this, then Admiral Jirex knew what was happening--which meant that the entire A.L.H Research Center was involved in this...torture.
"Depth Charge, go away," Rampage sighed. "I don’t want to talk to you." He slumped over on the bed slowly, unable to keep himself upright any longer.
Depth Charge’s thoughts were racing. "Rampage, I--"
The Predacon turned his face to the wall. "Please, Maximal, just leave me alone," he whispered.
The ray-bot stood there for another long moment, just looking down at the broken form of his worst enemy...who didn’t deserve this, even for all of the atrocities he had committed. His mind worked, turning moral questions and plans over and over, searching for a solution for the problem in front of him. Finally he nodded and quietly withdrew from the cell, wincing as the spark-box in his hand compressed again.
Rampage’s screams followed him out.
Rattrap met him at the airlock when he stepped onboard the Cutting Edge again. "Dey’re gone," the rat said grimly. "When ya left, da Center shuttle crew just...abducted dem all."
Depth Charge froze. "How--?"
The shorter Maximal gritted his teeth. "I was workin’ in da computer when I heard a fire-fight. By da time I got ta the crew’s quarters, everybody was gone." He frowned and voiced the thought neither of them wanted to even think. "We’re da only ones left."
The ray-bot stared at him for a long time. Then he glanced away. "Not the only ones." At Rattrap’s questioning look, he sighed and started to explain. "We’re going to have to change our plan..." He had a feeling he’d have to do a LOT of explaining...