The X Factor

The X-Factor

Author Note: Okay, the parts in italics here between the paragraphs are excerpts from the book 'Portrait of a Killer' by Patricia Cornwell. The book goes through DNA testing and everything possible to prove that Walter Sickert is and was Jack the Ripper. Some of her explanations constantly made me think of Rampage. The scene is under water, a few minutes before Depth Charge takes an energon blade to the Predicon. He has Depth Charge pinned, and is talking, explaining that everything that was done, was done with a purpose. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: Patricia Cornwell wrote and owns 'Portrait of a Killer' I own my own copy, though it is covered in highlighter. Hasbro owns Rampage, Depth Charge and Transmutate...and anyone I mention that I can't claim.

"Do you suppose we only find anything that is so past touching and interesting because it was further from the grave?"

-Walter Richard Sickert 1860 – 1942

Why does he look at me that way? Can he truly believe he knows the cause of my distress? Or does he disillusion himself with thoughts of honesty, virtue and truth? He knows nothing! None of them do, nor will the ever!! Years, years that eventually blend together, until all that you see is grey, and all that you hear is that endless mechanical buzz as the figures looming over you bicker ceaselessly over which joint to mutilate first.

"A psychopath intent on murder uses any means to con a victim out of life."

To watch the happy grins on their faces through cracked eyes, and discover that scientist is just another word for masochist. That a doctor can cause you death, and get away with it because the law; sworn to serve and protect you, protects the monster because long ago they knew the idiocy of the profession. But...ahh...monster, now there is a fickle word. What makes a monster a good one? Well my dear friend, anyone can kill, anyone can do what I did but for one thing. I convinced you.

"Psychopaths are incapable of love. When they show what appears to be regret, sadness or sorrow, these expressions are manipulative and originate from their own needs and not out of any genuine consideration for another creature."

You, the very being they entrusted to protect them. You thought yourself special, feeling that you had gotten inside. Felt that you had tapped into my psyche. Hahahahaha, I had quite the many laughs over that old friend! Tell me, what do they teach you at those institutes? Now now. Mind your temper. It's not nice to interrupt when in polite company.

"A psychopath often stalks his victims before contact, all the while engaging in violent fantasies. Psychopaths may go through dry runs to practice their modus operandi (MO) as they meticulously plan their actions in a manner that will ensure success and evasion."

Tell me old friend, do you remember the first time we met? No? Ho ho, let me refresh your memory then! You brought me some food, and instead of the –pardon the pun- rampaging freak, you saw a frail and scared robot. Bound and shackled like a rabid beast. What you witnessed was not the true me, as I am sure you've by now deduced. I let you see me in a profitable fashion, so that anything you overheard later would only fuel your hatred for my tormentors.

"It is ironic that people who have such contempt for human life will desperately hold on to their own."

And then, oh then you felt so proud of yourself that day. The day you forgot to lock my door, and you didn't tighten my bonds. Yes my friend, the day you died, was the day I felt most alive. And I regret to say that I shall never rejoice in that bliss again. But! Oh ho ho ho, you felt that you could undo your misgivings, that you could... rectify the injustice! If only you had the means to do so. And that, my dear old friend, is when I allowed you to catch me; when I let you believe yourself to be in power.

"Psychopaths tend to think they are more cunning and more intelligent than everyone else. Psychopaths tend to believe they can outsmart those out to catch them. The psychopath loves to play games, to harass and taunt. What fun to set so much chaos in motion and sit back and watch."

We were to begin again, when they deemed me too unstable, even for their own selfish means. To send me away spinning in space, or leave me to rust away eternity in some Primus forsaken planet. Oh, it was to be glorious! Only you and I left alone to our own devices until... one... of our untimely end. But, these... cretins spoiled everything! This was not supposed to happen! We were supposed to be alone! Together, but isn't that what you wanted all alone, old friend?

"This sort of delusional thinking is not unusual in violent psychopaths. Not only do they believe they have a relationship with the victims they stalk, but they bond in a cat-and-mouse way with the investigators who track them."

But then, there is always a ripple. A flux that has the potential to make things right again. You do not know of this ripple, she was before your time. This one was called Transmutate. She didn't have power; her entire entity flowed with it! This weak, small and confused thing that did not even have the power or capabilities to transform. Yet, I took it in stride. She cared for me, through her damaged circuitry; my own emitters could detect it.

"The problem is, psychopaths don't tell the truth. Every word they say is motivated by the desire to manipulate and by their insatiable egocentric need for attention and admiration."

She had the brute force I needed to wipe the slate clean for your arrival. Just what I needed in order to retrieve that which was taken from me. But then, that blasted Maximal ruined everything! I could feel myself losing grip! She began to care for him, as well, and that I could not have!

"Psychopathic killers can sink into morbid depression after murderous sprees... He may have found himself completely out of control and with nothing left of his life. During his most virile, productive years, he had been on a slaughtering binge."

But it seems that all those years of suffering were all for nothing. For as quickly as she arrived, she had died. The life of a mayfly. Arriving long enough to plant a grain of hope for its species before it too dies, scattered remains littering barren fields. How close I was to freedom that day old friend! But ah... does it truly matter, now that you're finally here?

"Eliciting trust before the kill is part of the psychopath's script, and this requires acting, whether the person has ever stepped foot on a stage or not."

Yes, you are right. Enough idle chitchat, and reminiscing about the dead ol' days. Is it your turn to pick the game already? Slag, I was looking forward to hide-and- seek, or blind man's bluff. Why pick the same boring, monotonous game everyday? Very well, fighting it is! Oh come now, surely you've figured out that weapons won't work? Sigh. Have you not missed this? Tell me, would you truly have wanted death? To have nothing, be nothing. Old friend, did you really want me to make you a statistic? Have I told you how weary I grow of this life? Not that you would listen, but I long for the freedom of mortality. Yes, a blade! Harder! Here is my spark! Release me; free me. Together, we will be free.

"The ultimate tragedy...is that he was damned to a life that would not allow physical or emotional intimacy. 'At least you feel!' He once wrote..."

Fin