"OC Episode #5.5 Side Saga"

[Wintersong]

((Oh the suspense!!!We want to see what happens next! But of course sleep is quite important too so we shall wait patiently. ))

Once more Wintersong watched the arachnid as she hesitated but she didn't press the spider for an answer, letting her take her time for now until she finally spoke. Though the answer wasn't what she had expected the tigeress was aware of the dangers, and as Arachnitron warned her the tigeress once more nodded, looking at her steadily. "I should tell you taking risks seems to be a specialty for me and honestly I am not afraid if you try to harm me Arachnitron if I must I will defend myself but try not to harm you." She said truthfully and turned to the open CR chamber but paused,"If anything I escaped death since one of the Predacons had some sense of mercy." She added softly and visible shuddered at the memory not saying any more as she stepped in and turned as the chamber closed around her and began the repairs.

But deep down the tigeress began to wonder if it had been wise to mention this to Arachnitron, for all she knew she may have told a weakness that could be used to one's advantage. Since the day she had managed to avoid being killed she was absolutely terrified of deep water, preferring to stick to the shallows of the oceans, rivers, creeks, and ponds, anything else she completely avoided. Closing her amber optics Wintersong let the repairs take place and within fifteen minutes the chamber opened and she stepped out good as new, luckily her internal repairs doing enough that Wintersong hadn't needed a long stay in the chamber, "Beast mode." Transforming the tigeress looked at Arachnitron."Now we can go."

Smiling the best she could she walked over to the lift and waited for Arachnitron to step on before the lift carried them down to let them outside the ship. Though Wintersong was hoping deep down something unexpected wouldn't happen.

[Blackrosefencer]

OOC: Indeed, three. Though consider yourself lucky. On average, a human with Dissociative Identity Disorder (previously known as Multiple Personality Disorder) can have 15 or more different alters. It obviously varies...some have more, some have less. I think three's a good number to handle in this case though. lol.

The scientists had originally believed they had finally reached success with their experiment. Her personality seemed as though it was exactly what they were going for, but the constant tampering with her genetic code contributed to the instabilities in her system and eventually her mental status deteriorated. So she has the Maximal programming, the Predacon programming, and the Hybrid programming all separated instead of combined and working together as was hypothesized. So she's a basket-case!

There's a more descriptive explanation in her bio, but that's the general summary.

Hmm...will the extraction thing even work? I have yet to decide. I mean, it wasn't just the competing personalities that caused the instabilities as previously mentioned, the tampering itself contributed. So would more tampering make it worse? I mean, maybe the extraction would work temporarily, but then over time, it'd all start over again. And what would you extract? Could you extract two of the three personalities or would you have to choose which ONE personality to extract? Which would you extract and which would you keep? Wouldn't you want the more mentally stable personality which is the hybrid...the other two are basket-cases on their own. The Predacon is destructive, reckless, defiant and stubborn as a mule. Not a team player...Megatron would have a tough time controlling her. And her Maximal personality is paranoid and neurotic. She'd fall apart in the middle of battle and any small amount of stress would cause serious mental break downs.

But of course, there is one really important thought....if the solution were that easy, why wouldn't the scientists just have done it themselves? I will have to think about this.

As for my post, I shall have to wait until tomorrow (probably when I take over at the receptionist desk at work tomorrow evening). I am far too distracted by The Golden Girls and my rabbit. Plus, I need to think about what Arachnitron will do next. And I love how Wintersong didn't tell anyone where she was going.....

[NaitoKage]

Two of Glowstick's shoulder tentacles grabbed her by the head forcing her head back as his chest started to emit a thin jet of smokescreen. His left feeder tentacle then moved Necking already? Don't get fresh with me little girl.. he then responded, the end of the tentacle pressed up against her abdominal region , then fired off a point blank laser half focused to reduce the damage, but still have enough force to throw her from his body.

Floating back and hovering in the air once again, moving in front of the path of the Hoverboard and Lava pit You can save your rewards.. it's time I got serious.. I've already played with you too long..Time to release another trump card.. He growled, the lights on his body then stopped shining, his chest and back continuing to discharge a cloud of smoke which became thicker and soon filled the area, which was of low ventilation to begin, with his sword still active on the floor, her radar was disabled making her effectively blind and with Glowstick not playing his normal music or ever making a step on the ground, and a mostly transparent body, he was hard to detect.

One of Glowstick's tentacles moved to the compartment on his back as it pulled out his sonar sensor goggles placing them over his darkened optics and powering them up.

_______________

Icebreaker continued work on the guns, which were starting to take shape into one weapon which appeared to look something like a sawed off double barreled shotgun, with an array of parts sticking off the sides. The sound of grinding metal and laser solder echoed from his room into the halls.

[starshadow]

Visia coughed in the smokescreen while trying to inject Glowstick with her venom. The next second, she was shot and thrown off, landing on a platform at the side of the area. The area was clouded with thick black smoke. Great...just great...She was unable to see or smell anything. He wasn't even making a single sound. He and his wonderful gadgets..perfect..she held her wound and looked aaround. If only Cecaelia's body was fully mutated, body regeneration would be useful.

"If you're going to kill me in the old fashion way, please do it directly and not hiding yourself in this unpleasant smoke to give me a party surprise." she slowly pulled out her venom blaster and lighted up the tips of her tentacles, "because I do not enjoy battling with gutless wimps like Sonar."

She spun her gun and coughed again, "I know you're going to say I talk too much but..I can just get out of Cecaelia's body, throw her in the lava pits while you watch the little sunshine melting. Well, I don't think you have enough materials to make spark containers, a body for a replacement and a massive repair session for Nightstar..and the ship!" she started firing her blaster and her eight tentacle tips at the ceiling and the walls.

[Phoenix]

(ooc: please excuse if this post turns out to be less than stellar.. I just had a huge shock that I'm trying to wrap my mind around.)

"Predacon or Maximal, no one should have to go through what you have experienced, especially at such an early age. I can not imagine the childhood you had, Nemesis. To be put through such torment and anguish, and having no control over your fate or the decision to say no to the experiments so you could have your freedom. It is has defined who you are today, and if I had the power to take down these so-called 'scientists' who are performing these experiments so that no one else would have to suffer such an ordeal, I would.""

Nemesis nodded. Even a faint trace of a grateful smile could be detected on her face. It almost felt good to have been able to tell someone her story, to the point where the Predacon nearly forgot that the two of them were enemies in normal circumstances. At least for a moment.

"I know you would," she responded in a quiet voice. She could say a lot of things about the Maximals, but at least they went out of their way to protect their own. Perhaps, had things been different, she could have been protected as well.

She paused as the Maximal continued.

"However, despite your past, you've grown into an intelligent bot. You know right from wrong, and when you attempted to take my crews' lives as well as my own, that was wrong. Some believe Nightmist's death should be justified by taking yours since she had no choice about what happened to her because of your size and power, and possibly your unstable mentality after being activated. What you did to her almost doesn't sound too different from what the scientists did to you,"

Her expression turned to that of someone perplexed by a sudden turn of events. This again? Were they ever going to let that incident go?

"Look," the Predacon hawk said in a serious tone, "Ask yourself why would I have come to the Maximal base only to kill a lone Maximal? If my intentions had been to kill, would I not have attacked the base itself to take out as many of you as possible? I was considerably bigger and more powerful at the time after all. Your friend died because of an accident."

She paused while looking the Maximal straight in the eyes. It was impossible to interpret the expression on her face at this point, but if she was lying she concealed it very well.

"I've been seeking for remorse and comprehension to your merciless and unthinkable actions for every encounter we've faced with you. I understand the roots to your bitterness, hatred and anger, but my Maximals and I are not the ones who performed those experiments on you."

And there came the lectures again.. Nemesis positively hated being lectured, feeling like she was a child again getting every detail explained. Well.. the brief childhood she had before the experiments began at least.. The scientists never explained a thing to her.

"I have already explained my actions to you. There isn't much I can do to change the past at this point."


Then it came. The answer to her former question.

The Predacon sighed as Primal finished his argument with passing judgement on her for her actions. The conversation had not ended with the conclusion she'd been hoping for. Instead the Maximal had rewarded her honesty with imprisonment in this hell.

"Well, Optimus," she told him as calmly as she could despite the rage and fear that was rapidly building up inside her. "I am sorry you feel that way.."

Her reaction came almost spontaneously, in an explosive manner.

Nemesis whirled around, ramming her foot against the primate's throat as hard as she could in an attempt to knock his balance off. The kick was immediately followed by a painful forceful yank of his wounded hand, where she actually put some of her fingers into the penetrating wound for better control, as she attempted to force the arm behind his back in order to slam him against the nearest wall.

"I am not spending eternity locked up!," she growled. If that is what the Maximal intended on doing with her, she was not about to sit by idly and let it happen.

[Blackrosefencer]

OOC: It was just fine!! I hope everything's okay.

BIC:

"I should tell you taking risks seems to be a specialty for me and honestly I am not afraid. If you try to harm me Arachnitron if I must I will defend myself but try not to harm you."

Arachnitron looked at the tiger curiously. Her warning made no impression on her whatsoever. And, furthermore, she did not seem the least bit surprised. Was there some chance that she already knew about her affliction? No...not a chance...neither the Predacon nor the Maximal would jeopardize their safety in that way. But maybe she didn't know her alters as well as she thought.

The tiger stepped into the CR chamber that Arachnitron had been using earlier and muttered something as a last thought.

"If anything I escaped death since one of the Predacons had some sense of mercy."

Well, merciful Predacons, that was certainly good to know. If she ever came across that particular Pred, she would be sure to remember that, but which one had it been? She noticed Wntersong shudder at her memory. Whatever had happened to her had not been pleasant. Should she ask her to elaborate later? She was intriqued to hear more, but figured the story would come out if the tiger so desired.

The CR chamber door closed and the repairs began. Arachnitron paced nervously while she waited for the repairs to be completed.

As she paced, her mind wrapped itself around every possible scenario she could come up with about what would happen once she and Wintersong stepped out of the base. The Predacon personality could attack, but of course, if it did, at least they'd be outside where there would be cover for Wintersong to escape the Pred's wrath. Or the Pred could just surface long enough to talk to Wintersong and reveal her plans...then Arachnitron would know for sure what was to come. But talking did not seem like the Predacon's style. But the Maximal personality could take over too....she almost preferred it that way since it appeared that Wintersong had already been acquainted with one of Arachnitron's personalities....and it was most likely the Maximal one. Of course, nothing could happen, but she wanted to be either outside or alone. Not that she was scared of small, dark places, she was a sider after all. It was just that the longer she was inside, the more danger everyone else was in. In a confined place like this, the Predacon was sure to use it to her advantage. Not that she cared what the Predacon did to the Maximals, it was just that she still believed her affliction to be a secret known only to her. She didn't want the others to know.

The longer the repairs took, the more her mind and body began to feel less and less like her own. She began to feel very nervous and she began to have some flash backs of things she didn't remember happening. She kept seeing herself sitting against a tree with her energon pistol pointed at her temple, but she didn't remember anything like that happening before...was one of her other personalities trying to take back control? She had to get out of this place....

At last, the repair sequence ended and Wintersong stepped out fully repaired. She looked like she was feeling much better. Arachnitron sighed audibly.

"Now we can go."

Wintersong transformed to beast mode and stepped on the lift first and Arachnitron, all too eager to be out of the ship, stepped on the lift in robot mode. The lift slowly began to descend to the ground below them.

Once the lift stopped moving, she stepped off hastily. She stood expectantly for a few moments not moving. She looked around her almost as though whatever she was expecting to happen was something she could see coming (but of course, she couldn't). Then she thought about the explosion and what happened afterward....and she couldn't remember anything. Which was a good thing because that meant she was still the Hybrid and not the Predacon. She sighed in relief. Perhaps the fresh air calmed the other two personalities down. Her mind felt much more clear and she felt like she was back in control again. She was feeling a lot less nervous.

When she was finally satisfied that nothing was going to happen, she transformed to beast mode without uttering a word.

She turned to look at the tiger and her eight green eyes revealed that she felt much more comfortable with her surroundings. She gestured with one of her eight legs. "Okay. Lead the way," she said.

OOC: I'm sure a spider tagging along behind a tiger is not something you see everyday....lol

[Optimal Optimus Primal]

(( OOC: Nothing to worry about here, Phoenix. Great post. I must say, Nemesis is a tough one to figure out.

@ Blackrosefencer: Oooooh, I see. Yes, yes. Very interesting indeed.

And bad Wintersong! Leaveing without informing anyone, especially while she's with Arachnitron! Aye! ))

"Look," "Ask yourself why would I have come to the Maximal base only to kill a lone Maximal? If my intentions had been to kill, would I not have attacked the base itself to take out as many of you as possible? I was considerably bigger and more powerful at the time after all. Your friend died because of an accident."

All Optimus could do was take her word for it, but her recollection was as he suspected anyway. Hopefully his belief in her side of the story would satisfy his Maximals' suspicions toward what happened between Nemesis and Nightmist. Now they had Aurora, so it was best for all of them to move on and take care of the new Fuzor.

"I have already explained my actions to you. There isn't much I can do to change the past at this point."

"No," he agreed, "but you can work on your behavior in the future."

"Well, Optimus," "I am sorry you feel that way.."

Primal narrowed his optics again, sensing something in her voice. But before he could react, the Predacon had suddenly spun around and slammed her foot into his throat, causing him to gag and stumble backwards. Maintaining his balance, he held his good hand over his neck as he coughed deeply, then felt a sharp pain in his wounded hand when Nemesis swiftly grabbed a hold of it. Growling in agony, feeling a few of her fingers sink through the bandage and the holes, Optimus felt the same arm being bent behind his back and then pushed forward toward a wall. Quickly, he lifted one of his feet off of the floor and stopped Nemesis' momentum by slamming the bottom of his foot into the wall. Instead of dropping it back to the floor, he immediately kicked backwards as hard as he could into her knee intending to knock her back or on the floor so that she would release his arm, then he spun around and activated the duel wrist cannons on his other arm, targeting them at her head.

"I am not spending eternity locked up!,"

"That is not my intention!" Primal snarled at the hawk. "I have far greater concerns to worry about than keeping you locked up in my ship," he said coldly in a deep voice, glaring at her with his steady aim. His throat throbbed and his already dysfunctional hand pounded and bled more again, running through the bandage and dripping on the floor. "But if I don't leave this cell in one piece, I guarantee that you won't be leaving here at all. No one is going to harm you while you're here unless you give them a reason to, and right now I am this close to throwing you into stasis lock." Which actually may not be a bad thing for her because at least then she wouldn't have to worry about her claustrophobia for a while. Yes, it certainly was tempting but Optimus hesitated on the idea, giving her the chance to decide her fate. "The only thing you have to fear in this cell is yourself."

-----

Watching all of this unfold on the monitor, Rattrap was about to panic and tell Orcariner to bust the door down but then he saw that Optimus was able to fight back and now had the upper hand. He waited eagerly to see Nemesis' reaction, wondering what the boss monkey had said that ticked her off so suddenly.

[Wintersong]

((I do foresee a lecture for this thing again. Never crossed her mind. hehe))

It never crossed Wintersong's mind to inform the others she was going outside along with Arachnitron, the tigeress didn't see any reason for it for the time being. COming outside the spider seemed to actually look more comfortable, like she could actually think now instead of being in the confines on the ship and boy was it. Since coming there Wintersong had grown to love the organic planet and found herself spending more time in the wild then the Axalon, much to the annoyance of some and she often forgot to report in which she had already been lectured twice for it. While Arachnitron took a moment to gather herself the tigeress was taking the chance to take a few deep breathes, taking in the scents carried on a small breeze and caught several scents of the plants, the water from the waterfall, and several others. It was a calming feeling and soon enough both of them were ready to go.

"Alright, this place is pretty big not quite entirely sure where to start." Thinking a moment the white tigeress listened the area and decided to show the arachnid the nearby waterfall and with a flick of her tail she motioned for Arachnitron to follow and Wintersong trotted towards the cliff edge, which this time without pain and she stopped on the edge peeking down. "This place is pretty cool, the waterfall from up here runs under the Axalon and goes down in that valley there. The valley itself is has a few plant life though unless you like water best to stay down stream." She said glancing back at Arachnitron."Of course there is a little bit of plant life around this place, there's more towards those trees in the distance whcih makes up a forest on this planet." She explained.

In fact Wintersong was rather enjoying showing someone else the beauty of the planet, some Maximals didn't like it there, perhaps certain places but not everyone looked at it in such a way as beauty. In her opinion this organic planet was far better then Cybertron, more peaceful. "I do miss home Arachnitron I'll admit, but if we ever did repair the ship to leave I'd still rather be here then there." She admitted.

[Mystrea]

Ironclaw was monitoring the systems when when the computer alerted him that two people had just left the base. It identified them as Wintersong and then it struggled to with the other. However he could see that it was Arachnitron.

Ironclaw decided to tell Optimus. He left the bridge and headed for the brig. He stepped into the brig and saw that Optimus and the Predacon prisoner were still in deep conversation. "Excuse me Optimus, but two.... Bots have just left the base without authorisation. Including that....Acachton? Actaeon or whatever her name is." Ironclaw informed Optimus.

[Phoenix]

(Ooc; I think Ironclaw would have had to make his report to Rattrap or Orcariner, since Optimus himself is currently locked inside the windowless cell with Nemesis. I just realized I forgot to post for Aurora for a bit so writing a quick one up for her and holding Nem's response off until tomorrow.

Also I'm ok, I think. It's just that I had a positive pregnancy test, and my first baby is just 3 1/2 months old.. will have to take another test to be absolutely sure. But needless to say I'm a little overwhelmed right now. Did not realize I was a rabbit....)

Aurora had been watching in the background when Arachnitron and Wintersong decided to leave the base. Her first thought was to follow them, but upon remembering what Whitegrazer had said earlier she decided to stay in the base for now.

A few minutes later she noticed Ironclaw rush past her, heading to the brig in a hurry. The ermine almost stopped him, but decided to let it go since he appeared to be in a hurry. So instead she made her way to the cryo chambers to check up on Whitegrazers progress.

[Blackrosefencer]

OOC: Glad to hear it's nothing too serious. Well, pretty serious, but no one died...that's what I was worried about.

And I'll post as soon as the Steelers game is over.... GO BLACK AND GOLD!!!

[NaitoKage]

Visia heard no response in the smoke, and the sound of her own gunfire was deafening to herself, for a moment. From a high angle a red laser pierced through the darkness slamming into the venom blaster knocking it away. Two narrow beams then followed in a continuous stream swinging past her tentacles to chop through them rather effortlessly.


Once again there was silence, the few holes made from her random fire in the ceiling casting a dull light into the smoke which was barely visible. Within the dark smoke two feeder tentacles then fired out, from surprisingly behind Visia pulling her helplessly as eight other tentacles coiled around her body pulling her towards a large squid beak, the photophores on Glowstick's body then started to pulse red in sequence along his mantle and down his arms as he bit into her stolen body, infecting it with his Cybervenom.

While the method may have been cowardly to the parasite, to Glowstick there was nothing more simple or barbaric then following his own squid instincts and hunting methods, like a small fish alone in the dark with a firefly squid.

[Blazemane]

((OOC: Well, I know you don't know anything yet, Phoenix, but just in case, congratulations!

As for Cheetor and Dinobot, there hasn't been anything they've had to do at the end of this episode. I could move my plan for the end of last episode to this one, but I'm not sure it fits anymore...

And Steelclaw just fell behind. I'll give a little more thought to that.))

[Blackrosefencer]

OOC: Okay, Steelers are victorious...now I can post!

BIC:

Wintersong flicked her tail gesturing to Arachnitron the direction they were going. The spider followed silently taking in the sights. She had somewhat of an ulterior motive for taking the tour with the tiger. Aside from worrying about exposing herself to the others in the event that something were to happen, she was keen to know more about her surroundings. If this was to be her new home, it would be smart to know more about it. Especially since Arachnitron saw herself as neither Predacon nor Maximal, but a fugitive. A bot on the run needs to be familiar with her surroundings. And maybe she could scope out a nice hiding place for when she wasn't running.

She listened closely to everything Wintersong said and studied the area she showed her carefully. She didn't want to miss anything. She foresaw much of her future taking place out here....the wilderness was quite comforting to her. Inside the base had reminded her of Cybertron and of the life she left behind there. It felt good to not be locked up all the time, but she still felt uncomfortable being there amongst others from her former home. But out here, she was truly free and it was refreshing and peaceful to be free.

"Alright, this place is pretty big not quite entirely sure where to start. This place is pretty cool, the waterfall from up here runs under the Axalon and goes down in that valley there. The valley itself is has a few plant life though unless you like water best to stay down stream. Of course there is a little bit of plant life around this place, there's more towards those trees in the distance whcih makes up a forest on this planet."

Arachnitron could see why the tiger was so drawn to the organic planet. It was quite an interesting sight. She never imagined that anything like this existed. Though, as a former Predacon, Arachnitron did not feel so inclined to describe the planet as beautiful or anything like that. She preferred intriguing and mysterious. Arachnitron was anxious to explore more.

Then, Wintersong spoke again:

"I do miss home Arachnitron I'll admit, but if we ever did repair the ship to leave I'd still rather be here then there."

"That makes two of us," Arachnitron replied simply.

She fought back memories of the research facility on Cybertron. She didn't remember much....as far as she could tell, anything that happened while the Maximal or Predacon programming was in control, was privy to only that personality and not to any other. The Predacon programming spent a lot of time in control...trying to escape, but the Pred almost never was in control long enough to feel the repercussions of her actions.....the beatings were harsh and long....she could sometimes still feel the energon whip burning through her exo-structure. That's what most of her memories were....not much else.

Arachnitron tried to think of something else....but the only thing that she could think of besides her life on Cybertron was that moment in the Axalon just before Wintersong stepped into the CR chamber. She hadn't seemed the least bit worried or afraid or even surprised at what she had said to her. She couldn't help but think that something had happened between the explosion and her waking up in the CR chamber...something that either led WIntersong to suspect about Arachnitron's condition or to know all about it. Maybe, one of the others had confided in Wintersong. Maybe, Wintersong was the only one who knew. Maybe she was the only other one here on this planet at all. But she had to know how much Wintersong knew. And she had to word her question carefully. If Wintersong didn't know, then she could still write this off as amnesia from whatever had damaged her. And if she did, then she'd have to figure out what to do about that.

Arachnitron turned her head to the tigress and spoke seriously, but un-threateningly. "Tell me the truth, how was I damaged?"

[Wintersong]

Wintersong smiled assuming the arachnid was taking a liking to the planet, maybe not as much as everyone but it must have been a nice change from Cybertron though she had no idea of the true reason Arachnitron had been in that escape pod. As the tigeress went to lead elsewhere she glanced at her once more at the question, her ears twitching a bit since she didn't entirely know what all had occurred. "I only know that a former Decepticon called Nemesis, now a Predacon and currently in the brig, attacked my new comades and seriously damaged you and a friend of ours called Whitegrazer. What all traspried I cannot exactly explain I was on another mission at the time a little before you went to talk to Optimus I left." She explained showing no signs of lying.

Honestly Wintersong had no idea how else to answer or what more to say. The extent of it she only knew the Maximals attacked, Arachnitron had a personality disorder of some sort, and that she had to be watched, though the question was why? What if Arachnitron decided to go neutral and survive on her own, for as far as the white tigeress could see she seemed uncomfortable in the Axalon and among the Maximals. She almost seemed neither when one thought about it. "We won't force you to stay here Arachnitron, your obviously not comfortable among the crew. I wasn't even suppose to be here myself but they grow on you after a while. Guess what I am trying to say is you don't have to be on either faction, certainly even Optmus would not force you." She said turning fully to look at the spider."He's an understanding leader and I'm sure he would respect your decision if you wanted to leave."

She wasn't trying to encourage Arachnitron to leave just trying to help the arachnid know that they would not force her into doing something she wouldn't want to do. Least Wintersong had seen this and come to trust the crew to not be that way unless they truly saw Arachnitron as a threat. Would they? Maybe. Inwardly Wintersong had doubts this would have a good ending and she glanced towards the lfit, half expecting for someone to come out and stop them though pushed away her thoughts once more. "Here let's go check out the forest, you might like it better then all the rocks around here. It's actually pretty nice." She said a bit more cheerfully and started towards the tree line of the forest.