Run.
"Run my baby run my baby run
Run from the noise of the street and the loaded gun
Too late for solutions to solve in the setting sun
So run my baby run my baby run"– Garbage "Run".
Warnings: Violence, explicit language, maybe some sex (but I'm not sure) – you know, the usual.
Timing: Post season 2 finale, in my very own Beauty of the Beast Prime timeline.
Rating: T to M (and possibly even MA).
Pairings: multiple.
Disclaimer: Transformers Prime © Hasbro. Story's plot and OC's © me. There may be some OC's that aren't mine – they belong to their respective creators.
No one here to help – the intro.
"Run run away from me before I change into something you won't like
Go on get away from here before I show you something you can't fight
The moon is getting higher and i got no control over myself
My blood is boiling baby and no one here to help" – Meteors „Wolfjob"
oOo
Constancy. The Capitol. October 18th1).
Peaceful Tyranny shone in bright morning light of morning sun. It was mid spring on the northern hemisphere. The Cybertronian ship landed in the polar area, but even there it was more than obvious that it was time when all biological life awoke to blossom and produce offspring… in large quantities.
The belly of the slick ship opened and allowed its inhabitants to step on the planet's surface, though 'step' wasn't the most fitting word in case of the last Cybertronian to leave the ship. In fact, the five mechs looked rather amusing as they appeared.
Two largest of them went out first, as if they were body guards of some sort. They also acted like that: looking around with grim faces. One of them even had a visor on his optics with stylised 'x' on it.
Then smaller one left, this was slim and would look perfectly harmless if not for the gigantic barrel on his back. He also looked around, only one could not tell his expression because he wore face mask, but he did eyed everything like a professional bailiff.
Fourth to get out was a bit shorter mech with empty optic sockets. He had a long leash at which end was small looking (at least in comparison to him) turbofox with extremely malicious looking face. If not for the fact that the loose leash and size of the turbofox, one could think that the robotic canine was some sort of guide dog, but it looked more like an owner and his spoiled Chihuahua.
The last one to come out, or rather roll out was large, heavy and heavily armed tank. It rolled down the ramp slowly until it reached the surface, then the tank shifted into heavy mech with double cannon on his right arm.
If someone would observe it, it would look like the last mech was just some banana (or its robotic equivalent) republic from some backwater constellation dictator and the one with the turbofox was his bored trophy-wife.
Naturally it would be completely wrong conclusion despite of how it all looked. In fact, such a conclusion couldn't be farer from truth. The five mech were the most feared Decepticons in history, save for Megatron himself (who was more respected than feared anyway), and none of them was even close to be anyone's trophy-wife, bored or otherwise.
The two first mechs were Helex and Tesarus. Both large, heavy and having auxiliary arms. Both able to turn their bodied into torture devices. The third one was Vos, he transformed into small battle station but everyone knew that it wasn't his original transformation and that he went through long and excruciating process in the Foundry to change his transformation patterns. He also spoke only in Primal Vernacular for some odd reason. The fourth one, one with the turbofox, was Kaon a mech who turned into an electric chair. He used to transform into medical diagnostic chair that allowed scans EM fields of his patients and was officially a nurse, but he changed his purpose and paid high price as his own voltage fried his optic array. It didn't trouble him much though; he could sense electric fields of anything and everything. The last one was their leader, Tarn, an intellectualist with vicious streak, a scholar and a sadist, a music lover and fundamentalist, and hopeless addict to shape changing.
The last one was the turbofox, The Pet, which wasn't really. The creature started its existence as a turbofox but then became infected with whatever changed Cyberlife forms into sparkeaters, and indeed, the turbofox became sparkeater itself. The Pet gained semi-intelligence thanks to that change (which was an added value as a Cybertronian infected by sparkeater-mutagen usually lost most of their IQ) and was partially domesticated, with emphasis on 'partially'. No one really knew what gender The Pet was and no one felt brave enough to check, but Kaon was fond of him and the fondness was mutual and to the point that The Pet didn't try to devour Sparks of the D.J.D. … Any more.
"What do we have here?" Tarn asked while looking around.
"Thundercracker." Kaon replied. He was responsible for maintaining The List, which meant he was the one deciding where they go next.
"I didn't realise we were after him." Helex looked back at the D.J.D's communication officer. "Traitor or deserter?"
"Neither. And he is not on The List... as a target." Kaon replied 'looking' back at Helex. "Not yet anyway."
"Quid autem fecit?"2) Asked Vos giving Kaon curious optic.
"Nothing illegal, as far as we know. But he is in the Capitol's clinic for War Victims."
"Already bored." Tesarus growled and vented deeply. He never was the patient kind.
"Isn't that loony bin ran by Auto-scum?" Helex asked, suddenly more interested.
"It employs both Autobots and Decepticons, also few organics and even one or two NAILs 3)." Kaon explained patiently, there was slight smirk on his lips. "It's been approved by Lord Megatron, so each and every Decepticon works here legally and we're not allowed to execute the Autobots either."
"So why do we bother?" Tesarus growled.
"We're here to evaluate Thundercracker's claim on suffering from... um... a form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Apparently. Kaon cited the note they received about Thundercracker.
"Isn't that what shrinks are for?" Helex crossed his secondary arms... or rather tried as they were rather short.
"We do not believe Autobot medics." Tarn decided. "At least not entirely."
"According to his file, Thundercracker's case isn't very severe but it was decided that he requires a stay in the clinic." Kaon continued. "He attends to several therapy sessions and... Occupational Therapy... whatever it means. We will talk to the medics in charge of his recover and then him."
"You meant: we will scare the Autoscum until they leak their transmission fluids?" Tesarus grinned a little.
"We may give them a scare, but not too much." Tarn decided. "Rossum is working there, and he is one of Megatron's top medics, he will report to Megatron if we will disturb his calm too much."
"Aww..." Tesarus deflated visibly.
"But we will remain as authoritative as Decepticon Justice Division should!" Tarn bellowed with feeling, making everyone's Sparks literally jump. "And may Primus have mercy on Thundercracker if he isn't suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder."
"I have this feeling, that even if he isn't now, he'll start the moment he sees us." Helex grinned.
oOo
The War Victims Clinic.
Rossum felt his helm ache forming. He was by no means scared of the D.J.D. or at least not more than any Decepticon of high enough stance. After all, he was the one who performed their modifications.
But he was sick and tired of the effect the trigger happy bunch had on everyone else. Chromedome locked himself in his office and refused to leave. First Aid was on his last nerves, the question was what his meltdown would look like: panic frenzy or violence? The mech was a true medic, and that meant that he had short temper. Last time he lost his nerves he burst into hysteric fit and yelled at Lobe for half a day. Speaking of the mech, Lobe being technically their boss, was doing his best to be as passive aggressive as mechly possible. Tarn and his bunch couldn't do much, because the facility was Decepticon approved but it was still stepping on a thin ice. Lobe, despite all his authority was an Autobot and one that served the regime of Nova, Nominus and Zeta, and after the war broke he allied himself with Autobots.
Now, Rossum was chief of the surgeons (some patients were physically crippled during the war on top of their PTSD), First Aid was head of the Internal Medicine (because being war victim didn't mean that someone can't suffer from some ailment) and Lobe was in charge of the psychiatric ward and entire clinic.
They were all there because the D.J.D. required their permission to visit a patient. It seemed to be an impass.
"And I will not allow you to walk around like you own the place and scare MY PATIENTS." Love finished his rant.
"We only want to scare one of them." Tarn assured in velvety tones that it theory should melt Lobe into compliant goo, but somehow Lobe remained unaffected by the large Decepticon's amazing vocal abilities.
"I said no scaring patients." Lobe narrowed his optic. "They're suppose to recover here not get scared even more."
"This is bad for them." First Aid agreed. "They will get stressed, you will leave and I will be left with prescribing them insane amounts of tank menders!"
Rossum almost sighed, it looked like First Aid was in mood for hysteria. "Tarn, don't give me that look, if they say no, I say no." He shook his helm. "You cannot enter the ward."
Tarn glared for a moment. Rossum joined Decepticons despised he fact that most of his peers joined Autobots. That and the fact that he was one of the best surgeons and metallurgists got him high stance in Decepticons ranks along with Megatron's trust and even respect (though not much sympathy). He was the one who worked on them, and on some other mechs to improve their armours. He was important enough to get his cranial structure reconstructed after Overlord crushed his helm, and that spoke volumes about how high Rossum was in Decepticons' ranks. Tarn knew that he couldn't just massacre this mech without Megatron asking questions and being angry. It was diplomacy time, not harassment time.
"What if he will come here?" Kaon proposed. At that moment Tarn could almost hug the blind mech.
"I guess..." Lobe blinked few times. "But only after I give it a go, he really needs peace and quiet."
"By all means. But tell him that it is for his own good." Tarn pierced Lobe with single stare. "If he's not trying to pull... Catch 22 4)on us that is."
"He's not, but give us a moment." Rossum decided that he would ask First Aid for some menders after the D.J.D. would leave. "Lobe needs to evaluate his current state."
oOo
Thundercracker sat calmly behind a table. Despite not following his younger brother's steps and attending to Iaconian Academy of Science and Technology, he studied ballistics and even managed to reach engineer degree. And he was good in his field.
The mech looked normal to Tarn, but then again, most nut cases looked normal especially when on drugs. It only started when they opened their mouths. Thundercracker was heavier than Starscream and he always, absolutely always looked healthy and strong. And despite being the calmest of his entire Trine, he was deadly if he wanted to and he could hold his ground against Tarn if he chose to fight. But no matter how strong and fast he was, he could not fight entire D.J.D.
"You have no reasons to be nervous, Thundercracker, we just need to evaluate your state." Tarn spoke in his most calming voice and allowed it to tune in on Thundercracker's Spark. "If you're honest, you are safe. You only need to fear if you're trying to avoid participation in The Cause."
"I only agreed to talk to you to get you out of my helm 5)." Thundercracker replied in tired voice. Lately, he was tired all the time. "I want to be back to being bored. I like being bored. It is much better than not being bored. It is certainly better than being shot at."
"Let us talk about being shot at, shall we?" Tarn smiled behind his mask. His optics gleamed.
oOo
"And if I will never see you again, it will still be too soon!" Love pushed Kaon out of the clinic. "And I swear, if he... "At this moment he pointed at Vos who despite having a face mask looked sheepish. "... will ever make any kind of trick with his facemask ever again while on this planet, I will rewire his brain module into that of a glitch mouse!"
"Well, I can only congratulate you on making Lobe to go postal." Rossum looked rather unimpressed, but he was the one who constructed Vos' facemaks in the first place. "And from now on you are banned from this clinic. I will make sure that Megatron will know about and sanction it. And tell Tesarus to put some cool aid on it."
After that the door shut close.
"Well, congratulations Vos." Helex gave his linguistic purist companion cold glare. "Next time we're in hospital, do keep your face mask shut."
"Unde possum scire quod prae reflecti?" Vos mumbled and observed his pedes. "Populus plerumque quod quisque minxit, cum videret terebras." 6)
"Usually doesn't mean always. And this was Thundercracker, he's not just some random follower, he won't leak transmission fluid and run away screaming." Helex helped Tesarus to get on his pedes from the curd the mech was sitting on.
"Iam me purgo" 7) Vos growled.
"Enough, it is done. And it is a lesson to all of us: a shell shocked seeker will attack at the sight of Vos' drills." Tarn saw it prudent to step in. "Vos, since it was your action, you will help Tesarus to walk."
"Ut voles." Vos mumbled and helped Tesarus, who limped badly.
TBC
1) This chapter happens during Spider Woman (and before the last scene in the story).
2) "What he did?" - I use latin to distinguish Primal Vernacular from Neocybex (for which I use English).
3) NAIL – Non-Aligned Indigenous Life-forms. Cybertronian Cyvilians in other words.
4) You know, as in the novel.
5) If TC had hair, he would say: "out of my hair".
6) How was I supposed to know he will react like this? People usually wet themselves when the see the drills.
7) I apologised already.