Art on Trial

by Lyra Harp

Helen, as a college student, should be having the time of her life. After a nightmare about her artwork in a courtroom where the law doesn't apply, she starts questioning whether she is truly an artist. Before she trades in her brushes for running shoes, Jazz steps in. Can he rebuild her confidence, or will Helen's dream of painting for a living become just a dream? OC Story

Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers.

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{I was in a normal courtroom, on a normal stand, with normal sunlight coming through the windows. The circumstances for my being here, however, were not quite normal.

"Miss Hell, as I understand it, you are an artist in your spare time, correct?"

"Yes, that's correct."

"I see...And...your artwork...what does it portray?"

"I can't see how that is of any importance to this case."

"Oh, it makes all the difference in the word." The lawyer smirked before walking over to a covered up board. "If I may display a piece from miss Hell's exhibit, your honor?"

"Proceed."

"In that case...I present the jury with-" He pulled the sheet away. "Exhibit A!"

The jury gasped and muttered as Galloway folded the vanilla sheet in his arms. "Miss Hell...would you please explain this...piece of art."

"That...would be...a blue robot...in the rain and...fog."

"I see...and did my client consent to this...portrayal?"

"Y-You don't understand."

"Really?" He walked toward me with his arms lay behind his back. "And what aren't I understanding?"

"That-that piece was...before I even...before robots were even considered citizens."

"So you painted this...artwork...before you met...a robot with an A.I?"

I stared at him. "Yes."

"Are you aware that the robot in your painting looks remarkably similar to my client?"

My mouth opened...then closed. "I..."

"Tell me, miss Hell...Are you aware that this painting could very well be interpreted as...something else? Perhaps...my client in a shower?"

"The robot in the painting is not armorless! There's no...private parts or...They don't have genders! There is nothing about my painting that suggests anything sexual! That's not-!"

"This is a robot, though, is it not? And, to my knowledge, you have been working with my client and others like him for years. Did they know that you have been shaming them for your own amusement without their concent?"

"Objection! Your honor, this is ridiculous. He is hagaling my client."

"Sustained, Lennox. Galloway, I suggest you make your point before I am forced to throw you in contempt."

"Of course." He layed the sheet next to me on the oak stand. "Miss Hell, have you had sex with my client?"

"Objection!"

Galloway held up his hands, smiling. "Given the subject matter, your honor, the answer could very well prove emotional damage was inflicted."

"I'll allow this line of questioning for the time being." The judge turned to me. "I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to ask you to answer the question."

I sighed and faced Galloway. "No, I haven't."

"I see. Well, as a woman in her twenties, you must have needs."

I stared at him. I expected this question...I just hoped it wouldn't come up. "No."

"Pardon?"

"I don't...have needs. Well, I have needs, but not sexually. Not very much, at least. At least, not concerning-"

"Humans?"

"Objection!"

"On what grounds?"

"What he is insinuating is-!"

"Wrong? Immoral? Yes, I think we all could agree with that."

"This is-!" Lennox began.

"Miss Hell, have you, or have you not, ever been attracted to a human?"

"No."

"In that case, based on exhibit A and this line of questioning, I am asking that the jury and judge consider that miss Hell has been making and selling products consistent with pornography, and should therefore be placed in prison in order to save my client and others like him from this humiliating and degrading public appearance."

"Agreed."

My head whipped to the judge. "What?!"

"Miss Hell, you are hearby sentenced to lifetime in prison for the producing of robotic pornography. Case dismissed."

"What? No! It's not like that! It's not him in the picture! It's not them! It's not!" As I was handcuffed, I turned to Galloway's client. Blurr was crying from his seat, mortified. "How could you?"

"Blurr, I swear, it was before! I didn't know! I didn't knooo-"}

"No!" I sat upright in bed, sweating. I looked around before placing my head in my hands. "Primus."

I flinged the sheets off of me. It was six in the morning, but I didn't care. Now was as good of a time to get up as any, considering that I felt...ticked. Befuddled. I couldn't tell if it was the negative vibes of the nightmare getting to me...or the fact that my guardian was taken away from me. When your guardian gets taken away from you, you tend to get a little defensive...or just plain ticked off. I settled for ticked off as I put on my running gear and jogged around campus.

I had been running since I could walk and painting since I was five. Normally, I prefered painting, but recently...I felt like the quality of my work had dropped dramatically. Not because it didn't necessarily look good on paper...but because...I wasn't sure how the autobots would...react to...seeing themselves on paper. Very colorful paper, in some cases...

Maybe I should just run for a living, I grumbled. I'm good at running-

Yeah, running away.

I gritted my teeth together before switching to the next angry death metal song and continuing on my merry way.

Merry, Merry, Quite contrary, I hummed as I glided into the coffee shop on campus.

Mary's gonna fall in a ditch-Oh, how dandy~!

Helen's in Hell, yes she is!

Hey, Prime, look at this~!

"Your in a good mood," Jack said with a smile.

I winked with a salute as I imagined Prime falling in a ditch on an abandoned dirt road. "You bet. Get me the usual, Jacky?"

"Sure thing, miss Hell."

"Get the lady a shot of expresso in there, will ya? Girl needs it after last night."

I scowled at Jazz's holoform. Jazz, either get a room or get a life. I'm not in the mood for your cheerfulness right now. I'm wallowing in passive-aggressive behavior.

Jack raised an eyebrow from over the coffee machine. "Oh, really?"

I hit Jazz in the back of the head. "Ow!"

"Yeah, really." I raised an eyebrow right back at Jack. "Better make it quick, Jack. Jude will suffer otherwise."

"The hell did I do-?"

I hit him again. "Hush, Jude. There's a reason why I'm called miss Hell."

"That there is," Jack chuckled as he set the coffee on the counter.

I tossed him the college card. "Give yourself a tip, Jacky."

"Here's a tip. Don' hit your ma-" I punched the top of Jazz's head so he fell on the floor. "Ow! Dammit, girl! Your worse than Hell girl!"

"Like hell I am! I warned you!"

"You should've-!"

"I have a better idea." Jazz and I looked at Jack. He had the card between his fingers. He threw it at me like a ninja. "Instead of that tip, go yell outside. You know, before the manager upstairs wakes up."

I winced. "Sorry, Jacky-"

"Sorry, man-"

Jack waved it off. "No sweat. It's more so that people are staring than anything..."

Jazz blushed and patted my shoulder as he turned to the door. "See ya outside, Helen..."

"Yeah, sure," I mumbled back. Once the door bell went off, I turned to Jack. He beckened me forward with a finger. I leanned my elbows on the counter. Jack copied the movement. "Jacky-"

He shook his head. "Hell, look...as your friend, I feel like it's my right to warn you that you've been different lately. I don't know if it's because of that guy or not, but I have to ask..." He stared through me. "Did you get into a fight with Beval? I haven't seen him in two weeks...and since he's normally the one who picks up your usual-"

I shook my head, swallowing. "I-It's not that...He...He was called back to the mainland, a-and..." I blinked to keep in the tears. "I don't know if he's going to be allowed to come back, Jack..." I whispered.

"I'm sorry." He placed his right hand over mine and squeezed it. "I know you were close-"

"He was like my brother, Jacky. I-If I can't see h-him again-"

"Hush, Hell," he whispered. He handed me a napkin. I wiped the tears away and got rid of the snot. He smiled as he pushed the coffee to me. "Take this. Oh, and I word of advice..." He smirked as I leanned in again. "I put a shot of...you know...instead of expresso. I hope the change is alright. You look like you need some extra flavor."

I shook my head, smiling. "Whatever you say, Jacky." You are so lucky I don't have morning classes. Then again, maybe I am... "Smell you around."

"Hey, I showered this morning, thank you very much!"

"With what? Mister chocolate with a bit of young spice?" I winked at his blush.

He threw a towel at me. "Oh, get out of here already. Go whine to your boyfriend."

I saluted with the coffee. "Yes, sir." I put the towel in the doorknob as I left.

I walked until I reached the bench I had stopped at in the middle of campus. There were a few other trees around, but not enough to conceal the upsidedown ninja. "Happy now that you have your joe?"

"Get out of the tree, Jude, before people start calling you a tree hugger."

"Yer worse than Sammy, ya know that?"

"I have an idea." I took a sip of the coffee...and almost choked on it. Fu'ew-! Geez, Jacky. Did I really look that bad?

Jazz looked amused. "Ya okay, girl?"

"Ugh..." I swallowed the backwash before taking another sip. "Yeah, I just...wasn't expecting Jacky to add that much flavor. Isn't there a limit to how many flavors you can add?"

Jazz smiled knowingly. "Maybe it depends on the customer. A little kick may wake them up."

Yeah, or kill them... "Speakin' o' which..." Jazz sat on the bench. "How ya doin'?" I stared at him. "That bad, huh?"

I sighed. I set the coffee on the bench and sulked with my eyes heaven-ward. "Sorta..." I mumbled.

"If it's any conselation, Blurr feels like hell, too-"

"He fragging shouldn't." I snapped my head up to glare at Jazz. "It's not his fragging fault that I decided to be an idiot and down a few cups. Why the hell is my guardian being punished for something I did?"

"Your punishment was the next morning, remember?"

"That's not punishment; that's just desserts. Taking my guardian away-That's punishment. I want to take Prime's head and just-" I motioned spinning a jar top off. "And don't give me any scrap about him being an alien robot that could kick my aft to hell and back for even trying. I'm already getting scrap for that on-" I froze. Scrap.

Jazz raised an eyebrow. "On...?"

"Mental hiatus, excuse me-"

"Oh no ya don'. C'mere." He pulled me down. "On what, Helen?"

"On...Online," I mumbled.

"Ya got Prime in media hell online?"

"It...would be better...if I could...show you the damage."

Jazz let go of me. "Well, a'ight. Lead the way." The downed the coffee before we were inside the dormitory. "That thirsty, huh?" I ignored him and threw the empty cup away next to the ash tray outside. Jazz followed me to my room four floors up. "Nice place ya got here." Again, I ignored him as I clicked through the interwebs.

Once I found my gallery, I pulled away from my desk and held out my chair for Jazz. "Here."

Jazz raised an eyebrow as he sat down. "Thank ya kindly." Jazz grabbed my right wrist with his left hand. "Where ya goin'?"

"I was going to hide in the corner..."

"This ain't the shamin' class, Helen. Chill fo' a while...while I...Wow." I covered my face with my free hand. "Is that...? That's Prime, right?"

I peeked through my fingers before blushing and turning my head away. "Y-Yeah..."

"I mean, creepiness aside, its still good. Ya got all the details an' everythin'...An' Prime really shoulda thought the whole flame thing through, anyhow..."

"Why aren't you yelling?"

"Huh?" Jazz looked up at me. "Why would I do that?"

"Jazz...It's Prime...your leader...in Hell. I figured I'd get my head chopped off if any of you found out-"

"Prime ain't gonna punish ya for bein' passive-aggressive, Helen. I ain't either. The others might find it funny, actually-Mind if I show this to them?"

"W-What? No!"

"Alrighty then. Now sharing the leader of Hell to his minions-"

"No, you idiot!"

Jazz laughed as I tackled him to the floor. "A'ight, a'ight! I surrender! No more hitting!"

I laid on my back next to him and placed my arm over my eyes. "Primus, you scared me-"

"To Hell and back?" Jazz chuckled as I gave him the bird. "Ouch. Jus' sayin'. Ya really are miss Hell." I huffed. "Hey." I looked at him. "It's good art, Helen. Takes a creative mind ta put alien robots in a setting other than a lab."

"Not really...and I should've asked first-"

"Maybe." He rolled on top of me. "But maybe we should start includin' our human allies in our decisions. We keep a lot from ya, 'cause we think it'll help an' save ya from gettin' hurt, but if yer art is anything ta go by-"

"Is Blurr alright?"

"Mech's processor crashed 'cause he freaked after ya downed a couple. Ratchet's been recalibratin' his sensors."

"But...he'll be okay, right?"

"Mech'll be in a best-guardian magazine by the end of the week." He smiled. "O' a local mueseum, depending on the pic..."

"I should really delete those..."

"Ya kiddin' meh? Prime's comedy gold!" I gave him a look. He chuckled. "Tell ya what...I'll keep yer hobby on the down low if ya do somethin' fo' meh."

"What's that?"

"Well, fo' one thing...I want ta show Prime the picture o' Blurr in the rain."

My eyes went wide. "I-I don't think-"

He placed a finger over my mouth. "It'll jus' be ta get a point across so this won't happen again. I'm sure the other human charge's will appreciate it, too. You'll be doin' 'em a service." I bit my lip, blushing. "W-Well...I-I g-guess if i-it's Prime...But only Prime, you hear me? It's embarrassing enough that you know about it..."

"Ya don' have ta be embarrassed. I already told ya they were good." I looked off to the side. He lined his nose up with mine. "Hey." He smirked at my expression. "Make sure that next painting includes little ol' Jazz, a'ight? Make sure it really sparkles, too. The owner'll be real happy if ya do."

A week later, Miss Hell uploaded a new painting. The only colors used were white, yellow, blue and silver. The painting was of a silver robot. It had it's arms stretched out with it's helm tilted heaven-ward. The robot was covered and surrounded by little orbs of light. A bright blue spark was visible in the center of a its chest. The robot was smiling.

Jazz smiled. "Coulda included a bit mo' sunshine..."

"What are you looking at so intently, Jazz?" Ratchet asked as he cleaned his tools.

"Nothin'." Jazz closed the tab and looked at another set of paintings. "Jus' an up n' comin' artist."