Summary: Whirl's a crazy psycho who wants to kill him, but right now that's the only part of Springer's fragged up existence he can trust so it'll have to be enough

Notes: Based off a role-play at a recent convention and written in fic-form for tf_promptorama's weekly prompt "Leaders from any continuity or faction — Nothing to fear". This is seriously Continuity? What Continuity? with a bit of poking at the fourth wall because Springer is aware of how Continuity? What Continuity? his situation is/

Springer/Whirl if you tilt your head, squint really hard, and make a wish on the second star to the right for it to be so.

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All Helicopters are Crazy (Even Triplechangers)

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Springer was no mental powerhouse like Perceptor, but he wasn't dumb. All the universes collapsed into one, multiple Primuses, Unicrons and, well, everyone all squished into this one Here And Now... Perceptor had explained it but Springer had stopped listening. All he needed to know was would Wheeljack's giant Reset Button of dubious mechanical stability and even more dubious science actually work?

The answer: Probably, but first they needed to kill Unicron, defeat the corrupted Prime(s?), and cleanse the Matrix or else it wouldn't do a Primusdamned thing.

He didn't need the rest of Perceptor's lecture on Quantum Physics, String Theories, Chaos Mathematics and the Trousers of Time (and he was half convinced the scientist had made that last one up) to realize they were all fragged from the molecules on up.

Of course Whirl was having a grand time. This entire "Everyone who has been or has the potential to be a Prime in any universe has been corrupted into agents of ultimate evil" situation meant he was getting to kill everyone he'd ever wanted to kill but couldn't just because they were fellow Autobots. To Springer Whirl's glee just highlighted how Fragged Up Beyond All Reality this whole shebang actually was.

Because for the duration of this whole Crisis on Infinite Cybertrons lunacy he, Springer, had rather latched onto Whirl as his only real source of sanity and stability. The way the realities had all squished together had left Springer's memories a completely corrupted mishmash of two or more lives that left him seeing double every time he looked at his team. Kup - reliable old comrade and teacher or corrupted by the Dead Universe? Perceptor - geeky microscope or competent sniper? Chromia - mass murderer or Ironhide's mate? And while he remembered Bulkhead, his fragged up processor didn't seem to have any memories of Bulkhead. Was he a hot-headed spacebridge technician or a reliable if somewhat dim witted melee fighter?

(All of which paled in comparison to the pile of logic errors his memories had produced when they'd rescued Megatron from that cage. That mech seemed to change alt-forms every time Springer looked away for so much as a fraction of a klick.)

Or were they all both, like Springer himself - Hod Rod's best friend trapped on a lonely dark Cybertron and later advisor to the Prime, or long-time Wrecker promoted after Impactor's death who'd barely known the reckless loner?

Whirl though... all of Springer's memory-fragments agreed: Whirl was a batshit crazy psycho who wanted to kill everyone, including Springer.

That was enough to ground him and keep him moving toward the goal. Because if Whirl was here and was the same mouthy psycho Springer (mostly) remembered, and Whirl believed that Springer was the leader of the Wreckers then that's who Springer was right now and the rest could wait until Unicron wasn't about to destroy the multiverse.

Of course leading the Wreckers was a bit like trying to herd cybercats, but he'd gotten them this far. And with a rescued Megatron standing beside him as they faced off against Optimus and the rest of the corrupted might-have-been-Primes there really wasn't much to do but shout Wreck and Rule and dive in, but Springer's thoughts were on Whirl, Megatron, contingency plans, and what he, Springer, was willing to pay for this victory. Because even with both Megatron and Metroplex, the Wreckers were seriously outgunned and outmatched.

And while outgunned and outmatched was a sort of secondary Wecker motto, this was one fight they absolutely Could Not afford to lose.

Springer doubted. He doubted himself, his circumstances, his team, his current allies... but he could not doubt Whirl. Whirl was going to finish this thing with Unicron, then kill Megatron (which really, Springer was fine with despite the alliance because Megatron had been totally lying about letting the Wreckers go after the corrupted Optimus Prime was gone; he'd even help Whirl do the deed), then round off his psycho wishlist by killing Springer.

Springer was strangely fine with that. "Bulkhead, you know that thing I had you fix?" That thing was of course the giant cannon Whirl had scavenged from that earlier ambush which Springer had adamantly refused to allow Whirl to keep. The triplechanger was going to regret this, but... "Give it to Whirl."

...as long as Whirl's sudden but inevitable betrayal came after they won, Springer could live with being the last name on the helicopter's bucket list of people to kill.

Or not live with it, he thought, watching Whirl's eye light up as he practically humped the cannon, which expanded to almost the size of it's handler, then sprouted dozens of mini-cannons to augment the main gun.

"Now Wreckers," he called, even managing to pull Whirl's attention away from sexing his new toy, "Time to Wreck and Rule!"

They charged, Springer already firing his whirlwind gun to lay down cover for their advance.

Victory or death. Consequences were for after.

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End

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