I am so nervous about this. I really want it to live up to the same standard as Fragments, and I'm worried that it won't. It sounds fairly epic to me, but it's not up to me to judge it.
I really hope you all enjoy it!
Chapter One: New Beginnings
Left, right, twirl, leap, bend, stretch, jump, spin.
Flash Bang danced across the stage with grace, her upgraded model complementing her new job perfectly. She was a stunner, she told herself, with the grownup curves and sleek, polished armour. Many bots in the audience said she looked like a younger Flareup, which flattered Flash Bang as Flareup wasa very good looking femme. The audience cheered loudly as she finished her dance in time to Rosanna's song. The pink all-star femme was still under constant surveillance, due to Blurr's dossier of evidence of her being "Flip Sides", and no-one watched her more closely than Blurr himself.
Well, when he wasn't watching Flash Bang.
Blurr sat at the table closest to the stage, applauding loudly as Flash Bang finished and bowed. As she righted herself, Blurr waved to her, and she waved back with a slight blush on her faceplate. Another dancer behind her gave a small "huff" when she realised he hadn't been waving at her. Oh how jealous the other femmes were! A little delivery femme had been scooped up by Blurr the champion racer, upgraded and brought to the stage through numerous deals made between Blurr and The Circle's proprietor. Flash Bang did sometimes feel that she had cheated to get where she was, but she made up for it by performing the most incredible dances seen in The Circle, and the other femmes begrudgingly admitted that she was brilliant.
Blurr leapt to his support servos as Flash Bang descended from the stage, taking her servos in his and giving her a well deserved kiss.
"You were fantastic," he praised her after pulling away. "I swear you get better ever solar cycle, and I wouldn't be surprised if that were true, what with all the practicing you do solar cycle by solar cycle. How can you stand to keep it up?"
"The same way you stand all that racing training," she said, kissing him. "I enjoy it."
Blurr hugged her tightly and kissed the on top of her helm. The femme looped her arms around him, giving him a tight squeeze. Blurr, however, stiffened slightly as Rosanna pottered down from the stage to congratulate Flash Bang. The red femme tried to turn to the pink, but found herself pinned to Blurr.
Blurr, she thought to him, let me go!
Reluctantly, Blurr released his mate, after which she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek plate before turning to Rosanna. The two had worked on the whole bond thing, and had become able to communicate perfectly well through their link. They could talk to each other through their processors even if one was miles away from the other. To be honest, it was quite handy, and Flash Bang enjoyed being able to cheer Blurr on as he raced. As Flash Bang turned to Rosanna, Blurr kept a tight hold on one of her servos.
"Great show tonight, Flash Bang," the singer congratulated. "You really do take the audience's intakes away!"
Flash Bang grinned proudly and ran the servo that wasn't being held captive by Blurr over her new curves. "The remodel helped," she chuckled.
"Don't be so modest, Flash," Blurr put in. "You were beautiful anyway."
Rosanna made a loud "aw" before saying goodnight to Flash Bang and Blurr and heading off to her backstage room. As she left, Flash Bang pulled her servos free and lightly backhanded Blurr across his abdomen with it.
"Oof!" Blurr gasped – Flash Bang's remodel had made her physically stronger as well as more curvaceous. "What was that for?"
"I've told you not to get all "intelligence agent" on Rosanna," she replied. "She's done nothing wrong, and anyway, you're not an intelligence agent anymore!"
She was right – with Megatron behind bars, Blurr had gone back to racing, and his mass of fans hadn't been disappointed. He'd won every race he'd participated in since his return, including the Iacon 5000 – a fifty lap race of a five hundred mile track. The only thing that kept Blurr from finishing the twenty five thousand mile race in less than a solar cycle was the fact that, from time to time, he did actually need to rest. Well, not to mention that even going at his top speed constantly it would still take approximately twelve-point-zero-two megacycles.
Less than a single megacycle later, Flash Bang found herself sat in the VIP box at the Iacon Racetrack. Blurr was stood at the starting line, jigging about in an agitated manner as he waited for the race to start. The line up was made up of the usual bunch of racers: Fasttrack, Bluestreak, Hot Shot, Bumblebee and himself. Blurr gave his yellow friend a small gesture of good luck as the crowd went wild with anticipation. The race was about to start, but then one last contestant pulled into the arena.
A silver sports car revved its engine as it pulled up to the starting line. Everyone went silent as the mysterious newcomer transformed into a tall, skinny femme. There was a mix of gasps and smothered cheers as the crowd took in the sight. The other mechs and femmes in the VIP box with Flash Bang murmured to each other about the racer's identity. Flash Bang only caught snatches of their conversations, but she didn't need them. She rocketed off her chair as she realised who it was. This was an old-time champion from before Blurr's first championship win. This was the only femme ever to be champion. This was the legendary, missing Silverstar.
"Silverstar?" Fasttrack gasped down on the track. "You're alive?"
The femme smirked at the dumbstruck mechs, almost mockingly. "You really thought I was gone for good?" she asked, pointedly. A gormless nod from the crimson mech was the only answer she got.
Blurr looked at her curiously. Shouldn't he know her? The others certainly did, and they'd been into racing for as long as he had – longer in some cases. He turned to Bumblebee to ask him who this "Silverstar" was, but suddenly the start signal turned green and they were off.
Naturally, Blurr took the lead right away, but he was stunned to see that Silverstar was hot on his heels. Primus, she was fast! Blurr was going to have to up his game if he wanted to win. He sped on, pushing himself as hard as he could. His legendary eight hundred miles per hour took effort, and he had to build up to it.
Suddenly Silverstar was right beside him and his spark leapt in shock. No-one ever got close to him! Surely he would remember a challenge such as her? But he pushed on regardless, just about managing to take the lead once more. His speed was increasing rapidly now, and the finish line wasn't all that far off. But then Silverstar caught up to him again! This was impossible! No-one was anything like as fast as him! Not even Hot Shot who, for such a small bot, was really very quick.
Blurr decided something sneaky had to be done. He swerved in front of her and she hit the brakes quickly in panic. As she did this, Blurr ran up the side of the racetrack and pushed off it, sending himself further into the lead. He heard a disgruntled "Hey!" from Silverstar as he ran on, but forgot about her entirely as he crossed the finish line.
The crowd erupted into excited cheers as Blurr came to a halt, arms raised in the air as he revelled in the win. Flash Bang hopped up and down excitedly as Blurr's fans cheered, screaming her congratulations through their bond. Blurr looked up to the box and waved to her, she waved back excitedly. But then Silverstar walked up behind him, looking rather annoyed.
Blurr, you've got trouble! Flash Bang thought to the mech. Blurr turned to look at the silver femme, spreading his servos apologetically as she stormed towards him. The femme stood directly in front of Blurr and for a moment he thought he was in for some serious pain, but then she smiled warmly.
"Nice trick," she said happily. "I was gonna try something similar on you but you beat me to it." When Blurr didn't say anything, she continued. "I can't believe you've come back to racing, Blurr! Last I heard you were stalking Rosanna."
"I was never stalking Rosanna," he retorted, about to go on a massive rant about how she was a sleeper agent and this, that and the other. But Silverstar laughed.
"Well, either way," she said after a moment, "it's good to see you again."
Blurr's instant reply was "Likewise," but then he remembered that he didn't remember her, but she walked away before he could correct himself.
Blurr, Flash Bang thought, get to the winner's podium!
Alerted to what he should have been doing, Blurr took off towards the podium, getting there before Silverstar had even walked half way.
"You never stop running, do you, Blurr?" But Blurr didn't hear her.
Blurr took his place on the top of the podium, Silverstar on the second place block and Hot Shot on the third. Blurr shook servos with the fiery mech as they awaited their prizes. A sultry little femme sauntered up to the podium, carrying three medals for the winners. She gave Blurr an all-too-obvious wink as she looped a medal over Hot Shot's cranial unit, and continued to look him over as she looped the second one over Silverstar. No-one noticed, but Silverstar was glowering almost evilly at the femme as she did this. Finally, the femme placed the first place medal over Blurr's cranial unit. The femme's servos lingered on Blurr's neck a little longer than he'd have liked, but there wasn't a chance to ask her to let go.
BOOM!
The next thing Blurr knew was that he was flying through the air. He landed with a thud and groggily looked up to see what had happened, servo to his cranial unit which was aching terribly. Smoke filled the area and the ground was littered with debris. Looking about, Blurr saw that the winner's podium had been completely destroyed, and was now a smouldering pile of torn and melted scrap, and the femme was nowhere to be seen. Other than that, no-one seemed badly hurt, but then he noticed Silverstar buried beneath a support beam that had broken from under the stands. A number of mechs were on their way to help her, but none of them noticed that the stands were bending under the crowd's weight due to the lack of support.
Fast as he could, Blurr darted towards Silverstar, just as the crowd began to realise what was happening and tore into fearful screams. Blurr beat the other mechs to Silverstar and shoved the beam with all his might out of the way before yelling at some of the stronger mechs to help him shove it back under the stand. Ironhide appeared out of nowhere and helped him, followed by a much bigger bot who held the stands in place as Blurr and Ironhide manoeuvred the beam. Someone else dragged Silverstar out of the danger zone, and she was quickly seen to by a pair of medics. The amount of damage done to her was unusually minimal. A huge support beam dropping on a delicate femme like her should have snapped her in two!
There was a thick thunk as the beam was shoved back as close to its place as it could go, and Blurr span round almost dramatically to see if Silverstar was okay. When he saw her being tended to, he relaxed and went over to her. The crowd erupted into grateful applause as the speedster and his helpers walked to the medics.
"Are you okay?" Blurr asked Silverstar. "You didn't get too badly hurt did you? That was a heavy beam; I mean, I couldn't move it by myself, although I'm not exactly made for heavy lifting like Ironhide – who helped me just now, if you didn't see. No, I'm built for speed, not strength, which I guess you already knew but I've already said it again, so, no matter."
Silverstar chuckled merrily at Blurr as he went on his rant, giving the blue bot a large smile as he went on.
"You haven't changed a bit," she smirked. "But, yes, I'm fine, thank you. You really saved a lot of bots' skid plates just then."
Blurr smiled slightly. "Yeah, I guess did." Flash Bang came running in just then and threw he arms around Blurr in an enormous hug.
"Oh my spark, Blurr," she cried, "I thought you were slag! They refused to let me in for ages whilst they cleared the debris but I snuck past them and got in. Are you okay?"
Blurr turned to her and put his servos on the shorter bot's shoulder. "I'm fine, Flash, don't worry. And, well, you shouldn't sneak in if it's dangerous. You didn't use your flash bang charges, did you? Although, I suppose if you had, we'd have heard it."
"I took an entry out of your data pad and used stealth," she said proudly. Suddenly, she noticed the silver femme glowering at her, though the distasteful look vanished as soon as Flash Bang turned to her. The red femme was about to say something to Silverstar when she suddenly excused herself, the medics having finished with her.
"I'll see you soon I hope, Blurr," she said as she walked away, waving absently to the two of them. Blurr stood, watching her go, wracking his processor as to who the Pit she was.
"You alright, Blurr?" Flash Bang asked, waving a servo in the blue mech's face as he stared on absently.
"Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm fine," Blurr replied. "I just... don't remember her..." Flash Bang gasped excitedly.
"You're still missing memories?" she asked, optics wide in delight. "Yes! Detective work, here I come!"
"Not again..." Blurr murmured.
"It's not just because you can't remember your ex, Blurr," Flash Bang chided. "It's also because she's been missing since before the war."
Blurr froze at Flash Bang's little revelation. My ex? I've had relations with Silverstar and I don't remember? Blurr looked down at the red femme who was happily clapping her servos together, hopping up and down on the spot and cheering about seeing an old friend.
Oh heck. PLEASE tell me I've done good so far D: If this isn't as enjoyable as Fragments, or surpasses it, then I'll be really annoyed with myself.
Please review!
:D
