He quickly erased the logfiles, covering the fact that he had copied the files with the city's power grid. He had worked hard to get this far, and he didn't want to lose his position anytime soon. Megatron had promised him a place in the empire once the Decepticons had taken over Cybertron, which was inevitable. Besides, Granite had been created a Decepticon. Who was he to ignore his proud heritage?
a window popped up on the screen. "You have 1 new message." he clicked on his mail account. Probably another notice from the section director. The mottled grey Decepticon sighed and clicked on it. The date it was sent was almost a full day ago, minus only about 3 hours. Primus forbid he miss an important memo. The section director would yell at him till his auios melted if he did. The mech didn't like him probably because he was a Decepticon creation. Even though Lepton&Meson was supposed to be a neutral city. Granite reminded himself to melt the loud-mouth mech down slowly once the Decepticons took over.
If they ever did, that is. He wasn't totally sure about their conquest. But it was better to be safe then sorry.
It opened, and the message was NOT what he expected it to be.
"Tag, you're it"
Granite gasped and glanced around quickly. When he looked back, the message had deleted itself. He quirked an optic rigdge. He checked the computer's logfiles. The message had been sent from the console across from his. But why? and how? the mech hadn't been here at the time the message was sent. He had gone home early that day.
And he didn't think the mech could be the serial killer the protectorate was looking for. He was allways so... nice. He didn't believe in Decepticon superiority like some of the other mechs, but he was also a Decepticon. Could a Decepticon be doing this? but why? to test the loyalty of other Decepticons in the city? no, that didn't make sense. If he was, then why hadn't "tag" killed any Autobots. No, all his victims had been Decepticons. Granite took a deep breath to cool his systems, and calmly dialed the protectorate.
When he got off the communicator with them, he looked around again. What if the killer was in the building? everyone knew that the previous victims had been sent a message, and 24 hours later turned up dead. The sound of a trash can being knocked over two cubicles down made Granite jump in his seat. He looked around again. "Screw this! I'm not going to sit here and wait for them to get here and find me dead!" he thought. he got up and carefully edged away, keeping his focus on the cubicle. He turned and ran for the door.
He'd heard about the horrible deaths, some of the victims had had limbs torn off, been tortured in various manners. Granite didn't want to think about it as he waited impatiently for the elevator to arrive on his floor. He noticed when it stopped on the floor under his. "What if the killer just got on the elevator!?" he thought. He was on the fifth floor. The cleaning crew didn't come in for another half a cycle (half hour), so who was it? He backed away and headed for the stairs.
The hallway was dark, but he scrambled down it anyway, pushing open the door to the main level with all of his might, and hurried towards the door. a shadow flitted past the front windows. Granite froze. "Okay, not going out the front then." If it was the protectorate, it would no doubt be more than just one mech. So he headed for the back alley entrance to the bulding.
The back door slammed open, hitting the trash cans next to it. making the truck jump again. Granite glanced around and started to transform. Just when he had gotten into vehicle mode and started his engine, something hit the ground in front of him. "Transform." a deep voice ordered. He really hoped it was the protectorate now! He transformed back, talking as he did so. "Thank goodness you're here, officer, I..." he trailed off as he reached his robot mode, realising it was not the protectorate.
There was nowhere to run the other direction. The alley was a dead end. and the door he had come out of was locked from the inside. So he couldn't go back into the building that way. Stowing any fear, he hoped since the mech was bigger he could just plow through him. The mech who was black and silver, simply jumped gracefully into the air, letting Granite rush past. The Decepticon stumbled and fell, trying to get up as the mech walked over. He couldn't do it quick enough, and now the mech was towering over him, whatever was covering his optics glowing a pale bluish.
Granite simply scooted back. "Plase don't kill me! I just got your message tonight, I really wasn't..."
"Shut up!" the black and silver mech snapped.
This was tag, allright. Granite gulped. Granite continued scooting, realizing his back was against the dumpster acropss the alley from his building. He was trapped!
He put one hand on it to try to pull himself up.
Tag slammed the lid on his fingers and jumped up to sit on it. Granite winced but held in his cry of pain, only letting a small squeak slip out.
"Yaknow," Tag started, almost conversationally "I've heard every excuse in the book, but yours is the best one yet." he leaned over so his head was right next to Granite's who was yanking on his hand, trying to get it free. "Here, lemme help ya with that."
There was a "zzzzip!" sound, and Granite screamed. Pain seared across his hand, down his arm and into his chestplate. He pulled his hand free, now minus all his fingers, and freely squirting energon, and tried to run.
Something landed on his back. "Ah-ah-ah, can't have you leavin when the fun's just beginning." Strong arms grabbed his arms, pinning them together, looping wire around them, tying it tightly so he couldn't free his arms. "P-p-please!" Granite begged. But Tag said nothing, simply dragging his victim back into the alley.
A few minutes later, painfull screams rang out. Then the silence returned to the darkness.
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When the protectorate arrived, they found no signs of the mech in his office cubicle upstairs. Just the blank message window on the computer. Then they started searching the area. They found the puddle of energon and oil and other fluids behind the building, but still no mech. Till one of them looked in the dumpster.
"Ugh." the officer scrunched up his nose. "Found him."
The mech was dead allright. The side of one head was dented flat, armor plating ripped away and wires had been pulled out, one arm was torn completely off, the other which was also severed was missing all it's fingers but the thumb. The mech's face was twisted in fear, the look forever frozen in death.
The other one walked over. "Great." he stated sarcastically. "What's it gonna take to stop this guy?" he shook his head and shut the lid, calling for the investigators.
Meanwhile, a half-drunken blue and green mech staggered out of a bar across the street, a few buildings down, gave the officers a nod, and stumbled almost falling completely over before straigtening himself and continuing on into the night. Once out of sight, the mech simply grinned and walked casually down the street, like he had never drank a drop. The falling-over drunken state was all an act, of course. Not that the protectorate knew that, though.
He downed the rest of his cube, whistling merrily as he melted into the shadows once again...
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See, RG! this is what happens when Orcas gets into my imagination! LOL. Just kidding. But he makes for a really great inspiration. You've got a heck of an evil character, there. heh. Thanks for the inspiration. :-)
I had more planned for poor Granite, but mom and dad decided to have a shopping day and I had to cut it short. Oh well.
Oh, yeah, just a couple things:
First rotation is the first half of the day, which is lit, second rotation begins right before nightfall, and is the second half of the day.
A communicator is another word for phone. Only this one has a viewscreen. I couldn't think of anything else to call it.
the Protectorate is the police, crime scene investigators, etc.
Any questions? no? okay then. :-)
I'm kind of winging it on this fic to begin with, since I don't really have any idea where I'm going with the 'present moment' part of this. I have a little bit more planned for the next chapter, which will include the chara I asked Crystal Phoenix about. I can't reveal her name just yet. Anyway, more will be up soon.
If you leave a nice review, i'll try to hurry and get it up sooner.
Later!
