Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers in any way, shape or form.
Suggestions on characters to add, plotlines, are still begged for.
48 Megacycles Until Commencing of First Trial
Primus, Unicron, whatever deity is out there, kill me now.
Shockwave had long given up on straining against the cables that attached him to the operating table. It hadn't worked the first solar cycle he'd been in here, and it didn't work now.
A device to his right beeped, a high-pitched whine. Strangely, no bots came to investigate; perhaps it was after conventional working hours. After all, if he was injured any more, there wouldn't be much of him left to transform. Which was what they were after, so Shockwave figured a bot would show sometime in the near future.
Shockwave wasn't sure exactly what time of the solar cycle it was. His internal chronometer had shorted out after the first three mega-cycles. Like nearly everything else on his HUD, it had been replaced by error messages and warning signs, telling him to get repaired –or else.
Slag, he was going to die on an operating table.
Shockwave wished idly for a nice, unbloodied cell, where he could simply recharge. Trying to refocus the sharp waves of pain that flooded his circuits – these days, when he twitched – he imagined a disgruntled Autotrooper storming in and aiming his precision weapon at him. And firing.
Shockwave recalled vividly waking up in here for the first time. His processor had been pounding painfully, error messages had just begun scrawling down his HUD. His body looked (and felt) like it'd been in a major battle.
He'd asked Perceptor what he'd done to him. The scientist had calmly stated armor strength tests were now beginning. Weak spots were being analyzed.
His one working antenna twitched as the door finally opened and Perceptor strode in.
"Although I calculate 43 percent chance that you predicted this would be a result, you are out of here until your trial has been acted out and you have been sentenced."
Shockwave didn't speak. He wasn't sure his vocaliser worked any longer. Preceptor's tone of voice and speech pattern became less synthesized.
"Most of the masses want you dead, Decepticon. After all, you've killed their beloved Security Chief. An uproar may be at hand. Anti-Decepticon operations could increase tenfold."
His antenna twitched again. Shockwave hadn't expected that to be the charge. Abduction, engineering the death of Blurr, but killing a bot who'd never officially existed?
If he could have, he would've smiled. Instead, he couldn't resist an attempt at a comeback.
"I'm sure there would be a much bigger uproar if the masses knew you and the Council kept agents in stasis lock for years after the war. And they knew you personally created Blurr's speed matrix after you yourself pushed the Fifth Ethics Code past the Council." His vocaliser was the least damaged component of his body. It worked.
Perceptor may have erased his emotions, but even he didn't like his motives being figured out by his test subject.
"Success of your disconnection to this machine may be low if vocaliser is not powered off." Perceptor gestured to the machine that kept Shockwave down.
Shockwave silenced his vocaliser and hoped the side effect of frying every bot within twenty mechanometers if the procedure went wrong would be carried out.
The Decepticon advocate was a cheerful mech; Arcee suspected this was not his first real trial, as was often the case for situations like this.
Scavenger had first led her through the procedures every witness and victim would have to undergo. They were relatively simple, but the problem lay in her testimony.
"I don't remember any of it," Arcee protested.
Scavenger tapped his digi-pen against the desk.
"If there really isn't anything you can testify truthfully, then I hope you know that the case against the Decepticon Shockwave has been seriously weakened. He may be allowed to go free."
If that was the case, Shockwave would be able to board a ship and leave Cybertron – without any assistance from her. That made Arcee feel both relieved and irritated.
Swindle, playing personal assistant while the advocate was here, came into the room.
"A bot's here to see you Arcee," he coughed. "Ma'am. He said he'd wait until you were finished."
"Thank you Sw-" she tried to recall his fake name.
Thankfully, Swindle saved her from a potentially fatal blunder and exited.
"Nothing at all? Not the faintest shadow of anything that might've happened to you or your processor while you were in Decepticon servos?"
"I told you. Nothing."
"I see." He made another note. "And I trust a fully physical and psychological examination was performed according to the law?"
Scavenger closed his case and offered her a card.
"Call me if you recall anything at all."
She did her best to smile and nod.
As he left, Swindle 'showed in' an older mech. His blue-green armour colour stood you against the apartment's plain walls.
"Kup." He said simply. "I hear you're the prime witness in the case against the Decepticon agent Shockwave."
"Yes."
He sat down.
"I used to head an investigative unit, one that had a route in the tunnels. We were all good pals, able to get a barrel or five after our shifts. Anyway, one solar cycle, me and a couple other mates stumble on this bot. He wasn't a 'con, you understand, which is why we didn't shot him on sight.
"So we ask him what he's doing down there, and he says he's got a meeting. And I tell him he's drunk, and we haul him up to the surface."
Arcee was beginning to suspect this bot would fill a novel before he got to the point.
"And it turns out that this little bot's named Highbrow, and he's the assistant to the current Intel head. I don't recall his name exactly, but you get the point.
"So the Prime comes up to our office and gets his assistant out. But I wondered for stellar cycles: 'what was a little Elite Guard officer doing down there'? So when I heard about your abduction, I figured it out. There's a Decepticon strike force down there."
Arcee's spark sped up. From his listening post, Swindle patched the conversation in to Acid Storm's comlink. The plan just might have to be accelerated…
"Highbrow Prime was a Decepticon in disguise. I think he was an experiment of the Autobot scientists, either during the war or right after it. He went so mad he entered the Elite Guard. But they could track him, and sent him messages through a private channel no one else could access."
One Prime off, Arcee thought despairingly. She wondered if she could get Kup to shut up before this 'news' reached the wrong audio sensors. Audio sensors that had access to deadly weapons.
"And then Longarm comes in, and figures out what really happened. He gets rid of Highbrow Prime; ousting a traitor out of his seat. And now Longarm's missing, thanks to that despicable Shockwave."
Arcee smiled wanely.
"Thank you for that…story. But what do you want me to do about it?"
Kup's optics widened. "I want you to tell it to the court! Tell them what Shockwave did!"
Arcee had decided the bot was drunk.
"I can't tell them anything I'm not sure about. If I were you, I'd tell your story to a reporter."
Kup was nodding.
"Yeah, yeah. They censor those court things. I know just the bot." he pumped her servo. "Thank you Arcee!"
He left. Swindle came out and they shared a glance. Their plan hadn't been compromised yet.
Arcee's apartment wasn't known for its shootouts and stabbings and general law-breaking. So when the two of them heard the shots, Swindle panicked and turned on the alarm system, which shut down all the entrances. They both knew what had happened.
The bot who'd been so close to the truth was dead.
End Notes: We all know Shockwave has that habit of spouting out his logic to everyone around. I hope I got everyone semi-in-character. Including Kup, poor guy. If not, please let me know.
