Grapple didn't know why his creators were so insistent that he go through the archives tonight. The archives were a collection of every design, whether used or not, that the Constructicons had come up with over the vorns. Even their earliest works were there, although Grapple tended to avoid the ones like Crystal City. He knew that the others, especially Scrapper and Hook, were hoping that he would take an interest in building again, but he just wasn't sure he could. He missed it, there was no doubting that, but every time he considered building, well anything really, it brought back painful memories. He had finally gotten to the point where he could look at design specs without wanting to cry or break something. He hoped that maybe one day he would be able to pick up his tools again, but that day was far off. Still, he did enjoy looking at the blueprints stored here. They really were ingenious! Well, most of them, anyway. He really wasn't sure what the deal was with the purple griffin. There were blueprints from the Golden Era, buildings that had been works of art. There were the blueprints for the Golden Tower and the Steele Theater in storage container 12C, which were Grapple's current favourites. They were simply buildings, but their appearance made them seem very elaborate. Beams of metal wound around each other to create an intricately woven, but structurally strong base, with flexible alloys rising up and twisting to the shapes the specs called for, be it levels of the tower or balconies of the theatre. Absorbed in the plans, he didn't notice where he storage bay doors slid open.
"You know, it's a good idea to lock the doors when you're alone in the base. Someone might sneak up on you, otherwise." Startled, Grapple jumped. Turning slowly, he took in the massive form of the triple changer lounging causally in the doorway. He remembered the mech being introduced as Blitzwing, one of three triple changers stationed on earth. He let his optics travel over the other's form. He was well built, strong and imposing, but the cocky grin on his face made him seem less so. His purple and white paint accented all the right places. Overall, the triple changer was very attractive... Wait. Where in the Pit did that come from!? Obviously the stress of the past few cycles was catching up with him, if he was thinking such ludicrous thoughts.
"Thank you for the warning. Was there something you needed?" Unsettled, he was curter than he had meant to be. Luckily, Blitzwing didn't seem to take offence.
"Nah, just saw you come in here, thought you might want some company. Primus knows that there's not a lot to do here, especially when you don't have access to all levels of the ship." Taken aback, Grapple was slow to answer.
"Um, well, that's very kind of you, but, um, I'm sure you have better things you could be doing..." Seeing how flustered the young Constructicon was, Blitzwing cut in reassuringly.
"Don't worry about it. C'mon, why don't you come with me to the rec room? I'll introduce you to some of the others."
"Well, alright, if you're sure you don't mind." Blitzwing grinned. Perfect.
"Great! C'mon." He held out a hand, pulling the crane to him when Grapple hesitantly took it. Grapple gasped, pressed flush against the other mech chassis.
"Th-Thanks," he trembled slightly, feeling the heat from the other against his plating. His spark flipped over. Grapple tried to ignore it.
"No problem," Blitzwing let him go, making the gesture look casual. Inside, however, he was barely able to restrain he need. Having the Constructicon's body pressed tightly against his own made the triplechanger want to forget his plans to show the crane around. Instead, he wanted to throw him against the nearest wall and 'face his senseless. With an extreme strength of will, he forced his thoughts away from that direction – for now – and smiled charmingly at the dazed crane.
"Shall we go?" Nodding, Grapple allowed himself to be led to the door. He noticed that although he no longer needed help stabilizing himself, Blitzwing had not let go of his hand. Grapple decided he liked it. Blitzwing kept a firm hold on the little crane's hand as he led him though the corridors. The Constructicon was smaller than he was, nut his hand fit comfortable in Blitzwing's.
It didn't take long to reach the Rec Room. It wasn't overly busy, which was good. He led Grapple over to the energon dispenser, drew two cubes for them, and then guided the younger mech to an unoccupied table. The triple changer waited until Grapple was seated before sitting down himself. He got some weird looks, but he brushed them off. He was acting out of character, but he really, really did not want the rest of the Constructicons to kill him for less than perfect behavior. And for reasons he didn't quite understand, he found himself wanting to make a good impression on Grapple, reasons that didn't have anything to do with his psychotic creators. They sat in awkward silence for a moment before Blitzwing asked,
"So how do you like it here so far?"
"It's…different. Completely so from everything I am used to. That's not really a bad thing, but it's taking some time to adjust."
"Yeah? What's so different about it?"
"Everything here is so…loud. Someone is always yelling, or talking over someone else, or fighting. On the Ark, things like that land you in the brig, or at least on cleaning duty. Here though, it seems to be a way of life. It confuses me, to an extent.
"I guess I can see that. Autoscu… er, the Autobots weren't originally warrior class mechs, like up. The fighting doesn't mean much to us. Sometimes we fight for fun, or to blow off steam. You don't have to fight, but it's likely that at some point someone is going to challenge you, regardless of what retribution your creators might dish out." A brief frown flickered onto Grapple's face before disappearing.
"Yes, they are rather protective, aren't they?"
"Sure are. But like you said, you're not used to this. I'd bet my next ration their sheltering you until you learn to fight your own battles."
"I guess. I just hate feeling so useless." Blitzwing snorted.
"You're hardly useless. Pit, Megatron moved the entire army to capture your tower. He led the assault personally. Anyone who can build something that the Slagmaker wants that badly has more talent than most of the mech here. And despite what you may have heard before, we have more than enough grunts. Creative mechs like you are in a much higher demand. Your skills are different, but they're hardly useless." Grapple didn't say anything to that; he simply sipped his energon quietly. Blitzwing, sensing the topic was off limits, began to talk about something else. He remembered the way Grapple's face had lit up when he studied those blueprints, so he asked about the architecture of various buildings on Cybertron. As he had hoped, a beautiful smile lit up Grapple's face, and he began talking animatedly about his favorite haunts. Blitzwing was unashamed to admit that he didn't understand most of what the little mech was saying, but watching him speak so enthusiastically made up for it. Plus, his accent was very cute.
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Optimus waited patiently for the last of his officers to arrive. Repairs were finally complete, and he now had enough of his officers functional to be able to start planning a rescue. Mirage had already been deployed for recon, but he had yet to report in. Optimus had hoped that the spy would have had some information for them by now so that they could move past the preliminary stage of planning, but he couldn't fault the mech for it. The Cons were tricky, and it wouldn't do to have Mirage end up in the same situation. He looked over his officers, noting who was present, and who they were waiting on.
Prowl had taken his customary place, seated to Optimus' right. Jazz had moved from his place on the left to sit next to Prowl, quietly discussing Mirage's planned infiltration route. Prowl was calculating the odds of success and the time he predicted the noblemech would report in. At least, that's what it looked like they were doing to everyone else. Optimus could tell that they were speaking over their bond about a completely different, unknown matter. Ratchet was at the far end of the table with Wheeljack. The latter looked sheepish, and was refusing to look at his friend. Ratchet himself was looking mildly homicidal. Optimus suspected that it had something to do with Wheeljack blowing up his lab half a joor after being released from medbay. Ironhide was sitting next to Ratchet, cleaning his cannons. They were waiting on Red Alert, who had commed to say that he was on his way. Sure enough, half a breem later, the door opened to reveal Red Alert, who was dragging Hoist with him. Said mech looked both confused, and as though he would rather be somewhere else. Before Optimus could comment, Red commed him, saying that he would explain it to everyone, but Hoist needed to be at the meeting.
"All right, let's begin. I have reviewed all available data from the battle. Here is what I know. At 0800 this morning the Decepticons launched an attack, with the intent on capturing the Replicator, created by Grapple and Hoist. For unknown reasons the Constructicons merged into Devastor without Megatron's command and specifically targeted Cliffjumper, and Hoist when he went to help. At this point Grapple fired a single shot at the Replicator, and I'm assuming he targeted a structurally weak area, as it collapsed. Megatron called for a retreat and his mechs obeyed him, with the exception of Devastator, who continued to beat Cliffjumper until he was unconscious. He then turned his attention to Grapple, who had been retreating. With a single punch he knocked Grapple out and then picked him up and launched into the air. That is what I know. What I don't know is why. Devastor acted alone, and targeted Grapple without orders. Does anyone have any other information, or any idea why he was interested specifically in Grapple?"
"I don't know anything about why they targeted him, but based on the description of the punch, the location the combiner targeted and the force behind it I can tell you that it was meant to knock him out with hurting him in any manner. They hit a pressure point with minimum force. It wasn't even close to being a damaging shot." Ratchet's voice was brusque and professional.
"You are correct. The Constructicons have absolutely no intention of hurting Grapple. I can say this without doubt. I will admit to being somewhat surprised that they haven't come for him before, but I suppose they left him alone because he was happy here. But something happened recently that made Grapple very, very unhappy. I haven't said anything before because lover spats are private business Hoist, but this has made it public business." Hoist very obviously knew what Red Alert was talking about, but he clearly did not want to say anything. "Either you tell them, or I will. Remember, my cameras see all. I knew about it before Grapple did." Hoist sighed.
"Grapple and I broke up. I'm with Cliffjumper now." At Red's scowl, he amended, "Grapple found out when he walked in on us." There were disapproving frowns around the table, but no one said anything to Hoist. They had bigger matters to deal with. Prowl looked At Red and sid,
"You claim that the Decepticons will not hurt Grapple. What information do you have to support this?"
"I know because a long time ago I worked with the Constructicons as Security detail for many of their projects, most notably Crystal city. At the time I called them my friends. As such I was privy to details of their lives that were not public knowledge, such as their bonding to Omega, which I have heard that they broke when Crystal city was destroyed. Beyond that, I was there when there sparkling was born." Jazz caught on first.
"Grapple's their sparkling, ain't he?" Red nodded.
"He is. He's much younger than most of you think. He was just barely an adult when he joined the Autobots. He's older than Bluestreak, but only by ten or so vorns." Ironhide looked at Red Alert suspiciously.
"If the Constructicons were yer friends, why aren't you passing them information?"
"As I said, they were my friends. My encounter with the Robo-smasher is actually what caused my glitch. I was able to fight off the reprogramming, but it cost me, and made me extremely paranoid. I was only subjugated to that because my former friends tricked me into believing it was for the Autobot cause. I can never forgive them for that. But when they asked me to look after Grapple, who at the time was very young, I could not deny them. They were not asking for information, or I would have told them to go to the Pit, but they were genuinely concerned about the health of their sparkling. So yes, I passed on information about him."
"That's how they knew about Cliffjumper and Hoist, and why they came for him now," Jazz said.
"Yes. I am willing to accept whatever punishment you deem necessary, but I could not, in good conscience, deny his creators information about his wellbeing. Especially when he was becoming dangerously depressed and no one in this faction gave a damn." There were different reactions to that. Some of the officers looked outraged at the accusation, others were ashamed, and there was a look or two of confusion. Optimus sighed. He would have to look into this more carefully. For now, though, he had a decision to make.
"Red Alert, this matter is under investigation. Until such time as we can come to a definite conclusion about your behavior and the circumstances leading to it you are to be confined to the brig. Jazz, as soon as Mirage reports in, we will go over the information. If Grapple is happy and unharmed with his Creators than we will leave him be. We cannot force him to come home if it will only make him miserable; it'll be his choice. If he is imprisoned we will begin working on a rescue plan. Dismissed!"
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It wasn't unusual for the Constructicons to spend the night together in their common room. Even if they were not interacting, it was comfortable to be close to each other. Scavenger had brought out some of his "treasures" and was currently sorting through them while Mixmaster had several datapads with various chemical formulas spread out before him on a low table. Bonecrusher had claimed the couch, and Long Haul was using his legs as a pillow as he recharged. Hook and Scrapper were quietly arguing over the blueprints of their next assigned project. So really, it was just a coincidence that they all happened to be in the common room when Grapple came home.
They all looked up as he entered the room. For the first time since they had brought him to the Nemesis, Grapple was smiling. It was small, but it was real. The Constructicons relaxed minutely. They wouldn't have to kill Blitzwing after all. Scrapper casually asked,
"How was your night?" He did not mention anything about the triplechanger. They weren't supposed to know after all.
"It was enjoyable. I met Blitzwing in the archives. He showed me around a little bit, and introduced me to some of the others."
"Have you eaten yet?" Scavenger wanted to know. "We can get some energon for you if you want.
"Oh, no, thank you. I already ate. Blitzwing got some energon for me when we stopped in the Rec Room. I have to thank him. I didn't realize until just now that he must have given me some from his rations."
"So'd ya go anywhere else kid, or just hang around the Rec Room the whole night?"
"Jus the Rec Room. We mostly just talked. Did you know he's interested in architecture?" Long Haul turned his snort into a cough. They knew damn well that the triplechanger was not at all interested. Or he hadn't been before he met Grapple.
:Well at least he's making an effort: came Hook's opinion over the gestalt bond. He sounded somewhat surprised.
"G-glad you had a go-od night, sparklet." Grapple thought about that.
"It was a good night. I like Blitzwing; he seems to be so much different from… well anyway, I'm tired, so I'm going to go recharge. Good night!" Grapple didn't run, but he did leave very quickly.
Scrapper grinned smugly. "He's considering Blitzwing a potential partner. We made a good choice." Scavenger giggled.
"He hasn't even realized that he was just on a date! That's so cute!"
"Do-on't expect-t him to f-fall for Bli-Blitzwing right away. He is still hu-rting, Mixmaster warned.
"Enough," Hook said imperiously. "We have an early shift tomorrow, and now that we know we don't have to go hunting we should also recharge. I will be most displeased if any of you are only at half function tomorrow." Long Haul and Bonecrusher both made faces at their gestalt mate behind his back, but Mixmaster began packing up. Slowly they dispersed for the night, each feeling very smug. Grapple would be just fine. They would make sure of it.