Disclaimer: I do not own TF: Prime or any lyrics used within.
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The seeker looked at the grounder questioningly, and the grounder looked back equally confused. "You don't look like a Razor. Not sharp enough." The seeker sauntered towards the femme while the grounder just watched, seeming unhappy with something.
Well, at least he didn't hit her again. The slightest movement sent waves of pain cascading through her arm and chestplate, the blade in the seam of her shoulder biting deeper with even a twitch. "My name is Razor. My name is… Razor…" The leaking and aching femme repeated her own name like a mantra. "Razor… Razor… Razor…"
In one quick motion, The seeker stepped forward and pulled down on the knife still in the femme's shoulder. "We ain't ASKING who you are, FEMME!"
The femme let out a shriek as armor parted from wires, cables splitting with a spurt of sparks and energon. She'd lost so much energon down here, in the dark. That scream took almost everything out of her. Couldn't even whimper. Couldn't even-
"Augh!"
The femme awoke on her side, laying on the floor of her ship. Her vents heaved in the darkness, her pupils shrunken to pinpoints near swallowed by violet. Still heaving her vents to calm herself, Razor looked for the alarm. She gulped, and winced before rolling ever so slowly onto her stomach plating. Her helm rested on the floor.
Where was she? The Hanlon. The Hanlon was on an island, an island in the Susquehanna river, which was in a place called Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania was... where was Pennsylvania? Razor hit her helm on the floor again with a thud. She had to remember where she was, or she'd crack. Pennsylvania was in north America. North America was on Earth.
Earth was not Cybertron, and that meant that Razor was safe. The femme didn't feel safe, but she was used to that, after having bad dreams. The dreams, she learned, stayed at bay if she recharged in vehicle mode. Razor managed a sneer as she pushed herself onto her aft. Talk about showing your age. Vehicle mode made her ache, and bipedal mode made her remember. "Can't win."
Guardedly, vents hitching, the femme got to her pedes. still trying to get her fight or flight instinct to shut up. She was cloaked, ship and all. Her energon stores were at full capacity, and blocked from detection. Couldn't be found, couldn't be located. Razor repeated it in her processor to burn it into her thoughts.
She shut off the no longer needed alarm, checked for any humans in the area, and headed back to land once it was clear. Briar would be off shift in an hour, and she wanted to be parked and waiting for her.
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Boring work day down in the basement. Antiques and vintage things went in and out. Her day was mostly ringing things up and straightening things up. Boring wasn't bad, seeing that a mundane job was a steady job. Considering the economy Briar was a lucky young woman. As soon as the Challenger was in sight, the woman speed-walked across the street to the parking lot. Her brows knit at the purring engine and she slapped a palm to the hood.
"What the hell are you doing?"
"Hmm?" came a tired reply.
"You're engine's on, I'm not in you, why are you on?"
The femme grunted and swung her door open. "Whatever."
Briar blinked, brows knit tight over her dark eyes, and she climbed downwards into the driver's seat. The vehicle slammed her door and pulled out of the spot. Sand and gravel flew out behind the two as the two sped out of the lot. The chassis bounced roughly as Razor went over a curb.
The human swallowed. "Razor, uh, are you alright?"
"Are you?"
That confused her. She'd been gone for a few hours. What was with the attitude? "Never mind." Briar received no reply from the femme. This whole situation was getting all the more uncomfortable. She resisted the very powerful urge to squirm. Marley didn't like it when Briar squirmed. "What'd I do?" She may have broken some sort of robot etiquette, but how was she supposed to know what to do?
Razor idled at a red light, and sank low on her wheels in a sigh. "It ain't you."
The woman's hands curled around the steering wheel. Something was wrong, and the robot didn't want to talk about it. Her grip tightened a tad, before she took a deep breath to steady herself. Not the end of the world, just asking a question. "Do you wanna, uh, talk about it?"
"Not really."
"O-kay, then." The silence that followed was something the human decided she didn't enjoy one bit. Knowing that the car could speak but didn't, knowing that the car could pick music on it's own and wouldn't, knowing that she was too nervous to plug in her iPod to ease the uneasy silence... "Can you turn on the radio?"
"Sure." The femme turned the radio down to almost its lowest volume, and hit the gas when the light turned green. 'Everyone wants to feel safe in the dark, everyone wants to feel safe in the dark. Forces unseen pulling strings in your heart. Everyone wants to feel safe in the dark.'
Briar recognized the singer. The same band played during that 'iPod fluke' on the back roads. "Who is this?"
"Dun like it?"
"You keep playing them, that's all." Briar blinked, eyes focused on the rear view mirror. She had to look somewhere when she talked, why not talk to her own eyes in a mirror? It was easier than talking to air, or the steering wheel. "No, I like it."
"Ah..." The femme took the turn up the driveway. "Ludo. Band's called Ludo."
The woman hit the garage button, and the door opened to show that Evan was sitting on the steps of the garage. "Well, I like them."
"Yeah?" Razor pulled into the parking space and idled, before shutting off her engine.
"Yeah." Briar stepped out of the vehicle, and shut the door with her butt. "Hey."
The short young man gave her a wave with his free hand. The other was holding a cellphone to his ear. Briar snorted a laugh and tried to walk around him. Evan leaned in her direction, blocking her path. "Yeah, ma. I know." The man continued to ignore Briar, who nudged his shoulder with her knee. He pushed back, smirking. "Oh, really? Cool, about th- yeah? Yeah... I told you!" As the man spoke to his mother, he leaned over to push Briar out of the way. Evan lay down on the step he had been sitting on, grinning brashly at his landlady. "Yeah, ma. Love you too."
Briar frowned at him, and decided it was best to just step clear over him. She had to grip both rails on the steps to do it, and she grunted loudly as she lifted her weight across three stairs to avoid stepping on the short young man. He shut his phone.
"I saw up your shirt-" Evan was cut off by a foot to the belly. He let out an 'oof', and sat up before scrambling to stand on the steps. "-shave your back!"
"We can't all love shaving!"
Evan stomped up the stairs after her, grinning still. "That's only for track!" The kitchen door shut, and the femme was left alone, again.
This was starting to seem like a mistake. There was no real issue with the human, or her renters. The tall one- Joseph? - was in the garage more often than the others. He'd occasionally rub a hand over her spoiler or mirror, but she didn't mind. Tim was... eh, she had no opinion on him. She'd only seen him once, and he had a habit of talking to himself.
Allen had given her an impromptu bath about a week ago. The gesture was appreciated, but the femme had to sit still and let the charge that had built up fade out. Who'd want a post-overload femme sprawled out in their garage? Not these people... pit, most people wouldn't want that. As for Evan, well, he riled Briar on a regular basis. It was hilarious, to Razor, at least.
Razor did not fit into this world. She'd been on the planet for... what was it now? Forty years? Fifty? Traveling the universe for Primus knew how many millenia before she found this little, blue marble. Packed with energon, covered in alternate modes the femme could take, and people. Lots of people. Lots of fragile, loud, easily damaged people.
No, Razor did not fit this world at all. She sank on her wheels until her bumper almost touched concrete. Briar wasn't the problem, none of these people were. It was Razor herself, as it had almost always been.
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Please, R&R.
