Disclaimer: I only own my OCs.

Chala: I feel like something is going to happen.

Sunblast: Why?

Zinnia: Do you feel something strange in the air?

Chala: Nope.

Sunblast: Then why?

Chala: Because Authoress has a sadistic smile on her face.

Ch. 25: You Spit in my Optic, I Spit in Yours

It was the solar cycle after Balm had joined and Playback was ecstatic. The femme and her bondmate were the perfect ones to take out the mech that he had assigned them. But, of course, the rest of the rebels would have to put up a distraction to pull the mech away and she had to make sure that the mech in question would even be at the location. Thankfully, with recent reconnaissance that he had asked some of the members to do, Playback was well aware of where their target was going to be. That would help but he had to make sure that Balm and Stormfire would attract the mech to their location.

"Hey Playback. I have an idea for you." Playback heard Plume's voice come through his comm. link.

"Give it to me." Playback responded. He was curious about what this idea would be.

"For our next assignment, you said that we were going to be having Balm and Stormfire offline the target. Well, what if we set up a mock battle with the Virons that allows us to gain an audience with the other higher members so they won't be able to give back up?" Plume suggested.

Playback pondered that as he sat in his chair. Having a mock battle would not only allow for some training but it would give the necessary excuse as to why Playback would need to talk with the bots at the location of the target.

"Plume, you are a genius." Playback stated. "That is exactly what we need to do to get the Virons off of our scent about this plan. After we took Praxus, the Virons are sure to be on a high alert for a fight. We are going to give them one with a different outcome then they are probably expecting. Also, to make this more interesting, I want only a few of us to come. With the way that we attacked Praxus, they might fear that we are doing a split attack and split their forces in turn so that we are at less of a disadvantage. What do you say?"

The line was silent for a click, probably Plume thinking, before the intelligence femme responded. "That could work. We just have to make sure that we don't let them know that the one group will be the only group fighting, besides Balm and Stormfire of course. Who are you planning on taking? We don't want the group too large or they will know that we are not planning a sneak attack."

Playback nodded to himself. He had been going through a list of possible bots that would cover ever since Plume mentioned the idea and he was pretty sure that he knew who was going. "Well, I think that Chala, Sunblast, you, Pandemonium, Malice, and myself should make a formidable attack team."

"Ok then, I'll gather everybot you said and our two main operatives and then we can get to Technahar as quickly as we can. That is going to be fun." Plume stated before hanging up the line.

Playback soon stood up and walked out of his office. There was a fight to be had and he couldn't wait. When he arrived in the main room with the others for the mission, they all headed off toward Technahar. It was about a ten click flight, thanks to them having to carry Sunblast and Plume. As they approached the edge of the city, Playback could barely contain his anxiousness in beating the scrap out of more Virons.

Spittor sighed as he spun around in his chair. Nothing exciting ever happened anymore. The Alliance never attacked anywhere that was close to his based location and that meant that he didn't have anyone to interrogate. He really missed the solar cycles when he could torture those bots and he had a line waiting. Of course, even if they did give him the information that he was looking for, he would usually offline them or leave them heavily scarred.

He still remembered the beautiful screams of one of his last victims. That mech, Slipknot, had been young and had tried to take them on as the Alliance started to sink more and more into what it had become before Playback and his friends arrived on Cybertron. He had the pleasure of capturing the bot and had immediately began the torture. But, to his surprise, the mech didn't divulge anything. Spittor had wanted to offline him but Alliance members located him and he had to escape before he could finish the job.

So, of course, when he heard that the mech had been replaced as the rebel leader, he had been shocked. He knew that the only reason that the mech had started the rebels was so that Slipknot could offline him. But, he had never gotten the chance. Too bad. Maybe this Playback would be just as much fun to play with as Slipknot was.

"Spittor, come in."

Spittor jumped at the sound of Pitch's voice. "What do you want?" He didn't like how the mech ordered him around like a low class soldier. He was a top interrogator and liked to be treated with the respect that his station deserved.

"I just thought that you would like to know that the Alliance is attacking us." Pitch shot back. Before Spittor could respond to the shock, Pitch added, "But, I don't want you to be involved in the main fighting."

"What?" Spittor yelled out in shock. He wanted to be able to help tear the sparks out of some weakling Alliance members and Pitch was refusing the only chance that he had to do that in a while.

But, what Pitch said next surprised him. "Calm down Spittor. You aren't going with the main group because I want you to use the scanners and see if there are any other groups attacking from different directions. Call in if there are. This smells like what they did in Praxus." He then muttered. "Still can't believe we lost it along with Dragstrip and Setback."

That information had shocked Spittor too. When the Alliance had placed the chassis on their territory, they had all been surprised that Dragstrip was offline with a hole in his chassis and a terrified look in his optics. They all wondered what had caused him to offline with that much fear. But, Setback's chassis really frightened them. Her helm was almost non existent. All that was left was a melted stub. Whoever, or whatever, had done that to her had an acid that was much more powerful then any that any of their bots had...and that scared even him. Of course, he would love to have that acid for his torture sessions. It would allow so much more variety with how he tortured bots, and a lot more pain for them to feel.

"I can't either. Well, I'll look for any other fights. But, if there aren't any, I'm coming there to help you kick some Alliance aft." Spittor stated before getting off the line and starting the radar search.

He was surprised when, after a few clicks, he found two bots traveling to his location. They were trying to split their forces, but only by two this time. Those foolish rebels thought that they could use the same trick twice? It was hilarious. He was about to call the two bots in when he noticed that there was a communication going on between the two bots over comm. lines. Spittor figured he might as well see who they were. When he tuned in, though, he got a very pleasant surprise.

"Why did Playback send us on this mission again Balm?" He heard Stormfire ask.

Then, the voice that mattered to him spoke. "Because we are two of the most experienced bots in this field. Now, why don't we talk about something that doesn't involve this mission." Balm answered her mate.

Oh, this was golden. Spittor cut the hack feed as soon as she said that and stood up. He was going to go and have some fun with his most special victim. That femme had been a piece of scrap in his side because she had been the only one to escape his torture sessions relatively unscathed and she taunted him for it. Every time he saw her, he was reminded of his unfinished business.

As for Pitch, well, Spittor would tell him after he took care of the femme, in front of her mate. This would be revenge most sweet and he would not allow Pitch and his bossy attitude get in the way of the fun that he had planned. Balm would suffer an agonizing offlining for her taunting. He would make sure of that.

Balm felt like something was off. Stormfire had heard a noise and went to investigate it, telling her to stay where she was. This felt like a trap and she did not want to get caught in it. She wanted to offline her target and do it in the most brutal but quick way possible. The only reason that it was going to be quick was because they had to quickly report to Playback with the evidence that the mech was offline.

On an instinct that she hadn't felt in many stellar cycles, Balm suddenly leaned back. A good thing too because, as she leaned, she saw a very familiar glossa shoot right through where she had been.

"Spittor." Balm growled as she took out her saw. The shy Balm from the first time they had met was gone and now was only the femme who was ready to slice this mech open.

Said mech stepped out of the shadows and smirked. "Balm, it has been quite some time since we have seen each other. Let's see, I remember your Alliance running from the might of the Virons."

Balm growled at that and narrowed her optics at him. "We may have run then, but I'm not running now. Bring it on." Feeling Stormfire close, she then smirked. "Of course, I should say that you should bring us on."

Spittor growled and quickly turned around. Of course, Stormfire wasn't that close to them and so Balm used the distraction to run up to the mech and land a decisive punch. Spittor stumbled back a couple paces before growling and, before Balm could block him, slammed his fist into her side, sending her flying. Yeah, Spittor had her outmatched in weight and strength. She would have to fight from a distance.

"Spittor you slag helm!" Stormfire yelled, suddenly dropping down from the sky and landing in front of said frog mech before slamming his flail into the mech.

Balm smiled when it connected and sent the frog flying. This fight was going to be simple and they would be able to take their target down. Spittor didn't stand a chance against Stormfire. Her mate was going to...

Balm stared in horror and shock as Spittor suddenly spat his slime at Stormfire and her mate was covered in the stuff. She could only watch as the slime exploded and he was shot backwards. His pain traveled through her spark and she felt like her world stopped spinning. Stormfire, was critically hurt and unconscious. She could feel that much even without being able to see Storm.

"Hm, seems like your mech is down for the count." Spittor commented as he walked up to her. "Maybe, before I take your spark offline, I should make you watch me kill him and hunt down those two sparklings of yours."

As soon as her family was threatened, Balm felt something snap. This snap, it was different then the other times that she had snapped. It wasn't something that she wanted stopped or she couldn't control. Instead, it was a powerful force that she was willfully allowing to overtake her systems as she prepared to sync with it to fight this mech.

Snarling at the mech, Balm took out her saw and launched at him. He barely got a yelp out before she was slicing at his chassis, cutting so the energon was slowly flowing out of his accursed chassis. His energon, now being poured out in retribution for the, at least, hundreds of bots that Spittor had ever attacked over the years. All of the bots that he had ever tortured and had watched as their energon had spilled for his enjoyment. Now, now it was time for his energon to flow, and flow it was.

It was not long before the mech was crawling across the ground, trying to escape her fury. Balm let off a dark smirk at his pathetic efforts to escape her judgment but walked up to the pathetic mech. It was time.

"Spittor, you have threatened the sparks of my family. You will pay for that, dearly." Balm finally stated, though her vocals sounded different in this rage powered mode where her optics were a pure black. It sounded like a crisp wind had swept her vocals and lowered their tone from one of her normal happy self to one that would send Unicron and all who follow evil's path to the darkest abyss of the pit.

Spittor's optics widened in terror but Balm didn't care at the click. Bringing her saw mod to attention, Balm quickly and decisively brought it down. The air seemed to still and the world around was silent. Nothing could be heard. All was silent.

"Balm?"

Balm jumped at the sudden sound of her mates voice and turned back to him, chassis covered in energon that was not hers and optics returned to their lime green, not a hint of black, before saying, "It's...it's done dear."

Stormfire let off a small smile before pulling her into a hug. "I know dear. Now, let's get this piece of slag back to Playback so he can show whoever else is here that Spittor is offline."

Balm shook her helm. "There is something that I need to do first. Then our mission will be complete." She then took out a laser scalpel that she tried to bring with her everywhere before walking back to Spittor's gray chassis.

Chala didn't know how it had happened. One click they were in the heat of battle and the next everybot was at a standstill. It was really tense and Chala could just feel that everybot was nervous. No one knew who was going to start the next bout of fighting and nobody really wanted to find out.

"I have heard rumors of you, Playback." Pitch started. "Unfortunately, I was not able to attend your debut in our arena due to having to do some work. But, I must say that you look as mysterious as they all said you were."

Chala narrowed her optics at Pitch. There was no doubt in her processor that he had been working on some new kind of torture devise to use against them. Besides Spittor, he was one of the top interrogators that the Virons had. Unfortunately, they had not come to offline him, though she was sure that no bot would complain if he was suddenly put offline.

"I have heard of you as well, Pitch. You have quite a reputation around you." Playback responded. "I don't like it."

Pitch shrugged his shoulders. "I don't need Alliance scum like you to like it. Actually, I try to make it so you do the exact opposite, and it seems like it has worked."

Chala watched as Playback took a step forward. "Indeed it has." She could hear the anger in Playback's voice as he said that. It made her think that maybe Playback would rip Pitch's helm off before this was all over.

"But, enough about me." Pitch stated. "Instead, let's talk about you. Why did you come to Technahar with only a small group of bots? Do you think that you can pull the same stunt that you did in Praxus again? If you do, then you are sorely mistaken. Right at this click, one of our bots is keeping a constant optic on the radar to make sure that we know where all of your troops are."

Chala felt a flash of worry go through her systems as she realized that Stormfire and Balm may have been stopped from completing their mission. But, she also knew that she couldn't jump to conclusions. She had to give them the chance to take their target out.

Playback, on his part, simply tilted his helm to the side. "I will not tell you what we are doing here until the time is right. I have many plans, that have plans. They are so intricately bound that even telling you my plan now could tip the scales of my goals and I do not wish for that to happen any time soon."

That confused Chala. How many plans did this bot have? If he had as many as he was suggesting, then they hadn't even seen anywhere close to them all yet. But, this could just be a bluff to keep Pitch talking long enough for Stormfire and Balm to be successful.

"Hm, I will admit that I am curious about these plans." Pitch started "But," Uh-oh, 'buts' were never good. "I believe that the time has come for you to offline Playback. You have Sentinel worried and that means that he is on our afts like Unicron."

As the Virons went to launch at them, Chala brought out her blade in defense. But, there was no need to. Almost as soon as the Virons took their fist step, something crashed in the middle of the two groups, followed by Stormfire landing on their side. Where was Balm? Did something happen? When the smoke cleared, Chala saw that the item that had fallen was Spittor.

"Spittor you lazy excuse for a mech, get your aft..." Pitch started before he kicked Spittor and exposed his helm. Well, were his helm should have been. Instead there was just an empty space. "What...what happened?" Pitch stated in shock. He then looked at Stormfire before saying, "You!" Pitch sounded very upset. Of course, if one of the Alliance's best interrogators was offline, they would be upset too.

But, Stormfire held up his servos. "Pitch, look at me. I don't have nearly enough of his energon on me to have offlined him. Though, I would have liked to."

Pitch seemed to realize that he was right because he narrowed his optics. "Who is responsible for," Pitch started to yell when, quite suddenly, a small object slammed into his chest plate before it bounced onto the ground. Everybot stared at the object in shock. It was Spittor's helm.

"Seems like Spittor got a little over his helm...or at least he had before I took it off."

Chala was shocked when Balm jumped down from a low building behind them, covered in energon that wasn't hers. Chala had been wondering why Playback hadn't brought Miltersaw on this mission, since he was one of them more stealthy of them, and now she had her answer. Playback must have somehow known that Balm would be the one to complete the mission and he didn't want her creations to see her like this. Chala was having a hard time seeing her like this and she wasn't even related.

"Should have guessed that you would be the one to offline him." Pitch hissed at Balm.

Balm shrugged her shoulders. "You should have." She then motioned to everybot behind her. "Well, unless you want the same thing happening to you that I did to him, then I suggest that you take his chassis, both pieces, and let us leave here in peace. Otherwise, I won't hold back. And, if you don't believe me, ask Spittor."

Chala was wondering if Playback was going to let Balm just take over like that and, apparently, he was because he turned around before saying, "Come on. Let's get out of here."

Chala nodded and they all flew out, the grounders being carried by some of the ones who could fly. She knew that there would be a lot to talk about, once they informed the leaders of Spittor's offlining. Plus, Balm would have to get washed off before Miltersaw, or even worse, Zinnia saw her. Chala could only imagine how seeing her carrier covered in energon would effect Zinnia's processor. But, they would face it together. Hopefully, more bots would join the Alliance because of the efforts that they have shown.

Chala: Holy. Slag.

Sunblast: No kidding. That was scary.

Malice: That was completely unexpected.

Pandemonium: Though not unwanted. I'm glad that Spittor is finally gone.

Authoress: Yes, and I am glad that Balm was able to accomplish that feat.

AN: Well, there is the end of another awesome chapter. I have a huge story update today so don't think that this is the end. But, please go to my profile and vote on the poll if you read any of my transformers stories. It is very important. It will decide something rather huge. But, on another note...SPITTOR IS OFFLINE! *dances around* Well, I loved killing him off and if you want, please drop a review, even if it is to say hi. =D