"An Autobot Pacifist Leaving The President's Cabinet"
Narrated by Decepticon Scrapper
~*~
I was ultimately in control of myself. I was ultimately in control of myself. I was ultimately in control of myself.
No. No it wasn't working. I still didn't believe the words. Well, that would be the last time I took advice from Hook - slobbering bastard. I knew I should have never opened my fleshy mouth to him in the first place. I'd not repeat the mistake.
We had been 'constructed', the six of us, as gestalts. We had been given life by numerous creators, unlike most Cybertronians who had two parents - and we were designed specifically for a purpose. We had very little freedom in the beginning, as our names and alternate modes were chosen for us - as we all needed to work together in order to form Devastator, but we did have copious amounts of free will and thought. Not that it seemed to do us any good. It bothered me that I seemed unable to detatch myself from this hive mind, this... pre-programmed thinking. I wanted to do things for myself, to think for myself and to have my own opinions.
It started with that damned 'favor' we owed the human Marco. The manual labor which Starscream had assured him we would do once we reached Nevada in exchange for our ride. It was simple enough really, even a mindless scrap drone could have figured out what we were needed for - the cargo within the back of the truck needed to be removed from the truck and taken into a large warehouse for further storage and distribution.
I cannot believe I am about to admit this, however - why deny it? It felt slagging good to be working again. Ahh, yes. The feeling of lifting and manuevering heavy objects. Of crossing great lengths of space before depositing a load and then going back for more. Again and again! Menial manual labor! Marvelous!
But there in lay the problem - why did I enjoy this so much? Was it because I, Scrapper, a Decepticon and Cybertronian, enjoyed manual labor? Or did I like this work because I, Scrapper, was a Constructicon? Part of a whole being called Devastator? Pre-programmed to do such work efficiently?
I stumbled and turned to glare at the offender, only to find Hook. His arms crossed tightly over his human chest he jerked his head in the direction he was staring. Shaded from the hot Nevada sun temporarly while inside the warehouse, I followed his gaze and narrowed my eyes. Starscream. The little coward. While the rest of us were working he and his new 'toy', Alexis, were seated at a table nearby - chatting.
"What an incoriagable failure." Hook groaned.
"Who does he think he is?"
"Avatar to the mighty crystal." Hook scoffed, uncrossing his arms to throw them into the air in exhasperation. "Honestly. We've exchanged one egocentric, manical, meglomaniac for another. The cosmos seem equally as eager to pit Starscream as Second once again, so who are we to argue? It seems our place is and always will be - here." He indicated the now fully stocked warehouse. I tilted my head to one side to watch him a moment.
"You enjoy hearing yourself talk, don't you?"
"I've been forced to listen to unintelligent prattle my entire function cylce. It's good to hear someone speak in a sane manner once in a while, even if it is me."
I lifted a human eyebrow at his response, but offered none of my own. We stood side by side for a moment, watching as Starscream and Alexis seemed to engage in some kind of ... flirting behaviour... until a light scuffle behind us drew our attention.
"I said hand it over, Mixmaster!"
"No no no! You don't understand, Scavenger! The ingredients in that drink a-are highly t-toxic!"
The notably larger Scavenger reached out and grabbed the bottle Mixmaster was covetting. He easily lifted our smallest Constructicon off the ground, shaking him back and forth in an attempt to free the liquid from his grasp. Hook scoffed.
"Leggo!"
"Do! Not! D-Drink! The! Beveraaaaaaaaage!" Mixmaster shouted as he was finally forced to relent his grip and tumbled to the ground.
"What's going on here?" I growled as Hook and I joined the rest of the Constructicons. Mixmaster and Scavenger stood face to face with Bonecrusher and Longhaul watching eagerly from a few feet away. Scavenger held the beverage against his chest, fingers twisting off the cap.
"H-hook! Scrapper!" Mixmaster wailed, crawling towards us and latching onto Hook's leg immediately. The almost medical minded Constructicon tilted his head to the side as he looked down at the groveling fool. He looked up at me and then back down.
"Do-do not let him drink that substance!" He pleaded, grunting a little as Hook reached down and pulled him to his feet.
"Honestly, Scavenger, why do you feel the need to taunt him so continuously?" Hook sighed, brushing off Mixmaster's back like a concerned femme. I lifted a human brow and turned to gaze expectantly at Scavenger.
"He makes it so scrappin' easy. 'sides, the other humans are all drinking this sludge. Can't hurt."
"Other humans.." Longhaul growled in echo. "You lumpin' us in with humans now, Scavenger?"
"I never said that." Scavenger roared, turning to face his only two physical matches among us. Bonecrusher slunk back a little but Longhaul met the roar with a snarl.
"Knock it off you scrap heaps." I warned, stepping forward and nearing the two human giants. I was met with momentarily dangerous glares before both Constructicons calmed. I reached out and snatched the bottle from Scavenger's hands. I rolled it over to read the label and glanced once at Mixmaster.
"I see no toxins listed here, Mixmaster. Pepsi. Sounds harmless." I was about to hand the concoction back to Scavenger when a loud crash sounded from inside the warehouse. I don't think any of us could make out the words, I certainly couldn't, but they were definately angry.
"What's going on?" I turned to give a brief glance over my right shoulder as Starscream joined us, hands on his pointed little human hips.
"Dunno." I answered shortly, waiting for him to look up at me so I could narrow my human eyes at him. "Ain't our fault." He met my gaze for only a second before looking quickly away. He turned to look behind us at the Dayfish, and then the surrounding area outside the warehouse. It took me a moment to realize what he was doing - he was taking a head count. When trouble broke out I found myself doing the same thing, going over each of the Constructicons in my central processor until I made visual contact with them. I chuckled a little as he stepped forward into the warehouse.
"Rumble!" He shouted into the warehouse depths. "Come here at once!"
There was another loud clatter, followed by silence, and then more shouting - and this time, we could all understand it quite easily.
"GET BACK HERE YOU LITTLE FUCKER!"
"Such colorful language." Hook mused from beside me. The humor was lost on me though.
"Rumble!" Starscream bellowed again, just as the pint-sized fool came darting out of the warehouse to seek solace behind -
"What in Sigma are you doin'?!" Me. I turned and attempted to get my hands on the cassetticon, and failed the first two tries, suceeding in lifting him off the ground by his upper arms on the third.
"Put me down! Put me down!"
Rumble's shouting was soon drown out by the voice of the two angry humans who had chased him from the warehouse - Alexis' father was behind them.
"Who the hell are you freaks?" Sneered the tallest of the men, the leader of this little outpost, so to speak. I looked him over once or twice, and caught Longhaul and Scavenger doing the same. We all knew he was no match for us, he hadn't seemed to pick up on this fact. I held up a few fingers soundlessly to order them to stay back. They listened, albeit begrudgingly.
"That's no way to talk to the guys who just-" Alexis started, moving forward and pulling her fist out in front of her, snarling. She almost looked fierce. Starscream snapped a hand to her chest to hold her back as the three stationed humans stepped forward to meet her. The girl's father moved out from behind the trio and stood next to Alexis on her other side.
"What's the meaning of this?" Starscream demanded, ignoring the look he received from Alexis as his hand slid off her chest.
"That kid was just trying to turn us in!"
"I was not! I was just-" Hook, moving faster than I expected, moved up to cover Rumble's mouth effectively with one hand as I continued to hold him suspended in the air. I met eyes with Hook and nodded in approval. He did likewise.
"What do you mean?" Marco asked, looking from Rumble back to the men.
"We caught him in the office, radioin' Canada!" Continued the rather beligerant man. "He was connected and gettin' ready to give 'em the coordinates!"
"Canada!" Alexis shrieked.
The rest of us knew better. I felt the cassetticon shudder and tense in my hands as he realized all eyes were now locked on him. I wondered what was going through his head - was he going to admit his treachery and take his punishment like a Decepticon? Or would he simply coward-up and beg for his function cycle like Starscream? He lifted his head and I saw Starscream recoil at the expression that was apparently on his face.
"He's alive, Screama." Rumble hissed in a low and oddly mature voice for a 'con of his age. "You know it, we know it. I ain't gonna follow yer rules anymore until we get Soundwave back!"
"What the fuck is he talking about?" Growled one of the humans. I caught movement behind Starscream as Alexis' father took her arm and pulled her backwards.
"Alright look, these guys are obviously in deep with - well, something," Marco started, ignoring Alexis' repeated caws of 'Dad, let me go'. He looked from Starscream and us to the three humans as he spoke, clearly sensing something was about to break.
"We caught the little guy before he could do any real damage so - no harm done. You got your shipment." He nodded to the men then turned to look at Starscream. "And you guys got to Nevada with no questions." Alexis tried to throw off his arm to no avail. "So, how about you and your friends be on your way."
All eyes were now on Starscream, and I saw him physically shrink from the pressure, and then came that look. A look we were all becoming increasingly, sickeningly familliar with - EOS. The crystal was conversing with Starscream, obviously instructing him as to his next moves. It seemed, however, that on this occasion Starscream was not quite so willing to obey blindly. He stumbled forward as if shrugged and stood up straighter, mind apparently made up. I smirked, eagerly awaiting his 'command'.
"Fine. A fair trade. You've kept your end of the bargain, so shall we." He looked over his shoulder at us and nodded. He turned, took a few steps, then stopped. I lifted a brow.
"Alexis. Let's go."
Hook actually laughed. His central processor was keeping up with him enough to actually let him process the situation and find it amusing. I'm sure my expression was less than appealing as I set Rumble down. It appeared that Starscream's words had baffled the human's as well.
Alexis shoved her father backwards and stepped away, turning to face him angrily.
"If you can't-can't accept that I'm going to die soon anyway, might as well not be there when it happens, huh dad?"
"Lexi-"
He started forward but she dodged his grasp. She adjusted the bag on her shoulder and took Starscream's offered hand. Then with one last look behind her, we left.
With a human.