So this one has a bit of a darker tinge to it. Deals a little with trafficking which is kinda touched upon in the IDW comics. So this rated more to the "M" side of "T." This update was actually pretty long for a drabble shot.
So what I'm thinking is Imma go back and forth every other chapter between pre-bodyguard twins and post-bodyguard twins. Cuz I'm having way too much fun in both timelines, soooo... yeah! Enjoy!
Chapter 2
8,059 words
Novashine wasn't having a good cycle, and a simple glance at her darkened cobalt optics and deep scowl warned everybot nearby of this fact. And there was no denying that everybot was glancing at her. A small part of her processor wondered if they thought she was just a blue-sight trying to fit in with the reds around her by scowling. The rest of her really didn't give a flying frag what the surrounding bots thought.
The cycle had honestly started out fairly well. Breakfast was a family affair that morning, a rarity with her father's increased presence requirement at the Senate and her mother's busy schedule. Pit, this was the first time she'd seen her father in nearly an orn. No cross words had been spoken, another rarity with her father's waning temper. Gemstone had asked about a party that Novashine had attended the cycle before – Careflight, a close friend, had been accepted into the medical caste and was due to gain her stripes in a mere vorn – and Traachon had noted the compliments he had received from Senator Dai Atlas on his creation's political know-how. She locked optics with Blackout, who was standing near the door, taking his morning energon (Traachon would not allow a red-sight to sit at the table in his presence). The large black mech had given her a single nod and a small smile. He wouldn't give her away. It almost seemed to too good to be true.
Should've known everything would go to Pit.
Puffline knew about Kaon. There was no telling how the femme found out. Novashine didn't even like the femme, and she rarely took time to speak with her. They ran in similar circles, but Novashine's prestige put her higher on the foodchain, so to speak, and thus, the two never seemed to run into each other, which suited Novashine just fine. Puffline was a notorious gossip, which lead to her current irritation.
::Hey, Nove! I know we haven't talked in forever but I just had to hear it from the source! Is it true you're fragging a red-sight in Kaon?:: -Puffline
A furious noise escaped her throat, something between a growl and a shriek, and a few bots skittered away from her as they disembarked around her. Honestly! Who asks someone that? Primus, even if she was fra… having relations with a military caste mech, what business was it of Puffline's? The absolute nerve of that second-class Circle-bound wannabe!
"This is the beginning of the end," she concluded aloud as she stalked down the ramp, petite engine growling irately. By the end of the cycle, everybot in Iacon would know that she had been travelling to Kaon. Primus, her father was going to kill her, and for some reason, that fact only made her angrier.
She would be introduced into society soon, not even a full vorn from that very cycle. She had been in her adult frame for almost a decavorn. You would think she could make her own decisions by now. Primus, if he would lay off her just a little, she wouldn't have come to Kaon to begin with! She vented deeply as she finally pushed away her thoughts in favor of looking for her escort.
Sideswipe. A gladiator by trade, a flirt by experience. His bright red paint should've given him away, especially in this area. The shuttle she had taken was, as per usual, filled with mechs and femmes from the bottom two castes, which meant that the most common colors in the immediate area were brown, black, and gray: colors that hid dust and metal shavings well. The dock was crowded by bots going to and from destinations unknown, and Novashine could attest to the sheer amount of cool colors in the sea of bots surrounding her. No red, though.
Novashine pouted a little in disappointment. The trip to the Forge with her gladiator had become the highlight of the cycle for her otherwise frustrating life. She already wasn't looking forward to going back home. Maybe she could stay with Sideswipe tonight, assuming she could ignore his annoying twin. She had only known the two mechs for a decaorn, and Novashine had already decided with a fair amount of certainty that she hated the golden gladiator.
Okay, maybe hate was too strong of a word. 'Strong dislike,' perhaps? While Sideswipe was all playful seduction and cheesy jokes, Sunstreaker was caustic remarks and biting scowls. Primus, the only time she had ever seen the mech smile was when he was killing something… and she was pretty sure that didn't even count as a smile. It was more like a lopsided smirk… one that promised pain… a cocky lopsided smirk… on a ridiculously gorgeous face.
The sound of a ship's engines igniting pulled her from her pout, the sound coming from farther away than she anticipated. She glanced back behind her to see the shuttle she had arrived lifting off in the distance. Frag, when had she left the docking yard? Had she really been that deep in thought? What had she even been thinking about?
Unbidden, a perfectly symmetrical golden face floated into her processor, crimson optics gleaming with irritation that belied the cocky smirk on his face. 'Oh, yeah. I was thinking of him.' She cycled air again, her shoulders slumping as she trudged down the central street that branched off the docks, sticking closer to the edge to avoid being mowed down.
Kaon was busy this cycle, lower caste bots bustling about in preparation for the evening's fights. The streets were washed down with cheap solvent in an attempt to remove congealed energon, lubricants, and other unpleasant liquids. Despite the attempts at beautification, the stench of unwashed bots, rust, and purged fuel still wafted to her olfactory sensors, and a few orns ago, it would've made her gag. Luckily, she had grown quite desensitized over the past visits. Red- and purple-opticed bots moved about their daily tasks, hurrying around the cleaning bots as they attempting to finish their chores before higher caste bots arrived. Some spared Novashine a glance, most ignored her.
The hike to the Forge generally took a little over a breem, two if one got lost, but despite the fact that she always had a garnet-colored escort, she still knew the way. After all, the Forge's owner had worked quite closely with the senator of Kaon to ensure that the road to the pit fights was direct and easily travelled for their upper-class patrons. The femme was lucky enough that her optics generally kept her from any sort of molestation from the locals. At least, that had been her assumption. She hadn't had any trouble the last decaorn of travel.
Of course, all those trips were accompanied by a well-known trained killer.
"Sideswipe, you seen my wax?"
The garnet gladiator in question paused his blade sharpening, curious optics rising to meet the matching bored gaze of his golden counterpart. The red twin was seated on his berth, a leg crossed over the other knee at the ankle while a cybertonium wrist blade rested across his lap. His hands held a weathered whetstone, shorn down by countless strokes across a honed blade. Sunstreaker stood above him, arms crossed irritably as he watched his brother's movements mindlessly until he finally grew bored.
It had been a trying cycle for all the gladiators in the Forge. When word got out that an extended elitist party would likely affect attendance in a negative way during the lunar cycle, HIghrater decided to cancel the big name matches and replace them with basic win-at-first-leak matches. They weren't the goriest fights, but Sideswipe eagerly signed up, taking a particular joy in honing his dodging techniques in no-kill battles. Plus, it was way more fun to play with your fellow gladiators when they weren't trying to lop off your helm.
Of course, cancelled matches meant cancelled training for many of the gladiators, including Sunstreaker. Two paintings and a graphite sketch kept the boredom at bay while Sideswipe took the time to sharpen, clean, and polish every weapon in his arsenal. Tedious? Yes, but it was a necessary evil, and besides, it wasn't like he could afford to do anything else. It was darkday on the black market, he had nothing to move at the moment, and he wouldn't get his winnings for the orn until after his fight tonight.
"Yeah, it's under the berth." Sideswipe went back to his sharpening as he checked his chronometer compulsively. He had been late to his pre-battle warmup last cycle, and he discovered pretty quickly that Taught was quite adept at making one's life a living Pit when late to his warmups.
"The frag is it under the berth?" Sunstreaker scowled as he carefully crouched onto his hands and knees to search out the errant can of wax, ever wary of ruining his brand-new paintjob.
"Because I kicked it under there." A mental shrug flashed through the bond, nonchalant as ever.
"What, you couldn't bend down to pick it up?" The words 'lazy fragger' bounced around their link irritably, but as per usual, it was ignored.
"Not really, didn't you say you were gonna grab Nova this cycle?" Sideswipe questioned absently, barely even pausing between his words as he focused on the even strokes of his whetstone against the blade's edge. Sunstreaker answered him with a scornful scoff.
"Worried your latest frag toy is gonna go back home if she has to wait a breem?" The even sound of a stone's edge suddenly cut off as Sideswipe's helm shot up at the derision in his mirror's voice. Eye ridges furrowed as he glared at his brother's back, his irritation mixing with his twin's in a mishmash of negativity.
"She's not—I haven't touched her, and you know it." And he would know it. They had learned long ago that carnal pleasure was not a feeling easily blocked. Any strong emotion, no matter how tightly they closed the bond, leaked through at least a little, and when they were… distracted, blocking at all was nearly impossible.
"You want to," Sunstreaker shot back in a disgusted taunt, rising to his pedes to give his twin an irate glare. "Femme probably thinks you can fulfill some kind of barbaric twin fetish of hers." Like all femmes do remained unsaid but rippled through the bond nevertheless. Sunstreaker turned towards his berth, lifting a cloth out of his subspace while he popped the lid of the can open with his thumb
"Sunny, it's not like that!" Aggravation riddled Sideswipe's voice, which only served to add to Sunstreaker's irritation.
Again. They were having this argument again. How many fragging times did they have to rehash this… this crush his brother had? Primus, how did this femme even command this kind of attention? Yeah, she had an attractive frame, but Sunstreaker could just as easily find a femme in a frag tavern with equal allure, if not more. Pit knew that nothing revved Sunny's engine like a femme that was aggressive in the berth, and Novashine, well, that femme blushed anytime Sideswipe even mentioned their berthroom, even in a completely platonic way. And his brother thought that was sexy?
"Don't call me that," Sunstreaker finally grumbled before cutting his optics over to his brother with a sardonic smirk, arms crossed across his broad chestplates. "And how would you even know? You've talked to her, what? Four times?"
"Primus, Sunstreaker!" Sideswipe slammed the sword onto the berthtop, shoving himself to his pedes in a fluid movement. Sunstreaker was taken aback, only briefly, by the sudden outward irritation. For a moment, he couldn't pinpoint was surprised him more: the use of his full designation or the honest worry mixed in with the annoyance flickering across their spark's tether. Worry for this femme.
Sunstreaker's engine growled as his fists clenched. Sideswipe was letting himself fall again. Primus, why did they always have to play this slaggin' game? Another femme that would break his spark, that would string him along for the sake of a good story the crush him once she got what she wanted. The mech always opened himself up too early, too easily, and it always cause him pain. And what hurt Sideswipe hurt Sunstreaker by extension.
Like how his reticence was hurting his garnet twin right now.
"Primus fragging son of a glitch," Sunstreaker cursed irately. He smacked the can of wax onto his berth, tossing the cloth violently into the air. "I'll go get her!"
"No need, you fragging Prima Donna! I'll get her! We don't need your—"
/Sideswipe, report for pre-battle warmup/ -Taught
"Slag." Sideswipe's frame tensed, systems whirring loudly as his processor flipped through the probabilities that he could make the breem-long trip to the dock and back quick enough to catch at least the tail end of his scheduled warmup. It was fairly unlikely, even if Novashine was still sitting at the loading area like he expected. Pit, but going into battle without a warmup cranked. Nothing like running into a rink without already cycling up your battle computer and hyping up your energon pump.
"Just go. I'll find her." Sunstreaker's prod was laced with assured promise. He would find his stupid brother's femme, even if he despised the her.
"You fragging better." The words sounded almost pouty, but Sunstreaker paid no attention to it. Sideswipe's frame was relaxing, and honestly, that's what mattered to him. In the end, Sideswipe was all that mattered to him. He rolled his optics for show while sending a nudge through the bond. As Sideswipe turned to the berth to load his weapons back into his cache, Sunstreaker stalked out the door and made his way to the front entrance.
Sunstreaker hated Kaon. He hated the bleak gray color, not that it was such a huge step down from the black and silver Kalis was known for, but at least Kalisans had some color in their frames. Red optics skimmed the brown and black bots with an unconcealed disdain as they scurried around. Dirt, dust, and death. That's what Kaonites' colors made him think of, nothing like the flamboyant reds, greens, and golds of Kalis. Even lower-income bots like himself put effort into their appearance, the one thing they could truly control in their lives.
And if it wasn't the colors that put him off, the smell could easily send him running back to the Forge. At least he only had to worry of the scent of congealed energon and fermenting coolant there, and even at that, Lowlife generally kept the grounds clear to keep from warding off any upper echelon customers.
Customers like the femme he was going to fetch. Primus.
'What did she think when she first came here?' Sunstreaker wondered, glaring at a brown Kaonite that strayed too close to him. If the sights and smells disgusted him, he could only fragging imagine how off-putting they were to a blue-sight like her. Had she ever smelled congealed energon? Had she ever experienced rust and old oil in her uptown city? She personally hadn't, he had no doubts on that front, but maybe a servant she kept, because a femme that fancy had to hold a bot of the servant caste on her payroll. If she even paid the bot.
And Sideswipe had a thing for her. Not that this was new; Sideswipe fell for any femme with a good-looking chassis and a smidgeon of personality, but a blue-sight? Had she even seen a military mech before that first battle? The one between Megatron and Beatdown? Then again… maybe she did have a military fetish of some sorts. After all, the femme kept coming down, and no matter what Sideswipe thought (or hoped, the idiot), she wasn't coming down to see them. But then, why did she act all shy? Was it all an act?
Sunstreaker's engine growled as the questions poured through his processor. This was why he hated Sideswipe's affairs: he always ended up being the one to figure out the ulterior motives, and it was fragging annoying. Most femmes they had dealt with had either wanted to experience the affected of a military mech for bragging points, a way of claiming to have tamed a beast of a mech, or they wanted the twin experience, to have the best of both worlds, Sideswipe's gentle nature juxtapositioned with Sunstreaker's brusque, roughish mannerisms.
"Hey!" An irritatingly loud voice yanked Sunstreaker from his reverie, and he slumped his helm down a little at the interruption, speeding up a touch despite the fact that he knew the obnoxious bot couldn't be trying to get his attention. He had a reputation after all. Why would someone in this slotting town be talking to him? "Hey, you! Golden gladiator!"
Primus fragging pit, this wasn't his fragging day! His engine gave an irate rev as he paused to glare back at the minibot femme currently jogging behind him in an attempt to catch up with his long strides.
She was an ugly thing, at least to Sunstreaker's artistic sensibilities. Frag, to any of his sensibilities. Dusty brown plating detracted from what could have been pretty purple optics, and a strand of rust worked its way from her wrist to her elbow, giving off a stale scent that made the gladiator wrinkle his nasal ridge in disgust. And her frame! Sunstreaker had always held the opinion that minibots looked dumpy, lacking any sort of curves or angles that he and his brother had. They almost appeared geometric to him in the worst way, with squares for their head and chassis and rectangles for extremities. Despite her lack of height, she caught up the mech twice her height with surprising speed.
"What?" Sunstreaker asked shortly, taking an obvious and particularly rude step away from her when she came to a stop in front of him. In his defense, he resisted the urge to cover his olfactory receptor like he wanted to. The femme smiled up at him in a friendly manner, either not noticing his appalled expression or uncaring.
"You are looking for the pretty white femme, yes? The one with the blue optics and the friendly smile?" Oh, pit, there was that sinking feeling. The same one he got when Sideswipe suddenly commed him after going silent for more than two breems.
"I… guess. What about it?" The femme sighed in obvious relief, clasping a hand over her spark as she sent her optics briefly skyward before refocusing on the mech in front of her.
"Thank Primus above! She was snatched right from the street!" The femme's plating rippled as she glanced around suspiciously, lowering her voice as she continued, "A frame seller, by the looks of him. Such a polite femme, too. To think that she might become a pleasurebot like that!" Wait, wait, wait, what?
"Whoa, slam the brakes." Sunstreaker shifted in an aborted movement to crouch down, moving awkwardly to the side to compensate for the unusual movement. "What do you mean? Who took her?" This femme had to have the wrong femme. Novashine was a blue-sight, but she wasn't stupid. Surely the femme wouldn't have left the docks without him. Unless… she got impatient when he didn't show… Pit, did she leave to look for him?
"They went down that alley there. I'm not sure where he might've taken her from there but—"
Well, that was all he needed to know, really, Sunstreaker decided as he turned away before the femme could finish, starting back in the direction of the Forge. If the femme, whoever she was, was already with a seller on darkday, chances were the deal was already being made. Either she had been sold already or she was being moved out of Kaon. This was a fragging gift from Primus, then. The femme had been taken off his hands, and he didn't even have to run her off like he had the last one. Sideswipe would be disappointed, but honestly, that was going to happen one way or another, anyways. At least this way, he didn't have the chance to get attached yet.
But a pleasurebot… His processor flashed back to three orns ago. Novashine playfully smacked Sideswipe's shoulder with an embarrassed grin and a deep energon blush on her face.
"Are you a warrior, because being around you is like a dagger to the spark." Novashine snorted from where she sat on her knees against the opposite wall as the red gladiator. The hallway was barren, most mechs either in practice or recharge. Sunstreaker leaned against the same wall as Sideswipe, a little ways away. Close enough to watch his sibling act like a fool, far enough to claim he didn't know him.
"Primus, Sides, those are so bad!"
"Ooh, I got one! What's your favorite position?" Sideswipe purred, crawling seductively toward the femme, a predator approaching his prey whose optics grew wider with every inch Sideswipe gained, her body pressing back against an unyielding wall. He purposefully dimmed his optics a shade as he leaned in close, leaning forward on knees that straddled hers. "Cuz mine's on top of you."
Her whole face flushed blue, and Sideswipe leaned back with a triumphant and fully amused string of laughter that resounded down the hall and through the bond, pulling a snort of amusement from his surly match. Novashine tried to hide behind her hands, but the damage was done. Sideswipe knew, and he would exploit her innocence to see that blush many more times over the decaorn… until the femme finally figured out how to give back a good portion of what Sideswipe slung her way.
And she would lose that innocence if Sunstreaker let this happen…
Primus fragging pit-smelting slotting slagging son of a glitch!
He whirled around, that powerful engine growling, and stalked down the specified alleyway, accessing a public map of Kaon and layering it with a map of known black market trading points he had downloaded from Sideswipe. He just had to have a fragging sense of morals. Couldn't just let the femme get what she deserved for slagging around with his stupid aft brother's emotions. Now he'd had to beat the slag outta whatever fraghead decided she'd make a good object to sell.
Object. A Cybertronian wasn't an object. Novashine wasn't an object. He may not like her, but for Sideswipe's sake, he'd keep her alive and safe. Besides, the red idiot would bitch for the rest of the decaorn if he let his new friend be sold.
He didn't even recognize when his swords slid from their sheaths in response to his train of thought, melding to his arms as he tracked the closest trading spot and headed purposefully in that direction.
Muffled sound was the first thing to filter into her muzzy processor. The noise rose from the distance, voices unrecognizable and indecipherable to her mind. Primus, where was she? She had been on the street… Was she in Kaon? Had she gotten off that transport?
A low pulse in her helm beat in time with her fuel pump, sending bolts of aching pain through her cortex as she struggled to orient herself. Pressure on the left side of her frame suggested she was lying down… or leaning on something… Her proprioception was off then. Well, then the best she way to solve the mystery would be to online her optics… Her processor sluggishly filtered through the various reboot protocols until the familiar string of coding ran through, and blue optics dimly phased online.
Darkness. Oh, Primus, she was blind! Even the panic felt slow, disconnected somehow from her cortex. She groaned again, though the sound didn't reach her audio receptors like the outside noises. Strange. Perhaps her vocal processor was still booting up? She felt cramped, she suddenly noticed, processor jumping from her apparent blindness and loss of voice remarkably easily. She shifted a little, grimacing at the soreness of her arms and legs, and she attempted to pull her arms from behind her. Ah, she was lying down then… and her hands were restrained?
Her processor skipped past the remaining reboot protocols as her fight or flight reflex smacked it into full consciousness, leaving her head reeling as full panic flooded her systems. Her cooling systems kicked on to combat the rising heat in her frame as she squirmed, frantically yanking at the bonds that forced her elbows uncomfortably close to each other behind her back. She kicked her restrained ankles, squeaking in pain when they banged against a thin pole of some sort. Her engine whined in frustration as she struggled for a good breem before finally giving up. She glanced around in the gloom desperately, as her danni's words filtered back into her helm.
"If anyone ever tries to grab you off the street, make as much noise as you can. Someone will help or the attacker will decide you're too much work to botnap."
"Somebo—" She cut herself off with a hoarse squeak. What the frag? "Hello?" she called experimentally, then she started shrieking as loudly as she could. Her voice refused to rise above a whisper, though, muffled for reasons she couldn't explain. Her venting picked up again, and her optics brightened in her dread. She was blind and mute. Someone had taken her off the streets of Kaon – because she knew she got off that ship; she just couldn't remember why she was alone in Kaon in the first place – and she had no idea where she was. If only she could contact Sideswipe or—
Sideswipe! Sideswipe was supposed to pick her up! He wasn't there, and she had decided to strike out on her own! That was why she had been alone! He had given her his comm frequency! She just needed to—
Light suddenly flooded the room, and Novashine let out a near silent squeal when her optics glitched and clicked off in a forced reboot. Frag, frag, frag, frag! Now was not the time to be blind!
"Primus, you weren't lying." The raspy hum of an appreciative mech sent a shiver of rage through her frame. Mechs had talked about her like that before but never when they thought she was in hearing range, and never to her face. "Quite the beauty," that same voice hummed approvingly. She tightened her plating over her cables reflexively. The plating she generally wore out kept her fairly concealed, but she could still feel the unseen mech's optics roving over her like thick oil.
The reboot command flicked across her HUD, and her optics finally flicked online, the aperture constricting to filter out the bright fluorescents beating down on her. She was in a small cage, barely tall enough to sit up in and nowhere near wide enough to stretch her legs out, and the cage was surrounded by large crates, blocking her view of everything except for a single wall and the two mechs standing in front of it.
One mech she recognized only in passing. She had passed him in the streets with Sideswipe before, taking note of how his black paint really brought out his trade-caste green optics. He was shorter than her and bulky, a mech meant for lifting heavy crates and oversized goods. His armor was relatively healthy, if a little dusty, without the mineralization and rust spots she was accustomed to seeing on tradesmechs in Kaon.
The other mech… She had seen mechs of this build many a time in the Forge. Mech-wreckers is what the twins called them, and Megatron just barely fit into this particular class of military build. The mech was huge, tall enough that she would probably just barely reach the bottom of his chestplates standing up, and his thick, black armor sported scars and scuffs that spoke of past battles, fights that he was proud of. Rather than the soft curves that Sideswipe sported, this mech's armor spiked out from his body in strategic places, and Novashine could imagine him impaling an opponent on the spiked shouldercaps whenever he tackled them. Red optics, deep crimson with barely veiled lust, peered down at her from a mildly attractive face. Primus, why were all the attractive military-caste mechs aftholes?
"A rare finding, don't you agree?" the tradesmech spoke, his voice oily and sycophantic. "Not very often we see elite-caste femmes of this caliber on our streets." Of what caliber?
"No armor," the red mused, a thoughtful finger tapping on a fascinated smile. Novashine narrowed her optics and pointedly resisted the urge to squirm under his leering gaze.
"Nope. Simple plating for this kind of femme." The trader cut his optics over to his customer with a sly grin. "Easier to get her down to protoform and cables." Oh. Oh, no. No, no, no. Her optics went wide and her spark squeezed as her situation became painfully clear. She knew of the black market and had heard stories of bot trafficking, but, oh Primus, she never thought, she never imagined, no, no, Primus, no. She sent a desperate ping to Sideswipe, coolant rising to her optics when it immediately rang back. Her comm system was offline. No, no, please, Primus, no.
"Her credentials?" Credentials? What the frag kind of credentials did he mean?
"Oh, well, I'm afraid I'm not entirely certain. She normally travels with a red gladiator, so I doubt she is still sealed." Sealed? Primus, had he already touched her?
"You didn't check her?"
"Excuse me?" Novashine hissed, but her voicebox is nearly silent. Her engine gave a feminine growl, the only threat she could offer without words, as she curled her legs up defensively. The two mechs only smirked at the noises she made, much like the gladiators at the Forge had always done.
"I had to focus on silencing that vocalizer," the tradesmech offered by way of explanation. "You arrived just as I tweaked the last wire."
"I like a smooth engine," the red purred as he looked her from head to pede lasciviously. Said engine roared fiercely in response, and Novashine spat quiet curses she had learned from Blackout at him. He grinned widely as he knelt down near her helm, vastly amused. "I love a spitfire. Primus, it's going to be fun taming you!" His optics dimmed a little when he focused on her helm, his smile dropping as he glanced only briefly at his seller. "The dent detracts from the price."
"Of course, of course," the trafficker rushed to assure him, "I expected that to be the case. I wasn't careful during her retrieval. She has dangerous allies, and it is rare that she is left alone."
"And if she is unclean, I will expect a discount as well."
"Of course, no worries." Tradesmech optics darkened a shade. "We simply need to check before we begin the transaction." Novashine's optics narrowed, and her engine rumbled again as her body tensed. If these mechs thought they were going to touch her without some sort of fight, they were sorely mistaken. She wouldn't be able to stand up in the cage. Pit, she couldn't even straighten her legs, but she'd give these mechs pit until Sideswipe could find her. He had to find her. Primus, please, let him find her.
The military bot remained stationary, crouched by the femme's helm while the tradesmech approached the door. She hated him, she decided without any remorse, optics brightening a shade as they remained locked with his. Anybot who would treat another like an object, like a thing, deserved hate, and when she got out of here, she would do everything in her power to destroy them.
She heard the barred door unlock and creak open, and she scowled as the green-opticed mech swung the door that had been near her pedes open. He crouched down and leaned in to grab, and Novashine kicked out with every cable she had. Her pedes slammed into the mech's face, and he gave a wordless cry, reeling back as fresh energon gushed from his broken noseridge.
For a brief klik, she wondered if Sideswipe and Sunstreaker felt this surge of satisfaction and triumph every time they landed a hit on their opponents in the ring. If so, she could kind of understand the appeal of the Forge. When the military mech by her helm rumbled lowly, though, dread replaced the elation.
"Fraggin' useless green-sights," he growled, stomping to the cage's entrance. "Don't know why he even fraggin' bothers if he can't handle the merchandise."
Merchandise?! Novashine thought as her engine snarled violently. I'll show you merchandise!
She kicked vehemently the second he stuck his helm in the cage, worrying not so much about her aim as the power behind the kick. Rather than dodge the strike, the mech caught her pedes expertly in one hand. Metal shrieked against metal as he yanked her out of the cage, one hand braced against the roof of her prison while the other pulled seamlessly. She yelped when her helm connected with the door's frame, and the world tilted in a dizzy array of blacks and grays as her processor struggled to reorient itself through the new dent near her temple. Pain rushed through her arms when her body was slammed against a wall.
Then hands were on her. She curled her legs up weakly, struggling to get them between her and the aggressor that had her pinned to the wall by her neck. The mech slammed her against the wall again to scramble her circuits, but her processor clung to the action of shoving the mech away with her legs. His engine made an aggravated sound. The mech's hand wiggled under the plating on the outside of her left hip, and disgust washed through her hazy mind when he plucked at a wire almost playfully. The disgust turned to horror when her left leg went limp, dragging her other leg down with it. No! No, no, nonono. She wouldn't let this happen!
"Let go!" she whispered venomously as she wriggled for all she was worth. The mech only chuckled as he moved his hand from her hip to her chin, forcing her face up to look at him.
"You're going to be so much fun."
The sound of a door slamming open shot through the room like a gunshot, yanking the mech's attention from his victim. Everybot froze, the military mech sending a glare towards the tradesmech, who was still nursing his broken noseridge and shattered left optic.
"Novashine? You in here?" Oh, my Primus, Sunstreaker! She never thought she would ever feel so relieved to hear that obnoxious mech's voice. Novashine's vented hitched for only a second, and she revved her engine as loud as she could, fully ignoring the pain associated with the overheating, stressed organ in her desperation.
"Glitch!" The mech holding her roared his fury at being interrupted as he threw her back into the cage to face the threat currently vaulting over the wall of boxes.
Sunstreaker watched in horror as the smaller femme, unable to stop herself with her restrained limbs, smacked into the bars at the end of the enclosure, her optics flickering dangerously as she remained slumped there. His whitening optics fixed on the red-sight stalking towards him with a single long-blade clutched in his right claw, and all pit broke loose.
The mech had been in battle before, that much was obvious by the scars and weld marks, but there were three very important factors working against him in this particular instance: first, he had very apparently not seen battle in a while, judging by his slow reaction time. Second, he had obviously never fought against a gladiator, whose sole job, sole purpose in life was to maim and kill. And finally, this pitspawn slagger had chosen to take a femme who happened to be on good terms… well, okay terms with a berserker.
"Guess your creator didn't teach you how to treat a femme right, huh?" Sunstreaker grunted as he ducked beneath a wide swing, taking the opportunity to make a narrow cut under the mech's left arm as they both spun away. The mech grunted, barely feeling the scratch through his armor. And how Sunstreaker hated thick armor. He would normally just try to overheat the mech underneath it, but if this mech had enough money to purchase a bot, he could afford the cooling system that such a frame required.
Still his enemy was at a disadvantage, much to Sunstreaker's delight. Sunny may be smaller than him, but he was lithe. The boxes cramped the area, offering only a single opening into the rest of the warehouse, but the other red-sight didn't seem to comprehend that getting out of the cramped space they had hid Novashine in would benefit him. Fragger probably spent his entire military career behind a gun or worse, a desk. He obviously knew next to nothing about melee fighting. It only made it easier for Sunstreaker to flit around the enclosed space, delivering blows wherever and whenever he felt.
"My mech creator showed me exactly what to do with a femme." The mechs blasé statement, especially when adding Novashine to the mix, sent a wave of rage though Sunstreaker's spark, sending his battle lust into a frenzy. He traded out his cybertonium blades for a pair of short energon daggers, dodging under another wild swipe.
He sped up then, taking every chance to stab at open spots in the mech's armor as he danced around him, graceful as the tide on the Mercury Sea. His daggers hissed with each direct hit, sizzling as they reacted with the energon to prevent clotting, and Sunstreaker took dark delight in every pained grunt he elicited from the larger mech.
"Stop moving, fraggit!" Sunstreaker smirked as he twirled behind the mech, ducking down to stab into the gap between his back and hips. He gained a roar from his opponent as a reward and ducked to the left to avoid another swipe. A thick hand closed around Sunstreaker's neck the klik he realized he had dodged a feint. Gravity and opposing force yanked the daggers from his hands as the arm hurled him toward a stack of metal crates.
"Wrong move," he shouted ferally. He spun so his feet faced the stacks, sliding a blade from its sheath as his pedes touched the side of the metal crate. The crate gave a small shriek as Sunstreaker pushed off of it, sending himself hurtling back in the other mech's direction. Red optics went wide at the unexpected move mere kliks before the helm containing them rolled backward off the body, separated by a flash of silver. Sunstreaker landed on his pedes behind the frame as it slowly realized that it no longer had a processor attached, and he basked in the sound of the spark fading.
"Pick your battles, fragger," he advised lowly as he twisted his upper half to watch the frame collapse forward, sliding his blade back into his weapons cache with a satisfying shhiick. Could that even be considered a fight? The fragger never even got close to him. The only downside was that the green-sight got away. No matter. Sunstreaker would hunt him down once he got Novashine back to—Novashine!
Battle-pink optics swung around and landed on the heavily venting femme. Her paint was scraped to Pit and back, and he could make out a dent on the side of her helm. Something inside him rumbled protectively at the sight. Frag, Sideswipe was really starting to get to him.
He sighed with his whole body, and in three strides, he was crouched down at the entrance of the cage, pausing only to scoop up the powered down energon daggers as he passed them. A hand pressed against the floor to support his weight as the other held the top of the short cage.
"Novashine," he called gently, awkwardly leaning forward a little in an attempt to catch her dim optics. When she retained her zoned out stare, Sunstreaker released another sigh, turning his optics upward as if asking Primus why He had cursed him with this life before sifting his weight forward.
Novashine jolted a little when she became aware of the golden mech crawling into the cage beside her. His face was carefully blank, optics locked on the floor beneath his hands and knees as he carefully settled himself on his rear with his legs crossed in front of him. Huh. She didn't know he had that kind of flexibility in his legs. Most mechs she knew couldn't sit like that, especially if they wore thicker armor like Sunny.
An energon dagger hummed to life in his hand, and Novashine watched as he began sawing through the cables at her pedes. He really was beautiful, with his optics still fading from pink to their normal red. She hadn't seen his optics that shade before.
The room was silent aside from the scratching sound of the blade against the metal cabling, a strange juxtaposition to the low beat of stamping pedes and the hiss of an angry dagger. It was almost stifling, if Novashine had cared enough to label it. Her optics never strayed from the golden mech's faceplates, so focused on his task.
Could he feel her gaze? What was she thinking? Of course, he could. He was trained to notice such things. She would've snapped by now if someone had stared at her so severely. But then, was her stare severe? Perhaps inquisitively would fit better. She shoved the pointless thought aside as she studied him, trying to piece together what exactly she had missed the last decaorn.
He was beautiful, she'd give him that. Even if they didn't get along, she could appreciate how well his frame was designed. A smooth, symmetrical face nearly devoid of scars framed by vents that kept him from overheating in the heat of battle. His neck held dents… that must have happened recently, or he'd have popped them out by now. He could've have fixed himself up if he hadn't had to come save her…
Primus, she was so stupid! What was she thinking walking through Kaon like a tourist? She had been warned against it, told things like this could happen. Things like… Primus, she was so close to being… he was gonna…
Coolant rose in her optics, and she lifted her head up to look at the ceiling, determined to not let the tears drop. Her venting rhythm deepened as she fought the rising emotions, and her engine whined as the post-traumatic stress threatened to overheat her systems. Sunstreaker glanced over at her with furrowed ridges, confused by the change in her system's pitch. She spared him a brave look, biting the inside of her lower lip to keep her keep her grounded in the present moment. She wouldn't break. This wouldn't break her. Other bots have had worse. Other bots didn't get saved by a Sunstreaker.
It didn't work. Despite her valiant efforts, a single tear trickled down her cheek. Sunstreaker's red optics went wide, following it's progression while his expression grew decidedly uncomfortable.
"Frag," Sunstreaker muttered as he pointedly looked down, sawing a little faster at the bonds on her legs.
"I'm fine," she hissed quietly with forced confidence. Because she was. No lasting harm had been done. She'd have a helmache for a few joors, then life would go back to normal, and she could get back to her old trivial stresses like Puffline. Primus, she wished that gossip-monger was still the worst part of her day.
Sunstreaker looked up at her again, eye ridges furrowed this time in perplexity. He glanced around suspiciously, optics scanning the small space as his audio receptors strained for any unfamiliar noises in the warehouse. He found no other heat signatures aside from the femme seated before him and heard no other noises aside from the strained whirring of her systems and the hum of his cooling fans as his battle protocols slowly offlined. His optics hesitantly found hers again, helm cocking to the side… adorably?
"Why are you whispering?" he finally asked, matching her tone comedically, but before she could reply, a look of comprehension conquered his faceplates, mouth dropping open as his optic ridges lifted in comprehension. His optics flicked to her neck, where she suddenly realized she could feel the cooler air on the wiring there and darkened to an angry crimson. A heated growl of his engine covered his low, "Oh."
Another tear dropped, and Novashine gave a frustrated growl at her own weakness. She turned her head sideways and rubbed her face against her shoulder, trying without success to wipe the evidence of her stress away. Her engine whined in growing irritation as another tear dropped down on the other cheek.
"Fraggitall," she choked out. Her vents stuttered when a hand cupped her cheek, directing it toward the handsome face gazing at her with something akin to pity. Awkward, mildly uncomfortable pity. A thumb swiped away the tear she had been fighting against, and those red optics softened.
This couldn't be Sunstreaker. This had to be Sideswipe. Sunstreaker wasn't… he wasn't like this. Not to her. Not to anyone, except maybe his brother.
"It's okay." Sunstreaker's deep voice startled her a little. It likely startled him, too, because his optics went a little wider, and he snatched his hand away as if he hadn't been the one to put it there in the first place. He focused very attentively on the bonds at her ankles as he ran the blade back and forth firmly.
The tension between her ankles released with the last cut, and Sunstreaker shifted to his knees and crawled up to settle beside her hips. Novashine wordlessly leaned forward, shifting her legs under her to give herself more flexibility, offering Sunny more room to work. Silence reigned again as the sound of a blade on cabling rose to the air.
"I can fix your voice once we get back to the Forge," Sunny said finally, causing Novashine to jolt a little at the sudden break in silence. "Finetune can pop the dent on your helm. Sideswipe will be in battle by now, but he'll probably want to see you after to say 'hi' or whatever." Sunstreaker paused as if waiting for her to say something in response. When she didn't he added, "Don't ever tell him about this. Fragger gets annoying when he's overprotective."
"My fault," Novashine whispered. "Shouldn't have left the dock."
"Pit no, you shouldn't have," Sunstreaker grumbled. His arm brushed hers as he freed her elbows and worked his way down to her wrists. "How many times do we have to tell you how fragging dangerous this oilstain of a city is? Of all days you decide to venture out on your own, you choose darkday."
"Darkday?" Nova repeated lowly, her optics cutting to the right as if she would be able to see more than a golden shoulder there. Sunstreaker scoffed at her naivete.
"Fraggin blue-sight got no idea about fragging anything. Primus!" Sunstreaker muttered to himself before finally answering her inquiry in a slightly louder tone. "Yes, darkday. The day black market tradesmechs generally make their move on less-than-legal goods. In your case, stealing them."
"You-you have a day for that?" she whispered incredulously through a sniffle. Sunstreaker snorted.
"Everything moves on a schedule here. You just have to have the wrong connections to know it."
"Oh." They lapsed into silence again as Sunstreaker cut her final bond. He sat back on his wrists as Novashine pulled her arm around to hug her chest. "…Thank you," she hedged finally, unable to take the silence of Sunstreaker's stare. He scoffed again looking away with a petulant scowl.
"Just be happy I found you in time."
"I am." He glanced over at her but found himself unable to looked away when she gaze at him with open appreciation. "Thank you, Sunstreaker." His face twisted again into that uncomfortable expression, and he cut his optics to the side awkwardly.
"Just… don't go wandering around without one of us again," he mumbled as he crawled out of the cage before gracefully to his pedes. He held a hand out to the femme even as his optics remained pointedly fixated on a spot on the ground off to his right. "C'mon. Let's get out of here before the Enforcers arrive."
I just really wanted a chance for Sunny to save her, especially before he likes her. And right now, Sides just thinks Nova's cute. No carnal desires yet or anything like that. Just cutesy best friend feels. He just really, really likes making her blush. Funny that Sunny knows Sideswipe's emotions more than Sides knows himself.