Chapter 9
"Hey!" Gears reaches for the now powered down data pad in Thrust's servos. "I had more time."
The conehead, as well as the rest of the seekers crowding the room, shake their helms dismissively.
Two minutes is apparently just too much to ask for. The mini knows he's lucky they let him send out a transmission at all, but that doesn't mean they deserve his gratitude...
In fact, the six watchful fliers are beginning to really annoy him.
Why were they the only Decepticons he's seen for nearly a full earth day now? And why did every single one of them feel the need to be here?
"I would think six mechs to watch a single prisoner half their size would be overkill under normal circumstances, but I guess Megatron doesn't have much confidence in you seekers. Or is there nothing else here you Cons can find entertaining to do?" Gears mumbles, feeling backed into a corner and none too pleased about it.
His comment actually manages to annoy a couple of them, but the rest look to him with something more akin to disbelief.
"We're seekers." Skywarp supplies as if that explains anything. "We volunteered for this."
Now they're all smiling. Soft and pride filled smiles. Smiles that wilt upon seeing the Autobot is not satisfied with the purple mech's answer.
"Didn't…. didn't you ever meet a seeker before the war?"
Gears intakes a sharp vent.
Before the war… he doesn't remember too much before the war. Not by any fault of his own, but by the fault of cybertronians even less honorable than the Decepticons or the old elitists.
Through gritted denta, the mini manages to grind out, "Probably not."
He inwardly curses those despicable and long dead cybertronians. In a way, they are responsible for his current predicament. Without them he wouldn't have needed the circuit now holding a newspark in his chassis.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Gears isn't sure which mech said that. Probably one of the coneheads.
Before the seekers can try and pressure the mini into explaining, he's spared by the very reason the fliers had insisted to cut his transmission short.
Soundwave always had a presence about him that had Autobots careful to avoid the telepath. The rumors of what this mech could do to a cybertronian's processor probably proceeds him… But no bot is foolish enough to be the one to test that theory, and it appears even other Decepticons are wary of their TIC.
The coneheads all visibly hunch into themselves while Starscream's trine look to the cassette player expectantly.
"Unauthorized transmission detected."
Gears hates that his plating shivers a little when he hears the droid-esk monotone of the navy blue mech. He's a minibot for Primus's sake! It would be an insult to his frame type to let only one Decepticon put him on edge when he's been surrounded by many for a while now.
The mini is surprised when Starscream calmly tells his fellow officer that he authorized the transmission. No screeching or cowering the SIC is famous for. Given how tense his trinemates are holding themselves, it would seem they're expecting something drastic to happen.
The tension leaves along with Soundwave as he walks away with nothing more than a nod of his helm.
Seems the earth-despising Decepticons had ironically picked up on the human habit known as a sigh.
Suddenly all the attention is back on Gears, and he really wants to avoid their prying. Since he doubts they'll leave him alone if he were to ask it, he decides to get the conversation back on track and do a little prying of his own.
"I doubt seekers were any less annoying before the war."
Instead of being put off by the jab, the mechs around him look wistful… and a bit regretful.
"Unlike most frame types, all seekers hold programing for sparkling care, not just our carriers…" Starscream begins, only continuing once he sees no recognition in the mini's features, "And so it is only natural we do our best to care for and to protect a carrying mech."