#14 - A Better Mouse Trap: Chick Fight
The last week sure had some excitement. Megatron had Scorponok design a venom to try and make Optimus into a coward so that they could defeat the Maximals. However, the experiment backfired. Right now, she was in a cleaning station cubical. She didn't have to sacrifice showers in becoming an autonomous alien robot. She did miss her hair. She missed the feeling of it around her shoulders and neck, the feeling of her fingers combing through it.
She was humming Fly Away by Sugarland as she was rinsing the suds off of her armor. She had gotten up before everyone else today and that was very unusual. She was the last one up just about every day for the most part. Her reason for this was she had desperately wanted to use warm water for once. She turned off the water and sighed.
"Ahh..."
She shook her head and sent droplets flying from the decorative feathers and reached for the button to turn on the drying sequence. Hot air blasted through vents in the walls around her. Once dry, she turned them off and stepped out of her cubical. It felt weird not having to get dressed and undressed. That was another thing she missed about being human; wearing clothes. The only thing she could really wear was her necklace and a plastic ring that was in the pocket of her jeans. She didn't wear her jewelry though because it got in her way. She inspected herself in the mirror over the sinks and smoothed out the feathers on her helm. She flapped her wings to straighten out the feathers.
Shit, who knew robots could be so sexy? She laughed to herself, though she didn't think she was all that attractive. Satisfied with her cleaning, she left to get her daily energon ration.
-x-
Megatron had Waspinator, Terrorsaur, Starfeather, and Blackarachnia on a new mission. They were going to plant a sonic emitter right below the Maximal base and blow a hole right into the bottom of it. Starfeather had had no time to try and warn her secret teammates about this. Megatron had sent them out to start right away and with three pairs of optics watching, she couldn't slip away to get into the base and tell all the Maximals directly or call them.
Well, one pair of optics was really watching her. Actually, four pairs on one head. Starfeather wondered if Blackarachnia suspected something. Another pair would stare at her when he thought she wasn't looking back. When she would try to meet his gaze, he would look away. She could feel her face heating up and smiled sheepishly. I wish Terrorsaur would stop looking at me like that, she thought as she went to preen her flight feathers to stop herself from giggling. The words she had said that morning after her clean up echoed back to her and she bit back another laugh.
"Wazzpinator izzz tired of this!" he complained. "Bomb fitz hole, zzzee?"
"It's not a bomb, you stupid bug," Blackarachnia faux sweetly corrected the wasp. "It's a sonic emitter. When we've placed it correctly, it will blow a nice little door right in the bottom of the Maximal base."
"We have to widen the tunnel," Terrorsaur pointed out, seeing that the device was still loosely inserted. Apparently, he had somewhat snapped out of it. He couldn't help but notice the raven had a brighter sheen today.
"So? Widen it!" the she-spider spat. "I'm soiled enough already just being around you three."
"I'll have you know that I took a shower this morning," Starfeather retorted.
"Do I look like I care?" Blackarachnia replied passively.
"Hmph! Zzpider can dig her own holezzz!" Waspinator had enough of the grunt work and zipped out of the cave.
"Waspinator! Come back!" Starfeather called, but he didn't come back.
"Megatron said dig and I don't care who does it so start digging!" Terrorsaur said then transformed and pointed his blaster threateningly at Blackarachnia. Starfeather shook off the frustration of Waspinator up and leaving like that. She too transformed.
"It's my understanding that spiders can dig a whole lot better than birds can." The black widow sighed, sounding tired already, also transforming.
"I'm the brains of this group, not the brawns," she stated and whipped out her blaster and aimed at Terrorsaur. She narrowed an optic smartly. Starfeather raised her arms and pointed her throwing star dispensers at the black and yellow femme.
"Touch him and I'll turn you into a pincushion," she hissed through clenched teeth.
"Aww, the little baby bird is trying to be a big girl," Blackarachnia cooed.
"Thank you for the boost of self-confidence mommy," Starfeather retorted, warping her voice to sound babyish.
"Why does Megatron put these two together?" Terrorsaur groaned. He smacked his hand to his face as the two femmes continued to bicker.
"So what if I'm an ex-human? That doesn't make me stupid!"
"Perhaps, but it does make you a freak."
"Like I can become human again and go home. Believe me, if I could, I would get outta your perfect little world."
"Well, maybe you should try harder!"
"Well, maybe you should just fucking deal with it!"
"Would you two just stop and focus on the mission?!"
Both femmes turned to face Terrorsaur and simultaneously pointed at the other, "She started it!"
"I don't care who started it, I'll finish it!" He was about ready to pull his own gun on them. "Now let's just fraggin' dig!"
Starfeather glared at Blackarachnia and clenched her fist. Suddenly, she felt something shift in her lower arms and it wasn't her star dispensers. She saw the spider take a small step back and Terrorsaur's optics widen. She tilted her head questioningly, no longer angry.
"What?"
"Your arms..." he said, pointing at her.
Starfeather looked and gasped. She had a line of feather-shaped blades from her wrist to her elbow on both arms. They started short at the wrist and got longer toward the elbow before tapering off.
"Wow..." she murmured.
"I'm still not digging the hole," Blackarachnia stated indignantly. Starfeather returned to glaring at her.
"You should. I don't think you do enough actual work around the base."
"Oh, and you do?" the spider retorted.
"As a matter of fact I-"
"Stop it!" Terrorsaur screeched, holding up his hands in defeat. "Fine! I'LL dig the slaggin' hole if it'll get you both to shut up."
Blackarachnia smirked. She had won.
"But-" Starfeather was about to protest. She wouldn't mind helping him to dig it if Blackarachnia wouldn't do it. She just didn't want the sider telling her to do it.
"No buts! I'm getting downright sick of you two always at each other's necks," Terrorsaur grumbled then went to work on the crevice the sonic emitter was shoved in. Starfeather retracted her new defense weapons and crossed her arms. She glared at Blackarachnia and saw the smirk.
Ooh, you think you've won now legs, but I'm gonna get on to you someday.
About fifteen minutes later, Waspinator came zipping back, buzzing on and on about something and they tried to get something understandable out of him. Finally, he said that Primal was on to him.
"Wazzpinator zzzay we must deal with Optimuzz firzt!" he exclaimed.
"No, we will work faster before they find us," Terrorsaur said.
"He won't be able to find us very fast anyway with my hollow emitter," Blackarachnia argued. None of them could see a pair of glowing green optics in the gloom behind them or hear the almost nonexistent sound of footfalls. However, Starfeather caught something moving out of the corner of her optic. The other three continued to discuss what they should do as she zoned out. She knew someone else was in the cave with them. She knew it had to be a Maximal so she didn't say anything and focused back on the others.
"There's no time for an attack," Blackarachnia said, going to finish installing the countdown sequence. "The emitter is ready. In fifteen cycles, we'll be inside the Maximal base."
Tigatron showed himself after she spoke.
"The only place you'll be going is the scrap heap!" he growled and shot at them. They scattered to avoid the blasts so Tigatron took this opportunity to remove the sonic emitter and escape.
"Predacons: Terrorize!" Terrorsaur ordered. Everyone transformed into robot mode and chased after the white cat. They fired at him down the tunnel, the flyers from the air and the arachnid from the ground. When they turned a corner, Tigatron had disappeared.
"Where did he go?" Blackarachnia demanded.
"Right here, Predacons." answered the smooth voice of the tiger. Before any of them could react, he shot the blasters right out of their hands but that didn't stop Starfeather. She raised her arms and aimed her throwing star dispensers.
"You can't win, cat! The emitter will explode and take you with it!" the she-spider spat.
"In that case," Tigatron retorted. "Allow me to return it!" He thrust the emitter at them and it stuck fast in the ground at her feet.
"No!" she cried.
"Let's get outa here- Oomph!" Terrorsaur bumped into Waspinator when the bug was beginning to head the wrong way. It didn't take but a second for them to right themselves and zoom out of there.
"I'll laugh about that later," the raven muttered as she flew after them. They managed to escape the cave just before the emitter exploded. Blackarachnia was furious and guess who she was going to take her anger out on.
"This is all your fault!" she snapped at Starfeather. "If you hadn't been standing there daydreaming-" The raven made a loud exasperated noise.
"My fault? How could it be my fault?! You're the one who set the bomb's timer!" she spat back.
"For the last time, it wasn't a bomb!"
"Not again," Terrorsaur groaned. He and Waspinator just flew on ahead. The girls fought just about the whole way back to the base. However, he would glance back every now and again. He didn't like seeing Starfeather so... upset about nothing.
-x-
"Enough!" Megatron bellowed. The two femmes were blaming the other for the failed mission and he could feel his patience ebbing away. "I'm going to crush both of you if you don't be quiet!"
Immediately, Starfeather and Blackarachnia went silent but they did continue to glare at the other. Starfeather had her feather blades out again. These new weapons had impressed the Predacon leader.
"That's better," Megatron said. "Now, I don't want to hear another word from either of you for the rest of the day or there will be consequences, yes. You are all dismissed."
Starfeather opened her mouth to say a nasty retort but just growled, turned on her heel, so to speak (she was hovering in the air), and stormed out of the main control room. Blackarachnia did a similar thing only she went a different way. Terrorsaur and Waspinator just inched their way out.
Starfeather was going to lock herself in her quarters for the rest of the day. She was stomping down the hallway but tripped over her own feet. She fell flat on her face and cursed. "I hate that black widow," she hissed as she pounded the floor with her fist, tears of frustration and pain creeping to her optics. "I hate everything about her... I hate everyone!"
"Do you hate me too?"
She gasped and twisted over to see who spoke. Great, he's the last one I wanna see today, she thought.
"No, I didn't mean you..." she mumbled, sitting up. "Or Waspy."
"Waspy?" Terrorsaur repeated. "When did you start calling him that?"
"Since now," Starfeather answered but refused to look at him. Her back was to him anyway. "I'm still trying to come up with a nickname for you." He raised an optic ridge, suddenly curious.
"What do you got?" She got up and brushed herself off before answering.
"Well, the best thing I could come up with was... Screechy." She smiled sheepishly.
"Screechy?"
"You know, your voice? It's... screechy," Starfeather suddenly felt really stupid and blushed. Wait, wasn't she just in a really upset mood? Now she was suddenly okay and now she was embarrassed? Why did she get these weird mood swings around him... and only him? Terrorsaur thought about the name for a second before he responded.
"I think that's fine, just... don't call me that in front of everyone, okay?" She felt so relieved that she almost hugged him. She wanted to but she didn't know how he would react if she did.
"Okay," she replied, smiling crookedly instead. "So, um... I'm going to lock myself in my quarters for the night so I'll see you tomorrow. Good night... Screechy." She gave a tiny wave and turned to sprint to her room.
"Wait!" He grabbed her shoulder before she could get away. "I wanna ask you something." She stopped when she felt him touch her shoulder. She turned to look at him.
"What?"
"Well, uh, Waspinator and I were wondering if you wanted to, maybe, learn a new flying stunt," he said. Why did he have difficulty talking to her all of a sudden?
"Sure. Tomorrow morning?" she wondered.
"Yeah," he confirmed, removing his hand from her shoulder. He had to force himself to do so. Why did he even want to touch her so badly?
"Alright then, I'll see you both at morning rations." She waved again and, this time made it into her quarters and locked the door. He watched her walk away and gazed at the closed door. For how long, he didn't know. One thing he did know was that there was something different about that femme. Whatever it was, he couldn't tell. She just made him feel... so many different things all at once. What was the deal?
Starfeather sighed and plopped onto the bed. Her plans of trying to distance herself were escaping right out the window. Yet she found that she couldn't help it. Maybe she should come out and tell them tomorrow. Maybe they would understand... What was she thinking? Of course they wouldn't. She betrayed them, was still betraying them. They would be so hurt and angry with her. She felt so sick of this guilty feeling nagging in the depths of her spark. Guilt wasn't the only feeling down there. There was another one. She had noticed it weeks ago, but kept trying to overlook it. This feeling seemed familiar but she just couldn't place it. It felt stronger than when she had felt it before in her life, she just couldn't remember. What was it?
