Suds in the Bucket: Part 4
By the time we made it back to the main lounge the whole tourney between Sunstreaker and Alyssa had been completely set up and they were working on who got to go first. It came down to a game of rock, paper, scissors to see which of them got to go. I guess it must have caused Sunny some kind of physical pain when she won that too.
That settled, Sideswipe produced his gaming console out from some where and began to lay down the law about what the rules were and how they were going to be played. The first game turned out to be the ole crowd pleaser "Doom", he set this in to competition mode and let the two of them have at it. All around them were various autobots each of them either cheering on their champion Sunny, or hoping that he got him self taken down a peg or two by this little human.
I was having a good time watching this when I noticed that Sider's was busy working the crowd over for something.
"Sideswipe?" I looked up at him.
He suddenly gave me the look like the little boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar and smiled.
"What do you want mam?" He grinned.
"First off, DON'T call me mam, I'm not old enough to be a "mam". Second tell me what the Sam hill you are doing?"
He promptly shoved a hand full of credits out of sight, "This, oh this is nothing really it's just…"
"It's just him running the betting pool," Optimus finished dryly.
"Sorry sir, I can stop if you…" He trailed off as Optimus held up his hand.
"That's not really necessary," The leader grinned beneath his mask then pulled out some of his own credits, "But what you can do is give me five on Alyssa."
I gapped, Sideswipe gapped, and every one else who was in ear shot gapped. The former merchant recovered quickly enough and proceeded to take the credits from Optimus and hand him some kind of claim check. Sideswipe finally wandered off and I looked up at Prime.
"You mind telling me what that was all about?"
"As a matter of fact I do, but since you're you I will." Another smile, "I think it's high time someone gave Sunny a lesson in gaming etiquette and I think Alyssa is just the person to do it."
I stared at him for a few moments and then, "You are TERRIBLE!" I put my head in his lap and proceeded to crack up over what I had just heard and witnessed.
That was when the huge war whoop came from the gaming console and I looked up to see Sunstreaker start fuming and Alyssa hold up the controller in victory.
"In your face Golden rod!!"
"Don't you dare get cocky on me you little…" he couldn't come up with some kind of insult that would match his fury, "Girl!" he finally managed.
"Gee Sunny," the grin on her face just got that much more evil, "I thought you flunked gender identification 101."
Several people in the back, my self included started cackling like Hyena's over that one. Sunstreaker just sat there trying to come up with some thing and failing miserably.
"Let's just get on with the next game!" He finally managed to snarl out.
"Oh so twice wasn't enough huh?" She picked up her controller and smiled, "So what are they setting us up with this time?"
"Free space." The yellow car told her.
"Hmm…Flip you for settings." She held out a quarter to him.
"No thanks," He smiled, "Just to show you what a good sport I am I'll let you program it."
I heard that and grinned to my self, then leaned over to Optimus.
"You put your money on her again?" I asked him.
The leader nodded at me, "Why? You know something I don't?"
Another smile from me, "As a matter of fact I do." I pointed at the diorama up front, "She's going to murder him this time."
"And what pray tell makes you say that?"
I dropped my voice some to make sure sunny couldn't hear me, "She knows all the codes to this game. She's gonna have the thing programmed around her lil finger."
"You're kidding?" he looked at me.
"No I'm not; I got my butt handed to me by her at that game when she first got it."
He shook his head at me and then leaned back into his seat. Mean while, across the room Sideswipe must have known the same thing about the game that I did, because he was over there encouraging people to put their bets on Sunny. All knowing full well that Sunstreaker was going to get his skid plate handed to him, but not caring.
True to form the cycle repeated. It took a lot longer this time because once the first game was over it dawned on Sunny that maybe he shouldn't have let her be the one to program the thing for the game. As a result he claimed that she'd had an unfair advantage and that they redo the game with him as the programmer. Alyssa reset the thing for him and told him to have at it. The whole audience was treated to watching him try and program the thing and then fail miserably more than once. Eventually he got the thing up and running but it took him half an hour to do what it had taken Alyssa five minutes. Most folks drifted off during that to get snacks and drinks and wound up in the commissary. I was in there making a raid on the sodas with Optimus getting him self something.
"So how long do you think they are going to be able to keep this up?" I asked as I fished for the ice.
"That depends on Alyssa largely," He answered.
"Why do you say that?" I dumped the blocks into a glass and turned back to him.
"Because, I know exactly how long Sunstreaker will stay at something like this. Which by the way is just shy of forever or until he finally wins." He paused and took a drink of his own stuff, "So it all depends on how long she can keep this up."
"Well if that's the case then they are gonna be at this all bloody night, because she doesn't give up either."
We just about to head back when once again we heard the wail of utter humiliation coming from a certain gold Lamborghini. Every one in the in the commissary stopped what they were doing, looked at each other and then took off in the direction of the lounge as quickly as size and dignity allowed.
What we found when we got there was a furious Sunstreaker in the throws of defeat. He had programmed the game so that she would have the smallest, least armed player that was possible. After he made sure that he would have the exact opposite. Despite all of that, she was STILL winning. Optimus and I made it back into the room in time to see his flag ship go down and Sunny drop the controller in shock.
"How…?" Was all he managed to get out.
Alyssa did the blow on your fingernails and shine them on your shirt thing, "Hey when you got it, you got it."
"That's not FAIR!!" He whined.
"Neither is life big guy," She grinned again, "Well you wanna keep going or have you had enough?"
She got her answer in the form of, "SIDESWIPE get you're aft over here and set up the next game!"
The red Lamborghini appeared counting his credits with a very happy smirk on his face. Most people had bet on his brother and he had collected all of the proceeds.
A few seconds later he had the next game set up and wandered over to sit down next to me and Optimus.
"So?" I demanded as I looked up at him.
"So what?"
"So how much money have you made off of seeing your twin brother get humiliated by a human girl?" I snickered back.
"OH! That," he shrugged, "What can I say; I've always managed to get some kind of profit off of his ego. Don't worry; I'll split it with him."
"As soon as his current pet obsession wears off," Prime added from his spot near me.
"Ain't that the truth," Siders grinned.
"So what have you got them playing now?" I craned my neck to try and see.
"Well we have your hospitality to Prowl, Bluestreak and Jazz to thank for this current game selection."
That took a second to register; when it did I put my face in my hand and groaned.
"Pikmin? You set pikmin up for them?"
He nodded vigorously making him self look like one of those silly bobble head dolls, "Yep, pikmin 2 actually. Challenge mode."
I buried my head against Optimus' shoulder, "Kill me now please."
He laughed at me shook his head and returned his attention to watching my friend hand Sunny his butt at yet another game. I wondered just how much longer the two of them could keep this up, having the feeling that no one was going to get any sleep that night.