"I'm reaching out for something. Touching nothing's all I ever do. Oh, I softly call you over, when you appear there's nothing left of you"
Sweet
Chapter 11: Sedentary Life
Megatron checked in on his flying follower while he toiled in his laboratory. "What are you up to?" The sudden voice caused him to jump.
"I'm looking to extend the life of the Decepticon," he explained, reaching for another soldering iron. His hands shook so hard he dropped it
"I see." Megatron awkwardly paused, searching the room for a reason. "If any of the Constructicons wanders in here remind them of our meeting tomorrow. They were late to the last one." He left before his feeble command aroused a remark. He knew it was a lame excuse but he wanted to keep tabs on Starscream without raising suspicion; this was why he'd hired the amazing Mishap. Still, he never trusted any of his warriors fully, excepting Soundwave. Then again, Soundwave was an empty robot whose personalities were embodied in his tapes. He was a welcome relief from Starscream. That crazy mech had spent four days in his lab doing Primus-knew-what, talking to himself.
Starscream watched his leader, deep in thought, walk down the hall. He locked the door and turned to a corner of his lab. "He's gone," he told the corner, turning back to the chip-enlarger he was building. With larger chips, he could repair the circuits, lowering the need for replacements and keeping valuable information intact. The soldering iron was giving him trouble.
Mishap reappeared, giggling. Starscream had repaired her back and shoulder for two agonizing trail-and-error days until she felt well enough to do self-repair the third. He found out she was half-Autobot, which made her weaker in his estimation. That was disappointing. They were celebrating their luck, and Starscream's genius, with a stolen energon cube. She sipped it slowly but Mishap was not used to energon in vast potent amounts and was getting tipsy. Although Megatron's appearance had sobered her companion a little, Mishap felt exhilarated at being so close to getting caught.
"That was AMAZING!" she said, gulping more energon. Her near encounter with a very evil being had made her energon pump race. Fear was an accelerator of over-energizing. In the cube there was enough left for one more draught; she offered it to the scientist. He refused and she finished it off. This was satisfactory energon, he reasoned, not as good as the last batch he'd imbibed, but it gave a decent buzz. She was welcome to the majority of it. She silently contemplated several things before she spoke again, slurring slightly. "Didya ever wonder what we'd look like a different color?"
"I'd look swell green," Starscream replied, realizing that soldering would have to wait until the iron was fixed. Mishap cracked up. He started tinkering with some plans in his personal computer, muttering to himself. Mishap was tired of that. Starscream's voice was irritating to listen to, making her decide it was time for him to listen to someone else. After all, dialogue is infinitely better than soliloquy. Did he know she had a wonderful singing voice?
Starscream looked up at this very sloshed transformer, amused. He did not know why, maybe because robots were funny in altered states. "No, I did not know that. Why have I never heard you?"
"Spies don't get to sing. They're kinda funny about that. When I worked in the pits I would sing to myself sometimes, if the pit people weren't listening. They hated music. Maybe I will more when I'm free."
He ignored the pity story. "What sort of music did you employ?"
She stopped swaying and considered this. "In the early days, anything I liked. Later it was war songs, like the Autobot fight song."
Starscream chortled at her claim. "Sing it."
"Here?" They would get caught!
"Nobody's around...go ahead."
Mishap tuned her voicebox and closed the flow of energon to her CPU.
Sung to the GVSU fight song
We want an Autobot victory
For Cybertron we have pride
Our forces lead us on
Truth and right we're at your side
We want an Autobot victory
As our foes will quickly see
Raise your voices and cheer for a victory.
Fight Fight Fight!
Mishap was right; she had a beautiful voice. (Every Autobot does, but Starscream didn't know that.) This did not stop her audience from sneering. "Cute. Were you trying to win a war with that or assemble a glee club?"
She laughed. "True, it lacks teeth. It was a nice motivator though."
He snorted. "It motivated you to the other side."
She gave him a measured look. "What was yours?"
"Better!"
This tune needs no introduction
Hail! to the victors valiant
Hail! to the conqu'ring heroes
Hail! Hail! Decepticons
the leaders and best
Hail! to the victors valiant
Hail! to the conqu'ring heroes
Hail! Hail! Decepticons,
the champions of the rest!
It was her turn to be patronizing. "Very descriptive! Under ten words used!"
"There's more than that!" He realized she was teasing him. He involuntarily smiled.
"Was there a tune in the song or is it a lot of intimidating raillery?"
His smile faded a bit, embarassed. "My singing voice is an acquired taste." She bit back the comment that everything about him was an acquired taste. "You should hear us all yelling 'hail' at the same time. It's exciting."
Mishap remembered losing battles where that cry seemed to emanate from everywhere while her friends and family lay dying. 'Exciting' was hardly the word she would use. She shook off the horrific images in her databank, allowing more energon to pulse to her CPU. "I wonder why no one uses them any more."
"The Decepticons can't sing," he quipped, causing her to giggle hysterically.
As her laughter faded, new existentialism emerged. "A better hypothesis would be, which side is the right side?" she whispered. "Autobots or Decepticons...what happened to Reflector?"
"A question better not postulated," Starscream warned, alarmed. Reflector had tried to run for it and not gotten to the front of the Autobot's ark with his arms up before Megatron had overtaken him and shot all three parts to smithereens. Reflector had asked these same questions. He'd better get her out of here before things got dangerous. "You need to become invisible. It's time to allow the energon to process." Helping her to her feet, Starscream watched her fall into him, snickering. He hoisted her over his shoulder, impatiently smacking her rear end.
"Hey!" she snapped indignantly. She whacked him back with more force than he used.
"Disappear," he commanded.
"No need to hit," she glowered, leaving his sight.
Starscream hauled his burden unsteadily through the dark hallways, cursing the distance between the lab and his chambers. He was lucky a skeleton Decepticon crew made interference non-existent, allowing him to take her back without impediment. But where to put her? His floor, where he used to cleanse his binges, was littered with parts and CDs. He finally decided to turn his recharge plate off and placed her on it. After all, when out in the wilds of an unknown planet Seekers often huddled together for warmth and power conservation. She was half-Seeker, he rationalized. Ugh. The energon was kicking his CPU into throb mode. He nudged her before she went off line.
"Move over."
She moved onto her hip and placed an arm around him comfortingly. Her left hand rested on his right shoulder, her head on his left, left knee on his left knee. He unwillingly wrapped his left arm around her, for comfort reasons.
"I think you'd make a great green robot," she blurted, out cold before the addressee could think of a good response.
Starscream awoke to his internal chronometer telling him he had very limited time before his meeting. Mishap, snoring and obvious, was still deep in oblivion. She was cute. He reprimanded himself for thinking that, attributing the energon. As he slipped out from under her Starscream decided to let her sleep, figuring she could miss this.
Megatron scowled at his telecom screen. He was talking to Shockwave, who looked as irritated as a faceless robot could.
"I would have preferred more warning that a legion of Decepticons were accompanying the energon," he grumbled.
"You're supposed to be prepared for anything, otherwise I would scrap you and find a better guardian." He was sick of Shockwave's indecision. If he could find a way to meld Shockwave's reverence and logical thinking with Starscream's strategy and cynicism, he'd have a perfect robot. "In what activities are my warriors engaged?"
"Energon bar-hopping, reuniting with old acquaintances, killing Autobots...Soundwave sits outside and watches whatever happens around him."
"Excellent." Their attitudes would be significantly improved when they returned. Megatron saw Starscream's face twitch with jealousy. Both were saved by the late arrival of the Constructicons. "Now that we're all here..."
Mishap leapt online with a jolt when Starscream came back to his chamber to gather more parts for his lab project. She was surprised over many things: 1) she never over-slept, usually she could sense when he awoke and did the same; 2) Mishap had not slept on such a nice recharge plate since before the war; 3) she had never been so thoroughly over-energized. She inwardly gasped. Did they recharge together? NOBODY did that! Yet-it felt nice. This caused Mishap a great deal of discomfort. Embarrassed, she covered her consternation by asking him: "Where have you been?"
"I had a meeting with everyone who's still here. Megatron decided to wait until our team is complete to accumulate more energon." He wasn't sure if his whining or the Constructicon's argument of numbers (the Autobots would overrun them) convinced Megatron to regard this time as their own time off. It was not worth questioning.
"At least you don't have to go to space to get energon, thanks to your modifications." Mishap yawned and stretched, getting up to follow him out the door. She disappeared. If he wasn't going to make an issue out of their snuggling, neither would she.
"Megatron refuses to acknowledge me!" he ranted, taking leave of the room. Mishap hurried behind him, as Starscream assumed she would, for he never ceased his bitter discourse. "He allowed the most ridiculously mundanely idiotic Decepticons go to Cybertron, but not me!"
"You know full well why he won't let you go," Mishap retorted. "That would be the equivalent of him leaving you in his throne room with every password he has."
Starscream stopped so quickly she nearly ran into him. Usually his velocity was much faster than hers, forcing her to run. When he was angry his momentum doubled. "You have access to his throne room," he reminded himself.
"Let that impulse burn out immediately," she snarled. The aftereffects of the energon binge were vengefully kicking in. "I'm not working for you." She regretted that the minute she said it. Now he was angry. For the rest of the week he scowled, cross to everyone, inspiring her to choose to remain unseen and taciturn. This irritated him further, but he refused to address the problem out of pride. Mishap was a little hurt, which irked her to no end. Why did it get to her that neither of them was willing to break down and talk? 'Besides', she told herself as she settled to monitor him as he recharged alone, 'my job is to watch him and report to Megatron, not establish rapport'. It still bothered her.
One day he was walking down the main hall at varying speeds, hoping to get readout of where she was. Nothing. She cloaked herself too well. His annoyance exceeded his self-respect and he finally scratched, "Mishap?"
"Yes?" He still couldn't place that voice's location.
"I tire of not knowing where you are hiding," he complained.
"When we are outside of your chamber, you know I can't disclose myself...but-" Before she and Mirage learned to detect each other when invisible, they devised a simple method of revealing their whereabouts. Mishap reached over and placed her hand in Starscream's. "-this might work." She interlocked their fingers. Wow. Mirage never felt like this.
"What if I have to shoot?" Starscream was startled. Robot warriors do not touch, and as such she had not been in his recharge plate since their night of over-energon. This was an altogether new sensation.
"I have your non-shooting hand."
"What if I'm carrying something?"
"We'll figure something out." She was as flustered as he was. The idea of taking her hand back entered and exited her mind the minute he began to walk again.
Severely disturbed by this strange Autobot custom that overshot his touch receptors, Starscream commenced walking to his chamber, slower than usual, assuring himself the minute he got there she would release him and materialize.
Let him go she did, but to his surprise she did not appear. "Where are you now?" he asked.
"I have to report to Megatron," she replied. She hoped he would lay on his plate and read a CD or something. He asked her what she told their leader. "The truth." As the door closed behind her she amended, "Mostly."
Cheesy Flashback #6
Swindle was soldering the chestplate hinges with Onslaught watching when Blast Off wandered in. He asked what they were up to.
"I have isolated her spark," said Swindle, gesturing to the metal container with a bright light glowing from within.
"Impressive." It WAS impressive. Usually the spark was lost in the transition. "What else have you accomplished?"
"I discovered an interesting datum of the Autobot anatomy: They not only have blue optic covers, but the lights behind the optics are blue as well. I placed the Decepticon red optic covers in; now her eyes are purple. Isn't that nice?"
"Lovely," he commented, not caring. "Swindle, what is going to keep this Autobot alive?"
"The spark re-instated will bring her back to function, as well as a jolt of electrodes to begin circulation. To pre-empt your next question-" He had not thought of another. Swindle merely enjoyed showing off. "I have been upgrading her as I go with spare Seeker parts. She has enough Decepticon in her to keep her loyal."
"How so?" asked Onslaught.
"Well, the parts alone have loyalty chips embedded in them. Also...have you heard of 'learned helplessness'?" The two answered in the negative. "It is the state of being in which the subject suffers from a severely negative condition at such length and frequency that she will believe that the situation is uncontrollable and that coping is not advantageous. After my experiments with Gundarks-" he gestured to the wall shelves supporting cages of miserable animals, several with their ears pulled off. "I discovered that when I opened the cages to let them out, they remained sedentary. Only a few escaped! After a lot of experimenting with their brainwaves, I finally configured the correct analogous program to create a component-" here he brandished a circuit chip and implanted it into her chest cavity. "-that will ingrain this attitude into her. She's ours!" He soldered it into place, murmuring under his breath: "I think. It's still experimental."
Blast Off was amazed. He and Onslaught were applauding when Vortex came in with Brawl. They too, were amazed. "I'm glad you slimmed her down a bit and refined her features as well," commented Brawl. "She was ugly."
"Appearance is not our main concern!" reprimanded Swindle, fastening her new wings to her shoulders. He kicked her old wheels from her car body aside to allow more room. "Although it doesn't hurt." He placed her spark inside of its container and slammed her chestplate shut. He positioned Onslaught at the door as he set up the electrodes to shock her system back to functioning. "Gentlemen, are you ready?" They nodded. "Set the electricity for 1000 volts."
Using the electricity to shock her alive worked at a surprisingly low voltage. Females usually required more than 1000 volts. She sat up, screeching like a banshee. Gasping, she looked desperately at the strangers around her and promptly disappeared. The electrodes were hastily pulled off one by one.
"That will not work, my dear," Swindle, bored, informed her. His gun stayed pointed to the spot he last saw her. She appeared, staring at her reflection in the mirror Brawl promptly provided.
"That's me?"
"Indeed. Comely, aren't you? We have rescued you from death."
"Why?"
"We need you. You are the best Autobot spy known, and we desire your assistance to help us take over Megatron."
"What if I don't?"
"You are surrounded by five Decepticons who do not play nice." Behind her Onslaught cracked a few knuckles. "You will die NOW, if you do not swear an oath to help us."
"I would rather die."
Swindle turned to Vortex, disappointed the chip was not activating any attitude besides the one with which she was created. "This may take awhile."
"I have a lot of time," he said, grinning evilly as he approached the bright blue female, reaching for the soldering iron.
Chapter 12: Suppositions
Mishap arrived in front of Megatron's throne room door full of trepidation. She hoped she could withstand another one of his...advances. Her circuits burned for another vial, but the prerequisites appalled her. The door flew up and he was behind it, beckoning her in. It was a bad sign that he was not seated. She knelt before him as far away as she thought satisfactory.
"What news have you, robot spy Mishap?"
She described the chip enlarger. Megatron was amazed. She told of his theft of an energon cube for inebriation. He was amused. She reported Starscream's open and searing resentment of Megatron's preferential treatment of others. He was unabashedly chuckling.
"He believes that he does more around here, thus his grudge endures." She did not venture the opinion of Starscream feeling better if he went to Cybertron, not because it would appear to be a ploy, but if Megatron wanted her analysis he would ask for it. Optimus had been the same way. Megatron asked for more information. Mishap reported him sulking more than usual.
"Excellent." Everything was going the way it should. He dismissed Mishap with no further questions. After a moment, it appeared that the dreaded/anticipated vial would not appear. Relieved, she stood up with a deferential expression to keep him from second-guessing her. She sensed that he watched her leave. Cloaking herself from sight, Mishap returned to find Starscream on his charging plate. He was offline.
A side effect of not being offered an energon tube was that Mishap had no source of power. The plate Starscream lay on looked tempting, more so than ever thanks to the glow surrounding him. Why not? She'd done it before, even if that time was initiated by Starscream. He was dead to the world, she rationalized, ignoring the smile it brought to her face at the notion of being close to him again. Mishap cautiously worked her way around his body and tangled herself in his arm, leg, and wing. The minute she felt the welcome surge it caused her to sigh.
"Ahhhhh..." she said, snuggling close.
In the dark, Starscream's eyes glimmered.
Chapter 13: Autobots II
Mirage was justifiably upset. Upon hearing of his sister's rescuing him from an ion cannon shot Optimus declared that Mirage would hereby avoid all battles in order to keep both Autobots safe. Yes, he said 'Autobot(s).'
"Normally I would enjoy avoiding conflict, but Prime, I have to be the one to save my sister," Mirage pleaded.
"Negative. We will find a way to contact Oasis at a more appropriate time," came the authoritative response.
Mirage, furious, protested this order. Who would she willingly talk to? Bumblebee? Most of the people she knew were either dead or on Cybertron. She knew, and trusted, her brother: the mech who had been created and raised with her. Everyone else had let her down. The minute she could, she had come to him. She saved his life, warned them of the other Decepticons-saved Powerglide, too. This had to mean something! He must be getting through to her! Only he! Could Optimus Prime, whom she might still reject as a leader, convince her to come home? He doubted that. Optimus bore these affronts with dignity.
"Mirage, there is potential harm to her if Megatron figures out what is going on. For now, I want you to stay here." He watched his normally placid Autobot collapse on the ground, calling on all of his inner strength to obey his leader. "I'm sorry I had to give that order," Optimus rumbled sympathetically, "but neither of you will benefit from being destroyed by Decepticons." He helped Mirage stand up and lead him back into the ark, where he had brought him out for this discussion. Most were recharging in tanks powered by the harvesting of the volcano's thermal energy. As they walked in a surprisingly modulated Powerglide stepped forward from deeper in the hallway.
"Hey Mirage," he greeted, putting his arm around the blue and white robot, "I remember Oasis. When we worked together, we were all such great friends. (sigh) Primus, I miss her, too. I KNOW that whatever they did to her, the REAL Oasis is still there, and if there's a way to bring her back, we will."
"Thanks, Powerglide." Mirage was truly touched. This usually blase Autobot had been the only one to grasp what Mirage was feeling. Optimus regarded the two cautiously, but decided to reserve commenting until he could be sure he was right in his suspicions.
"Optimus! Come quick!" Chip was at Teletraan-1, pushing buttons as fast as his tiny human hands could. All three raced over. What new danger was at hand?
"Hey!" Optimus Prime cried out in dismay.
"Wow!" exclaimed Bumblebee, who'd been there the whole time. "Chip, you're amazing!"
Ironhide heard the commotion in the other room and raced in, blaster drawn. "What's the problem?" He drawled. It had been almost a month since they'd seen any action. He looked quizzically at Prime.
"Chip has just beaten my old Pac-Man Score," Optimus informed him glumly.
"Awww, man! You were on that thing all weekend!" Now Ironhide would be in third place instead of second on the "Top Scorers" list. "My turn next!"
"No!" several objected, before Teletraan-1 interrupted.
"Warning! Warning! Warning! Decepticon activity located!" Teletraan's flashing screen cleared Chip's Pac-Man game and made them all jump.
"That wasn't saved!" Chip cried.
"Yes!" hissed Optimus under his breath.
Chip tried to get the right channel to locate the picture of the Decepticons. Fuzz, fuzz, fuzz, the Pac-Man game's opening credits, fuzz-
"Form arms, and body! And I'll form...the head!" They were enthralled. What kind of gestalt Decepticon was this?
"Wheeljack's been watchin' earth TV agin," Ironhide explained.
"Vol-tron!" Chip shook himself out of his reverie and flipped the next channel to see a new space bridge.
"It's in...Afghanistan!"
"That's halfway around the world!" Bumblebee moaned. "And Skyfire's on patrol!"
"We'll have to try," said their leader. "Autobots! Transform and roll out!"
The Autobots arrived in time to see the Decepticons flying away. Again! "Argh!" yelled Optimus Prime, frustrated. This happened more often than he cared to admit. "Chip! Project their intended location!"
"Optimus," Chip radioed a few seconds later, "They've split into two factions! Some are on their way back to the space bridge!"
"Autobots, take cover! We've been detected!"
Megatron had sent the Constructicons, with Starscream and Skywarp, to guard the space bridge. They were to radio the moment any enemies were spotted.
"Spotted!" sang Skywarp, purple and black body shining in the fading sunlight He swooped to the earth, guns blazing. "And shooting!"
Starscream flew down behind him and wondered which one he should attack first when someone soared above him, firearms flaming and mouth blathering.
"Look out, Decepti-creeps! Here comes ole' Powerglide!"
Starscream pulled up hard, yelling for Skywarp to regroup with him and for the Constructicons to form Devastator. "Everyone attack! Why did Megatron pick this place?" He squawked. The space bridge was near a mountainous range. The rocky terrain hid the Autobots and everything looked grayish, thanks to the clouds building up, making it hard to differentiate sky from ground. The lack of sun kept the Autobot's metal from reflecting.
"Where on Cybertron did this cold front come from?" asked Skywarp, blaster hitting the obnoxious yellow Autobot none of them liked.
Optimus Prime looked from behind his boulder cautiously as he reloaded. His team was pinned behind the rocks, their bright colors forcing them to stand out from the bland mountainside. When he radioed for Skyfire and the Dinobots he heard Mirage ask if Oasis had appeared. Hastily ducking a shot from Starscream he answered in the negative. A ray from Devastator's blaster turned his hiding place into pebbles.
"Shit!" he yelled, dashing to another spot while firing his gun as fast as he could. As he found cover, the sky opened up with a loud boom of thunder and a half a ton of rain.
"Argh!" yelled Devastator as a bolt of lightening short-circuited him. He remained assembled. "I HATE being a walking lightening rod!" He could not make out the enemy at all, unless the lightening struck to reveal their scurrying about the mountainside. He fired at what he thought his scanners perceived and hoped for the best.
Starscream was pleasantly aware of the lack of precipitation due to an invisible umbrella. "So that's where you are!" he smiled to himself. Unfortunately, he was not the only robot who saw this break in rain continuance.
"Starscream! Look out above you!" yelled Skywarp. Mishap panicked. Transforming, but keeping her invisibility (the little good it did her), she shot Skywarp. He spiraled down and hit Devastator, which caused him to explode. Six Constructicons and a Seeker jet lay on the ground, shaking off the shock. Mishap ducked behind a rock in time to see Optimus Prime dash in past her to the neighboring rock. His scarlet back stared at her like a giant target. That familiar pain she encountered when talking to her brother emerged, and her fury took over. Energon pumping hard, she cocked her gun.
Like the rain dissolves all fragile entities, Mishap's vengeful resolve broke the moment she saw her former mentor's face. He could not bring back those millions of years, as badly as she wished the capture had not happened. The pain doubled and moved up her arm. Her gun dropped to the ground, appearing. Optimus turned around.
"Mirage? Os that you?" He knew better.
"No, Optimus." Mishap backed away, horrified at her response. She had to get out of here before she was caught.
"Wait! Oasis!" Before she realized it, a huge dark blue hand reached out to her. The lightening emphasized his hidden face. His bright blue eyes blazed with desperation. "Please," he begged. "Where are you?"
"Right here," she said, her hand in his as she appeared. Optimus gasped. He pulled her into his arms and hid more behind the rock, crouching from any Decepticons. "I am so sorry," he sobbed. The rain, which Mishap thought couldn't fall any harder, lashed at them. "I thought you were dead. If we'd known, we would have rescued you."
"Optimus, please..." she was struggling to break free from his arms like a cat in a child's grasp. He was going overboard, but it was the jolt of unconditional love that she'd longed for since the Decepticons captured her.
Powerglide landed in front of them. "The Decepticons are retreating!"
Panic filled her again. "The Decepticons are leaving? I have to go!" She successfully pried herself out of her former leader's fatherly embrace. Powerglide dashed over.
"Oasis!" Not another hug! Too late! Great Primus, this was the worst love-fest ever! It felt like a relief, though. The pain in her chest receded with her friend's affection. Unfortunately, all was superceded by the compulsion to follow the Decepticons.
"I have to go!" she cried again.
"Are you serious? You want to go back there, with our enemies, no friends-"
"I have a friend," she shot back.
"Enough!" Optimus Prime bellowed over the thunder, blue hand up again. "Oasis, Mirage has claimed your need to be rescued. I have yet to witness that, and judging by your actions, you seem to enjoy being a Decepticon."
"That's not true!" How could he say that? "You abandoned me! I was rescued by Decepticons, not you! Optimus...they changed me. I swore an oath. If I go back on that, I have nothing." The Autobots would never trust her, and the Decepticons would kill her before she left the area. Unless he had some great plan to ferry her back to Cybertron to hide with some small hidden faction, she was stuck. Surely he realized that! "I was lost to you, but I would be a traitor to them. How could I live with myself?"
"You are not lost to us," Optimus assured her.
"We still know who you are," Powerglide confirmed, arms still around her.
"I know. I want to go with you, but...but...I-I-can't-" The image of her brother's face, then somebody else's, alternated in her CPU, making her wretched. The anxiety grew with every second Mishap remained with them, until it was almost unbearable. She buried her head in Powerglide's shoulder, body wracked with indecision. They waited. Finally she looked up at both of them in the unfeeling gloom of the rainstorm, her eyes indigo to their navy. "I have unfinished business." Tracks was flying over them, joyfully ululating the Autobots' victory. Prime deferred an unnecessary meltdown by overriding any impending conclusion coming from his favorite spy.
"Oasis, go," Optimus intoned, watching her pull away from Powerglide and turn to him. "When you are ready, you will return." Her whole beautiful face lit up in gratitude. The smile was definitely hers. Prime remembered it on this mostly foreign femme.
"That is wonderful! Thank you. I will not forget, I'll be back." She grabbed her gun and disappeared without a backward glance.
Powerglide looked at his leader in disbelief. "What wrong with her! That's not the Oasis I know! She's insane! She's different! She needs to be fixed, and you let her go! We'll never see her again!" he chastised.
"We will," he promised, looking at the almost black sky, the memory of Teletraan's image of Reflector's burning carcasses in his CPU. "Before or after she makes up her mind? I don't know."
Cheesy Flashback #7
Oasis had returned from an officers' briefing to find Mirage having a mug of hot energon with a whole table full of unfamiliar male and female Autobots, all of them a rank or two below her. She recognized Moonracer among them. Coming up to the table with caution, she greeted everyone cheerfully. Mirage asked how the meeting went. "Just fine," she said, meaning that it was boring. They were planning another method of energon accumulation. Oasis was not allowed to reveal any classified information to these underlings, so she had to remain reticent while they discussed Autobots she did not know. This was boring, too. When it became apparent Mirage was having fun without her being there, she excused herself and hid in her room. The door knocked later and she assumed it was her brother FINALLY coming over to play their favorite card game, as they did around this time of the week.
Powerglide entered. "Hey," he greeted. "Mirage sends his regrets. He's not coming this time, he's sorry, but he sent me to come over and learn to play."
Again! This was the fifth time in a row. "No offense, Powerglide, but I'm not really in the mood to teach." She picked a CD up to read.
"None taken." He stayed where he was, something he did only when he had bad news. She waited.
"What is it?"
"How well do you know Mercuria?"
Oasis paused thoughtfully. "Silver?" He nodded. "Faster car-type." He nodded again. "I take it that she likes him." He nodded. "Good for her. I hope they're happy."
"You're not bothered?" Powerglide asked cautiously.
YES! "No, not really. I couldn't pick anybody he liked. I'm glad he likes someone that is smarter than half of the females out there." She was beautiful, too. Oasis had never considered herself a great beauty. Many overtly agreed. Mirage must be one of them.
After all those weeks of his denying ANY female worthy of his company, Oasis was a little taken aback by his sudden attentions to the most popular female Autobot. She had to be mature about this: if Mirage preferred the company of another female, then her throwing a temper tantrum would not change it. She decided to keep her dignity and pretend it didn't bother her that her only living family member abandoned her. Powerglide eyed her suspiciously and said he was glad everyone was happy about it.
"Do you still need someone to play cards with you?" His tone implied he would rather be elsewhere.
"No, I guess not."
"Alright. Give me a call if you need anything." He turned and hurried out. Oasis disappeared so that even her boring ugly reflection in the shiny metal wall could not show her upset.
"This is stupid!" she said to herself. "I REFUSE to sit around feeling sorry for myself." She remembered her proposal to make a female Autobot friend. Since he was living up to his end of the bargain, it was her turn. Searching her databanks, Oasis thought of Chromia, who had always been friendly to her. Maybe she would be interested in having fun.
"Autobots assemble!" The next day Prime called the ranks to fall in before he dispensed them to double guard-duty. As much as he hated making them work for two shifts instead of one, Optimus had no choice. They were low on staff all that month, until Ironhide and company returned from their energon run. He looked at his odd mixture of large, small, mech and femme-bots of various ages and ranks. As he reminded them of their duty to call in at certain intervals, Optimus noted that Oasis and her brother were not paying attention to his speech. They were squabbling over last night's activities.
"I came over and you were gone!"
"After you sent Powerglide to tell me you were with someone else!"
"I TOLD him to tell you I was coming over later!"
"Too bad. I didn't want to wait indefinitely, so I hung out with Chromia and Elita-1."
"Did you make friends with your top officials?"
"What does THAT mean?" She comprehended a block of red in her peripheral vision. She looked up, surprised that they had been noticed.
"Are you finished?" Optimus Prime asked sarcastically.
"Yes, sir," they chorused. Oasis was embarrassed. This would not look professional to the other officers around them.
"Good." He paused for a moment. "Are you working together today?"
"No, Optimus." He was glad. The minute he turned his back he heard them bickering again.
"I knew you resented me getting promoted!"
"That's not true! You're mad at me for not being around you all the-"
"Mirage! Oasis! Do you mind?" Optimus was annoyed. The rest in line snickered.
"Sorry, sir." Optimus broke them up into their groups and hoped this acrimony would blow over soon. A little time away from each other would do them good.
