It seems some of my audience has some mixed emotions about how I portrayed Prime last chapter. Well, about 70 of that was Demolisher's over-active imagination, interpreting body language in ways he shouldn't (I guess I didn't exactly make that clear) and about 30 of that was my personal dislike of most Autobots, Optimus Prime included. What can I say? I'm a Con fan. I'll try to keep personal opinions out of this from now on, though.
Pretty in Scarlet: Yay! Go work on your fic! I like it. Glad you like this.
WhiteNightDragon: Thank you!
Seeker Nami: You're still up for Autobot killing? GREAT! I say we take out all the Omnicons, then tie up most of the others Bots and poke 'em with sticks. Long POINTY sticks! Ironhide will be spared. After all, I'm gonna torture him enough in this fic, poor guy. I have a thing for torturing my fave characters in fics… Dunno why. And YES! Cyclonus has to have a PROPELLER! This whole fic was actually spawned from my annoyance that Cyclonus turned into a dude with skis and no face. That, and my plotbunny when I heard that fliers can't not fly… Yes, that was supposed to be a double negative. Try to figure it out.
Haley Macrae: Actually, I do like Ironhide. He was, quite literally, in the wrong place at the wrong time. I was about halfway through chapter six before I remembered I needed an Autobot to be captured for Cy/Snow to interrogate, and then I remembered I had frozen/knocked out Ironhide in the first paragraph and… well… poor Ironhide. He's cool.
Goldenrod: Erm, yeah. 70 Demolisher, 30 me. Eheheh… And Prime didn't endanger Demolisher's life on purpose. The Energon shield was gonna fry Megatron but Demolisher shoved him out of the way. It was completely accidental. Hey, I'm trying to juggle between the canon series and a completely ridiculous fanfic. Expect strange explanations to pop up! And, about the dirty tricks the Autobots use in my fic, the way I see it, if the Autobots are really as goody-goody as they are in the show, then there's no way they survived as long as they did in the war. I don't think the series is showing us everything. They've gotta resort to dirty tricks, now and then, or the Cons would cream them. They like peace and all, of course, but warfare is warfare.
GothMasterFlash: He didn't forget about it, he's just trying to force himself not to remember. Denial. "Evil Demented Optimus"? ((cackles)) I like that name. Like I said, he was 70 Demolisher, 30 me. IT'S HIS FAULT! Actually, I guess it was all me since I didn't really explain that most of that was in Demolisher's head… Ah well. Glad you like despite my complete lack of ability to do characters right.
White-Winged Angel: Snowcat's gonna pretty much terrorize Ironhide. He's not going to systematically tear his body parts off, but basically, he's going to systematically tear his sanity off. HeeheeheehahahahaHAHAHAHA! BWAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA! What?
Okay, so, there's the reviews, and I'll try to make Prime a little nicer this chapter, 'kay? And thankee for the constructive criticism, I now know what NOT to do on fics.
And don't be freaked out by Cyclonus/Snowcat's frequent name-swapping. It shows changes in mentality. Yes, he's back to being called Cyclonus this chapter. Don't ask.
Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers, or the various quotes from the Marx Brothers movies. If you've ever seen any of them, trust me, you'd be fighting to keep Cyclonus from spouting Marx quotes too.
…..
Ice creeps down your back
But Statues can't feel cold
…
"GAAH!" Ironhide yelled, falling to the ground. He sat up, rubbing the arm he had landed on as the wall behind him sealed. Just a few moments ago, he had been let out of the wall, had his guns ripped off by tentacles, and then been carried down to this room by those tentacles. And now he'd been tossed in, and the door had sealed behind him.
"Man, this place is creepy," he muttered, poking the wall he had come through. Solid rock. He shivered. "Decepticons must've all escaped from mad houses."
…
"I can't believe I'm doing this," Snowcat muttered, standing outside the hologram wall that would let him into the room where Ironhide was waiting. He had spent his whole time in the Decepticon army pretending to be a psycho. And he had finally gotten out of that, and tried to act normal for once, and he was at least partially happy for the first time in millions of years. But now he had to go back to being a psycho? "I really can't believe it."
He had almost changed his mind earlier. He smirked. That had gone well. In the end Megatron had ordered him to go try to mess Ironhide up, with the threat of feeding him to Unicron alive. Either Megatron really wanted Demolisher back with the Decepticons, or… well… something else, but he didn't really think that Megatron cared about Demolisher all that much. So it must've been that something else.
But even if he didn't want to, he had to do this. If Megatron thought Snowcat was the only one that could do anything that could help Demolisher, then he'd have to try, right?
Snowcat locked his jaw. 'C'mon Snow, you can do it,' he thought. 'C'mon… Cyclonus.' Cyclonus and Snowcat were almost completely different entities, by now. Cyclonus was the psycho with all the secrets. Snowcat was the sane one with nothing to hide. For this, he needed to be a psycho. He needed to know how to break someone. He'd have to be Cyclonus.
Snowcat could almost feel his mind subtlely alter at this reluctant acceptance. He wondered for a moment if he had suppressed memories. Or maybe he had alternate personalities. That could be fun.
"Hey, Cyclonus, how're you?" he asked softly. "Oh, I'm fine. How 'bout you, Snow? Eh, 'bout the same. Think you can handle this job for me, Cy?"
Cyclonus thought a second. "I hope so." He couldn't put this off much longer. Cyclonus knew he was unstable—heck, maybe he really did have alternate personalities, by now— and didn't want to think about what would happen to him if he wasn't ready. Or what would happen to Demolisher. But now was no time for second-guessing. Bracing himself, Cyclonus jumped through the hologram wall and landed fifty feet below, right behind Ironhide. Cyclonus looked up at the hologram wall he had just jumped through, over twenty feet above his head, as it shimmered back to normality. He couldn't fly anymore, so there was no way to reach it. There was no turning back now, so he'd better do this right.
Ironhide spun around as he heard Cyclonus land. "Hey! What are you doing here? And how'd you get in?"
Cyclonus opened his mouth, then realized he hadn't really planned anything to say. If he was supposed to drive Ironhide crazy, then he had to say something crazy, right? 'Come on, Cy, THINK! You're supposed to be GOOD at saying strange things!'
'But that was before I was Snowcat and tried to forget how to do that,' Cyclonus reminded his inner-monologue. He was having a conversation with his head-voices. Or alternate personalities. Yeesh.
'Okay, fine, so plagerize something! You remember watching the Marx Brothers movies when you were at Lunar City, right? Do something from that!'"Viaduct!" Cyclonus declared. 'Viaduct?'
"What?" Ironhide said, perplexed. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"I… came in through the viaduct?" Cyclonus winced. That, was a question. That, was not supposed to be a question.
Ironhide was starting to think the whole exchange was stupid. "Viaduct," he repeated dully, wondering just what the Decepticon wanted. Or if he was just trying to be annoying.
Cyclonus was losing his audience. If he just sounded stupid, there was no way he'd be able to get anything out of Ironhide. 'Your name's Cyclonus. Do something CYCLONUSY!'
'Or steal more Marx.'
"Yes, I did. But I don't get why a duck."
"Huh?" It seemed Cyclonus had just gotten Ironhide's attention again. Stupid random comments seemed to work.
"I can understand why a horse, why a road, even why a fence! But not why a duck!" Cyclonus raved, pacing the room.
Comprehension dawned on Ironhide's face. "Oh, I get it. Viaduct, why-a-duck. Heh."
Ironhide was starting to figure Cyclonus out. Time to switch tactics. "YOU!" Cyclonus leaned into Ironhide's face. "Autobot! Do YOU know why a duck?" Cyclonus kept staring into Ironhide's optics, leaning over him.
"Um, I, uh… Because?" Ironhide stuttered. Cyclonus had shaken him up. Good.
"Because…" Cyclonus repeated thoughtfully, waited a few seconds, then launched into hiss next rant. "Well that covers a lot of area. In fact, you cover a lot of area too, if I do say so myself. You might wanna move, I hear they're going to tear you down to build an office building."
"… What?" Ironhide said, leaning quite noticeably away from Cyclonus. Cyclonus smirked, and continued. "Yeah, you should leave in a taxi before they get here. If you can't get a taxi you can leave in a huff. If that's too short for you, you can leave in a minute and a huff."
"But what's a--" Ironhide started, but was cut off.
"You know, you haven't stopped talking since I got here. You must've been immunized with a phonograph needle." Cyclonus finished his rant, and calmly watched Ironhide, as if he hadn't said a word since he'd got there.
Ironhide opened and closed his mouth a few times, and finally managed to say, "What are you talking about?"
"What do you mean, what am I talking about?" Cyclonus said crossly. "I haven't said anything since I got here, except when I told you that you haven't stopped talking once. Really, it's quite annoying when someone talks so much."
"But-- but you were just talking to me about taxis and viaducts and… um, ducks."
"A duck? Why a duck?" Cyclonus asked, and then slowly shook his head, like he pitied Ironhide. "You poor guy. Next you're going to be saying you were carried here by giant sentient tentacles that came from nowhere, when we both know very well that Shockblast hauled you down here."
"But I WAS carried down here… by…" Ironhide realized how completely crazy he sounded. "… by Shockblast." Cyclonus was making a lot more sense than he was. Maybe he was right. No, he COULDN'T be! Ironhide knew what he knew. And he was not carried down here by Shockblast. Or was he? Ironhide sat down and looked at the ground, trying to figure out what was going on.
Cyclonus grinned. He'd forgotten how much fun it could be to try to make someone snap. Though the circumstances themselves weren't usually that fun, being sent to shrinks, or locked in a cell with a guard for getting a little too weird…
'Stop that,' he told himself. He didn't want to remember the past. He was just doing this to help Demolisher. That was all. He was helping Demolisher.
…
"I still don't think we should trust him," Hot Shot said, glaring down at Demolisher. Demolisher was a floor below Hot Shot and Jetfire, leaning sullenly against the wall, waiting for somebody to make him do something. He was not a happy camper.
He hadn't been happy on the flight back to Ocean City, either. The Autobots were hoping that the fact that they had a prisoner (or a turncoat?) would make Megatron wary about attacking anytime soon. Besides, now that they knew where Megatron was, they didn't need the Miranda II to search for him. All they'd have to do was use a warpgate to reach him.
"Optimus said we should trust him," Jetfire said, sighing. He didn't like this any more than Hot Shot. "If Optimus says so, that's that. He wouldn't make a mistake about who he could trust."
"Oh yeah? Remember Starscream?" Hot Shot muttered, then sighed. "I… I trust Optimus. But that doesn't mean I have to trust him." Hot Shot nodded at Demolisher.
Demolisher looked up at Hot Shot and Jetfire. They jerked away from the railing and turned away. "It's alright," Demolisher yelled up at them. "I knew you were talking about me. Feel free to carry on." Annoyed, Demolisher looked down again, crossing his arms.
Demolisher heard footsteps approaching. He refused to look up from the ground. If whoever it was wanted to talk to him, then they would.
"Demolisher," a voice said. Demolisher swore quietly and looked up at Optimus Prime.
"Can I help you?" Demolisher said dully, uncrossing one arm to mock-salute his new "leader."
"I just wanted to talk," Prime said. "I know you're not exactly here by choice," Demolisher gave Prime a 'no-duh' look, "but I think that if you give us half a chance you could learn to like being an Autobot."
Demolisher crossed his arms even tighter. "Well maybe I wouldn't," he said, sounding remarkably like Kicker on a bad day.
Prime sighed. Demolisher had always wondered why Autobots did that. It served no real purpose. They'd all spent too much time hanging out with humans…
"Demolisher, I know I haven't been the nicest I could have been in the past. I'm not proud of a lot of things I've done, and I'm sorry." Prime stuck out his hand. "So, what if we start over? I'll forgive you for anything you've done if you can forgive me."
Demolisher looked from Prime's outstretched hand to his face. His expression hardened. "YOU made ME a slave of your army. YOU filled ME with those stupid nanobots. YOU destroyed MY body with that Energon shield. All I did was MY job, which happens to be fighting YOU. What do I have to apologize for?"
Prime slowly lowered his hand. "Demolisher…"
Demolisher shot Prime a dark glare and stood up. There are many, many Transformers that can shoot lasers out of their optics. It has proven to be a tactical advantage many times, but can also be very annoying if one of these Transformers with laser optics is intently watching the newest episode of their favorite show, and are concentrating so hard on watching that when the episode is just about to reach the best part the Transformer is so excited its laser optics go off and blow up the screen. But whether laser optics are a blessing or a curse, Optimus Prime is very lucky that Demolisher didn't have them or he'd be a melted puddle on the floor.
"You Autobots are all into honesty and stuff, right?" Demolisher said with forced calmness. "Well, I HONESTLY think that YOU'RE just a STUPID…" ((The rest of this paragraph has been censored due to Demolisher's… erm… extended vocabulary. Rest assured, it was a violent, inane, and generally crude and insulting rant that would have done Cyclonus proud.))
"… AND I HOPE you were taking notes, 'cause THAT'S gonna be on the SLAGGIN' TEST! HAH!" Demolisher stalked off, leaving a stunned Optimus Prime behind, wondering where the nearest empty room was. After a speech like that, he wanted to be alone, in case a few of his words warranted a nanobot attack. He wouldn't want any Autobots to catch him twitching on the floor.
Prime watched Demolisher go, and sighed. He had every right to be angry. But, there was still a war going on. And sometimes in war, you had to do things you didn't want to do. Especially if you happened to be commander of an army.
"We could zap 'im if you want," Strongarm said, walking up to Prime and holding a nanobot controller like it was a live hand grenade. Evidently, Strongarm wasn't too keen on actually using it.
"Thanks, but I don't think we need to go that far," Prime said, and chuckled when Strongarm eagerly dropped the controller and hastily kicked it several yards away.
"I'll get it later," he said casually, like he kicked controllers to dangerous microscopic weapons around on a regular basis. "So, what should we do about Demolisher?"
Prime glanced at the hallway Demolisher had just gone down. "I guess we give him time to adjust."
"No chance we're gonna just let 'im go, then?" Strongarm asked, smiling sadly. He did not like living with an ex-Decepticon.
"No," Prime said regretfully. "With Demolisher's help, we could win this war once and for all. He knows more about the Decepticons than all of us do combined. If we could win this, wouldn't it be worth having him captive for awhile?"
"Yeah, I guess," Strongarm muttered. "But I think you're worried about 'im bein' kept here, and what I'm more worried about is him bein' here at all. What if he leads us into a trap?"
Prime glanced down at the nanobot controller, and back up at Strongarm. He understood. If Demolisher was too much of a problem, they'd have to use Command 000. Prime hoped it wouldn't come to that.
…
"Wow. That was impressive," Jetfire muttered, who actually had taken notes on Demolisher's rant. Hey, if it meant he'd get a few good phrases…
"What were they talking about?" Hot Shot said. "They said something about 'zapping' him… What's that supposed to mean?"
"I dunno," Jetfire said, stuffing his datapad into his subspace pocket, "but it looks like Optimus doesn't trusts Demolisher much either."
Hot Shot nodded. "And Demolisher doesn't trust us." So, they had been right to be worried about Demolisher. And yet, Optimus still let Demolisher stay at Ocean City, the base of Autobot operations. There was that whole thing about "zapping," too. They had some was of keeping Demolisher from turning on them. "It sounds like they have some kind of control over Demolisher, and they don't think he'll be able to get away, even if they don't trust him…" Hot Shot said. "Do you know what this means?"
Jetfire nodded. "It's our unofficial job to make sure he isn't sending information to the Decepticons."
They sighed.
…
Ironhide was in recharge, and apparently not having a very restful nap. Every few minutes he turned over and muttered something. Usually something about ducks.
It takes a lot to make a Transformer talk in recharge. They have to be either very very happy, or very very disturbed. Three guesses as to which Ironhide was. Cyclonus was doing a good job.
But Cyclonus wasn't celebrating. He was having troubles of his own.
Cyclonus sat on the other side of the room, leaning against the wall and tossing a pebble up and down with one hand. He needed something to do. He was as trapped in the room as Ironhide, and as long as Ironhide was in recharge he couldn't do anything. How did he get himself into these messes?
On the other side of the room, Ironhide rolled over and mumbled something about rabid ducks in taxis. Oh yeah. That was how. Ironhide had got him in this mess. Cyclonus threw his pebble at Ironhide and turned so he leaned on his side against the wall, glaring into a corner.
He was wearing a mask again, pretending to be someone he wasn't. He had dome it for millions of years, but now that he'd had a taste of freedom, he couldn't go back. He was still trying to forget his past. If he could pretend it never happened, he could almost live a normal life. But it looked like any chance of that had just been shot to the pit, thanks to Ironhide.
Cyclonus threw another, slightly bigger rock at Ironhide. It hit him in the face. Ironhide turned his optics on half-power. "What?" he mumbled, not quite fully conscious.
"Nothing. It was just the Autobot rescue party," Cyclonus told Ironhide, jumping on an opportunity to occupy his mind.
Ironhide sat up, optics still only half on. "Did they come to get me?"
"No, they came for Alpha-Q, so we sent them in the right direction. They paid us with about five million Minicon panels."
"Minicon whatsits?" Ironhide mumbled, his optics dimming. He was in recharge again before he hit the ground.
Cyclonus chuckled. He'd forgotten. Ironhide didn't know anything about Minicon panels. The only Minicons he knew were the ones that made Perceptor and the Energon Saber Minicons. Cyclonus knew a lot more about most things than Ironhide did.
'Lucky guy,' Cyclonus thought bitterly. The less you knew, the better. Ironhide didn't have any real problems. Well, except for being stuck in a room with Cyclonus, that is. A Cyclonus that was currently annoyed at Ironhide and had orders to be in psycho-mode.
Cyclonus laid down and tried to go into recharge. Ironhide mumbled something about half-pink Seekers chasing someone with spray paint. Cyclonus smiled. Something much like that had happened about two millennia ago. Starscream never forgave Cyclonus for "improving" his paint job. Of course, the punishment for that little stunt hadn't been as much fun…
'I'm thinking about the past again!' Cyclonus groaned, and shut off his optics. 'The universe is conspiring against me to make me remember the past.' One by one, his systems started turning off.
'In fact, trying to forget is causing more harm than good.'
In his last conscious nanosecond, that one thought was saved onto his motherboard, and stuck in his dreams for the rest of the night.
…..
Ice creeps down your back
But statues can't feel cold…
Leave your cold statue to drift…
Shed your statue…
Always rememberWho froze you
Because that's the only one
Who can take it back
Escape your statue
Move freely again
And maybe those around you
Can breath a little easier
…..
And there you have chapter 7. I know it might not look like it, but this chapter was pretty important. Though it wasn't until the last part. I'm impressed this chap turned out halfway decent, though. Fics I write at school tend to stink worse that skunks on Baked Bean and Onion Casserole Day, and this was done 80 at school.
You know what's annoying? When you have the whole fic written out and can't do anything with it until you're done with eighth, ninth, and tenth period. And sadly, tenth is tech class. -.-;; We don't get to use the computers in there yet.
Anywho, please review! Update in about a week, I hope!
