Oh, how will things turn out?
Disclaimer: I don't own the combaticons or transformers, all others are mine.
"Yellow eyes! Yellow eyes gave the glasses to me!"
The girl's arm slipped through the former copter's fingers as a wave of laughter flailed through his body and heightened when the panicked teen bolted backwards with a WHACK into the oak door, momentarily disorienting herself before tearing down the hallway. Brawl's booming salutations echoed from the foyer; a high pitched scream and stumbling up the stairs rattled through the old house. A door slammed on the second floor. Vortex was now collapsed on the floor laughing, no longer able to support himself.
Swindle and Blastoff shared a moment of confusion before the former shuttle grumbled, "Uncivilized juvenile. I was about to do it a favor and avoid this shrieking if you would have let swing this thing."
"And then what? Do the same to our landlords and skip town?!"
"Hmf, we're already in trouble with the brat in this emotional state, leaving here is preferable."
"She's like that because of your short sighted 'ill just hit it with a stick!' plan."
"What's going on, what happened to Joshlynn?" Brawl poked his head in the room to see his teammates clamor around the room. Except the decepticon officer, he stood steadfast. All the color had drained from his face, and for the first time his teammates saw him indecisive. He stared at the doorway.
The ruckus tampered to quiet unease among the four as they all shifted to gaze at their leader.
"Boss?"
"GET ME THAT ADOLESCENT! I WANT ANSWERS NOW!" He pushed past Swindle and Blastoff as if they were swinging saloon doors.
The combaticon arms dealer started to follow and protest, "We should slow down here and formulate a strategy instead of blindly charging in. I was actually in the process of making a deal with her before shuttle butt thought it was a bright idea to collapse her skull. You better believe she's going to be in a panicked state."
Onslaught stopped and threw up a hand to forestall any more argument; he stared him down and in an emotionless voice said "stay here." Swindle could see this wasn't the time to press his case and moved to remain in the room.
"OoOoOoOo you two are in sooooo much trouble," the former copter snickered as he sauntered out to the hallway. He poked his head back in the room's threshold, "Now you rank amatures watch how the professional handles things." His arm snagged his left limb counterpart by the sleeve and dragged him to follow.
Dumbfounded, Brawl eventually regained his footing and began making his way up the stairs. The interrogator took a detour into the kitchen bar and surreptitiously removed an object from the breakfast bar counter that he deftly stuffed in his back pocket as if it were the revolver he had been using at his new job, before joining them up the stairs.
The second floor spanned ahead into a hall, with one door on either side, and a round window at the end whose purpose was less to provide a view and more to illuminate what would have been another dark walkway. The narrow rug on the floor was rumpled into a pile in front of the door on the right as if someone had skidded to a stop before stumbling into the room that sat above the first floor's hallway.
Vortex gave a pleasant knock on the egress and waited.
Nothing.
He knocked again, more firmly this time. "Joshlynn, may we come in? We'd like a word with you." he said in a melodic voice.
He was answered only by silence.
*KNOCK. KNOCK.*
He struck twice more.
He cheerfully continued, "Joshlynn! I'm respecting both your privacy by knocking, but asserting my authority of being bigger than you by coming in anyway." He jiggled the handle, locked. "Okay buddy, time to do your favorite thing." He presented the intractable door.
Brawl paused for guidance from his commander, "Uh you sure? You were complaining earlier that I wrecked our base and..."
"DO IT!" Barked Onslaught, one eye beginning to twitch and his foot tapping faster than a telegraph on the sinking Titanic.
Brawl grinned and slammed a dry, clay caked boot into the solid wooden barrier. The latch bolt screeched as it bent backwards and the latch strike popped off the frame and shot off somewhere in the room. They heard it rickashay four times.
The door creaked inward to reveal a room that classified itself more as a narrow attic space with assembled furniture. It was cramped with just enough room to fit a piece of furniture on either side while having space for one person to walk between. The vaulted ceiling mimicked the pitch of the gable roof; a plank spanned over the doorway, creating a loft storage area above them to the ceiling.
To their right stood a wooden framed loft bed with a worn, patchwork quilt draped over the mattress and tucked under the pillow. A stuffed toy, made with the same fabric scraps as the quilt, formed a cartoonish, ragdoll version of the roadrunner scurrying outside in the weeds. It slumped against the pillow; one of its black button eyes dangling by a thread.
A ramshackled futon, with storage drawers underneath for clothes, resided below the bed. A pile of laundry of indeterminable sanitation, mixed with books and pencils, cluttered the cushions.
On the left side of the room, a CRT tv with rabbit ears sat on a horizontal dresser that previously had four rows and two columns of drawers before being gutted and renovated. The top two rows functioned as bookshelves housing a plethora of biological and geological science textbooks, an incomplete encyclopedia set consisting of books 'A', 'H', 'M', 'N', 'R', and 'S', and a gaming console that looked like it had survived a fall down the stairs. Two sliding plexiglass doors spanned the bottom face of the dresser that had been converted to an outback desert vivarium; whose current tenant seemed to have vacated the premises.
The opposite wall from the door brightened the room with a single window; a desk snuggled against the facade from being wedged in the space by the bed and dresser.
Onslaught hand signaled for them to fan out and detect hiding places. Both subordinates returned with hand and body motions of disbelief to conduct a task in such a tiny perimeter and that he could shove something up his, human equivalent, tailpipe. He snagged both of their collars and pressed forward. A strategy he ultimately regretted as they could only fit singlefile in the walking space.
Brawl poked the pile of clothes, scanning for a hidden human under the mess. Satisfied that not even the smelly socks could harbor life, he took a seat on the futon to keep his bulky body out of the way. He grimaced with wide eyes as he rose his hindquarters to remove a now broken colored pencil that had jabbed a tender area.
Onslaught chose to search behind the door they entered through, the bed, and dresser. Nothing caught his interest except a cracked framed portrait of a younger Joshlynn smiling, fully exposing her braces, while holding a giant asian monitor lizard in her lap. He was able to translate the hanja characters printed on the large sign in the background as 'Seoul Zoo'. But that wasn't what caught his attention; no, it was the figure next to Joshlynn in the photograph. Smiling back, full of pride, was a man that could be labeled as his jolly human doppelganger. Scanning further, the only two differences between him and this counterpart behind splintered glass were his deep brown eyes and that he seemed thrilled to be spending time with the blond brat. Carelessly, he dumped the frame face down, disregarding the crack of the glass starting to shatter. Creepy.
Vortex meandered his search under the desk. This was ridiculous. All of them, even Brawl, knew an extensive search in such a sparse area as this was overkill and probably one of Onslaught's ego demonstrations of authority and protocol. Whatever, he may not search for the kid but her belongings on the desk might offer insight to her interests that he could utilize to his advantage.
A system of organized clutter littered the desk. Stacked botany books secured pressed leaves and roots and mingled among field guides with feathers poking out from the pages on the outer rim. A microscope sat off to the side from the chair with a collection of trinkets ranging from a pronghorn skull, dead beetles and grasshoppers, wildflowers, and a damaged rattlesnake skeleton. Note books filled with chaotic scribbles, national geographic clippings, and angry eraser marks sat in front of the chair with a backpack filled of mangled workbooks and homework so compact that at the bottom of the bag it might be decentigrating and converting into the bag itself at a molecular level.
Hmm, a blossoming entrepreneur in the scientific arts of the inner workings of organisms with no social skills or life. He could work with this.
Dirt scuffs and impact markings on the books and paper, as if someone crawled on them, trailed to the open window with gently wafting curtains. Beyond the window spanned the open cattle field and prairie of neverending flatness. A makeshift platform extended from the window sill and supported a small, nailed down telescope before it dropped to the sloping roof that ran to the exterior wall shared by their two bedrooms and bathroom downstairs.
The decepticon crawled across the desk like an intrigued cat after a piece of string. He felt eyes on him just as he wiggled the upper half of his torso out the window and peered to his right to see a scaled creature nestled on Joshlynn's shoulder, who was huckered against the wall with a raised skillet.
"OOOHHH! I love sneak attacks!"
The pan plummeted down and Vortex rolled on his back and caught the edges above his head. He jerked the pan toward his head, away from the wall, and the girl came glued from what balance she had on the steep, sloped surface. She held onto the handle but her body tumbled down the roof with kicking and screaming. Vortex felt himself sliding forward and braced his boots tips on the window's frame.
"Could use some help over here!"
He felt a pair of hands grab his ankles as he snatched one of Joshlynn's scrawny wrists. Brawl hauled hard and pulled the struggling pair back into the room with a grunt. Anything on the desk went sailing like water as if they were sliding down a water chute.
Paper fluttered in a frenzy as the struggle continued; three bodies floundered and thrashed in some chaotic dance. Once the dust and stationary settled, Onslaught found his demolitions expert with the teenager's arms pinned at her side and her legs swinging in an attempt to nail him in the crotch. The former tank used a leg to revert the chair from its fallen position and threw Joshlynn into it from behind and grabbed her shoulders to keep her in place. The girl's legs scampered but could not take her anywhere, a bit more thrashing and she slumped in defeat. Vortex lounged on the futon stroking the girl's scaled companion with his fingertips as if he were a villain from an espionage film. The lizard hissed and flexed the darkening, dagger shaped scales on its throat.
"Oh, pipe down you!" Vortex said to the increasingly irate reptile. "You're just as bad as her, you know that?" He switched his personas and attention faster than Swindle spotting a red light special. "So Joshie poo, may I call you Joshie poo?" He didn't give her time to answer. "it's about time we have a face to face chat and get to know one another better. Because I want to be your friend. Share secrets, beauty tips, talk about which boys from school we think are cute, that sort of thing." he mocked.
The teen rebuffed him and eyed the door clearly calculating her chances of escape. Vortex twirled a finger upward to direct Brawl to twist her head back to him. He vaguely hoped the brute would not twist too hard, even in his human form he might snap her neck.
Satisfied, Vortex reclined and resumed tormenting the bearded dragon with his fingers. "Aww what's the matter? You dont want to be my friend? But there is so much we can learn from each other Joshie poo."
She stuck her tongue at him.
Brawl and Onslaught felt their skin prickle as Vortex's laughter ripped through the air but only heightened the tension in the room. "I like you new friend, you have guts kid. Well… I mean of course you do, stored there inside your squishy human…" he hesitated searching for the right words "...chassis, but I applaud you all the same. You and I have something in common."
The teen glared back intensely as he continued. "Which is why you both fascinate and annoy me; no small feat for a lower life form I assure you. Also, you may need a demonstration." He reached up and snapped his fingers. Brawl hesitated, Onslaught grunted, not caring about the method, just wanting answers. In one fluid, effortless motion, Brawl picked up the teen and spun her once head over heels and sat her back down in the chair with his hands firmly on her shoulders again.
Vortex smiled, "See? You are at somewhat of a disadvantage against us. So… why not be friends instead?"
Much to his surprise and irritation, Joshlynn sat in the chair deadpan; no flush of red like earlier this morning, giving no indication as to what was going on in that squishy organic head matter of hers. With no other options presenting themselves he decided to press on.
"I know many things," he continued to stroke the hissing lizard absently. "For example I am aware that you have suspicions of us not being truthful of ourselves and I want to come clean and get this weight off my chassis because it's really weighing me down." He faked a wound to where his spark would be.
The teen rolled her eyes.
"So, once upon a time there was a robotic being living in the underground of a major city on a planet locked in a global civil war. He liked his life. He could change into a rotorcraft at will, made a living dismantling schmucks for parts, silencing targets, and hiding the bodies where they would never be found. Those rotor blades were quite multi-useful.'
He smiled with a wink.
'Our hero liked his solitary life. I emphasize on solitary. But one day a snitching little glitch sold him out and the local authorities detained him in a correctional facility.'
'The faction in control of his city was needing more recruits to fight for their cause and offered him freedom by serving in the armed forces, instead of rusting in jail. Dear, sweet Joshy Poo, do you know what our hero said to them?'
'He told them "SHOVE YOUR OFFER UP YOUR TAILPIPE, I DON'T FEAR THE PITS!". And he remained in his cell for many solar cycles. But this faction started grasping at straws for more troops and began drafting the citizens, believing that training camp would make them into good, obedient soldiers. Which is what happened to our hero.'
'But our hero was clever and obdurate and would not conform no matter how bad the mean old bossy squad leader tried. And one day our hero rigged a training exercise where he exchanged blanks for real ammo in everyone's guns and the squadron officer never bothered him again.'
'And thanks to piece of slag snitching glitch number two, our hero was court marshalled, sentenced to have his personality component removed, and stored in a detention center in a confined box. He sat there with nothing but time and his thoughts. A lot of time. Ages. Millennia. Then an indeterminable time later a mutinous idiot, clumsily broke into the prison and stole him,'
He dismissively waved a hand at the others in the room.
'Along with four other idiots."
Brawl's face wrinkled and he glared at Onslaught for the officer to put Vortex on some length of a leash. The combaticon commander remained taciturn, he wanted to punch the smart mouthed nuisance but that would just mean the fool got under his armor.
"And this incompetent idiot took them to a distant, alien planet where he reanimated them in inferior vehicle carcasses and forced our hero to work with these nails in the turbine and merge into a bigger and dumber Idiot that can't form a complete thought, let alone a complete sentence.'
The kid gave him a skeptical stare but he was gaining more of her attention.
'The mutinous idiot ordered them to overthrow his tyrannical boss and our hero and the losers had their afts handed to them. Which followed an astroid exile, planet unfortunately not crashing into the sun, obedience chips implanted into in their processors, blah blah blah blah nothing worthy of mentioning and many more idiotic, failed missions of little importance. However his latest espionage raid has inexplicably caused him and his compatriots to shed their metal shells and nonconsensually adopt meat vessels. And he now sits before you; wanting nothing more than to be your best friend.'
The faintest hint of a smirk appeared on the teen's lips.
"So, as I said. I want to be your friend, cause friends help each other out, do little favors for one another. Things like identifying which fluids belong inside the body and which ones do not. Things like identifying what kind of maintenance these meat vessels require or convincing the town's residents that we are in fact friendly humans much like themselves."
The girl huffed.
"And if we were friends we could do things for you. Like your new buddy behind you can beat the scrap out of your enemies. Or the two downstairs are boring but engaging conversationalists and can distract your authority figures while you sneak out. He…" Vortex looked at his leader, "He can do something…. I think. Just don't play any strategy board games with him. He takes his turns too seriously."
Onslaught quietly seethed, logically now was not an ideal time for discipline; but one way or another, a reckoning was coming.
"And me, your best friend, Why I could ensure you never have to deal with that nasty, mean old pastor by yourself ever again. Wouldn't that be nice?"
The scrawny human's shoulder twitched and her dull eyes brightened for a second before returning to her normal stance.
THERE! The first crack in her bave face he'd been chipping at all this time.
He gently set the now openly hostile lizard on the heap of soiled garments and moved closer to her. Bending down with his face mear inches away from her, patted her lightly on the cheek and said. "Lets be friends"
Brawl could feel the girl begin to push back against the chair and her pulse speeding under his hands.
"You should want to be friends with all of us; because, it doesn't look like you have any and as I said earlier. You're at a real disadvantage."
Her shoulders tense and vibrated.
"Your granny didn't believe you when you tried to warn her. The town's folk seem to disregard you."
Brawl was now having to pull the girl up straight by her shoulders as she was shrivelling in her seat.
"You really should be my friend dear Joshy poo. Won't you be?"
Eyes that could belong to a terrified rabbit gazed back and she answered with a small nod.
"EXCELLENT!" He playfully jostled her hay colored hair. "We're going to be such great friends, and if you snitch on or mislead any of us like at breakfast…." His left hand grasped what was concealed behind his back and he whipped it forward like a gunslinger. Joshlynn screeched and huddled like a quivering ball in her seat.
The seconds ticked as loud as the blood pounding in her ears. A warm breath cooed in her left ear, "I'll keep you guessing how I'm going to slice you up for the freezer."
The ball shivered more visibly.
Moment passed until a pointed finger prodded the top of her head scalp "I got your first question, new friend. What is this and how do I consume it?"
Disorientedly, the girl uncurled herself toward him and jittered like a kitten released from a Christmas present that had been shaken to guess what was inside. Her flinching continued with wide, confused eyes upon seeing the interrogator holding a banana like a revolver. An awkward pause of unease stretched.
Vortex placed the fruit in her open palm and gave her a pat on the knee, "Come on, I know you can do it."
Joshlynn uncomfortably watched the three decepticons in human disguise stare at her as she peeled the fruit and took a small bite. A collective 'oh' followed. The girl's eyes whipped about, there had to be a hidden camera somewhere.
"Very good Wildcat! See, that wasn't so bad!"
The teen mustered for the return of her stoic face but after completely having her shell bored through, it wasn't at full power.
"Now, tell us about Yellow Eyes. You really got our commander's attention with that one, and he never really gets worked up about things other than losing chess and beating people to death."
Their captive wrung her hands and turned her head toward the empty window. Okay, his technique might have gone a bit overboard; Vortex scooped up the reptile and placed it in her lap. The lizard forgot about his grudge and became interested in the banana. Joshlynn obliged and allowed her critter to snack on the exposed end before mustering some courage to look the interrogator in the eye. "Names, I'll still use your pseudonyms but if I'm going to be your friend, then I want to know your real ones," she said.
Onslaught made an objectionable grunt but Vortex dismissed him. "You are quite right, proper introductions are important when beginning a friendsh….." Brawl cut him off, "Wait your voice… no, not that your accent."
Joshlynn sat in her seat like a child being scolded for lying, "You're not the only ones trying to blend in this town. Remembering to speak with double negatives and a twang does take concentration if you didn't grow up with it."
The three blinked in surprise. Vortex eyes gleamed, "Well, wouldn't ya know, a kindred spirit!" He laughed before continuing, "The one that tried to meat shield you is Swindle, he's an all terrain vehicle that hates the wilderness. The one that almost busted your head open is Blastoff the most insufferable shuttle in the universe. Your new horse buddy is Brawl; his mind is slower than his tank form."
Brawl cracked his knuckles at his left counterpart and Joshlynn sprung in surprise; Vortex pointedly ignored the threat. "The one that you probably have been mistaking for your authority figure is Onslaught. Don't let his name bother you unless you beat him at chess, he's just a haughty anti-aircraft truck.
"TEX," announced Onslaught, letting his subordinate know that the line had retreated too far and shouldn't be crossed.
"Yeah, yeah, and as you've heard me go by Tex, it's short for Vortex and as I said yesterday, I'm a helicopter."
"I thought it was for Texas the garbage disposal."
Her comment caught him off guard but he smiled like the grinch, "Awww, making demeaning jokes of one another already? We really are destined to be best friends. Now back to business, I thought your yellow eyes answer was a spur of hysteria of circumstances but it got my boss acting weird and concerned. And that is saying something or I guess both of you are losing it."
Onslaught punched his open palm as a warning, but returned his focus on the girl.
"Right, Yellow Eyes, who is he?"
Joshlynn shrugged.
"Joshy, remember what I said about misleadi…"
"I'm telling the truth. I don't know what yellow eyes is other than a floating pair of yellow eyes. I thought it was only a nightmare until I found the glasses."
Vortex arched a brow, "Nightmare? What is that?"
Joshlynn paused, taken back at the sincerity in the question. "Do cybertronians not dream?"
Vortex did a double take, "What the, oh, is that the name your planet has given to us? Also what makes you think we're cybertronians?"
The teen put a hand on her hip, "You admitted to being alien robot beings with the ability to disguise as our vehicles, I can't think of too many aliens known to Earth that fit that description."
"You're the alien. Surprisingly one with understanding of the global and galactic dealings outside of this backwards town."
She pinched off the nibbled end of the banana and held it out for her lizard and munched on the remaining half. "I'm not from here, and the news on base didn't sugar coat your existence or origins; unlike Bill Mahr and Fox News that these idiots consume."
The interrogator chuckled.
Feeling a smidge braver, "Also, I bet I can tell which of the two factions you guys are with."
"Cheeky, now back to dreams."
Joshlynn tossed the peel in the trash under the desk, "A dream is when you're asleep and your brain is recycling all the information and visuals from your day. You may not have one every night or may not remember it when you wake up; but if you do it's kinda like watching or being in a nonsensical movie. Nightmare is the term for bad dreams as they fall under scary and tragic."
Brawl and Vortex snickered but for Onslaught the concept wasn't so farfetched, and judging by their reactions, he may be the only one having them. That said there were cases of cybertronians experiencing surreal visuals while in recharge but those were extremely rare and occurred as prophetic before catastrophes or ascension of primes.
About the closest he had come to this definition before becoming human occurred when he and Blastoff came in contact with an alternating current from a failed attempt to rig their desert base's power to a high voltage power transmission tower. After the accident both onlined to themselves huddled next to each other and recalled to their horror the exact bizarre experience that prompted them to never speak of this again or to anyone.
This line of thought led him to ask, "Can two humans share the exact same dream?"
The snickering morphed into muffled snorting; Joshlynn nervously shook her head, "No they can have similarities but not exactness."
He tapped his fingertips together and further asked in a slow manner as he was constructing it as he went, "Your dream with yellow eyes, can you recount it?"
"Aww Ons," Vortex giggled in a mocking voice, "Did you have yourself a bad wittle dream?"
The decepticon officer slapped a hand over his subordinate's mouth and addressed Joshlynn to proceed.
The girl turned back to the window, "Two nights ago, I was having a dream where I woke up to scratching on my window, like a dog pawing at it. It was pitch black outside and all I could see were a pair of yellow eyes watching me in my bed. There was this whimpering voice asking if I could please open my window, it wanted to have a word with me.'
Vortex wretched the fleshy barrier from his mouth and snorted,"And like every human horror movie you opened it."
Joshlynn fervently shook her head, "No way! When I was little my dad told me if I saw red eyes at night to never look at them and to get inside the house as fast as I could. Never heard anything on yellow eyes but I applied the same principle and didn't oblige it and tried to go back to sleep, but the scratching got louder. It said it liked me because no one less would listen and that it had a present for the tall stumbling one and if I could make sure he gets it. It said it looked forward to visiting me more and that the five strangers would bring me news on my father, so it said I should kindly consider helping you."
Now all three decepticons were laughing; the girl clutched her lizard while narrowing her eyes. Vortex's laugh turned ragged like he was fighting drainage in his throat and it gave him a haughty, sinister chuckle, "While I'm glad to hear yellow eyes seems to somewhat support us, good luck about finding out about your dad! We could barely distinguish the differences between your species until now, you're so tiny! Maybe, maybe Swindle has some info as he is the one that fraternizes with you fleshies; but, if your dad is in the army and has ever run across us, there is a good chance he's dead as our interactions with your species involves combat. And the occasional stepping on.
The girl's face paled as snow.
"Don't worry, I overheard Ons now looks like him so just think of him as your dad."
Their laughter abated like a horse tripping on itself by the dirty glare in her eye. Her voice lowered and sounded like it took on years of age, "I knew he wasn't my paw the moment I saw him and yesterday in the barn just confirmed it."
Onslaught gave a haughty smirk, "Oh really, you seemed immensely confused the past two days."
"No, very concerned about what I originally thought you were, but I know my own father and I knew right off the bat you were not him."
"Really, your authority figures mistook me."
"They don't really know him, they didn't really approve or accept him even after he and my mom were married. But I do, he has hippophobia, he'd never be within twenty feet of a horse, let alone ride one, like what you did. Also he's a better leader than you."
Onslaught launched from the futon; Brawl and Vortex braced themselves against their scorned commander, "Boss no, we need the kid!"
"Wretched alien creature! When I get my body back I'm going to run you over, back up for good measure, and use my cannons to blow your corpse into indistinguishable smears!"
Fuming back the girl snatched the nearest item on the dresser and chucked the dirty dinner plate at the combaticon's face. It shattered and left bits of stale corn, toast, and ceramic in his hair, along with a shallow slash on his cheek. The three paused as if they were hit by a blaster set to stun though Vortex's eyes dazzled at her.
"Well for now you aren't, you're a disgusting human like me and I may be at a disadvantage physically against even one of you in here but I know multiple ways you could accidentally hurt or kill yourselves by not properly caring for your new bodies. But the five of you have already placed yourselves at a disadvantage in this town already with your stunt at the church. If you're wanting to convince the people of this town that you are normal and socially acceptable you've shot yourselves in the foot multiple times and blasted a hole bigger than what I imagine your cannons could do."
The interrogator's grin increased simultaneously with her sassiness and upon seeing his leader scratch the debris out of his hair, "OOoooo Joshy poo, tis a little harsh, we've had some success."
"First, do not call me that! Second, the people in this town have exacting standards tied to their religion that if you don't adhere to them you are an outcast or even met with hostility. You mentioned earlier it doesn't look like I have friends here or someone who believes my concerns, yeah I don't fit in their perfect, pure requirements due to my background or views despite being human and having blood relatives that are with the crowd. Guess the predicament that puts you in.'
"Fair enough Wildcat."
'I can tell what you're doing that is unsettling to them such as snoring, let alone falling asleep in church." She looked Brawl in the eye but shifted to Vortex. "Jumping over the pews or wearing an edgy shirt like that." The interrogator smiled at the complement of his attire and recognition for his disorderly conduct. "Or not enthusiastically agreeing to discuss with the pastor how the nation's military is going to destroy the country's heatheniatic enemies to honor the Lord."
Onslaught stared at her incredulously and tried to make a remark but she beat him. "Yeah, I know, it's utter bullshit. It's a 'you have to agree with all my views and statements or you're a bad person and beyond saving'. I'm in the same predicament too.'
'And I can tell you what would make them less suspicious and it would make sense on paper but in practice it isn't a guarantee with them, even I can't reach that myself. Also, they claim they are forgiving like the good ole book commands them but they aren't and even will turn against each other if they think their pure reputation is about to be besmirched."
Brawl and Onslaught traded unease looks; Vortex rubbed his palms together, "Well, I think we could use that information to our advantage, heh heh heh. These are not reasonable people are they?"
Joshlynn shook her head, "No, they are the descendants of the common clay of the west that are such inbred, zealous idiots that think manifest destiny is still a thing."
Confused stares answered; Joshlynn tensed and nervously continued, "You know… morons."
The former rotor's laughter dwindled enough to say, "Well, it looks like we got a guide and no other will do, because she's an outcast like us! And one with the guts to stand up to me and Ons, this will be interesting. I look forward to our arrangement, let's go tell the others."
She followed them out the door and as she closed it, she said, "I do have some ground rules. First, stay out of my room. Grammie says I can't have boys my own age in my room. She'd have more than a cow if she found out if I just had just one adult man in my room with the door shut, let alone three."
"Ah, but Joshy you have so many fun trinkets on your desk and it's cozy in there."
"I'm telling you, for your safety and mine, stay out, especially if I'm in there."
"Why is that? Got some booby traps set?"
"No it's," she stared at the floor and sighed. "Give me a minute, this is going to be difficult to explain."
"Cause Brawl's dumber than a bucket of bolts?" Vortex giggled as Brawl attempted to reach around Onslaught for him.
"No it's…. I'm trying to recall stuff from my cybertronian social studies class years ago. Our cultures' development from point of existence to being deemed as a legal member of society is so vastly different physically and socially that putting it in context is difficult. This difference has created misunderstandings in the past; there was even a court case on child endangerment of Autobots vs the State of Oregon."
Onslaught waved a hand to interject, "We'll put it as a cultural taboo that will summon the local police, correct?"
"Mmmmmmmm," the girl cringed, "More like you three trapping me in a closed room only could be translated as one of our arch taboos that would put you in so much trouble the police will be the least of your worries. Minus the fact that you actually threatened by life."
"Pardon, come again?" said the decepticon officer, completely taken back.
"So if my grammie finds out about," she pointed her thumb behind her at the door to her room, "she will freak out and well you saw how she gossips at church andddddddd…. soon the whole town would know and they…." She tapped her finger tips together nervously, "They might commit frontier justice and the police here would look the other way."
Onslaught's eye twitch, "What do you mean, frontier justice?"
Joshlynn cringed further, "An angry mob will drag you out of the house and lynch you before you can share your side of the story." She peered up to see Onslaught and Brawl staring down at her with stoic concern as if they were two mountains and she a bundle of dynamite.
Vortex shrugged, ignoring the perturbed looks he received, "Wouldn't be the first time something like that has happened to me. Well don't you worry, this will be our little secret." He tapped the teen's nose and the lizard's, who angrily hissed.
"Cut that out! Second, stop teasing Agador! If you keep doing that he's going to get mean and bite."
"He's so tiny, I doubt he could do any real damage."
"You shouldn't be concerned about what you can see that can hurt you, but the ones you can't."
"Hrmf, like what?"
"Bacteria and they are everywhere. Certain ones can cause immense pain, permanent loss of bodily functions, or even death. Hell, all the aliens died in War of the Worlds because they had no immunity to Earth bacteria." She paused to look them up and down, "Actually, since your bodies aren't the product of millions of years of trial and error against Earth life I wonder how susceptible they are to even common diseases."
"Well anyway, my wild cat scientist, we are not going to test that out today or any time in the near future. Now let's go tell the others the great news." The former rotor hurriedly ushered the teen, digging her heels, down the hall; the hall rug moved with her like a flying carpet. Brawl nudged his leader, "Who knew a little thing like that had so much to say."
"I preferred it when it was quiet."
"I don't know, I might like this sparkling; she keeps Tex on his toes."
Onslaught paled in thought, 'No more like she made Tex think for a split nanosec of his own mortality, which disappeared as quickly as it appeared and he's probably going to recruit her for his antics and she might even share contributing ideas.' Vortex was bad enough but he might have found his shadow.
The two lumbered down the creaking stairs to see Vortex holding Joshlynn under the arms and thrusting her around like he was enthusiastically trying to sell an oversized teddy bear. Agador's tail flopped like a wind sock in a twister.
"... And with this little darling's help we can learn the functions and care for these meat vessels while avoiding trouble with the locals such as don't EVER go into her room." He smashed his cheek against hers, "And no worries about her leading you astray, we discussed what would happen, right. He lightly shook her so her head bobbed. "That said I wouldn't blame you for trying with Blasty after he tried to bust your head open. Don't worry, we'll get him later."
Blastoff crossed his arms, "I'd like to see you try."
"Hear that Wildcat, he wants to receive his karma with glasses on, we got to cater to his highness wishes."
"Or maybe I'll finish what I started."
Vortex defensively set the girl behind him and gave a wide grin that would have scared the hair off the grinch. "Just remember, no matter how covertly you do it, I will find out." He winked behind him.
Swindle waved his arms between them, "Alright, enough. Her knowledge is a valuable resource, and I won't have it squandered on your antics or splattered on the floor for the sake of your petty ego." A twinge of something like pity crossed his face at her warily eyeing them behind the interrogator.
Onslaught debated stepping in to further restore order but Brawl beat him to the punch by making the tense triangle a square. "Josh mentioned we've done some things in town that have shot us in the foot or then there's whatever happened at breakfast this morning. She really does know things that could help us and if they, " He looked down at the teen, "try to pull anything with you, let me know."
A ringing interrupted the uneased atmosphere, all faced the phone; after two rings the combaticons all turned to Joshlynn expectantly. Vortex shepardered her through the looming valley of death and plucked the phone to her face. She gingerly accepted the handset. "Hello? Jones residents."
Someone jabbered a mile a second on the other end and the girl looked pleading at the disembodied voice, " Grammie, what time are you and Papa getting back from bible studies?"
More static babble spewed.
She involuntarily frowned, her eyes twitched to her house guests before glaring wide eyed back at the phone and shuffled into the kitchen. Vortex followed; the remaining four maneuvered to the kitchen bar to watch her from a distance. "You need me to turn off the crock pot? The one with nothing in it?"
The jabbering took a sharper tone.
A fist landed on her hip, "No, I'm not getting smart."
More indecipherable noises rang out of the outdated device as Joshlynn rolled her eyes and opened the fridge and zeroed in on a black ceramic dishware. "You mean the chili that was supposed to cook for the last several hours that's sitting in the icebox?...Yes, I'm looking right at…...No, I doubt any of them put it in there and the crock pot wasn't even turned on to begin with."
The tone softened on the other line.
"Okay, so what are we supposed to do for dinn.. wait, why do I have to cook for all five of them?" Her hands now clutched the handset as if she was strangling a chicken neck. "They can make a sandwich or go get something!"
Now the teen was having to stretch her arm straight out from what could be easily mistaken for static, demonic animal noises screeching from the device. The five looked at her confused and she sighed before moving the microphone to her mouth. "Nevermind Grammie, we'll figure something out," and sped back to the dining room and slammed it on the receiver. Another loud sigh wheezed from the room before she strolled back into the kitchen and glared at the alphabetical fridge magnets as if they were to spell out a solution.
Vortex rocked on his heels, "So, from the sounds, due to current circumstances, which one of you do we eat first?" He turned to his comrades.
A tsunami sized wave of annoyance crashed into him from the breakfast bar. "You, and Josh gets to cook you."
"Ooo sorry not going to work out for you. You see, Josh informed me this morning that she only cooks for herself."
Blastoff folded his arms and snuffed at the two in the kitchen, "Well from the sounds of the one side of the conversation we could hear, it sounds like she's in charge of the old woman's responsibilities this evening, mainly providing the evening meal."
Joshlynn growled, "I don't like cooking for people and all of you are adults that are capable of feeding yourselves."
Tex winced, "Well most of us, Ons once said to Brawl that he didn't even trust him to feed himself in the morning."
Blastoff interjected back at the girl, "You're capable and one as well, so take on the responsibility."
Joshlynn made a buzzer noise, "Technically not, still seventeen, not legally an adult."
"But old enough to act like one and take on responsibilities."
She looked him up and down, "You look like you're old enough to have a midlife crisis why don't you get on that?"
Blastoff looked like he was about to go retrieve the lamp post in the other room, "Did we not just have a discussion in the foyer about you helping and not misleading us!"
Vortex shifted to Joshlynn's side but the teen was too busy digging in the fridge and fired back, "I said I would help, I didn't say I'd make it easy."
Swindle and Brawl tried to muffle their snickers while Vortex's grin just kept growing. The girl shouldered past him with an arm load of groceries and laid them all out on the counter before them. Agador scurried off her shoulder after the green, leafy ingredient; she caught him by the belly to drag him away, his nails scrapped in resistance and clamored as she set him in the sink. She washed her hands and ripped a chunk of the greens and dropped it with the lizard; the metallic echo of scampering settled. Satisfied she turned her attention back to the disguised decepticons and drummed her fingertips on the counter, "I'll show you how make a ham sandwich, super easy and you can make one if no one is around."
"So now we're expected to make our own food now on?"
"Give a man a fish and it'll feed em a day, teach a man to fish and he'll be fed for life," she smiled haughtily.
Blastoff smugly crossed his arms,"And, give a brat a fire and she'll be warm till it goes out. Set a brat on fire and she'll be warm for the rest of her life "
Now everyone was annoyed and those standing at the bar shouldered Blastoff to the back and motioned for her to proceed. The teen grabbed two slices of bread and began stacking ingredients in layers like a rock formation. A final spread of a yellow, chunky liquid substance on the inside of the second slice and she crowned the edible melange before placing it on the plate to them and giving the spongy bread a final pat.
Before anyone could utter a sound, Brawl grabbed it and polished it off in four bites. His stomach howled for another which was answered by four others like a pack of wolves in the night. Replace the growling with mooing and she knew how a certain alien had felt the other day a the trough.
She held the remaining bag of bread with a frown upon seeing the insufficient amount of leftover slices. Vortex caught on and pushed it back on the counter with a new approach, "So maybe this won't be able to fill all of us tonight but is good for us to know what to do in the future. Is there anything else stashed in here that could feed all of us?"
"Hmmm, not in a timely manner, we have some frozen dinners but it would take a few hours to defrost them, let alone cook. But….. there's still cereal!"
"No, no more cereal for me today. Okay," he rolled his hand, "Your authority figures are gone for several hours and there isn't much in the house for you to consume. In the past, what have you done in these situations?"
"Order a pizza while watching movies my grammy disapproves of."
He clapped his hands in delight, "There we go, we'll just order a pizza. And watching something the polar opposite of your family's slagging standards would be a welcomed sight."
"Eh, yeah, but I can't."
"I see no restraints, why not."
"I'm not supposed to be spending money on eating out, we're pinching pennies for my college fund, it's actually why we're renting those two bedrooms."
"No worries, I got paid today," he widely grinned at Onslaught and extended his hand asking for the envelope. "Also, I don't know to what extent, but Swindle has plenty of money, he hoards so I'll pay for dinner today."
"TEX!" Swindle's lips quivered wanting to form more words but not let the ever questioning teen over hear.
"Relax, Josh would've figured it out sooner than later; and, we talked about what would happen if we had a repeat like breakfast this morning. Right?" He spun to meet eye to eye with her.
"Yuppers. As long as you stay out of my room, don't harm my family, and bring me any news of my dad you find out; I won't go poking holes in stories or convince my grammie to inflate the price of your rent."
"Good girl,"
The all too casual hip attachment and under lining capability of what could be called Vortex's accomplice made the rest of his team annoyed with an inkling of raised hackles; except Brawl who was staring at the bag of bread no doubt trying to remember the procedure Joshlynn had shown.
"So, how do we go about acquiring this pizza?"
Joshlynn had already made her way back to the fridge; her outstretched arm rummaged the top of it like a trunk belonging to a blind elephant. "Same way you would order anything for delivering over the phone but give me a sec. I hid some coupons that might still work and save ya some money. Any of you have any experience ordering things over our phone systems?"
Unanimously, all fingers pointed to Swindle. "What the fragging scrap! Why do I have to do it? I appreciate the considerations of coupons but why do I have to make the call? You should do it so we can all learn from a proper example."
Joshlynn returned with a folder crusted with dust that she blew on before replying, "Frankly, I don't care which of you five do it but I can't. Small town where everyone knows everyone's business means they know my family is pinching pennies, therefore by extension the only pizza place in town knows and will snitch on me to my grandparents."
She ripped out a section of paper clippings and passed to Swindle who snatched and scrutinized the tiny parchment that was giving him a whooping savings of 5% for a dish that looked like a discus chaotically slathered in undeterminable ingredients. His annoyance spiked as he felt the cold touch of the phone caressing the side of his face with Vortex creating squeaky toy noises as it pressed in him.
"So all you need to do is let them know you are placing a delivery for the Jone's place, trust me they know the place, and you'll want four large pizzas, one cheese, one meat lovers, and two pepperoni. Those are good starters to introduce you. Also tell them you're paying with cash," said the teen retrieving her lizard from the sink and now heading for the bookshelf in the living room. Onslaught and Blastoff remained to watch their smooth talking counterpart but Bruticus's left limbs eagerly followed the her based on the promise of entertainment outside of the weather report, 700 club, and lifetime channel.
Brawl chomped on his sandwich that could have been drawn by Picasso with two slices of ham replacing the bread because more meat made everything better. "Do you have a movie in mind? We like horror and adventure."
"Action, check, adventure, check, explosions check, and is classified as a film of historical significance." she grinned while removing a hidden VHS tape from a gutted book written by Ken Ham.
"OOOoo nice," grinned Tex, "But does it have any gore in it?"
"Uh, well you do get to see a guy's face melt off."
If time feels like it slips through the fingers too fast, a sure fix is to order a pizza and to wait on the delivery guy. To make time feel like a snail crawling on a glacier, have Brawl wait on the delivery guy.
The poor acne ridden teens soul nearly left his body as a pair of claw-like hands snatched the boxes faster than the door had flung open. He had trouble with the details after that but remembered a larger hand slipped him a couple of twenties, only for a hand affiliated with a yellow jacket to snatch it back and hand him the exact amount with exact change. The larger hand smacked the smaller one and passed him another twenty with a deep grumpy voice that bid him goodnight. And the door slammed abruptly.
The boxes proudly sat on the dining table radiating a sizzling baked smell. Joshlynn opened the first box like a chest and presented the contents with a wide grin.
"As your designated ambassador of organic living, may I present our region's most popular dish, pizza." She grabbed three slices for her plate and scurried out of the blast radius into the living room. Brawl and Vortex scrambled over the three unopened boxes and marveled as if they had stumbled upon a lost treasure and fought for the larger slices. Swindle dodged their squabble and helped himself to the hubble cheese pizza and retreated like their host had. Only when the destruction of the three rowdy ones crossed to the next room did the two dignified combaticons approach their dinner that they surveyed with abhorrence as grease and melting cheese dripped from a held slice. She had gotten them the organic equivalent of low grade fuel with high ethanol. Great….
They joined in the den to see the four clustered on the floor like kindergarteners during snack time. Agador scurried excitedly after their plates that they held in keep away. The television screen showed some rugged, tarantula covered professor grave robbing a jungle shrouded tomb.
Onslaught and Blastoff settled in the recliner and couch respectfully, in the law of the activity but not in the spirit. After finishing their plates and bellies full, all settle in the dark to the soft glow of a scene implying a nazi falling into a plane's propeller; except Brawl and Vortex who made a return trip to the dining room and quickly stumble back to their spot on the floor to not miss any bits. On their second trip they brought all the boxes and shoveled the slices at their leisure; and all was peaceful until Vortex discovered the last piece resided in the box on Brawl's lap.
Brawl regarded the interrogator's persistent, scrappy attempts with annoyed defensive swipes; however, the instigator chose a more primal Earth attack and when the first chomp landed on flesh did the infamous battle cry and aggression that had been lying dormant suddenly manifest on a St. Helens level.
Now the floor had become an arena for, well, an all out brawl. The lizard sped off behind the couch andSwindle screamed as someone's limb crashed against him. He launched over to the brick flooring of the fireplace hoping the masonry would act as a barrier against the angry tumbling bodies now trying to shout in their native voice but to the mere human sounded like dial-up under the influence of hexafluoride.
Joshlynn sprung from her seat and landed on the unoccupied side of the couch and huddled against the cushions like a cat trying to sink into the crevasses to hide with the lost remote and socks.
Onslaught rose as the disturbance was interfering with a well choreographed cargo truck chase he had strangely been enjoying. He grabbed both by the collar of their shirts and yanked in opposite directions as if they were two neodymium magnets. He released Vortex first to immediately slam a fist down on his head; the former rotor curled in a ball and nursed the injury.
Brawl continued snarling and shouting and scrabbling for a reach on his adversary; Onslaught snatched the last pizza slice on the floor and promptly shoved it in the blaring mouth. Brawl froze in a trance and Onslaught gently lowered him back on his aft and gave him a back handed smack in the back of the head as he returned to the recliner. The behemoth sat stunned but after a moment before he resumed watching the movie and eating like an oversized guinea pig with a leaf of lettuce.
Joshlynn's head ventured a terrified peer at the lot of them, the violence had subsided faster than it appeared and now they were all focused back on the movie. But not all, no, she was alone on the couch with Blastoff who was sneering at her, "You chose the wrong friends." He faced back to the glowing tv and comfortably crossed his leg.
Her hair and skin prickled but steeled herself. No, this wasn't as bad as she initially feared about them; if anything they could be cordial for the sake of dodging trouble but in the end they wore their true colors on their sleeves with her. She at least knew where she stood with them and was learning their boundaries; unlike the fake smiles and hospitality surrounding her everytime she left the house. Just show them how to survive in a human body, keep their tummies happy, while avoid chucking them under the bus, and soon that news of her dad would land in her lap and Pastor Keith's existence would be a figment. Maybe some beef jerky with Brawl or Vortex would speed up the process. Yes, she could work with this.
Her spirit perked back to plucky but sunk into the sofa with her as the sappy romance number sprouted from the speakers as the hero and his love interest were having…... a human moment.
"Eewww gross!"
"There are some things about being human that we'd benefit without knowing."
"What is the point of doing that?"
"What is with your species and all the touching?!"
"Jooooosh"
A sheepish smile crept on her face and she withdrew the remote under her in the cushions and fast forwarded through the scene so the combaticons could resume their regular program of action and violence.
The five genuinely seemed interested in the hype of what would appear out of the artifact that had been ruthlessly fought over the entire film. For cybertronians that had explored other planets and encountered beings that humans hadn't even fathomed; the biblical horrors erupting from the box showcased that earthlings had an overactive imagination with deeply unresolved trauma.
Combaticons were soldiers and had watched others die in droves as well as their fair share of stepping on humans as one would with a bug. That said, it didn't mean watching the gore of faces melting off didn't unnerve them as they were now on the bug's eye level and fragility.
Or that the lunatics in this town worshiped a being tied to this relic with the potential to do this to themselves or others. Unsurprisingly, their interrogator couldn't get enough of it and was really enjoying the twisted ideas this religion offered him, exhibited that he kept scooting to the screen in wonder.
The artifact violently erupted a blaze of fire as high as the heavens, engulfing everything in its vicinity before drawing in all flames and bodies, except the hero and his love interest, back inside itself. The lid slammed back upon its perch to a clap of thunder and all fell deathly silent.
Someone, in an unsure voice asked out loud, "C..c..can it really do that?"
Onslaught sank into the mattress. While not having a taste for human film unlike his subordinates, it had held his interest and was enjoyable at times. What probably surprised him the most was how calm and almost how happy his team had been tonight for the first time since they had met each other. Even while being stuck in organic bodies and the short lived display of food aggression.
He no longer felt his body meet the resistance of the cushions. Here he went again.
He online his optics to be standing before the familiar scene of two chairs and a chess board that now eerily sat on an intricate golden box with a pole on either side. Before seating he leaned over the back of the chair to inspect the spread. All four pieces and four burned etches accounted for but something was off and didn't sit well in his tank, like there was an additional rank or file than a standard chess board. Also the animals stood in neutral poised fashions opposed to quarreling.
He proceeded his earlier routine of trying to land all the animal pieces on their markings before yellow eyes appeared, in the hope that by completing this puzzle he would break their conundrum and they would online back to their metal bodies in the real world. But as he continued making his turns, certain subtle alterations occurred that disturbed him when his mind accepted these transitions as normal when they bended reality. Was he just too tunnel visioned?
Like, maze walls appearing between spaces and creating corridors as the pieces transverse to the other side of the board that seemed to have extended the amount of spaces that it now was almost like a grand banquet table. Why wasn't he noticing this as it occured…..
The walls also conveniently emerged between a piece and etched marking, making him have to reverse it back out and try another way. He nearly smashed the raven carving until he figured out that it didn't take specific commands but would execute the end result he wanted. He discovered this by accident when the raven wouldn't obey any moves to back out of the dead end that had formed around it as he had been preoccupied with the other three. Onslaught had yelled out loud to it, "slagging work with me, I just want you on the other side of the wall." And that is precisely what happened, in a roundabout way. The raven hopped over the miniature wall in a melodramatic leap of acrobatic flips and spins before hovering millimeters over a square on the other side. It plopped with a wooden 'tink' like there was nothing to it.
He could only stare and formed his next command in skeptical curiosity, "Go to your marking". And it did, but slid across the board on its side as the 'crow flies' and spun in a circle on its mark before uprighting itself and taking a bow at him. Onslaught almost slammed his head on the table in mental and emotional exhaustion; it was almost as draining as its real counterpart.
But the change that really bothered him were the new pieces that appeared next to his animal ones when he looked away, then back, and boom there it was. He really couldn't describe what these carvings resembled, like twisted human and animal elements disjointed together of flesh or bones that couldn't decide how many limbs to walk on.
The animal carvings also responded to these unwelcome guests by changing poses when he blinked; the bear rose threateningly to its hind feet, the jay covered in fear, and the elk startled on its hind legs with antlers in defense. He had trouble believing what he saw as it happened in a blink of an eye like stop motion at shutter speed. One disfigurement scooted to the elk, a claw like probucious emerged from it, swiped at the animal, and disappeared as it had appeared. The elk now kneeled as if it were lame.
"Oh, nasty encounter." Onslaught's optics shot to the other chair, yellow eyes greeted him. "Oh, what now will you do?"
Onslaught felt his engine boil and slammed his hands on the board. "What do you want!"
The eyes lazidackacly drifted side to side and squinted at the ceiling in thought, "Just trying to judge your character, get a sense of you."
"From a game?" It was more an irritated statement than a question. "Then you know what I'm capable of, especially if you are watching us day to day."
A yawn echoed and the eyes absently faced him, " I know your skill level in tactics but that's not what I want, as I said I want to know your character and so far you make me think of some prideful WWI british officer boasting on the too many victory metals he has against small, disadvantage foreign tribes. Then had a rude awakening that now has the cynicism of a vietnam black ops commander just trying to keep the wheels from falling off whatever mission his superiors scraped off the bottom of the barrel." Another yawn vibrated, "Quite a mouthful I'd say, don't you agree?"
Onslaught seethed, uncomfortable that he knew all too well the references the eyes spoke of. "Are you the one making all these illogical modifications to this?!" He pointed at the realm of checkered insanity.
The eyes tipped down in disinterest. "I was getting bored with how easy and straightforward it seemed, and if you are as smart as you boast it shouldn't have been too much of a challenge for you."
The combaticon commander grit his denta, carefully choosing his words.
"Anyway, this has gotten tiring, let's play a new game." The chess board hazed like a mirage and reconfigured into a snaking rainbow tiled path. Landscapes rose from their two dimensional surfaces to create model-like terrain of sugar crazed landmarks in bright, nausicating color schemes with eerie, cheerful anthromotic confectionery treat citizens. A sight that would have put a diabetic in cardiac arrest.
All of his pieces were now at the start of the path, although the wooden grizzly was now a green, oversized gummy bear. "Oh, and you'll need this from now on."
A puff of smoke above announced a trinket materialized; it bounced and skipped across the peppermint stick forest and molasses swamp, and would have launched to the floor if Onslaught hadn't caught it. His fingers turned it to reveal another animal player; this one looked feline with large triangle tufted ears, a bobbed tail, and tufts of fur on either side of its face as if it had a flamboyant muttonstache.
The combaticon clenched tight enough it might grind into sawdust. "What's your game with me!"
"Candyland,'' replied the eyes cheerfully. One of the peppermint sticks on the layout snapped from its foundation and floated to the source of the voice. Segments broke and disappeared with each crunching noise that followed. "Life is sweet."
Onslaught pushed the new piece back with one finger. "Four is enough to keep track of."
"Oh no, you're going to need that."
"What for!"
Mist shrouded the board so thick that Rudolph would say Christmas was canceled. All except in a two square radius around the cat carving.
Onslaught's engine growled. The eyes brightened and the board changed again to an equally insane tile path with a corner label that said 'Life'. All four animals were now jammed into a small plastic car that resided on a tile marked with the words 'It's a girl!'. The eyes watched as the cat piece floated up and gently nestled in the back of the car next to the raven. Onslaught glare at his opponent that beamed back; he slammed both fists on the table and roared, "Stop altering the rules. I refuse to be apart of this, none of it is fair!"
The glow that had normally been sunny yellow chilled and heated in warning like construction hazard stripes as the eyes took an angry slant. "Fair you say! Was this fair?"
The board drew back to the entity's side like a lid to a stone tomb, revealing a blazing inferno from the box beneath that shot upwards and surrounded Onslaught. In the flames he saw segments and glimpses of that one event that sent everything in a spiraling graveyard spin. He thought he had deleted those memories, but no, Shockwave had made them a private file in his personality component that needed administrative privileges to delete, and those belonged to Megatron. They had done that if in the future they needed evidence for future cases.
He tried to offline his optics from the awful scenes but phantom claws returned to pressing his components to remain alert.
The eyes passed through the flames nonchalantly till it was mere inches from his optic band; they widened into an annoyed gleam, twinkling like a detonating mine field at night. Black pupils as dark as empty space appeared in each while multiple rings rippled from them to the corners in a crazed fashion.
"Life's not fair n...," it paused and Onslaught felt another phantom nail poke in the dark corners of his processor and violate the last hidden reaches of his mind's privacy. The pupils dilated and a pair of jagged teeth in formation for a muzzle with a deranged smile manifested with cackling. They moved with the on coming words. "Life's not fair now is it, Combatmaster?".
Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it, I've been so excited for this chapter and scenes to be posted as I came up with them four years ago.
Also I'm curious, so far who is your favorite combaticon in this?
Happy Hanukkah!