IT'S OVER 9,000! Hits... I'm sorry I couldn't resist saying that lol.
Anyway, I managed to finish this chapter exactly one day earlier than my last one. It's not much of difference, but it's a start.
So, I have come to realize something, I haven't really been thanking all you guys and gals for reviewing. So, thank you all for reviewing, this story is now over 50 reviews which is a lot more than I expected to get at this point in the story. Thank you all. :)
Thanks go to Crystal Prime for beta reading.
Sailor Shinzo - I assume you are wondering how Shadowstreaker will react when he first encounters Megatron. And the answer to that is classified I'm afraid.
Fox of Magic - So much for updating soon, huh? Sorry about that lol. I'm glad you're enjoying the story.
Devil-O-Angel - Of course Megatron's insane, who infects their own planet with Dark Energon and expects something good to come out of it? Lol.
jayna prime - I'm glad you enjoyed it, sis. :) It was fun to write. And how could I resist having Optimus say "Challenge accepted"? Lol. I miss talking too. :/ Though I can understand why we haven't, moving is a long process. Though I must ask, how was that chapter creaky? Hehe.
Guest - Thank you, though, I am not certain what you mean. Do you mean Optimus' reaction to Megatron being online?
Disclaimer: Transformers belongs to Hasbro. I only take credit for this story and my OCs.
December 17, 2000 10:22 P.M
Northern Syracuse, Upstate New York
"Sweetheart, you know you can't go into the parking lot by yourself." A woman called out to her son as he started to walk into the parking lot of the mall they had just left.
The woman was tall at just a hair under six feet and her hair was long and fiery red in color. Her eyes were a royal cobalt blue and held the warmth and kindness of a caring mother and a truly happy woman.
The woman's son stopped walking and turned to look up at his mother with sleepy looking eyes that were same color his mother's. "I know, I'm sorry Momma, I just want to get back home." The young boy said and then gave a yawn.
The women smiled down at her son. "Tired after visiting Momma's friend and her son, Joshua?" The woman asked, transferring the shopping bag she carried to her other hand, that was carrying her purse, so she could hold her son's hand and walk into the parking lot.
The young boy nodded, but said nothing, eyes drooping even as they walked toward their car on the far side of the parking lot.
The woman sighed quietly. "Oh I'm sorry, sweetie. The mall was a lot more crowded than I thought it would be tonight and now we're not going to get home 'till past your bedtime. But you can sleep in the car, okay sweetheart?" The woman asked her son with an apologetic look.
"Okay, Momma." Her son replied in a tired voice before his eyes widened in excitement as snowflakes started to fall from the sky above them.
"Momma look! Snow!" The young boy cried excitedly, all fatigue gone from his eyes and voice as he looked at the snowflakes falling around them in wonder.
The woman looked at her son with an amused smile, no matter how many times the boy saw snow, he was always excited.
"Yes it is snow, sweetie. Maybe they'll be enough on the ground tomorrow for you and your big brothers to make some snowmen!" The woman said, smiling at the look of joy that instantly formed on her son's face.
"Really? Would you build one with me too?" He asked, happiness filling his royal cobalt eyes.
The woman laughed. "Of course, sweetheart. I'll make ten of them if you wanted to," she said as they finally approached their car.
The woman immediately froze as a man walked out behind their car with an old-looking snub-nosed 38. Special in his hand.
The man was roughly the same height as the women, perhaps slightly taller. He was wearing a pair of well-worn sneakers that looked like they were being held together with duct tape, and a pair jeans that at one point had likely been blue, but had since faded to an almost grey color. A plain white shirt covered his chest along with a dull green windbreaker. A large grey beard covered most of his face, leaving only his dark brown eyes as his most significant facial feature. The man was clearly homeless, and had been for a long time.
The man raised his snub-nosed pistol at the woman with a shaky hand. "I-I'm real sorry about this, lady. B-but I need your car." The man said in a voice that was even more shaky than the hand that held his gun, his nerves, and possibly his conscience, were getting the better of him.
The woman didn't flinch as the gun was aimed at her, she didn't even break eye contact with the man as she shielded her now terrified son by gently pulling him behind her. "What's your name?" She asked in calm, soothing voice that betrayed none of the fear she felt.
The man so caught off guard by the unusual question that he took several long seconds to reply. "Bill," he finally said.
The woman nodded. "It's nice to meet you, Bill." She said, causing the man to give her a flabbergasted look before she continued. "Now Bill, why are you doing this?" She asked, keeping her calm and soothing tone as she spoke.
Bill grimaced. "I need money, I haven't had a job in years and I haven't had a real meal since last week. But I know some guys that will pay eight hundred dollars for a car, so I need yours. I'm so sorry." He said, voice genuinely apologetic and regretful.
The woman gave him sympathetic look. "Bill, I don't have eight hundred dollars, but I can give you the money in my purse. I know it will be more than enough for you to get a few meals, perhaps even enough for you to spend a couple nights in a motel." She said, and then broke eye contact with Bill and slowly reached for the wallet in her purse.
Bill tensed at her movement. "W-what are you doing?" He asked, voice shaky as he visibly became more nervous.
The woman paused and looked at Bill calmly. "I am just getting my wallet out, I don't personally own a gun. And even if I did, I wouldn't use it in front of my son." She responded, and then continued reaching for her wallet at Bill's understanding nod.
Just as the woman started to pull her wallet from her purse, the sudden echo of a police siren carried through the air and caused the nervous Bill to jump in surprise and look over his shoulder... And then accidentally pull the trigger.
Due to the fact the woman was crouched down next to her purse, the round hit her at a strange angle. First it entered her rib cage and pierced her right lung before continuing on and passing through her stomach and finally stopping when it impacted her hip bone.
The woman screamed in pain and immediately fell back onto the pavement, gasping her breath as she covered her gunshot wound with a hand both to help slow the bleeding, and to prevent her son from seeing all the blood leaking from the wound.
The boy fell down on his knees next to his fatally injured mother. "Momma!" He yelled, face already wet with tears as he knelt next to her.
Bill looked at the fallen woman and her distraught young son with horror etched on his face.
"Hey!" Someone suddenly shouted.
Bill looked up, a group of four men and two women had just exited the mall and were now sprinting up the parking lot toward him. Even from this distance, Bill could tell that at least two of the men had very short hair and seemed to be in much better shape than the others, they were likely off-duty soldiers from the local Air Force base.
"Put the gun down you son of a bitch!" One of the Air Force men yelled.
Bill took a few steps backward as the group continued to get closer. And with one last sorrowful look at the weeping boy, turned around and ran as fast as his legs could carry him, he quickly disappeared into the night.
The boy looked up briefly as the man ran away before looking down at his mother as she spoke.
"It's okay, sweetheart." She said in a voice that was even more calm and soothing than when she was speaking to Bill.
Her son stopped crying long enough to respond. "No it's not okay!" He yelled, and then broke into sobs again.
The woman reached up with the hand that wasn't covered in blood and wiped away a few of his tears. "Shhh... Don't cry, sweetie, don't cry it's all going to be alright." She continued wiping away his tears until he stopped crying again.
Her son sniffed. "No it won't, you're hurt and I don't know how to help you." He said sadly with a trembling lip.
The woman smiled at her son. "This is something that can't be helped, sweetheart."
"But the doctors can help you, can't they?" Her son asked, voice sounding panicked.
The woman gave her son a regretful look. "No they can't, sweetie. I don't think I'm going to be here for much longer." She said in a sad tone, wincing in pain as she sucked in a breath and slowly let it back out.
"I don't want you to go," her son said as tears started to fall from his eyes again.
The woman smiled at her son again. "Oh my dear Zechariah, I don't want to leave either, but there isn't anything I can do to stay with you." The woman reached up and brushed the back of her hand against her son's cheek. "I want you to know, Zechariah. That even though Momma's going to leave, I love you so much. Momma loves you very..." Her eyes started to close on their own accord. "Much..." With that last word, the woman's eyes closed for the final time and her hand fell to the pavement, a single breath escaped her lips before she laid completely still, she was gone.
Zechariah looked down at his now dead mother for a few moments. "Momma?" He asked quietly, as if he was trying to wake her up like he did in the morning.
His mother didn't respond.
"Momma?" Zechariah tried once more in a slightly louder voice.
Again, there was no response from his mother.
Tears formed his Zechariah's eyes as the snow continued falling around him. "Momma!" He wailed as the group of bystanders finally reached him.
One of the men picked him up and handed him to a woman next to him. "Move him away from her and try and calm him down." He instructed calmly as he and the other woman in the group knelt next to the boy's mother and started CPR, while another man pulled out a cell phone and started to call paramedics.
The first woman nodded and started to walk away while doing her best to comfort the weeping child.
"Momma!" Zechariah yelled in despair one last time before the woman carrying him walked around a car to get him away from the sight of his dead mother.
I watched everything with a stoic faceplate from where I sat on a car. This was a memory I had relived far too many times as a human, and being a Cybertronian didn't make it any less unpleasant.
Mercifully, I onlined a few micro-klicks after the woman took my younger self behind the car.
November 10, 2012 5:18 A.M
Autobot base, outside Jasper, Nevada
I onlined and ran a servo over my faceplate as I sat up and got off of my berth.
It had technically been two solar-cycles since I had been cured from the cybonic plague. But since the first time I onlined after contracting the cybonic plague was late at night, it was closer to one solar-cycle than it was two.
Even though Ratchet and Moonracer said the cybonic plague had been completely purged from my systems, they still kept me in the med-bay for the majority of the following cycle to make sure I wasn't suffering from any side-effects from the plague.
I wasn't released until six breems ago, and the courting medics told me that they had found another virus embedded in the cybonic plague cure they got from Megatron. They said it wasn't a dangerous virus, but as far as they could tell. The embedded virus was designed to target the part of a Cybertronian's CPU that affected dreams, causing the Cybertronian infected with the virus to either have very vivid nightmares, or relive painful memories.
'What a sadistic bastard, even the cure Megatron created for the cybonic plague was designed to inflict pain.' I thought in disgust as I picked up one of my cubes from my desk and put it under the energon dispenser.
After I finished filling my cube, I quickly drank my energon, put the cube back on my desk, typed in the password for opening my door and left my quarters. I didn't want to spend time thinking about the death of my human mother, I had accepted her death long before I was a Cybertronian, there was no point in thinking about her death now.
Immediately after I stepped out into the hallway, I turned around and locked my door before heading to the elevator. Normally I would head straight for the washrack after I onlined for the cycle, but for some reason I felt like training down in the Safe before going to the washrack.
I reached the elevator and hit the button for the Safe and leaned against the back of the elevator as I waited to reach the massive training room.
After the short elevator ride ended, I walked into the Safe and proceeded to step in the armory to pick out a weapon that I could use.
The area for our new armory had been drilled out by S.T.F engineers in the wall in front of the shooting range. The armory was massive, at five hundred meters long and half as wide, our new armory was a third the length of the shooting range itself.
On the left side of the armory were the heavier weapons like Thermo Rocket Launchers, Magma Frag Launchers and a couple of Photon Grenade Rifles, which I had found out was the official name of the grenade launcher I test-fired the night of Wildwing's arrival. And finally, the left side of the armory was home to a slightly damaged Nucleon Shock Cannon that we recovered from the Decepticon mine.
The right side of the armory was where the lighter weapons were kept. Photon Burst Rifles, X-12 and X-18 Scrapmakers, Neutron Assault Rifles, Scatter-Blasters, EMP Shotguns, Energon Battle Pistols, Plasma Cannons and dozens upon dozens of crates filled with grenades and energy cells. Basically everything that didn't belong on the left side of the armory was put on the right side. Well, except for the melee weapons, which were at the back of the armory, but pretty much everything else was on the right side of the armory.
I stepped over to the right side of the armory and looked up and down the racks of various weapons as I thought about which weapon I was going to pick.
After about a klick of considering which weapon to bring to the range, I finally settled on a Neutron Assault Rifle and grabbed a crate of energy cells before I started walking back over to the shooting range.
Once I reached the shooting range, I set the ammo crate down, opened it and grabbed an energy cell, loaded the Neutron AR and adjusted it for my size before I took aim at one of the target drones and pulled the trigger.
I kept the trigger held down until the energy cell depleted two micro-klicks later and then lowered the rifle to see my grouping on the drone. About forty blackened marks were visible on the drone's chest area.
'An eighty percent hit rate, not bad considering it's over five hundred meters away,' I thought as I ejected the depleted energy cell and reached down to grab a fresh cell from the ammo crate, only to freeze at the sound of clapping from near the elevator.
I turned to look at the elevator and narrowed my optics slightly at the sight of Springer standing next to the elevator.
"Bravo! What incredible marksmanship, that target drone never stood a chance." Springer said in sarcastic and dry tone as he continued clapping in fake amazement.
I turned away from the green Triple-Changer and picked up an energy cell from the ammo crate. "What are you doing down here so early?" I asked in a slightly cold manner as I loaded the energy cell into the Neutron AR.
Springer stopped his fake clapping and I heard him step towards me. "To shoot things, what else would I do?" He replied as if that was glaringly obvious.
"I see." I said as I fired a three round burst at my target drone, hitting it twice in the chest area and once in the neck.
Springer appeared at my right and aimed his chaingun at a different target drone. A moment later, he fired a long burst from his chaingun that riddled his target drone with bullets of pure energy.
Springer and I didn't say anything for a long while, we just took shots at our respective targets and stood in silence, which was perfectly fine with me.
Out of all the bots I had met since I became a Cybertronian, Springer was the only one that I found myself getting legitimately angry with whenever I spoke to him for a prolonged period of time. And that saying something since I was usually a very patient and tolerant mech.
After roughly forty five klicks of silence, in which time I swapped my Neutron AR for a Photon Grenade Rifle, Springer was the one to finally break the silence.
"So..." He said slowly and left his sentence hanging as he fired burst from his chaingun.
"So," I repeated his short statement as I reloaded my Grenade Rifle.
"So, I have been... Thinking about Arcee." He said in an insinuating tone and gave me a sideways glance.
My left optic twitched at Springer's tone, but the rest of my faceplate remained impassive. "Jetfire was correct in saying that your CPU is fragged up, Springer." I replied evenly, but I snapped the Grenade Rifle closed with a little more force than I needed to use when I finished loading it.
Springer seemed to have noticed this, but he didn't comment on it as he continued.
"I have been thinking about that little punch she gave me in particular," he said as he shifted his gaze away from me and stared at the shooting range in front of us.
"You deserved much worse than that," I said, not even attempting to lower my voice so he couldn't hear.
Springer ignored my words and added to his previous statement. "And our staring contest after she left, I now find that interesting." He said in a tone that led me to believe he was smiling for some reason.
"And why do you find that interesting?" I asked in a slightly cautious voice as I aimed my Grenade Rifle at my target drone and fired two shots, both of which hit the drone in the neck.
"Because, I recall only one other mech getting as angry at me for admiring Arcee's chassis as you do." Springer replied as I saw him turn toward me in my peripheral vision with a smug smile on his faceplate.
I looked away from my target drone and narrowed my optics at Springer. "And who was that?" I asked, forcing my voice to sound indifferent even though I was actually starting to panic, I had a bad feeling that I knew where Springer was going with this.
The smile on Springer's faceplate grew wider and, if possible, even more smug. "Tailgate. And since he was her courted..." He said as gave me a calculating look, as if he was gauging my response.
I stiffened as I immediately understood what Springer was doing, the son of a glitch knew about my crush on Arcee, and he was trying to get me to admit it.
I looked back at my target drone and fired the last three shots in the Grenade Rifle before I responded in a causal manner. "So you think because I get at angry at you for ogling Arcee that I like her in the way that Tailgate did? You're making assumptions, Springer."
'Unfortunately, they're correct assumptions.' I added to myself.
The smile on Springer's faceplate briefly faded away at my casual response, but he quickly shook his helm and his smile returned as he replied smugly. "Yes, yes I do think that. You wouldn't get that angry at me for hitting on Arcee unless you were interested in her."
"I don't like her in that way, Springer." I lied, doing the best I could to make my voice sound convincing. "We're just friends, good friends, but just friends nonetheless."
"That's a pile of slag." Springer said. "No matter how much you deny it, I know I'm right. You spend way too much time with her for you not be interested in something other than friendship. You're obviously after a little piece of something else." The green Triple-Changer finished, and raised his optics up and down in a suggestive manner.
I gave Springer a glare for what he was implying. "Believe it or not, Springer, but not everyone has a CPU as fragged up as yours. I'm not interested in Arcee, and even if I was, I sure as hell wouldn't be interested in her just because of that." I said in a firm voice that made my disgust of Springer's suggestive statement clear.
Springer and I stared each other down for a moment before we both turned at the sound of the elevator arriving at the Safe.
A micro-klick after the elevator arrived, Arcee, Bumblebee and Bulkhead stepped out of the elevator with their charges following them.
Arcee looked over at me when the six of them entered the Safe. "Hey, Shadow'." She greeted warmly before she noticed Springer standing next to me. "Springer," she said in a cold tone as Bumblebee and Bulkhead also sent a greeting in the direction of Springer and I.
"Hello to you too, gorgeous." Springer said in a such a way that even though I couldn't see him, I knew he winked at her.
Arcee gave Springer a scowl before she walked over towards the sparring ring along with the others.
I turned back to Springer as Bulkhead and Bumblebee started to spar while Arcee and the Jack, Raf and Miko watched.
"Can't you speak to Arcee without sounding sleazy? Is that too much for your perverted CPU to manage?" I asked with an angry tone as I reloaded the Grenade Rifle again.
The smug smile returned to Springer's faceplate. "Awww, are you upset about your precious courted getting hit on?" He mocked.
I narrowed my optics at him while I continued loading the Grenade Rifle. "No, I am upset by how my friend." I said, putting emphasis on friend. "Is constantly getting hit on by a mech she wants no part of."
Springer's smile vanished and he looked at me for several micro-klicks before he looked in the direction of the sparring ring and a mischievous look entered his optic, as if he just got an idea.
"Well," he said and started to walk around me to go in the direction of everyone else. "If you aren't interested in her more than as a friend as you claim. Then you shouldn't mind if I go over there and try my luck. I mean it's not like I'll succeed, right? You said it yourself that she doesn't want any part of me. So what's the harm?" He asked in a devious tone and then walked toward Arcee before I could say anything.
I watched as the green Triple-Changer walked over to Arcee and stood next to her. "So who are you betting on?" I heard him ask as if they were good friends.
Arcee pointedly ignored him and continued watching the sparring match between Bulkhead and Bumblebee.
"Oh, that was a good move," Springer said as Bumblebee avoided a punch from Bulkhead by driving through the larger Bot's pedes.
"What do you want, Springer?" I heard Arcee ask coldly, not bothering to tear her gaze away from the sparring match to look at the green Triple-Changer.
Springer leaned away from Arcee as if he was surprised. "What makes you think I want anything from you? Why can't I just stand next to my friend?" He asked in a voice that sounded hurt, but I knew Springer was faking the hurt in his voice.
"We're not, and never will be, friends, Springer. And the only time you ever speak to me when not on a mission is to hit on me, so just get it over with so I can get on with my cycle." Arcee responded in an angry tone.
Springer dropped the act and threw a servo around Arcee's shoulder-joint and pulled her a little closer to him as if they were courted. "Do you want to get out of here? I mean, I just set up my berth and it needs to be test-" Arcee's elbow-joint slamming into Springer's tank cut off what was undoubtedly going to be the rudest thing the green Triple-Changer had ever said to Arcee.
Arcee didn't even look away from the sparring match -which more like Bulkhead and Bumblebee looking on in shock, mostly from what Springer was going to say- as she followed up her elbow by slipping her pede behind Springer's and taking the mech's pedes out from under him and sending him to the floor.
My secret crush looked down at Springer as he laid on his backplates. "There is no word to properly describe the level of filth to compare you to. And you are not worth the effort to create such a word." She said coldly enough to chill the room a few degrees and then walked toward the elevator, making sure to stomp on Springer's tank in the same place she elbowed him along the way. She soon reached the elevator and hit the control panel with a servo, and a micro-klick later, she was gone.
The moment Arcee elbowed Springer, I started giving Springer a glare that could have pierced a wall. I knew, with relative certainty, what Springer was going to say, and it would be a grave understatement to say that it infuriated me. Springer was just such a... He was so...
I shook my helm, Arcee had it right, there wasn't a word to properly describe Springer's behavior. And that behavior was causing my desire to punch him to spike more than it ever had before, I was an inch away from walking right up to Springer and punching his faceplate in, but no matter how much I wanted to do that, I wasn't going to let my anger control my actions.
So, instead of punching Springer's faceplate in, I aimed the Grenade Rifle at the target drone and imagined the drone was Springer. I fired two shots and hit the drone twice in the neck just before Bulkhead broke the short silence that followed Arcee's departure.
"Springer, even for you that was way too far." I heard him say with a disapproving tone.
Bumblebee then spoke in a voice that more angry than I had ever heard the yellow and black scout use before. "Yeah, I mean I've seen you hit on Arcee before, but that was on a whole new level of sleaziness."
"Oh please. Both of you are overreacting, that was no different than my usual attempts at seducing Arcee. It was just a little more blunt and a lot less subtle. Besides, you see that look she gave me? It's clear she wants me." Springer replied in a dismissive and smug tone as I heard him get up off the floor and, judging by the sound of metal brushing against metal, start to dust himself off.
'Must not offline him, must not offline him, must not offline him, must not offline him, must not offline him.' I thought as I rapidly fired the remaining four shots in the Grenade Rifle in an attempt to appease the white hot anger threatening to make me go over there and beat the smugness out of Springer.
"You're wrong, Springer. Arcee isn't, and never will be, interested in you." I said in a calm voice, which surprised me since I felt I was going to beat Springer into a pulp at any micro-klick.
Immediately after I spoke, I felt six pairs of eyes and optics look toward me.
"And how would you know that? Has Arcee said that herself? Or could it be that you're just saying that she's not interested in me so that I'll back off and you won't have any competition?" Springer asked smugly, likely thinking he had me backed into a corner.
'Wow he is stupid,' I thought with mild amusement despite how I was very close to punching to Springer in the faceplate.
I looked over at Springer, quickly taking note of how everyone else was looking curiously between Springer and I, clearly confused and perhaps interested by the green Triple-Changer's words.
"Arcee said it herself, Springer. I her exact words were, 'Springer, how many times will I have to tell you that I am not, and never will be, interested in you? Do yourself a favor and back off.' She said that right after we joined up in the Sahara." I explained calmly, and then snapped the Grenade Rifle open so I could reload it again.
Springer was silent for a micro-klick before he responded. "Arcee was just playing hard to get-"
"Springer," I interrupted and looked back at the green Triple-Changer. "You are literally millions of times older than me, and you've been hitting on Arcee since back when the entire human race were living in caves. Do you honestly think that she's been playing hard to get that entire time? Accept the fact that Arcee hates you and get over yourself." I finished with an exasperated sigh and went back to loading the Grenade Rifle.
There was a long silence before Springer finally replied. "You're right, maybe Arcee isn't interested in me. I probably didn't have a shot with her in the first place anyway."
I looked at Springer out of the corner of my optic. Surprisingly, Springer was conceding to my argument without a fight, which for me immediately raised a red flag, but I decided not to comment on his lack of an argument.
"Good. Maybe you'll be able to do something productive with all your new spare time since you won't be using it to chase Arcee." I said as I finished loading the Grenade Rifle and aimed at the target drone again.
"Yeah, I guess it's a good thing I'm giving up on my chase of Arcee. I mean, even if I got together with her, I wouldn't last long since she would mess something up get me offlined just like Tailgate and Cliffjumper." Springer said in a causal, carefree tone, as if he was talking about the weather instead of unsubtly mocking Arcee's luck with previous courteds.
I tightened my servos so hard at Springer's insult that I warped the barrel of the Grenade Rifle. Springer's rude comments toward Arcee were one thing, and his sleazy attempts to hit on her were another. But Springer basically saying that it was Arcee's fault that Tailgate and Cliffjumper were offlined, something I knew Arcee blamed herself for even though it wasn't her fault, that just redefined the definition of scum.
'You've just crossed the line, Springer,' I thought in fury as I slowly set the now deformed Grenade Rifle on the divider between the shooting range and the rest of the Safe.
"What did you say, Springer?" I asked, voice deathly calm as I continued looking straight ahead at the target drone.
I could almost hear Springer giving a smug smile before he responded. "I said that I wouldn't last long if I got together with Arcee since she would mess something up and get me offlin-" That was as far as Springer got, because at that moment, I lost what self-control I had left and with speed that I didn't know I could achieve, I crossed the distance between Springer and I and hit him in the left optic... Hard. Springer immediately fell to the floor while covering his optic with a servo.
After a brief moment, Springer uncovered his optic, which now had a small spider web of cracks in it, and glared up at me. "Oh, it's on now!" He yelled and before I could react, he tackled me and sent us both back into the sparring ring, which caused Bulkhead and Bumblebee to leap out of the ring so they didn't get in our way.
Springer pinned me and punched me twice in the faceplate before I caught one of his punches and threw one of my own, Springer rolled off of me as my punch connected with the same optic I punched earlier.
I rolled away from Springer and got back on my pedes and into a fighting stance as quickly as I could, which was just in time to see Springer charge at me again.
Springer threw a flurry of punches when he reached me, I managed to block the majority of them, but he still landed a few hits to my tank and chestplates before I kicked out with my left pede and hit him in the tank, which forced him to backpedal.
Not wanting him to recover, I moved forward and threw a left jab at Springer's faceplate and followed it up with a right hook aimed at his side.
Springer blocked the punch directed at his faceplate and just took my other punch aimed at his side before he hit me in the faceplate with a left cross.
My helm snapped to the left when he hit me and I saw Springer's right servo flying towards my faceplate. I grabbed Springer's approaching fist before it made contact with me and sent my right elbow-joint crashing into the side of Springer's helm. While Springer was dazed, I spun and followed my elbow up with a spinning kick to Springer's tank, which caused him to slide backwards until he became tangled in the ropes along the sides of the ring.
As Springer started to untangle himself from the ropes, I felt something oozing from my lip. I wiped a servo across my mouth and looked at the back of my servo, it was wet with energon. Springer's last punch had busted my lip open, I was going to have to get that repaired later.
I looked away from the energon on my servo and back to Springer, the green Triple-Changer had finished untangling himself from the ropes and was now crouched slightly in a defensive fighting stance.
Deciding to change tactics, and finish this fight quickly, I let my servos fall to my sides in what appeared to be a relaxed pose. But that was the beauty of the martial art I just switched to, Krav Maga, it gave your opponent the illusion that you weren't prepared for any of their attacks, when in fact you were ready for anything they could dish out.
Springer fell for the relaxed combat stance of Krav Maga and quickly closed the distance between us and threw a left hook at my helm.
Just before Springer's fist impacted the side of my helm, I leaned back and dodged his punch. I grabbed Springer's wrist and twisted his servo at an uncomfortable angle before I slammed my elbow-joint into the elbow-joint of the servo I was twisting. There was a loud crack as several gears in Springer's servo snapped and a few smaller parts fell out of the now broken limb.
"FRAG!" Springer screamed in pain before he cradled his broken servo close to his chestplates and threw another hook with his other servo.
I deflected Springer's punch with an elbow-joint and countered with a jab followed by a cross.
The green Triple-Changer staggered back a few steps before he shook his helm and attempted to land another punch.
This time, I grabbed Springer's fist and pulled him towards me, I reared my helm back and slammed it into Springer's, having faith that my stronger armor would absorb the impact of the head-butt. My faith was not misplaced, though I immediately knew I was going to have one hell of a processor ache later, as my armor absorbed most of the impact of my head-butt.
Springer staggered back again with a noticeable dent in his helm, he appeared to be severely dazed and perhaps a little delirious since he wasn't even trying to fight back and had a blank look in his optics.
Now I could have left our fight at that, a confused Springer standing in the middle of the sparring ring with a broken servo and a large dent in his helm. But for the way he openly said that it was Arcee's fault that Cliffjumper and Tailgate were offlined, I wasn't going to let Springer get off that easy.
I kicked out with my left pede and aimed for a weak point that humans and Cybertronians shared, the knee-joint. My kick hit Springer's right pede and forced the limb backwards at an unnatural angle and the loud snap of pistons breaking soon followed.
Springer screamed in pain, but somehow was able to stay standing despite his broken pede.
I followed up my kick with a hard left hook at Springer's faceplate. Springer spit out energon as his pedes gave out on him and he fell down to his knee-joints.
With little extra force behind it, I spun around and hit Springer's faceplate with a roundhouse kick.
Springer's helm jerked to the side as my roundhouse kick connected. And after a few micro-klicks of Springer doing a surprisingly good imitation of a statue, he slowly fell forward and onto his faceplate and didn't move, the only indication he gave that he was still online was the occasional faint groan.
I looked at the heavily injured form of Springer for almost a klick before I turned and started to walk to the elevator, not even acknowledging the shocked, and slightly fearful, looks I was receiving from Bulkhead, Bumblebee, Jack, Raf and Miko.
"Remind me to never piss Shadowstreaker off." I heard Miko whisper to Jack as I walked past the trio of humans.
"Only if you remind me not do that as well," Jack replied nervously.
"I second that," Raf added in a tone similar to Jack's.
I reached the elevator and hit the button for the ground level, a moment later, I was leaving the Safe.
A few micro-klicks later, the elevator arrived at ground level and I stepped out and made for the nearby med-bay so I could get my busted lip repaired.
The med-bay door opened as I approached and I saw Moonracer and Ratchet standing close to each other over by the workstation.
They both looked over at me when they heard the door open.
"What happened to your lip?" Moonracer asked as she stepped away from Ratchet and grabbed a small medical kit.
"Springer and I... Had a sparring match." I replied slowly, it wasn't a total lie, Springer and I had been fighting in the sparring ring after all. But we were trying to beat the scrap out of each other instead of having a friendly spar.
Moonracer seemed to catch on to the fact that I wasn't being totally truthful and she narrowed her optics at me slightly, but she didn't comment and then opened her medical kit and started to repair my busted lip.
"So, if Springer busted your lip open while you were sparring. Then I'm guessing that you lost that match, correct?" Ratchet asked as he crossed his servos over his chestplates and leaned against the workstation.
Before I could respond, I heard the med-bay door open and I turned around in time to see Bulkhead and Bumblebee carry Springer through the doorway.
"Hey, sire. Thanks for picking me up from the academy," Springer said to Bulkhead in an obviously delirious state as he was carried past Moonracer and I.
I watched Bulkhead and Bumblebee set Springer down on a medical berth before I gave Ratchet a dry look. "No, no I didn't lose." I said flatly.
Ratchet gave me a brief look before he shook his helm before he picked up another medical kit and walked over to Springer's berth.
After Ratchet walked over to Springer's berth, I turned back to Moonracer and let her continue repairing my busted lip.
"You know this is a complete waste of energon, right?" I asked Prowl rhetorically, reaching over from the berth I was lying on and tapping the clear energy barrier keeping me in my cell for emphasis.
Two breems had past since my fight with Springer. It had only taken Moonracer fifteen klicks to repair my busted lip. But almost as soon as she did, Prowl had entered the med-bay and instructed me to follow him to the brig.
When I asked Prowl why I was going to the brig, he explained that I was going to spend the next three solar-cycles in a containment cell as punishment for starting an unnecessary physical confrontation with a fellow Autobot. And, annoyingly, he had been right. I technically was the one who started the fight between Springer and I, and no matter how much Springer deserved to get his aft kicked, it was against the rules for any kind of fighting that wasn't for training purposes.
'At least I'm not in Springer's situation,' I thought to myself with a smug smile.
According to Ratchet, Springer had a cracked optic, eight broken gears in his left servo, four pistons that needed to be repaired and one that needed to be completely replaced in his right pede and a half dozen other less serious injuries. All in all, Springer was going to be stuck in the med-bay for three mega-cycles at the least, and a jour and a half at the most.
"The cold-plasma barrier prevents all forms of communication while keeping detainees from escaping. It is not a waste of energon." Prowl answered my rhetoric question in his usual stoic tone from where he sat at a desk across from my cell.
I rolled my optics at Prowl's deadpan. "That was a joke, Prowl." I said with a sigh, it was hard to try and create a joke when the only bot you currently had for company lacked a sense of humor or even knew when someone was joking.
Prowl looked at me for a moment. "I see," he replied simply and picked up one of several data pads -likely reports- on his desk and began reading it.
After Prowl picked up the data pad, we fell into a long silence until I heard the door leading to the hallway open.
I lifted my helm up from the berth and leaned towards the barrier so I could see who was entering the brig, it was Arcee.
"Hey Prowl." My secret crush greeted the stoic mech as she reached both Prowl's desk and my cell.
Prowl looked up from the data pad in his servo and acknowledged Arcee with a simple nod before he returned his attention back to the data pad.
Arcee turned and regarded me for a moment with an amused look in her optics. "Why is it that seems like every time we talk, you're either injured and lying on a medical berth or, in this case, being held in a containment cell?" She asked as she crossed her servos over her chestplates.
"Probably because I get injured all the time," I replied with a smile as I sat up and leaned against the back wall of my cell.
Arcee chuckled. "Probably." She was silent for a moment and seemed to gather her thoughts before she continued. "Look... I just came by to say thank you."
"Thank me for what?" I asked her with confusion lacing my voice.
"For what happened with Springer. Bulk' told me what Springer said, what you did to stop him from saying anything else, and I wanted to thank you for that." Arcee explained with a grateful look on her faceplate.
"You're welcome, but I don't think you don't need to thank me. With his attitude, it was inevitable that someone was going to beat the scrap out of him sooner or later, I just happened to be that someone." I replied with a shrug.
Arcee gave me a lopsided smile. "Maybe, but that isn't going to stop me from saying thank you." She said, looking away from me briefly as Prowl got up from his desk and walked out of the brig, most likely to go lecture someone for not writing a proper report.
"I didn't say you couldn't say thank you, I was saying that you didn't need to." I said as I rested my helm against the wall. "So, was there anything else you wanted to talk about?" I asked and then closed my optics to relax.
I didn't need to see Arcee to know that the smile had faded from her faceplate. "Unfortunately, I don't have the time right now. Jack is working a double shift at his job this cycle, and he starts in half a breem. So I have to go take him, sorry I'm cutting our conversation short." She said apologetically.
I shrugged without opening my optics. "Don't worry about it, we can just talk after you get back. I mean, it's not like I'm going anywhere." I said with a laugh.
Arcee joined me in my laughter for a moment before she sobered herself. "Talk to you later, Shadow'." She said as I heard her start walking away.
"I may or not talk back," I said dryly as I heard the door open.
Just before I heard the door close again, I heard Arcee howl with laughter, but it was cut off by the brig door closing.
I sighed with boredom after Arcee left. Since the cold-plasma barrier of my cell blocked all forms of communication, I couldn't comm-link anyone or get on the internet, I could already tell from the short amount of time I was in here that it was going to be a long three solar-cycles.
Several klicks after Arcee left, I started to feel really tired, which I found very strange since it was still in the morning and I had only been online for a few breems.
I had no time to wonder why I was tired before I fell into an unexpected recharge.
I can't lie, I thoroughly enjoyed having Springer get the living crap kicked out of him. There's just something satisfying about writing scenes where a sleazy jerk gets what's coming to him. But I hated writing the beginning of this chapter, I picture things very well, and that scene makes me sad. :/
This chapter's credit song is "Epic Score - Crossing The Line" I couldn't find a song that suited the ending, so I has to settle for one that fits with the fight scene between Shadowstreaker and Springer.
So, please be sure to leave a review and thanks for reading. I'll see you soon.