"So," Branchbinder said, once they were out in the hallway again. "I'll talk to some of the team leaders, and see who needs more mecha. In the meantime, wait in the lounge. Make friends, have some high grade. Don't get too crazy, though. Don't start any fights or anything. Initiates got to keep their helms down for a bit, understand?"
They nodded.
"You'll want to take turns going to see Lilac, though. She'll give you one of these." He turned his arm so they could see the word Quantum spelled out in stylized glyphs on the edge of his shoulder plate. "You can get it anywhere you want, within reason. Her office is on this corridor, five doors to the left of the lounge on the opposite side of the hallway. It'll be open. Go in one or two at a time, but all of you have got to go before the off-cycle is over."
"I'll go first," Stones said.
"Come on then," Branchbinder replied. "I'll show you where. Have to warn her about you five and ask her something else anyway."
They got to the door of the loud room they'd come through. Someone had painted 'lounge' on the doors in sprawling, loopy glyphs.
Branchbinder continued down the corridor with an excited Stonethrow on his heels, and the other four joined the music and noise.
The four of them found an empty table and claimed it, then sat in silence for a few astroseconds before Sideswipe spoke.
"Stones is going to get us all killed one of these orns."
"One of them," Blackangle agreed. "Right now, I'm pretty happy about this. Quantum. My creators are always talking about hunting them down, but no one ever can. They really are the best of the best. I can't believe they wanted Stones, though."
"I can't believe they wanted any of us," Jazz said. "I mean, we all just barely got our adult frames. We're just barely out of secondary school."
"Mech, if they want anyone, it's you," Sideswipe said. "And if you don't know why, you're more of an idiot than Stones is."
Jazz frowned. He didn't want to believe that but at the same time... he could definitely be useful to an organization like this.
They stopped talking after that, and Jazz studied the room. The music was too loud to really allow for much talking that wasn't shouting, but Jazz didn't mind that. He liked the deep throbbing of the sound, the power of it.
Eventually, Stones came back into the room. Jazz waved him over to their table and he scurried over.
"Look!" He turned around to show them that he had Quantum written across his back all the way from shoulder to shoulder. It shifted as he moved.
"Wow," Blackangle said. "Going for a subtle effect, aren't you?"
"Should have put it on your aft," Sideswipe said with a grin.
"Why?" Stones giggled. "That where you're going to put it?"
Sideswipe shoved him. "Go bother someone else."
"One of you has to go next," Stones told them, before wandering off.
Blackangle looked at the twins.
"What?" Sunny asked.
"You two going next?" Blackie said. "Or me?"
"We'll go," Sideswipe said. "Come on, Sunny."
The twins got up and left the room. Blackangle watched Stonethrow for a breem or so, then pushed away from the table and got up.
"I think I'll go see where they hand out the high-grade," he said, and walked away, leaving Jazz alone at the table.
-Half a Vorn ago-
"Shhh," Sideswipe hissed. Stonethrow bounced up and down excitedly while Jazz casually looked through the window of the store. He couldn't shake the eerie feeling that he was being watched, but he figured he was just being paranoid.
School was starting back up in less than a decaorn, and they'd decided to do something exciting before it did, in a sort of celebration of the break.
"Ok," Blackangle said. "Jazz, run us through the plan again."
Jazz nodded once and spoke quietly. "Sides and Sunny go up ta the cashier and distract him."
It was a small store, and the mech behind the counter had access to all the cameras. "I'll get in without anymech seeing, and fry his cameras. Soon as I've done that, I'll signal ta Blackangle out here, and he'll send Stonethrow in."
Blackangle nodded. "Got it?"
"Yep," Sideswipe said.
"So ready," Stonethrow hissed, optics alight.
"Go," Blackangle said.
The twins went for the door of the shop. Blackangle had the easiest part. He just had to keep looking through the window and pass Jazz's signal along to Stonethrow. Jazz had been worried when suggesting the plan, that Blackangle would want a more significant role, but he hadn't seemed to mind.
Jazz watched until Sideswipe had started up a conversation with the bored looking mech behind the desk, and then walked in the doors. He knew the cameras could see him, but he didn't mind, for now. He knew where every single camera in the store was. Once inside, and hidden among the shelves, he ducked down and weaved a path over to the front counter that avoided every little mechanical eye. It involved being in the cashier's line of sight several times, but that was what the twins were for, and Sideswipe was at his best, arguing about the price of something.
Then Jazz was behind the desk, right at the pedes of the mech Sideswipe was talking to. He got out a data stick and plugged it into the monitor machine, then opened the virus on it and let it run. It was designed to make it look like the computers had crashed on their own. All of the video files from now until the mech noticed it would end up corrupted and unwatchable, and all the alarms would be offline.
Jazz looked up at the window and nodded to Blackangle, whose optics he could barely see through the transparent material. An astrosecond later, he heard Stonethrow come in. He back-tracked carefully and crept behind the nearest shelf, then stood up. Now they were safe to take what they wanted with no mech the wiser.
It was stealing, Jazz supposed. But none of them really had any credit, and it wasn't like they were hurting anyone.
Jazz came around to the front desk and stood just behind the twins.
"Hey," the mech behind the desk said. "Move it, you're holding up the line. If you aren't going to buy anything, then get out."
The twins left, and Jazz stepped forward. He reached into a jar on the desk and pulled out a small handful of energon treats—little multicolor cubes in different flavors.
"That all?" the mech asked.
"Yeah," Jazz shrugged. "I was lookin' for something, but ya don't have it."
"What?"
Jazz named some obscure brand of paint, and the mech shook his helm. "Sorry, mechling. Out of stock. Come back in a few orns."
"Ok," Jazz paid for the energon treats, and subspaced them before leaving.
All of the items in the store had little tags on them that made them un-subspaceable while the tag was activated, and alerted the front desk when they left the building. But the alarms were turned off, and the mech at the desk had been distracted. When Jazz got outside, he met up with the others,
"Success!" Stonethrow said, holding up an armful of cans of spraypaint.
"Good, now let's get out of here," Blackangle said, still staring through the shop window. "Put those back in the bag, I think that mech behind the desk has noticed that the cameras are out."
Stonethrow stuffed the paint back in the black bag he was carrying, and they all headed for the street.
They were just about to go around the corner when a mech stepped out from behind it. They froze, staring at him. He was tall and graceful, and his dark colors—black and brown—made him hard to see in the darkness of the off-cycle.
He smiled and crossed his arms. "Hey, mechs," he said quietly, and pinned them with a knowing look.
There was a moment of tense, awkward silence.
"Hi," Blackangle said, managing to sound confident and kind of annoyed. "Um, we've got somewhere to be, so..."
The other mech's smile deepened. His optics were white at the edges and purple in the center, which was a little creepy. "No worrries. I'll get right out of your way."
He took a step back, and Blackangle pushed past him. Jazz followed. When he glanced back, he couldn't help but feel that the mech's optics were trained on him specifically.
"I saw that little stunt you pulled," the mech called after them. "Think I should report it to the authorities? I got a good enough look at all of you to identify you to them."
Blackangle huffed and turned around. "What exactly is it that you want?"
"Just a word or two," the mech said, approaching them again. "My designation's Branchbinder, by the way."
"Forgive us if we don't tell you ours," Blackangle said.
Branchbinder raised an optic ridge. "Forgiven," he said, and continued to study them.
"So," Jazz said quietly. "What did ya want ta say ta us?"
His smile deepened into something a little more genuine. "I was impressed," he said. "You pulled that whole thing off flawlessly. I mean, you got lucky, but still, it was impressive. I just thought I'd give you my comm. code. If any of you ever need a job after school's over, contact me, and I might be able to work something out for you." He tossed a little data chip at Blackangle, who caught it. Then he glanced at Jazz again. "Wouldn't want good talent to go to waste. See you around, mechlings." He turned and walked away.
Blackangle looked down at the data chip in his hand.
"That was… weird," Sideswipe said.
"Yeah," Blackangle agreed.
That feeling of being watched... Jazz shouldn't have ignored it. Someone had been watching.
"Well, he's probably glitched in the processor or something," Blackangle said, and subspaced the chip. "Let's get out of here."
They had found a good place earlier, but it was a bit of a walk.
"I wish we could subspace this stuff," Sideswipe poked the bag Stonethrow was carrying as they went. "We wouldn't look so suspicious that way."
"And that Branchbinder mech was kinda creepy," Jazz said. "Maybe we should just… I don't know, go home?"
"Aw, come on," Sideswipe said.
"s'the matter, Jazz?" Blackangle asked with a smirk. "Getting jumpy?"
"I ain't scared," Jazz said. "Just careful."
They got to their destination eventually. It was a long, blank wall on the side of a warehouse. Stonethrow dumped out the bag of spray paint on the ground and it made a loud jangling sound that seemed to echo in the silence.
Now that the excitement of stealing the paint was over Jazz wouldn't mind going home, but he grabbed a can anyway, and walked over to the corner of the building. He sat down and started playing around with the paint. He had originally thought of writing his name, but that wasn't particularly creative. He ended up just making a pattern of waves and lines, in electric blue that reminded him vaguely of music from one of his favorite bands.
At least, he did that until Sunstreaker came over and asked if he could borrow that color. Jazz relinquished it and backed away from the wall, looking over to see what everyone else was doing. Blackangle was painting his name in large, stylized, black and orange glyphs. Sideswipe was stubbornly trying to run his can out of paint by making a large red circle on his part of the wall and Stonethrow… you couldn't really tell what he was trying to do.
Sunstreaker, on the other hand, was painting a burning cityscape. Jazz watched, fascinated as he filled in tall buildings with sure, sweeping motions, and sent spheres of blue and white fire down on them. After a few breems, he paused and stepped back, then went over to Sideswipe. "Can I borrow that?" he asked.
"No," Sideswipe said.
"What the slag are you painting?"
"What does it look like I'm painting?" Sideswipe asked.
"Your aft," Sunstreaker said.
"It's a circle!"
"No it's not, it's too flat on the top. You're going to run out of that paint and I need it."
Sideswipe snorted and looked over at what Sunstreaker was painting. "Oh, Primus. You're supposed to do your name or something, not paint a fragging mural all over everywhere,"
"Give me the red."
"Stop hogging all the paint."
Sunstreaker made a grab for the red paint, but Sideswipe held it out of his reach.
Blackangle whistled. "Sunny, that's epic."
Sunstreaker glanced back at his mural, and Stonethrow jumped forward to snatch the can of paint out of Sideswipe's hands. "Catch, Sunstreaker!" he shrieked and tossed it into the air.
"Hey!" Sideswipe said as Sunstreaker caught the can of paint.
Sideswipe sighed and went back to the small pile of paints to pick a new color. He ended up with bright green, which he took over to finish filling in his giant circle with. It clashed horribly, but Sideswipe didn't seem to mind. Then he borrowed Blackangle's colors and gave his giant red and green circle black and orange optics and fangs. Jazz had to admit it was kind of creepy.
Blackangle and Sideswipe both finished, but Sunstreaker was still going, filling in more and more buildings and setting them aflame with orange and white and sky blue
Then Stonethrow must have gotten bored with making squiggles all over the wall with the colors that no one else wanted. He stopped and looked at his work. Jazz scanned the whole thing, from Sunstreaker's masterpiece to his own doodle in the corner. He wondered what a psychologist would make of this mess, especially Stonethrow's random loops and squiggles.
Stonethrow suddenly turned around, with a demonic light in his optics. "Paint war!" he declared and charged at Blackangle, spraying lurid pink paint at him.
"Hey!" Blackangle dodged out of the way. "Cut that out, Stones."
Stonethrow giggled and went after Sideswipe next.
Sideswipe waited until the last moment, then dodged out of the way, and sprayed Stonethrow in the side of the helm with bright orange.
"Ack!" Stonethrow stumbled to a stop and rubbed at his faceplate. "What the slag!"
"Well, you attacked me first," Sideswipe said. "I'm justified."
"Oh yeah?"
"Better believe it."
With a shout, Stonethrow charged at Sideswipe again, who dodged the paint, and bumped into Sunstreaker.
"Watch it!" Sunstreaker shouted. "You almost made me mess up."
"Sorry," Sideswipe grinned at him. Stonethrow snuck around and took aim.
"Stones, no!" Sideswipe shouted, but it was too late. A cloud of bright pink paint puffed against Sunstreaker's arm.
They all froze.
"Oops," Stonethrow said, though he had obviously done it on purpose.
Sunstreaker looked down, then dropped the can of paint he was holding. Stonethrow shrieked and turned to run away, but he was too slow and before Jazz even had time to react, The yellow fledgling was kneeling on Stonethrow. Jazz rushed over to them as Sunstreaker brought his fist down. Stonethrow screamed and Sunstreaker punched him again. Sideswipe and Jazz reached them at the same time, and pulled Sunstreaker off of the other fledgling. Sunstreaker struggled, spitting cursewords at the cowering figure on the ground. Blackangle walked past them and knelt by Stones, who was curled up, whimpering. His helm was dented and his olfactory sensor was cracked and leaking energon.
Blackangle scowled at Sunstreaker. "Calm down would you? it's just a little paint."
Sunstreaker's engine growled, but he stopped struggling.
Sideswipe and Jazz let go of him, and he stepped forward. They all tensed, but he just walked past Stonethrow and Blackangle and off into the darkness by himself.
Blackangle made to go after him, but Sideswipe stepped forward.
"Wait," he said. "Let him go. Just let him go."
Blackangle sighed. "Well, that was fun. Come on, get up, Stones."
Stonethrow wailed pitifully as Blackangle dragged him to his pedes. Sideswipe and Jazz picked up all the cans of paint and put them back into the bag.
"Stones," Blackangle said. "You slagging idiot. You knew that would happen."
"I'm sorry," Stonethrow whined. "He shouldn't have hit me so hard it was just a little paint." He pushed away from Blackangle, and then stumbled and fell to his knees again.
"I'll take him home," Blackangle said. "See you mechs next orn maybe."
"Ok," Sideswipe said. "Sorry about Sunny… but you really should have known better, Stonethrow. He gets really upset, you know that."
Blackangle and Stonethrow left, and Sideswipe sighed and leaned against the wall, staring off in the direction Sunstreaker had gone.
"Ya wanna catch up with him?" Jazz asked.
Sideswipe shook his helm. "He didn't leave because he wanted company. He'll be ok, he's just going home. By then he should have cooled off."
"Slag… what would have happened if we didn't pull him off of Stones?"
Sideswipe shrugged. "I hope we never have to find out… I don't know." He looked suddenly sad. "I actually don't know if I'd put it past Sunny to kill somemech, you know… Not in cold energon, but if he got angry enough."
It was kind of like Motormaster all over again. Although… no. Jazz glanced back at the half-finished mural on the wall. Motormaster had been big, dumb, and dangerous. Sunstreaker was big, smart, and dangerous. Also, Motormaster had enjoyed hurting other mecha. Jazz didn't think that Sunstreaker did. So in some ways it wasn't as bad. But it still reminded him of that. He wondered if maybe he had chosen the wrong friends again.
Who was he kidding, of course he had chosen the wrong friends. He had known that the moment he'd agreed to sit down at Blackangle's table that first time. But they were his friends and he wasn't going to let them down by ditching them.
He didn't see much of them for the next few orns, especially Sunstreaker. But the next time he passed by the wall they'd painted on, the mural was finished.
-The Present-
Jazz was still sitting by himself in the lounge when there was a sudden lull in the chatter. He looked up, glanced around, and saw that mech, Hegemony, making his way through the room. Jazz tried not to look like he was paying attention as the blue and black mech got closer to him.
Then, Hegemony sat down across from him.
"Jazz, was it?" he asked.
Jazz nodded.
Hegemony leaned forward across the table. The mecha nearby picked up their conversations again but Jazz could feel optics on him. A lot of optics.
"I heard a little about you," Hegemony said. "Branch says you're a pretty observant mech."
"Like ta think so," Jazz said.
"There's a camera in this room," Hegemony said, voice suddenly cold. "Where?"
Jazz took a deep vent and let it out slowly. He could do this. He looked around the room again, in the corners and on the walls and ceiling. He hadn't noticed any cameras specifically, but he hadn't been looking. The room was kind of an odd shape, and there were pillars and tables and things that would make it difficult to place a camera so you could see the whole thing. Jazz imagined he was a camera and slid himself across the walls and into the shadowed corners, calculating angles and trying to see everything. There was no place for a camera where you could see the whole room. However, there were two very good places, and if you put a camera in each, there would only be a couple of blind spots.
"You've got two breems," Hegemony said.
"It's in one of two places," Jazz said. "That corner over there above the bar, and about halfway along the wall over there, above the front door."
Now that he was thinking about it, he could see the camera above the door, just a black speck on the wall. He looked back at Hegemony and could tell that the mech was a little surprised.
Jazz let himself smile a little. "There are two cameras, aren't there? In both'a those places."
Hegemony didn't confirm, but Jazz could tell he was right.
"So," the big mech said instead. "Jazz. Why are you really here? What is it you want?"
Jazz wasn't sure what to say. He had the feeling that bad things would happen to him if he didn't choose his words carefully.
The truth was he really wasn't sure. He had no idea what he wanted.
"You have one breem, mechling. I don't need an essay."
A challenge. Jazz needed a challenge—he needed to do all of those things that other mecha couldn't. He couldn't just go and live an ordinary life somewhere. In Quantum, he could push himself, find his limits.
But he wasn't sure that was the right thing to say to this mech.
"I'm here, cuz that's where my friends are," Jazz said instead. "And I stick with my friends."
Hegemony studied him, and Jazz didn't dare meet the mech's optics. Eventually the mech nodded solemnly. "Very well."
He got up and left after that, looking almost unsettled. Jazz forgot to pretend he wasn't staring as he watched Hegemony walk out the door and then kept watching after he was gone.
