Chapter Six
"Slag it all," Crystal grumbled under her vocal modulator as she lugged out the proper cleansing supplies. She couldn't believe how a day that had started out so wonderfully could go rotten so fast. And to top it all off, she had just had cleaning duty last week! Of course, she didn't buy Alita's flimsy excuses for a moment. She saw right through her commander's efforts to jerk her around. There had never been any real liking between the two femmes, but Crystal had done her best to keep to herself. Now her relationship with the Autobot leader had raised Alita's ire, but that didn't mean that Crystal had to stand around and take it. She'd play along for now, since Alita was just mad enough to slap her with insubordination if she disobeyed, but she'd find a way to get out of her sphere of influence very soon. Then, very soon indeed, she could get going with a little revenge plan of her own. Still, many said that living well was its own revenge, and she herself had Optimus, didn't she? She'd see to it that that pink nightmare never got her boy-toy back!
Crystal jerked the cleansing unit back and forth, venting her frustration. The silicon tendrils of the unit spun around in circles, capturing whatever dirt and particulate lay on the floor. This was the easiest, part, though. Crystal was *not* looking forward to cleaning the individual waste extraction units. That was where the job got messy.
Crystal studied the mop-like device in her hands as the motor spun the cleaning tendrils around. Its handle hummed busily, and the femme allowed her mind to wander back to the morning's pleasant activities. "I wonder if Optimus is free tonight," she mused.
Her thoughts were jolted back to reality as the mop jerked in her hand, threatening to spin right out of her hand and splash cleansing fluid everywhere. Crystal hastily grasped it in both hands, getting the mechanism under control. She glanced down at the blue cylindrical handle in her hands, noticing a few dials and switches on the side. "Wait a second," she murmured. "This is an automatic mop!" She cackled aloud. This wouldn't be so bad after all! She hummed to herself as she programmed the mop, then leaned back against the wall, her mind wandering back to the previous night. Alita could assign her to the waste extraction unit for the entire week, for all she cared. She still had Optimus, didn't she?