Ethical Dilemma
Rampage had chosen his lair well. The dark hole of the cave's mouth was sheltered by an overhang preventing effective attacks from above, and the water lapped at the sand at the entrance while a sheer cliff face protected the landward side. A few steps out of the cave, and the crab could safely retreat into the ocean depths, and nobody could walk into that cave while he was inside. Well, not without a collection of fatal wounds, anyway. It was a good location, ideal for the Transmetal crab, and Depth Charge loathed it on sight. There was no way he could approach it without the crab seeing him first, and while normally he wouldn't care, in this situation, it was worse than bad. To prevent any hasty action on Rampage's part, he'd been forced to contact the Predacon to make sure his intentions were understood.
Hearing the crab gloat in person was bad enough, but being laughed at via radio was just humiliating. The reason for the laughter didn't make the raybot feel any better. Depth Charge hated negotiating, hated negotiating from a weak position even more, and there weren't words to describe how much he hated his current, negotiated position.
The gun made an unusually loud sound when it hit the sand. His remora scanner/launcher made a similar amount of noise when he dropped it, and he actually flinched at the sound when his tail-spear dug into the ground. Metallic and grating, an unnatural noise against the background of waves on the shore--he'd never known that was the sound of defeat.
No, not defeat. Submission.
"Alright, X." He spread his hands, surrendering as he stepped forward out of reach of the discarded weaponry. Something proud in him shuddered, already wounded by the terms demanded by the crab and now forced to watch control slip completely out of his grasp. "I'm here. Disarmed, like you wanted." His voice sneered, optics narrowed and blazing with hatred, but this was the moment of decision. Rampage could go back on their agreement, kill Cheetor and come out to fight him with the cat's life-fluids staining his hands, and there wasn't anything he'd be able to do about it. This was the best he'd been able to come up with to keep the other Maximal alive, with the same likelihood of failure and only an off-chance of success. "We had a deal," he growled when there was no response.
"O-ho, old friend. So anxious for your own demise?" Finally, there was movement in the dark mouth of the cave, red and purple and emerald green. "Your chest launcher," Rampage said sharply, staying in the shelter of stone. "It's disarmed?"
"Don't trust me, X? I gave my word." There was a rough chuckle, dark humor emerging and subsiding. "It's offline."
"What's offline can be brought back online," the Predacon drawled thoughtfully, his own humor just as dark but running deeper and more sinister. "No, Fins, I trust you to find a loophole to exploit. Your word to me is under constant doubt."
He took a step forward, surrender sliding into something more aggressive as that pricked at his cringing pride. His fists balled up, and he jerked a thumb at his chest. "I gave my word as a MAXIMAL," he snapped, stung. "If anyone's word is at doubt, it's yours, creep!"
"Careful," the shadowed 'bot cautioned mockingly, "or do you not want the kittycat back alive?" Light glinted off of something--yellow and blue and liquid with mechfluid--as Rampage shifted to drop it in front of his feet.
The weaker position in negotiations was the one that had to make concessions. Depth Charge backed off, hands opening again and his stance regressing from attack to surrender. Angry but helpless, he slowly lifted his right hand to the side of his beast mode's mouth, opening the hidden catch and exposing his circuitry. Turning slightly so his actions were obvious to the watching crab, he detached the feeder between grenade launcher and the storage area for the grenades themselves. Before he closed the panel, he gestured at the gap and asked, "Is that enough, or should I tear it out completely?"
"Sarcasm becomes you," Rampage chortled. "I believe that's enough…for now."
He refused to shiver at the promise in those words.
.
.
A ficlet based of this quote: "You can't commit rape if your victim's a willing participant." Depth Charge sacrifices himself. Primal would be appalled--and probably proud.