Into The Smelter
We should've known. Ah, damn, we should've known. Random stranger offering a hand just when you need it... that stuff only happens in bad holovids. Not in the world we grew up in. For the life of me, I can't remember what possessed us to trust that guy and follow him in. But it would be the last time either of us trusted anybody else for a long, long time.
- - - - -
Sideswipe woke in a haze, not sure where he was. He and his brother had woken up in some odd places, but he didn't recognize this one. The floor he was lying on was dusty and discolored with what looked like old oil stains. A dim greenish light shone from panels in the ceiling. There was a discordant hum of bad wiring nearby. Something told him they were underground--
He sat up, panic displacing the fog in his processor, and looked around wildly. The room was scarcely bigger than a Solitary cell in the foundry (and he was well acquainted with the dimensions of those). The only door was shut tight and bore long score marks, as if claws had been dragged along it. There was no objects in the room save for Sideswipe and his twin, who was still unconscious. And--
He felt something around his neck, raised his hands, and was swept by a wave of disbelief. It was a collar. Heavy, warm, and giving off a faint electronic hum...
"Spin, wake up! Don't freak out, but... I think we're in trouble."
His brother jerked awake with a yell, almost punching him. Sideswipe fell back and Spin-Out sat up, optics flickering. He had a couple of fresh paint scrapes and a nasty new dent on his helm. He also wore a collar identical to Sideswipe's. He looked around, then clenched his fists.
"How long were we out, Sides?"
"I don't know. Do you remember what happened?"
"I... yeah." Spin-Out rubbed his head fiercely in an attempt to dredge up the memory. "Someone grabbed us... I woke up, but you didn't. We were being carried, and I heard voices. Tried to fight, but I could barely move, then one of the slaggers bashed me on the head. I don't remember after that."
The last thing Sideswipe recalled was drinking from a cube the strange mech handed to him -- a full cube! -- and suddenly feeling very tired. So tired, he was afraid he wasn't going to finish his energon...
The energon. "He drugged us," Sideswipe realized. "Remember in the foundry when they put stuff in our fuel to make us all sleepy?"
His brother was quiet for a long time. "Slag," he finally said.
So it was a trap, they were thinking. Disappointment there, some regret, anger even... but no surprise. No, not the least bit of surprise.
Giving up a brief and futile struggle with his own collar, Spin-Out reached for his brother. They embraced as they had countless times in the past, when they were overwhelmed, upset, worried, or just needed reassurance that they weren't alone. No words, just holding. Spark-to-Spark, the quiet steady synchronized pulse speaking for them: We. Us. Here. Alive. Okay.
Spin-Out's head rested on his twin's shoulder as his hands traced patterns over Sideswipe's back armor, patterns that were soothing to them both. What could have been hours passed. Finally Spin stopped and raised his head.
"Someone's coming."
They both listened to the heavy footsteps approaching. When the door opened, the twins stood to confront it, but linked their fingers in a continued reminder of togetherness.
A bulky figure entered. He was taller than they, but not quite as massive as the towering mech who had offered them energon. He had a truck grill for a chest and a broad face. His optics flicked over the pair, assessing them quickly, and an odd chill crept through their shared Spark. This was not a mech whose mercy they trusted. Two more ugly lugs walked behind, flanking them, but they stopped outside the doorway of the little cell. The foremost mech wasted no time in speaking.
"Hammerfall wasn't lying. You both look strong. That's good, because you're going to need that strength. Now pay attention. My name is Clench, and from now on you will be working for me."
"Doing what?" Sideswipe asked.
Clench's expression didn't change. He flicked a switch on a small device attached to his wrist... and the twins collapsed screaming to the floor as their sensor nets were overloaded. Electricity arced over their surface panels and crackled inside their open mouths as they convulsed uncontrollably. Clench watched calmly for a few seconds before switching off the signal. The convulsions stopped, though the twins' bodies continued to shudder and twitch.
"Those collars are a thing of beauty," he said proudly. "They're tuned to the frequency of your neural nets. With this little baby here, I can shut off your sensor input, block motor impulses and leave you paralyzed, or just shock you silly. I hope that discourages further interruptions.
"As I was saying, you will now work for me. What kind of work, you'll find out soon enough. Suffice to say it will make full use of your skills. If you resist, you'll be punished. I know hundreds of ways to hurt a mech, so don't think I can't break you. I've never met a 'bot I couldn't train. You two will not be the ones to ruin that record. Are we clear?"
Spin-Out regained the use of his vocalizer first. He immediately uttered the foulest word either of them could think of.
Another shock coursed through them, shorter than the one before -- almost a warning zap. Sideswipe groaned and kicked in his brother's direction. "Don't do that again!"
Spin-Out picked himself up, slowly. He glared at the mech in the doorway. "You're pretty brave when you can knock us down without even touching us. But you can't make us work. If you're going to kill us, get it over with!" He clenched his fists -- an unnarmed Gamma with fresh injuries, daring the world to try him. Youth and pride and stupidity and righteous anger all rolled into one. His brother groaned again, but scrambled up to join him, because he couldn't let Spin-Out get slagged alone. "Now you've really done it," he sent silently to his twin.
Then Clench smiled. It did nothing to make his face more pleasant -- if anything, it was one of the scariest sights they'd ever seen. Removing the signaling device from his wrist, he tossed it over his shoulder, not even watching where it hit. Then he spread his arms in a gesture of invitation.
"Of course. A weak trainer only holds the leash as long as he holds the stick. I've put down the stick... Now, see if you can get past me." They made no move, and he sneered. "Pair of brave faces, the both of you. All mouth and no bearings. I'm disappointed. I thought surely as soon as my hands were empty you'd--"
They lunged. It wasn't the taunts that drove them, just the fact that he was standing in the door and their only other option was to lie down and submit... which was unthinkable. At least they had an opportunity to fight. They gave it everything they had, fists and feet flying, working in unison and pitching into Clench with the fury of a pack of mechs.
And he knocked them back down as if they were made of tin.
They tried, and tried again. But each time they came at him, he was ready. A punch would fly at just the right instant. A steely hand would close around their arm or leg and, with no apparent effort, fling them aside. The battering soon took its toll. Sideswipe's helm cracked and began leaking energon from where he'd struck it too hard against a wall. Spin-Out's leg was bleeding again. Each time the twins hit the floor, it took them a little longer to pick themselves back up. Finally they couldn't, and lay exhausted at Clench's feet, willing their bodies to keep fighting to no avail.
But it wasn't over. Now Clench advanced on them, and proceeded to beat the weary, weakened, frightened pair of Gammas within an inch of their lives. Clangs of metal on metal rang off the walls of the small room in a sick cacophany. Spin-Out whimpered twice, a pitiful sound like nothing his brother had ever heard him make before. Sideswipe himself cried out repeatedly through the numbing shock that was beginning to settle over his processor. Natural defenses were kicking in, all too slowly. One by one his systems shut down.
When the last blow fell, he was barely conscious enough to realize it. Dimly, though, he heard Clench's voice, speaking as calmly as before.
"That concludes our first lesson."
- - - - -
(The Author will now curl up in a corner and cry.)
By the by, blood shifter gets a cookie (you were right the first time, hun). So does Anhai, who was sort of right both times. And Dragon of Dispair ("recruitment" was one way to put it). OblivionDragon gets half a cookie. Nice work, guys.
Yes, Spin-Out was Sunstreaker's original American name, which was changed before his toy release. I made it his original name here since it matches his brother's better. You'll all see where Sunstreaker comes from later. (Free to make guesses on that as well, I'd love to see if any of you figure it out.)
Robin Moto: Oh, you're psychic. Unfortunately. Hope is a terrible thing.
akisawana: I know, their choices suck. But they ain't gonna stop trying. Nope.
Okami-chan: Interesting questions. Okay, in this storyline (which I admittedly pieced together from several different sources, so bear with me), the Quintesson occupation was a long, long time ago. Quints didn't create Transformers, though they claimed to have at one time, as a way of controlling the race they'd enslaved. In truth, the foundries were in place and operating before the Quints ever showed up, but no one alive remembers that. As far as anyone can tell, Cybertron itself gave birth to Cybertronians. Some, however, still believe the Quintesson propaganda.
Okay, the way the foundries work is still sort of mysterious. They produce Transformers, but the Transformers themselves are not fully aware of every aspect of the process. They can monitor and study it, but they don't have much control over what comes out, just the materials and designs they put in. Vector Sigma is the machine at the heart of Cybertron connected to all the foundries, and it is what sends them directions. It dictates each mech's individual variations, so that no two mechs, even of the same model, are ever exactly alike.
Sigma also installs the Spark when the body is ready to come online. This process is the most mysterious part of the whole darn thing, so don't be surprised if it still throws the Transformers themselves a curve. Most agree that Sparks all come from one Source, which some say to be Primus, others a different dimension, still others believe it's simply a physical entity in the core of Cybertron like Sigma itself. A bit of Spark splits off from this one Source and travels through Sigma's circuitry to the foundry where it is installed in the body. That means that each Spark is still slightly connected to all other Sparks (this has been proven in tests, and is the main evidence for the Source theory). However, sometimes the process hits snags. A body doesn't come fully online and the Spark returns with its mission unfulfilled... or, in the case of twins, one complete Spark already destined for a body suddenly "splits" and enters two bodies instead. They are nearly always bodies of the same model, usually side-by-side in the foundry or at least close to each other. These bodies have individual appearances and personalities like everyone else (the personality Core is separate from the Spark, though connected), but the split halves of Spark share a bond that is much closer than the one which normally connects all Cybertronians. So close, that if one twin dies the other almost inevitably follows. Half a Spark dims without the other, pulled after it into the void, back to the Source. And this is more than most Cybertronians even know. Yes, their world is still full of mysteries. Twins are one of the biggest.
I hope that gives some answers, in addition to raising more interesting questions. Love you all for reviewing. I'll keep churning out chapters as fast as I can.