Bah... April must be mother nature's time of the month or something... The freaking bipolar weather is making my head hurt... But hey I did manage to finish chapter 16 with the help of the ever awesome Khalthar.
Many thanks to my aforementioned beta.
Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers
Word count: 2664
Chapter warnings: everybody's favorite prick and a F-bomb.
Chapter 16: From Simmering to Boiling
~x~-
~Bee~
~x~
Sam was grinning as he wolfed down the plate of eggs and hash browns in front of him. Bee could only begin to wonder what his charge was plotting against his cousin. He didn't have to wait long as Cassie stormed into the mess hall. Her irritation and anger was almost tangible as several of the soldiers quickly stepped out of her way as she made her way over to where he and Sam were sitting.
Bee was left blinking up at her in shock. Funny how a skirt and a pair of glasses can change how one looks... He thought as he shook his head. No need to stall his processor staring at her... She was clearly pissed enough from the catcalls the soldiers were giving her.
"If you think you've won you are gravely mistaken Sam." Cassie scowled at him as she sat down at the table.
"Bring it on cuz." He smirked.
"Oh I will." She growled before turning around and promptly leaving the mess hall.
Sam let out a breath of relief now that she was gone. "I thought for sure she was gonna beat the crap out of me."
"Don't you fleshies have a saying that Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned?" Sideswipe asked as he passed their table.
"Why are you even in here?" Sam spat as the holoform chuckled and vanished.
~x~
~Cassie~
~x~
I swear if I have to tape his ass naked to the walls of the barracks to get even with him I will. Cassie thought darkly.
"I think you look nice." Crescent said cheerfully.
"Oh come now it's not like da dress looks bad on ya."
"Jazz shut it while you're ahead. I do not wear skirts for a reason." she hissed before turning to shoot a death glare of pure death at a soldier who wolf whistled at her. "I swear I am putting my fist into the larynx of the next person to whistle at me."
"Hey you intern!" Cassie blinked at the voice and turned to find a slightly balding man in a suit come walking over to her. His expression was anything but happy as if the man had nothing better than to make everyone else's lives miserable for his own enjoyment.
I don't really look like an intern do I? Cassie put on a slight smile even despite her mood, which considerably as his eyes swept over her form.
"Welll... The glasses and the skirt certainly have a interny, bookwormish look to em..."
In other words yes. She clenched her fist as she politely asked, "Yes sir?"
"You're one of the techies right?" his eyes had stopped to stare at her legs.
Oh no he isn't... Cassie grit her teeth. Crescent...
"Got it." "Sure am sir. How may I be of assistance to you?" Crescent said pleasantly as she mentally shouldered Cassie aside to lie to him.
"How would you like your way to a solid job?" his hand met her shoulder.
Get him off of us.
"I'm sorry sir but I'm not into that kind of thing." If her tone was any colder the sleezewad would be coated in frost several feet thick... As it was Jazz shivered at the tone that Crescent had replied in.
The man blinked and removed his hand holding it in the air as he nervously chuckled. "Oh no, no nothing like that... I need you to take this and upload this in to the mainframe. Tell no one especially those damned machines about this little bug of mine and I'll do what I can for you Miss..."
"Artemis. Artemis Cooper." Crescent said curtly as she closed her hand around the flash drive he had held up. "I'll see what I can do for you Mr...?"
"Galloway."
"Nice talking with you Mr. Galloway. I've got to go finish gathering coffee for the others now so I've gotta get back on it. Have a good day Sir." she said as she shook his hand and made her way away from as fast as she could, releasing her grip on Cassie who breathed a sigh of relief.
"Ugh... I feel like I need to drown myself in the showers from where he touched me... Sam is definitely paying for this..."
"Wha' are ya gonna do with tha'?"
Give it to Optimus or Ratchet of course. Like hell I'd let a snake like that spy on the bots.. Cassie thought as she kept rubbing her arm. "I think I'm going to go get some disinfectant from the med bay for my arm." Cassie grumbled as Crescent relayed her reply for Jazz.
~x~
"Unless you're bleeding out get the frag out of my med bay!"
Wow someone's in a bad mood today. "Um... Hello? Ratchet?" Cassie called out as she tiptoed into the med bay.
"I'm my office Cassandra." Ratchet's distracted voice came from the back of the med bay. Cassie made her way over and through the open doorway to stare at the giant desk in the room.
"Damn that's a big desk." Cassie whistled as she walked over to stand by his pede. He leaned down to offer his servo.
"Is there a reason you're here?" Ratchet asked as soon as she was near to eye level.
"Ever hear of a slimeball called Galloway?"
The bot vented a sigh. "Unfortunately, Theodore Galloway is the human's liaison. I take it you came into contact with him?"
"Regrettably. However the perv was more distracted by my new wardrobe to notice that I didn't actually have a badge on me so he automatically assumed that I was one of the... 'Techies'?" Cassie frowned at the term before holding up the flashdrive.. "Anyways he wanted me to plant a program from this into the bases mainframe. I figured I'd give it to you."
"... Thank you." Ratchet said almost pleasantly as he formed his holoform on the desk in front of her to pluck the flashdrive from her. "I believe we are definitely in some good fortune that he was... distracted. Galloway isn't the most savory character on base. He is very driven to getting his servos on our weapons technology, and believes all of us to be mere drones."
"In other words, he's a complete and utter asshole. Should I keep my eyes open just in case he decides to try again?"
Ratchet hmmed as he glanced from the file and back to her. "Tell me you did not tell him your name."
"No. Crescent provided hers."
"Speaking of which, is she here at the current moment in time?"
Cassie grinned.
~x~
~Crescent~
~x~
"We could haunt him."
Jazz gave her an incredulous look. "Would tha' even work?"
Crescent shrugged. "Maybe... In the very least we could pull some white noise shit on him..."
"Ah wouldn't put it past 'im to blame it on da bots if we did..."
Crescent deflated. "I trust that bastard as far as Sam can throw him. He's a snake. One that needs to be introduced to the spade."
A sharp and painful tingling sensation ran over the both of them making them both curse and cringe.
"Wha' da frag was tha'?"
"Ow..."
"By the Allspark." A stunned Ratchet exclaimed as he stared at the space they occupied even though he was incapable of seeing them.
"Ratchet?"
"..." He blinked before glancing down at Cassie.
"Is everything okay?"
"You're not going to believe this." He said activating a hologram to display the readings and images from the scans.
"Holy-"
"-Shit..." Crescent finished as she stared at the image of her and Jazz... Well mainly Jazz's image..
"Tha's us!" Jazz sputtered.
"You actually caught them on image..." Cassie blinked at the larger form displayed next to her tiny sister. "So that's what Jazz looks like..." she stared at the visored mech.
~x~
The bots (As well as Sam, Will, and Epps) were staring in shock at the image. In fact Sam was so busy gaping at the image that he failed to notice that Cassie had slid under the table to tie his shoelaces together.
She slid back into her seat before clapping her hands together, startling quite a few individuals in the process. "Okay yay; Ratchet has accomplished something that most ghost hunters would give their two eye teeth to be able to do." But was there a reason for the impromptu huddle or can a gal go and hunt down a decent set of clothes and a nice long shower?"
"Ratchet informed us of your encounter with The Gallows." Lennox said as he crossed his arms... He was currently in the process of trying to ignore the weird feeling he had to be having courtesy of Crescent poking him in the shoulder.
"Interesting nickname. But I prefer Snake. Or better yet Vermin. Parasite might work too. I could seriously sue the that asshole for sexual harassment if I actually worked here."
"Well I was considering that, how would you like to 'play' along as his 'spy'? You know put him off the course so that we don't have to keep having to weeding out his little moles."
"Jarhead says what now?"
"Jarheads are the Marines." Will said sourly.
"Oh I'm sorry Grunt." Cassie smirked as he sighed.
"Cassandra, what William is saying that Galloway has been nothing but problematic in our human relations and interactions. This is not the first time that he has tried something like this, and while we are currently trying to appeal to your Joint Chiefs of Staffs for a new liaison, but until then we are situated with a less than exemplary specimen of mankind." Optimus said as she blinked up at the regal bot as his words sunk in.
"That was him putting it nicely." Jazz said from his position on the bossbot's shoulder.
"... So you guys want me to lie about working here? Won't he notice that I'm not here five days out of the week? Or if I don't show up on the weekend?"
"We are in the process of moving to a new base, your absence could easily be mistaken as being transferred back and forth between the two bases..." Will said matter of factly.
"And if for some reason he decides to do a background check?"
"Easily covered."
Cassie stared back and forth between the two leaders before sighing, "Tell me that I at least get compensated for having to deal with him ogling me."
~x~
Cassie sighed as she finally slipped into the shower that was in the bathroom adjacent to her room. Turning it on to scalding she sighed as it hit her back...
~x~
~Sam~
~x~
Sam grinned as he slinked away from Cassie's room as soon as the shower had turned on, the remainder of her clothing in his arms... Despite his bruised jaw, he grinned like a mad man and made a mad dash for the last hundred yards when the unholy screech erupted from his cousin's room. "SAM!"
Sam fumbled with the lock before finally running into his room... and tripping over the fine wire stretched across his door way. Something wet fell on his head before there was a snap and glitter exploded from a box sitting in the floor of the room coating everything... especially him. "CASSIE!"
~x~
~Lennox~
~x~
He had just finished creating Cassie's alias with Maggie and Glen when a pair of teens, one coated in sparkly purple glitter, the other was freaking red and wearing a bed sheet toga and spitting vibrant curses darted past him. He blinked for a second at the quickly disappearing twosome before jogging after them in their wake. When he finally caught up with them, Cassie had a battered Sam facedown underneath her, his arm bent back and painfully pinned under her legs and her arm around his neck.
"You bastard! DIE!"
"If I die I'm coming back to haunt you!"
"That is enough!" Major Lennox reached out to separate the two. He immediately regretted it when the sheet clad girl, reacted violently to his touch. In less time than it took to blink he'd blocked four punches, but failed against two others. Stars filled his vision from the possibly broken nose, and major shiner that he would soon be sporting. "STAND DOWN NOW!" He bellowed in pain as he shook his head to clear his vision.
Once he was able to see again, he noticed that it was taking Epps and three other Special Forces soldiers to restrain Cassie. Poor Sam looked like he'd just gone through a meat grinder for an hour or two.
"I swear it Sam! If you don't give me back my clothes, I'll make you wish you were dead! I won't kill you... but you WILL wish that I had!" Cassie hissed in rage as she continued to struggle against the four men holding her.
"What is going on here?" Will looked up as Optimus Prime arrived at the scene.
"Sam hid my contact lenses, stole all my pants, the rest of my clothes, put fucking dye in my shower and then he smeared superglue all over my towels! I had to use a pillowcase to dry myself off with!" Cassie yelled as she got even madder just thinking about it. "It's over Sam! Give my stuff back now, or I'll make what I did to that stupid jock look like I made hugged him!"
"LIAR! I haven't done anything with any super glue! That was your thing... not mine!" Sam growled through split and bloody lips. "Besides, that damned tripwire or yours nearly killed me!"
"What tripwire?" Cassie shot back. "I didn't set any tripwire."
The arguing immediately resumed with each calling the other a liar, and Cassie actively fighting against her captors. Just as she was about to break free, the sheet that she had wrapped around her body started to slide down. Apparently, she realized this an instant too late as her chest was exposed. Several hands slackened on her... If she wasn't already dyed red she would have been red. She wrenched one arm free and decked one of the soldiers (who unfortunately had a very ill placed hand) in the face, knocking him out cold, before grabbing desperately at the sheet to cover her body.
"Sam… if you don't give me back my clothes, I swear I'm going to put you in the hospital for months!" Cassie hissed as she trembled in renewed rage.
Being well versed in strategy helped when it came to situations like this, so Will reached out and grabbed the top of the sheet, right between Cassie's shoulders. "Don't try to go after him again, or the sheet will come off and you'll be seen wearing whatever you have on under it." Will warned her firmly.
Cassie glared defiantly at him. "I don't have anything under it! He stole everything! So unless you want a free show I wouldn't."
Sam only had to take one look at his cousin to know that he had pushed her way too far, but still. "Not until you apologize for the tripwire, glitter bomb and give me the pictures that you took of the result!"
"I'll admit that I tied your shoelaces together, but I had nothing to do with a glitter bomb, or tripwire; and I sure haven't taken any pictures! Although I should have done that when I prettied you up in makeup and painted your nails!" Cassie retorted hotly.
"Strange. Cassandra is being truthful, which means that someone has been provoking the two of you into escalating this." Optimus said mused..
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