LATER THAT SOLAR CYCLE…
"Sounds kind of dangerous," Blueberry was telling Tomato over her com. link. "I mean…I've never even been in an Autobots-only club. Besides, I don't think Megatron likes me very much."
"It was all a misunderstanding," Tomato explained quickly. "I guess it was just shocking for him to find an Autobot at his ship…and he was mad that I was leaving without asking permission, anyway. By now he's calmed down a bit."
"Maybe he understands that it's not fair to unconventionally despise everyone from the other side," Blueberry added. "It could be just me, but I believe that before you decide if you like someone or not, you should get to know them first."
"You might be surprised." Tomato winked and smiled.
"Like I told you before, though, my father's an Elite Guard trooper, and he'd shoot your spark out if he knew I was hanging around with you," Blueberry said, shaking her head sadly.
"That's why the party has to be secret," Tomato insisted. "I know you don't have a Decepticon insignia branded onto you like I do, but if you come to our base the night of the party, you could take off your Autobot sticker for a moment, and we'd give you a temporary Decepticon sticker for the party. Decepticons are dark-colored, but you have a dark-blue paint job already, so that won't be a problem."
"Don't they card you, though?" Blueberry asked.
"You can just forge an ID," Tomato replied.
"Tomato, you are such a bad influence." Blueberry giggled. "Of course I'll come."
THE NIGHT OF THE PARTY…
Everyone was excited. They would get a whole night of femme hunting, flirting, wild dancing, dark and fizzy energon, freedom to shoot dangerous weapons, and (for Tomato) an opportunity to ask out a perfect femme.
Tomato felt very strange, really nervous but really excited at the same time. At the Autobot clubs, even though it was illegal to disarm the bar's patrons, testing out your weapons was not exactly smiled upon. On the other hand, Decepticons liked to shoot their weapons as they pleased, as long as they didn't destroy anything really valuable.
Right before the party, Tomato had been polishing off his finish, to look shiny and new for his date. Crazy Blitzwing kept on dancing all over the place. Everyone knew that was his favorite thing about clubs—he was the best Decepticon dancer, and probably the best dancer of both sides. Starscream went with him to clubs mostly to pick up femmes, which he was amazingly good at. Those two went to clubs all the time, so they got to pick the best one to have the party at.
All of the Decepticons waited for Blueberry to show up. Finally, she did. She looked different; she had on a special kind of optic lens to change her eye color from light blue to dark red, and she had on black lip stain. She had painted her normally silver servos black, and even though her feet typically looked like blue, knee-high, high-heeled boots (similar to the color of her body), they were now black too. The rest of her body was the same dark-blue as always. She was holding her fake Decepticon ID in one black servo, and she had taken her Autobot sticker off her chest.
"Wow," Tomato marveled, approaching her. "I don't think the bouncer is even going to bother carding you."
"Thank you." Blueberry giggled. "Actually, putting this look together was pretty fun."
"Now for the finishing touch," said Starscream, walking up to her and handing her a fake Decepticon sticker they had made. "Try it on for size."
Blueberry slapped the Decepticon sticker on her chest, and the look was complete. If Tomato and the other Decepticons hadn't known she was an Autobot, they would never have believed it.
"Well, let's get going," Blueberry purred, sounding sort of like Blackarachnia. "I came here to party!"
This is just yummy, Tomato was thinking, but then he realized he was staring at Blueberry, and everyone else was staring at him, so he shut his drooling mouth and left for the club.
…
Starscream and Blitzwing went to clubs in Iacon all the time, so they knew the right club to go to. They knew they were at the right place when they found a club called Maximum Fireblast.
"We score at this place all the time," Starscream told everyone, as they all turned back into robot mode. (Blueberry had been driving as a compact car, as usual, but nobody had noticed, seeing as she was a dark color and it was dark out.)
Megatron opened the door and they saw the inside of Maximum Fireblast. The building was vibrating with the loud metal music, and there was a disco ball and multicolored strobe lights. The club's patrons were dancing, flirting, drinking, firing their weapons…there was even a live band performing, the throbbing speakers almost reaching the ceiling.
"TIME TO DANCE!" screeched Blitzwing, running into the middle of the crowd to show off his moves—after all, he was one hell of a dancer.
"Blitzwing, same as always," the bouncer said, shaking his head. "And I see we have Megatron and Starscream here too…fine…Blackarachnia…looking especially fine…Lugnut…um, okay…who are these two?"
"My name is Tomato, and I'm a Decepticon warrior," Tomato told the bouncer, trying to sound as confident and threatening as he could.
"And I'm his girl, Blueberry," Blueberry added in her Blackarachnia voice, sauntering further into the room and standing next to Tomato. Tomato choked on his own breath after hearing her say that she was "his girl", but then he decided she was probably just trying to sound more alluring.
"Well, you two, could I please see some ID?" asked the bouncer.
"Sure, I've got mine." Tomato handed his to the bouncer, who nodded and handed it back.
"Oh, now, where did I put mine…?" Blueberry bent down on the ground, pretending to search for her ID. Then she snapped up quickly, and smiled. "Oh, here, I found it!"
"Um, thank you, ma'am," said the bouncer, looking kind of shocked, as Blueberry shot him a flirty smile and walked into the bar.
"Nice," Tomato whispered.
"It's all in the bend-and-snap," she whispered back, giggling.
They looked over at Starscream, who was standing with another femme they'd never met before. Starscream and the femme both had champagne glasses filled with dark energon in their servos, and they were flirting with each other.
Starscream leaned seductively on the counter of the bar and took a long swig of dark energon. "Ma'am, when I saw that shiny gold paint job, I thought I'd found a little treasure right here in the Maximum Fireblast."
"You are quite the charmer, Starscream!" the femme giggled. "I always thought Seekers were hot."
"Well, these wings aren't just for flying, sweetheart," Starscream said back, edging up by her a little suggestively.
"You know, Starscream, if I lived on the Nemesis, I would totally pick you as the leader!" the femme told Starscream happily.
"And I think I'd pick you as my second-in-command," Starscream replied, voice lower than usual.
"Oh, come here, you sexy beast!" the femme cried, throwing her drink aside, and she and Starscream proceeded to furiously make out.
Wow, Tomato thought. I guess Starscream wasn't kidding about femme hunting.
Meanwhile, Blitzwing was in the middle of a mosh pit, holding a half-empty cube of fizzy energon in one servo. (Tomato guessed it wasn't his first shot.) One of the dancers lifted him up to crowd-surf, and he screeched with delight as the heavy metal guitarist on the stage began a sweet guitar riff.
Megatron was, of course, one of the club patrons who were practicing weapon shooting. Nobody really cared, because there was never any real damage, and everyone liked to see the different kinds of weapons that the club-goers had and discover what they could do. Lugnut just did whatever Megatron did, so he was watching the shootings.
Blackarachnia was flirting with someone, just like Starscream. Just like always, she was just acting very flirtatious, touching him and whispering things to him under her breath, and the mech looked like he was in some kind of trance. Tomato saw Blueberry roll her optics at them.
Tomato looked around at all the club patrons. So many of them seemed to be either hitting on someone, being hit on, or already in a serious relationship. Tomato realized that he was none of these things. Blueberry was smiling, looking excited at everything that was going on. Tomato liked the club, too, but he couldn't forget the real reason he had come here.
Just then, he felt someone tap him on the back, and it was Starscream. Tomato turned around. "Yes?"
"Excuse us for a cycle, please," Starscream told Blueberry nicely, then pulled Tomato aside and whispered, "Do you still want me to be your wingman?"
"Of course," Tomato told him emphatically, remembering how easily Starscream had gotten that femme to make out with him.
"Well, then, all you need to do is ask her to dance with you," Starscream replied, pointing over at the dancers.
"I-I don't think…I mean, that would—that would be too embarrassing," said Tomato.
"No it wouldn't," Starscream insisted. "Half the club-goers who are hooking up don't even know each others' names. They probably have very liberal amounts of dark energon in their tubes by now, yes, but…"
"I can't even drink dark energon without throwing up," Tomato said sadly. "And maybe Blueberry likes me as a friend, but come on…she's so pretty and smart and confident that she would never want a mech like me. For all I know, she already is going out with some Autobot mech she just has never told me about."
"Maybe she DOESN'T," Starscream said back. "Just ask her to dance with you, and—"
"Of course," Tomato muttered, as a slow song came on.
"Now's your chance," Starscream whispered, and shoved Tomato in Blueberry's direction. "Go!"
Starscream was looking for a femme to dance with, and, as usual, he didn't seem to have much trouble. After a short period of time, he managed to locate the femme he had been making out with earlier and held out one servo to her with his most alluring grin on his face. She giggled and quickly accepted his offer.
Tomato's spark was beating faster than ever, but then he looked over at Blueberry, and he knew this would be one of the most important things he would ever do—and that he wasn't a coward. He would show her how he felt if it was the last thing he did.
After taking a deep breath, Tomato tapped Blueberry on the shoulder, and when she turned around, he held his servo out to her shyly and asked, "Would you—would you like to dance?"
"Why, yes," she said, looking a little surprised but happy all the same. "Thank you, Tomato."
Blueberry looked into Tomato's optics and gave him a sweet smile. The song was so beautiful, and, for whatever reason, that Decepticon getup of hers was really turning him on.
Before he knew it, he had taken her into his arms. He didn't know where to put his servos or whether or not to look at her or even which dance he should do, but he was relieved when she gently reached for his servo. Her optics were closed.
Tomato grasped her servo and wrapped the other one around her waist. She put her other servo on his shoulder and leaned her head on his chest. Before he lost his courage, he gave her a quick kiss on her forehead. She smiled, and he knew she was enjoying the dance, just like he was.
"Blueberry?" he whispered.
"Yes?" she whispered back. Her voice was barely audible.
"You are my everything," he whispered, lost in the beautiful song's magic. "I love being around you more than anyone I've ever known."
"What are you trying to say, Tomato?" Blueberry asked, opening her shining optics and looking up at him. There was a comforting smile on her lips and Tomato felt himself losing balance, giving himself to the beauty of this moment.
"I'm trying to say that…" For some reason it wasn't hard this time. "I love you, Blueberry."
For a moment he cringed, wondering if he would get shot down—but instead her smile grew wider, her optics lit up, and she told him, "Well, as a scientist like me would say, I think we have great chemistry too."
TO BE CONTINUED…