The vidcom was always on now, and broke with a frustrating regularity. Wind Rider fixed it, Illusionna even got the video to work for a few seconds. It flickered, but as soon as Wind Rider began cheering, the picture faded. "The old thing still has juice in it," Illusionna announced proudly, despite the darkened screen.
A clunk sounded in the direction of the workshop. "When was the last time he came out of there?" Wind Rider asked, her face plate twisted in consternation.
"I don't know," Illusionna replied, still bent over the vidcom. "He feels he's close, I guess."
"He's felt he's close for ages now," she retorted. "He's not going to get one of those things to work."
Illusionna's chronometer indicated it was time for her recharge. Wind Rider was set on a different schedule that she, being that they were unequally efficient, but that didn't keep her from asking, "Do you want to energize with me?"
"I do," Wind Rider replied immediately. "It stinks that were rationed."
Illusionna could not recall a time when energon wasn't rationed, in fact, the only time she could remember being fully charged was when she came online. She could no longer recall the feeling of being fully charged, but she distinctly recalled her internal systems flashing at her, 'Energy level: 100%'. She opened the closet in the hallway and stopped. It was empty.
"Where's the energon?" Wind Rider demanded.
Illusionna just stared at the empty space in the closet.
"Where's the energon?" Wind Rider asked the closet again.
"I have to recharge," Illusionna muttered, her voice quiet.
Wind Rider floated down the hallway and back through the receiving room. She burst in to the workshop, the door sliding open and she through the entry before it was fully retracted. "Where's the energon?" her voice was high and shrill.
Spanner, shining like a golden sun, looked up from the small machine he was tinkering with on his worktable and tilted his head to the side. "In the closet, where it belongs."
"There is no energon in the closet," she seethed.
"Nonsense," Spanner, waved his hand, dismissively.
"I need to recharge," Illusionna her voice barely audible, as if lowering the volume on her voice box would conserve the precious energy she could feel being used in her body.
"We have none left!" Wind Rider's voice echoed off the walls of the workshop. "How could you use it all? What are we going to recharge with?"
"We'll make due," Spanner told her.
"W can't make due on nothing!" Wind Rider yelled at him, the anger in her voice causing her to sway back and forth, as if she teetered on the edge of a cliff.
"We will make due," Spanner repeated, his own voice beginning to lace with anger.
"I have to recharge," Illusionna said, her voice still quiet.
"How is she supposed to recharge?" Wind Rider motioned in Illusionna's direction, "when you used all of our energon on your stupid experiments!"
"It will be fine," Spanner's optics glowed.
"I have to recharge!" Illusionna let out a panicked wail. Both Wind Rider and Spanner turned their heads to look at her. For a moment, there was no sound at all in the workshop, as if the lifeless body by the door that watched Spanner's work had stolen her audio-receptors. Neither of them moved as they looked at her, and her perception of the room seemed to slow down. She regarded Wind Rider, who's faceplate seemed to melt from anger into panic, like metal melting in smelter. She then turned to Spanner, and his golden visage seemed to register worry, as if she'd announced that she was going to fly away and live on one of the Cybertron's moons. It was remote, and Illusionna thought, filled with pity.
She turned back to Wind Rider, "I need to recharge," she pleaded.
"Come on," Wind Rider grabbed her arm and dragged her out of the workshop.
"Where are we going?" she asked, stumbling along in an attempt to keep with Wind Rider's levitating.
"To recharge," she propelled them out the door into the debris of the street. She stopped suddenly, causing Illusionna to bump into her. She looked down both ways of the street and then began to levitate down it again, her hand still on Illusionna's shoulder.
"How?" Illusionna had to run to keep up with Wind Rider. Her hand slid down to Illusionna's arm as she turned down a side street.
Wind Rider didn't answer. She dragged Illusionna to a mechanoid that lay on the street, his scuffed paint and missing plates of armor telling them he was what they considered a 'loiterer', or someone with no dwelling. Illusionna was growing more panicked as her internal chronometer flashed in her optics that she needed to recharge. That's dumb to be on the surface, she thought through the panic as they approached the mechanoid, and it surprised her that she was able to do so. What if there is another attack?
Wind Rider kicked him when she got close enough, swinging her foot back and denting his side armor plate. "Hey!" he looked up at her, optics glowing.
Illusionna pulled away in confusion, and the phrase 'Stasis Lock Imminent. Recharge Immediately' flashed inside her CPU. Wind Rider let go of her arm and reached down to grab the mechanoid's chest. Illusionna watched in mild shock as Wind Rider stepped on both of the mech's arms, her sudden decent to the ground crushing them. With a strength Illusionna did not know Wind Rider possessed, she ripped open his chest cavity. Dropping his chest plate, she reached down again, grabbed his energon pump, and lifted it out of him. The sound of the tubes that connected it to the rest of his body popping mingled with his screams.
"Recharge!" Wind Rider commanded, pointing to where his fuel pump had been.
Illusionna looked down at him, watching already processed fuel flow out of his intake and outtake tubes. Again the phrase, 'Statis Lock Imminent. Recharge Immediately.' flashed on the inside of her head like a demon with her voice and inflection taunting her.
"Recharge!" Wind Rider said again, throwing his fuel pump across the street. Illusionna bent down and took his outtake tube in her mouth and began to recharge.
OoOoOo
She stood under the overhang near the stadium in Polynex. A mech. lay in the street, circuits popping like a sparkler. The liquid falling from the sky came dangerously close to the edge of the overhang. Illusionna tried to back up and stepped on the foot of another mech. "Sorry," she mumbled, shifting sideways, she certainly wasn't going to move forward!
She still felt funny from feeding off that mech's fuel. It had made her body hum, almost as if she was vibrating, although Wind Rider had assured her afterward she was not shaking any that she could detect. It felt that she was quivering deep inside of her body, starting at her fuel pump in her solar plexus and moving throughout her trunk, and into her extremities. She had the faint impression, the same sort of background impression that told her what her body temperature was, or what her fuel level might be at the moment, that if she touched something, anything, it too would start vibrating in this same way. That if she touched the right thing, it would hum, getting louder as it spread until the entire world was humming and vibrating with the uncomfortable-ness that she felt. She tried very hard not to touch too many things. She didn't like the felt. She wondered if she'd feel this way forever, or if it would go away once she'd used the already half-synthesized energon flowing through her lines.
Upon returning home, they had found Spanner in the common room, sitting still with his hands on his knees. He turned his head slowly toward she and Wind Rider, a lost look on his face. His optics were barely lit, only a golden smolder behind the golden lens. "Ah," he said, in a tired voice, "you're back. I am going into rest mode. I wanted to let you two know before I did." He then stood up, and walked passed them. The stroked Wind Rider's cheek as he walked by, and she turned from him, a scowl marring her faceplate. He made no move or sound that he even noticed before dropping his hand and walking down the hall.
That unnerrved Illusionna almost as much as the buzzing in her system. Twice he had rested in a short time, and never before in her life had she known him to do so.
"It ain't supposed to be rainin' here," she heard someone toward the back of the crowd complain. "Can't those idiots seed the sky in the right place? We ain't nowhere near Iacon."
"They aren't going to be seeding the sky again after Megatron gets wind of this. He won't be happy with acid rain falling on a Decepticon province."
Acid rain, so that's what this stuff was called. Illusionna edged backward toward the conversation. She had never seen anything like these drops of neon green liquid falling from the sky. There had been a loud cracking noise and suddenly everyone had run to a shelter. Illusionna had thought it was a bomb exploding, and followed the crowds to the edge of the stadium. People were stuffed inside the numerous covered cubbies that the stadium overhangs created. She wondered what would happen to the mech. that hadn't made it undercover. Would he be fine when the rain stopped falling, or would he go offline? It looked painful, as he had thrashed against the ground before lying motionless, puddles of green raising around him.
"Shut up," she heard a familiar voice say, "You have no idea what Megatron will do."
She craned her head to see the Decepticon who had smiled at her and Wind Rider at the Temple.
"And you do?" his friend asked.
"Better than you," he replied.
"And I know if we don't find a way into the Iacon's main hall, Megatron will be a lot angrier than he will be over a little acid rain."
"How do they know the armory's in the main hall?" the first speaker asked.
"Intelligence says so."
"Intelligence knows they got weapons in the main hall, but can't figure out how to get in and out undetected?"
"Was I in intelligence last time you checked?"
"Come on Starscream," the first speaker prodded, "you're in good with Megatron."
"That doesn't mean that he gives me the ins and outs of the intelligence reports," Starscream retorted.
"Seems sorry intelligence to me," the first Decepticon muttered.
The crowd began to disperse, with a quick glance Illusionna saw the rain had stopped. She edged her way toward Starscream and his two friends, until she caught Starscream's optic. He leaned against the wall on his shoulder and folded his arms against his chest plate.
"Well hello there," he beamed her a smile she recognized from the Conduit.
Illusionna stared at him, suddenly unsure of what to do or say.
Starscream cocked his head to the side his smile turning amused. His two companions chuckled. "What're you doing out here if you live in the Dead End?" Starscream shifted his feet, but kept his shoulder on the wall.
What were you doing in the Dead End when you live here? she wanted to say, but that's not what came out. "I can show you how to get into Iacon's hall," she said quietly.
The snickering stopped.
Starscream stood up and put his hands on his hips. "I know how to get in," his voice was smooth and pleasing to listen to. "The problem is getting in undetected." When Illusionna said nothing, he took a step forward, "Can you do that?"
Illusionna took a step backwards as he came toward her. He stopped, "Can you?"
"Yes," she answered him.
"You can, huh?"
Illusionna nodded.
"What's your name?" Starscream asked.
"Illusionna," she said slowly.
"Pretty name," he told her, holding out his hand to indicate she come to him. When she didn't move, he motioned to the Decepticon. on his right, "this is Skywarp," then pointed to his left, and "Thundercracker."
Illusionna nodded to each of them.
There was a moment of silence before Starscream asked, "How do you know how to get in there?"
Illusionna smiled back at him, confidence surging though her. "I know a lot of things."
He chuckled, "Want to make a deal?"
"What kind of deal?"
Thundercracker and Skywarp chuckled. Starscream's smile broadened, "What do you want?"
"Energon," she answered before he had even finished the question.
Thundercracker laughed, "She knows what she wants."
Starscream continued as if he hadn't heard him. "How much?"
Illusionna was silent for a moment, she hadn't expected that question. "12," she answered, keeping her optics on Starscream's.
"12!?" Skywarp was incredulous. "What are we a rationing station?"
Starscream glanced at him, and then back at Illusionna. "All right," he said slowly. "12 energon cubes it is."
Skywarp made a guffaw and Thundercracker held his had up to his mouth and chuckled, "Where do we deliver them?"
"To Spanner's house," Illusionna told him, taking a step backward.
"When?" Starscream raised his voice, as if the step extra pried them apart.
"Whenever," Illusionna turned to leave, and called over her shoulder, "I'll be there."
She jumped over a puddle of neon green liquid and heard Skywarp say, "What the hell is Spanner's house?"