Chapter 6

There was under a week untill the supply ship arrived and for some reason Marie was getting doubts about leaving. Maybe she had been a little too quick to judge them, labeling them before getting to know them, well expect for Vortex and it wasn't really like she knew them at all either.

Swindle had welcomed her to the team, but Brawl and Blast Off still thought she was useless. Any cybertronian hacker would be born better than her, or that's how they made it sound. Onslaught seemed to have accepted her temporarily presence, since he was the only one she had told about leaving.

Vortex and her were still not on speaking-terms. The first time she saw him after the mission, it was clear that Onslaught had had his hands on him. He was keeping his head low, not sneering or glaring at anyone. Just staring off into nothing. The others made sure to not comment on it and the whole scene seemed kind of sad to her. He didn't look like Onslaught had beaten him or even touched him.

But that was when she noticed that he was missing his rotors.

She asked Swindle about it later and he told her that Onslaught had grounded Vortex, and by grounding a Decepticon who was made to fly, Onslaught might as well have ripped his arms and legs off. It was a humiliating display and Marie felt sort of sorry for the heli-former.

But she had to admit, this whole hate-the-human thing was getting ridiculous. It was like he was so dead-set on hating her, that he didn't even care to see things from a new perspective, he was such an overgrown sparkling.

Aria was doing amazingly, both getting hand-to-hand combat training, weapon training and surprisingly enough making friends with the 'stuck up army dudette'. She said that Nathan, the boy with the glasses, was an amazing medic and even though Matt was a loud-mouth and annoying as fuck, he was one hell of a sniper. He hit a target dead-on at a 9 kilometers distance.

Robert had taken some sort of leader role in their group. Beside their gestalts the Decepticons weren't paying them much attention. It was like they weren't worth they time. In the end of all their conversations Aria would make sure to tell her how much she missed her and how she couldn't wait for her to come to the Nemesis.

That part left a bad taste in Marie's mouth though, she wasn't too sure about leaving anymore but somehow it was like the decision already had been made.

Her shift had started a few breems ago and everything was as it should. Of course it was, who in their right mind would actually go attack a secret Decepticon base in the middle of nowhere, that is asking for trouble.

She still had three beers left and she predicted that it would be a long night. She was tired and had already trouble keeping her eyes open. Earlier she had helped Swindle with a client, the con-man had though it was good for her to improve her people-skill, or translated: getting better at lying because he had noticed that she sucked.

It had been fun but her mind had been going 500km/h and afterwards she had been invited to watch them spar and do a small combat simulation. But come on, this is the combaticons, nothing's small here. On more than one occasion had Marie ducked for cover, dodge missiles or straying bullets, mostly when Brawl was firing though, and how she was still alive was beyond her. The training had taken place outside, though they normally sparred in the east wing.

There had been a little more talk when they ate but really not a lot. And now? Now she was here, lying half in over the desk trying to stay awake, zipping at her beer every now and then. She heard the door whoosh open and mentally prepared herself for a scolding at the same size as the moon.

"I know what it looks like, but trust me Onslaught I am not sleeping" she said and turned around.

But it wasn't Onslaught who had decided to check on her. It was Blast Off. He stood by the door, looking unimpressed. "You might want to watch it, if Onslaught catches you sleeping on the job he will have your head" The space-shuttle warned. Marie nodded but laid down again.

"But seriously, who in their right mind would actually attack this base, I mean there are weapons, literally, everywhere! Not to mention, we are in the middle of nowhere." She complained, groaning tiredly. Blast Off was quiet for a moment before he pulled out a chair and sat down beside her. Marie eyed him careful, not really getting why he was keeping her company all of a sudden.

They sat in silence for a long time, Marie relaxed but couldn't really sleep with Blast Off in the room, so that in itself was a good thing. She didn't feel like she had to start a conversation but that they were getting to know each other by just sharing a moment.

"Can I ask you something?" he said after some time.

Marie looked up at him smiling softly "sure, ask away."

"What do you think of the others?"

That took Marie a bit off-guard. "Uh, I don't know, mmm. Brawl's a bit of a brute I guess, but he's nice enough. I like Swindle, he's really funny, well when he isn't trying to sell me junk I don't need anyway" Blast Off scoffed at that, agreeing with her somewhat. "Onslaught's okay too, he's a bit harsh but he's fair with it, well, I would really like to not clean the automatic weapons again, but it was understandable." She laughed, stretching her arm up over her head.

"What about Vortex" he asked leaning back in his chair, looking out of the windows and out on the night sky. Marie sat for a moment, thinking about what to say before replying. "I don't really know about Vortex. He seems dead-set on hating me that's for sure but it's like whatever I say just makes him angry. He scares me at times but I try not to think about and just stay out of his way."

Blast Off didn't say anything and Marie wasn't sure if it was the beer or just because of her need to talk that made her tell him this. "But."

He turned his head to look at her, "but?"

Marie sighed. "I don't like it when he's grounded" she admitted. Blast Off seemed a bit puzzled. "But he's not threating you now; he's not being cruel or lets us starve." Blast Off defended.

"He only stayed away twice, I think we'll live" she said with a hint of irritation. "-and I know, he's easier to get along with like this but it's not right, I mean have you looked at him…" She couldn't finish her sentence; she looked down at the table before taking an angry zip of the open beer beside her.

"You do realize that if he had gotten the chance he would have ripped you to pieces"

"You really have a way with words don't you?" she said dryly, clicking her tongue. She looked back at the monitor before answering him for real. "Yeah I know, he doesn't really seem all that friendly."

She sighed heavily before clapping her hands together. "But it's alright." She concluded. "In a week I'm gone and you guys won't have to worry about it."

"You're taking the supply ship back to the Nemesis?"

"Yep, I feel like more of a hindrance than anything else here and who knows I might be of some use at the Nemesis." She answered truly; throwing the beer can into the trashcan by the wall.

"I know that you and Brawl think I'm bad when it comes to hacking but I know I'm good. Not amazing, but good." She said, a tad angry at them for doubting her skills. Blast Off nodded more or less just to avoid an argument. After that it felt like there weren't any more to say, so the silence stretches itself over them as they watched the starry night sky. Sudden Marie piped up again.

"What's space like?" she asked with a small smile. "Humans have always dreamt of reaching the stars, but only a few ever gets to go there." She explained as he shot her a glance.

"Well, it's cold." He said.

"It's also very quiet." He said with a distant look. "Sometimes I get sent up there to scan for new energon deposits and it can take months before I find one." He explained not looking away from the windows.

"Months? Don't you ever get lonely up there?" Marie asked in disbelief.

"No, unlike you I don't need people swarming around me all the time. I actually like the peace and quiet" he said with a royal huff.

But the distant expression hadn't gone unnoticed by Marie. "Right you do…" She said, not really believing a word he said, but she wasn't going to push it. She knew that she couldn't go more than a couple of weeks without contact with others, so she wasn't about to believe that Blast Off enjoyed being on his own for that long.

Blast Off stood up and turned for the door. "Well I shouldn't take much more of your time." He said before leaving. Marie nodded a goodbye before he disappeared. There were still half an hour left of her shift and she couldn't help but feel like this day seemed to go on forever.

"Morning."

"Morning."

Marie sat down at her table in the recreation room. Swindle was the only one around at the moment and they were both immensely tired, though Marie refused to believe that he was as tired as her.

"Wow, you look…well yeah, you get the idea, what happened" he started, referring to the way she barely had cleaned herself up before coming down here. "Well, I had thirty minutes left of my shift yesterday and I couldn't stay awake. So when Onslaught came up to relieve me, he punished me by making me run thirty laps around the base." She said, rubbing her sore legs.

"Have you any idea how hard it is to run when all you want to is sleep!? And besides, I don't remember the last time I was out running like that! I only just woke up like ten minutes ago, so I was afraid I wouldn't make it if I showered…"

The con-man chuckled lowly as the human girl continues to complain. It didn't take long for the others to join them; Vortex had gotten his rotors back and was back to his old self. Though he ignored Marie 100%, she really didn't mind. The team was chatting away, teasing each other and showing off.

They acted like a real team…

...and not a bunch of psychopaths.

Onslaught hadn't shown up yet, which was pretty unusual since there were five minutes till it was 8 o'clock. Onslaught was always early.

The chat died as the minutes went by and there was still no sign of Onslaught. They were all getting impatient and Vortex stood up, to storm out to look for him, when the gestalt leader showed up looking frustrated. Vortex was about to give him a piece of his mind when he got a death-glare that told him to shut up and sit down.

Nobody was stupid enough to ask what was wrong as they got their food. Onslaught was quiet buck he was tense and very angry. It was clear that it was stupid to piss him off right now as he wouldn't be taking any of their shit, so the rest of the team followed his example and stayed quiet.

As soon as their commander had finished his energon he left, not even muttering a word to any of them.

"Phew, that was close, wonder who ruined his day" Swindle said setting down his empty glass.

"He probably had another talk with Megatron, that always seems to make him blow a fuse or two." Brawl answered downing the last of his own ration.

Marie had already guessed that they weren't too fond of Megatron. Most of the talks that went on when they ate revolted around the Decepticon leader and just how much they hated him. They had even made a game where they were to come up the most creative way to kill him.

They really had a lot of good idea actually, and many of them were very funny to listen to.

"Human." Marie snapped her head up to look at Brawl, he looked annoyed and she guessed that she might have dozen off a bit. "Huh?"

That's it Marie, that sounded intelligent.

"I asked; how are you with guns?" he glared. Brawl was clearly not a very patient guy. "Um, well, alright I guess, I'm more in the support though." She said finishing her meal. They never cleaned up after themselves and Marie figured the drones did it since the recreation room always was tied up when they came back for the next meal.

Brawl smiled for a moment and as Marie never had seen him smile she got a feeling that something bad was about to happen.

"Well, how about we change that."