Understood
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Chapter 23
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"Are you available?" came the deep voice from behind, causing Tailgate to jump in surprise.
He looked up to see Cyclonus looming over where he sat. How could a mech of his size sneak up on him like that? "You scared me," he pouted.
The skull-face smiled. "Well? Are you?"
Tailgate leapt to his feet. "All yours!" he squeaked happily.
"Where's Swerve? Is he available as well?"
"Swerve? Oh. Ah, well no."
The smile on the Decepticon's face fell a little. "Hmmm, a shame. I was hoping for the both of you tonight." He looked up Seventh Cycle Street and spotted a pale grey mech with dark pink detailing. "Who's that?" he asked, pointed at the grey mech. "Will you work with him?"
Tailgate looked to see whom was being indicated. "Oh, that's Softlight. You don't want him. He's always sliding on black ice, unless you just want someone who lies there and babbles nonsense."
"Not particularly," was the answering growl.
"Good," said Tailgate boldly. "I really don't like black ice junkies. And I'm not even sure if he's even licensed."
"What about that silver femme just past him?"
"That's Cloudcover. She's fairly new here and nice enough."
"Would you work with her?"
"Sure."
"Wait here."
While Cyclonus solicited Cloudcover's services, Tailgate quickly gave himself a quick oiling. Cyclonus, for as scary as he looked and as gruff as he sounded and as dangerous as he was, was unexpectedly courteous toward the streetwalkers. Tailgate looked up from his oiling to see that the femme was laughing about something, and then she ran her hand along Cyclonus' arm closest to her. Cyclonus caught her under the chin and turned her face into better light. And then he took her hand and kissed it. Was he actually flirting with her?
He did have to give Cyclonus some credit though. The mech could be quite charming when he felt like it. Somehow it made up for his fearsome appearance.
After a while Cyclonus and Cloudcover came back over and the femme greeted Tailgate with a lackluster 'hello.'
"Where to?" Tailgate asked. It was kind of a shame that Swerve wasn't around to partner up with anymore. Swerve was so good at bargaining and setting up the deals. And besides, he was fun to work with. They'd been partners in the berth long before they'd been partners on the street.
Cyclonus twitched his head toward the door of the closest hotel. "Just there. That'll be good enough for tonight."
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"Understood" continues in Chapter 24
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Transformers and all related concepts, characters, worlds, and events are property of Hasbro and Takara Tomy. Original characters and story elements are property of E. Potter, writing under the pen name of Miratete.
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