Understood
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Chapter 24
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"Ahh! He's available!" cried an excited female voice behind Tailgate.
Tailgate turned to see two tiny mechs on a rapid approach—cassette-formers he quickly realized. Right behind them was large dark green cybercat. All three wore the Decepticon brand.
"Oh! Look how cute he is!" squealed the brighter blue one. " Would you take a femme?" she asked without any introductions, her red optics roving Tailgate's frame.
"Hey! I want him!" protested her male twin, a slightly darker shade of blue than his sister. "I saw him first."
"I'm the oldest. I get first choice," said the femme. "But if he says no, he's fair game." She leaned in toward Tailgate, addressing him seductively. "Tell him you won't. Tell him that you don't like mechs."
"Replay!" hissed the cat. "Mind your manners." The red feline optics turned again to Tailgate. "Well? Would you be interested in entertaining her?" The three cassetticons stood silently, frozen with anticipatory looks on their faceplates as they awaited Tailgate's answer.
"Of course I would. I've serviced lots of femmes," Tailgate said confidently. They didn't have to know that his 'lots' equated to a mere two. Three if one counted the femme he'd dated just before Swerve's entrance into his life.
"Mine!" squealed the femme possessively.
The dark green cybercat smiled. "Now make your offer," instructed the cybercat and I'll take Review on up the street."
"Not fair! I really did see him first!" pouted the mech.
"You've still got lots of options, I'm sure," said the cybercat to the pouting mech.
Suddenly a tiny hand seized his, and Tailgate looked down to see the cassetticon femme looking up at him with her lip components stretched into a delighted grin. She was about two-thirds his height and half his size overall. "So? Got some time to spare? We're going on the White Palace gorge cruise and I need a date."
A surge of excitement tingled through Tailgate's circuits. "The White Palace boat? Really?" He and Swerve had seen the huge boat for the first time while back at the work camp, when it motored past on its way from where it docked in Uravan Bridges, the white barge all aglitter with diamondelle trim and a thousand curtains veiling its passengers.
For them, living beneath stretched tarpaulins and fueling on low-grade energon, an unending cycle of dust and dirt and scraping for a little money, the craft was a tangible paradise. "We should do that someday—someday when things are better for us," Swerve had remarked one night as they watched the famed pleasure boat on its return to Uravan Bridges. "Live the good life like a couple of Golden Age rakes."
"Yes, that one. Want to be my cruise companion?" asked the cassetticon femme.
From Uravan Bridges the White Palace traveled some two cycles up the river to the Kaon Gorge and Greenwater Lake above that, returning along the same route after a stop at the Grottoes of Ironforge. But the pleasures aboard were more than just the pleasures of sightseeing. Passengers were booked into cabins furnished with luxurious berths, and it was expected that during the cycles spent upon the lower river and the lap around Greenwater Lake would be spent making use of them. Energon would be served on the upper deck during the ascent of the gorge. At Ironforge, passengers had a cycle and a half in which to explore the caves and the small lakeside town. On the return passage through the gorge there would be music and dancing and high-grade on the upper deck. The cruise had been around since the Golden Age when well-off Kaonians would while away a day aboard pleasure vessels as they moved lazily up the river and around the lake. In those days a fleet of such ships made the journey, and most of them provided the companionship. In the harder days brought on by the war, luxuries had diminished and now only one ship still plied the route. Passengers were expected to provide their own companions, and the long, decadent parties occupying much of the journey had been reduced to just a nod to what had once gone on aboard these pleasure-barges.
Tailgate's spark fell. "I don't have the money for the ticket," he said sadly. After starting work in Overdock they'd looked into it, but found the price well beyond their current means for such a frivolous entertainment. "Maybe someday. Save up for a special day I guess," he'd sighed.
"I'll buy your ticket," said the femme. "And I'll pay you a thousand credits for coming with me tomorrow. Interested?"
"Really? You'd buy my ticket?"
"Only if you're a good frag," she grinned.
Tailgate was amazed that she asked. "Of course I'm a good frag. It's what I do for a living."
"Replay..." whined her twin brother. "Let me have him. He's just my type."
"Oh, Review. Stop being such a glitch." She leaned in onto her brother's shoulder. "Tell you what... I get this one for the first berthing. You'll find someone too. Then we'll trade for the second round. And then we can swap back for the third, or not."
The darker cassetticon's pout suddenly became a happy grin. "Really? All right. That sounds good."
"See... no need to argue," said the cybercat, who then turned and continued on up Seventh Cycle Street. "Come, Review."
"Well I'll go see if I can find someone we'd both like." And then he ran up the street after the dark green cybercat.
The cassetticon femme smiled and watched them disappear before turning back to Tailgate. "So, would you be serious about going on the cruise tomorrow?"
"I'd like to," was the eager reply. Yes, he'd regret not going on it with Swerve, but Swerve had gone on to bigger and better things.
"All right. We have reservations for tomorrow. I'll need your communications frequency and a signature on this contract." She reached into a pocket and withdrew a document pad. "We leave tomorrow morning at standard departure time and I'd hate for you to not show up. So let's go get a drink and you can read this over and sign it."
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"Understood" continues in Chapter 25
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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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