Song: Breaking the Habit – Linkin Park
As they got back to the village, Arcee told her sparkmate and friend just what Silos wanted. It was a little sense of revenge for talking down to her, but she found it justified as she no longer wanted to keep either of them in the dark.
"A pendant from the late Thundertron?" Bolt scoffed, "I thought the guy vowed revenge against us, Megatron specifically but still. It was you that stopped him, right, Megatron?"
"I vaguely remember him, but I don't recall his death. Must have happened when he tried to come back to enslave Junkion. Maybe he encountered one of the dragons or he might have suffered from an accident. If he's dead, I don't really care."
Arcee rolled her optics, "Regardless, he's not in the picture. Find the pendant, make our dear associate happy, and we can move on."
"Boy, you had a fallout with Si-that sinister mech?" The Vehicon corrected himself to Megatron's suspicion.
The queen nodded, "He's being an ass right now."
"Unfortunate."
They went into Wreck-gar's encampment only to pause when they noticed everyone was decorating themselves in various colors of paint. All three bots peered at each other unsure if they were at the right location despite very well knowing there were no other villages on the planet. Wreck-gar had on a deep red paint crossing over in patterns along his frame and when they approached him, he waved happily.
"Just in time! We're about to round up some sand lions! It's a game I think you'll love!"
The enthusiasm of his voice made Arcee grimace, but she did her best to hide it. Instead, she asked, "How do you win the game?"
Wreck-gar put a digit on his chin. "Well, there once were rules but we forgot them each time, so we make them different every event. I think this time we will go by whoever corrals five of them first wins!"
Bolt peered around uncertain. "Corral them where? In the village?"
"No, silly, we have pens already set up not far from here. Lantern is the chief coordinator for the event, he'll give you the run down to play."
"I-I never said I'm participating-"
"Arcee!" Bolt made a swiping motion across his neck then pointed at it in a circular pattern. She immediately understood.
"-unless...there's a reward."
"Oh, you can anything you want," the orange and red mech said sweetly, "but you must win first to claim anything."
"Where's Lantern?" Megatron asked impatiently.
The Junkion leader pointed to a portly fellow who the younglings were riding on the shoulders of. The cracked brown armor was stained by oil and grime and when the bots got close to him, they refrained from reeling back when a weird odor hit them. Arcee was almost winded by it the most, but Megatron simply turned his head blinking. She knew out of the three of them, he was by far the most sensitive to the scent, having better senses originally enhanced when he worked as a miner. The odor must have been torture to him, and he kept his distance while Arcee and Bolt still had to talk to him.
"Excuse me, s-ah, sir," she nearly gagged, "but we would like to participate in the Sand Lion Corral event...assuming that's what it's called."
Lantern turned with a friendly chuckle as the younglings jumped off to run amok. His vocalizer sounded shredded but the words he spoke could still be made out, "Oh, new contestants! Well, our Lion Rodeo is simple, and I think you'll enjoy it."
"What's the rules?"
"All you have to do is jump onto one of them and navigate them to their pens. First to the pen, get that pen. No doubling on another person's pen. That's cheating. The reward is anything you desire. The one who reaches five units will be the winner. Easy enough?"
Bolt shrugged, "Sounds simple. You want to race me, Arcee?"
She laughed, "Sure. Megatron?"
The grey mech still remained distant and shook his head. "I'm good, thanks."
"Lantern," Arcee then said, "sign us up."
"Absolutely, take your marks with the other opponents."
"Oh, and is there any rules about abilities?"
The large mech shook his head. "We don't really play to win a lot of times, just for fun. And if there was, I am not aware of such things."
That surprised both, and Bolt and Arcee moved over the hill of junk to see a flattened area of a few miles with lips around it to prevent the sand lions from wandering out of the zone. Pens with warm oil pits were set up each near the edge and with no markings for who gets which pen. Lantern's word was true. She could see shadows on the hills of the area where the spectators were who also were there to watch so no one did cheat.
"Let's do this," the queen smirked, cracking her neck.
Bolt eagerly pranced in place as they got into a single file row with six other contestants, one of who was Wreck-gar himself. Seacore wasn't present but instead sat on a ledge overlooking all of them.
"On your mark!" Seacore started, "Get set! Go!"
All of them ran at the sand lions that began bounce crawling away from them with growls. Arcee used her speed boost immediately, whipping on top of an unsuspecting sand lion. It reared with its heavy armor rustling from the movement. Bucking and snarling, she grabbed its head and leaned out from her grip to force the sand lion to change course. It began rocking towards the nearest pen quickly and she struggled to keep its direction. Once it was at the very entrance, she jumped off and let the sand lion dive into the oil within the pen where it seemed to prefer to stay as it glared in all directions now on high alert.
At the same time, Wreck-gar laughed as he got his sand lion into the pen. The walrus-like animal roaring at him before plopping into the oil where it could no longer be mounted. The small crowd scattered cheered at them both as one mech near each finally marked the pens that were claimed. Bolt struggled with his as it refused to move far, instead bucking like mad and throwing him off a few times. He had to scramble around it to prevent being attacked and try again by leaping onto its back from a blind spot. The other contestants were getting their first sand lions in as Arcee targeted her second.
She attached herself to the neck and spine, seeing the optics of the sand lion dilate before shrinking considerably. The one she got was a definite fighter, but she refused to let it beat her. When she made a little progress by getting it in the direction of her pen, it started to fuss with a snarl.
"Shut up and drive!"
The sand lion shook as it crawled quickly to the pen. She released it and it joined its peer in the oil. She cared not for the look it gave her, and it was wise enough to not come out after her. Targeting the third, she didn't hesitate to blindly jump it, but her overconfidence had her miss. She heard a few laughs from her failed attempt and merely growled to herself, pushing up and running back it as it roared at her. Grabbing its neck, she used much of her strength to immediately force it in the direction of her pen.
While she rode hers, she noticed Wreck-gar had his second sand lion in the pen, going for a third and Bolt finally got his first when he was suddenly thrown into the oil pit with said sand lion. He and the beast met optics and the Vehicon whimpered before clawing up the embankment away from it.
The third sand lion hit the oil, pushing aside the two relaxing within it which earned it barks from its newly disturbed peers. Arcee laughed as she went to the fourth that was running away from another contestant chasing a sand lion next to it. She grabbed onto its neck and forced it back to her pen. It slowed to a stop but didn't go into the oil. Making a weird noise, it rocked like it was laughing.
"Hey, clown, we need to get into the pen. I don't know about you but I'm competitive by nature. So, we can do this the easy way or the hard way."
The sand lion merely grunted and slowly slid into the oil pool as if to mock her. She swiped her servos together in triumph, sneering at the one sand lion that almost wanted to make a mockery of the show. Only one sand lion remained.
The sand lions were scattered pretty good now, so she had to run to a farther area to find one that wasn't being pursued or was already in a pen. A large one, a dominant type, growled as it spotted her. She taunted it with an open arm gesture and watched it go low to the ground snarling. Then it dragged its thick hide over to her. She outmaneuvered it and went onto its back, only to find it was far harder to control than the others. Getting it to go in the right direction was a chore unlike anything she had done previously.
"Come on, go straight, you arrogant-!"
She was abruptly airborne when it whipped its head, which she failed to notice she had sunk to among its frantic movements. Activating her gliding ability, she observed it eyeing her and smirked.
"Alright then, let's play."
Sinking down, she cut her energy wings and landed to coax the sand lion to follow. It did. Changing its direction to go solely after her, jaws wide open with the intent to bite, it nearly bounced by determination to hurt her. She lured it back near her pen before taking a stance. Right as it lunged, she timed its strike to leap over its head and run across its spine. Kicking its rear, it fell into the oil.
Cheers erupted at Seacore announced, "Arcee is the winner!"
Wreck-gar seemed a little deflated as he had been on his final sand lion close to his pen after catching up but shrugged at the results while other contestants seemed to respect them, clapping equally as pleased. Arcee ran up the embankment to be praised by her sparkmate.
"Nothing like watching a rodeo champion riding to victory. And what's that smell?" Megatron joked.
"Don't start," she scoffed laughing.
"Well, you certainly make an impressive Junkion!" Wreck-gar said delightfully, "Congrats, friend! So, what would you like? Junk, junk, and more junk? We have all the knick knacks and thing-a-ma-bobs you could want as a prize!"
Arcee felt guilty as she asked, "Do you have any...jewelry like a necklace or a pendant? I'm a, uh, very big jewelry collector. I love to collect from different worlds that have a great uniqueness to them."
Wreck-gar didn't say anything at first but then replied a bit forced, "Nope. Go fish!"
"Aw, that's a bummer," she pretended to say with a sad look.
The technique seemed to make the naïve Wreck-gar peer to the side in thought until he finally said, "Actually, I might have something. Wait right here!"
He literally sprinted and left a trail of dust from the disturbed junk and before she could count to ten, he was back with something in his servo. There was a reluctance to show her, not that she could blame him. He smiled and opened his palm slowly.
"I have this but I need you to promise me you'll take care of it."
There was a hint of heartbreak in his voice, the same he demonstrated with the vault. Arcee felt even worse as she took it. The pendant was a gold scheme with the uncanny symbol of the Star Seekers on it. There was a streak of faded blue...Energon by the looks of it which brought the question of how Thundertron finally died even if she knew not who he was aside from the small details shared.
"How did you get this?" Arcee asked.
Wreck-gar clammed up again but seemed to fight himself on the decision, like he wanted to keep it secret but knew better. He forced himself to say, "An accident..."
Bolt approached covered in oil and other materials when he saw the pendant. When he overheard that, he huffed, "An accident? Thundertron had an accident?"
The name made the Junkion leader flinch like a curse. Bolt apologized quietly. Wreck-gar gripped his servos together, moving them around nonstop as he refused to make eye contact again. Arcee didn't want to frighten him, so she moved slowly to be next to him and carefully placed a servo over his finnicky ones. He stopped and looked at her as Seacore walked up to them.
The queen spoke softly, "What happened?"
Wreck-gar gulped, "He came back. I don't like to fight. I didn't do anything to stop him. He came back, and I did nothing. I laugh at the face of danger because I don't care...but if I did, things would have been different."
She saw Seacore wanted to step in, but she gestured to him to not do so. She needed to know, and so did Wreck-gar for a closure he seemed to have never gotten.
"Whatever you tell me won't leave this planet, but we can't help you if you don't want it."
"I don't need help," his small plea echoed, but it was far more sincere than The Matriarch's. "But they do."
Seacore suddenly said, "Tell them, Wreck-gar. They should know."
A small audience accumulated as Arcee still held Wreck-gar's servos to comfort the mech. The answers she wanted were finally revealed.
"Our planet has suffered; we never drove anyone away, always welcomed with open arms. And when trouble rose, we wouldn't fight because we didn't want to. We did so little for our world. Call us lazy but we were content. And then your people came, disrupted it and led Thundertron to us. We were enslaved but I still convinced myself and others we were going to be alright. We weren't. He left us on a half-floating piece of junk that we proudly called home. Then he came back.
"I didn't stop him the second time either. I should have but I didn't. He forced us to go to the Howling Wastes and we did as we were told. I complied oblivious to our fate. He was going to kill us, and I stared down the blade he had knowing I did nothing. But then the accident happened. He was hitting me repeatedly near the shipyard. The ships are old, they aren't maintained well and one moment he was berating me, the next he fell over. I think it was a wing, or maybe it was an engine lift, and there was Thundertron beneath it. When I saw Energon leaking from him, I knew he wasn't getting up. He was an interesting visitor. His crew was spooked and left us without saying goodbye. And there was the pendant hidden in a panel on his side. I took it and buried him the best I could. No one deserves to be left without a proper funeral."
"Sounds like karma killed the bastard in the end," Bolt whispered to Megatron who stood beside him and smirked.
"You can have it; it's wasted with me," Wreck-gar admitted.
Arcee nodded and placed it in her subspace before speaking, "It wasn't your fault. Just bad luck that comes to the wicked. It happens all the time."
"But should it?" His question threw the femme off greatly. "I wouldn't think anyone deserves to die like that."
She didn't have anything to say to him. There was nothing she could say because she would argue otherwise, not to the relief of Wreck-gar who was all for peace. "Thank you. I promise I'll see to it this pendant gets a good home away from its violent history."
The mech gleamed at her despite being unaware it was technically a lie. As Wreck-gar turned to talk to Seacore, Arcee gestured wordlessly at her success in obtaining it. Bolt gave her a thumbs up and Megatron merely raised a brow.
Just then and faded purple and rust spotted mech came up to her. "Hey, I saw your performance in the field. You were remarkable."
"Oh, thanks, and you are?"
The mech offered his servo and she accepted it for a shake. "Visionair. I'm the village medic and former scientist on Velocitron, went here to retire. I have a request, but it's nothing you need to look for or anything. I've been studying the fast-paced movements of the distiller dragons here for years, even when they were called just the distillers before Wreck-gar discovered Earth. I wanted to see if I could mimic their fast-shifting reflexes and dispense that into a person. It would decrease transformation time, allow weapons to be charged and ready in an instant as well as allowing them to be brought out in record time, and it would save energy."
Arcee mused, "And you're offering me this ability because?"
"Well, I don't know if you noticed but the village here isn't any rush. Kind of pointless to test it on those who hardly have any motivation to fight or show off speed. You look like you could benefit from it more than any of us. Would you like to give the power a test run. If you like it, I'll even let you keep it. I can make plenty of other copies of it in my home now that I know the method."
"I got nothing else to lose, so bring it on," she grinned.
Visonair escorted her to his hut with Megatron watching over just in case and brought out a small device of red. He made a small cough and gestured to her chassis awkwardly. She felt no embarrassment opening her chest panels where her spark pulsed in its closed off chamber. He hooked the device carefully beneath the chamber's body where the intersection for the cabling that controlled motor functions was located. Then her HUD got a notification for an upgrade which she approved, closing her chest and shivering as her systems synced with it.
"There, your reflexes should be top quality and able to give off a hundred percent satisfaction. First, try changing between your weapons."
She did as she was told and was shocked when the conversion between her arm blasters and the blades whipped between one another nearly invisible to the naked eye aside from a faint blurred motion. She decided to check her wings and had them reconstruct over her winglets. They were active in less than a second. Punching the air, her body moved fluidly even more than normal. That, combined with the speedster ability, would have made the war on Cybertron so much easier to fight had she acquired them before. Unlike the other abilities, this one appeared permanent until the device was physically removed.
"Now, I must warn that I don't know how long that device will last. I say you have quite a number of years on it. And if something goes awry, just let me know and I'll replace it free of charge. Now that I know it works, I might see if I can tell that sleezy salesmech, Swindle, to give me better things in return for my services. He likes to cheat me out of a trade but not this time."
Megatron frowned, "Yes, you do that. We'll see about helping the village a bit more."
When Arcee stepped outside, Megatron made a crazy motion near his head which Visionair thankfully didn't see nor care even if he did. Arcee backhanded his thigh at the rudeness, and he snickered.
Lantern walked up to them with a smile and held out a peculiar item, a blaster modification of sorts. "Here's a little extra prize, my lady, for participating."
The smell of the mech bothered her less when he was out of focus in favor of studying what she was given. Attaching the mod to her blasters, she found the damage output had spiked drastically. She didn't know whether that would also affect the Heat Seeker ability in terms of damage but now her blasters could hurt even Megatron she assumed whereas prior, she hardly fazed the warlord in battle. Of course, she wasn't going to test it on him of all people, only when necessary.
"You guys are spoiling me today," she said.
"We have too much stuff on this planet anyway. That was found not far from here near a lost ship from Cybertron. Most likely abandoned, don't worry."
"I appreciate your kindness."
Lantern nodded and left slow and steady while Megatron was trying not show disgust being able to still smell the ghastly scent even after the larger mech was a decent distance away. Arcee shot him a concerned look.
He replied, "I never said anything so just be grateful for that."
Arcee smiled painfully until she saw Wreck-gar retreating to his hammock, the vault now secured in his servos. He thumbed the damaged lock with a sigh. The queen nudged her sparkmate and called to Bolt who was busy talking to Visionair.
"We know how he got the pendant but there remains the mystery of what's in the vault and who was trying to get into it."
Bolt jogged to her side and said, "Unless you want another breakdown, he's not going to tell you. And gaslighting the guy twice isn't nice."
Without another word, Arcee approached Wreck-gar and sat by his side. He barely looked at her and she respected it. Before she could ask anything, regardless of subject. Wreck-gar finally seemed to come out of his shell.
"You want to know about Nancy, don't you?"
"If it's bothering you. I'm here to help if you want me to, same as what I said before. I'm no therapist but I've been where you are, keeping mute about what you know about a loved one and letting it fester is a very destructive behavior...even if it doesn't seem to have that many effects. I hurt myself once with a mech named Cliffjumper, my close partner. One of his horns broke right before his death, all that was left of him I could find and I kept it at the base. I talked to a pile of rock with that horn beneath it thinking I was talking to him, but I never got anywhere. It turned into an obsession, isolated me and hurt the ones I cared about trying to help me move on. I still think about him occasionally. But the greatest tribute I could do for him was moving on. He wouldn't have encouraged me to mourn him if all it did was hold me back from living."
Wreck-gar pondered her words carefully but before he could respond, an explosion went off and several bots fled. Both leaders stood as portals opened to reveal the sickly creatures that wanted to terrorize everyone in the galaxy.
Metal Head soldiers, Grunts and all, poured in and crushed the scrap they walked upon with their organic feed without even flinching as some left blood with each step. They were oblivious to the pain as they stalked the exterior of the village snarling. Bolt and Megatron already had their weapons out and Moonhunter, who had been resting for some time, emerged from a hut with the hira hyenas following his lead. They growled back at the monsters ready to defend their owners.
"Now it's a party," Bolt remarked, his axe at the ready.
Arcee quickly turned to Wreck-gar. "The Metal Heads are like the Star Seekers. They will kill everyone if they have their way. We need to fight them."
"But...we can't. I don't think I can."
She stood in front of him to draw his attention from the scouting monsters. "Wreck-gar, listen to me, what happened in the past is done. You beat yourself up for being passive but you're not wrong to do so. Here's your chance to do more. Help them...for Nancy."
Wreck-gar peered past her back at the Metal Heads now stalking into the village as his citizens backed away. Their terror was no different from the previous encounters with beings such as Thundertron. Arcee was shocked when Wreck-gar's optics narrowed at the creatures and he stepped past her. He reached for his backside as his kibble formed a four-bladed axe in a circular pattern going counter-clockwise with a long handle. He swung it around and slammed the end on the ground.
"I am Wreck-gar and you are not welcome here!"
Even Seacore was plenty surprised by the change of attitude. The Metal Heads, however, responded with their saliva-stringed mouths wide open baring their teeth. That prompted the other Junkions to look at one another before revealing many melee weapons that had hidden on their person. The weapons weren't by any means strong but they could do enough damage against a techno-organic species. The two younglings were stationed with Visionair who only had a belt full of chemicals. Lantern had the biggest weapon, a large club to match his hefty appearance and he looked like he meant business.
Arcee brought out her double-bladed sword and took a pose, maneuvering the blade around her with precision. "I think you underestimated this world just as I had, Metal monkeys."
The few Horaquan troops gave grunts taken aback by the insult before roaring, causing the others to rally for an immediate attack. They charged as Megatron and Bolt took their positions beside her. However, the monsters didn't expect the shouts of the villagers to be battle cries from a formerly dismissive bunch and some stopped in their tracks only to be bludgeoned by their dumb hesitance.
Wreck-gar ran at a Mantis that hopped over him and sent its raptorial tibia to the back of his leg. The mech winced but he merely growled in response. He slammed its axe down trying to squish the hopping menace but juked it into going the wrong direction and sank his blades straight down on its forehead. The sound of flesh tearing down the middle with a morbid whimper made the normally nice Wreck-gar grin maliciously.
Megatron opened fire on every Metal Head in sight. The blows that popped their heads like balloons or exploded their bodies made him laugh madly at the carcasses being flung back from the force. Suddenly, a few Metal Runners and a new species of Metal Flyers that looked like pterosaurs came onto the scene. The Runners proved faster than his bullets and he tried his best to outfox them but they dodged his attempts until one was decapitated by Bolt who snuck out from behind a hut. The second Runner jumped and pinned the warlord, snapping its jaws rapidly as the mech held it from his face by its throat.
"Really don't like being in this position!"
"Hang on, Megatron!" Bolt yelled.
Trying not to hit his teammate, the Vehicon swiped his axe sideways away from Megatron's holding arm and cut open the clawing raptor-like creature's belly. Megatron winced as its guts spilled onto his side as it slowly died with a faded screech. Once its jaws were permanently open and its eyes were a dark yellow, he tossed the creature off him before glaring at his ex-subordinate.
Growling, he said, "You had to empty it on me?"
"It was either that or I risk chopping off your servo! The guts at least you won't strangle me over."
Megatron huffed but let Bolt help him up. Instantly, his optics widened and he pushed the Vehicon back behind the hut as rockets hit only a few feet from them, blowing holes in the ground. They peered up to see the Metal Flyers circling with advanced weaponry on them and Centurion riders helping them target the bots.
Megatron then said, "I'll take on the flyers, you help the Junkions."
The warlord transformed and flew up towards the sky to initiate battle with the fast-flying fiends. Meanwhile, Arcee and Wreck-gar tag-teamed on several Grunts and a Ramhead that charged into the area, scattering the metal around it with a headbutt into one of the scrap towers nearby. Thankfully, no distillers had made residency in it but the flinging of junk did throw off many Junkions who had to cover their faces. One of the bots screamed when a sharp bite to the forearm nearly dropped them to their knees as a Metal Head had lunged and latched with blinding force. The creature was shot point blank by another mech but the damage was done.
As the Junkion tried to stop the bleeding, Arcee quickly ran at the mech who was too close to their infected peer and pushed him back to his startlement. Despite a few angry words, the Junkion restrained immediately stopped dead in his complaining when the venom of the virus coiled across the frame and twisted body parts to a gruesome mockery of the bot's true visage. Arcee changed her arm to a blaster and sneered as she was too close for comfort staring at newly formed four yellow optics that grew aggressive in seconds. She didn't even bother reasoning with the scared Junkion behind her when she fired. Three shots right into the chest had the created monster toppling with a deathly gurgling noise of blood seeping int the throat not long after.
Arcee wasn't proud of her actions but with no other options, she could only breathe harshly at the sight. "Rest in peace, buddy."
"W-What was that?!" The Junkion asked paranoid.
"That...was the most dangerous part about dealing with a walking plague. Make sure no one else gets bit if you can. We don't need an apocalypse worse than what we're dealing with already."
The bot obeyed her command as he held back some unchecked feelings about the loss. Arcee then heard a cry and saw Visionair and the younglings being threatened by a Spyder Gunner that hissed and threw the poor mech onto the ground before shooting his left arm off. The medic muted himself from and sent the monster a defiant look. Running towards them, Arcee grew angered as the blaster arm of the Horaquan aimed at the closest youngling next who flinched back frightened. Using her momentary super speed, she swung her blade up in a blind fury, slicing off the Metal Head's arm in repayment for Visionair. It gave an alien scream and staggered back with blood oozing out of its injury. Its four legs shook as it tried to get away from Arcee who swiped at it again. The creature was decapitated in seconds.
As the Junkions put up a fight, Wreck-gar noticed they were slowly getting overwhelmed as more monsters flooded through the portals. He called out to Arcee, "Our weapons aren't strong enough!"
"Okay, do you have anything that is?!" She announced, blocking and punching a Grunt that tried to leap at her.
Wreck-gar kept his distance from another set of Mantis invading before peering down at the ground. Scrap metal was hard and without protective armor, they could impale anything. Looking back at the hillside, many Metal Heads were indeed leaving bloody footprints but were far more enamored with killing than their own wounds. He grinned and grabbed any junk he could reach.
A Ramhead stalked close to a mech before turning to charge when a scrap piece bounced off its armored helm. It snarled and turned its attention to Wreck-gar who held a smug expression. He flung something else and the monster fled back when it entered its eye and went straight through to the other side of the face exiting from the brow. A large rod was embedded and gushed purple blood. The mech it had been terrorizing threw random objects quickly at it. One of them was a sawblade that was flung with such force, it broke through the chest and appeared through the spine partially stuck. The Ramhead collapsed dead.
The others began throwing whatever they could, including Lantern who used his strength to pick up the front of a small ship. Sending it swinging, he flung several Metal Heads in one swoop. The younglings, though not powerful throwers, used the help of Visionair to bury the Grunts under a hill of junk. Some of the bigger parts slid down and crushed the creatures.
Bolt deflected a few of the Metal Heads rushing him at him from the side when one of the large ones kicked him unstable. He fell and was pinned by a claws foot. A blast blew up the monster, making the Vehicon flinch. To his surprise, Seacore's arm had transformed into a barrage of missiles ready to be fired.
"I thought Junkions didn't have guns?"
Seacore laughed as he brought the smaller mech to his pedes. "Just because I gave up my past life doesn't mean I got rid of all my weapons. This one was always my favorite."
He pushed Bolt behind him and fired a missile right into the abdomen of a Rapid Gunner that leapt over a hill of scrap. The explosion made little work of the monster and scattered its innards that weren't disintegrated everywhere.
The gunfire in the sky drew their attention as Megatron zoomed around to outflank the pterosaur Metal Heads. Several rockets were fired at him as he went down towards the ground forces of the Metal Head legion. The rockets blew up near the entrances to several portals, decimating the Metal Head troops within and making some of them spark before closing. The Centurions that rode on the backs of the Flyers furiously bashed their fists against the saddle or the sides of their heads, though one Flyer bucked in response nearly throwing off its rider.
Megatron did a few spins low to the ground before boosting up and making a half circle, flipping right way up and firing on the Flyers in response. The dogfight had the airborne Metal Heads doing fancy maneuvering to dodge the blasts. However, one thing Megatron noticed was the Flyers couldn't go too far out of range of the planet. They relied on gravity to control their flight patterns easier. That was just the tactical advantage he needed.
Jettisoning past one when it slowed being too high, Megatron went farther out before cutting his engines and forcing himself to drift to the side to turn around. Once he was in the proper direction facing the planet, he switched on his thrusters and headed straight for the Flyers. One of them couldn't completely regain control of itself as he opened fire. The creature was shot out of the sky with its rider falling alongside it. He aimed for a second Flyer with the speed he had picked up in his descent but instead of riddling it with holes, he rammed it. The rider bounced off his hood with a snarl and fell but the Flyer was impaled through its heart and neck. He transformed and ripped it off him before resuming in his vehicle mode.
On the ground, Moonhunter and the hira hyenas moved as a clan and stalked towards a Metal Head that had wandered a bit out of range from the others. With silent cackles, the hyenas grinned while the Nitrotiger moved his shoulders ready to pounce. As soon as the creature took a step forward with its back to them, they darted out as predators with the intent of ripping apart their prey. The Metal Head barely turned upon hearing the multiple pads of feet sprinting when multiple sets of teeth sank into the flesh of its body. Ripping pieces from the thighs and arms to ground it, the pack showed no mercy as Moonhunter aimed at the neck the most. One hyena snagged the top of the monster's snout and broke it off before another ripped out its tongue and forced its head to twist. The neck of the beast was snapped with little to no support.
Arcee proudly yelled, "Good boy, Moonhunter!"
The Junkions continued pelting the Metal Heads with rubbish as Arcee quickly ran to Wreck-gar's side with an idea.
"Wreck-gar, what would you think if I said we should go to the Dragonlands?"
"Now? A bit of a weird time for a vacation, don't you think?"
"No, no, no, leverage. Lure them away from the village." The mech paused and then grew a smile as she nodded, "Let them see the other half of Junkion."
He then called out to his citizens, "Retreat to the Dragonlands! Wooo-wee!"
The inhabitants ran after him and Arcee with Bolt and the clan of pets following. Lantern, for a big guy, was surprisingly fast when he wanted to be. The younglings and Visionair kept close as the Metal Heads trailed behind. They ran past the oil pools and into distiller territory but aimed for a farther area.
Their chaos stirred up the dragons that roared and scouted out the danger. Upon seeing the Metal Heads, the distillers grew irate but hid in their towers until the proper moments. Grunts and Mantis were snagged from beside the towers and sometimes above by their tails. Crunching noises in the shadows of their hideaways made Arcee laugh. To see the distillers popping out only briefly to grab the Horaquan and chomping off their heads was a cruel reminder of the distillers' hidden aggression with trespassers. The bots like the Junkions they knew, anyone else was free food.
The Junkions slowed to cheer as many Metal Heads were picked off by the dragons they coexisted with and Arcee was pleased to see Junkion itself seemingly fighting back in its entire glory at last. But her victory was short-lived as an unusual sound began to rise among the chaos. The pleasant cries of the villagers died too as a trumpeting call like that of an elephant echoed from off to the right.
"Arcee, I have a visual on you," Silos' voice suddenly called. "The Metal Heads have unleashed their commander and it's up to you to kill it. No mercy."
She frantically peered around until she thought she saw a blue form in the distance duck away to hide behind an old crane.
Arcee whispered, "What happened to being mad at me?"
"I...find it harder to stay mad even though you are supposed to be working for me. I still expect that pendant, but I will help you again. The commander is the Mammoth, the Powerful Planet Shaker. To see it again gives me great joy, not for you, of course, but I am an admirer of the ingenius mind of the Metal Head. Its vast intelligence rivals its own power, capable of calculating its opponents' moves before they even think it themselves. Maybe the best way to deal with it is to not fight it but use others to your advantage."
"I'm not setting up people to die in my place!"
Silos chuckled, "Who said anything about setting up the people?"
Another trumpet mixed with an unusual roar echoed before the loose scrap on the ground began to shake. The thundering footsteps of something large had forced even the Metal Heads to back off. Like a wrecking ball, a giant elephant-like Metal Head crashed through a pile of junk and even a disconnected thruster of a ship which it sent flying over the heads of the Junkions. It reared, raising its trunk and smashed its feet onto the ground, shaking all the scrap towers the distillers hid in loose. The mass tumblings happened to block the rest of the Metal Heads from pursuing but the Metal Mammoth didn't seem to care. The Junkions were unsure of fighting such a colossal beast.
The Metal Mammoth was a marine blue with four yellow eyes and a skull gem above the base of the trunk. A spear was at the end and the whole length of the elongated nose was armored. Instead of ears like the elephants of Earth, fin-like barbs with energy webbing flexed alongside its head. Six tusks were present forking from a single bone, each spike among it had faded blood of different colors implying it had used the tusks to kill many enemies or anything that dared step in its way. The body of the Mammoth had its backside ridged with dense armor and a lighter blue underbelly with speckles of different shades of blue merging into it. Thick, stubby claws were on each foot, and its long tail had orangish yellow pustules near the tip that also grew on its side between the plating. It looked more like a walking virus than its peers.
Arcee remembered the Metal Colossus that was sadly killed by the Leviathan Queen on the isle. It has markings on it akin to symbols. Nearly the same unknown dialect was inscribed in the flesh like tattoos. She could only think of one reason why a Metal Head would have such things. They were significant to their creator in some way. Favoritism, sure, but that allowed Arcee to really think about what was in the mind of the tyrannical Tigressa.
The Metal Mammoth glared at Arcee as the femme could see her reflection in both the skull gem and its glowing eyes. She merely grinned, "Bring it on. Wreck-gar, take the Junkions and run!"
When it charged, Arcee ran at it shifting her blaster into play and firing on it. The fast-shifting ability helped her get more shots off than normal and the upgrade she received from Lantern caused a portion of its shoulder armor to break from a single blast. However, like Silos warned, the Mammoth quickly predicted her next move as it got closer. She tried to jump it but was suddenly swatted out of the air by its trunk. Her leg was grabbed roughly to her dismay. All she could do was yell as she was tossed around like a ragdoll.
Attempting to get up out of its range proved difficult. When she blasted it, it moved around to dodge the bullets despite its large size, making her gasp when it was too close again. She was hit nearly unconscious by the third blow. Then she heard Wreck-gar make the chanting sounds to distract it.
The Metal Mammoth grew annoyed and narrowed its eyes at the mech though the Junkion leader didn't back down as it steadily approached with a snarl. The other Junkions had retreated sans Bolt and Moonhunter who were urging him to run as the elephant monster dwarfed them.
"Oh no," Bolt cowered.
Arcee got up with wobbly legs when Megatron flew down and held her to stabilize her.
"Are you okay?"
"That thing hits like a tank!" Arcee coughed as she held her head.
"I would think it is the physical embodiment of one just by appearance alone, yes."
She shook her dizziness off and activated her weapon when Wreck-gar and Bolt appeared to be in danger. But her servo was covered by Megatron who held a strict expression.
"What?"
"Your blaster alone isn't going to do anything. Maybe a more aerial view might prove better?" The warlord smiled with deadly intent.
He held her in his palm and chucked her up before she activated her gliding ability. Using the newfound brief advantage she had, she dived towards the back of the titan Metal Head. The same trick she pulled with the Metal Heads in the Howling Wastes, she aimed her blaster and used the half-charged energy of the Heat Seeker ability to fire down hell on the monster. Sunstorm would have been proud.
The blast hit right between the shoulder blades and the Metal Mammoth trumpeted in agony right as Bolt grabbed Wreck-gar's arm and forced him to retreat. She fired another blast that hit the side of its body, rupturing almost a dozen of the pustules. It nearly destroyed everything it touched in its painful rampage, blindly striking at anything it could reach. Arcee glided past it and immediately saw it target her again. Then it did something unexpected.
Launching parts of scrap like what the Junkions did to the other Metal Heads, Arcee had to dodge everything but a stray, large engine piece nicked her and disrupted her flight pattern. She started freefalling until Bolt jumped off a hill to catch her and roll her to a less impactful landing. Thankfully, he suffered no injuries rolling on his side.
"Thank you, but see if you can take out the rest of the Metal Heads. I'll face off with Dumbo here, okay?"
The Vehicon swiftly nodded a bit out of breath, "Your call, honey."
As he retreated with Wreck-gar and the others to hunt down the rest of the Metal Heads, Arcee faced off against the giant Metal Mammoth. Unfortunately, Sunstorm's power didn't affect the commander like the Baskilisk. Its armor took most all the shock leaving only scorch marks and second degree burns on its hide.
Arcee flinched back as it began leaping to hit the ground causing shaking and then rearing to crush her. She barely avoided getting under foot until she found herself under its abdomen. Switching to her double-bladed sword again, she struck up but the skin didn't break easy. Abruptly, a trunk wrapped around her waist and threw her out from under it. She rolled again when hitting the ground and growled at the persistence of the monster. She just couldn't find her break with this thing.
A distant roar shook her from her thoughts and she grimaced until she remembered what Silos said. Maybe the best way to deal with it is to not fight it but use others to your advantage.
Furrowing her brows, she started pacing backwards as the Metal Mammoth trampled junk under its feet, flattening all of it with no effort as it went towards her.
"You want a fight worth your power? I'll give you one."
She led it to the most dangerous area of the Dragonlands despite Megatron calling her name, pleading her not to do it. If she couldn't take on the commander, she wasn't going to fight it alone to swell her pride and risk getting killed or leave it to harm everyone else. She would improvise. Being a smart warrior was better than being a powerful one.
Arcee fled around a corner and tensed frightened as a scrap dragon whipped its head around with a snarl. It had something in its mouth. When the Metal Mammoth burst through the scrap pile beside it, the immediately hiss of the dragon drew the monster's attention. Flapping the spines of the ear-like appendages in warning, it stood its ground against the dragon. The larger of the two forced itself up on two legs, wings expanded. It was then Arcee saw the Metal Head was having some regrets but it no longer had the option to back down as it let out a trumpet.
The two creatures clashed; the Metal Mammoth was just big enough to uppercut the dragon's head when it went down to bite it. Using its trunk, it tried pulling on the neck of its opponent. The Metal Head suddenly got a face full of flame before the hand of the larger animal scratched and forced its head down. Teeth came onto the elephant-like creature's neck but the armor protected it, and the commander ripped its head away only to butt heads with the dragon again.
As all the chaos was going on, Arcee avoided their fight by keeping out of range of the swinging tails and rapid motions. Both animals were drawing blood with the scrap dragon the fastest striker of the two. Instantly, the dragon whipped its tail around and caught one of the tusks of the Metal Head. The bone shattered from the brute force and toppled. The Metal Mammoth grew alarmed before fire was pouring from the dragon's jaws with heightened glowing optics glaring at it ragefully.
Despite the setback, the Metal Mammoth continued to take the blows, aiming for the dragon's head. One sharp hit to the head made a nasty sound and the scrap dragon had to clutch its face to realign its skull, blood starting to run from the seams of the mismatched armor. The Metal Head took its hesitance and rammed it. The dragon couldn't keep its balance and fell onto its back with the other creature rearing. A clawed foot came down on its chest and pressed hard, making the dragon claw at it and snap at the flesh. Backing off, the Metal Head took a second to think its position through before lunging. It collided its tusk into a section of the neck and pulled downward, ripping armor off the dragon. It did a similar tactic a second time then uppercut the jaw when the dragon's head bowed in pain.
Arcee winced as the scrap dragon fell but was still quite alive as far as she could tell. When it had trouble getting up, the Metal Mammoth growled and then turned its attention back on Arcee. Blood ran over its underbelly and parts of its face which held complete resentment like a demon possessed. Arcee felt a little bad hurting the scrap dragon and not having as much damage occur to the Metal Head like she planned. It slid a foot against the ground ignoring the scrap dragon snarling but unmoving from its position. It was going after her again; no more distractions.
"Aw, scrap," she muttered.
She sprinted away as the Metal Mammoth followed. Needing a new plan, she scoured the landscape quickly as she passed it. There had to be something she could use among all the junk in the world. Maybe another creature wasn't what she needed. Instead, why not use the environment itself? Then she recalled Wreck-gar had mentioned Detritus had met his fate at the end of the world, fallen off from what it sounded like. But if gravity existed even without the Requiem Blaster, there was no way he would have completely fallen into space...unless there was a means to do so. She searched for her answer and found it by sheer coincidence.
The Metal Mammoth clambered after her even with its blood seeping everywhere refusing to die until it took her out with it. She ran even as the voices of her friends called out to her in the distance along with the roars of the downed dragon and slowly faded the farther out she went. The edge of the world was close and at its limit, a ship barely hanging off its ledge rested undisturbed. There were old chains and other wiring hanging off it from other scrapyard vehicles. She gained an idea better than her initial plan. As the commander crashed through piles of junk and threw anything it could reach out of its path, she ran to the ship and started scaling it.
The Mammoth grew enraged when it couldn't go after her. She anticipated it would instead opt to send the ship off the edge and her along with it. That's exactly what it started to do. Slamming its head and remaining tusk into the ship multiple times, the vessel began to slide by inches giving her only a certain amount of time to complete her plan.
She broke through the glass of the cockpit and quickly tried to reignite the ship's systems. There was energy detected as it flared to life briefly but she had to rip out the console to connect the wires all while being jolted by the mad banging from the Metal Head's anger. The ship turned on but she noticed it only had enough power at most to get it out of the atmosphere before it would succumb to drifting into space. Triggering a timer to launch, she had three minutes. Climbing back out, she made her way farther up to the chains caught in the vessel fins and thrusters. She pulled them out, breaking a few pieces that wouldn't hurt takeoff and watched the commander as she wrapped one end of the chain around a stable piece.
She was suddenly lurched back as the ship almost tipped over but still found its footing to keep on the edge. Knowing that she couldn't let the Metal Head get rid of the ship before it was too late, she ran to the lingering other end of the chain and jumped attached to it. Arcee made a battle cry as she swung down with it right towards the Metal Mammoth that growled. The chain brought her over its head and swinging up in its momentum before going back down. In her distraction, the Metal Head no longer attacked the ship.
It attempted to catch her; its truck outstretched as it leapt up to snag the chain or take her off it. The lowest the chain went was slightly further down the ship which the Metal Head calculated as she expected it too. She stopped her swing by running on the ground and hung onto the edge. Realizing she needed something to attach the chain to her opponent, she quickly looked around for anything she could wrap it with. A barren hook lied next to what could have been a dead body but the pile of junk around it made the appearance ambiguous. Regardless of this, she knew if it was a lost soul, they wouldn't mind her taking their weapon. She snagged it and shoved the chain to attach to its base right as the Metal Mammoth charged her again.
"Come on, big boy, let's dance!" She snarled, swinging the end of the chain with the hook tauntingly.
The commander swiped its trunk, and she flipped over it, now wise to its pattern. It tried again, going up high but Arcee ducked then leapt off its remaining tusk to slice at one of its eyes with the hook. It roared and stood on its hind legs. The queen rotated the chain in her grasp before throwing it upward and using a back kick to send the hook right into the exposed abdomen. The Metal Tusk slammed down; all eyes widened completely as it registered the dense pain. She ripped the hook back to her and sprinted at it.
Using the weight of the chain and its new makeshift blade, she went in close range and sent it flying into the commander any chance she had, stunning the monster before it could retaliate repeatedly. When it tried to stomp on her with a foot, she ran the chain around it before kicking the hook to upper cut its jaw. As it reeled back, she went underneath the trunk, circled up and over the tusk and pulled on the chain to tie up its appendage. She paused when the ship gave a warning of takeoff right as she pulled, her timeframe was now or never.
"You may be large and in charge, but you will never be the best! You will always just be an animal!"
The Metal Head slammed its head down on the ground in frustration unable to detangle its restrained trunk to its tusk. Arcee used the opportunity to summon her speed boost to wrap the chain around its neck. Snapping the hook onto the other parts of the chain, she whipped around and perched on all fours the lip of the base of its trunk as it froze when the engines on the damaged ship ignited.
Giving it a cheesy smirk, Arcee patted its skull gem and said, "You fight hard, but I hit back harder. Do tell the Metal Head Leader of your resignation when you get a chance, commander."
The boosters on the ship pushed it forward as debris was pushed up from its resting place. As the vessel moved off the edge of the world, the chain attached to it followed. Arcee leapt off laughing prior to the chain snapping straight. The Metal Mammoth trumpeted as it was dragged off, unable to stop or pull itself free. When it was airborne stuck behind the thrusters of the vessel, the skin and armor began to melt drastically. Trumpeting turned to alien-like screams as it was burned alive in its forced departure.
She saluted with a playful sneer at such a sight; the ship cleared the atmosphere in no time and after nearly two minutes, the light of its thrusters that were the size of the tiny lights seen in the sky faded like a dying star. The mass of the commander was no longer visible. Forever, the ship would drift into dark space, unknown when it would ever land or crash.
Arcee stood there a second to ponder the whole incident. The only remark she could come up with in her light-headed, energy-boosted mind was, "Huh, I guess elephants can fly."
Bolt struck as many Metal Heads as possible alongside Megatron. Wreck-gar and his Junkions timed their attacks with anything they could get a hold of.
"This is a lot more fun than bobbing for scrapeaters!"
The Vehicon paused at the term of a creature he had never encountered. "For what?"
A sudden boom had all of them peering up in awe as a ship moved out of the atmosphere. Seeing something caught behind it, a mere speck catching fire and hearing the echoing trumpet of terror, Megatron smiled.
"Arcee..."
Seacore had a Metal Head by the throat that was equally watching the launch with interest until he punched it. "That's your sparkmate, huh? That's one hell of a warrior."
The warlord chuckled, "Oh, you should see her when she's really pissed."
The rest of the Metal Head legion grew unsure and backed away as they contemplated what to do. They had never encountered such a defeat, especially one that mocked them so. Seeing the villagers raising their weapons and any sharp junk they could find with demeanors of pure business and hatred, one Metal Head finally sounded off and the few remaining portals closed once most all of them had escaped. A few Metal Heads grew scared standing right where the portals used to be and whimpered as they were stalked upon by the Junkions no longer afraid of them.
The Junkion world was silent as it should be. The Metal Heads were gone with a few remaining chased and killed by the territorial sand lions when they were stuck in the rodeo pits. A few even drowned being tossed into the oil pools, made sure of by the sand lions that could flop on top of them and suffocate the abominations.
They all cheered when Arcee returned with some blood splatter of the Metal Mammoth on her. She was quite surprised that within a few hours, a feast was held with the richest oil available. She smiled when Moonhunter no longer grew aggressive with the hira hyenas, proudly accepting their invitation to be a part of the pack.
After assessing injuries of the citizens with the younglings aiding as best they could, Arcee sat down tired. A few bodies of dead Metal Heads were dragged and perched like trophies on posts made from the junk around them. It was gruesome under normal circumstance; Arcee had no pity for the monsters. Megatron and Bolt tended to Visionair who was more focused on healing remedies than his own missing arm. Seacore was the bloodiest but not stained with his own blood, instead having the purple sludge coating his legs and abdomen.
As everyone settled down, Wreck-gar stood proud at their victory, checking up on everyone until he reached Arcee. He grabbed the vault and sat next to her which she didn't expect. He then handed her it and she froze.
"What are you doing?"
Wreck-gar gave her a sweet look. "I'm no longer holding onto the past. I think it's time you hear the rest."
She held the vault, pawing the lock before furrowing her brows upward in sadness not directed towards him. It was of relief and uncertainty as he finally told her the truth.
"Nancy was...my consort. Her real name was Roguedust, but she loved Nancy when we heard it on an Earth broadcast. Her favorite quote was 'At the end of the day, we can endure much more than we think we can.' She loved all the history about the females on the planet, the 'women' and she knew that's what she wanted to be. She wanted the confidence of the women which is why she changed her name, her lifestyle. I accepted it without any problems because I loved her no matter who she was. She had always been beautiful to me in any form. She also loved dragons and dinosaurs hence the added surname to the species of the distillers and scrapmakers."
Bolt leaned against the hut next to them silently listening in on the conversation. Arcee acknowledged him but let Wreck-gar continue.
"I loved her so much," he choked. "We used to watch shows together, loved movies and the cartoons, the news too. It was our pastime. We got into Earth culture and we were in love with it. So much creation in such a short time."
Arcee nodded, "They are an innovative bunch."
"They are. We used to quote them like mad, drove some of the Junkions insane...but then she got sick. She was a 'biotechnologist' and created the Peace Core, the item in the vault you have. It was one of the last things she ever made and it was designed to create unlimited oil and keep life on Junkion stable. I never tested it and I let our village remain as it was afraid that I would do something wrong with it, ending her years of work. I sat on it believing that everything would work out. This positive attitude was what she loved about me, so I never moved beyond it to do what was needed. Does that make me a bad leader?"
"No. No, no, don't think that way. We all did things that we thought helped everyone but ended up ruining lives, sometimes even against our will. You did what you knew she loved. Nothing will ever be wrong with that. It's just up to you to know when to move on and learn to do other things differently," the queen replied.
Wreck-gar then smiled, his perkiness returning completely. "You know, I don't think that vault needs to stay anymore. The Peace Core will probably like it outside."
"The Peace Core isn't a living thing," she laughed.
"How do you know?" The mech chuckled back, "Maybe it can eat, maybe it can fly, maybe it can do fancy tricks. You don't know for sure until you try, right?"
She tinkered with the lock combination before asking, "What's the code?"
"Oh, that's easy it is...!" He held up a digit proudly at first until he stalled. "It is...huh, I forgot."
"...What?"
"I forgot. I had the code and I forgot but I'm pretty sure I had a clue somewhere just for this exact purpose. Nancy set it up for me! Um, it's-it's-it's on something of ours. She wrote it on something."
As he muttered trying to think of the code, Arcee pieced together his previous words. They loved to watch television together, human shows and whatnot. If that's what they enjoyed as a couple...
"I think I know where it is. Follow me," she urged.
Going into his hut, she frantically looked over the room for something that could pick up broadcasts. Anything technological could if programmed properly. He met her inside as she scoured every corner of his home until she saw something reflective behind a propped door and several discarded boxes of junk. Placing the vault down, she moved things carefully until she resurfaced an old screen with some specks of rust on it. She put it in the center of the room and watched Wreck-gar's expression change. He was almost afraid to touch it like he was going to break it. Then a smile made its way on his faceplates.
"I haven't used this since she passed. It still looks like it could work. Let's hook it up, shall we?"
Arcee returned his growing enthusiasm and placed it on a stand that seemed suspiciously perfect for it. It belonged there once. He attached the cables to the stand which Arcee realized was a server and rerouted the power to a generator within the hut she didn't see, and he watched eagerly as the screen slowly turned on. There was an old message with a dialect Arcee wasn't entirely understanding of but to Wreck-gar's expression shine as he read it was all that mattered. It was special only for him, and Arcee didn't need to know it.
He gestured to the safe and Arcee knew he wanted it. She handed it over without question and began shifting the code to the proper setting. Then a click echoed in the room. He opened the safe but grew confused. Reaching in, Arcee frowned too when all he had was a Radiant Core.
"Where's the Peace Core? It should be here."
Arcee sighed with a heavy heart as she believed the worst. "The aggressor that tricked and hurt you must have taken it and replaced it with that. I'm sorry it was all for naught."
She expected him to go into a state of misery, but instead he held a small smile and handed her the Radiant Core.
"But Nancy's work-?"
"Will be remembered. After all, when was I ever going to use it anyways? Maybe this is a sign. I'll always treasure her, but I need to let go of the past now like you said. Time to be the leader I'm supposed to be. Besides, there's no past like the present...or is it no time like the present? Future? Whatever," he smirked.
Arcee giggled. Indeed, he was a changed mech. But she made a mental note to herself that she would find out what happened to Nancy's Peace Core. The Metal Heads could take it but someday, she planned on taking it back. For now, it was a relief and a privilege to finally see the cooky Junkion leader back to his regular wordplay.
AN: While Wreck-gar is in no means a coward, he is someone I believe wouldn't care until he is convinced to. In this case, he was so lost after losing Nancy that he resigned himself to be incredibly passive...but that came at the cost of several losses. His character does differentiate from his novel counterpart in this regard to make the sin of Sloth make more sense. So, yay, creative liberties.