The beasts of war feed only on the meats of war [SEMI-OPEN, IN-PROGRESS...]
WHO: Starscream, People listed here, civvies!
WHAT: Starscream tries to take over the world! He fails. ... yep.
WHEN: Noon on the 2nd of August.
WHERE: THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING
WARNINGS: Violence, character death, robots.
NOTES: here is a rough outline of how shit is going down. HERE IS AN EVEN SHORTER VERSION.Also tag your own selves in kthx ( Read more... )
WHAT: Starscream tries to take over the world! He fails. ... yep.
WHEN: Noon on the 2nd of August.
WHERE: THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING
WARNINGS: Violence, character death, robots.
NOTES: here is a rough outline of how shit is going down. HERE IS AN EVEN SHORTER VERSION.Also tag your own selves in kthx ( Read more... )
The floors of the Empire State were pure chaos. Drone robots ran this way and that, paniced announcements went out over the loudspeakers. The security guards did an admirable job of trying to fend off the onslaught before they were summarily disarmed and disabled by the drones.
Nearer to the top floors, strange things were happening - long arms of strangely jointed alien metal had seemingly grown through the walls, and glowing purple crystals sprouted from the floor. Near these crystals, unshielded electronics went haywire, communication turned to static, and hair stood on end. The civilians avoided these like the plague. On the observation deck, twisting spiral staircases jut upwards and through the floor of the great machine above you...
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Oh, frag my life.
The one person he didn't want to see here. Great. he'd hoped, prayed that Rimmer's cowardice would have kept him home. Home and safe.
"Shockwave, Dr. Horrible; continue the spool-up sequence. I have... business to attend to ( ... )
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"My god," he whispered, fighting down the urge to either vomit or run. But they had been friends for too long, and this was something he had to...fix? Change? Something. He owed it to his friend to at least try.
Right?
"What the hell have you done?" he said in a louder voice. It wasn't much louder, though.
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He shook his head.
"You wouldn't understand. Well, perhaps part of it. You'd understand, at least, being a failure all of your life, and for once, for once trying to live up to the expectations of your manufa- forefathers."
He sighed. "But you wouldn't understand the expectations I must live up to. I don't..."
He shook his head again, like trying to clear something out of it.
"You should leave, Rimmer! Just go. Please."
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"No," was the answer, swallowed back against a tight throat. He finally managed to get his feet to work again and started walking forward once more.
"Stop this, Starscream. Stop this now. This world isn't yours for the taking, and you smegging well know it."
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"I can't stop. This world is mine for the taking. Did you know, Rimmer, that Skyfire and I discovered it?"
He folded his arms and looked out over the city, at the chaos below as his troops subdued yet more civilians.
"Nine million years ago, Skyfire had found a new world. He begged me to go see it, and I... I said no. I told him, it would be far too dangerous; but eventually I acquiesced. He was..."
He sighed. "You know what he was to me."
"We came here, to this sleepy world, and discovered vast quantities of energon, rich mineral deposits. The more I saw, the more excited I was, the happier I was that I'd let Sky convince me to see it. And we talked, you know. We were going to go to the council, get mining rights, found cities. We would have set up a colony here; and he and I would have been famous across Cybertron for our discovery ( ... )
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"No," he said again, standing his ground. "I won't leave. I won't fight you, either, but I'm not leaving. I...I liked Skyfire, I did. And he wanted me to look after you. And I let him down a lot, I think. But damn it, this time I won't."
He clenched his hands into fists at his side, trying to remember everything Raven had taught him about remaining calm. Finding the centre, keeping everything in balance, going on in spite of the fear...
"You know he wouldn't approve of this. You know he'd stand up to you as well. Just because you discovered it doesn't make it yours. You have no right to do this. No right ( ... )
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He clenched his fists, his eyes flashing brightly.
"I know! I know he would, I know that he'd probably pick me up and throw me off this building! But he's gone now, and I can't - "
He whipped around as the drone shot at Rimmer, his face contorted with rage.
"I. SAID. STAND. DOWN!," he snarled, blasting the errant drone's head off. "TRANSMIT THAT TO YOUR BROTHERS, YOU IGNORANT PIECE OF SCRAP."
Turning back to Rimmer, he narrowed his eyes.
"I... appreciate your concern. But I will not stray from this course. I will not compromise, I will not turn back. I am going back up these stairs. You could follow me, but I would advise against it. I am... I am sorry."
He was, genuinely. For Rimmer, at least. The rest of the Earth could burn for all he cared. He turned on his heel and started back up the stairs.
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"No," he said more quietly, not letting go. "Aren't you tired of it? Don't you want to find some...some other goal? I did. I did it, I found something else other than the Space Corps and now I'm happy. Please, Starscream, please don't. Those bastards in spandex will stop you, those...those morally self-righteous smegheads! They'll kill you! Please, stop this now, while you're still alive. I'll...I'll help you find something else, something to really work for...something you can value aside from taking over the smegging world ( ... )
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What else is there? A slow, easy life where I grow old and rust and die - or, in my case, live forever? I would rather flare and gutter like a dying star. I would rather make a mark...
He hardened his spark, fell back into his old rhythms. Acceptable losses. Acceptable risk. Come now, put that cocky swagger back in your step...
But the last question gave him pause.
"The second. Technically. The second. That's what I said," he said. He thought. Maybe he'd misspoken. Rimmer was the second, though. The first, well, the first he'd fallen in love with. A mistake, perhaps. "But the first friend I had in this City, to be sure."
He shook his head, turning back slightly. "It was no lie. What would I have to gain from you? At least, here and now."
It was vicious, what he was saying, but in some ways it was a compliment. He meant it as one, anyway, and it was true. "There's nothing I can use you for! You don't have anything I want, not anymore, you don't give me any resources I need and you aren' ( ... )
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He was panting with the effort of staying this close to so much energy in the air, seemingly keeping his hard light drive going by sheer force of will. He couldn't sweat, but he was gritting his teeth, making the muscles along the side of his face knot up in tense little clusters.
"I would help you too, you know. Even though you've betrayed me before, even though you treat me like something scraped off your heel after a walk in a dog park. I'm trying to help you now! Fine, I'm dead weight. No change there, that's my life. But I'm trying not to be. And this if this is the most heroic thing I ever do in my life, then it'll be worth it ( ... )
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Thoughtful, almost.
Rimmer was clearly not going to stop. Not unless he got himself killed, or disabled.
Well, then.
He stepped down, and, very gently, took Rimmer by the shoulders, before meeting his friend's eyes.
"I must say, I... appreciate that. The idea that you would play hero for me. It's quite flattering, really. And it is admirable for you to try"There is, however, one problem. I am not," he had to smirk a little here, at the sheer absurdity of the statement, "the princess. I am the villain ( ... )
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The second that null-pulse hit him, Rimmer's eyes went wide with betrayal, and pain, and regret. He had enough time to mouth a few words -
"...Oh, you bastard!"
- and then his hard light drive gave up the ghost. It was a hard reboot of his light bee, his emotions winking out like a twinkly Christmas light. And in the instant between him shutting down and his light bee dropping toward the ground, there was a puff of black smoke, and a delicate hand snaking out to catch him.
Pff. Gone. The black smoke gradually dissipated, signaling that Raven wasn't waiting around to see what else would happen. She was taking her husband, or what was left of him,
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He stood for a few long moments, looking in the space where his friend had once been.
Most Cybertronians cannot cry. It is not a way in which they express sorrow - a useless waste of fluid. Oh, a few Autobots had the capability, something their brethren always found strange, but Decepticons never could. Starscream was no exception to this.
He did, however, sit down on the stair, and put his head in his hands for a few moments.
No. What you are is a Decepticon. What you are is a weapon. And nothing - friendship, brotherhood, nothing - can stand in your way.
Standing slowly, he began to ascend the staircase.
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