Dec 16, 2009 00:12
Peter woke up suddenly, his body twisting in the bed and then forcing him to catch his breath in pain. Pain, which was coming from his middle because of the thing that had scratched him last night, and after that
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rika,
klavier,
axel,
meche,
kagura,
tsubaki,
xigbar,
yuna,
teisel,
sephiroth,
beelzemon,
sam winchester,
jade,
indiana jones,
kaku,
forte,
utena,
allen,
naminé,
tk-622,
luke fon fabre,
euphemia,
zex,
rey,
hayes,
peter parker,
luxord,
lunge,
raphael,
kanji,
mello,
brainiac 5,
ange,
the flash,
albedo,
anthy,
usopp,
remy,
tsukasa,
lord recluse,
peter petrelli,
yohji,
mele,
two-face,
yuffie,
ritsuka,
edgar,
neku,
the scarecrow,
sync,
ryoji,
spock,
kratos,
zack,
nataku,
l,
terry,
haseo,
shinji,
kakashi,
sechs,
homura,
asuka,
haine,
bella,
scott pilgrim,
dias,
ritsu,
sora,
ashton,
junpei,
lockon (neil),
renamon,
claude,
obito,
haruno sakura,
alkaid,
edgeworth,
dist,
teresa,
tim drake,
hk-47,
chopper,
von karma,
hanekoma,
kenren,
hanyuu,
guy,
abe sapien,
hinamori momo,
chekov,
depth charge,
nigredo,
kibitoshin,
allelujah,
sam,
lelouch,
ratchet,
yomi,
aerith,
rolo,
schuldig,
yue,
sheena,
edward cullen,
beatrix,
mccoy,
scar (tlk)
Maybe he'd had it coming to him- he'd been letting his guard down a lot over the last couple of days, getting complacent, just sucking up the daily grind and rolling with it without blowing a gasket or two over it when he probably should have done. Well, to the Pit with that. Nothing justified what they'd done to him. Nothing. They could tear out his circuits or rip out his gears, but his processor- his personality core, Primus, his mind- that was strictly off-limits. Do not pass Go, do not collect energon.
He felt oddly queasy, standing in the Sun Room. How had they done it? He couldn't remember any experiments, any surgery, any treatment... zip. Was he really so easily manipulated? Well, whatever the case, they'd done a slagging good job of it- everything he'd said, everything he'd done... just knowing how deeply he'd fallen for it was enough to ignite something inside of him. Something, he realised, that had been conspicuously cool for what felt like an age, but, in reality, couldn't have been more than the week he had spent here.
It occurred to him that he was going to make them pay for this, and that was odd enough- feeling that old instinct kick in. He hadn't exactly sworn an oath in mech fluid, Depth Charge conceded, but there was more than enough passion to back him up.
"Mr. Price? Are you alright?"
He blinked uncertainly, then realised he was standing in front of his nurse. Right.
"Get out of my face," he snapped back, sidestepping the woman before she could object and kicking back on a sofa across the room. The power he felt for it was immense. Primus, it was good to be back.
[LUGGERS. GET HERE NOW.]
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Lugnut trudged into the sun room, mood slightly lifted by the idea of finding and slaughtering Landel with HK-47 and those meatbags he'd mentioned, but still miserably morose, and shaky from the yawning emptiness that was burrowing into his fuel tank.
Blitzwing gone, Megatron gone, Scourge deserted, the Maximal...
... right over there.
He blinked, wondering if he'd crossed a wire or two. But the Maximal hadn't replied the day before, how could he be there?
With a shudder, he decided it was better to ask, and stormed over towards Depth Charge, demanding loudly, "You! Why didn't you respond to the bulletin yesterday?!" How dare he make Lugnut wo-- make Lugnut think he was gone, too!
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Still... he couldn't help but feel kind of (make that kind of really) guilty (guilt?! He didn't owe that mudflap anything!) at having put the guy through the wringer like that. The way he was moving before, that wasn't right to see- big, powerful Lugnut, reducing to trailing around like a lost sparkling. And he'd lost Blitzwing, too. And they did have a truce, sort of. And he did kind of like the gu-
Oh, no. Better to stop that train of thought right there.
"Identity crisis," he answered in a flat, almost bored voice, as though it were an adequate excuse for giving Lugnut what looked like a spark-attack.
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He shuddered, bloodshot eyes going even redder, and snarled wordlessly at Depth charge as he collapsed onto a couch. He was definitely not relieved that a... a really completely hated enemy like the Maximal was...
The snarl broke off into a soft, mushy, organic sound that Lugnut didn't even realize he'd made until a moment later. Then he pretended he hadn't made it, looking away from the Maximal with overdone disdain, forcing something indistinct about deception being something Decepticons did, not Autobots, and fisted his hands in his lap to keep them from shaking.
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You couldn't have faulted his acting skills if you'd tried. Yanking the guy's crankcase wasn't what he'd had in mind, of course- far from it- but the last thing he wanted was for Lugnut to know just how deeply they'd managed to screw with him. After all, they might have been friends not enemies, but-
- what in the galaxy...? Depth Charge's brow contracted into a frown as he realised that Lugnut was shaking like a leaf. For a moment, all he could do was stare. He shifted, then, softly, muttered: "... sorry." And then he blinked, because he definitely hadn't meant to say it out loud. "Didn't mean to mess with you." Or that.
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"... Lord Megatron is gone," he blurted, fists tightening until it hurt, then looked away again.
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He stared. "He's gone? You serious?" Well, if that didn't take the energon cookie. No wonder Lugnut looked like his entire world had fallen apart- as far as he was concerned, it had. "Primus."
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He gave Lugnut a cool, even look, but the Decepticon was busy making eyes at the floor. Instead, he clapped a hand on his shoulder- he needed to see this in the man's face to believe it. "What does that mean, exactly?"
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Still speaking slowly, working it out in his head as he said it, he didn't-quite-offer, "Escaping here should be my foremost concern. And there is no reason why I could not... collaborate with others, to that end..."
He edged a look back up towards Depth Charge. It hadn't been an offer of peace, exactly, so it couldn't exactly be outright rejected or accepted, but it was still put out there, hanging between them.
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On their first night... suggesting that you'd avoid kicking the opposition's skidplate if you could wasn't extraordinary by any means, not for most people, but coming from Lugnut it had been almost revolutionary. The guy was president of Megatron's fanclub, for Primus' sake, so to have some kind of truce in the first place? Now that had been crazy. Even then he hadn't been sure how much of it he'd swallowed.
And now, over a week later, someone had jacked up the volume on it.
Depth Charge frowned, as though the silence wasn't enough to give away his hesitation. Then, carefully, carefully, he picked his words. "Yeah. I guess there isn't a reason," he answered in his most noncommittal voice, cracking his knuckles idly. "Not like anyone's around to tell you not to." He swallowed, then forced himself to look Lugnut in the eye. "Nothing to stop me, either."
There. He'd said it. And, weirdly enough, he felt a little better for it. Losing your personality core, making deals with 'cons... you're losing your touch, DC. You're losing it big time.
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"... If you have any plans for escaping this place, I will lend my assistance," Lugnut said, quietly earnest.
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"Back atcha, big guy," he answered, nodding once and trying to ignore how strange it felt to discuss strategy with Lugnut, of all people. "So. You had any illuminations, or do we need to put our processors together?"
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In the familiar tone of reporting to someone, Lugnut answered, "HK-47 has told me he's been working with a pair of humans to explore the basement; they believe the human running this place can be reached, down there, and he has invited me to join them."
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... hnnh. Something still didn't feel right about that. Well, whatever. Just so long as he reminded himself the alliance was with Lugnut while they were here rather than the entire slagging Decepticon army, he'd be okay. "Oh, he can, can he?" Immediately, Depth Charge leaned in, looking intrigued. "Colour me interested. What's the catch?"
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