Synopsis - short fics.
TITLE: Last choice.
WARNINGS/CONTENT ADVICE: Language
RATING: Teens (pg13)
CONTINUITY: Bayverse - after 2007 movie
CHARACTERS: William Lennox, Robert Epps
DISCLAIMER/SUMMARY: When you don't succeed at first, try, try, try again. If you don't succeed at all, try something different.
Speedwriting PROMPT: #1 "Keep Your friends close, and your enemies closer."
"That's the thirty-eighth liaison!" A stack of papers slammed on the desk. "Thirty-eight men and women who don't work!"
Robert Epps shoved the stack into the trashcan without going through it. "Every single one of them was chosen by the Secretary of Defense."
"Maybe that's the problem." Growled William Lennox. "The SecDef is going about the wrong way. Who do we know has previous contact with the Autobots?"
"Aside from us?" Epps shrugged. "The Ex-Sector 7 agents."
*sigh* "I think it's time we apologized."
"You can't be serious! Reginald Simmons?"
"Know anybody else the Government will listen to?"
"No. But Simmons? The man's an ass!"
"A competent one, or he'd have been drummed out long before we fought the Cons."
TITLE: Second chances.
WARNINGS/CONTENT ADVICE: None.
RATING: K (everybody)
CONTINUITY: Generation 1
CHARACTERS: Jazz and a surprise Character
DISCLAIMER/SUMMARY: Our pasts are our own to reveal, or to gloss over as we choose.
Speedwriting PROMPT: #2 Relocating
Andiron looked through the scope. He had the silver saboteur in his sights. Yet Andiron held back.
Why? Andiron asked himself. He hated the silver mech, with his friendly attitude and confident speech. The mech was the target. One could not afford to like the target, or even consider him to be a friend.
Yet, Andiron still could not fire. Perhaps he was still in shock over the encounter the previous orn.
Last orn, Andiron had recieved his latest target files. Standard format: pixels of the subject, no name, just a visual description, list of typical haunts, and current itinerary. Oh, and the creds - enough to keep him fueled for the next quarter vorn.
If Andiron managed to take him out. According the file, others had tried to take out the mech named Jazz. All failed.
Andiron considered himself better than the street thugs. He was a professional hitter and those who hired him, knew it.
Yet, before the offer came about, Jazz had bought him, Andiron, a cube. One cube of energon. Mid-grade, they typical ration. Jazz had been sitting at the table, talking with Andiron, when the messenger arrived with the data crystal.
Curious, yet not wanting the mech providing him a meal to know what he did for a living, Andiron subspaced the crystal. Later, as he was getting ready to leave, head back to his current hide-out, Jazz said: "If you ever want to change occupations, I'll vouch for you."
Andiron snorted. "Vouch for me? That's a laugh. Nobody does that anymore. Especially not with a stranger."
Jazz shrugged. "Who's the stranger? I gave you my designation. You know who I work for." The silver mech stood up. "I trust you." Then he walked away.
Courious, Andiron did want out. He was tired of killing for a living. Tired of skipping town to avoid encounters with Enforcers. Tired of having his targets die in battle before he had the opportunity to shoot at them.
Andiron dismantled his rifle. Approached Jazz. "The offer to join still good?"
"Still good, mech." Jazz tilted his head. "Got a designation I can use?"
"Why not the one I introduced myself by yesterorn?"
"Very well. Glad you could join us, Hound."
TITLE: Flashes of insight.
WARNINGS/CONTENT ADVICE: None.
RATING: K (everybody)
CONTINUITY: Generation 1
CHARACTERS: Sliverbolt and the Arialbots .
DISCLAIMER/SUMMARY: Falling and crashing are not the same thing.
Speedwriting PROMPT: #3 In deep water.
Flash.
It was black.
wake up
Flash.
He was cold.
wake up.
Flash.
He was falling.
wake up.
Flash.
He was trapped.
wake. up.
Flash.
The blackness, it was everywhere.
wake up!
Flash.
Creaking amour. The pressure was increasing.
Wake up.
Flash.
He was sinking.
WAKE UP!
Sliverbolt woke. He struggled to orient himself.
He was surrounded by deepest black space - it was pressing in and trapping him.
His gestalt, frantic with worry, were in one location - below him.
That wasn't right. They never flew lower than him, always racing towards the stars, aiming for the heavens, while he, he barely cleared the treetops.
Why would they be below him?
Flash.
WAKE! UP!
DON'T GO BACK TO SLEEP!
SILVERBOLT!
STAY AWAKE!
Flash
Silverbolt wanted to rest.
But he coudldn't.
Not until his team stopped urging him to do something.
FLASH.
Grabbing energy from stores he did not know he had, Silverbolt turned himself around so his family was above him, and gunned his engines.
It hurt, climbing higher and higher - he couldn't see the ground below him.
But, they - Fireflight, Slingshot, AirRaid, and SkyDive would not let him back down.
Flash.
Silverbolt emerged from beneath the waves.
Only then did he realize the pressure and the blackness, and the cold-sapping strength had not been space, but deep ocean water.
TITLE: Karaoke - good or bad?
WARNINGS/CONTENT ADVICE: None. Though, I don't recommend you try this one at home.
RATING: K + (everybody)
CONTINUITY: Bayvers - post 2007 Transformers.
CHARACTERS: Bumblebee and Sam.
DISCLAIMER/SUMMARY: Karaoke - its a way to blow off stress, and a chance to laugh. Sometimes, we can surprise ourselves.
Speedwriting PROMPT: #4 Previously unknown creative ability.
Bumblebee listened to the recording. He'd heard about Karaoke and asked Sam about it. Sam laughed, said it was something people did when they got drunk.
Bumblebee wanted to know more - like why drunken humans and not sober humans would attempt Karaoke. More laughter. "Cause, drunk humans don't care how they sound when they get in front of the mike."
Bumblebee got Sam to explain, and piece by piece, he figured it out. Lots of humans thought they had great singing voices. Most times, their audience disagreed, and banished the wannabe singer to the shower, or got drunk so they wouldn't remember how bad the off-key lyrics were.
But sometimes, the singer didn't know how good they were.
Bumblebee played the audio he'd taped of Sam, when the Witiwicky boy thought no one was around. Playing the original song as the backdrop, Sam sounded almost as good as the original artist.
Was this why Sam refused to sing a solo?
Bumblebee asked Sam why some humans tried out for solos, and why others did not. "Singing is fun and relaxing, Bee." The boy replied. "If I ever got the lead part, singing would become just another responsibility. More stress, and more time in front of everyone.
"As part of the choir, it's not ME they are looking at. I'm just one of dozens - and nobody's going to know if I fail or make a mistake.
That, Bumblebee could agree with. He did not share Sam's songs with anyone.
TITLE: Dice Game
WARNINGS/CONTENT ADVICE: None. General cuteness
RATING: K + (everybody)
CONTINUITY: Prime
CHARACTERS: Smokescreen and Miko.
DISCLAIMER/SUMMARY: Explaining the rules and object of chance games.
Speedwriting PROMPT: #5 Gamble.
Smokescreen looked at the six-sided dice. "What am I supposed to do with these?"
"You roll them, like this." Miko demonstrated with her dice.
Smokescreen tried rattling the tiny cubes in his hand the way she shook her black-and-white cubes. The dice kept on slipping between the gaps in his fingers.
"Awesome throw!"
"They dropped."
"Ah, doesn't matter, Smokes! You rolled a quadruple of sixes. Nice."
"What's the point of this game?"
"Point?" Miko looked up from the Yatzee spreadsheets on the table. "Why, to see who can get the highest score."
"And then?"
"It's supposed to be fun." Miko gestured with the pencil. "you do know fun, right?"
"I do, but it seems to me, that if we bet money on the outcome, this would be even more fun."
Miko grinned. "Not money, but how about favors?"
"What kind of favors?"
"You win, I do something for you. I win, you do something for me."
"Those are pretty vague stakes. Up the ante?"
"Up the ante? Mech, This isn't a poker tournament! And I'm not playing blackjack with you." Miko's mutterings were still heard clearly by the amused autobots. "Mech can count cards. Not fair that he can keep track of every discard and figured out how to play just by watching one Vegas game. No way am I playing any card game against him"
On a private channel, Breakdown sent Smokescreen a message. "Thanks for distracting Miko. I owe you big."
Smokescreen hid his own grin. Sometimes, it paid off to pretend ignorance to the official rules.
TITLE: The Shiva Option
WARNINGS/CONTENT ADVICE: Off-screen deaths and killing
RATING: Teen
CONTINUITY: AU - G1 characters
CHARACTERS: Megatron plus Autobot fighters, melee warriors.
DISCLAIMER/SUMMARY: Desperate people do desperate things.
Speedwriting PROMPT: Choose something from the 2012 Master Prompt list. I went with 24th of March, Nu 5: "NUKE IT FROM ORBIT"
24th April. #5. "Nuke it from Orbit."
Megatron led the fighting forces one last time. "Is everything ready?"
Ironhide pulled himself off the floor to look at the screen. "Enemy is regrouping on the ground."
"Good. Time for our final assault. Starscream?"
The one-armed flyer touched the ear-bud. "The warhead is ready on your mark."
"Excellent." Megatron looked to the otherside, where Cliffjumper and Sideswipe both glared at the planet below them. "Are you two ready?"
"Ready, sir." said Cliffjumper. Sideswipe just nodded, eager to kill those who killed his twin.
"Everyone, stations!" The fighters were too weary to rush and scramble, yet somehow, they found the energy to stand up and look death in the face. "Mark!"
The first warhead launched.
Warheads two, three, and four quickly followed.
Soon, the planet below, once a thriving colony of organic Quintesicon descendants, was obliterated under a blanket of nuclear radioactivity.
"Our dead companions have been avenged!" Megatron shouted to the troops. "The war is finally finished." There was no cheering.
WARNINGS/CONTENT ADVICE: Language
RATING: Teens (pg13)
CONTINUITY: Bayverse - after 2007 movie
CHARACTERS: William Lennox, Robert Epps
DISCLAIMER/SUMMARY: When you don't succeed at first, try, try, try again. If you don't succeed at all, try something different.
Speedwriting PROMPT: #1 "Keep Your friends close, and your enemies closer."
"That's the thirty-eighth liaison!" A stack of papers slammed on the desk. "Thirty-eight men and women who don't work!"
Robert Epps shoved the stack into the trashcan without going through it. "Every single one of them was chosen by the Secretary of Defense."
"Maybe that's the problem." Growled William Lennox. "The SecDef is going about the wrong way. Who do we know has previous contact with the Autobots?"
"Aside from us?" Epps shrugged. "The Ex-Sector 7 agents."
*sigh* "I think it's time we apologized."
"You can't be serious! Reginald Simmons?"
"Know anybody else the Government will listen to?"
"No. But Simmons? The man's an ass!"
"A competent one, or he'd have been drummed out long before we fought the Cons."
TITLE: Second chances.
WARNINGS/CONTENT ADVICE: None.
RATING: K (everybody)
CONTINUITY: Generation 1
CHARACTERS: Jazz and a surprise Character
DISCLAIMER/SUMMARY: Our pasts are our own to reveal, or to gloss over as we choose.
Speedwriting PROMPT: #2 Relocating
Andiron looked through the scope. He had the silver saboteur in his sights. Yet Andiron held back.
Why? Andiron asked himself. He hated the silver mech, with his friendly attitude and confident speech. The mech was the target. One could not afford to like the target, or even consider him to be a friend.
Yet, Andiron still could not fire. Perhaps he was still in shock over the encounter the previous orn.
Last orn, Andiron had recieved his latest target files. Standard format: pixels of the subject, no name, just a visual description, list of typical haunts, and current itinerary. Oh, and the creds - enough to keep him fueled for the next quarter vorn.
If Andiron managed to take him out. According the file, others had tried to take out the mech named Jazz. All failed.
Andiron considered himself better than the street thugs. He was a professional hitter and those who hired him, knew it.
Yet, before the offer came about, Jazz had bought him, Andiron, a cube. One cube of energon. Mid-grade, they typical ration. Jazz had been sitting at the table, talking with Andiron, when the messenger arrived with the data crystal.
Curious, yet not wanting the mech providing him a meal to know what he did for a living, Andiron subspaced the crystal. Later, as he was getting ready to leave, head back to his current hide-out, Jazz said: "If you ever want to change occupations, I'll vouch for you."
Andiron snorted. "Vouch for me? That's a laugh. Nobody does that anymore. Especially not with a stranger."
Jazz shrugged. "Who's the stranger? I gave you my designation. You know who I work for." The silver mech stood up. "I trust you." Then he walked away.
Courious, Andiron did want out. He was tired of killing for a living. Tired of skipping town to avoid encounters with Enforcers. Tired of having his targets die in battle before he had the opportunity to shoot at them.
Andiron dismantled his rifle. Approached Jazz. "The offer to join still good?"
"Still good, mech." Jazz tilted his head. "Got a designation I can use?"
"Why not the one I introduced myself by yesterorn?"
"Very well. Glad you could join us, Hound."
TITLE: Flashes of insight.
WARNINGS/CONTENT ADVICE: None.
RATING: K (everybody)
CONTINUITY: Generation 1
CHARACTERS: Sliverbolt and the Arialbots .
DISCLAIMER/SUMMARY: Falling and crashing are not the same thing.
Speedwriting PROMPT: #3 In deep water.
Flash.
It was black.
wake up
Flash.
He was cold.
wake up.
Flash.
He was falling.
wake up.
Flash.
He was trapped.
wake. up.
Flash.
The blackness, it was everywhere.
wake up!
Flash.
Creaking amour. The pressure was increasing.
Wake up.
Flash.
He was sinking.
WAKE UP!
Sliverbolt woke. He struggled to orient himself.
He was surrounded by deepest black space - it was pressing in and trapping him.
His gestalt, frantic with worry, were in one location - below him.
That wasn't right. They never flew lower than him, always racing towards the stars, aiming for the heavens, while he, he barely cleared the treetops.
Why would they be below him?
Flash.
WAKE! UP!
DON'T GO BACK TO SLEEP!
SILVERBOLT!
STAY AWAKE!
Flash
Silverbolt wanted to rest.
But he coudldn't.
Not until his team stopped urging him to do something.
FLASH.
Grabbing energy from stores he did not know he had, Silverbolt turned himself around so his family was above him, and gunned his engines.
It hurt, climbing higher and higher - he couldn't see the ground below him.
But, they - Fireflight, Slingshot, AirRaid, and SkyDive would not let him back down.
Flash.
Silverbolt emerged from beneath the waves.
Only then did he realize the pressure and the blackness, and the cold-sapping strength had not been space, but deep ocean water.
TITLE: Karaoke - good or bad?
WARNINGS/CONTENT ADVICE: None. Though, I don't recommend you try this one at home.
RATING: K + (everybody)
CONTINUITY: Bayvers - post 2007 Transformers.
CHARACTERS: Bumblebee and Sam.
DISCLAIMER/SUMMARY: Karaoke - its a way to blow off stress, and a chance to laugh. Sometimes, we can surprise ourselves.
Speedwriting PROMPT: #4 Previously unknown creative ability.
Bumblebee listened to the recording. He'd heard about Karaoke and asked Sam about it. Sam laughed, said it was something people did when they got drunk.
Bumblebee wanted to know more - like why drunken humans and not sober humans would attempt Karaoke. More laughter. "Cause, drunk humans don't care how they sound when they get in front of the mike."
Bumblebee got Sam to explain, and piece by piece, he figured it out. Lots of humans thought they had great singing voices. Most times, their audience disagreed, and banished the wannabe singer to the shower, or got drunk so they wouldn't remember how bad the off-key lyrics were.
But sometimes, the singer didn't know how good they were.
Bumblebee played the audio he'd taped of Sam, when the Witiwicky boy thought no one was around. Playing the original song as the backdrop, Sam sounded almost as good as the original artist.
Was this why Sam refused to sing a solo?
Bumblebee asked Sam why some humans tried out for solos, and why others did not. "Singing is fun and relaxing, Bee." The boy replied. "If I ever got the lead part, singing would become just another responsibility. More stress, and more time in front of everyone.
"As part of the choir, it's not ME they are looking at. I'm just one of dozens - and nobody's going to know if I fail or make a mistake.
That, Bumblebee could agree with. He did not share Sam's songs with anyone.
TITLE: Dice Game
WARNINGS/CONTENT ADVICE: None. General cuteness
RATING: K + (everybody)
CONTINUITY: Prime
CHARACTERS: Smokescreen and Miko.
DISCLAIMER/SUMMARY: Explaining the rules and object of chance games.
Speedwriting PROMPT: #5 Gamble.
Smokescreen looked at the six-sided dice. "What am I supposed to do with these?"
"You roll them, like this." Miko demonstrated with her dice.
Smokescreen tried rattling the tiny cubes in his hand the way she shook her black-and-white cubes. The dice kept on slipping between the gaps in his fingers.
"Awesome throw!"
"They dropped."
"Ah, doesn't matter, Smokes! You rolled a quadruple of sixes. Nice."
"What's the point of this game?"
"Point?" Miko looked up from the Yatzee spreadsheets on the table. "Why, to see who can get the highest score."
"And then?"
"It's supposed to be fun." Miko gestured with the pencil. "you do know fun, right?"
"I do, but it seems to me, that if we bet money on the outcome, this would be even more fun."
Miko grinned. "Not money, but how about favors?"
"What kind of favors?"
"You win, I do something for you. I win, you do something for me."
"Those are pretty vague stakes. Up the ante?"
"Up the ante? Mech, This isn't a poker tournament! And I'm not playing blackjack with you." Miko's mutterings were still heard clearly by the amused autobots. "Mech can count cards. Not fair that he can keep track of every discard and figured out how to play just by watching one Vegas game. No way am I playing any card game against him"
On a private channel, Breakdown sent Smokescreen a message. "Thanks for distracting Miko. I owe you big."
Smokescreen hid his own grin. Sometimes, it paid off to pretend ignorance to the official rules.
TITLE: The Shiva Option
WARNINGS/CONTENT ADVICE: Off-screen deaths and killing
RATING: Teen
CONTINUITY: AU - G1 characters
CHARACTERS: Megatron plus Autobot fighters, melee warriors.
DISCLAIMER/SUMMARY: Desperate people do desperate things.
Speedwriting PROMPT: Choose something from the 2012 Master Prompt list. I went with 24th of March, Nu 5: "NUKE IT FROM ORBIT"
24th April. #5. "Nuke it from Orbit."
Megatron led the fighting forces one last time. "Is everything ready?"
Ironhide pulled himself off the floor to look at the screen. "Enemy is regrouping on the ground."
"Good. Time for our final assault. Starscream?"
The one-armed flyer touched the ear-bud. "The warhead is ready on your mark."
"Excellent." Megatron looked to the otherside, where Cliffjumper and Sideswipe both glared at the planet below them. "Are you two ready?"
"Ready, sir." said Cliffjumper. Sideswipe just nodded, eager to kill those who killed his twin.
"Everyone, stations!" The fighters were too weary to rush and scramble, yet somehow, they found the energy to stand up and look death in the face. "Mark!"
The first warhead launched.
Warheads two, three, and four quickly followed.
Soon, the planet below, once a thriving colony of organic Quintesicon descendants, was obliterated under a blanket of nuclear radioactivity.
"Our dead companions have been avenged!" Megatron shouted to the troops. "The war is finally finished." There was no cheering.