Spooky-Speedwriting prompt reply part 3
TITLE Fateful Decision
RATING: K
CHARACTER: Optimus Prime
T-VERSE: Any. Generation 1
WARNINGS: None
SUMMARY: Once choice makes a huge difference. One choice may mean the difference between life and death.
PROMPT #11 MASK
Optimus Prime gazed at his battle mask. The simple, gray face-plate lay in his hands, hiding all its secrets. It would gain color once he put it on. If he chose to wear it. Optimus Prime turned over the bit of metal that was to be his battle mask, wondering if the metal shield would ever reveal its true purpose.
Instinctively, he knew, the moment he put it on, it would become part of him, and he'd never be able to take it off, or show the real face underneath it to the world. Prime didn't want to install the hardware. He had no choice. With it on, no poison could harm him - least, not any poison introduced through his energon. With it, enemies could not know his thoughts - Orion had been accused of being 'easy to read' and had no secrets. As Optimus Prime, he had secrets, and had to keep his innermost feelings from being revealed. Without the mask and all the advantages it offered, Optimus would be vulnerable, and his troops would be put at risk.
Optimus Prime put on the battle-mask, forever altering his future.
TITLE Life is change
RATING: K
CHARACTER: Prowl, Jazz
T-VERSE: Any - pre earth landing
WARNINGS: Doom and gloom talk
SUMMARY: All life eventually ends - why flee the inevitable?
PROMPT #12 MOMENTO MORI
Prowl stood stiffly at attention, while wave after wave of displaced refugee sought refuge in the Autobot city of Iacon.
Prowl saw scattered, incomplete battalions and platoons escorting the civilians beyond the armored walls. With the fall of Metroplex and Metrotian, there weren't enough soldiers to help the neutrals find safety elsewhere - all the city mehcs where dead or had chosen the Decpticon cause as Trypticon had.
There would be no planet-wide evacuation. It was too late, their resources were too limited. Now, no mass transit as entire cities took their people and supplies to new worlds was possible. With the last city-mech gone, the Autobots could not create an outpost or a colony away from the war that ravaged their world.
Prowl waited for a lull in the crowd. When such a break finally came, Prowl turned to another of the guards who stood at attention with him. "Momento mori."
Jazz's slump at the phrase was not discernible by anyone else. "'Remember that you will die.' Prowl, is that fear speaking? Cause I don't wanna consider the possibility it is the future talking through you."
"No," Prowl whispered. "Reality - we are not immortal - and this uprising has already cost too many lives. My fear would be that none of us live to see the end. Not that eventually, death will for each and everyone of us."
TITLE Holocaust
RATING: K+
CHARACTER: Megatron
T-VERSE: Generation 1 (any) , Pre-war
WARNINGS: off-screen slaughter
SUMMARY: Something must break before the uprising gains momentum.
PROMPT #13 RAGE BREAKING POINT
Megatron stood in the gladiator ring, head held high. The crowds cheered, loving the show their Kaon Champion constantly gave them, as he splattered the energon from his opponent everywhere and gave the challenger a messily, slow, painful deactivation.
The next battle-bout was about to start. Megatron stared at the crowd, ignoring the acid-pitted bars, the stained walls. He gave no indication of recognizing or acknowledging the cage that separated the slaves form the free-mech.
As the rusted gears clanged, releasing the next sacrificial victim, Megatron wondered what strange beast or unfortunate lackey had been chosen. He wouldn't mind fighting the most rare and deadliest creatures - a mindless beast whose' blood was acid, whose eggs were implanted in a living host, and the young immature creatures consumed the spark of its host before emerging as a full-grown deadly adult.
A second rusted chain echoed as its frozen gears began to shift. Megatron waited. Two? A challenge then, not a simple slaughter. As the bars drew up into the stone walls, Megatron saw the face of his opponents he was to extinguish.
All his fights were to the death - that is what drew the crowds. That is what the paying observers wanted. They didn't care who lost, who lived, only that they were given a violent show, and got to watch an otherwise healthy and strong spark extinguish in combat.
The instant Megatron recognized Soundwave and Shockwave, the two mechs chosen to die in the arena today, Megatron attacked. Not his advisers, his constant companions who helped identify the real threats among the gladiators who would attempt assassination inside their prison, while their masters and guards looked the other way.
No, Megatron attacked the others. The simmering rage, held carefully in check, grew every time one of the few mechs he wouldn't mind bringing to his side, died at the wims of the slave-owners: the anger that made Megatron undefeated consumed most of his every waking moment: the rage that allowed Megaton to do the unthinkable on the gladiator pit itself, they all escaped their confines as Megatron allowed his desire to spill energon to consume him.
Megatron's senseless slaughter of the first tier crowds stunned the mob. The guards attempted to take him down, but were attacked in turn by the ignored Shockwave and Soundwave. Megatron moved up the ranks, climbing higher and higher as the stacks of bodies piled up.
Kaon's Underground gladiator pits and its packed mob of street-thugs had no chance of survival against three highly experienced combat warriors. In less than a quarter joor - just six breems after he killed the first mech - thousands upon thousands of deactivated mechs made the famous illegal pit an abattoir in name and fact.
TITLE Hidden Mole
RATING: K+
CHARACTER: Shockwave,
T-VERSE: Generation 1,
WARNINGS: um? implied torture
SUMMARY: Shockwave watched him go. One plant down, seventy-four more prisoners remained.
PROMPT #14 SCENARIO: Possession by a malignant force or personality
Keeping an eye on his guard-drones, and the simple cameras that lined the hallways, Shockwave noticed the progress of the Autobot intruders. They were advancing at an acceptable rate - he was almost finished with his current project.
Shockwave stepped back from the red-mech who remained strapped down. Shockwave allowed some small bit of satisfaction to reach his spark. Emotions were for the weak yet, losing trial subjects as they became rampaging, mindless creatures, was ... irksome.
Releasing the manacles and fetters that kept the red mech immobilized on the operating table, Shockwave stepped back.
As expected, the Autobot rolled, raising guns to his captor. Cliffjumper fired. Tried to fire. His fingers refused to depress the trigger.
"What did you do to me?" Raged the red bot as he tried to attack Shockwave.
Shockwave didn't bother to answer the question. He simply instructed. "Autobot prisoner will forget the last orns. Believe he escaped from holding cell 41 on his own. All Autobot movements, security codes, will be transmitted to Shockwave when I request an update."
"The pit I will!" Cliffjumper swore, standing up to physically attack his captor, since no ranged weapons worked.
Shockwave did nothing, except to say, "Be gone, now."
Cliffjumper's features slackened from the range, anger and sheer hatred he held for Shockwave. his face became a blank canvas as the Red Autobot trotted out, on course to reach the Autobots arranged on a rescue mission.
TITLE Silence is Golden
RATING: K
CHARACTER: Bluestreak
T-VERSE: UNSPECIFIED - G1?
WARNINGS: nothing here (except uncharacteristic Bluey)
SUMMARY: Dawn is therapeutic
PROMPT # ALONE AT LAST
Bluestreak searched far and wide for solitude. Most places on earth, he couldn't get away from the humans! They were everywhere, always underfoot. (Bluestreak thrust that unkindly thought aside). Humans were usually tolerable, but when a mech needed to get away, none of the fragile organics got the hint.
Autobots did. They recognized the uncharacteristic irritability and withdrew politely. After Ratchet confirmed it wasn't a virus or hack, or disguised enemy of course.
Bluestreak finally remembered one place few humans traveled - Mount Everest. The desert drive soothed his battered emotions.
True, climbing the tallest mountain did mean he needed to reveal his truth self, and not the ersatz car he had been pretending to be while on the road, which meant Bluestreak had again been swarmed by the tiny, well-meaning humans who finally got a chance to meet an Autobot instead of watching from a distance.
With the crowd preparing to climb to the summit were bogged down by their oxygen tanks and multiple layers of insulation, Bluestreak was ready instantly, unhampered by extraneous supplies. The mountain wasn't that cold, and he didn't need an atmosphere.
On top of the world, Bluestreak waited for the sun to rise. He found new beginnings therapeutic.
RATING: K
CHARACTER: Optimus Prime
T-VERSE: Any. Generation 1
WARNINGS: None
SUMMARY: Once choice makes a huge difference. One choice may mean the difference between life and death.
PROMPT #11 MASK
Optimus Prime gazed at his battle mask. The simple, gray face-plate lay in his hands, hiding all its secrets. It would gain color once he put it on. If he chose to wear it. Optimus Prime turned over the bit of metal that was to be his battle mask, wondering if the metal shield would ever reveal its true purpose.
Instinctively, he knew, the moment he put it on, it would become part of him, and he'd never be able to take it off, or show the real face underneath it to the world. Prime didn't want to install the hardware. He had no choice. With it on, no poison could harm him - least, not any poison introduced through his energon. With it, enemies could not know his thoughts - Orion had been accused of being 'easy to read' and had no secrets. As Optimus Prime, he had secrets, and had to keep his innermost feelings from being revealed. Without the mask and all the advantages it offered, Optimus would be vulnerable, and his troops would be put at risk.
Optimus Prime put on the battle-mask, forever altering his future.
TITLE Life is change
RATING: K
CHARACTER: Prowl, Jazz
T-VERSE: Any - pre earth landing
WARNINGS: Doom and gloom talk
SUMMARY: All life eventually ends - why flee the inevitable?
PROMPT #12 MOMENTO MORI
Prowl stood stiffly at attention, while wave after wave of displaced refugee sought refuge in the Autobot city of Iacon.
Prowl saw scattered, incomplete battalions and platoons escorting the civilians beyond the armored walls. With the fall of Metroplex and Metrotian, there weren't enough soldiers to help the neutrals find safety elsewhere - all the city mehcs where dead or had chosen the Decpticon cause as Trypticon had.
There would be no planet-wide evacuation. It was too late, their resources were too limited. Now, no mass transit as entire cities took their people and supplies to new worlds was possible. With the last city-mech gone, the Autobots could not create an outpost or a colony away from the war that ravaged their world.
Prowl waited for a lull in the crowd. When such a break finally came, Prowl turned to another of the guards who stood at attention with him. "Momento mori."
Jazz's slump at the phrase was not discernible by anyone else. "'Remember that you will die.' Prowl, is that fear speaking? Cause I don't wanna consider the possibility it is the future talking through you."
"No," Prowl whispered. "Reality - we are not immortal - and this uprising has already cost too many lives. My fear would be that none of us live to see the end. Not that eventually, death will for each and everyone of us."
TITLE Holocaust
RATING: K+
CHARACTER: Megatron
T-VERSE: Generation 1 (any) , Pre-war
WARNINGS: off-screen slaughter
SUMMARY: Something must break before the uprising gains momentum.
PROMPT #13 RAGE BREAKING POINT
Megatron stood in the gladiator ring, head held high. The crowds cheered, loving the show their Kaon Champion constantly gave them, as he splattered the energon from his opponent everywhere and gave the challenger a messily, slow, painful deactivation.
The next battle-bout was about to start. Megatron stared at the crowd, ignoring the acid-pitted bars, the stained walls. He gave no indication of recognizing or acknowledging the cage that separated the slaves form the free-mech.
As the rusted gears clanged, releasing the next sacrificial victim, Megatron wondered what strange beast or unfortunate lackey had been chosen. He wouldn't mind fighting the most rare and deadliest creatures - a mindless beast whose' blood was acid, whose eggs were implanted in a living host, and the young immature creatures consumed the spark of its host before emerging as a full-grown deadly adult.
A second rusted chain echoed as its frozen gears began to shift. Megatron waited. Two? A challenge then, not a simple slaughter. As the bars drew up into the stone walls, Megatron saw the face of his opponents he was to extinguish.
All his fights were to the death - that is what drew the crowds. That is what the paying observers wanted. They didn't care who lost, who lived, only that they were given a violent show, and got to watch an otherwise healthy and strong spark extinguish in combat.
The instant Megatron recognized Soundwave and Shockwave, the two mechs chosen to die in the arena today, Megatron attacked. Not his advisers, his constant companions who helped identify the real threats among the gladiators who would attempt assassination inside their prison, while their masters and guards looked the other way.
No, Megatron attacked the others. The simmering rage, held carefully in check, grew every time one of the few mechs he wouldn't mind bringing to his side, died at the wims of the slave-owners: the anger that made Megatron undefeated consumed most of his every waking moment: the rage that allowed Megaton to do the unthinkable on the gladiator pit itself, they all escaped their confines as Megatron allowed his desire to spill energon to consume him.
Megatron's senseless slaughter of the first tier crowds stunned the mob. The guards attempted to take him down, but were attacked in turn by the ignored Shockwave and Soundwave. Megatron moved up the ranks, climbing higher and higher as the stacks of bodies piled up.
Kaon's Underground gladiator pits and its packed mob of street-thugs had no chance of survival against three highly experienced combat warriors. In less than a quarter joor - just six breems after he killed the first mech - thousands upon thousands of deactivated mechs made the famous illegal pit an abattoir in name and fact.
TITLE Hidden Mole
RATING: K+
CHARACTER: Shockwave,
T-VERSE: Generation 1,
WARNINGS: um? implied torture
SUMMARY: Shockwave watched him go. One plant down, seventy-four more prisoners remained.
PROMPT #14 SCENARIO: Possession by a malignant force or personality
Keeping an eye on his guard-drones, and the simple cameras that lined the hallways, Shockwave noticed the progress of the Autobot intruders. They were advancing at an acceptable rate - he was almost finished with his current project.
Shockwave stepped back from the red-mech who remained strapped down. Shockwave allowed some small bit of satisfaction to reach his spark. Emotions were for the weak yet, losing trial subjects as they became rampaging, mindless creatures, was ... irksome.
Releasing the manacles and fetters that kept the red mech immobilized on the operating table, Shockwave stepped back.
As expected, the Autobot rolled, raising guns to his captor. Cliffjumper fired. Tried to fire. His fingers refused to depress the trigger.
"What did you do to me?" Raged the red bot as he tried to attack Shockwave.
Shockwave didn't bother to answer the question. He simply instructed. "Autobot prisoner will forget the last orns. Believe he escaped from holding cell 41 on his own. All Autobot movements, security codes, will be transmitted to Shockwave when I request an update."
"The pit I will!" Cliffjumper swore, standing up to physically attack his captor, since no ranged weapons worked.
Shockwave did nothing, except to say, "Be gone, now."
Cliffjumper's features slackened from the range, anger and sheer hatred he held for Shockwave. his face became a blank canvas as the Red Autobot trotted out, on course to reach the Autobots arranged on a rescue mission.
TITLE Silence is Golden
RATING: K
CHARACTER: Bluestreak
T-VERSE: UNSPECIFIED - G1?
WARNINGS: nothing here (except uncharacteristic Bluey)
SUMMARY: Dawn is therapeutic
PROMPT # ALONE AT LAST
Bluestreak searched far and wide for solitude. Most places on earth, he couldn't get away from the humans! They were everywhere, always underfoot. (Bluestreak thrust that unkindly thought aside). Humans were usually tolerable, but when a mech needed to get away, none of the fragile organics got the hint.
Autobots did. They recognized the uncharacteristic irritability and withdrew politely. After Ratchet confirmed it wasn't a virus or hack, or disguised enemy of course.
Bluestreak finally remembered one place few humans traveled - Mount Everest. The desert drive soothed his battered emotions.
True, climbing the tallest mountain did mean he needed to reveal his truth self, and not the ersatz car he had been pretending to be while on the road, which meant Bluestreak had again been swarmed by the tiny, well-meaning humans who finally got a chance to meet an Autobot instead of watching from a distance.
With the crowd preparing to climb to the summit were bogged down by their oxygen tanks and multiple layers of insulation, Bluestreak was ready instantly, unhampered by extraneous supplies. The mountain wasn't that cold, and he didn't need an atmosphere.
On top of the world, Bluestreak waited for the sun to rise. He found new beginnings therapeutic.