[Fic] A good day
Title: A good day
Rating: K '
Verse: G1
Characters: Grimlock
A/N: written for Khalthar, in gratitude for patiently listening to my rants when the going got a bit rough.
Grimlock came out of recharge and looked around. His Dinobots were all still charging quietly, he was the first one awake. It was so peaceful, and... it was unbearably boring.
"Wake up!" he roared.
They startled into wakefulness, looking about to discover what was so urgent, and he laughed at them. They looked at him, panic over and resentfulness taking over.
They grumbled at him. Slag even took a swipe at him with his tail, but Grimlock dodged it easily.
"Lazy bots. No sleep time now. Me Grimlock say now is time for doing!"
Stomping out into the corridor, followed more slowly by his team, he sneered at a couple of passing Autobots. They were such weaklings.
"If me Grimlock in charge, we no more wait for Decepticons to attack us, we attack them." he grumbled.
His Dinobots murmured agreement, and he grinned at the looks of disgust he garnered from the others within hearing. Of course they would not want to hear such brave plans: they were cowards.
Reaching the rec room he quickened his steps a little just so he could shove Warpath aside at the energon dispenser. The minibot was hot-tempered and could easily be provoked into a brawl. Today, though, a couple of the other minibots pulled Warpath aside and talked to him to stop the fight developing. Grimlock snorted. Weaklings.
"You really should've gotten past the clumsy stage by now." a familiar voice mocked him. "I guess you really are all still just babies."
He growled, spinning to glare at the red twin.
"Me Grimlock not baby. You Sideswipe baby."
Sideswipe sighed dramatically.
"Poor sparkling. Can't even think up your own insults. That's sad, Grimmy, real sad."
"Name not Grimmy. Name GRIMLOCK!"
He stepped forward menacingly, but then saw Sunstreaker was present too. It was a problem. He was not afraid of them - Grimlock was not afraid of anybody! - but the twins were tricksome, particularly when they were together. They moved so quickly and were never still long enough to properly hit. Besides, the yellow twin could get vicious if his brother was hurt: last time he had even dented Grimlock's leg so much he had had to go to Ratchet to get it fixed. It had hurt. A lot.
On the other hand, now that he had started his pride would not let him just back down. Only the weak made threats they couldn't back up. So he had no choice.
"Me Grimlock crush you!"
"You'll do no such thing." Prowl declared crisply, rising from where he had been seated at a different table and moving to stand between them.
The second in command actually stood with his back to Grimlock, facing the twins. A brave move, and a stupid one, but then Prowl had never shown any fear of the Dinobots. It was one of the things that had earned him some grudging admiration from Grimlock.
"If you two have nothing better to do than provoke trouble you can go and help Hoist work through the delivery of metal ore that arrived this morning for refining."
"It wasn't me!" Sunstreaker cried.
"Didn't you see what he did?" Sideswipe tried to argue.
Prowl listened to neither of them.
"Off you go." he ordered, pointing to the door and waiting until they slunk out before turning to face the Dinobots. "Grimlock, ensure your team get their ration then continue with your clearance work for the new road."
Grimlock frowned. He liked Prowl better than some of the other mechs, but he didn't like being told what to do by anyone.
"Me Grimlock no need do what you say." Grimlock huffed.
Prowl met his gaze serenely.
"If you do not wish to continue with your assigned task I can find you something else. Guard duty, for example."
"Me Snarl no want do guard duty."
"Me Slag want destroy rocks again."
"Me Sludge want too!"
Grimlock grunted sourly at the comments from his team, struggling through the quandry.
It had been fun, yesterday, exploding and crushing rocks to clear a path for a new road. Guard duty was boring.
He did not have to follow Prowl's orders, but sometimes it was better to. He had refused duties before and it always ended badly. And it always disappointed Wheeljack, which made Grimlock feel bad. Their creator worked so hard to help them find a way to enjoy themselves.
"Me Grimlock choose." he said finally. "Dinobots clear rocks."
"Excellent." Prowl nodded shortly, turning away and heading out of the room.
"You Grimlock smart." Swoop approved. "Make him Wheeljack very happy."
Grimlock grinned. Wheeljack would be proud to hear that Grimlock had won a verbal argument with the second in command. He was always saying that Prowl was patient and would always listen if they could make a logical response.
Life was a lot more complicated than he had understood when they were first brought online, he mused as he drank his energon. Back then everything had seemed very simple: please the creator, and prove he was the strongest. The latter was true most of the time. But it turned out that sometimes other things were more important than just being strong, and it was hard for him to really understand that.
Optimus Prime was big and strong, but he did weak things all the time and no-one seemed to think he was weak. Well, no-one except Megatron. In some ways Grimlock admired Megatron more, but Wheeljack would never go to the Decepticons, and if he did they would only hurt him. So if they were going to stay near Wheeljack, they needed to stay with the Autobots and for that they had to learn to understand the other important things.
Somehow, there was a different sort of strength which the Autobots valued. Not physical size, or the ability to crush an enmy. Otherwise Omega Supreme would have been been their leader and not Optimus Prime. Prowl had this other strength, whatever it was. He could make anyone do anything he wanted, not by yelling at them or forcing them, just with words. And Optimus Prime was very good with words too.
It was a worry. Grimlock was not good with words at all.
Irritated by his own thoughts, he shoved at Sludge who spilt the last of his energon.
"Why you Grimlock push me Sludge?"
"You Sludge drink too slow. We go now. Break rocks!"
Breaking rocks was just as much fun today as it had been yesterday. No weak Autobots to be careful of, just the five of them having fun.
He knew that this was helping the Autobots, and a rebellious part of him resented that but he was not sure why. Helping the Autobots made everything easier and made Wheeljack happy. And it was good to have Wheeljack happy. And there was no point in refusing to do something that was this much fun.
The important thing, he decided happily, was that he was choosing to do this task, not that he had been told to.
Suddenly Swoop screeched and flew down to him.
"Decepticons! Me Swoop see! Must tell Autobots!"
"No." Grimlock told him. "No need call weak Autobots. We Dinobots crush bad Decepticons."
Swoop started to protest, but Slag, Sludge and Snarl were all in favour and Grimlock roared in triumph as the flier conceded.
"You Swoop show us Dinobots where Decepticons are and we crush them."
Swoop nodded and took off low, probably so he would not be seen too soon by the enemy, and they all lumbered after him as quickly as they could.
This was a very good thing, Grimlock thought to himself as they travelled. A chance to show the Autobots how tough they really were. Even Swoop agreed with him that the Dinobots were tougher than the Decepticons. Well, the agreement had come when they had been talking about all the Dinobots taking on any one single Decepticon, but Swoop had agreed, and he could not deny it now. Another verbal battle Grimlock had won.
Maybe he was becoming smart after all?
He was about to comment on that thought when suddenly the ground collapsed beneath him and he fell. Snarl fell on top of him, and then Slag on top of both of them. Grimlock bellowed and shoved at them until he could free himself, finding he was in a pit and that ground level was a long way above him.
As he oriented himself, he became aware of Swoop circling anxiously above and heard the pterodactyl telling Sludge to stay back. Sludge clearly did not want to obey because he appeared at the edge of the hole, and Grimlock cried out.
"You Sludge stay back. Not fall on me Grimlock!"
"Or on me Slag!"
"Why you Slag and Snarl and Grimlock go down there?" Sludge asked, confused.
"Not supposed to go down." Snarl grumbled. "Him Grimlock not see hole."
"You Snarl not see either." Grimlock huffed. "And hole not there to see until me Grimlock stand on it."
"Me Sludge see it okay." Sludge pointed out. "Why you not able to see it?"
"Because it was invisible hole." Slag explained. "Grimlock know that."
Grimlock hesitated. That was not quite right, but still if it had not been invisible then that meant it was visible and he should have seen it. Which he had not.
He rubbed at his helm. Sometimes logic word stuff was hard.
"Yes." he agreed. "Invisible hole. Visible now we fall in it. But now we need get out of it."
"Me Swoop can go get help." Swoop offered.
"No." Grimlock told him. "We Dinobots smart enough to save selves. No need Autobot help."
"You Grimlock have plan?" Snarl asked.
"Be quiet. Me Grimlock need to think."
There had to be some way for them to save themselves from this embarrassment. Looking around he was about to ask Swoop to go back to the Ark to find a rope when he suddenly noticed that the hole wasn't just a hole - it was a tunnel.
"We go this way." he ordered, choosing the direction that would bring them closer to the Decepticons. "You Sludge stay with him Swoop and look for us to come out. We will find exit."
"How much further we go?" Snarl grumbled for the fifth time.
"Me Grimlock not know."
"We lost."
"Not lost." Grimlock countered. "Someone build tunnel, so must have exit. We look."
"Me Slag think this not fun."
"Me Snarl agree."
Grimlock agreed too, but he did not say it. There had to be an exit, that was logical. But there was no reason why the exit had to be in this direction. It might have been back behind them, or off to one of the side tunnels they had passed. It could take a very long time to find it. And yet, he could not bring himself to turn around.
Better to be decisive, even if it proved him wrong.
Stomping onwards, he wondered if the Decepticons were going to hang around for long enough for him to get there. It would make the day much worse if they did not even get to fight.
Ten steps later, the question came again.
"How much further?"
This time, Grimlock tried to ignore it. He would be mature, like a leader should be. He would ignore it and just go around the corner...
"You Grimlock choose wrong way."
On second thought, what was the good of being the leader if no-one listened to you?
"Me Grimlock say you shut up now or me Grimlock crush you into tiny pieces!"
"Me Snarl say you should try!"
Thoroughly fed up, Grimlock charged at him. Snarl tried to dodge but was too slow and they rolled together down the corridor and round a corner... and into something metallic.
"Oooh, you Grimlock and you Snarl in trouble!" Slag laughed. "You break special machine."
"Not Autobot machine, so doesn't count." Grimlock huffed, untangling himself from Snarl to look down at the wreckage.
Whatever it had been, it was definitely broken now. He hoped he was right and that it was not one of Wheeljack's machines, or his creator would be very sad.
Picking it up in the hope of finding somewhere to hide it, he headed further along and around another corner and was surprised to see another mech. But this was no Autobot. He saw lime green paint and recognition clicked in.
"You Constructicon!" he growled.
The Decepticon yelped, struggling to free himself, but Grimlock threw the ruined machine at him and the Constructicon ended up squashed against the wall. The noise drew attention, and Grimlock grinned. More Constructicons. More Decepticons to fight.
Today was a good day.
"By the time we got here it was all over." Bumblebee shrugged as he reported back to Optimus Prime who had arrived far too late to join in the fun. "Whatever the machine was, it's now completely trashed; the Constructicons only got away because Blitzwing came and got them; and from what I saw, there won't be many Decepticons without dents to fix tonight, all thanks to the Dinobots. Megatron included."
Grimlock couldn't stop smiling, and didn't really want to. It had been a very good day. Many Decepticons had been caught in the close confines of the tunnels and had been easy prey for him and Snarl and Slag. And then Swoop and Sludge had arrived just in time to help beat up the other Decepticons out in the open.
Bumblebee had arrived right at the end with several other Autobots, and had been worried about some machine that the Decepticons had been building, but Grimlock told him they had already destroyed it.
The minibot did not need to know it had all been an accident.
Anyway, the news seemed to make the Autobots very happy. Wheeljack and given each of them a hug and promised them an oil bath - a luxury that was not offered often - and Optimus Prime looked just as pleased.
"You've done a good job, Grimlock." the Autobot leader told him. "In gratitude, Jazz is insisting we should throw a party in your honour, and I agree, and Prowl has promised to give you whatever duty you prefer for the next week."
Silly Autobots. They made a fuss over such little things. Still, if they wanted to be nice Grimlock was not going to complain.
"We Dinobots come to party." he agreed solemnly. "And we choose break rocks as favourite duty."
"Break rocks!" Slag echoed happily, and Sludge cheered.
Prowl sighed, shaking his head and muttering something that sounded like "told you so" but that did not make sense so Grimlock ignored it.
"Very well." Optimus finalised the deal. "A party, and then a week of rock breaking. Now I think we've done all that's needed here. Autobots, lets roll for home!"
Grimlock snorted, transforming and loping along behind the faster but weaker vehicles. The Autobots had done nothing at all, but the party would be fun. And any day he got to beat up Decepticons was a good day.
Hopefully tomorrow would be just as good.