Under Scrutiny Chapter 6 - Wait, What? (g1) - R
Title: Under Scrutiny
Chapter: 6 - Wait, what?
Rating: R
Warning: Non-explicit death, violence, gore, torture, mentions of sexual situations and cheerful contemplations of all of the preceding. In sum, Vortex.
Universe: G1
Summary: Vortex is being accused of murder, and for once, he didn't do it. Chapter 6 - Vortex tracks down an informant and continues to make fun of Autobot crime dramas. Pre-Earth, Vortex POV.
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
And so our hero stood tall, silhouetted against the rising moon, the light of the city below reflected in a thousand glittering colors across his polished armor-
Pfft. I can’t even finish that line without laughing. Where do the Autobots come up with this slag? At least, I hope it’s an Autobot, because any Decepticon who writes slag like that should be shot as an embarrassment to the faction. That’s one databook I can toss in the closet with the body of the guy who I’d picked it up off of. There’s a wet sorta clang as it lands, but I’m already out on the balcony.
It’s a good spot for lurking; with the lights off behind me, my flat gray will blend into the building, makin’ it hard for any of those below to see me crouched up here. A nice apartment for my purposes, really, halfway up the building with a handy aerial escape route, comm access and an occupant who won’t be missed by anyone important. Or anyone, probably. The quarters are cramped and filthy, more rust than paint on the walls, but it’ll do as a temporary stoppin’ point, until I can sort out this mess.
Got an informant comin’ to meet me, and if he’s headin’ in from where I think, he’ll haveta pass right under me to get to the meetin’ place. Guess “informant” Ain’t a good word. “Idiot” would work better. Once upon a time, I killed someone who had it in for him. For totally unrelated reasons, but I never saw any point in explaining that to him, and consequently, he seems to think he “owes” me. Or maybe he thinks that me doin’ so created some sorta bond where I ain’t gonna introduce him to his fuel pump. Like I said, idiot.
But a handy one today. Considerin’ the situation at hand, I can’t exactly just run back to the base and get the info I need, since if Onslaught’s got any processor speed at all - and he does got a bit, all cracks about his intelligence aside - he’ll be disownin’ me soon as that Mayhem starts lookin’ for me. Then it’ll be AWOL time, and that ain’t a good thing to walk back into base to.
Yeah, that’s personal experience talkin’. No, I wasn’t the AWOL one - but I was the one who swapped his duty shift and leave time around in the base mainframe soon as he rattled his way out the front gate. Didn’t like the fragger much, and the look on his face … heh. I hear that bein’ AWOL’s only a brig time offence over at the Autobot bases, but round here, it’ll buy you a dose of plasma injection by way of plasma ejector.
All of which means, I ain’t headin’ back to base until this is sorted out, ergo, I need someone like Stall. Which explains why I’m lurkin’ around up here waitin’ on the worthless little dune dunebuggy. I doubt he’s dumb enough to try to cross me, but like I keep sayin’, it ain’t hard to outwit the fragger. Electronic surveillance is beat by jammers, but good old fashioned tailin’ ain't, so that’s what I’m up here for. When he goes cruisin’ under me, I’ll be in a good position to tell if anyone’s followin’, on the street or in the air. And looky there, here he comes.
Let him get a bit down the street from me, but ain’t no one comin’ around the corner after him, or changin’ trajectories in the air to keep him in sight. Either no one realized where he was goin’, or no one remembers how much of a little sycophant he is. Whichever it is, I can’t help but feel insulted a bit. This is a whole knew level of underestimatin’ me. And sure, that’s handy as frag, but it’s still insultin’.
I was actually half-hopin’ someone would be tailin’ him. They’d have a fraggin’ sight more intel than Stall there, seein’ as Stall ain’t been on base since right about when I left. He tends to leave me messages askin’ if there’s anything I need him to pick up whenever he’s out and on leave, and I got one of them a little while before Onslaught went and hauled me outta my movie night. And considerin’ our association - and his inability to keep his mouth shut about it - and how he’d be off base, it’d take a pretty stupid slagger to not realize that I’d contact him. And whoever set me up’s gotta have some real computin’ power to pull it off.
I activate my comm and send Stall a new set of coordinates - I don’t think the little idiot’ll turn on me, but I ain’t puttin’ it past him, and I’m a bit too busy to get ambushed tonight.
Stall’s lookin’ nervous as I fly in, but he brightens up soon as I transform. He’s a lousy actor, too. Don’t know how he’s still alive, really. My guess it’s by scurrying around in the shadows of mechs bigger and stronger than him. Like me. He starts babblin’ the moment I touch down.
“Got a job for you,” I say, cuttin’ him off.
“Sure, boss, whatever you need, just tell me and I’m there-”
I swear, either he gets more annoyin’ every time or I just get a mental block on how irritating he is between meetings. One of these days I’m gonna forget how handy he can be and turn him into a wall decoration.
“Need you to head back to base and check in on the Mayhem there,” I tell him. “Find out whatever you can, got it?” Keep it simple, that’s the ticket with idiots-
“Oh, Torsion? The big helicopter?”
Huh? How the frag did he know that? He’s been off base! Stall squeaks when I step forward to loom over him. “What do you know about him?” I demand.
Stall seems to be gettin’ the idea that I’m not in a good mood. “Um, not much, not really at all, boss. I mean, I just saw him briefly-”
“Start with where and then go on to when.” I have to force my rotors to stop flexing. Frag it, this entire mess is throwing me off.
“On base, comin’ out of the commander’s office?” Stall fidgets. Can’t blame him there. The likelihood of him makin’ it through this encounter’s steadily droppin’. I figured that I was gonna end up killin’ him after he got that info anyway, but this is workin’ out better. Talkin’ to him made him a weak point in my defenses, and I can’t have that. Sooner or later someone would remember about him. “It was um, the shift before I left, before I commed you,” he finishes.
What the frag? The body didn’t turn up till after Stall’d left base. How could the Mayhem already be on base, and talking to the commander?
“He’s this big helicopter, one of them double-rotored types, y’know? But that’s all I know, boss. Really.”
Well, that was a dumb thing to say. Stall goes down with a short blade stuck through his central processor. I yank the blade out and dump the body down a warehouse waste recycle unit.
I need to talk to Epicenter again.
Chapter: 6 - Wait, what?
Rating: R
Warning: Non-explicit death, violence, gore, torture, mentions of sexual situations and cheerful contemplations of all of the preceding. In sum, Vortex.
Universe: G1
Summary: Vortex is being accused of murder, and for once, he didn't do it. Chapter 6 - Vortex tracks down an informant and continues to make fun of Autobot crime dramas. Pre-Earth, Vortex POV.
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
And so our hero stood tall, silhouetted against the rising moon, the light of the city below reflected in a thousand glittering colors across his polished armor-
Pfft. I can’t even finish that line without laughing. Where do the Autobots come up with this slag? At least, I hope it’s an Autobot, because any Decepticon who writes slag like that should be shot as an embarrassment to the faction. That’s one databook I can toss in the closet with the body of the guy who I’d picked it up off of. There’s a wet sorta clang as it lands, but I’m already out on the balcony.
It’s a good spot for lurking; with the lights off behind me, my flat gray will blend into the building, makin’ it hard for any of those below to see me crouched up here. A nice apartment for my purposes, really, halfway up the building with a handy aerial escape route, comm access and an occupant who won’t be missed by anyone important. Or anyone, probably. The quarters are cramped and filthy, more rust than paint on the walls, but it’ll do as a temporary stoppin’ point, until I can sort out this mess.
Got an informant comin’ to meet me, and if he’s headin’ in from where I think, he’ll haveta pass right under me to get to the meetin’ place. Guess “informant” Ain’t a good word. “Idiot” would work better. Once upon a time, I killed someone who had it in for him. For totally unrelated reasons, but I never saw any point in explaining that to him, and consequently, he seems to think he “owes” me. Or maybe he thinks that me doin’ so created some sorta bond where I ain’t gonna introduce him to his fuel pump. Like I said, idiot.
But a handy one today. Considerin’ the situation at hand, I can’t exactly just run back to the base and get the info I need, since if Onslaught’s got any processor speed at all - and he does got a bit, all cracks about his intelligence aside - he’ll be disownin’ me soon as that Mayhem starts lookin’ for me. Then it’ll be AWOL time, and that ain’t a good thing to walk back into base to.
Yeah, that’s personal experience talkin’. No, I wasn’t the AWOL one - but I was the one who swapped his duty shift and leave time around in the base mainframe soon as he rattled his way out the front gate. Didn’t like the fragger much, and the look on his face … heh. I hear that bein’ AWOL’s only a brig time offence over at the Autobot bases, but round here, it’ll buy you a dose of plasma injection by way of plasma ejector.
All of which means, I ain’t headin’ back to base until this is sorted out, ergo, I need someone like Stall. Which explains why I’m lurkin’ around up here waitin’ on the worthless little dune dunebuggy. I doubt he’s dumb enough to try to cross me, but like I keep sayin’, it ain’t hard to outwit the fragger. Electronic surveillance is beat by jammers, but good old fashioned tailin’ ain't, so that’s what I’m up here for. When he goes cruisin’ under me, I’ll be in a good position to tell if anyone’s followin’, on the street or in the air. And looky there, here he comes.
Let him get a bit down the street from me, but ain’t no one comin’ around the corner after him, or changin’ trajectories in the air to keep him in sight. Either no one realized where he was goin’, or no one remembers how much of a little sycophant he is. Whichever it is, I can’t help but feel insulted a bit. This is a whole knew level of underestimatin’ me. And sure, that’s handy as frag, but it’s still insultin’.
I was actually half-hopin’ someone would be tailin’ him. They’d have a fraggin’ sight more intel than Stall there, seein’ as Stall ain’t been on base since right about when I left. He tends to leave me messages askin’ if there’s anything I need him to pick up whenever he’s out and on leave, and I got one of them a little while before Onslaught went and hauled me outta my movie night. And considerin’ our association - and his inability to keep his mouth shut about it - and how he’d be off base, it’d take a pretty stupid slagger to not realize that I’d contact him. And whoever set me up’s gotta have some real computin’ power to pull it off.
I activate my comm and send Stall a new set of coordinates - I don’t think the little idiot’ll turn on me, but I ain’t puttin’ it past him, and I’m a bit too busy to get ambushed tonight.
Stall’s lookin’ nervous as I fly in, but he brightens up soon as I transform. He’s a lousy actor, too. Don’t know how he’s still alive, really. My guess it’s by scurrying around in the shadows of mechs bigger and stronger than him. Like me. He starts babblin’ the moment I touch down.
“Got a job for you,” I say, cuttin’ him off.
“Sure, boss, whatever you need, just tell me and I’m there-”
I swear, either he gets more annoyin’ every time or I just get a mental block on how irritating he is between meetings. One of these days I’m gonna forget how handy he can be and turn him into a wall decoration.
“Need you to head back to base and check in on the Mayhem there,” I tell him. “Find out whatever you can, got it?” Keep it simple, that’s the ticket with idiots-
“Oh, Torsion? The big helicopter?”
Huh? How the frag did he know that? He’s been off base! Stall squeaks when I step forward to loom over him. “What do you know about him?” I demand.
Stall seems to be gettin’ the idea that I’m not in a good mood. “Um, not much, not really at all, boss. I mean, I just saw him briefly-”
“Start with where and then go on to when.” I have to force my rotors to stop flexing. Frag it, this entire mess is throwing me off.
“On base, comin’ out of the commander’s office?” Stall fidgets. Can’t blame him there. The likelihood of him makin’ it through this encounter’s steadily droppin’. I figured that I was gonna end up killin’ him after he got that info anyway, but this is workin’ out better. Talkin’ to him made him a weak point in my defenses, and I can’t have that. Sooner or later someone would remember about him. “It was um, the shift before I left, before I commed you,” he finishes.
What the frag? The body didn’t turn up till after Stall’d left base. How could the Mayhem already be on base, and talking to the commander?
“He’s this big helicopter, one of them double-rotored types, y’know? But that’s all I know, boss. Really.”
Well, that was a dumb thing to say. Stall goes down with a short blade stuck through his central processor. I yank the blade out and dump the body down a warehouse waste recycle unit.
I need to talk to Epicenter again.