Treat or trick?

[swordage]

Happy Halloween! I have a treat, no trick: somewhere between classes and midterms and sleep debt I've managed to find the time to work on a story. At this rate I may have it done by my birthday, but in the meantime have a sample, just a taste...

Series: Transformers (movie-verse, draws from G1 and Animated)
Rating: PG

The ground was still steaming when they arrived, the comfortable cool of late Canadian autumn condensing even more vapor in great billowing clouds. Prowl couldn't tell if the interstellar form was still at the landing site through the haze of fog and lingering heat from atmospheric entry. There was no response to his pings, no identifying databurst. Just ominous silence. Either a Decepticon, too injured to identify himself, or gone - the possibilities were not promising.

"Sideswipe, perimeter," Prowl said shortly, standing and giving his tires a quick shake to knock off the half-frozen mud. "Ironhide, Ratchet, fan out."

Sideswipe rolled off almost silently, four wheels compressing the dusting of snow with a faint creak. Ratchet and Ironhide stood, quietly moving through the sparse underbrush on either side of the road, flanking the impact site.

It was ugly. The Cybertronian had the misfortune of being perfectly aligned with the road; the angle of reentry had plowed him through a third of a hic of pavement. He'd sustained damage even before entering the atmosphere, though - plating was melted in places, circuits sparking dangerously. He showed no sign of life other than that.

"Ratchet?" Prowl commed. He could feel his compatriots' EM fields in perfect formation around the newcomer, Sideswipe a distant tingle. He considered, then called Sideswipe back in. No sense in having him patrolling when the only potential enemy was right before them.

"Something's wrong, aside from the obvious injuries," Ratchet murmured over the unit frequency. "Most of the primary systems are duplicated. And he isn't responding to my scans."

Sideswipe stopped beside Prowl, standing up with a minimum of noise. "It looks wrong," he commed thoughtfully. "Aerodynamic, but..."

The hot metal shuddered. All four of them tensed, waiting anxiously. Prowl could see the faint glow of Ironhide's readied cannon to his left, particles shedding from its core and rising on the thermal eddies. The unidentified Cybertronian let out a low moan, sparked motionlessly for a moment, then split along an unnoticed seam.

"Oh, slag," Ratchet grumbled between them. "There's two."

Comments

[spacehussy.livejournal.com]

I still adore this story. SO MUCH.

You are such a rockstar, darlin' <3

*is in the office now~*

[swordage]

Man, your internet is such bad news. D: Also I am so in love with this story it's embarrassing. And I am so ridiculously happy that you like it, you have NO IDEA. You know how happy you were that I like Greed? That is how happy I am that you like this. FOR YOUR PERUSAL, A JOKE ABOUT SHARP KNEES:

"I think it's neat when you match. Is it really that difficult for humans to tell us apart?"

"It is when you look exactly the same," someone said near Bluestreak's knee.

Ratchet made a funny little noise, almost a burst of static, and said, "It's easy. Sunstreaker is the prettier one. Are you going to get off your tailpipe and show off your new exo already?"

"Exo what?" a human asked (and Bluestreak was already getting tired of not being able to tell them apart - he hoped someone had put together some better visual recognition programs, because he just had no idea what even counted as identifying features).

"These plates," Ratchet explained, tapping the near-yellow on his own arm. "Analyzing the best fit should be nearly instantaneous, as it was for Bluestreak, but Sunstreaker is... picky."

"Sunstreaker has special needs," Sideswipe said solemnly. "He needs the extra time to make sure his knees are as sharp as possible."

"The better to disembowel you with, my dear," someone snickered.

[spacehussy.livejournal.com]

*GLEEEEEEE* :D

Oh my god I love you so much. I read that in the office and squealed a little. Thankfully I was in one of the more abandoned areas of the cubicle maze. My two favorite parts:

"The better to disembowel you with, my dear," someone snickered.

This should be cheesy! Or cliched! But instead, it's perfect! I LOVE IT.

(and Bluestreak was already getting tired of not being able to tell them apart - he hoped someone had put together some better visual recognition programs, because he just had no idea what even counted as identifying features)

I think this is my favorite running joke of all time XD Why do humans look so much alike?? It gets confusing.

[swordage]

Humans are all so little! With tiny identifying features like the width of part of their noses. It's horrifying, I tell you. (Eventually Bluestreak will realize that some of them wear nametags and rank and such, and he will go OH THANK GOODNESS it was getting so confusing I'm glad you people have as much trouble as I do well sometimes you seem to know right away but it's so awkward, I don't want to call anyone by the wrong name, I wish we could just ping each other like normal people oh no I didn't mean to call you abnormal I'm just not used to aliens I've never been on a planet with sentience before it's really fascinating how you developed vehicles all on your own although really you could do better I think but I guess they're so slow because you're organic - I read that if you go really fast everything inside you just squishes itself, and do you know how many car accidents happen every day because it's a lot I'm always so nervous when I'm on the highway and the road maintenance is terrible too, there's potholes everywhere and it gets really uncomfortable sometimes and Ironhide told me it's uncomfortable for the passengers too so I guess you already knew that huh.)

I am spending too much time on loving descriptions of Sunstreaker. I CAN'T HELP IT, HE'S SO BEAUTIFUL. I need to cut it down to "long legs, bladed feet, shoulder-mounted anti-aircraft missiles." I cannot wait to write the giant fight scene and having him firing up at Starscream. :3 Mmm those long digitigrade legs make such good shock absorbers.