16th October 2013
Probably A Few Hours Later
"At least we don't have to worry about traps scratching your decals."
Slipstream looks around at the blasted hole that was once Shockwave's roof. Whatever the Autobots did to repair Cybertron has had next to no effect on the heavily damaged workshop that was once home to the greatest mind in the Decepticon cause. She'd assumed that when he turned up on Earth it was because he'd finished whatever he was doing on Cybertron and had decided that it was time to put his work to use. The fact that the Decepticons started using Predacons a little while later gave credence to the idea.
That he gave up on Cybertron because someone wrecked his workshop just never occurred.
"We might find something in storage."
"Don't worry too much." Her partner pats her control panel, though he doesn't touch the controls because it's no time for
that. "We've found plenty of useful technical data. Finding a workable method for
bio-transference was always a pie in the sky thing anyway."
She thought that was the whole point of coming here; either getting the materials he needed to cyberise more of his body or getting her the materials for a techno-organic avatar. Since they're probably not going to get that, isn't this a waste of time?
"You're not disappointed?"
"I got to see a magnificently desolate alien world in the company of a local guide whom
I adore. We downloaded data which we can not merely sell for our own enrichment, but hold over potential enemies so that they daren't attack us for fear it will end up in the hands of
their enemies. To say nothing of the repairs it will let us make to the cybertronian technology left on Earth. Sure, we didn't get
some of the things that would have been nice to have, but it's not that big a deal."
"You sounded so hopeful when we talked about it. I don't want you to be disappointed and not tell me."
"If I worried about what I didn't have the whole time, I'd never spend any time appreciating what I have. What
we have. I hope we'll never run out of things to strive for, but life's pretty good. Isn't it?"
Huh.
"It is. It really is." She increases resolution on her sensors, improving her view of Shockwave's laboratory. "Still worth going in?"
"If you can't detect any weapons. It won't break my heart if we don't get it, but I'd still
like it."
"Alright."
She reduces power to her anti-gravity and shifts her thrusters, performing a shallow dive which takes them through the hole in the roof. She tenses as they enter the room, but no turrets deploy from the walls and no voices shout in alarm. Feeling a little mischievous, she pops her canopy and transforms, tossing her partner into the air and catching him in her right hand as she lands on her feet. She smiles at the way his normally calm and confident expression is suddenly discombobulated, not sure which way's up and what's going on, because that's how he makes
her feel a lot of the time and this is the best she can to do pay him back.
He rests his arms on her forefinger. He regains his calm almost immediately, but she can feel the tremor as his chest pump pounds to increase the flow of fuel to his servos.
"I've changed my mind. We'll find a way to transfer me into a titan, just so I can do that to
you."
"Sure." She puts him down on what used to be a computer console. "A titan. I'm sure we can find-."
Ptchung!
The burst of purple energy hits Slipstream directly in the chest, sending her hurtling backwards, her cockpit and the surrounding armour melted to slag!
Ptchung!
The second shot hits her right shoulder as she stumbles, bursting the joint apart and sending the arm pinwheeling across the chamber, guns halfway deployed as liquid fuel leaks from the wound!
Ch
m. Ch
m.
At first, all he can see is a glowing red eye.
Ch
m. Ch
m.
Then the huge
bulk of Shockwave marches into view, gun arm pointed at Slipstream who is struggling to remain animate.
"Slipstream. And.. pet."
He raises his gun arm, pointing it at Slipstream's head as she tried to lever herself up on her remaining arm.
She freezes, optics locked on glow of the gun's interior.
"I do not know how you found me, but I find the fact that I have the opportunity to remove you as a distraction… Satisfying."
Her eyes
dart to her-.
"Senator Shockwave." The tiny human spreads out his arms in a gesture of appeal that Shockwave almost certainly doesn't recognise. Senator? Was that what he was before the Great War? "What
possible good is there in killing us?"
"Ordinarily I would interrogate you for information. But I do not have the resources to spare."
His gun chimes as he charges-.
"I believe that this course of action is illogical."
His gun doesn't move, but his head swivels to glare at the human.
"Slipstream has betrayed the Decepticon cause. Killing her will permanently remove her as a threat. Killing you will permanently remove you as an information leak."
"What
is the Decepticon cause?"
"The destruction of the Autobots."
"And that's it?"
"
Explain."
"I remember,
Senator, that you have a rather different answer prior to your…" he points to his face. "
Empurata and
mnemosurgery."
"A different age."
"But you
remember it. The aim of a Decepticon is not just to
be a Decepticon; that's a circular definition. It is to achieve freedom for all the Cybertronians the old High Council oppressed. To cast them down and ensure that their kind can never regain power. Isn't it?"
"It was. But that definition is no longer relevant."
"Oh, I think it is. What are the High Council doing right now?"
"They are dead."
"And do the Autobots use cold construction? Do they have slaves? Castes?"
"They do not. This discussion is irrelevant."
"No, it isn't. Because you've recognised the contradiction. Killing us might help the organisation that calls itself 'The Decepticons' in the sense that it gives the group a tactical advantage, but it doesn't do anything to advance the cause that is
supposed to define the organisation. Can you be a Decepticon without doing Decepticon things? Without fulfilling the function that defines them?"
"That-." Shockwave's optical unit
spins, and his gun lowers as he devotes more time to considering the subject.
"I'm curious. Even after you had the opportunity to reverse what they did to you, you never took it. Why?"
"The capacity for logical thought was more useful to the cause than empathy."
"You concluded that logically, weighing up the alternatives?"
"Yes."
"And you did that after your enemies fiddled around with your mind? How do you know that it was a logical decision, when the thing you were using to decide whether or not it was logical was the thing they altered? How do you know you haven't been following High Council programming ever since?"
Shockwave
staggers, his gun arm hanging loose. Paul checks Slipstream. She.. doesn't look
good, and she's definitely feeling
pain, but she doesn't look like she's in danger of bleeding out.
"I-. If.. the objective of the Decepticon organisation has been achieved-. We… Won. The War would be… Over. Anyone who stands against the caste system… Is a Decepticon. But… That includes all current generation Autobots. Why-? Why didn't I see it before?"
"Because the High Council programmed you not to. To think in tactical, act utilitarian terms and ignore long term strategic issues. They didn't want a reasonable, compassionate Senator working against them from inside government and rallying the population to force them to reform. But a cold, hard killer would work fine as a threat to scare the population who were worried about what Megatron was doing in Kaon."
"That… Is… Logical. Then-. There is no reason to.. kill. And even if you are mistaken about what the High Council did to me, there is no overriding reason to maintain this mindset. In fact, my prior way of thinking is more likely to be useful as Optimus Prime forges a new government."
He lowers his gun, deliberately this time.
"No individuals with the required skills to reverse mnemosurgery survive into the modern era."
"There
may be a way around that.
If you give Slipstream the medical attention that she needs."
"What is that?"
"Prayer."
16th October 2013
Once Slipstream Is Up And Taking Light Refreshment
The guns are pointing over his head as he strides out of the ground bridge and into the Autobot command centre.
"Hello, Optimus. I need to borrow the Matrix really quickly. Don't worry, I'll bring it back."
Upside: Rest of the day off. 
