![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Nova Black 6/?
Wordcount: 2,374
"What is it now, Eclipse?" Brightbolt sneered, his visor gleaming with irritation as he looked up from polishing his chest plate. "Let me guess, more about the Autobots. Weren't you supposed to be buying new parts to amplify the signal dampener?"
Nova Black's lip curled into a frown. She hated her alias, and she hated hearing it from this shiny fool's vocalizer even more. "Supposed to be? I have them. But yes, I discovered something. Something I think you all should know about."
She turned to the others. "I'm late because when I went in to buy parts, I discovered an Autobot buying some when I got there. And by 'some' I mean he was big. I mean he was built to carry cargo... and he was full."
Brightbolt frowned. The others said nothing, listening quietly until Twitch trembled and chirped her distress.
Hearing her cry, the others muttered to themselves, yellow optics flashing. Even those who had sided with Brightbolt in the earlier meeting glanced at one another uneasily. Satisfied, Nova spoke again.
"They're building something. Something big enough that they sent someone with enough storage space to carry the supplies back to their base. Whatever this is, this is real. Something's going to happen. And it's going to happen here."
Brightbolt waved the cloth he'd used to polish himself, snorting.
"And what do we care if it does? They have the right to do whatever they want, same as us. So they're making something. They're Autobots. Why jump to the conclusion it's a weapon?" His polished mouth twisted into a snarl. "The 'Cons are the ones who want to blow half the planet away."
"The Decepticons own the planet, in case you haven't noticed," Nova sneered, her fists clenching. "And what do you think these bots you're so eager to defend are building out there? The Autobots are rebels. Sure, they claim they don't like violence." She shook her head, wings twitching. "But you can't start a revolution without a fight."
"She's right," came Quake's low, resounding voice. Nova tilted her head in surprise. Had he forgiven her for rebuffing him earlier, or was he still hoping she might come to agree with him? "You're a fool, Shiny. A damned sentimental --"
"She goes flying off after some Autobot who's buying parts like it's her business and Brightbolt's the fool?" An engine revved in disgust as a young bot in vehicle mode zoomed toward the discussion and then transformed, frowning at Nova and crossing his arms. "Wasn't she supposed to buying parts to amplify the signal dampener, anyway?"
"Got them," Nova snapped, pulling a small device from one of her storage compartments, tossing it into the air, and catching it again.
But it had been close. After the chase that Burden led her on, she almost hadn't made it back in time to buy them. No one here needed to know that, though.
"I don't like it," Brightbolt said, his visor gleaming. "She says she's going out to get the parts, and she comes back this late? You'd think she wanted the signal dampener to fail."
Nova hissed through clenched dental plates. "I'm the one who installed it in the first place. Why the slag would I let the amplifier break?" Besides, if it ever fails, I'm dead. Idiots.
Brightbolt's head tilted. "You tell us." He stepped forward, jabbing a gleaming finger at Nova. "You tell us why you flew off after someone you're telling us was an Autobot, instead of getting the part and flying back here. The only one looking for a fight... is you."
"Oh, is that right?" Nova peered around the assembly quickly. Seeing no sign of Grandeur, she smiled. "You telling me I've found one?"
Her fist flew up to meet his jaw before she could think better of it. It connected with a satisfying crunch as the metal of the other's faceplate crumpled from the impact.
He froze, and then grunted with pain. She pulled her fist back to hit him again, and with a bright flash of metal, he pivoted out of her reach. Nova spun after him. She was built to fly. That kind of construction made her light and fast. Clearly she would --
A sudden shock of pain flared through her chestplate and the circuitry beneath. A moment later she hit the ground hard, her back and wings aching. The device had rolled out of her hand, and lay on the ground beside her.
He drew back his foot to kick her. Seeing it almost made her laugh. Maybe Grandeur had been right about this bot.
Quickly she raised her arm, its weapon trained on the silver bot above her. He glowered down at her, his injured jaw twitching.
She tensed, ready to defend herself, but his yellow visor merely stared.
"You gonna shoot me now?" His mouth twisted into a smirk, but then he hissed in pain. "I thought you wanted to prove that I was wrong about you. Looks like you're more interested in proving me right."
Nova snorted. "Funny, Brightbolt. I'd been told you could fight. Now you're gonna let this go?"
As much as she hated to admit it, he was right about one thing. If she fired, the others would see the color of her laser fire. The distinctive purple would mark her as undeniably Decepticon-built.
Not to mention that shooting someone in the middle of a fistfight was the kind of thing a 'Con would do anyway.
His leg twitched, eager to kick. Then, with a low growl, he stilled it. "I could fight. Before. Then I gave it up." His visor gleamed. "And no damn fool Decepticon is gonna taunt me back into it."
The others exchanged horrified glances. Ignoring them, he nudged Nova with his foot. "Get up. If you were going to shoot me, you would have done it already."
Growling, Nova lowered her weapon. Grabbing for the device on the ground, she stood, her yellow optics flaring with suspicion as she looked first at Brightbolt, then at the assembled bots.
Gingerly, she tested her wings. They ached, but she could live with the pain. As long as she didn't fly right away, anyway.
"I'm going now," she announced, twirling the device in her hand again. "This needs installing. Unless you want angry machines who'd kill you sooner than look at you poking around to investigate just how many bots we're sheltering here, and just how much more energon we have than we claim." She glared at Brightbolt. "Angry machines who aren't me."
"Then I'm going after you," he hissed, massaging his crumpled jaw with his hand and wincing. "You took your sweet time getting back here, and now you tell me you're just going to fly off and install parts? Don't think you not shooting at me makes me trust you."
Nova twitched her wings again, cursing as pain lanced through them again. If she could just fly up there and leave this damn fool behind, maybe she could be finished before he came after her. Damn him. If it hurt this much to move, she'd have to wait to fly.
"I think that's a good idea," said a voice behind her. She scowled again, recognizing it. Nearby she could see a flash of yellow from Brightbolt's visor. Evidently, the shiny bot wasn't pleased either. "As long as someone else follows them up and makes sure they don't take each other apart."
"Grandeur?" she scowled. "I thought you were --"
"I arrived just now," he said, the golden face peering at each of the two in turn. "I didn't see all of your little altercation, but I saw enough."
"I vouched for you myself," he said, shaking his head at Nova, a rumble of discontent welling from somewhere deep in his frame. "Seeing this, I pray Primus I wasn't wrong to do so."
Nova scowled. She'd been hoping for more of his help. But if it meant giving the polished fool across from her a pass to say whatever the slag he wanted, maybe it wasn't worth it in the end.
And Brightbolt looked better with his face smashed up, anyway. What was he thinking, polishing himself like he came from the Golden Age of Cybertron while living in a slagheap like this one? Maybe it wasn't wise to finish what she'd started, but at least he'd look like what he was for a while. And hate it.
Grandeur turned to Brightbolt, his red hands on his hip plates. Nova snickered, feeling better. At least he was spreading the blame.
"As I said, I have no problem with you going along. But unless she's damned good at lying, she is holding the part we need. The odds that she won't install it are low. Remember that."
"Are they? I don't know what she's playing at, but I --"
Disgusted, Nova turned, beginning the long walk to the tower and the signal dampener. She'd spent enough time chasing after that big Autobot. She had about as much time left for this nonsense as she had patience for it.
###
Nova gnashed her dental plates as the data output flickered in front of her. Twelve percent? That was all? Primus. She'd done her best to set this up as a redundant system, yes, but even just taking out the faulty part could make it hiccup enough to fail. And even a second of it going down could be disastrous, if the Decepticons happened to be monitoring this area when it did.
If Leech discovered a Decepticon energy signal out here, even a fleeting one, he'd know full well what it was. He would never let them ignore it.
And even if her old sparring partner Colossus missed her, she was living with Neutrals now. That made her nothing. Keeping a Settlement intact could be useful for the resources paid in taxes. Or stolen in raids, if a unit's Subcommander was less lazy or more thrill-seeking than Bane. But an individual Neutral deserved only to be run down for the pleasure of chasing it -- and of watching it die.
And Colossus was a fighter, not a commander or a strategist. He wouldn't hesitate, seeing his old friend with yellow optics, a hideous new paint job, and blank spots on her wings. He'd see it as doing his old friend a favor by sparing her such a wretched existence.
Sometimes, she thought she might just agree with him.
"That's going to short out any moment now," said a familiar voice behind her. "Stop staring into space and fix it. If you're really going to."
"Shut up and let me work," she snarled over her shoulder. Her fingers itched to hit him again. Hell, up here she might just be able to transform her hand and stab him before anyone caught on. But she didn't have time. Not now.
She stared at the panel a moment longer, as if thinking would do anything but waste more time. Then, snorting at her own hesitation, she yanked the old part free.
Rust flaked off into her hand. She tossed the old amplifier aside and ignored it, not wanting to see how sorry a state it was in. Instead, she kept her optics on the output readings.
They dropped, as she expected. Ten percent. Nine. Seven.
Come on, just don't gutter out before I'm done with this, she thought, inserting the new part, her fingers flying as she connected wires, cursing.
Unfazed, the datascreen continued its steady countdown. Five. Four. Three.
Three. What the slag? Three? It should never even get that low, not with the backups there...
A bright green light flashed as the new module flickered on. Heaving a sigh of relief, Nova watched as the numbers climbed. She murmured, watching them. Fifteen. Twenty. Thirty-two. Forty. Fifty. Sixty... seven.
Another blink, and a purple gleam from the signal dampener atop the tower. Maximum capacity, apparently.
"Not the best," Nova muttered, "but it'll do." It was better than they'd been for far too long. And fairly impressive, really, for something cobbled together out of secondhand parts.
She felt a puff of hot air hit her neck as the other snorted. "Well, how about that?" he said, his head faintly clicking as he tilted it. "You're actually afraid."
"Told you already," she said, whirling around to face him. "I'm not a Decepticon any more."
His visor flared bright with astonishment. "You're running from them."
"I'm saving all our frames is what I'm doing." Her wings twitched, the dull ache beginning to fade. She moved them again for good measure.
He snorted again. "Saving us? I don't need saving. Especially not by Decepticon technology."
"Not by --!" she sputtered, her dental plates clenching so hard she might just dent them. "Why you vain, ungrateful little malfunction!"
Purple light flashed as her hand transformed into an energon dagger, its surface crackling with energy.
Seeing it, Brightbolt drew back in surprise. He'd suspected it for a long time, and known for sure from the moment she'd said she wasn't with them "any more."
But now here it was, right in front of him, a weapon in his enemy's colors, gleaming its malevolence.
He hadn't seen anything like that, not for a long, long time. Not since --
He snarled, a low growl that shook his whole frame, and lowered himself into a fighting stance.
The warning sound of Grandeur's revving engine brought him, shuddering, back to his senses.
Snarling, Nova transformed her hand, but did not lower it. "And what the slag are you doing then? Keeping your visor on me for your old friends' sakes?"
"And I told you, and every other bot in the settlement: I'm not an Autobot any more." The bright head lowered, shaking with another metallic hiss. "I don't deserve to be."
Nova had to smirk. "Don't deserve to be an Autobot? You don't esteem yourself highly at all, do you?"
"Don't try that slag with me," the other rumbled. "You have no idea."
"Neither do you," Nova answered, her own optics flaring in their scarred sockets. "Neither do you."