“We have to,” Sprocket says. “Salvation doesn’t have enough space to handle a whole zoo, and these guys’ll probably be safer here.”
Forcep nods.
“Yes, perhaps we should consult Grommet before we make a decision,” he says.
The guard looks between the two bots, then sighs.
“Alright,” he says, “but it better be quick; and if you try something, all three of us are gonna regret it, you hear?”
Grommet was reading a report written by Shockwave on mechanimal cloning. Salvation lacked the necessary technology to clone anything, however, and so Grommet was reading more out of interest than anything else.
Broadwing nodded and walked past the guard. He walked up to Shockwave’s cell. The mere sight of him was almost enough to send him over the edge, but he managed to still himself. His tail twitched. A low clicking sound, almost like a growl rose in his throat. His optic visor burned with nothing but anger and hatred.
“So… It’s been a while.”
Broadwing said.
“Excuse me”
Arachnados said.
“I believe I might have something in your interest.”
“I highly doubt whatever experience Shockwave has with insecticons could be used to save lives as much as weaponize them,” Forcep tersely says. The idea of recruiting the aid of Shockwave clearly didn’t sit well with him.
“Certainly,” Shockwave affirms. He looks down at Broadwing’s hands.
“You have made some modifications to your form, I see,” he comments.
“Yeah. After the way you left me, getting along with others hasn’t exactly been easy. So I’ve been doing what I can to look more ,normal’. Fixing this mess hasn’t exactly been easy, but anything is an improvement.”
Broadwing paused for a moment while he thought over his next words.
“How… I want to know how you were able to ruin my life before I even knew I had one. And then when I didn’t turn out all perfect and obedient like you wanted you threw me out, without giving a single thought to how I’d do on my own. Without an ounce of care for what you created. The fact that you managed to ruin me so completely, and then carelessly threw me to the wind. How!”
Arachnados opened his cocoon and pulled out all the extinct plant samples.
“I found these in the Golden Age facility. Thought a scientist like you would want them. Especially since everything I have here has been thought to be long extinct.”
“You were too sapient to serve as a combat mechanimal,” Shockwave replies. “The logical choice was to either terminate you or ‘turn you loose’, so to speak. Obviously, I chose the latter.”
Grommet’s eyes widen.
“Y-yes…” he stammers. “Yes, this does pique my interest…”
“But he does have experience with cloning.” Zepar reminded him, “I know you don’t like him and I’d be lying if I said otherwise but he is a valuable asset to Cybertron as a whole.”
“But you raised me… Made me… There had to be some kind of regret, sympathy, something, anything. You couldn’t have just thrown me out without any kind of emotion.”
“Well how fortunate. I would be more than happy to hand them over to you for study. For a price of course.”
Broadwing clenched his fists. His tail twitched. His spark burned with utter hatred. He wanted to gut him right then and there. But he couldn’t. He knew that.
“Listen here Cyclops. I know I by your standards I’m a failure. I’m not good enough. Well you know what? I am more than you will ever be. You sit there in your cell, perfectly content with everything you’ve done. Everything you’ve ruined. And for all of it you feel nothing. I’ve felt like a monster all my life, but now I know better. I know who the real monster is here.”
Broadwing then turned to, having nothing else to say, and not caring for anything Shockwave would have to say back.
“Hm. Tempting, tempting. But how about this instead. Three thousand each.”
Arachnados said. He’d have the most devilish grin if he had a proper mouth
Shockwave did not say anything in return, and some of the guards and other prisoners give Broadwing approving looks.
Grommet shakes his head.
“Absolutely not,” he refuses. “I can, however, raise my offer. Four thousand shanix, then. An argument can be made for an additional two hundred, or perhaps some other reward-”
-Grommet gestures to the pens and stasis pods containing his mechanimal companions.
“-depending on how nice you are to me in the following moments.”
Broadwing walked away, appreciating the reception from the guards, but unable to show it. His spark and mind werw a swirling chaotic storm of emotions. A combination of rage and victory, and so many other things he couldn’t describe. He needed to let it out somehow. He walked up to one of the guards.
“Hey, is there a… Training room of some kind? Some place I can break things and not get in trouble for it?”
“Personally I think I’m being perfectly reasonable. These are one of a kind specimens afterall. However, I’ll be generous and take your offer. Four thousand and the pods, for my plants.”
“Yeah man, we’ve got lots of those,” the Decepticon guard informs Broadwing.
“Hey, is what just happened-?” the Autobot guard begins to ask, before being interrupted.
“No, not usually a Decepticon thing,” the Decepticon guard says to his counterpart. “Usually we just shoot whoever’s ****ed us off. Kinda glad that didn’t happen this time though, actually.”
Grommet hands over four thousand shanix.
“I think you misunderstood me,” Grommet says. “You may choose one companion from my, uh… menagerie, I guess it is. I have a few that are ready for ‘field testing’.”
Arachnados could choose from two mechanimals from Grommet’s selection:
A scorpion-like bug that could deliver electric shocks from its tail to antagonize enemies:
Or a beast bearing traits similar to those of a terran sea creature, that could transform into a trident and deploy a set of energon armor in robot mode:
“Believe me, I wanted to… And once this whole ‘saving the planet’ quest is said and done, I just might. But this isn’t the place. Amyway, where’s the closest training room?”
Arachnados scratched at his chin as he considered his options.
“Tell me, the second one. How inelegant is it?”
Broadwing ran off to the training room. That encounter left him with lot of built up energy that needed to be let out. He ran in to see what he was working with.
“Alright then. I’ll take it.”
Arachnados said. The choice was easy. He knew never to trust another arachnid, and having a little wrecking ball follow him around could be useful.
