Tarn and the very bad no good terrible week

[sparkwhisperer]

Who: Tarn and Drift and Tarn and You
Where: The city center
When: A few days after the Rodimus incident
What: Tarn has an unfortunate run in with some new friends
Warnings: Tarn. Violence to come

Tarn has had bad days before. Occasionally his latest victim would get a good punch in, perhaps they were particularly good at eluding himself and his team, or they managed to temporarily escape. Maybe the pet decided to gnaw on a particularly important set of data pads. Or Vos decided to poach parts from one of the cleaning drones. Again.

Any of that is a walk in the park compared to the viciously terrible week Tarn has had. So far he has been transported to an alternate Cybertron without his consent. He has been harassed by Autobots, burned, shot at, disrespected,; but really, the proverbial cherry on top of the whole mess, was the incident with Megatron. The founder of the Decepticons, the mech he has sacrificed his identity, his name, his very life to serving, turned traitorous. Betraying his own faction and trading his own badge for an Autobrand. Honestly, Tarn is having a difficult time even wrapping his mind around the whole thing. One thing is for certain though...he is angry and on the hunt for someone to take his aggression out on.

He has been prowling the city ruins for hours, stopping every few minutes to transform a few times, just to take the edge off. He can feel his T-cog grinding more and more with every transformation. He is familiar with the sensation and the knowledge that the cog probably wont last him the month only adds to his every growing ire.

Comments

[sparkwhisperer]

A short grunt escapes Tarn as he finds himself on his back, inside the ruins of the building he was standing next to. Sixshot has him pinned, massive jaws set around the barrels of his fusion cannon- rendering it useless for the time being.

He can do nothing but talk himself out of the situation.

"Sixshot, I'm afraid there has been somewhat of a Misunderstanding." His voice comes out strained due to the weight bearing down on him. "I was unaware that it was you up there you see."

He tries to wriggle out from beneath the Phase Sixer.

[phase6kindofbot]

"Shouldn't have shot then," Sixshot laughs around the barrel, sneering as he spitefully presses more of his weight onto the tank when the smaller mech squirms. "Don't you think?"

The building groans around them, destabilized by the hole the Sixer had left in its side. He pays it no heed, world narrowed down to the pitiful little existence caught under his claws, optics bright with malevolence. He could almost taste the energon between his teeth, see the DJD commander's entrails painted over the streets, chest armor gaping and empty...

A sight he's seen a thousand times already.

The blood lust recedes abruptly, fizzling out into static nothingness.

Sixshot eases his weight off of Tarn's frame but pointedly keeps his jaws locked around the canon. "Why were you shooting at anything?"

[sparkwhisperer]

Tarn sighs a breath of relief as Sixshot eases off of him.

"It has been a terrible week filled with terrible Autobots. I thought you were one of them." He tries to roll to the side to get back to his feet, but the Sixer's jaws are still on his cannon. "Speak of, Did you know that Megatron is an Autobot now?" Well one of the Megatrons at least.

[phase6kindofbot]

"..." Sixshot goes through the mental list of Autobots he'd sighted, smelled or met and none of their profiles really seemed to indicate the sort to start a fight. He'd initially been doubtful of the war having ended but then he'd met Nautica, and, well. Nautica was kind of Nautica.

The wolf-former eases his jaws open, careful not to cause anymore damage than what had already been done. He then transforms, rearing back, mass slipping into subspace. The mech who should have been three times Tarn's height now stood only a few inches shorter than the purple mech.

"I met him. He smelled like a wrecked space bridge and fool's energon."

It doesn't seem to particularly bother Sixshot though.

[sparkwhisperer]

Tarn sits up, inspecting his fusion cannon for damage, as Sixshot transforms. A few superficial dents and scratches to the barrels but nothing crippling overall. It should still be functional. Tarn latches on to the last part of Sixshot's sentence

"Fool's energon?" Tarn pauses and glances up at his fellow Decepticon. He is unfamiliar with such a thing.

[phase6kindofbot]

"They use the stuff to keep a lot of prisoners weak on the penal colonies. Cheaper than energon."

Strange that Tarn would not have heard of it. Then again, Sixshot hadn't heard of it either up until he'd asked a warden about it during a layover in one such colony. The smell had stuck in his mind.

There was a series of 'POPS' from above their heads. The Sixer blinks up at the ceiling before reaching out to try and take one of Tarn's arms and calmly escort him out.

"We should probably leave," he says. Honestly, a collapsed building wouldn't kill either of them, but digging out of it would be a bit of a pain.

[sparkwhisperer]

Now that Sixshot mentions it, the effects sound vaguely familiar. A cowardly way to keep a prisoner subdued, for certain. He had pushed the concept to the back of his mind until now.

He is snapped out of his thoughts by the loud popping of the building framework starting break apart and Sixshot grasping at his arm. He staggers to his feet, but not as calmly as his comrade may have hoped.

"Do you mean to tell me...That Megatron has been on this 'fools energon' Since we have arrived" Tarn has begun pacing the crumbling building. His hands are quivering in barely contained rage.

[phase6kindofbot]

"Like I know," Sixshot huffs, actually beginning to feel a small niggling of exasperation when Tarn starts to pace. He digs his heels in and tries to pull the purple mech out the giant dog-shaped hole of an exit.

"Far as I cant tell, he has been." For a while too since Megatron didn't smell like a particularly healthy Cybertronian. Still, Sixshot feels vaguely compelled to stop Tarn from doing anything too rash and points out, "He's got fresh energon right in front of him though. I don't think he's going to be on that stuff for long."

[sparkwhisperer]

Tarn continues to pace, ignoring Sixshot's pull on his arm. Dust begins to fall from the ceiling as the popping and creaking becomes more frequent.

Fury blazes in Tarn's eyes as his mind races. He had fallen for Megatron's bluff like a fool. A golden opportunity had been squandered. He barely even notices as a portion of the ceiling falls in.

[phase6kindofbot]

He should REALLY just leave and let the short-sighted idiot get buried in the building, Sixshot thinks as he's dragged after Tarn. Let him take two hours to dig himself out, see how slagging far that gets him.

Uttering the most long suffering of sighs, the Sixer reaches out and yanks Tarn away from under the collapsing ceiling by one of his stupid back canons. He then sweeps the DJD commander off he feet as if it were their bloody honeymoon, spins, and then leaps out of the building just as the structure gives away entirely.

[sparkwhisperer]

It takes Tarn a full 30 seconds to actually understand what was happening and by then it is far too late. Sputtering indignatly, he pushes against Sixshot's chest once they are free from the building, squirming to get down.

"Wh- I- Put me down. Right now."

He can think of nothing else to say. For once.

[phase6kindofbot]

There's definitely a mischievously amused glint in Sixshot's optics as he watches Tarn just lose ALL of his carefully cultured composure.

"Of course." Fortunately for the DJD Commander's dignity, the Sixer doesn't just drop him. He sets Tarn down gently, feet first, hand on one side of the mech's dark waist to help steady him, all proper and courteous.

"You should be a bit more careful," he rumbles as the dust settles around them, quiet laughter in his voice.

gayyyy

[sparkwhisperer]

Still trying to cope with his shattered composure, Tarn pushes Sixshot with all of his strength, stumbling back and catching himself on bent iron beam. Never before has he been so thoroughly humiliated; swept off his feet like a swooning lover.

"Get off of me. How dare you" He growls, eyes burning in humiliated anger.

stands all handsomely against the backdrop of destruction

[phase6kindofbot]

"You'd still have been ticked if I'd left you under that building," Sixshot points out, trying to smother the humor in his voice. Goodness, he'd never seen a mech act so... indignant. All this over being carried out of a crumbling building!

"Plus," the Sixer gestures to the scorch mark on his shoulder from Tarn's fusion cannon. "I think you hardly have any room to speak."

Re: stands all handsomely against the backdrop of destruction

[sparkwhisperer]

Tarn sits down in the dust, completely overwhelmed. Everything that has happened over the past few weeks hitting him at once. He tries to tamp it down, embarrassment burning in his tanks. He knows he's acting ridiculous.

"I'm sorry, alright? I honestly thought you were an Autobot. You wouldn't believe how few Decepticons there are here..."

[phase6kindofbot]

The amusement fizzles out abruptly at Tarn's apology. Sixshot regards the DJD commander in silence before striding over.

"Do not," Sixshot begins, lowering himself onto one knee next to the purple mech, arm resting atop a thigh. "Shoot. At the Autobots. Do not antagonize them needlessly."

"Do not do anything that will make Megatron turn me on you. I do not want to make us even fewer."

[sparkwhisperer]

Tarn turns to look at Sixshot as he kneels next to him.

"It is my duty to uphold the ideals of the Decepticon cause. I will not become weak as Megatron became weak. I have to fight." He sighs, shaking his head, "I'm sorry. I am."

[phase6kindofbot]

"Lashing out without direction and starting petty fights is not strength either."

The sound of transformation rings out over the ruins and Sixshot stretches out on the ground in his massive wolf form once more, half curled up around Tarn.

With a loud exhale, he rests his head atop of his paws, eyeing the loyalist sitting before him before continuing, "Do not start doing so just to distance yourself from Megatron."

[sparkwhisperer]

Tarn looks down at Sixshot as he lies next to him.

"I'm not doing it to distance myself from him. I'm doing it to punish him." Looking away he sighs, "He has to pay for his mistake, Sixshot. He has to face the mess that he has created."

Tarn reaches over to rest a hand upon one massive paw, as if they are creating a pact

"I will do as I have been commanded, just as you will do as you have. And if Megatron decides to use you against me, i will not hold it against you."

[phase6kindofbot]

Sixshot's eye tracks Tarns hand down to where they rested upon his paw before following the arm back up to the mech's face. After a beat, he dims his optics in acceptance, tilting his canine head slightly so that the edge of his broad snout bumped up against the DJD commander's forearm.

"I hope this doesn't get you killed,"

How strange it is to feel so tired again. He'd not felt this way ever since Shockwave had seen fit to install him with the regenerative fission cell so many a millenia ago.

"You said there were other Decepticons?" he asks by way of distraction. As far as Sixshot had seen, there'd only been Tarn, especially with the news of Megatron's defection.

[sparkwhisperer]

Tarn sighs, suddenly tired as well, as Sixshot brushes against him. He supposes he can chalk it up to being low on fuel.

"Yes, but I know of only a few." He rests his head back against the beam, dimming his optics. "So far I have only come across three, excluding youself. There is another version of Megatron. From the past, during the beinging of the Revolution. He is still soft, but I'm sure experience will help to fix that. Then there is Dreadwing. Not Turmoil's follower, but a mech from an alternate dimension. He seems to have quite a bit of honor in him. A fine Decepticon, truly."

Tarn huffs a sigh. "And then there is a scientist named Spinister. He is..." Tarn trails off a bit, "Well he's a sort of idiot savant. Not too bright. Got himself stuck on the list. But, resourceful at the very least."

[phase6kindofbot]

Five Decepticons. That does make things a little awkward. Not that things weren't already awkward with their Megatron trying to dismantle the Decepticons, but, well.

"Another version of Megatron?" Sixshot asks somewhat lazily. They were on a weird Cybertron that wasn't their Cybertron where dead people apparently came back from being dead and people kept thinking he was 'nice'. Honestly, time travelling strangeness was just the missing ingredient at this point.

[sparkwhisperer]

“Yes, it is quite peculiar, indeed.” A try humorless laugh escapes from behind Tarn’s mask. “ He had no idea who I was when we first ran into each other; or what I do, for that matter. I have a feeling even he would not approve of it yet. Too much of a pacifist. “

Optics still dim, he turns to look down at Sixshot. It was nice to have a conversation with an equal. Not someone who needs babysitting, or threatening to keep going. His attempts to call his team have become less frequent, and he yearns for the company that they provided.

[phase6kindofbot]

"Heh, I'll keep away from him for a while then." If this Megatron wouldn't approve of what Tarn did, then Sixshot doubts he'd approve of a walking genocide machine.

He misses the look the DJD commander turns on him however, optics off and drowsing as he was. It... is the first time in a long while that he's been somewhat at ease with another Cybertronian admittedly. There were times with Black Shadow and Overlord, the rare occasions that he'd been teamed up with them, the calm before a mission. It was the quiet comfort of being with others... who would understand, even if they vastly differed in every other way.

[sparkwhisperer]

They sit in silence for a long time; Tarn actually resting for the first time since he arrived. His joints and t-cog ache, but he manages to calm his mind. The cacophony of questions and anger ceasing for just a little while.

Tarn is the first to break the silence.

"Do you need a place to stay? I haven't much to offer, but Spinister and I have settled in a sort of temporary base of sorts. You are welcome if you find yourself in need of shelter."

Tarn doesn't expect that Sixshot will go for the suggestion, but it is only polite to extend the offer.