Shattered

Chapter Eight

"This isn't going to end well."

Not far off, a certain spy lingered a moment more before heading in a different direction.

"Those three are up to something."

///

"Blades! I'm here! You can go now!"

The Wrecker turned his helm towards the communications room doorway, arching an optic ridge at the young speedster running towards him.

Skidding to a halt a few feet away, Steeldust glanced at one of the monitor screens.

"Hey, I made it. Thought I was gonna be late," he grinned.

"What, did you forget or something?"

"Nah, mech. Just held up a klik."

Blades crossed his servos, staring down at the twenty-two-foot-tall mech.

Steeldust just returned the look evenly, unconcerned that a mech almost twice his height and many times his mass was staring him down.

"Sure, kid."

"Anything interesting today?"

"Nope."

Nothing that was Blade's business anyways.

"Cool. See ya."

Blades stomped away, sending slight tremors in the floor as he went.

"Don't get distracted," he called over his shoulder.

Steeldust snagged a stool from its position along the wall and dragged it over in front of the computer.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," he muttered as he took a seat.

A quick scan of the monitors told him that all was well and boring.

No signals of any kinds, no incoming attacks, nothing.

Which was all well and good.

With several kliks on the main keypad, Steeldust brought up the patrol schedule.

Several Autobots were currently out on patrol and would likely be out for some time. No one else was scheduled to go out for a while either.

Closing the schedule, Steeldust made a face.

"This is going to be a long shift. I don't get to do much this time."

"Oh well, it'll give me some time to think about some stuff."

Reaching into subspace, Steeldust withdrew an energon candy and popped it in his mouth. Instead of quickly chewing and swallowing it like the ones he'd had in Whirr's lab, he savoured it.

Who knew the next time he'd get a hold of such things again?

The enjoyable peace and quiet was soon broken by a certain frontliner entering the room.

Steeldust heard him coming in and glanced at him, optics narrowed.

"You were just on patrol. Whatcha doing out here?"

Striding right up to the speedster, Sunstreaker growled out a reply.

"We're going to have a chat. And you're not going to run away this time."

"Who said I ran?" asked Steeldust coolly, watching the other young mech carefully. "What's your deal anyways?"

"My deal is that you have information you need to spill," snarled Sunstreaker, leaning over Steeldust. "Now talk."