Transformers2005 - Monday, December 15, 1997, 1:57 AM
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Memorial Spaceport

Rodimus Prime slinks off Launching Pad 1 with a pathetic look of 
persecution written across his face, in an even more pathetic attempt at 
the stealthy Mission Impossible getaway as he cracks his head against 
one of the lower doorways.
Whiz slides out from under one of the shuttles on one of those little 
trolleys, turning her head at the familiar - but not entirely- foosteps.
Whiz blinks up. "You know, you look even taller from down here."
Rodimus Prime grumbles an "ow" to himself, rubbing his head and 
remembering to duck as he proceeds through. He startles, then relaxes 
again as he places the voice, realizing he hasn't been 'caught.' "Oh, 
shut up," he mutters irritably.
Whiz clasps her hands to her chest. "Oh, shut up? I'm wounded."
Whiz sits up with a smirk, then gets to her feet and jams her heel down 
upon the trailing edge of the trolley, flipping it up into the air like 
a skateboard and hanging on to the edge. "Been on the job for... how 
long? And already ordering your friends around."
Rodimus Prime lets a smirk escape his persecuted exterior. "Sorry, I 
can't come up with anything better after listening to all that diplomacy 
slag."
Whiz chuckles. "You're the one who got caught by the responsibility 
police."
You say, "Besides, I have to take advantage of it when I can. Ultra 
Magnus will come hunting me down again soon enough, anyway, then I get 
to listen to *him* drone on for another few hours..."
Rodimus Prime scowls. "It wasn't my fault."
Whiz catches herself looking at Hot Rod's eye level, which is about a 
head too low now. She shifts her gaze with a grin. "That's what you 
always say when something blows up. You're at ground zero, and somehow 
it's not your fault."
Rodimus Prime cracks a smile. "I have a reputation to protect."
Whiz peers closer at Rodimus, shifting from one foot to the other to 
peek around his side and back curiously.
Rodimus Prime pulls back into his shell, folding his arms uncomfortably. 
"What?"
Whiz asks with typical vagueness, "Where did it all come from?"
Rodimus Prime rolls his optics exasperatedly. "I don't know. Where does-
- did--" he stutters a bit, then changes his mind. "Where's your gun go 
when you're not using it?"
Whiz says, "Well, it goes into a pocket of space where dimensions are 
more malleable than in realspace, sort of a substrata of the visible 
univers that we generally call subsp... or was that rhetorical?"
Whiz says, "But the thing is, I had to make the gun in the first place. 
It didn't just... appear."
Whiz extends a finger and tries a surreptitious poke at Rodimus' 
shoulder.
Rodimus Prime smirks. "Perceptor's been going off on the same stuff 
endlessl-- hey, cut it out!"
Whiz grins. "Just checking. You're as dense as ever."
Whiz says, "And of course, I mean that as a compliment."
Rodimus Prime makes an irritated noise in his throat. "I'll bet."
Whiz says, "Aw, come on. We medics miss all the excitement, you know. 
Let me have a little bit of fun for once."
You say, "If you want my specs, all you have to do is go down to the 
repair bay... Perceptor's gotta have volumes by now."
Whiz waves her hand dismissively. "Bah. Number-crunchers. If you want to 
know if something will work, you build it. If you want to see how it 
works, you take it apart."
Whiz's gaze turns a bit more speculative as she looks Rodimus over 
again.
Rodimus Prime puts up a finger to belay the evil grin he knows is 
coming. "No."
Whiz says, "Oh, come on, how do you even know what I was going to say?"
Rodimus Prime lets a little of said evil grin through on his own. 
"Besides, they already have the records of what happens when they tried 
to take me apart... uh, so to speak." He abruptly re-folds his arms over 
his chest, self-consciously.
Whiz says, "But I've had to put you together so many times already, I 
could just take little pieces apart at a time, you know, maybe a little 
bit here and a little there..."
Whiz says, "I'm sure I'd get them all back in there."
You say, "I've had enough people poking me to last a lifetime, thank you 
very much."
Whiz pokes entirely overtly this time.
Rodimus Prime starts, "Everything works the same as it ever did.." he 
stops, making an exasperated face and a grab for the offending hand.
Whiz evades your grasp attack.
Whiz pulls her hand back with a triumphant "ha!"
Rodimus Prime folds his hand into an accusing point. "Do I have to blow 
that up too?"
Whiz says, "Slow as ever. I guess there's a limit to what even the 
Matrix can do."
Whiz taps the side of her helmet. "Nothing added up there either, I 
see."
Rodimus Prime's gathering scowl is quickly replaced by self-conscious 
discomfort again.
Whiz peers. "What's wrong now?"
You say, "Everything's wrong. Why's everyone have to keep bringing that 
up?"
Rodimus Prime grumbles, sitting down on the running board of the 
shuttle. "It's hard enough to get used to without everyone staring at 
me, too."
Whiz concentrates as she thinks back to her last comment. "Your brains?"
Whiz lets the trolley drop and briefly skateboards over to the shuttle 
and leans up against the hull. "Well, you can't blame us. It's not like 
this kind of thing happens every day."
Rodimus Prime studies his hands. "I mean, I *guess* all the attention's 
kind of nice sometimes, but... everyone looks at me *weird*. There goes 
the freak."
Rodimus Prime smirks, "Then there's Ultra Magnus acting like I'm his 
latest toy."
Whiz hrms. "I guess everyone's too busy asking what happened to ask how 
you're doing, huh?"
You say, "Something like that."
Whiz nudges Rodimus' shoulder with her elbow. "Move over, you take up 
more space now."
Rodimus Prime blinks. "Uh? Oh." He scoots over a little.
Whiz plops down beside and rests her elbows on her knees. "So? What's it 
feel like?"
You say, "What's what feel like? Ultra Magnus alternating between 
respect and disapproval in the same sentence?"
Whiz grins. "Better than disapproval all the time. Next?"
Rodimus Prime says, "I guess so... Kup's gone all weird on me too. 
Follows me around like he doesn't trust me but then he refuses to call 
me anything but Prime..." he stumbles over the last word, his voice 
growing uneasy again.
Whiz leans forward over her arms to look up at Rodimus. "Well, I suppose 
you are..." she says doubtfully.
Whiz says, "Though, I dunno. You still seem like your old self to me. 
Just with, you know, more optional extras."
Rodimus Prime shifts his jaw stubbornly, unfortunately only managing to 
look semi-commanding instead of plain old defiant. "Yeah, well, no one 
treats me like it. They CALL me that then they go on to tell me what to 
do..."
Whiz hrms.
You say, "I guess that's the problem. I haven't changed any but everyone 
expects me to act like... Optimus or something."
Whiz can't help herself, and laughs. "You... act like Optimus? If 
they're expecting that, they'll be waiting for a while."
Rodimus Prime cracks a smile, then segues into Ultra Magnus' lecturing 
tone, "You're commander of the Autobots now, Rodimus. It's high time you 
started acting like it."
Whiz grins. "So act like it. Tell him to go do something more important 
than bugging you."
You say, "I have a couple times, but it only works for an hour or so, 
then he comes back with something new."
Rodimus Prime muses in sudden realization, "I think I scare him."
Whiz says, "Really? You scare *Magnus*?"
You say, "Well... yeah. I mean, look at it from his point of view. He 
doesn't know anything about me other than that I was always on Kup's 
discipline list and suddenly he's gotta take orders from me."
Whiz grins. "Like telling the wolf to watch over the sheep."
Rodimus Prime hmphs. "I didn't think I was THAT bad."
Whiz says, "Look at it this way, at least you know all the stuff that 
people can do, right? You've done it."
Whiz says, "Of course, I expect you to look the other way if I'm 
involved."
Rodimus Prime smiles. "I can't see myself as the disciplinarian, 
somehow."
You say, "And I never did anything BAD, anyway. Just... uh, unorthodox."
Whiz pffts. "So what will you do, then? Hold diplomatic meetings with 
the United Nations? That'd be exciting.
Rodimus Prime sighs, planting his chin on his fist. "Yay," he says 
glumly.
Whiz mocks a stuffy politician, "The chair recognizes the big red flame-
covered guy in the back."
You say, "Well, at least the chair has the decency not to call me 
Prime."
Whiz says, "Didn't you say something about voices and Hot Rod Prime or 
something?"
Rodimus Prime blinks. "What?"
Whiz says, "I don't know, everyone was talking at once, I thought you 
said *something*, I just remembered it sounded stupid..."
Rodimus Prime says sourly, "Gee, thanks.."
Whiz says, "Come on, lighten up. You saved the world, isn't that good 
for something?"
Whiz says, "I mean, maybe a little extra credit? Longer leave periods?"
Rodimus Prime shakes his head. "Yeah, right. I'll never see the outside 
of a meeting room again."
Whiz shrugs. "So they're calling you Prime, so use it for something. 
Tell them they're all dismissed. Or better yet, schedule your meetings 
in the off-duty lounge."
Rodimus Prime mushes his cheek against the heel of his hand. "Now I 
think I see why Optimus was always so boring. The poor guy must've 
suffocated."
Rodimus Prime smiles slightly. "Oh, that's sure to get their respect..."
Whiz smirks and nudges Rodimus with her elbow. "Then again, he didn't 
have me around to help."
You say, "The problem is, they CALL me that and they look at me funny 
and everything, but they don't really take me seriously. I feel like a 
puppet."
Whiz says, "Wow. I guess saving the world doesn't get the same mileage 
it used to."
You say, "I guess the past does come back to haunt you...."
You say, "The problem is, so I blew up Unicron. So big deal. That 
doesn't make me qualified to LEAD."
Whiz scuffs her toe against the floor of the hangar. "You're right about 
that. But the thing is... not anybody could have blown up Unicron, 
right? You must have already had some qualifications. All you have to do 
is put them to work."
Whiz muses, "But if you start turning responsible on me, well..."
You say, "How many qualifications does it take to open a metal casing?"
Whiz grins. "What happened when the medics tried?"
Rodimus Prime smiles softly. "They didn't get that far. Got zapped the 
second they tried to unhook it."
Rodimus Prime rolls some mildly bemusing thought around in his head for 
a moment, then shrugs it off. "So, some ancient artifact took a liking 
to me. That still doesn't say anything about qualifications."
Whiz brightens. "But it does, see? They can't even touch it. And Ultra 
Magnus - hey, even Optimus Prime - they didn't get, you know, *changed*.
Rodimus Prime squirms. "So what's that got to do with anything?"
Whiz says, "What's it got to do with anything?"
You say, "Uh, yeah, I think that's what I said."
Whiz ahems. "And one day, one Autobot shall rise from our ranks and use 
the Matrix of Leadership to light our darkest hour..." She stops 
reciting and grins. "Sound familiar?"
Whiz says, "We've got a fairly dark hour, if I may say so. We've got a 
Matrix. We've got an Autobot coming from waaaay down in the ranks."
Rodimus Prime looks mildly startled. "Where'd you hear that? You weren't 
there when he died..."
Whiz says, "It's an old story, H.. R... er. Anyway, it's an old story. 
Alpha Trion told it to me once."
Whiz attempts to look wise and knowledgeable.
Rodimus Prime drops his hands to his lap again. "That's what Optimus 
said just before he died."
Whiz fades a bit and adds sheepishly, "And Elita was watching the 
surveilance tapes from when he, ah, you know."
Whiz adds quickly, "Not that I wouldn't have known anyway."
You say, "Oh, I get it." He leaps to the defensive. "Build it all up 
then, oh, no, it was just the last words of a dying Autobot after all.""
Whiz protests, "Hey, he didn't just pull that out of thin air, you know. 
And it just reminded me of the story Alpha-Trion told me, anyway.
Whiz pokes Rod in the chest. "Maybe it was just waiting for the right 
punk to come along."
Rodimus Prime calms down slightly. "Hmph. So what's the rest of the 
story?"
Whiz blinks. "The rest of the story? Well, I guess it's the usual fairy 
tale. Lights the darkness, solves the problem, everyone lives happily 
ever after."
Rodimus Prime rubs at his chest with a frown. "Only the hero gets hazed 
into doing paperwork for the rest of his life. Doublechecked to make 
sure he doesn't screw it up, of course."
Whiz rubs her hands together. "I guess nobody says what happens to 
Prince Charming if the hero biz turns out to be more work than hey 
expected."
Whiz smirks. "Not that you're any kind of Prince Charming."
You say, "This isn't the "hero biz," though. That was the easy part."
Whiz says, "Can't you ease into things, a little? You know, start out 
with just being a hero and work your way up to the leading part?"
Whiz shifts her gaze to the ground and mutters, "Besides, I dunno if I 
want you to have to do the leading part."
You say, "I don't seem to have much choice, there... *you* don't want? 
What's it got to do with you?"
Whiz says a little petulantly, "I'm one of the ones getting led, aren't 
I? Doesn't the proletariat get a say in things?"
Whiz says, "Besides, who am I going to sneak around with once you end up 
one of *them*, anyway?"
You say, "I'm not one of *them*. Look at it this way. Who're they gonna 
report you to?"
Whiz grumbles, "Yeah, and then you'll probably give me a lecture or 
something."
Rodimus Prime grins. "And I can't think of a *single* reason to extract 
revenge on you."
Rodimus Prime pffts. "Yeah, right. Leave the lecturing to Ultra Magnus."
Whiz gasps innocently. "Revenge? I don't know what you're talking 
about."
You say, "Don't give me that look. I taught it to you."
Whiz says, "I taught it to you first, then."
Whiz grins and straightens up. "I'm going to have to learn some new 
moves."
Rodimus Prime smirks. "Like you could ever stay ahead of me."
Rodimus Prime receives a radio transmission from Kup.
Whiz rubs her hands together. "We'll find out, won't we."
Rodimus Prime shudders slightly and sends off a response.
Whiz gets to her feet. "what was that all about?"
Rodimus Prime sighs. "When you have a free minute, Prime..." he mutters.
Whiz grins. "If it'll make you feel better, I promise not to call you 
that."
Rodimus Prime half-smiles. "Promise?"
Whiz grins. "I promise. I'm sure I can come up with worse."
Rodimus Prime presses his hands to his knees and stands, all 28 gangling 
feet.
Rodimus Prime grins. "And I'm sure they'll all have to do with the 
trailer."
Whiz shakes her head a little bit, muttering something that sounds 
suspiciously like "Where did it come from?" again, then she grins. 
"You'll have to show it to me sometime."
Rodimus Prime smirks. "Want a ride back to AHQ?"
Whiz twirls her wrench in her fingers and shows off by gliding on her 
trolley over to the next shuttle. "Nah, I've still got to spend some 
time checking the shuttles over, in case we need to scramble again."
Rodimus Prime shrugs. "Your loss. I'd better go take care of this thing 
with Kup before someone else tracks me down with something worse."
Whiz grins and waves her wrench. "I'll see you around, Rod."
Rodimus Prime mutters, "I half expect to see *myself* around half the 
time..."
Rodimus Prime shifts into what can only be called a high-tech flaming 
Winnebago.
Whiz puts her hand to her mouth to stop a snicker. "Oh my."
You say, "Uh, what?"
Whiz says, "It's... bright... isn't it."
Flaming RV growls. "Oh, shut up."