The Convention of Conventions

Part Two

I pried Sapphire’s fingers off of my shoulder, and walked over. None of the Beast Warriors moved much (if at all), although their eyes did follow me. Freaky. I stopped about five feet away from them, and looked at each one in turn. Dinobot was taller than I thought, Rattrap shorter, Cheetor a little more youthful, Tarantulus a little more insane (if that’s even possible), Optimus more stern (which is possible!), and Inferno . . . much more less there, if you understand what I mean.

I glared at Scott, but I heard from behind me, “Would you mind it horribly if I killed you? FOR FREAKIN’ CRYIN’ OUT LOUD!!!! IT’S THE FREAKIN’ BEAST WARRIORS!!!!”

I winced, and rubbed at my ear. “Thank’s for killing my hearing, Sapphire. And nice timing.”

“But-but–”

I looked at the warriors, and sighed. “You never know. They might just be those 3-D stand-ups that you see every so often. But . . . I never thought that anyone could be that short.”

“Hey! Dat’s crossin’ da line, girlie!”

“Crap!” I yelled. “It talks!”

“Ah, shove it.”

I snapped back quite a harsh and rather inappropriate reply, which left many jaws hanging. That would also include Optimus’ and Dinobot’s. I ended it with, “–and don’t you ever call me ‘girlie’ again!”

Sapphire walked up to me, and spun me around. “Sinead, I never knew you knew those words.”

I grinned at her. “Then you’ve just started to meet my dark side.”

“There’s a light side?” a new voice asked.

I turned, and saw a tallish, skinny brunette standing there. I grinned at her as well. “Miss Special? What are you doing here?!”

“Well I won a six-winner grand prize thingie, and . . .” she saw Dinobot . . . and grinned evilly.

I sighed, and she pointed at him. “Haha, Sinead . . . should I say it?”

I sighed, then called over, “Not unless you want me to say something else, Miss Special. If you had taken the time to notice, you’d see that Inferno was here as well.”

She looked over her shoulder, and grinned. “Oops!”

Nurannoniel chuckled. “Always the observant one.”

I nodded , grinning. “Yeah.”

Ivyana grinned as well, and walked up next to me, then turned her all-too-sweet smile at Tarry. He shuddered at the “innocense” portrayed. I sighed. “I hope you know, that if he ever comes near me in his beast mode, I’ll kill him.”

She looked back at me blankly. “Don’t tell me you’re afraid of spiders?”

I snorted. “Fine. I’m not afraid. I’m only terrified!”

Sapphire walked further, looking Rattrap over, but the others looked from where they were. “Trust me, I’ve pulled a trick on her concerning a spider, and she chased me around with her sword afterwards.” she looked at Rattrap again, who was starting to grin. “And that’s a bad thing, once you realize how good she is with a piece of folded steel in her hands. She rivals Dinobot.”

“You mean Dino-butt,” Miss Special taunted.

I forced myself to grin at the warrior, who was starting to seethe, from the look on his face. “Would you hold on a moment? And Ms. Susan? Could you close the door?”

Once that was done, I dumped my bag on the floor, and shot after Miss Special . . .

*-_- . . . one hour . . . -_-*

^_^ . . . and three mugs of tea later . . . ^_^

“So . . . you have Dinobot, you have Rattrap, you have Inferno, you have Cheetor, you have Optimus, and you have Tarantulus. Do you think you can handle this?” Susan asked us for a fifteen-thousandth time.

I sighed, and looked over my shoulder at Dinobot. The warriors were standing behind the person who would be “sponsoring” them. He seems to have this thought that he’ll get back at Miss Special for what she did, when I’ve already done so. I forced her to apologize formally. Not only that, but I teased her by cornering her near Dinobot while I discussed rules of how to be polite to strangers. Too bad we didn’t even have practice staffs. I was in the mood to duel. And dueling with Miss Special would have been fun!

I looked back at her, and nodded. She sighed, and shrugged, then looked to Gary Chalk. He smiled confidently. “I told you they’d take to the idea.”

I rolled by eyes. “Yeah, whatever. I don’t know about the rest of us, but I have the feeling that the only thing that’s keeping me from running screaming from the room is my own insanity.”

Sapphire, Miss Special, Moonraker, and Ivyana all held up their hands at the same time, agreeing with me. Nurannoniel was laughing too hard at my small speech to acknowledge the vote upon our sanity level. Or lack thereof.

Rattrap sighed. “Yeah, dis is all fine ’n’ dandy, but what’s gonna happen next?”

When Susan stopped explaining, I grinned. “Don’t I love having a bunk bed.”

Three voices shouted at me to shut up. Sapphire wasn’t among them. Trust me. I’ve seen her room. Her organizing skills, like mine, aren’t anything to brag that much about. But, then again, I know that she has a bottom bunk under all that junk. If you look up the word “pack-rat,” you’ll see a joint picture of both me and her.

“You expect us to go along with this?!” Tarantulus screamed, once she was fully done explaining further.

“Do you want to live through the night?” a new voice asked. The owner was standing by the doorframe. “Because I can tell you right now, Chuckles, that you won’t if you keep that attitude up.” She looked to us humans again, and said, “Name’s Venus Terzo.”

There was a chorused “HI!!!”

She laughed, and leaned against the wall, and studied each pairing. “I can only see pain in store for some of them. Lesse . . . Rattrap’s screwed . . . same with Tarry . . . and maybe Dinobot.”

I looked back innocently. “What could I do to him?”

Venus looked to Susan, who grinned. I groaned. “And thus, my reputation precedes my presence yet again. What did I ever do to you?”

“Oh, nothing, just a little tease.”

I shrugged, and leaned my head on my fist, looking at Susan. “So. When are we going home?”

Dinobot was grumbling to no end. Sapphire and Rattrap were sniggering, along with Moonraker and Cheetor. I looked over the back of the seat in the van, and glared at them. “Will you four quit it? If I didn’t know you two, Sapphire and Moonraker, any better, I’d say that you four were flirting back there.”

Needless to say, they shut up, and I turned back around. Miss Special turned around, after talking with Inferno. “Hey, lissen: Do you think that we should all bunk in one room tonight? Or four separate rooms?”

I jerked my thumb behind us, and the four in the back seat of the van. “Look at those four. Would you trust them alone in a room with either Rattrap or Cheetor?”

Star winced. “Uhm . . . you’ve got me there. Two rooms?”

“That works. At least we’re not being squished into . . . wait. How many beds in a room?”

“Two.”

I cussed richly, ignoring the look of wonder on Dinobot’s face. Apparently, he didn’t know that us girls can acquire quite a vocabulary, when they hang out with boys long enough. “So, Oh Special One, what do you think we should do?”

“Share beds.”

“You. Are. In. Sane.”

“Well . . .”

“I’LL FREAKIN’ BE KILLED!!!!!”

“Quiet in the back!” Scott called from the driver’s seat, laughing. “And we’ll figure something out, Sinead.”

I sighed, and settled deeper into the seat, glaring black death at Miss Special, who was grinning back. We arrived at the hotel, and signed in. We had finally agreed to getting two people to a room, providing that there were two beds. The moment Dinobot and I got to our room, and opened the door, I stopped dead in my steps.

“I’m going to kill them.”

“And why is that, human?”

“How many beds are in here?”

“One.”

“And how many people are we squishing into this room?”

“Two.”

We looked at each other, and chorused, “I’m not sharing a bed with you.”

He snorted, and I tapped on a door. Sapphire opened it, and I glared at her. “How many beds are there in your room?”

She glared right back. “One. You?”

“The same.”

“Should we kill the attendants?”

“Most definitely.”

“When?”

“Tonight.”

“Fine with me.”

Miss Special, Inferno, Moonraker and Cheetor came into her room. The cheese-crazed girl panted, “How . . . many . . . beds?”

“One in each room,” Sapphire, Rattrap and I chorused.

They groaned, and Scott walked by, whistling. We glared at him. I looked over my shoulder at Dinobot. “You wouldn’t happen to have a spare sword, by any chance?”

His face remained blank, until he answered. “Unfortunately . . . yes.” I grinned evilly, and he dropped to his beast mode. “However, I do not intend for a human girl to handle it.”

Miss Specials’s breath hissed between her teeth. “Ooh. Shot down.”

“Oh, shove it,” I growled at her. “And me without even my . . . wait . . . no, I do have my pocket knife!”

Sapphire groaned. “She’s gonna pick that lock of his, and . . . wait, I like this idea!”

It was right before dawn. Dinobot was still asleep, from what I could tell. Either that, or he was meditating really deeply.

Sapphire beckoned for me to hurry. I ran silently down the hall, and looked at the lock on the door. Rattrap’s head was against it, and he was squinting. His eyes widened, but before I could ask what was wrong, a hand gripped my shoulder, and taloned fingers pinched my skin.

I froze, but was spun around to see Dinobot. His glare was one of arrogant self-righteousness. “What do you think you are doing?”

Sapphire took the pocket knife from my hands, and handed it to Rattrap, who pulled out a little metal spike, that the manufacturers called a fork. For freakin’ cryin’ out loud! It was a spike, not a fork! You speared things with it!

Anyway, he started to pick at the lock.

I glared back up at Dinobot, and replied in a hiss, “Because he was the one who set up the rooms!”

“Well, obviously.” His voice dripped sarcasm. “But what are you going to do once you’re in there?”

Miss Special held up a can of shaving cream, leering diabolically. “A human trick, that only Sinead has the reflexes to deal with.”

The lock popped open, and I looked up at the tall Maximal. “Would you let me go, now?”

Another door opened, from behind us, and I looked over my shoulder, to see Susan. She sighed, and shook her head, after seeing the feather and the shaving cream. “I saw nothing.”

She went back into her room, and we sighed. Dinobot released me, and I smiled my thanks up to him, before taking both of the tools of embarrassment from Miss Special.

Scott was sprawled across his bed, drooling. Sheesh. This reeks of “Duo Maxwell-ism,” never mind “Rattrap-ism.” Speaking of which, Rattrap and Sapphire were after me, and the light was temporarily blocked. I turned to see Dinobot there. He walked in further, and watched my movements. The rest came in slowly. I looked to Sapphire, and gestured for her to shift everyone around the corner, so he wouldn’t see anyone else if he woke up. I lowered myself to the floor, and was about to start crawling to his bedside, when something tapped my foot. I looked up, and Moonraker held up a camcorder, which, I realized, could tape in the dark. I grinned up at her, and she started to record my progress to the bed.

I peeked up over the edge, and jumped. Scott’s face was close, but still asleep. I shook the can, and sprayed some onto his hand, then gently dragged the tip of the feather along the side of his jaw. He swiped at the sudden tickle, and a smear of shaving cream landed on his face. I refilled his palm, and then dabbed right along his cheekbone. He rubbed at that, too.

After I was done, his face was a mass of white. I stuck my tongue out at the others, and we left to room, to come face-to-face with Nurannoniel and Optimus. I hid the shaving cream and feather behind my back, grinning. She glared at me. “What. Were. You. Doing.”

There was a yell, and Moonraker swung the camera up, to behold Scott’s face, covered in the stuff. Susan came out, saw it, and starting laughing. Ivyana came up behind Nurannoniel, rubbing at her eyes, until she saw Scott’s face. She snorted, starting to laugh, and said, “That’s great!”

He pointed at me, and started to say many words at once. However, it lost effect, as he sprayed shaving cream all over the place, while he spluttered. He forgave us later that day, when we were on the road again. Sapphire and the other three in the back were watching the recording over and over again. Dinobot was silent, looking out the window. I desperately wanted to talk to him, to become his, well, his friend. Of course, that was probably since he was my favorite character.

But, then again, he was silent, not even looking at me, like . . .

Like I was a child.