"Yeah. We're in a cold war. And I've wanted understanding on Cybertron."
Now it was time for him to shake his head.
"It isn't going to happen. We've gotten beyond that." He went silent as a memory came to him, and he pondered its details before going on. "Y'know, I knew a Pred, just a few stellar cycles ago, who'd documented and been witness to a data heist by a group of Predacon criminals. She wanted to make her sector of the planet a little bit safer for the 'bots around her, so she was building a case against the thieves- they'd been causing trouble for a while, see.
"Like you might expect, once the gang knew there was somebody who could sink 'em in court, they went after her. She got my attention, and I did my best to keep her safe. We actually stayed away from the punks long enough to get evidence to police, who we thought were gonna go after 'em.
"And then a few days later, she's on a rail-less high road, and some laser blast takes her under the wheel, and she falls down to some of the lower levels. Whatever sniper was after her finished the job when she was on the ground.
"I know a thing or two about sniping- I figured out the weapon and followed the trail from there- from the manufacturer to the first legitimate seller and his buyer, to the con artist who took it from that buyer, and then to the underground weapons dealer, and then to the first criminal who tried to use it, and then to the government agency that interned that criminal and put the gun to rest in a crucial evidence repository, where it could only be accessed by Maximals with proper authority. And some Maximal did, and put it in the hands of a Predacon assassin, who shot the femme without even knowing who was hiring him to shoot her.
Whitegrazer listened intently towards Steelclaw. Her optics saddened as she heard what had happened to the Predacon femme. A story which was so familiar on both fronts.
"
Turns out, the whole data robbery which started everything was as much a hire-out job as the assassination was. It wasn't that the gang wanted to steal the codes and keep them; they wanted money from a politician who wanted the codes destroyed- a politician, who, I should add, is still in office, or was when we left with the Golden Disk. And when the thieves came after this femme I've been talking about, it was with hefty encouragement from the Maximal.
"And here's the really important part. Back at her run-down garage, she had records on maybe ten different criminal organizations she was afraid to tackle through Cybertron's legal system- six of them Predacon and maybe three or four Maximal. So she was willing to see the faults in our race, the things so many Maximals speak down to us and condemn us for and hold over our heads as supposed evidence of our innate evil. Funny then, that when she finally moved on of those Pred organizations, it was a Maximal that ordered her taken out. And at the same time, with those Maximal organizations she was building evidence against, I can't help but wonder if somebody higher up than the politician I knew was afraid of other problems getting shown to the public and put pressure on the guy lower than him.
She wasn't at least bit surprised by the fact of the criminal organizations ran by Maximals. She had tangled with such organizations before. A couple of those organizations were largely funded by money that only politicans could give. Some were built under Maximals who were prejudice against Predacons, fighting for Maximal supremacy for all of Cybertron to the point that they fought for the exodus of all Predacons from Cybertron. Because of her unorthodox views on Cybertron, she was regularly attacked by such organizations.
But what bothered her is that Steelclaw was working under a criminal. Megatron was under Cryotek's gang before he did the theft. He may have left but he has an important artifact in his hands that belonged back in the safe it came from or destroyed.
He speaks against criminal organizations yet he is working with a criminal who formerly was part of one? He talks down about Maximals having one and yet, doesn't he realize that he isn't fighting those people?
To her, his logic seems unsound.
"But this isn't about the murder of one femme. Cybertron is a planet with a population I could never hope to know in its entirety. Where else do you suppose this sort of slag is going on? I'll tell you this much- in my line of work, I've seen thousands of offenses against the Predacon public, ranging from mild to severe. I was willing for acceptance to happen across factions. I fought for that acceptance, because I thought that's what Cybertron wanted.
"I'm just not convinced anymore. When Maximals reach for factional peace, they are, by-and-large, working to make Predacons more like themselves. You can imagine how that's perceived by the opposite faction. When Predacons reach for factional peace, they are, by-and-large, looking for justice. I've told you only one account of how that pans out. And it's an extreme case, I suppose. What happens most often is that Predacons get ignored.
"I'm tired of corruption leading to death, and as far as I've seen, peaceful discussion hasn't gotten anything done. Predacon society's only going to be freed when there's a fight for it's freedom."
"I'm sorry about what happened to her. What was her name if you don't mind me asking?"
Whitegrazer took a moment to really gather her thoughts before she began to speak in response to Steelclaw. What Steelclaw had told her really gave her more insight into the person Steelclaw was. It was fascinating yet...dangerous. His words showed that his intentions were noble. He wanted to help a society fight their oppression and she had no objection to that. She had always knew the evils of the High Council and always hoped to make them see the more harm they are creating than good, but the High Council have ignored her. Probably, they just wanted her to die already.
But Steelclaw's noble intentions are overshadowed by his actions. He was willfully helping a dangerous criminal, Megatron in his goals, which to her seemed contradictory. Her spark couldn't help but feel chaos inside that Tyrant's spark every time she met him in battle. He may not mean to, but he was attacking an exploration crew that were on a mission of peace, not war.
Also, he didn't really believe that Maximals and Predacons can accept or understand each other? If he doesn't believe that, peace would be unachievable yet he seems to believe in it or wishes to believe in it.
He was tired of not getting results and wanted action. She felt that many years ago, but that mentality changed. Her years of maturity and experiences throughout her life had changed such a perspective. Many people may not understand her way of thinking, but it was what she believed she must do. Her purpose in life.
A question she was eager to ask Steelclaw had came to her from all of what she pondered.
"Steelclaw, do you think my comrades are your enemy? Do you think that I am your enemy?"
___________________________________________________________________________________
Tarantulas resisted the urge to snap the flirtatious she-demon's neck as she continued to toy with him, practically begging for a Cyber Venom Dart to the chest as she touched him in blatant mockery of a female admirer, sending cold shivers of both attraction and revulsion across his shell. These feelings did not subside but instead intensified as she tore the webbing from his face and turned his back on him, showing off that alluring walk of hers...By the Pit, he'd sell his very spark for the chance to shoot her full of bullets for her insolence, then drag her back to his lair to subject her to EVERY form of torture his mind could conceive of in retaliation for everything she forced him to endure...And his training with the Predacon Secret Police had given him quite an extensive list of methods to choose from. He didn't voice his outrage, though he badly wanted to as he snapped his pincers together like how most bots would open and close their fists when struggling with their temper.
((OOC: I'm sorry. I laughed when I read this. I just loved how you conveyed Tarantulas' anger here at Blackarachnia because it seems like what I feel Tarantulas feels towards Blackarachnia. XD ))
Blackarachnia felt Tarantulas' stillness, knowing that despite his anger towards her, he had his little sick pervasions because she was still his creation. A creation built from the spider's sick pervased mind, satisfying his own little ego and fantasy. What he didn't like was her intelligence and her ways of getting to him, getting information that he wished to keep from her and everyone. Maybe that's why she loved picking on him because she knew deep down inside his reactions reforced that her little antics worked, showing how pathetic and crazy he was down the surface of his oh-so-clever scientific mind.
But of course, she was cautious and her hatred of him kept her guard up, knowing that Tarantulas will try to retaliate in full-force to repair his little reputation of danger and...creepy.
"This ship is a wreck, even when compared to the sorry states of the Darksyde and Axalon. I can tell by the external damage alone that the supplies you forced me to carry out here won't cut it, I shall require additional, more precise equipment from my lair before I can even entertain the notion of repairing it. I'd fetch them myself, but I believe I've been chivalrous enough for one lifetime, and if you want this ship to be ready for flight before this entire planet is reduced to ruin with your lovely selves still on it, you WILL bring me the rest of the tools I need to make this...ehem..."vessel" space worthy again. I shall need a plasma torch, laser coil, energon conductor, magnetic welder..."
"Are you ordering me, Tarantulas?" She asked blinking her optics seductively at Tarantulas though her tone was on a slope of threatening.
Narrowing her optics, she went to inspect the pod, checking it out. Many of the consoles were trashed, sparking ferociously. It could be fixed, but it seemed they were need a power core and...like Tarantulas said, a laser coil. Checking her supplies, she had everything but the laser coil was no where in sight or something to help power...dang it. She didn't want to leave Arachnitron and Tarantulas together. Something told her she was going to be stabbed in the back. Arachnitron wasn't all there it seemed and she noticed Tarantulas eyeing her with interest.
Aww, you want another mate? Tsk tsk tsk.
Not wanting to attempt Tarantulas' little statement, she looked at Arachnitron with a warning, "Watch him. He is a lunatic. Nothing more." She handed Arachnitron the little leash she had on Tarantulas.
"I need to get a better laser coil than this if we are expecting to get this pod up in space. I will return." Transforming to her beast mode, she quickly headed back to the lair. She better high tail it before Tarantulas ruins this.
))
But I was also quite busy this weekend, so here I go trying to catch up. ))
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