#khool-khatz

~Days Later~

Bots were swarming for a chance to help build the intergalactic transmitter. A surprisingly small amount arrived simply for the sole benefit of energon they’d collected. The majority arrived stating how they longed to be in contact with old friends. Another servoful was eager to be part of such a monumental and meaningful project rather than waste their lives and time away waiting for change. With the war having went on for lifetimes on Cybertron and a significant fraction off, most were interested in the change the transmitter may bring.

Unfortunately, it left Blackout preoccupied with trying to help construct the base for the communicator. He had very little issues with his size and strength carrying around equipment and holding up the skeletal pieces of metal. In fact, Novastrike was pretty damn sure he was enjoying himself. Having a task seemed to fuel him. After spending roughly half an Earth year with no work and no purpose, wondering the galaxies only to return home and have to work like a junkyard dog just to survive, he finally had routine and something physical to do. A routine. A task.

The only down side to all this change was the loneliness. With Blackout both desiring to and being asked to be on the job site not too far from the rogue outpost, it left Novastrike alone a lot. With her size, she wasn’t of much help and would only get in the way. Even Scorponok had found a job in burrowing holes into the planet to help keep the posts good and stable to the concrete bases.

So Nova spent time in the one place she was both out of the way and could be found useful. Though the medic didn’t seem keen with the extra presence, he stayed just about as far as he could away from where she hovered not far from Venus and Barricade.

She watched the infected mech with wonder and awe. Aside from the gentleness Blackout always expressed upon her, she’d never seen from an outsiders view the love a bot could have for another. He didn’t leave her side for a nanoklik, no matter wake or rest. Venus had since woken, but was told to remain in the medical office until she’d completely recovered from her injuries.

Jiggling one of her pedes from where she saw, the small femme watched as ‘Cade lovingly caressed his recharging femme’s servo. Where light glossed over her frame reflected a well polished streak over black and magenta that he took such great obsessive care to help clean when she had been out. The silver and purple metal on the claws of his servos caressed over Venus’ with delicate feather-light brushes as she slept.

Every bit of predatory insanity that had been written in his faceplate and surging at the surface days ago was gone, but the blame still warred in his dark mauve optics. No matter how hard Novastrike tried to find the words to speak to him, she couldn’t bare to open her mouth. Usually she didn’t have a problem spitting out whatever was in her processor if she thought it could help. Barricade was different however; he twisted words meant to soothe into daggers and inflicted them upon himself until he was bleeding from wounds you couldn’t see and physically mend. He was bound and determined to be the villain of his own story; the catastrophic hurricane, the cause of torment, the weight that dragged Venus into the fire and flames and would inflict only a plague of misery and hurt upon her.

Breaking into the solace with a clearing of her vocalizer, Novastrike gestured slightly to Venus as ‘Cade turned towards her and quietly coaxed, “Venus is looking better every day. Do you mind if I come over and remove her path to see if she’s in need of a replacement?”

From the other side of the room, the doctor looked up. His gaze was disapproving and somewhat distrust of her, like he found it hard to believe she could manage the task. Rather than involve himself though, he lowered his helm back into whatever he was working on in his files.

In a stereotypical robotic response, ‘Cade numbly nodded his helm as he answered in monotone, “Sure thing, Novastrike.”

“You can call me Nova,” the white armored femme stated, offering a half-sparked smile to try lightening the mood.

It didn’t to inflict any difference on the bad cop. He shuttered his optics at her very slowly and with disinterest. Gradually, he shifted his optics back down to look upon Venus as he continued stroking her servo softly.

Bounding off the counter, the small femme made her way over to the examination table and jumped up on the edge. She made sure not to glance up at the worried mech and make awkward optic contact whilst approaching Venus’ form.

With her tiny servos, she had no problem finding and disconnecting the clips helping to keep the temporary plate of metal in place. She pulled at the soft, spongy material this particular medic used instead of welding and peeled it off to toss to the side. As Novastrike began to lift up the compress with a huff, Venus began to stir.

Mumbling some nonsense gibberish, the taller femme unshuttered her optics and blinked in the dim overhead light for a moment. Her fuchsia optics blinked as she reflexively twitched her digits, curling them around Barricade’s servo that had been holding hers up.

“How are you feeling, beautiful?” ‘Cade requested quietly as he raised her servo to press a gentle kiss against her knuckles.

“Fine, Barricade, just as I keep telling you,” Venus explained with a broad and loving smile.

Using her elbow to prop herself up, she pressed a kiss against the underside of his chin. The corner of his mouth pulled up a little as he rubbed his thumb against the back of her servo lightly, watching her with brightly shining optics.

Nova would have to give Scorponok more credit later on. Being the one to just stand around while two bots were staring at each other, optics locked like they could see all their hopes and dreams and happiness in the others gaze, really had a way with putting the aww in awkward. It was sugary sweet and gave her the fuzzy feelings, but maybe if she wasn’t specifically inspecting one of the bot’s injuries in the middle of it she could appreciate the sappy quality a bit more.

But right now she just felt like a nuisance.

“Ahem, sorry to barge in,” Nova spoke up nervously as Barricade looked to her with vague irritation. “I know Barricade asked you this, but how are you doing, Venus? Feeling any abnormal pains anywhere? Energon making you feel sick at all? Did you recharge well?”

Unlike her mech, Venus seemed unperturbed by her interference. She smiled in a way that probably made cherubs so jealous they turned their noses up and gazes away, as if looking upon her too long would befall you into a state of worship. There was something lethal in that beauty however; a threat waiting to pounce at opportune moments as she sucked bots into her charm.

Nova felt incredibly lucky to be on her side, and not her opponent. She rather enjoyed Venus; her kindness, her wit, the snide joking remarks and high sense of self-confidence made her a truly fun individual. The thought of being sucked into all that flare only to meet a demise was very disheartening.

“I feel fine,” she insisted. “I just wish I could get out of here. Yeah I probably had the longest amount of recharge in years, but that’s all I’m doing.”

“Well I’m sorry about that,” Novastrike offered sympathetically as she turned her optics upon the injury, brushing her digits in a ghostly, hardly touching contact upon it. “I’m sure it was worth it though, right?”

Barricade gave an offensive curse to himself. Glowering at her mech, Venus squeezed his servo firmly and nudged him slightly with her elbow.

“It certainly was.”

Novastrike grinned to herself a bit. Even if she couldn’t drill the thought into Barricade’s helm that the incident was none of his fault, Venus would have a better chance of knocking it into him.

“Good news: everything appears to have healed up nicely. The sealant has done its job and there’s no leaks since it melded your cracked lines. Your frame seems to have accepted the new replacement gears nicely. I don’t think there’ll be any lasting effects from the damage. Of course, the medic should really give you the a-okay and get your reformed and refortified armor back in place before you’re allowed to leave.”

The smile on the bigger femme’s faceplate faltered slightly as she whispered, “Wait, you’re not a medic? I thought for sure you were a field medic, or a trainee, or something.”

Timidly shrugging, Novastrike offered a cheesy grin and replied, “I’ve had some experience working with two highly skilled medics. I’m not a professional; I have no doctrine to prove anything and went through no schooling, but I got some servos-on-training.”

“Wow,” Venus pondered with amazement. “That’s pretty remarkable Nova. You know, I know we haven’t known each other too long and it’s not like my opinion matters at all, but I’m glad Blackout found you. I like you. He’s always been a bit of a brooding, anti-social, silent type but he’s never been anything but pleasant around me. I knew he had to have something in him willing to care more than just beyond being polite to ‘Cade,  Scorponok and I.”

“Oh. T-Thank you, Venus,” Novastrike stuttered in reply. “I gotta say, I was a bit intimidated meeting the both of you. Blackout never really revealed much of his past to me; even his work with the Decepticons he kept vague. I’m not sure how much of that was him trying to protect me from the things he’d done and how much was him just wanting to move forward in life. But I’m really glad I’ve gotten to meet you both. I mean, you look like you walked off the runway and strolled out of some sort of fairy tale.”

Grumbling, Barricade removed his servo that had been upon Venus’ and wound it around her back. He rested his palm against her backside, stretching out his digits along her frame as he tossed a look at Nova.

“Yo, smalls, I’m the one with the flirty pick-up lines. You’re laying it on pretty thick. Watch it; she’s mine,” ‘Cade cautioned.

Looking sideways at her mech, Venus rolled her optics. She turned her gaze onto Nova as she nervously twiddled her digits.

“Don’t mind him. You’d think he’d know bots can be inclined to compliment one another and not mean anything by it. I’m flattered by your praise, but you’re a cute little thing yourself. Don’t feel intimidated or discouraged. I’m sure you’ve gotten your fair share of admirers, and you don’t have to worry about the one whose opinion probably matters the most to you. ‘Cade probably would have tried killing Blackout years ago if he’d actually thought of him as competition.”

“He’s got a size kink, babe. You’re not tiny enough. He only really hung out with Scorponok before me anyway which proves my point-ouch!”

Pinching a nerve in Barricade’s wrist, the goddess of a femme shot him a warning look.

The trio turned their optics to the shuffling pedes as the medic made his way over towards them. He looked nervously at ‘Cade, who turned his helm away quickly. From the glance Novastrike got from him before his faceplate was hidden, the poor mech’s demons were rearing their ugly helms again; stricken with a look of self-loathing.

Cutting right to the point, the doctor held up the pieces of Venus’ armor that had been removed to be fixed. He waved them in the air slowly before her.

“You’re suitable to be discharged,” he stated, looking down at the wound and up to her optics. “I’m going to put these on you, and I want you to take your friend and get the Pit out of my office. Immediately.”

Smiling sweetly up at the mech, Venus purred in response, “Yes of course, sir. I’m so sorry if our ruckus disrupted your work at all.”

Suddenly, the medic’s face looked like he’d been struck by cupid’s arrow. His pupils dilated a few degrees and he looked down from her faceplate swiftly and to her injury as light filtered brightly out of his gaze. His digits fumbled for a moment shakily; too nervous with his fumbling digits to touch her. After a few tries, and Novastrike squinting at him as she considered offering to do it, the medic finally managed to snap the pieces of armor into place.

“There you go!” he practically burst out as he stiffly turned around. “Now get out, and don’t come back unless you have a real fragging emergency!”

~

“Wow, I’ve never been thrown out of a medic’s office so quickly,” Venus laughed as they walked out of the rogue outpost. “I guess I should have spoke to him a lot sooner!”

“He wanted us out because he was terrified of me,” ‘Cade sulked quietly, looking off to the side.

Walking backwards in front of the duo so that she could speak to them directly, Novastrike flicked her servo out as she threw in her own two credits, “Venus is up and walking around again, free of the med-bay and constant prodding and poking. We should all be very happy and enjoying this moment!”

Glancing over to the mech following her stride, Venus nudged her hip against Barricade’s as they walked. He glanced at her somewhat shyly and wrapped his arm around her to plant a kiss against her lips.

Nova made sure to discreetly look away, embarrassed.

By the time she turned her optics back, Venus had playfully shoved ‘Cade as he pulled away. A small smile played against his mouth as he snickered quietly.

Not watching where she was going, Novastrike tripped up on the uneven surface of Cybertron and fell right on her aft.

“Ha!” ‘Cade snorted.

Holding back from laughing, Venus managed a shaky, “Are you okay?”

“Y-Yes,” the small femme squeaked with humiliation. She quickly pushed off on her pedes and righted herself to brush at her rump. It hurt a bit, but not nearly as much as her ego that felt like it’d been popped and collapsed like a balloon.

“You should watch where you’re going,” the taller femme scolded gently. “You could get hurt, walking without looking where you’re going.”

Nova pressed her audio receptors against her helm with mortification. She could make out the warble in her dejected spark, and the sound of other pedes approaching from the left as bots came their way.

“R-Right, yes-”

A rush of air whizzed by Novastrike’s frame and a small explosion of metal and dirt flung up from the ground. The suddenness stupefied her for five nanokliks as they all turned to look at what had just hit the ground.

A single bullet, mostly collapsed in on itself from hitting the ground, lay on the ground.

Flicking her audio receptors up, the little femme swiveled them in the direction she’d heard the muffled pedes walking around. A distinct sound of a shell casing popping out with a mechanical click of a pin whispered into her sensitive ears.

“Move!” Nova yelled, jumping out of the way just as another shot went hurtling by her, mere nanokliks from having punctured into her processor.

Assessing the trajectory of their assailant, Barricade moved around to Venus’ left side as he helped push her along to the nearest area of cover. Another bullet whistled right by; this time missing ‘Cade by a few inches and ricocheting uselessly off some nearby scrap metal and flying off elsewhere.

Charging in the opposite direction of the other twosome, Novastrike panted quietly as she jumped over some nearby twisted scrapmetal. Her form shifted; panels moving and rearranging so that when she hit the ground on the other side, she landed smoothly on four sturdy legs instead of two. The feline’s sharp optics and audios moved in the direction she’d heard the last shot come off from as she crouched low behind the mass, thinking she may be out of the line of sight.

Another bullet zipped by, luckily hitting some of the scrap. It embedded itself in the ground just centimeters from the cyber-cat’s toes.

Lifting her helm quickly, Nova picked out the brief gleam of a rifle, and the figure of a bot lying down with it in the shadows. Another ping of a shell casing had her twitching her audios in his direction.

Dashing forth, the white cat streaked across the ground like a bolt of lightning. Her hunches sprung fluidly as she dodged and weaved around the twisted formations and remnants of buildings in her way towards the bot. With fangs bared, a snarl rippled through her form as she closed in.

A shadow to her right moved as she closed in.

The crack of a cannon went off and Novastrike went rolling across the dusty surface of the planet. She slid her claws into the surface with a screech of metal, coming to a halt.

Snarling, the feline lashed her tail furiously around as the sheath around her barb tail slid open to reveal the sharply honed prongs. The blast hadn’t hit her directly, merely gave splash damage and debris flung up on her side as it harmlessly hit the ground from her last-minute adjustment.

The bot didn’t have a faceplate she recognized as they leered at her with jagged, uneven derma.

They raised their cannon and fired once more, but she was already moving once again. Hurtling over a waste of metal, the femme raced around and towards the shadows as another shot went off from the sniper. The bot didn’t have time to recover and ready another shot when she jumped into the darkness; swallowed by the shadows as she came down on the bot.

Novastrike’s claws snagged upon their faceplate as she let out a roar of fury. The bot let out a femme’s cry of pain as they released the sniper rifle to try swatting her off. Elongated gashes dripping with energon whelped as Nova sprung off the femme’s face to leave a pleasant calling card behind.

Pedes moved behind her. She tensed, whipping her helm to the mech that she hadn’t realized had approached so close already. Raising her tail, Novastrike hissed, ready to strike the bot when an explosive crack of a blaster went off.

The mech cursed, stumbling back as he was struck.

Loosening her posture, Novastrike turned her helm just in time to see Barricade as he jumped. He crashed directly into the mech. As the pair fell together, ‘Cade physically rolled with the assailant and threw him with tremendous strength. It was disturbingly horrifying to hear the bot strike the knotted up mass of rebar sticking out with such force that it punctured into areas of his frame as he let out a terrified, pained scream.

Turning towards the femme whom she’d just clawed, Novastrike saw the dawning look of fear on the bot. She pushed herself away just in time as ‘Cade jumped and came crashing down on her sniper rifle, his pedes snapping the weapon in half.

Dumbfounded and more than a bit terrified herself, the white cyber-cat turned her helm to the incoming sound of pedes. Huffing softly from the jog, Venus sprinted right past Novastrike, much to her confusion. She craned her helm around just in time to see the goddess strike a blow to the mech’s extended arm’s crevice in his forearm. The joint cracked as his arm snapped downward, firing his cannon into the ground.

Bringing up her leg in a wide arc, she struck him hard in the side. As he stumbled and tried to regain his balance, Venus slid a dagger out from her forearm into her servo. With a flick of her wrist, she plunged the blade with a fluid stroke beneath a section of the bot’s armor of his chassis and up.

His optics flashed with alarm as he sucked in deeply. She extracted the blade and rammed it in again as he wheezed, staggering. There was very little energon that dripped out from beneath his armor as he fell into Venus, but she stepped aside as he collapsed.

Nova didn’t bother to watch as he convulsed and slowly would begin to turn gray. Instead, she slid her paws gingerly on the ground, scared to witness what Barricade had done to the femme he’d been victimizing.

It seemed Venus had the same thought.

Running around Novastrike, the taller femme hurried over to the two frames upon the ground. She reached out tentatively to touch ‘Cade on the shoulder as he leaned over his opponent.

“Babe?” she whispered nervously.

Lifting his helm up, Barricade’s optics were that eerie slightly pinkish-purple. The seams on his faceplate were slightly parted, but not fully opened. He held his ventilation system still so not to breath in the smell of energon. A bit stiffly, he pushed himself to his feet.

Novastrike grimaced and looked away from the femme. Her armor was practically crushed out of sheer, brutal strength. There was hardly a faceplate to be made out.

Reaching out, Venus gingerly touched the sides of his face. A kitten’s purr almost moved through the cop as the four segmented areas of metal on his faceplate flexed slightly and retracted back to making his faceplate smooth once more.

“Are you okay?” Venus demanded swiftly.

“Fine,” ‘Cade rasped, grinning. “Didn’t even take a nibble.”

“Primus, you had me scared there for a moment,” she hissed, stroking the side of his face.

Chuckling with some unease, he leaned in to press his forehead lightly against hers. An adoring smile formed on his faceplate as he looked her in the optics tenderly.

Slowly pulling away, Barricade looked over Venus’ shoulder to stare at Novastrike. She went rigid, looking around like she wasn’t sure where to go to be out of his sites. It wasn’t like she’d done anything wrong, but being caught staring was certainly a bit awkward.

“You’re not too bad,” he admitted gruffly as Venus caressed his face.

Blinking her optics slowly, Novastrike offered a nervous smile. “Thank you, for saving me from that mech, Barricade.”

‘Cade gave a single nod of his helm, flashing his derma in a grin. “Sure thing, Nova. By the way, you can call me ‘Cade. I won’t bite, I promise.”

Light sparkled in Novastrike’s optics as she let out a faint gasp. A feline’s grin appeared on her cyber-cat alt-mode’s face as she wriggled in place excitedly.