Working On That Tight Rear End

[Rodimus Prime-3]

Morning of Day 12, during and after the radio conversation with Shockwave.

Rodimus Prime had left his warehouse and his partner some time ago, and stalked the streets of Zoo City for awhile until he had found what he was looking for. Since then, he's been in the middle of this street, small tool kit opened and sitting on an overturned dumpster he had dragged out, another vehicle pulled in position to act as a seat to make the repairs easier.

The subject of his efforts is the trailer that had been smashed under Grimlock's harsh landing. He is currently in a... mood that many of his troops would find unusual. His expression is intent, and the usual anger is there, but it is subdued. He is calm. He works quietly, efficiently, and focused on his task. He does not mutter of being forced to do this, his motions are no sharper or rougher than they must be to get the job done. If anything, he seems introspective, almost thoughtful.

His pauses suddenly in his work, his optics narrowing, his lips drawing back into a greater frown. Interruption. Before the interruption is complete, however, he pulls his lips back in a faint, amuses smile that fades quickly as he returns to his work, now trying to hammer out the worst of the dents in one of his trailer walls.

[Rodimus Prime-3]

The Prime works in silence and without interruption for some time as he slowly forms his trailer portion back into shape. Then, without warning, he straightens and swings his right arm to a point partially behind him and fires an electroblast from his pipes.

"What'd you do that for?!" Kup demands angrily as he cranes his head to examine the damage to his shoulder - minimal. His gleaming paint job has been marred, and the armor scorched, but the damage is superficial at worst.

"Oh, please," Rodimus snorts, annoyed, as he turns back to his work. "I barely winged you." He pauses to pick up a tool. "But really, Kup. A Stunticon? We even sent you Bluestreak!"

Kup shrugs and oozes nearer to Rodimus, taking a position where he can watch the Prime work. "Bluestreak is too stupid to figure out what he's missing, and he doesn't get any brighter when drunk."

"So?" Rodimus asks without looking up. "You're stronger than he is."

Kup shrugs and looks himself over, double-checking his wax job in the areas that Rodimus hadn't injured. "It's not as enjoyable that way. At least not to me."

Rodimus shakes his head and glances briefly skyward. So not his Kup. Prime keeps working on the repairs, crouching to solder together a particularly tricky connection. He pauses and straightens suddenly, then shakes slightly as though trying to dislodge something. Finally, he looks up at Kup and frowns. "So, you going to make a report, or just stand there watching?"

"Our alternates were clever. They didn't just collapse their own tunnels - they collapsed quite a few in this area. That's going to make a lot of these roads unreliable, but also hides which tunnels they actually used to flee. It will take awhile to dig out clues as to which one they used, but I intend to get started as soon as a large enough force has, erm, recovered from the festivities.

"I would also recommend that we get Synapse back in the sky as soon as possible. A group that size can't stay hidden forever."

Rodimus nods once, and still doesn't look up from his work. "Make it happen. Now get out of here."

Kup's expression darkens faintly, but he does not so much as scowl. Instead, he dips his head low enough that it seems to border on a scowl, turns, and walks stiffly off.

[Mirage-3]

Once Kup is out of sight, Mirage shimmers into view behind the Prime, fingertips just resting on the edge of Rodimus' spoiler. Mirage is careful not to jostle Rodimus as he moves around the Prime, his fingertips barely gliding up and off the tip of that spoiler. He jerks his head back, indicating the path Kup took when he left.

"How much longer are you going to put up with his uselessness?"

---

Touching done w/ permission.

[Rodimus Prime-3]

There is a slight, automatic twitch as Mirage fingers his spoiler, but otherwise the Prime gives no response to the hunter's touch, and does not even bother to look up from his work. He stands and pushes two corners together, holding them in place as he starts to weld him.

"If he were useless, I wouldn't have put up with him for this long," the young tyrant replies. "A poor, pale reflection of the real Kup. It sickens me, but for the moment I'm not in a position to just discard him."

It's not like Rodimus just happens to have an extra Kup laying around to replace him with, after all.

[Mirage-3]

Mirage snorts, then spits out, "He's a politician." His tone makes it clear that the designation is not complimentary.

He crouches down next to Rodimus, picking up a scrap of metal and idly turning it about in his fingers. He tilts his head, studying Rodimus for a few moments. "He's still around because he's useful, or because he's a Kup?" Mirage asks, not really expecting an answer.

He flicks the metal bit away. "You know, Rodimus, he isn't the only Kup around anymore."

[Rodimus Prime-3]

"He is useful," Rodimus grumbles in answer to Mirage, although his tone seems to add, but that's not why I keep him around.

The Prime pauses to look up at his work. He had been working for awhile before the new arrivals, and now is nearing completion. His trailer still looks somewhat bent out of shape, with bad dents on the roof and sides, but it also looks like it's probably approaching functional. He stands up and once more prepares to pull things back into position.

"He may not be the only Kup around, but I had been lead to believe that the local Autobots are largely pathetic, leaking-pump little Decepticon wannabes." He turns his head, just enough that Mirage is now in the very edge of his field of vision. "Is this not the case?"

[Mirage-3]

"I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss them, just because their ideals parallel our enemies. After all, we- none of us- have actually succeeded in destroying to a mech the Decepticons of our individual realities," Mirage's voice is even, and his only movement has been to look up at Rodimus. There is a subtle tenseness about him, though, as if he expects a blow. "Unless you count that screeching green thing Rattrap plays with." Which Mirage doesn't.

"I picked Kup, mainly because he was usually fairly visible, was high enough in the ranks to command unquestioned obedience, and because he had easy access to Swerve. But beyond that, he's closer to how we are than you'd think. He hasn't sat on his laurels like our own; he was a mercenary. And he's dangerous. Power levels aside, I'd put him in my top five to be worried about. Brute force can be dealt with, but some mechs are too smart- and too stubborn- to go down easily."

[Rodimus Prime-3]

Fortunately for Mirage, Rodimus is in the middle of pounding his rear-end back into shape when Mirage reminds him that the Decepticons have not yet ground out. He glowers, and is tempted to remind him that he'd not even been leader for five years¹, and in those five years had eradicated the Decepticon presence on Cybertron, and had them down to a mere handful on Earth.

But ah. No point to it. He's busy, and he'd do better to prove himself with deeds, not words, anyway. Besides, he finds himself far more interested in Mirage's next words.

"A mercenary, you say? Interesting..." Rodimus murmurs thoughtfully. "Stubbornness... that would be difficult to deal with at first, but... useful in the final product." He pauses and glances back. "What else have you learned about him?"

---

¹ "Wait, what? I thought Rodimus had been Prime for ten years before being pulled into Dead Zone!" That is correct. Normalverse Rodimus Prime was pulled from 2016. However, Alternate Rodimus Prime was pulled from 2009.<sup>2

2</sup> And if 2009 sounds familiar to you canon experts out there, that's because that was the year that the Galvatron involved in Unicron's final attack at the end of Marvel G1 was pulled from. The story was called Rhythms of Darkness. Hmm!

[Mirage-3]

The half-expected blow doesn't come, but the tension doesn't leave Mirage as he straightens and stands. He shifts his weight so that it rests mostly on his right leg, relaxes just a touch, and shrugs.

"I studied him long enough to get his speech and basic mannerisms down, but it wasn't truly long enough to know him. He cares about those under his care, but isn't afraid to tell them off for being stupid. I got the impression that he may have had a relationship with a Rodimus Prime that may have been more like your own- a mentor or some such. Your alternate seemed to hold him in some esteem, as well. This Kup's been around the stars more than once; you won't fool him easily. And he would fight you."

Mirage says that last with a cold smile, "Not that you'd want him if he didn't."

[Rodimus Prime-3]

Rodimus pauses in his work and looks to the sky, expression distant. He smiles faintly, and for the briefest of moments it is a smile of the sort one wouldn't expect on him - fond. Nostalgic. Wistful. Then that moment passes, his optics narrow, and the smile gains its usual cruel edge.

"Hmmm... breaking him..." Rodimus shakes his head. "That won't do. That would lose me the parts I want to keep." He sets down the tool he had been working with (he was done, anyway) and lifts a hand to rub his chin thoughtfully. "If he can be rewritten..."

Then, the Prime's smile widens. It is a chill smile, and a sort of calculating madness hides on the edges and peeks from his optics. "We can kill him. And I can bring him back. That might work."

[Mirage-3]

Mirage has seen many looks on Prime's face, endured much, and the hunter stands closer to Rodimus than anyone. There is little enough left that his Prime can do or say which shocks Mirage, gives him worry.

That smile, though, those words- they chill Mirage to the spark. Mirage enjoys a certain level of protection due to his position, a position entirely dependent on Rodimus' whims. Rodimus has beaten his hound to death's very threshold but he has never killed and resurrected him. It hits Mirage suddenly that he will never be free of his collar, even if his spark fades. Not unless Rodimus lets go the leash.

For the first time in a very long time, the Prime's hound fears his master.

There is a longer than polite pause before Mirage speaks again, the only indication of his inner disturbance. "You want to try and drop him in battle, or do we need to cut him out of the herd?"

[Rodimus Prime-3]

Rodimus Prime is... not what you'd call a very empathic person. He pays no attention to Mirage's sudden remembrance of fear, and if he had noticed, he'd probably be pleased enough with it, anyway. He starts to pack away his tools as he considers Mirage's question.

"Either will do, provided they don't retrieve the body." Rodimus is working under the assumption that his alternate can bring Kup back from such a state as well. "We'll examine what opportunities come up." He turns towards Mirage and smiles. "Should one present itself, take it." The smile widens. "Bringing him back dead should be easier than worrying about retrieving a live captive, after all."

Rodimus returns his kit to subspace and drops down into alternate mode, his somewhat beaten but now once more functional trailer attaching to its place. Then he transforms again, and it is gone.

"Better," he murmurs, looking over the spot where it had been.

[Mirage-3]

Mirage nods, then shifts a bit, as if uncomfortable. He opens his mouths, closes it, then shrugs.

"I imagine they would only leave the dead behind if absolutely necessary. They all seem to care about each other, to varying degrees. They did not have to be persuaded or forced to work together despite their reality differences. Which reminds me...do not discount their Xaaron. He is their elected leader, and he not only leads, he thinks. Their Prime defers to him, to an extent."

He can't help smirking a bit once Rodimus is "whole" again. Whole but not unscathed- it's been too long, Mirage wagers, since Rodimus Prime got his aft kicked in. Maybe it will make the Prime a bit more wary.

Probably not.

"We going to hunt them down, or try and bait them out? They'll try to rescue Swerve if given the chance; I'd bet my spark on it. You could take advantage of that."

[Rodimus Prime-3]

Rodimus sits back down on the vehicle he had been using as a seat during his work, and he grins at Mirage's suggestion. "Swerve... and Swerve, we can break. Just think what the guilt would do to him if some of these kinder, gentler Autobots he's run to get taken in an attempt to rescue him." The Prime's optics light up with glee at the contemplation. "Yes... drawing them out would do rather nicely."

Rodimus lifts his head to study Mirage thoughtfully. "But need we risk our prize? They know we have Swerve, so if they see an opportunity to rescue one who looks like him..." he trails off suggestively. Then, his optics brighten once more. "The look on their faces at the moment of betrayal should be delicious."

[Mirage-3]

"We don't have to risk him, necessarily. However, there are limitations to my abilities," Mirage answers, seemingly nonplussed at being offered as bait. He's done it before. "They aren't going to be goaded into acting as rashly as they did during the battle. They will want to make sure it's Swerve before taking such a chance. They have a me, after all. I fooled then once. Hoping to do so twice would be unrealistic."

Mirage settles back against another abandoned vehicle, "If we maybe, made a point of showing off Swerve somehow, make it seem that we don't know he's being observed, then present an opportunity...do a switch at just the right moment..." Mirage shrugs. Such planning isn't his strong suit.

"There is the matter of their own Mirage to be considered. I didn't see him during the battle. Did you?"