Proper Pet Care

[Skyfire-3]

Skyfire-3 was not pleased with himself. Sure, the Autobots won a battle against... Autobots. With the help of Decepticons. What that said about themselves, Skyfire wasn't certain, but he was certain that it meant that Prime would be even more arrogant and insufferable than ever. And in all this mess, he hadn't managed to capture one pet--er, prisoner. Not only that, he'd gotten shot up and probably antagonized Perceptor by going to someone else for repairs.

Not his fault, he told himself silently as he stalked through the damaged city. As far as he'd known, Perceptor was offline, possibly permanently, with severe damage at the time. He needed to fix that scorched bridge as soon as possible.

Skyfire considered the Decepticon leader--Starscream. He'd always admired the Seeker's somewhat outre, yet graceful lines: Cybertronian Seekers were blunt missiles punching through the air; TC and Starscream had broad wings that proclaimed they could truly fly--which reminded him he'd better see to TC soon. Poor guy was probably going nuts from boredom; after missing all the 'fun' and waiting obediently back at base, he deserved a bit of pampering.

He'd found another warehouse to stash his loot in, and to provide enough space to keep Thundercracker from feeling too closed in, or so Skyfire hoped.

The big shuttle pushed back the warehouse doors and peered into the dim, dusty building. "TC! Front & center!"

[Thundercracker-3]

Unfortunately, Thundercracker tended to feel closed in with any sort of roof over his head, no matter how spacious the quarters were. One who was built, programmed, and accustomed to the sky simply felt out of place confined to the ground. At least the garage gives him room to pace, releasing his pent-up energy some.

At the moment he isn't pacing but in a light defrag in the back of the warehouse, curled up in a darker corner just in case someone slipped in with sadistic intentions while Skyfire was gone. His "catnap" is light enough that Skyfire's order awakens him instantly, and he dashes forward to salute his master.

"Yes, Master?" he inquires.

[Skyfire-3]

Skyfire looked Thundercracker up and down. No obvious dents or scratches--but there could be other problems. He turned on a couple of his landing lights, brightening the surroundings considerably.

"Sorry you had to stay cooped up back at camp, but this party was a bit too rough for a nice jet like you," Skyfire said, reaching for Thundercracker's cockpit. "I'm going to check your diagnostics, make sure everything's running okay," he continued in a soothing voice. "Got some extra fuel for you. Then I'm going to wash you down and polish you up--you've been getting dusty."

Large white fingers found the latch with an ease and speed born of long practice; there was a soft 'click' and then he folded back Thundercracker's entire cockpit, exposing the delicate cybernetic mechanisms hidden beneath. The starship-former deftly poked and prodded, taking a few readings. "Hmm... I detect some recent stress here. Tell me, has anyone--Autobot OR Decepticon--gotten rough with you? Or is it something else?"

---
Handling of TC-3 done with permission

[Thundercracker-3]

Energon, and a wash and a polish... it sounds wonderful at the moment. Thundercracker truly is lucky to be under Skyfire's care -- the explorer/treasure hunter treats him well, after all, and is careful to protect him from harm.

So why does he want to pull away when his master reaches for his cockpit, to recoil from his touch? It's not as if Skyfire hasn't run diagnostics before -- why this change? Has the Other Scourge unsettled him this much?

He holds still and gives no indication of his discomfort, however, as Skyfire opens his cockpit and takes his readings. The question does come as a bit of a surprise.

"No one's hurt me, Master," he replies. "I... did encounter their Dead End, Scourge, and Eye-Fire, but none of them even touched me."

[Skyfire-3]

Skyfire glanced briefly at his pet's face; no, nothing out of the ordinary there. "Did they harass you? Well-chosen words can stress you. I remember coming across you and them; I got the impression they were up to something, but you didn't seem to be damaged, so..."

The big white Autobot finished his inspection and gently closed Thundercracker's cockpit. "Here." He handed the enslaved Seeker a large cube of energon. "Your share of the party. I would regret you having to miss it, but you would not have been happy there." Nor would I have been happy if Prime had chosen to use you for a football in twisted head games with me. Good thing he picked Mirage and Perceptor for his 'fun'

"Drink up, relax while I find the hose..." Skyfire gently patted Thundercracker on one of his air intakes, then started poking around the warehouse in his search.

[Thundercracker-3]

"Thank you, Master," Thundercracker murmurs, taking the cube. He finds a spot against the wall to sit down while Skyfire goes on his search, sipping slowly at the energon and savoring it. He's perfectly happy with having missed the "party" -- anything the Autobots and these dark copies of Decepticons deem worth celebrating cannot be good. Besides, he's had his fill of mechs deciding to use him as entertainment.

"They... just talked," he explains. "They wanted to know what our Decepticons were like... whether they had duplicates in our world, and how they acted."

[Skyfire-3]

"Did they really?" Skyfire asked as he carefully pulled out a length of firehose. "Interesting. I wonder why they picked you for an intelligence debriefing."

He adjusted the nozzle and turned on the water, checking the flow. "Of course. You were one of our Decepticons--they would assume you'd know about them. Do you, still? I gave Perceptor a great deal of latitude in fixing you; did he erase all your memories, or just some of them?"

Possibly Perceptor didn't touch the pet's memories at all, but merely adjusted his attitude. That mentioning Perceptor's tampering might raise cruel doubts in Thundercracker's mind about how much of himself was left didn't occur to Skyfire. TC was a pampered pet, not a person; any worries a pet might have were trivial, to be cured with fresh fuel and a bit of tuning and cleaning.

[Thundercracker-3]

"Perhaps I was just convenient," suggests Thundercracker. It certainly hadn't seemed like the Other Dead End had been seeking him out. Especially since he seemed to have mistaken him for the Other Thundercracker at first...

At Skyfire's question, a chill seizes him, and his wings tremble slightly. Of all the questions his master could have asked, he picked one of the most painful...

"I... remember some," he replies. "Pieces mostly... but I forget more as time passes..." He shudders again and takes a gulp from the cube, as if taking in energy will restore his memory. Soon, he fears, there will come a day when he wakes up and remembers nothing of Thundercracker the Decepticon... and all that remains is TC the Pet.

[Barricade-3]

From a slim shadow at the doorway, a pair of low red embers incandesce for an instant before dying back to low embers once again. It's a struggle for Barricade to keep himself from sinking his claws into the doorway of the warehouse when Thundercracker addresses that looting mercenary as "Master," especially when Skyfire mentions what was done to the Seeker with such casual disregard as one might discuss changing the paint of the walls of one's quarters.

You won't have to forget any more, Thundercracker. I promise!

---

ooc: totally skippable. Barricade is just lurking around long enough to make sure Skyfire isn't going to tote Thundercracker off anywhere. He's just barely peeking around the doorway and will duck out of sight and hide if need be if either of them glances in his direction.

[Skyfire-3]

Skyfire turned the hose on Thundercracker, sluicing off the dirt and wind-blown dust that had accumulated at the rough camp near the Deceptibase. "Well, don't tell those Other Decepticons any more--not yet; they may look friendly, but unless I'm a paranoid fool, trouble is coming. Don't let yourself get in a vulnerable position with them; don't let the familiar faces fool you."

Once Thundercracker was thoroughly rinsed, Skyfire grabbed up a drum of detergent he'd found and poured it over Thundercracker, then swabbed him thoroughly with a large (by human standards) mop. In Skyfire's hands it was like a cotton swab, but he was patient and gave the lost Seeker a thorough cleaning, getting into joints and intakes as well as the broad flight surfaces.

"Trust me on this; they're not your friends." Skyfire rinsed Thundercracker down with the hose again, and added, "I know I've told you this before, but I noticed that their Scourge is a real smooth talker when he had you cornered. Trust him like you'd trust Gizmo, if you get my drift."

Skyfire stood back and admired his handiwork; Thundercracker stood in the sunlight from the open vehicle door, gleaming and wet. "Yeah, you look much better. You should feel better, too."

The Autobot shuttle smiled paternally and gently stroked the top of TC's head. The next step was to wipe Thundercracker down before the water had a chance to dry and spot on his finish; Skyfire took up a big wad of cloth and began...

---
Washing TC by permission of player, of course

[Thundercracker-3]

Thundercracker flinches at the sudden spray of water, then relaxes as he feels the accumulated dust and grime from the last several days finally fall away. He offline his optics and doesn't move as Skyfire rinses him and scrubs him, just letting him work.

"Yes, Master," he says in reply. He's already seen firsthand that this world's Decepticons are nothing like the ones he knows -- masked and aloof Dead End, stiff and formal Scourge, calm and quiet Eye-Fire... it's a bit CPU-boggling.

Though that does make him wonder just what this world's Autobots are like, if the Decepticons are so different...

With the dirt out of his joints he does feel a lot better, and he bends and twists one arm experimentally -- no grit grinding in the joints. He holds still once again as Skyfire begins drying him off, behaving himself for his master.

[Skyfire-3]

Drying TC thoroughly was a mindless, relaxing task that gave Skyfire-3 time to think about his plans, nebulous as they were. First things first--go square things with Perceptor after he finished taking care of TC. Then... perhaps put some feelers out to the local Starscream, find out what the Other Decepticon Leader was like. Was he someone Skyfire could work with, or who would at least leave Skyfire alone as long as he got his cut, like Optimus Prime did?

Much as he'd like to have a Starscream pet, Skyfire wanted out from being locked on one small planet with Señor Psychopath-Prime more. If this Starscream could offer that, Skyfire could just squelch his fancy for more F-15 wings in his collection.

He finished drying Thundercracker and dug out a barrel of what purported to be vehicular polish, if the vainer members of their automotive contingent were to be believed. As he applied it with a buffer, Skyfire pondered the downsides of the whole notion: Prime finds out and exterminates him. Or turns him over to Perceptor as an experimental subject.

"I'll just have to make sure he doesn't find out, eh, TC?" Skyfire asked rhetorically. "That means taking it slow and subtle. Yes, this looks good. We'll have you shiny in no time!"

[Thundercracker-3]

Thundercracker has no idea what Skyfire's talking about -- telepathic he is not. He has a feeling it's something that has very little, if anything, to do with him, and that Skyfire's just processing out loud, as the saying goes.

"Yes, Master," is all he says in reply.

Unconciously he leans into the buffing, like a dog pressing into his master's hand as he's being scratched, every joint and servo in his frame relaxing.

[Skyfire-3]

"Heh. First, I learn not to think out loud. Fortunately, there's just you here," Skyfire said with a chuckle. He stepped back and regarded Thundercracker with a critical eye. "That's good, time to finish up."

Skyfire put a fresh buffing pad on the buffer and proceeded to polish Thundercracker until he shone, gleaming from every sunbeam that slipped in the door. Finally, the job was done, and Skyfire stood back to admire his handiwork.

"You look marvelous, TC!" As he cleaned up, Skyfire chatted at his pet, saying, "I've got a few things to take care of; they might take awhile, so don't get worried if I don't come back soon. After I've taken care of business, I'll see about letting you get out and fly a bit. You'd like that, wouldn't you?"

He gently stroked Thundercracker's head. "Try not to get dirty while I'm out, and if you get in trouble, or someone shows up and tries to hurt you, call me."

After Thundercracker's response, Skyfire left, drawing the garage door shut behind him. He was always uneasy about the safety of his pet, but Prime seemed to find his penchant for collecting Decepticon jets amusing and had left them alone so far. The others followed Prime's example. So far.

---
Skyfire out, unless interfered with or TC's reply mandates further posts

[Thundercracker-3]

Once Skyfire's finished, Thundercracker takes a moment to inspect himself. Wow. He hasn't looked this good in a long time. The sunlight fairly gleams on his blue armor, nearly blinding...

He glances back up as Skyfire mentions going away for awhile. And he's to be locked up here while this business is taken care of? He's not sure he can stand being cooped up much longer. Though the prospect of being able to go for a flight once Skyfire returns helps soften that blow, it's still a blow.

"Yes, Master," he replies, bowing just slightly as Skyfire strokes his helmet. "I'll call you if there's a problem."

And then the door shuts once again, sealing him in. Thundercracker's wings start to twitch, instinct fighting against being sealed in from the sky, but he forces them to still and takes to pacing instead.