Transformers: Steel Reign

[Agent Fisher]

Stryke stops and puts his hand on her shoulder. "Listen to me Crim. I'm telling you, if you had checked the rig, it wouldn't have made a difference. As soon as you were done taking a look at it, he would have disabled it, or disabled you." He shakes his head.

"Don't keep thinking about what you could have done differently. I've been down that road and all it leads to is pain."

[SirNitram]

"No one's turning you off." Overload was adamant on this. "We don't turn people off because of how they were built. They didn't turn me off in the first War between War 'bot and Civ 'bot. They made me better, gave me armour, taught me to fight dirty. We're just worried about you, lil' guy. Hell, I'm worried about me flying, and I'm built like a damn brick."

[B4UTRUST]

"Hornet...Hornet! Nobody's talking about deactivating you. Wow, your logic processor is off by a kiloquadrant there. Nobody said anything about switching you off. Primus, where in the Pits did you get *THAT* idea?

"I'm not trying to make you upset, I'm just trying to tell you why I said what I did to Wheeljack. My point is that you being made the way you are isn't exactly giving you a whole lot of advantages towards succeeding in the survivability department. He probably know something I don't about the why, but looking at it, it doesn't exactly seem fair to you or very good at all. It's kind of mean-spirited to created something that is purposely outclassed by a very large percentage of what it's going to encounter, that's all.

"Now quit that noise about deactivation.."

[General Havoc]

Hornet lowered his head again. "Sorry..." he mumbled as both Overload and Slipstream insisted he not get upset about the prospects of being deactivated. It may have seemed obvious to them what they had meant, but Hornet was the one being told he was so weak that he shouldn't ever have been built. Let them listen to that for a while and tell him how he shouldn't overreact.

"I know I'm... really small... and... I don't have any real armor... but... I'd rather be small than not be alive" he insisted. "And Wheeljack's not cruel or mean or anything like that! He built me by hand, and he doesn't even get mad when I get hurt or damaged, not even when it's my fault!"

He sighed. "He says I'm... important. But everyone thinks he's crazy for making me..."

[SirNitram]

"Well, I know a bit more about organics than Slipstream here. At least, human organics. And I might know a bit more about 'em than Wheeljack, though I didn't speak with them." Overload said softly. "But yea, you're like them in some ways. Smaller. Weaker, to be honest. But humans don't let the war get near their kids.. You want to see a human fight harder than any 'bot, Autobot or Decepticon? Make him realize if he retreats an inch, gives up a little scrap, his kids are in danger. They're amazing creatures. I'm honoured I fought alongside them, even if they never saw the real me."

[B4UTRUST]

"We think he's crazy because he didn't give you the advantages and help that we believe he should have. While you're busy, as he put it, redefining the Cybertronian paradigm, there is also a small thing going on called a war. The end result of that war, like it or not, is that a lot of us are going to die. We will cease to exist and our sparks will join the Matrix. Winning or losing isn't the end result, that's just what it'll be labeled by the survivors of either side.

"The truth is, we've already lost. Both sides have lost. We're in a battle for survival, not for triumph or ultimate victory over our enemies. That's pointless because by the time we even see the hope of that victory, so many will be gone that it won't have been worth it. The sad fact of the matter is probably most of us here won't make it to see the end of this thing.

"Now process this, Hornet. I didn't say what I did because I'm upset with you, or that I don't like you, or that I think you're insignificant, worthless, pathetic, or any other useless descriptives you wish to put on yourself when your knocking yourself down. I said it because of how the real world is outside of Wheeljack's Primus-damned labs. This is a battle for survival, kill or be killed. And in this situation you need every advantage you can take. And Wheeljack gave you a raw deal. He didn't equip you to survive, he equiped you to be a science experiment and some second Great Transformation of our species. But if you're the next evolution of what we're to become, you've got to be equipped to survive. And compared to most of us, you're not. It's not that we don't like you or hate you, it's just that we're concerned that dispite all of the best intentions, you won't make it. That you'll come up short on some crucial bit that means the difference between you staying alive another day and you going into a permanent stasis lock. And if you're missing that piece, it's not because the Matrix gave you a bad spark or you were installed with a bad part off the line, it'll be because you weren't given the same oppertunities and advantages as everyone else. That's the raw deal, and that's what Wheeljack has given you. "

[LadyTevar]

"Don't keep thinking about what you could have done differently. I've been down that road and all it leads to is pain."

"And you say you don't know why I stay with you..." she teased, having to admit that she did need Stryke to remind her not to brood on past failures.

[General Havoc]

And suddenly Hornet didn't feel like crying anymore.

He blinked slowly as the tears drained away from his face, and he lifted his head slowly, tilting it back up towards Overload. He didn't say anything, didn't speak a single word, just looked up at Overload as though he could read Overload's mind or have his own mind read. And then slowly, Hornet straightened himself out, stood up as tall as he could and turned to look up at Slipstream, staring him square in the face as he spoke in a voice that still held a trace of his usual hesitancy and trepidation, but only a trace.

"Wheeljack told me," he said carefully, "that I was... different... than everyone else, because I was smaller and... weaker... and because my spark didn't work like everybody else's spark. I don't know why I had to be like this... I don't understand why he built me the way he did in the middle of a war, or anything else, but I'd rather be like this and..." he stumbled over the words, "... try to help everyone else, than be stuck in a case somewhere and only let out when it's safe."

He shook his head. "I don't wanna die, or kill other people, and I don't want to want to kill people either, even if you think it means I'll be too weak to survive in the middle of the war. And yeah, sometimes I wish I was built as big as you, or Shellshock, or Omega Supreme even, but not because it would mean I'd be better at fighting the war. If I was as big or strong as Omega Supreme, I could make sure no Autobots had to die in the war, and if the Decepticons tried to hurt anyone else, I could stop them. I'd never have to be afraid of the Decepticons or Ironhide or of anything else.

He lowered his head slightly again. "But I'm not Omega Supreme, and I am scared of the Decepticons..." He quivered involuntarily and closed his eyes and took a deep breath, or so it appeared, "but I'm not gonna hide in the Ark and never go outside just because I'm scared of them, any more than I'm gonna go and deactivate myself just because you're scared that I won't survive the war. And I won't let my friends get hurt by the Decepticons if I can stop it. And I know you don't think I can and maybe you're right, but I won't just run and hide and wait for it all to be over, especially if you think we've already lost and most of us aren't gonna survive anyway."

He was standing up straight again now, staring up into the optics of the larger Autobot, and speaking with a soft, nervous voice, that nevertheless held just the slightest bit of steel in it, a tiny, quivering core of will surrounded by nervous doubt, but a core that was there nonetheless.

"Wheeljack said that he had to build me this way, and that there wasn't any other way," he said, "and I believe him, but even if I didn't believe him, and he could have built me big like you guys, with weapons and armor and knowing how to fight, I wouldn't be me. I'd be somebody else with a different spark and different coding, and maybe it would be better if I was that other person, but I don't wanna be someone else, even if it means I might get hurt or..." he hesitated at finishing the sentance, "... or worse. You keep saying that... Wheeljack should have made me different somehow, bigger or whatever... that he did something terrible and wicked because he made me so small, but what can I do about that? What do you want him to do about it? I AM small, and I DON'T have any armor, and I can't just... become big or anything. What do you want me to do? Go get mad at him? Process that and tell me what you want me to do, because I think you just want me to go away."

He raised a hand towards Slipstream to combat the protest he knew was coming. "I know you think you're just making sure I'm okay and you said you aren't trying to say I'm worthless, but I know that's what you think, because you know that I can't just get bigger. You think I'm too scared and too small and too weak to do anything helpful in the middle of a war, and maybe I am..." he lowered his head again, "but I'm not gonna let my friends get hurt just because you think that there's no helping it and that we're all gonna die anyway. You keep saying Wheeljack did this terrible thing building me like I am. Well he can't change that and I can't change that and I don't know if I'd want him to change it even if he could, not if the only reason is so that I'd be better at killing Decepticons... not if it meant I'd be somebody else."

He lowered his wing and his head once more and sighed.

"So even if trying to help means I get blown up..." he said, "... I'd rather get blown up trying to help my friends than be what you think I am... or what you think I oughta be instead of me."

[B4UTRUST]

"Have you ever shown any issue with what he's done with you? Have you ever sat there and told him to go slot his ideas about children and Cybertronians and give you a decent sized body and some armor so you don't have to spend half your life in a repair bay? Yeah, I know, you're going to tell me it's too risky, to big of a chance. Yeah, it is. But it's that or you being stuck the way you are. Thats your business.

"I'm done with my explaination as to why I said what I said to Wheeljack. Take from it what you will. I've got to go prep for the mission."

[Dark Silver]

Optimus was walking from the briefing room, heading to the exit of the Annex, when he heard Stryke and Crimson speaking. The much larger mech half turned, his blue optics looking down on the other two.

"Crimson," he spoke, calling to the smaller fembot, "I've decided, I need you to accompany the strike team against the Decepticon base. If you locate Hornet, tell him he is to prepare for the mission as well."

[LadyTevar]

Crimson half-turned, startled by Prime's voice. It took an astrosecond to process what he'd said, but she recovered quickly. "Yes, sir. I'll go find Hornet now and let him know."

Crimson did not question Prime's order, or even ask why he changed his mind. She had fought with Elita-1's forces on Cybertron, but had rarely interacted with Prime and the Autobots. Prime was not quite a legend, but more than the normal 'Bot. Crimson did not know how to act around Optimus, so as if she was a much younger 'Bot, she merely acknowledged his orders and carried them out to the best of her ability, simply because he was Prime.

[Agent Fisher]

Stryke looked at Crimson. "Well that was easier than I thought. Come on, lets go find midget bot and tell him the news." He said.

[LadyTevar]

Crimson nodded to Prime, and then followed Stryke. "Hornet was with Overload last time I was him," she said, heading towards the back of the meeting room. Luckily, Overload was hard to miss.

Prime didn't say what he wanted her to accomplish during the mission, but there would be time during the briefing to find out. She just hoped Stryke wouldn't get hurt trying to protect her.

"There's Overload.. and I hear Hornet."

[General Havoc]

Hornet did not, could not reply to Slipstream's questions, and everyone knew it. Of course he had never told Wheeljack any such thing. Of course he had never demanded to be made bigger. Partly that was because he knew it was useless. He knew that he was who he was and that there was no way to simply inflate himself into something the size of Crimson, much less a normal transformer. But mostly he had never done so because...

... well.

... because he LIKED being who he was.

Sure, being small was annoying, and he perpetually hated that he wasn't big enough or strong enough to help his friends fight the Decepticons as well as he knew the others could, but all that aside he loved flying, and he loved being an airplane. He loved being able to do a high-speed barrel roll or recover from a flat spin, something not even Jetfire could do. He loved being able to go where other Transformers couldn't go, such as inside human buildings (even if he had to crawl to get into some of them). He found that humans interacted more easily with a bot that was ten feet tall rather than one five times that, and he really liked being around humans, or most humans anyway. He wasn't at all fond of being too small to see over tables or sit in chairs, but he liked being small enough for many of the others to pick up or squeeze with one arm. He liked being able to give the others big, squeezy hugs as tightly as he could without any risk of damage, and he loved receiving them in return (even if Wheeljack was forever knocking the dents out of his frame).

And on top of it all... he liked it when Wheeljack would sit him down in the workshop in the middle of a long computer diagnostic or something, and tell him all about the experiment that he was a part of. Wheeljack would talk on and on, using terms Hornet didn't understand, in a voice that was partly explanatory and partly almost reverent. It didn't matter how many times Wheeljack told him the story, Hornet would always sit and listen intently. Sometimes Wheeljack would go on to speculate about the distant future, talking about what Hornet might one day become, what he might one day mean to the entire Transformer species. It wasn't that Hornet necessarily believed what Wheeljack was saying on such occasions, nor even really understood it all, but he liked hearing it nonetheless. He liked to think that there was someone at least that thought he wasn't useless. Someone who even thought he was... special.

He lowered his head and stared at the floor and sighed sadly. Obviously most people didn't. Whatever Slipstream thought he was saying or not saying, he was still telling Hornet that he was so weak, so small, so unprepared for the battles that were coming that he was no asset to anyone and that it was practically criminal to have built him in the first place. So what if Slipstream blamed Wheeljack for it, or claimed that he had nothing against Hornet, he was still saying the same thing.

Namingly that he was useless, weak, and should never have even been built.

[LadyTevar]

The picture looked rather bleak. Hornet, head down, obviously upset but not (yet) crying. Overload looking annoyed at another third Autobot whom Crimson did not know who was starting to walk away. It made Crimson want to pointed ask the stranger 'Bot what he'd said and then feed him a grenade.

"Hornet! There you are," she said instead, striding up to join him and Overload, Stryke following in her wake. "I've got a message for you from Prime."

[General Havoc]

Hornet was not in tears, a rare event in such a case as this one, but he was definitely hurt. The little plane's wings and head were drooped down, and even his bright blue and silver paint seemed tarnished. He couldn't even bring himself to look up at Overload to gauge if he held the same opinion. Hornet was hyper-emotional at all times. On top of the world or a speck of as a speck dust crushed underfoot, nothing in between.

And right now he was definitely in a dust phase.

Catching his name, Hornet looked up sharply, and saw Crimson and Stryke approaching. Crimson seemed to be looking for him for some reason. And then she said something he completely did not expect.

"I've got a message for you from Prime."

Hornet blinked, then thought about it, and blinked again. The despondency slowly drained from his face replaced with total confusion. Crimson had a message from PRIME? For HIM?

"What?" he asked, totally bewildered. "P... Prime sent ME a message?" He was so taken aback by this state of affairs that he completely forgot to ask what the message was. Hopefully it was implied.

[LadyTevar]

Crimson nodded, unable to hide the smile at seeing Hornet's reaction. The teenybot was going to be hitting the stratosphere when he heard this one. "Prime told me to find you and inform you to prepare for the mission to Fort Maximal."

She braced herself, fully expecting to get hit by one of Hornet's enthusiastic hugs.

[General Havoc]

Crimson was not to be disappointed.

Hornet blinked very slowly, slowly enough to hear the actuators in his optic-wipers working, as he tried to process what he had just heard. For a couple of seconds he simply stood in shock as though rooted to the spot, looking like his processor had ceased to function. After everything he had just been told by Slipstream... PRIME thought he was... was good enough to...

Slowly a smile spread over his face. He looked up at Overload, back down (but still up) at Strike, and then back to Crimson, and by then his smile had become a broad grin. And then finally Hornet literally jumped for joy into the air with one fist pointing at the ceiling, and laughed out loud and cheered, really actually cheered as loudly as he could. And no sooner had he landed than he practically bounced over to Crimson and gave her the biggest, tightest, happiest hug his tiny frame could muster, squeezing as hard as he could and laughing with delight that Prime had thought him worthy of being included on the mission. Had Shellshock or Prime been nearby, he might well have done the same for them, but they weren't and so Crimson was the perhaps unfortunate target of Hornet's enthusiasm.

"Thanks Crimson!" he said with all the goodwill in the world as he hugged her waist, and he glowed up at her as he promised to be the best flier in the entire Autobot army, and to come back with a dozen Decepticon kills (he meant kills in the dogfight sense, not actual deaths) all his own. Already, inside his head, he was envisioning himself engaging the Decepticons and sending them all down in flames to the ground, where they would all no doubt survive, but be rendered unable to fly, and have no recourse but to acknowledge that Hornet, Hornet the all-powerful, was the greatest Autobot flier of them all, and that they should all immediately surrender lest he defeat them all again.

Suddenly Hornet froze, though his wings were still stuck around Crimson's waist in a massive hug. "Wait," he said, "... you're coming too, right?"

[LadyTevar]

One hand dropped to Hornet's shoulder as Crimson laughed. "Yes, Prime's told me to gear up as well. And if you're wanting to tag all those Decepticon fliers like you did last time, you need to find WheelJack and load up your missiles."

[SirNitram]

"Heaviest ones you're comfortable with." Overload replied. "I'm heading to the armoury. I feel like bringing some firepower for a change, plus, I'm sure Shellshock will appreciate some spare rounds apart from the ones he'll be grabbing himself." The massive bot gestured towards the armoury.

[General Havoc]

"Yay!!!" exclaimed Hornet (yes, YAY) as Crimson told him that she too was coming on the mission, and he redoubled his efforts to squeeze her in half, accomplishing nothing of course but to squeeze her reasonably tightly, but that was the point. He couldn't possibly have explained why he was so happy that Crimson would be coming with them as well, but he was. The fact that she had saved his life from Ravage of course might have had something to do with it, but mostly it was just a vague sense that as long as Crimson was there, nothing could go terribly wrong.

Time would tell if he was prescient or merely stupid.

He blinked up at Overload, Stryke, and Crimson, still without releasing her. "You... you think Wheeljack will let me have the... 'special'... missiles?" he asked. It was perhaps best not to ask what Wheeljack's 'special' missiles were, but Hornet was clearly elated at the thought of being allowed to carry some.

[LadyTevar]

Crimson looked to Stryke and Overload, highly amused by Hornet's attempts to hug her until she dented. The teenybot's tone of voice at the 'special missiles' made her wonder.

"I don't know... perhaps you should go ask him?"

[General Havoc]

Hornet's optics lit up at the thought that he should in fact do such a thing, and that Wheeljack might even let him at the special munitions. He grinned broadly enough that he risked breaking something and gave Crimson one more long tight squeeze, squeezing hard enough that his cheek was pressing against her stomach. "Thanks Crimson!" he chirped happily, though it was not entirely clear what it was he was so thankful for, and then he finally released her and grinned up at Overload.

"Let's go find Wheeljack!" he suggested excitedly.

[Agent Fisher]

Stryke smiled at the little bot, then looked to Crimson. "If you want to go with the teeny bot, go for it, I'm gonna head to the armoury. I think I'm going to need a bit heavier gear." The warbot said.

He reached down and gave Crimson a squeeze, avoiding the small bot hugging her, then headed down the hall.

[LadyTevar]

She felt like looking for dents herself after Hornet squeezed her, then Stryke got into the act. At least his was gentler. "I was going to go to the armory myself, and try to find an ion pistol that I could carry," she said as Stryke started away. "But I can stop by WheelJack's first, if you want, Hornet."