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Nov. 3rd, 2012 12:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sparklightTitle: At First Sight
Rating: G
Continuity: Dreamwave G1
Characters: Starscream, Jetfire
Summary: Starscream and Jetfire meet for the first time, and sparks fly. But perhaps not in the most gentle of ways.
He had almost not gone to this cycle's lectures; he was, surely, almost close to a breakthrough for constructing a device that could contain electricity and power-disrupting energy without affecting the wearer (that was, him) of said device, and a few lectures were hardly going to distract him.
Except one of them had been about uses of energy and conversions of such, and if other ideas for the disruption device failed... he'd need something like this. Except the speaker had been a fool, and he'd surely just wasted a joor of Starscream's time. Further he hadn't had fuel for quite some time, so he would have to detour into the parts the general, big-headed rabble in this placed used to refuel.
Usually he went elsewhere as it was easier to think and formulate his own theories and plans when his audio receptors weren't being invaded by a few thousand over-important idiots thinking science and talking about it at once. It wasn't very conductive to his thinking, and since he wouldn't ever be able to make them all shut up, Starscream just took himself elsewhere. Usually. Since with the lecture, he'd have no time to do that if he wanted get out the last bits of coding for the simulation equation to be able to start running during the night and hopefully give him some results (that he wanted) tomorrow, and more precise and expansive results later. He wasn't going to proto-sit it, so it better work as it should, immediately.
Paying no attention to anyone that he passed, since they could all move for him, Starscream was nonetheless surprised when he bumped - nearly slammed, really - into someone else. Flabbergasted, Starscream sneered at the mumbled apology and stormed onwards, not understanding how someone could have such a stupid faceguard attached to their helm, or why the flyer's design called for the cockpit array and nosecone to be on his arm. Really, what was that?
***
"Jetfire!"
Looking up from the datapad at his designation, Jetfire completely missed the white, red and blue Seeker who was paying even less attention to the mechs around him than Jetfire was. For completely different reasons of course, even if Jetfire couldn't know, which meant they collided. Wincing as the Seeker's wingparts and better part of his arm slammed into the cockpit and nosecone array, Jetfire glanced down, and mumbled an apology.
When the Seeker merely gave him an astrosecond glare and then strode away, Jetfire shrugged slightly, but didn't have much of a chance to think further on the collision as he was surrounded by the small group who'd tried to get his attention earlier. Jetfire was uncertain why they were all looking so pleased, considering they weren't really close to each other or anything.
"Kinda nasty bump there, you okay?" Distrail said with an easy smile and a shake of his helm, casting a look around the tail array on Jetfire's left arm after the retreating form of the Seeker.
"Starscream doesn't care about anyone, so don't feel bad."
Jetfire tilted his helm, frowning slightly. Why would he feel bad? Technically, while this... Starscream had bumped into him, yes, if Jetfire had paid less attention to his datapad... or, not been very untimely distracted by Distrail's call, he'd have avoided the collision.
"I'm fine, really. It wasn't as if he ran into my arm head-on, and the chance for any serious injury, even if he'd collided with me where he's heaviest, was negligible. I... wasn't expecting a, hm, welcome like this." Jetfire nodded to the other three in the group, who all grinned - too wide, too friendly, too innocently - at him.
"Oh, we're quite busy, really! Lectures going on and all that, but we saw you land earlier and thought we'd say hello if we got the chance. The Academy hasn't really been the same without you, Jetfire." Razorback shrugged, a tiny, sharp smile on his faceplates, the rotors arranged on his back shifting with a slight whisper of metal on metal.
"Ah, well. Thank you?" Jetfire shifted slightly, uncertain; he knew very well they neither knew each other well enough to warrant this... seemingly warm behaviour, nor really liked each other that much... and the odds for no underlying reason for this was slim. Less than 20.5%.
"Come now, Jetfire, can't we just say hello to a fellow lecture-attendant and lab partner?" Razorback grinned again, and behind him Sweep and Moonquake chuckled. It could, almost, have been friendly.
"Really, we just thought to give you a bit of a warning; the lab you used before your exchange season has been snapped up. Sorry about that." Distrail shrugged and Jetfire barely managed to keep his grimace internal; that had been a good lab. He ought to have expected it, though. The good spaces got claimed early and quickly.
"I don't assume there's any spot left in there?" Jetfire already knew the answer; if they were taking the time to tell him the lab had been taken, then there surely would be no spaces left...
"Nope, sorry. All gone. But, here... I don't really know why no one else's taken this one, but there's only one mech in this lab. You should check it out, I think you'd like it! Especially if it stays just the two of you, since you kinda like solitude, right?" Distrail said, handing Jetfire a chip before the group waved and wandered off.
***
He could have ignored it. Checking the available space distribution in the labs however, revealed that all of the good ones were completely crammed... And even the lesser ones were filling up, even if Jetfire would have been willing to use one of those.
That left the lab Distrail had mentioned.
The chip gave him the coordinates, and checking against the database turned up a... supply room? Were they really attempting to make fun of him with something that could be checked so easily? Possible, but that seemed too simple, so Jetfire wouldn't assume, and followed the coordinates. He ended up in an area that, if it actually was a lab, while tucked away all unobtrusively, would be a prime space for it.
The door was unlocked.
Jetfire had to admit to some surprise as it slid open easily, but went in. It was empty, though it was clear someone did use this space, as there was equipment scattered around and whoever they were, they certainly had a well-stocked lab. The sort of equipment you usually would have to share between five or six people in one lab, or, if you were alone, had to go into a larger lab to borrow was here for the use of... obviously, a single mech.
It was quite strange, really, but the questions of "where" those things had come from, and "how" the mech got to have it all to himself were shuffled lower in the priority queue as Jetfire wandered around.
There was definitely enough space for two in here... He'd have to ask first, obviously... The thought trailed off as Jetfire came upon the lit computer screen. Now, usually, he wouldn't go looking at someone else's equations and projects, but the screen was large, the mech wasn't here, and the lab was already intriguing and bringing up a lot of questions.
So Jetfire gave into his curiosity and looked the contents over. This was... Jetfire's optics brightened slightly in surprise and interest. Whoever they were, they had a very interesting project going on here.
Jetfire wasn't really known for either wanting to, or, even when he did want to, have a particularly easy time of befriending anyone, but, whoever the mech was that was working on this? He wanted to at least attempt getting to know him.
Stepping away from the screen and considering the space, Jetfire almost missed the door sliding open. Turning around at the sound of metal on metal he was, admittedly, surprised at who was standing in the doorway. Perhaps he shouldn't have been, since it explained quite a lot actually given the reaction he'd got for accidentally bumping into the mech earlier... Perhaps it also explained Distrail and the group's behaviour and leading him here.
***
Starscream had almost stayed in the large hall where the energon dispensers were kept for the length of the cube, just to see if it was as terrible as he remembered. It wasn't. It was worse. Starscream's frustration mounted as the mechs all around him chattered away about their damn *science* and it was hard to resist pouring his cube over the helm of the nearest mech.
He wasn't interested in every topic under the sun and Cybertron's moons; that was just a waste of his time! So after two breems he'd taken his cube and left, sneering at a group of four flyers of varying type who were standing on the balcony that ran along the edge of the Atrium before he ducked inside one of the corridors and went on his way towards the lab.
No more inane chatter.
No more invasion of his thought processes, no more...
The door to the lab slid open as it should; he never locked it any more. He didn't need to since everybody knew to keep out. But yes. The door slid open, and... there was someone in the lab.
Starscream stared, fingers tightening about the cube. It was that large, stupidly designed jet that had bumped into him earlier. Now that he was actually looking at him, he didn't look so bad, all things considered.
But that faceguard was still stupid.
And what. was. the. mech. doing in his lab?
"I, hmm... noticed you've got enough space for two in here. Care to share?"
Starscream stared, utterly, completely stumped and flabbergasted, underneath which rage, and outrage, was boiling up.
Hadn't he *done* all the work to make sure no one else would so much as want to stick their nasal ridge in here, even less come in willingly and ask to share space?
The jet standing in the middle of the lab had a calm, smooth expression on his face, and Starscream felt something ugly bubble up.
How dare he.
He'd wipe that stupid expression off the mech's faceplates! Preferably with his weapon when he got it finished if Jetfire wasn't out before then, which he really should be.
"... Of course," Starscream smiled tightly and walked past the jet, putting his cube down beside the computer screen.
Whoever he was, he'd regret the day he walked in here. Starscream would chase the overgrown pitspawn out of here---
"I'm Jetfire."
"Starscream."
Yes.
Out of here.
Jetfire would rue the cycle he got the idea to not just wait until Starscream came back to his lab, but also ask for a space in it.
***
Three deca-cycles later:
He'd started simple. No need to bring out the big guns until the defence had proven stubborn enough to need it. On the other hand, Jetfire seemed extremely... patient, so maybe he'd need his more extreme measures soon. He hadn't seen any proof at all that his early efforts had annoyed the larger jet, but how could it not?
He had, after all...
There was a faint drawn-out static sigh from Jetfire where he sat at his own computer, and Starscream smirked to himself.
Victory.
"You're sure the power supply is what's causing the short-outs and loss of data?" Jetfire turned around to face Starscream, and in the interest of keeping up some small charade, Starscream waited only a few moments before he turned around too, though he began speaking before that.
"Utterly. It's terrible, really. I think that's why no one uses this lab except m-- us. I've had to go through a lot of hoops to make sure nothing happens to my computer, and that doesn't even work half the time!" Starscream vented deeply, wasting a bit of air, but for the sake of drama he could do it and shook his helm, optics wide. Jetfire stared at the floor for a klik or so, arms crossed as he thought, before he shrugged, and Starscream had to determinedly squash the grin that wanted to slip out.
"... This won't be as effective, but I suppose I can make do..." Jetfire murmured as he turned around in his seat again, pulling out various datapads and spreading them out on the desk. Starscream stared, hands slowly tensing into fists, and accepted the challenge Jetfire had unknowingly put in front of him.
***
One orn later:
Jetfire had begun to encrypt his datapads. He had unconcernedly been leaving them around at first, and Starscream hadn't attacked that angle immediately, but he hadn't let Jetfire relax for too long either. So now the datapads were sometimes erasing or just losing whole chunks data, or randomized bits of it... parts of results being lost...
He had to put in the virus every time he wanted it to do its job, since it self-destructed as soon as it had disrupted some function or erased some data. It wouldn't do for it to be found by the anti-virus in the datapad which would then be able to build a defence against it. The encryptions were starting to be troublesome though, and Starscream wondered if he'd have to take another angle of attack. Why didn't Jetfire just leave? There was a huff from the white jet, and Starscream smiled slightly before he came over.
"Again? You know, this happens sometimes. I think there's those that are annoyed we use this space, even with how... spotty... the energy supply is, since this space is good." Starscream shook his helm, and Jetfire frowned down at the datapad he was currently using, considering everything that had happened so far.
But no, something was off.
Further, even if Starscream hadn't noticed it, the Seeker sometimes let things slip, unable to stay as stand-offish towards Jetfire as he was clearly trying to. Little comments and remarks, and while they were rather... rude towards the individuals they were aimed at, Jetfire had to admit to being amused. Not that he'd *encourage* such behaviour or anything, but it gave some insight. Into Starscream, not whoever he was shooting sharp verbal barbs at where they couldn't hear him.
"Mmh, I see. It should be fine, though. I haven't really encrypted them too heavily before, but I suppose there'll be a first time for everything." Jetfire shrugged and connected a cable he unrolled from a spot in his arm to the datapad, establishing a hardline connection to more easily go about the encryption.
"How's those equations and simulations going?" Jetfire asked, waiting until Starscream was nearly back at his computer, listening to the slight scrape of engine nozzles on the floor, and the few astroseconds of silence before Starscream answered, clipped and barely civil.
"... Ah, fine. They're going fine. Should... be a few orns until I can be sure it'll be worth it to get materials."
Jetfire hummed in agreement and pretended not to notice the slight shift of Starscream's frame as he tilted his helm to look, briefly, over at a locked supply closet in the other end of the lab.
***
Two orns, one deca-cycle later:
The slagger refused to cut his losses and leave! The encryption was beginning to take too long to break through, too complicated to bother with. Especially as Jetfire spread his projects, data and equations out among several datapads and external hard-drives, even if they were connected and essential to each other. Which meant they'd need to be reintegrated each time Jetfire wanted to do something.
Who had that sort of patience!?
Storming through the corridors towards the part of the residential areas where Jetfire had his room, Starscream was running out of simple ideas. Everyone else had left within an orn. One stubborn little annoyance with a microscope altmode had stayed just around one and a half orn.
No one had stayed this long. Not even come close to it, and so Starscream had had to do something drastic. And complicated.
It had been time-consuming and annoying because he'd had to find more equipment and one extra computer (not two, note), and then move everything, hiding the actual equipment and setting up the extras. At least it had been highly cathartic to go through the lab after that and destroy every single piece of equipment.
"Jetfire! Get up!" Starscream eschewed the more logical door chime and just banged on the door until it slid to aside, revealing Jetfire.
"What is it? Nothing melted, did it? It was a 14.3% and diminishing chance the longer those materials interacted that it'd end up melting." Jetfire frowned, tilting his helm slightly as he followed Starscream out into the corridor, the door closing and locking automatically behind him. At first, Starscream was confused; what was Jetfire talking about?
But then he remembered, that thing he'd put away... slag it all. It had been placed in the area cleared for potentially hazardous materials or reactions, which they both used, and he forgot half the things Jetfire put there. He should have destroyed that thing too!
"No, no, nothing as simple as that!" Starscream snapped, and it was only half-feigned; he really was annoyed that he'd had to do something as involved as this, and had forgotten to destroy everything of Jetfire's in the lab. "Someone must really not like y-- us. Look at this!" Starscream was rather proud of his proclamation as the door to the lab slid aside and he flung his arm out to point into what was very clearly a disaster area. The only things still whole were desks, benches, chairs and workspaces.
Jetfire stared at the obviously deliberate destruction, and dragged a hand down his faceplates, feeling a faint urge to pull the visor down... Except he hadn't attached it for the cycle yet, because Starscream had dragged him out of his room before he'd done that. It left him feeling a bit vulnerable and exposed, what with having only cursory armour on his cranium. But he had more important things to consider, such as how long this destruction would set him back.
Looking around, Jetfire thought it over, frowning. Well. This would set him back...
Looking over at the area that should hold his potentially hazardous research again, because something seemed off. Frowning, his optics flickered, resetted and then narrowed. The area ought to be a mess, but instead there was nothing there. Regarding Starscream out of the corner of his vision, Jetfire hummed softly.
This would set him back... hm, two joors?
Perhaps a cycle.
Nothing too bad, since he nowadays spent the last half of the last joor of the cycle transferring the data to his own computer in his room. This, of course, meant he couldn't use it for much else currently, and it couldn't hold everything, but it was better than nothing given the situation in the lab. A lab and a “partner” that still was turning out to be the best he'd had so far, excluding all these issues obviously.
"... Unfortunate, especially as it'll all need to be replaced." Jetfire frowned and folded his arms over his chestplates, and Starscream patted him lightly on the nosecone as he was standing on that side of Jetfire.
"Really, Jetfire, you shouldn't have to bother. Maybe it's just time to cut, ah... our losses and accept that we'll have to... reintegrate... into one of the occupied labs. I'm sure whoever's doing this wouldn't be zealous enough to destroy things for four to five others instead of just the two of us!" Starscream exclaimed, huffing as he stepped into the lab and kicked a piece of ripped out and crushed equipment away.
A piece that belonged to a device that hadn't even been in this lab before, Jetfire was quite sure. He couldn't be certain, since it wasn't a unique or exclusive part, but he was quite sure.
"No, it should be fine. I like this lab, and the fact that there's only the two of us. Less annoyance and disturbance," Jetfire said with a slight smile as he, too stepped into the room, calculating the damage done and how long it'd take to replace it all... If they could do it even, considering what the lab was marked as on all maps or schematics of the Academy. There was a slight noise behind him, and Jetfire straightened slightly, face serene.
"I mean, I assume it's because it's somehow, inexplicably, marked as a supply room on all schematics... I don't know how that miss was made, but it'd be a pity to reveal that, wouldn't you say?" Jetfire turned to face Starscream just as he finished speaking. The only thing that met him was a quickly suppressed flare of practically incandescent red optics. Jetfire had to admit to being impressed with the usually very expressive Seeker's ability to... ah, contain his reaction.
Starscream's smile was tight when he nodded.
"Yes. It would. Fancy that, huh? Very mysterious." There was a beat of silence and then Starscream scowled. "Well, let's get this cleaned up then, if we aren't abandoning this place."
One cycle later, the lab looked like it had done two cycles before, and Jetfire's missing project was back where it had been.
***
Four orns, two and half deca-cycles later:
The mech. had the patience. of fragging Primus himself! (If you were laid towards religious hyperbole, which Starscream absolutely wasn't, but these were desperate times.)
Oh, he'd had to pull back, dial down... There wasn't a lot else he could do in regards to the lab, except going back to intermittently make a mess of Jetfire's computer and the datapads. Though, he had gotten into Jetfire's room a while ago and managed to completely mess with the computer there. That was the first time he'd almost seen Jetfire blow up (not at him, obviously). The jet had gone flying for a joor and not returned to the lab until two cycles later.
And then it'd all gone back to normal, and when he next tried to get into Jetfire's computer in his room, it was much too encrypted to get in with the speed needed. So this time he'd done something different, with the bonus of pretty much destroying the cycle for all the other mechs who lived in the same residential corridor as Jetfire.
His internal chronometer said it'd been little over a joor since Jetfire ought to have noticed he was locked in, due to a... very unfortunate power-outage. If Starscream couldn't chase the jet out of the lab by messing with things there, maybe he could get him to leave by messing with other things.
Frowning at the shell he was constructing, Starscream compared it to his own natural arm cannons for a third time, externally and through schematics both. He wasn't upgrading those until he could be sure this prototype could handle what he wanted it to do, but they needed to be the same. Besides that, however... if he'd done his calculations correctly, and knew Jetfire well en--- knew Jetfire's habits and capabilities well enough, he ought to be coming in right about...
Now.
The door slid open, revealing a frowning, but otherwise not different Jetfire. Starscream quickly put away the prototype; technically the simulations and equations had only been finished for a deca-cyle, he shouldn't have had the time to get enough materials to even start on a prototype yet.
"What happened? I know you only have lectures for the first half joor, it's been a full one, now." Starscream only looked up briefly, and tried to ignore that he was more amused than smug at the slight traces of annoyance on Jetfire's face; a slight tightening around his optics, the faintly deeper frown, the set of his shoulders affecting the arrays on his arms. Turning back to the computer, he was itching to continue with the prototype, but he couldn't do that with Jetfire present.
"Localized loss of power... Caused everybody in the same corridor as me to be locked in. Took a while to resolve. Apparently some cables had been ripped out." Jetfire shook his helm, the statement accompanied by a huff.
"You don't say. Unfortunate." Starscream kept his faceplates free of any smirk, even if he was turned away from Jetfire.
"Mmh... I'd say the biggest misfortune was listening to the complaints over the comm, which we were required to keep open. While I couldn't do everything I would have been able to here, or get the finer points of the lecture, I had someone recite quick notes for me, and consolidated some data I had lying around..." Jetfire trailed off as he sat down, not turning around at the huff from Starscream.
"Really, Jetfire. Only *you* would be able to concentrate on something like that... I assume you rerouted and funnelled power from yourself for that?" Starscream snapped, leaned slightly forward over his desk as he glared at Jetfire's screen, which was unlit, and thus reflecting what Starscream was doing currently well enough. Even if Starscream was annoyed, though, there was a faint tone in his voice Jetfire had begun to recognize.
"There was time. I wasn't about to let it go to waste just because the beginning of the cycle got a bit derailed."
***
Seven orns, five deca-cycles later:
Starscream fairly strutted into the lab, exceedingly pleased with himself. He was finished! Done. All that was needed was to test it... Starscream smirked, barely managing to smother it when Jetfire looked up and nodded, then turned back to the computer.
Maybe now Jetfire would finally get out!
Starscream contained himself as he crossed the floor to his workspace, then whirled around, one arm up, the barrel of the cannon pointed squarely at the back of Jetfire's bent helm.
One klik went by.
Starscream scowled, his hand tightening into a fist, and he straightened again.
Still nothing.
Snarling voicelessly, Starscream glared at Jetfire's form, the top of that stupid faceguard seen where it was folded back over his helm. He was annoying. He talked too much about science (except never when either of them were really busy, and he would let Starscream talk about his without ever giving anything of his own if Starscream didn't ask), he was annoyingly pedantic, read things too literally sometimes, and then sometimes not at all, was--- Hissing, Starscream whipped around and pulled out a small power-driven toy and slammed it down on his desk.
"Jetfire, get over here if you want to see what this can do." He couldn't believe this. Couldn't believe himself. All that work, and for nothing? Slag it all! Jetfire came up beside him, noticing Starscream's raised cannon pointing at the toy which was happily whirring away.
"... Finished already? Impressive. And, technically we already know what it can do. The question remains if it will do as you have theorized without any backlash or other issues in feedback. It should, but there's always a---"
"Yes, yes, thank you for that. Shut up, Jetfire." Starscream grunted and then fired his altered and upgraded arm cannon at the toy, the pinkish blast slamming into the metal with no obvious effect, tiny discharges skittering across it and then... it stopped. Completely and utterly, and readings checked out as the flow of power having been interrupted.
"How're you feeling, Starscream?" Jetfire picked the toy up, turning it between his hands and frowning slightly at it, and then looked over at Starscream.
"I'm fine. It didn't feed back into my systems and affect me, as I knew it wouldn't. The null-ray is complete!" Starscream grinned, and *almost* forgot his earlier annoyance. Maybe it was just a fluke. He'd get rid of... Starscream huffed and shooed Jetfire away from *his* part of the lab, letting him keep the currently deactivated toy.
"Just tell me when it starts up again, if it doesn't, something's wrong." There ought to be nothing wrong... Nothing better be wrong, but there was always a possibility. Jetfire smiled faintly and nodded as he walked back to his desk and put the toy down on it.
"As you want."
Starscream lifted his arm again, pointing it at Jetfire's back, but lowered it with a huff before he'd completed the upwards motion. The idiot jet better not make him regret this.
***
One decivorn later:
Jetfire frowned down at his workspace. Hesitantly trailing his fingers over a few of the devices, smaller equipment and datapads lying around, before he shook his helm and started to rearrange them all, for the third time this stellar cycle. Turning around with a datapad in his hands to face Starscream who was sitting leaned back in his chair, feet up on his desk, arms crossed and grinning at him, Jetfire frowned.
"Is this quite necessary, Starscream?" His expression gave nothing away except for that slight frown, and his voice was mild.
"We seem to have Pit Drones," Starscream said, equally mildly, but quickly looked away, smirk widening again.
"If you actually believed in those, I'd be more inclined to not consider the possibility that you've been infected and are currently belabouring under the belief that those non-existent things are doing this... or making you do this." Jetfire shook his helm and turned back to his desk, finishing rearranging it and turning it back to what it had looked like when he'd left the last cycle.
"Well, maybe that year-end celebration and the show that was put on converted me!" Starscream didn't even manage to stay serious, and laughed.
"If that's the case, I promise to take you to a medic to find the virus they must have infected you with." Jetfire said, dismissing that possibility with a faint snort. Starscream, believeing in Primus, or anything derived from that? Hardly.
"Very sweet of you, Jetfire! I'd think you'd prefer it since you're supposed to be nice and *fair* and *good* to your fellow mechs as a follower of Primus," Starscream snickered and Jetfire just glanced down at the floor.
"If you aren't that on your own, a conversion to a religion honouring something that doesn't exist would probably not make you be such either. And you wouldn't be you." Jetfire, however strangely it seemed sometimes, however much he wondered at points why he'd ever decided to stay that first cycle, liked Starscream just as he was. Biting, sarcastic, and, admittedly, funny... And while there were angles that could do with smoothing out, Jetfire could survive the cuts from those.
Rating: G
Continuity: Dreamwave G1
Characters: Starscream, Jetfire
Summary: Starscream and Jetfire meet for the first time, and sparks fly. But perhaps not in the most gentle of ways.
He had almost not gone to this cycle's lectures; he was, surely, almost close to a breakthrough for constructing a device that could contain electricity and power-disrupting energy without affecting the wearer (that was, him) of said device, and a few lectures were hardly going to distract him.
Except one of them had been about uses of energy and conversions of such, and if other ideas for the disruption device failed... he'd need something like this. Except the speaker had been a fool, and he'd surely just wasted a joor of Starscream's time. Further he hadn't had fuel for quite some time, so he would have to detour into the parts the general, big-headed rabble in this placed used to refuel.
Usually he went elsewhere as it was easier to think and formulate his own theories and plans when his audio receptors weren't being invaded by a few thousand over-important idiots thinking science and talking about it at once. It wasn't very conductive to his thinking, and since he wouldn't ever be able to make them all shut up, Starscream just took himself elsewhere. Usually. Since with the lecture, he'd have no time to do that if he wanted get out the last bits of coding for the simulation equation to be able to start running during the night and hopefully give him some results (that he wanted) tomorrow, and more precise and expansive results later. He wasn't going to proto-sit it, so it better work as it should, immediately.
Paying no attention to anyone that he passed, since they could all move for him, Starscream was nonetheless surprised when he bumped - nearly slammed, really - into someone else. Flabbergasted, Starscream sneered at the mumbled apology and stormed onwards, not understanding how someone could have such a stupid faceguard attached to their helm, or why the flyer's design called for the cockpit array and nosecone to be on his arm. Really, what was that?
***
"Jetfire!"
Looking up from the datapad at his designation, Jetfire completely missed the white, red and blue Seeker who was paying even less attention to the mechs around him than Jetfire was. For completely different reasons of course, even if Jetfire couldn't know, which meant they collided. Wincing as the Seeker's wingparts and better part of his arm slammed into the cockpit and nosecone array, Jetfire glanced down, and mumbled an apology.
When the Seeker merely gave him an astrosecond glare and then strode away, Jetfire shrugged slightly, but didn't have much of a chance to think further on the collision as he was surrounded by the small group who'd tried to get his attention earlier. Jetfire was uncertain why they were all looking so pleased, considering they weren't really close to each other or anything.
"Kinda nasty bump there, you okay?" Distrail said with an easy smile and a shake of his helm, casting a look around the tail array on Jetfire's left arm after the retreating form of the Seeker.
"Starscream doesn't care about anyone, so don't feel bad."
Jetfire tilted his helm, frowning slightly. Why would he feel bad? Technically, while this... Starscream had bumped into him, yes, if Jetfire had paid less attention to his datapad... or, not been very untimely distracted by Distrail's call, he'd have avoided the collision.
"I'm fine, really. It wasn't as if he ran into my arm head-on, and the chance for any serious injury, even if he'd collided with me where he's heaviest, was negligible. I... wasn't expecting a, hm, welcome like this." Jetfire nodded to the other three in the group, who all grinned - too wide, too friendly, too innocently - at him.
"Oh, we're quite busy, really! Lectures going on and all that, but we saw you land earlier and thought we'd say hello if we got the chance. The Academy hasn't really been the same without you, Jetfire." Razorback shrugged, a tiny, sharp smile on his faceplates, the rotors arranged on his back shifting with a slight whisper of metal on metal.
"Ah, well. Thank you?" Jetfire shifted slightly, uncertain; he knew very well they neither knew each other well enough to warrant this... seemingly warm behaviour, nor really liked each other that much... and the odds for no underlying reason for this was slim. Less than 20.5%.
"Come now, Jetfire, can't we just say hello to a fellow lecture-attendant and lab partner?" Razorback grinned again, and behind him Sweep and Moonquake chuckled. It could, almost, have been friendly.
"Really, we just thought to give you a bit of a warning; the lab you used before your exchange season has been snapped up. Sorry about that." Distrail shrugged and Jetfire barely managed to keep his grimace internal; that had been a good lab. He ought to have expected it, though. The good spaces got claimed early and quickly.
"I don't assume there's any spot left in there?" Jetfire already knew the answer; if they were taking the time to tell him the lab had been taken, then there surely would be no spaces left...
"Nope, sorry. All gone. But, here... I don't really know why no one else's taken this one, but there's only one mech in this lab. You should check it out, I think you'd like it! Especially if it stays just the two of you, since you kinda like solitude, right?" Distrail said, handing Jetfire a chip before the group waved and wandered off.
***
He could have ignored it. Checking the available space distribution in the labs however, revealed that all of the good ones were completely crammed... And even the lesser ones were filling up, even if Jetfire would have been willing to use one of those.
That left the lab Distrail had mentioned.
The chip gave him the coordinates, and checking against the database turned up a... supply room? Were they really attempting to make fun of him with something that could be checked so easily? Possible, but that seemed too simple, so Jetfire wouldn't assume, and followed the coordinates. He ended up in an area that, if it actually was a lab, while tucked away all unobtrusively, would be a prime space for it.
The door was unlocked.
Jetfire had to admit to some surprise as it slid open easily, but went in. It was empty, though it was clear someone did use this space, as there was equipment scattered around and whoever they were, they certainly had a well-stocked lab. The sort of equipment you usually would have to share between five or six people in one lab, or, if you were alone, had to go into a larger lab to borrow was here for the use of... obviously, a single mech.
It was quite strange, really, but the questions of "where" those things had come from, and "how" the mech got to have it all to himself were shuffled lower in the priority queue as Jetfire wandered around.
There was definitely enough space for two in here... He'd have to ask first, obviously... The thought trailed off as Jetfire came upon the lit computer screen. Now, usually, he wouldn't go looking at someone else's equations and projects, but the screen was large, the mech wasn't here, and the lab was already intriguing and bringing up a lot of questions.
So Jetfire gave into his curiosity and looked the contents over. This was... Jetfire's optics brightened slightly in surprise and interest. Whoever they were, they had a very interesting project going on here.
Jetfire wasn't really known for either wanting to, or, even when he did want to, have a particularly easy time of befriending anyone, but, whoever the mech was that was working on this? He wanted to at least attempt getting to know him.
Stepping away from the screen and considering the space, Jetfire almost missed the door sliding open. Turning around at the sound of metal on metal he was, admittedly, surprised at who was standing in the doorway. Perhaps he shouldn't have been, since it explained quite a lot actually given the reaction he'd got for accidentally bumping into the mech earlier... Perhaps it also explained Distrail and the group's behaviour and leading him here.
***
Starscream had almost stayed in the large hall where the energon dispensers were kept for the length of the cube, just to see if it was as terrible as he remembered. It wasn't. It was worse. Starscream's frustration mounted as the mechs all around him chattered away about their damn *science* and it was hard to resist pouring his cube over the helm of the nearest mech.
He wasn't interested in every topic under the sun and Cybertron's moons; that was just a waste of his time! So after two breems he'd taken his cube and left, sneering at a group of four flyers of varying type who were standing on the balcony that ran along the edge of the Atrium before he ducked inside one of the corridors and went on his way towards the lab.
No more inane chatter.
No more invasion of his thought processes, no more...
The door to the lab slid open as it should; he never locked it any more. He didn't need to since everybody knew to keep out. But yes. The door slid open, and... there was someone in the lab.
Starscream stared, fingers tightening about the cube. It was that large, stupidly designed jet that had bumped into him earlier. Now that he was actually looking at him, he didn't look so bad, all things considered.
But that faceguard was still stupid.
And what. was. the. mech. doing in his lab?
"I, hmm... noticed you've got enough space for two in here. Care to share?"
Starscream stared, utterly, completely stumped and flabbergasted, underneath which rage, and outrage, was boiling up.
Hadn't he *done* all the work to make sure no one else would so much as want to stick their nasal ridge in here, even less come in willingly and ask to share space?
The jet standing in the middle of the lab had a calm, smooth expression on his face, and Starscream felt something ugly bubble up.
How dare he.
He'd wipe that stupid expression off the mech's faceplates! Preferably with his weapon when he got it finished if Jetfire wasn't out before then, which he really should be.
"... Of course," Starscream smiled tightly and walked past the jet, putting his cube down beside the computer screen.
Whoever he was, he'd regret the day he walked in here. Starscream would chase the overgrown pitspawn out of here---
"I'm Jetfire."
"Starscream."
Yes.
Out of here.
Jetfire would rue the cycle he got the idea to not just wait until Starscream came back to his lab, but also ask for a space in it.
***
Three deca-cycles later:
He'd started simple. No need to bring out the big guns until the defence had proven stubborn enough to need it. On the other hand, Jetfire seemed extremely... patient, so maybe he'd need his more extreme measures soon. He hadn't seen any proof at all that his early efforts had annoyed the larger jet, but how could it not?
He had, after all...
There was a faint drawn-out static sigh from Jetfire where he sat at his own computer, and Starscream smirked to himself.
Victory.
"You're sure the power supply is what's causing the short-outs and loss of data?" Jetfire turned around to face Starscream, and in the interest of keeping up some small charade, Starscream waited only a few moments before he turned around too, though he began speaking before that.
"Utterly. It's terrible, really. I think that's why no one uses this lab except m-- us. I've had to go through a lot of hoops to make sure nothing happens to my computer, and that doesn't even work half the time!" Starscream vented deeply, wasting a bit of air, but for the sake of drama he could do it and shook his helm, optics wide. Jetfire stared at the floor for a klik or so, arms crossed as he thought, before he shrugged, and Starscream had to determinedly squash the grin that wanted to slip out.
"... This won't be as effective, but I suppose I can make do..." Jetfire murmured as he turned around in his seat again, pulling out various datapads and spreading them out on the desk. Starscream stared, hands slowly tensing into fists, and accepted the challenge Jetfire had unknowingly put in front of him.
***
One orn later:
Jetfire had begun to encrypt his datapads. He had unconcernedly been leaving them around at first, and Starscream hadn't attacked that angle immediately, but he hadn't let Jetfire relax for too long either. So now the datapads were sometimes erasing or just losing whole chunks data, or randomized bits of it... parts of results being lost...
He had to put in the virus every time he wanted it to do its job, since it self-destructed as soon as it had disrupted some function or erased some data. It wouldn't do for it to be found by the anti-virus in the datapad which would then be able to build a defence against it. The encryptions were starting to be troublesome though, and Starscream wondered if he'd have to take another angle of attack. Why didn't Jetfire just leave? There was a huff from the white jet, and Starscream smiled slightly before he came over.
"Again? You know, this happens sometimes. I think there's those that are annoyed we use this space, even with how... spotty... the energy supply is, since this space is good." Starscream shook his helm, and Jetfire frowned down at the datapad he was currently using, considering everything that had happened so far.
But no, something was off.
Further, even if Starscream hadn't noticed it, the Seeker sometimes let things slip, unable to stay as stand-offish towards Jetfire as he was clearly trying to. Little comments and remarks, and while they were rather... rude towards the individuals they were aimed at, Jetfire had to admit to being amused. Not that he'd *encourage* such behaviour or anything, but it gave some insight. Into Starscream, not whoever he was shooting sharp verbal barbs at where they couldn't hear him.
"Mmh, I see. It should be fine, though. I haven't really encrypted them too heavily before, but I suppose there'll be a first time for everything." Jetfire shrugged and connected a cable he unrolled from a spot in his arm to the datapad, establishing a hardline connection to more easily go about the encryption.
"How's those equations and simulations going?" Jetfire asked, waiting until Starscream was nearly back at his computer, listening to the slight scrape of engine nozzles on the floor, and the few astroseconds of silence before Starscream answered, clipped and barely civil.
"... Ah, fine. They're going fine. Should... be a few orns until I can be sure it'll be worth it to get materials."
Jetfire hummed in agreement and pretended not to notice the slight shift of Starscream's frame as he tilted his helm to look, briefly, over at a locked supply closet in the other end of the lab.
***
Two orns, one deca-cycle later:
The slagger refused to cut his losses and leave! The encryption was beginning to take too long to break through, too complicated to bother with. Especially as Jetfire spread his projects, data and equations out among several datapads and external hard-drives, even if they were connected and essential to each other. Which meant they'd need to be reintegrated each time Jetfire wanted to do something.
Who had that sort of patience!?
Storming through the corridors towards the part of the residential areas where Jetfire had his room, Starscream was running out of simple ideas. Everyone else had left within an orn. One stubborn little annoyance with a microscope altmode had stayed just around one and a half orn.
No one had stayed this long. Not even come close to it, and so Starscream had had to do something drastic. And complicated.
It had been time-consuming and annoying because he'd had to find more equipment and one extra computer (not two, note), and then move everything, hiding the actual equipment and setting up the extras. At least it had been highly cathartic to go through the lab after that and destroy every single piece of equipment.
"Jetfire! Get up!" Starscream eschewed the more logical door chime and just banged on the door until it slid to aside, revealing Jetfire.
"What is it? Nothing melted, did it? It was a 14.3% and diminishing chance the longer those materials interacted that it'd end up melting." Jetfire frowned, tilting his helm slightly as he followed Starscream out into the corridor, the door closing and locking automatically behind him. At first, Starscream was confused; what was Jetfire talking about?
But then he remembered, that thing he'd put away... slag it all. It had been placed in the area cleared for potentially hazardous materials or reactions, which they both used, and he forgot half the things Jetfire put there. He should have destroyed that thing too!
"No, no, nothing as simple as that!" Starscream snapped, and it was only half-feigned; he really was annoyed that he'd had to do something as involved as this, and had forgotten to destroy everything of Jetfire's in the lab. "Someone must really not like y-- us. Look at this!" Starscream was rather proud of his proclamation as the door to the lab slid aside and he flung his arm out to point into what was very clearly a disaster area. The only things still whole were desks, benches, chairs and workspaces.
Jetfire stared at the obviously deliberate destruction, and dragged a hand down his faceplates, feeling a faint urge to pull the visor down... Except he hadn't attached it for the cycle yet, because Starscream had dragged him out of his room before he'd done that. It left him feeling a bit vulnerable and exposed, what with having only cursory armour on his cranium. But he had more important things to consider, such as how long this destruction would set him back.
Looking around, Jetfire thought it over, frowning. Well. This would set him back...
Looking over at the area that should hold his potentially hazardous research again, because something seemed off. Frowning, his optics flickered, resetted and then narrowed. The area ought to be a mess, but instead there was nothing there. Regarding Starscream out of the corner of his vision, Jetfire hummed softly.
This would set him back... hm, two joors?
Perhaps a cycle.
Nothing too bad, since he nowadays spent the last half of the last joor of the cycle transferring the data to his own computer in his room. This, of course, meant he couldn't use it for much else currently, and it couldn't hold everything, but it was better than nothing given the situation in the lab. A lab and a “partner” that still was turning out to be the best he'd had so far, excluding all these issues obviously.
"... Unfortunate, especially as it'll all need to be replaced." Jetfire frowned and folded his arms over his chestplates, and Starscream patted him lightly on the nosecone as he was standing on that side of Jetfire.
"Really, Jetfire, you shouldn't have to bother. Maybe it's just time to cut, ah... our losses and accept that we'll have to... reintegrate... into one of the occupied labs. I'm sure whoever's doing this wouldn't be zealous enough to destroy things for four to five others instead of just the two of us!" Starscream exclaimed, huffing as he stepped into the lab and kicked a piece of ripped out and crushed equipment away.
A piece that belonged to a device that hadn't even been in this lab before, Jetfire was quite sure. He couldn't be certain, since it wasn't a unique or exclusive part, but he was quite sure.
"No, it should be fine. I like this lab, and the fact that there's only the two of us. Less annoyance and disturbance," Jetfire said with a slight smile as he, too stepped into the room, calculating the damage done and how long it'd take to replace it all... If they could do it even, considering what the lab was marked as on all maps or schematics of the Academy. There was a slight noise behind him, and Jetfire straightened slightly, face serene.
"I mean, I assume it's because it's somehow, inexplicably, marked as a supply room on all schematics... I don't know how that miss was made, but it'd be a pity to reveal that, wouldn't you say?" Jetfire turned to face Starscream just as he finished speaking. The only thing that met him was a quickly suppressed flare of practically incandescent red optics. Jetfire had to admit to being impressed with the usually very expressive Seeker's ability to... ah, contain his reaction.
Starscream's smile was tight when he nodded.
"Yes. It would. Fancy that, huh? Very mysterious." There was a beat of silence and then Starscream scowled. "Well, let's get this cleaned up then, if we aren't abandoning this place."
One cycle later, the lab looked like it had done two cycles before, and Jetfire's missing project was back where it had been.
***
Four orns, two and half deca-cycles later:
The mech. had the patience. of fragging Primus himself! (If you were laid towards religious hyperbole, which Starscream absolutely wasn't, but these were desperate times.)
Oh, he'd had to pull back, dial down... There wasn't a lot else he could do in regards to the lab, except going back to intermittently make a mess of Jetfire's computer and the datapads. Though, he had gotten into Jetfire's room a while ago and managed to completely mess with the computer there. That was the first time he'd almost seen Jetfire blow up (not at him, obviously). The jet had gone flying for a joor and not returned to the lab until two cycles later.
And then it'd all gone back to normal, and when he next tried to get into Jetfire's computer in his room, it was much too encrypted to get in with the speed needed. So this time he'd done something different, with the bonus of pretty much destroying the cycle for all the other mechs who lived in the same residential corridor as Jetfire.
His internal chronometer said it'd been little over a joor since Jetfire ought to have noticed he was locked in, due to a... very unfortunate power-outage. If Starscream couldn't chase the jet out of the lab by messing with things there, maybe he could get him to leave by messing with other things.
Frowning at the shell he was constructing, Starscream compared it to his own natural arm cannons for a third time, externally and through schematics both. He wasn't upgrading those until he could be sure this prototype could handle what he wanted it to do, but they needed to be the same. Besides that, however... if he'd done his calculations correctly, and knew Jetfire well en--- knew Jetfire's habits and capabilities well enough, he ought to be coming in right about...
Now.
The door slid open, revealing a frowning, but otherwise not different Jetfire. Starscream quickly put away the prototype; technically the simulations and equations had only been finished for a deca-cyle, he shouldn't have had the time to get enough materials to even start on a prototype yet.
"What happened? I know you only have lectures for the first half joor, it's been a full one, now." Starscream only looked up briefly, and tried to ignore that he was more amused than smug at the slight traces of annoyance on Jetfire's face; a slight tightening around his optics, the faintly deeper frown, the set of his shoulders affecting the arrays on his arms. Turning back to the computer, he was itching to continue with the prototype, but he couldn't do that with Jetfire present.
"Localized loss of power... Caused everybody in the same corridor as me to be locked in. Took a while to resolve. Apparently some cables had been ripped out." Jetfire shook his helm, the statement accompanied by a huff.
"You don't say. Unfortunate." Starscream kept his faceplates free of any smirk, even if he was turned away from Jetfire.
"Mmh... I'd say the biggest misfortune was listening to the complaints over the comm, which we were required to keep open. While I couldn't do everything I would have been able to here, or get the finer points of the lecture, I had someone recite quick notes for me, and consolidated some data I had lying around..." Jetfire trailed off as he sat down, not turning around at the huff from Starscream.
"Really, Jetfire. Only *you* would be able to concentrate on something like that... I assume you rerouted and funnelled power from yourself for that?" Starscream snapped, leaned slightly forward over his desk as he glared at Jetfire's screen, which was unlit, and thus reflecting what Starscream was doing currently well enough. Even if Starscream was annoyed, though, there was a faint tone in his voice Jetfire had begun to recognize.
"There was time. I wasn't about to let it go to waste just because the beginning of the cycle got a bit derailed."
***
Seven orns, five deca-cycles later:
Starscream fairly strutted into the lab, exceedingly pleased with himself. He was finished! Done. All that was needed was to test it... Starscream smirked, barely managing to smother it when Jetfire looked up and nodded, then turned back to the computer.
Maybe now Jetfire would finally get out!
Starscream contained himself as he crossed the floor to his workspace, then whirled around, one arm up, the barrel of the cannon pointed squarely at the back of Jetfire's bent helm.
One klik went by.
Starscream scowled, his hand tightening into a fist, and he straightened again.
Still nothing.
Snarling voicelessly, Starscream glared at Jetfire's form, the top of that stupid faceguard seen where it was folded back over his helm. He was annoying. He talked too much about science (except never when either of them were really busy, and he would let Starscream talk about his without ever giving anything of his own if Starscream didn't ask), he was annoyingly pedantic, read things too literally sometimes, and then sometimes not at all, was--- Hissing, Starscream whipped around and pulled out a small power-driven toy and slammed it down on his desk.
"Jetfire, get over here if you want to see what this can do." He couldn't believe this. Couldn't believe himself. All that work, and for nothing? Slag it all! Jetfire came up beside him, noticing Starscream's raised cannon pointing at the toy which was happily whirring away.
"... Finished already? Impressive. And, technically we already know what it can do. The question remains if it will do as you have theorized without any backlash or other issues in feedback. It should, but there's always a---"
"Yes, yes, thank you for that. Shut up, Jetfire." Starscream grunted and then fired his altered and upgraded arm cannon at the toy, the pinkish blast slamming into the metal with no obvious effect, tiny discharges skittering across it and then... it stopped. Completely and utterly, and readings checked out as the flow of power having been interrupted.
"How're you feeling, Starscream?" Jetfire picked the toy up, turning it between his hands and frowning slightly at it, and then looked over at Starscream.
"I'm fine. It didn't feed back into my systems and affect me, as I knew it wouldn't. The null-ray is complete!" Starscream grinned, and *almost* forgot his earlier annoyance. Maybe it was just a fluke. He'd get rid of... Starscream huffed and shooed Jetfire away from *his* part of the lab, letting him keep the currently deactivated toy.
"Just tell me when it starts up again, if it doesn't, something's wrong." There ought to be nothing wrong... Nothing better be wrong, but there was always a possibility. Jetfire smiled faintly and nodded as he walked back to his desk and put the toy down on it.
"As you want."
Starscream lifted his arm again, pointing it at Jetfire's back, but lowered it with a huff before he'd completed the upwards motion. The idiot jet better not make him regret this.
***
One decivorn later:
Jetfire frowned down at his workspace. Hesitantly trailing his fingers over a few of the devices, smaller equipment and datapads lying around, before he shook his helm and started to rearrange them all, for the third time this stellar cycle. Turning around with a datapad in his hands to face Starscream who was sitting leaned back in his chair, feet up on his desk, arms crossed and grinning at him, Jetfire frowned.
"Is this quite necessary, Starscream?" His expression gave nothing away except for that slight frown, and his voice was mild.
"We seem to have Pit Drones," Starscream said, equally mildly, but quickly looked away, smirk widening again.
"If you actually believed in those, I'd be more inclined to not consider the possibility that you've been infected and are currently belabouring under the belief that those non-existent things are doing this... or making you do this." Jetfire shook his helm and turned back to his desk, finishing rearranging it and turning it back to what it had looked like when he'd left the last cycle.
"Well, maybe that year-end celebration and the show that was put on converted me!" Starscream didn't even manage to stay serious, and laughed.
"If that's the case, I promise to take you to a medic to find the virus they must have infected you with." Jetfire said, dismissing that possibility with a faint snort. Starscream, believeing in Primus, or anything derived from that? Hardly.
"Very sweet of you, Jetfire! I'd think you'd prefer it since you're supposed to be nice and *fair* and *good* to your fellow mechs as a follower of Primus," Starscream snickered and Jetfire just glanced down at the floor.
"If you aren't that on your own, a conversion to a religion honouring something that doesn't exist would probably not make you be such either. And you wouldn't be you." Jetfire, however strangely it seemed sometimes, however much he wondered at points why he'd ever decided to stay that first cycle, liked Starscream just as he was. Biting, sarcastic, and, admittedly, funny... And while there were angles that could do with smoothing out, Jetfire could survive the cuts from those.
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Date: 2012-12-04 07:20 am (UTC)