Work Text:
Everything is normal as usual in the underground secret Rise base. Crankcase is mopping the floors, Skullface polishing her guns, Shatter installing her new upgrades, Blackjack is doing inventory, and Flamewar is sprawled out over Shadow Striker’s berth in total boredom. She bends her upper chassis over the berth and looks out at Shadow Striker while upside down. She tries tapping on the metal berth repeatedly, to try and get her girlfriend’s attention. All she gets in response is a quick motion from Shadow Striker telling her to be quiet, Shadow just goes back to doing her data work. Quickly brushing Flamewar aside and focusing all her optics to working, trying to get into a nice steady workflow going. Flamewar exhales her vents loudly and lets a long deep groan out, trying very hard to annoy Shadow Striker. It proves to be quite effective when she slams her datapad and stylus down in a quick rush of anger. She swivels her chair around and Stares Flamewar down with all 5 of her optics.
“Hi Shadow, when you gonna be done so we can go do something! I’m so bored. You also promised we’d go get us some engex tonight,” Flamewar proceeds to fall onto the floor after finishing her mini-rant. She looks back up at Shadow Striker from the floor with her trademark goofy grin and bright optics.
Shadow Striker sighs and crosses her arms. “What did we say about having patience? I need to get all the new recruits filed or my position could be on the line. I know I said you could sit in with me but if you can’t be quiet please leave,” She stares Flamewar down again to put a point in her argument.
Flamewar sighs before mumbling off, “But I’m so bored.”
She’s cut off by Shadow Striker snapping back at her, “Be quiet or leave Flamewar. Do I make myself clear?” Flamewar nods slowly in response. “Thank you,” Shadow Striker curtly turns around and gets back to work, completely cutting Flamewar off. She crosses her legs and goes back to work as Flamewar sits up and crosses her legs. Trying to get more comfortable
She continues filling out reports until she accidentally drops her pen from trying to work too fast. It simply rolls across the floor and bumps against the side of the berth. Shadow Striker lets out an annoyed grunt before grabbing another stylus out of her cup and getting back to work. Flamewar just stares at the shiny metallic stylus at her knees. The light from her optics being reflected off its surface. Memorizing the two-wheeler in its alluring shine. “Please pick that up for me Flamey?” Shadow Striker asks softly while still being engrossed in her work. Flamewar ignores her and starts sliding the stylus back and forth with her hands. Listening to it clack against the metal floor as it’s smooth surface rubs softly and easily against her digits.
She sits back up on the berth while fully picking the stylus up. Moving it around with her knuckles and softly giggles to herself in amusement. Normally she would have something more engaging to do, but being bored has left her easily distracted. Shadow Striker’s still paying her no mind, letting her work consume her. Flamewar keeps idly messing with it in her hands, quietly humming trying not to disturb Shadow Striker. ’Til she suddenly hears a very satisfying and loud click, from accidentally pressing in a button on the back of the stylus. It’s oddly comforting to Flamewar, she leans back and props one her legs over her knee trying to get more comfortable.
Feeling comfortable she offlines her optics and starts absentmindedly clicking the stylus. Letting it completely click before repeating the process in a nice rhythm. Shadow Striker at first isn’t bothered by the clicking. But as Flamewar keeps clicking, and clicking, and clicking that stylus to the point that it’s getting annoying. “Flamey could you Plea,” is all she gets out before being cut off by the click of the stylus again. “Flamewar, please,” she’s cut off again by another click. Her anger starts building a little and she tries raising her voice, “Flamewar stop clicking.” She’s cut off for a third and final time, her anger boiling over in a flash. Shadow Striker swiftly stands up while tossing her datapad back to her desk. She stomps over to Flamewar and violently yells, “Alright I gave you a warning now get out!” She stomps one time and points to her door.
Flamewar jumps off the berth from the sudden yelling and quickly turns her optics on. She’s immediately made tense by the furious Shadow Striker looming in front of her. “What what did I even do Shadow?!” She yells out, almost matching Shadow Strikers’ anger. She refuses to respond to Flamewar and continues to point at the door. “Fine, I see how it is then!” Flamewar yells again now furious. She tosses the stylus into Shadow Strikers’ face and exits the room in a big huff. Shadow Striker looks dumbfounded as the tiny stylus plinks off her face, and rolls down her chassis to hit the floor. She can briefly hear Flamewar yell at someone in the halls but she ignores it. Instead focusing on getting back to work, she calmly walks back to her desk and continues as if nothing happened. She quietly sighs and mutters to herself, “she’ll get over it within an hour.”
A full two hours pass before Shadow Striker is done filing the new recruits. She feels mental exhaustion slowly creep up on her but pays it no mind. Her feeling of satisfaction at a job well done easily overpowering all negative emotions, at least for now. She neatly puts her things away and calmly exits her room to find Flamewar. She makes her way to Flamewar’s quarters, walking at an unsuspiciously calm and normal pace. Shadow Striker knocks softly and gets nothing in response. She knocks again slightly harder and still gets no response. Getting frustrated with Flamewar’s antics again, Shadow Striker uses her spare keycard and forcefully enters Flamewars’ room.
To her surprise, Flamewar isn’t there, only leaving a cluttered messy room for Shadow to sift through. She takes a quick and precise look over the room with her five optics, she doesn’t spot anything too out of the ordinary. Haphazardly tossed around trinkets, messy workbench with a gutted blaster, an unmade berth with her drawing pad and stylus hanging off the edge, and some unregulated wall doodles. Everything seemed normal to Shadow Striker, she sighs to herself in frustration. She carefully puts Flamewar’s drawing pad in a place where it can’t fall and she quietly leaves.
She locks the door behind her and continues searching for Flamewar, checking the little two-wheeler’s normal hangout spots to no avail. She wasn’t pestering Slipstream, there were no traps at Hyperdrives room, she wasn’t messing with the science team, and she wasn’t in the armory. Leaving Shadow Striker completely stumped to where she could be. Reluctantly, she heads back to her room while walking at a slow pace, trying to spot any sign of Flamewar in the halls. This continues for a solid 30 minutes, just Shadow Striker stalking the cold metallic halls of the Rise base. Leaving Shadow Striker to slightly worry as to where Flamewar could be, slight panic ensues and she makes a detour to the infirmary. Her pace is picking up and she roughly pushes an oncoming Hyperdrive into Blackjack to get a quick peek inside. To her disappointment the infirmary just has two lonely medics, quietly cleaning under the pale light.
Hyperdrive begins muttering under his breath after Shadow Striker starts walking away from the empty Infirmary, “Gah first Flamewar blows a gasket and now Shadow Strikers, working up a mean streak. What’s wrong with everyone today.” Shadow Striker quickly turns around on her heel and starts questioning Hyperdrive.
“What was that?” She walks a bit closer and Hyperdrive backs up against the wall and starts mammering excuses.
“Woah hey look I, please don’t beat me up Shadow Striker! Look I’m sorry for what I said!”
Shadow Striker lets her optics roll before trying to move the conversation to be about Flamewar, “Not that, I am more concerned with Flamewar exploding on people in the base. It's grossly unprofessional and she should be reprimanded. I also apologize for shoving you."
Hyperdrive almost speaks out but he is curtly cut off by Blackjack, “She’s at the gun range. Hyperdrive tried talking to her and she suddenly snapped on him. Don’t know what set her off today but she’s fuming. Helping her rack up a nice score at the Range though.” Blackjack finishes his explanation and Shadow Striker gives a faint nod in acknowledgment.
Shadow Striker briskly heads to the gun range, smoothly gliding past other people. Taking no time at all for her to reach the dimly lit training hall, with its navy blue walls making a quite cold atmosphere. As she gets closer and closer to her destination her pace gradually slows, till it is a mere walk. She is surprised at just how rapid and aggressive the gunfire is, the usual methodic and coordinated fire completely absent. Shadow Striker rounds the corner and into the main hall where she finds a very ticked off Flamewar half haphazardly shooting down the range. Everyone in the room standing as far away from her as they can while she's silently going ballistic. Shadow Striker has seen Flamewar blow up before but never like this, her anger usually fizzles out in under an hour before she goes back to her energetic self. Shadow Striker quietly vents before stepping over to Flamewar in an attempt to calm her down.
Flamewar sees Shadow Striker approaching her and proceeds to stomp her way down the range. Trying desperately to avoid her girlfriend and just be alone with her thoughts and rifle fire. In a huff of annoyance, Shadow Striker stomps after her till both of them are at the end of the gun range. Backed up against a wall Flamewar stands her ground and gets in Shadow Strikers’ face, “Can’t you take the hint that I want to be left alone right now? I know that helmet is pretty thick but come on.”
Shadow Striker is shortly taken aback before grabbing Flamewar by the wrist and yelling, “You are beyond out of line Flamewar! Now come with me to my quarters we need to talk about your behavior.”
Flamewar yanks her wrist out of Shadow Strikers’ grip and continues yelling, “Can you just back off Shadow! Gosh just get out of my way and let me be alone.” She pushes Shadow Striker to the side and makes her way to the exit. Giving everyone in the room death glares as she walks past. She turns around to look at Shadow Striker, a tinge of regret in her optics, before leaving out the door. Shadow Striker just stands there, unable to fully process her emotions.
She starts to notice the optics staring at her and she quickly walks back to her quarters. She catches a glimpse of Flamewar on her way back and her spark fills with a compulsive need to fix this. She has to fix this, it should be easy for her to fix this and yet she can’t. Talking to Flamewar will just make it worse, doing nothing will just make it worse. Shadow Striker stumbles into her quarters, and she sits down uneasily and gathers her thoughts in silence. Holding her helm while her cold composure crumbles, she feels her spark sink deep into her chassis as she opens her stash of highgrade. Quickly popping open a bottle and leaning back in her chair, idly taking a few sips as her processor tries to figure things out.
She stays like this for what feels like an eternity, just sipping away at a high grade bottle till it's almost gone. She slowly vents in and out as her optics suddenly take interest in the ceiling. Studying them as she drinks herself into a slight stupar. Shadow Striker starts to doze off before she's put into high alert from a knock at her door. She quickly hides her engex and stumbles over to her door. She opens it and immediately straightens up at the sight of Slipstream looming over her, "Commander Slipstream I was not expecting you my apologies ma'am." She salutes Slipstream and backs up allowing her inside.
"Don't give me formalities Shadow Striker. I heard about what happened between you and Flamewar in the gun range. Everyone has, how could you even let the little twerp talk back at you like that?" Slipstream calmly steps into Shadow Strikers room and starts expecting it closely.
Shadow Striker backs out of her way before asserting herself, “I was simply just caught off guard Ma’am. It won’t happen again.” Her posture straightens out and she stands tall and proud. Gaining confidence as she continues to make her case, “I will give her a very stern briefing later ma’am this won’t happen again.”
Slipstream vents slightly while putting a hand to her face, clearly getting frustrated with the situation. She steps closer to Shadow Striker and starts talking down to her in a condescending tone, “So the woman who told Sixshot that she would rip his arm off for even looking at her funny got intimidated by a bratty two wheeler? Sorry but I don’t buy that in the slightest Shadow Striker.” She softens her posture slightly and places a hand on Shadow Striker’s shoulder before continuing, “Look, I know your personal life isn’t my business, not anymore at least. But if you and Flamewar have something going on it's starting to affect everyone on the base and you need to get it together.”
Shadow Striker’s posture stays firm and straight but the composure in her voice strains a little. She doesn’t immediately respond but a concerned glare from Slipstream causes her to break, “Me and Flamewar have been dating. For a couple months now.”
Slipstream takes a second to vent before responding, “Of course you’ve been. I take it that Flamewar exploding on people today has something to do with that doesn't it? I expect a lot better from you Shadow Striker. Thought you would have learned from last time." She takes her hand off of Shadow Striker‘s shoulder. Her optics look a bit hurt as she waits for a response.
Shadow Striker lets one eye drift to the floor as the remaining four keep contact with Slipstream. She straightens her voice out again and tries to explain what happened, “We… No, I yelled at her today. She left off in a huff and I just chalked it up to her being over dramatic.” She holds her hands behind her back trying to be as professional as possible.
Slipstream chuckles and starts sardonically teasing Shadow Striker, “Always been the romantic type huh. Good luck trying to fix this Shadow Striker.” She walks past Shadow Striker and opens the door preparing to leave.
Shadow Striker breaks her military formation to stop Slipstream before she leaves. She gets in her commander's face and starts pestering her with questions, “What are you going to be doing about this ma’am?” She then realizes her relaxed position and straightens herself back out.
Slipstream lets out another chuckle and says, “I won’t be doing anything besides reporting that both of you were reprimanded. Your personal affairs are not my problem unless you continue to make them my problem.” She crosses her arms and frowns as she continues explaining, “Besides it would be hypocritical of me to snitch on workplace affairs.”
“Then I will try and keep Flamewar out of your way ma'am." Shadow Striker says as she moves out of Slipstream's way.
Slipstream doesn't move though and just looks at Shadow Striker with concern. Leaning her weight onto one leg as she starts talking, “I don’t think Flamewar’s the problem. At least not today she isn’t. Look just, give her something that shows you care. I know you're smart enough to know she won’t put up with you being distant forever. So drop the tough girl act every now and then.” Slipstream takes her leave to let Shadow Striker sit with her thoughts. A tired expression across her face as the Habsuite door closes shut behind her.
Shadow Striker stands there for a moment. Her optics studying the door in detail, like she expects someone to walk through it at any moment. She drops her professional posture and takes a seat on the berth, offlining her optics while laying down to think. “Something that shows I care? What could that even be?” Shadow Striker says to herself as she onlines her optics again and starts scanning her quarters. Hoping to find anything that would be worth giving Flamewar. She looks on her shelf, desk, and her ceiling and comes up with nothing. Her personal belongings have no sentimental value between the two of them. All of her things are just too mundane.
She gets up and walks to her deep purple desk. Edging her fingers across its panels as she tries to think of something, just anything that she could give to Flamewar. One of her fingers bumps into her silver stylus and sends it rolling off the desk. One of Shadow Striker’s optics notices this and she effortlessly catches it with one hand. She lifts it to her face and quietly mutters, “All of this drama over a simple stylus.” She vents quietly while slowly crushing the stylus in her fist, till its inner mechanisms suddenly go off and it makes an all too familiar clicking sound. She eases her grip and focuses her big optic onto the inner workings of the stylus.
Shadow Striker sits down in her chair as she continues to pry open the stylus and dump its mechanisms onto the table. She swiftly opens the desk drawer and pulls out a small radio device, two more styluses, a small knob, and some pieces of scrap metal and wiring. Placing everything in a neat and delicate order she gets to work on her newly forged idea. She turns one of her fingers into a small screwdriver and hunches over her desk, trying to make a stable core out of the scrap metal. Using her free hand she easily breaks open the remaining styluses and proceeds to get lost in her work.
Shadow Striker stays like this for hours, just tinkering away at the little trinket in her hands. She is so lost in thought that she is oblivious to the sound of her habsuite door quietly closing and shutting. Shadow Striker almost jumps when she feels two small hands wrap around her chassis, but she calms down when her intruder starts nuzzling into her neck. Flamewar‘s hands lower from Shadow Striker’s chest and fully wrap around her midsection in a warm hug. Shadow Striker grabs one of her hands as Flamewar continues to nuzzle into her neck. “ I take it you’ve calmed down?” She asks with a tired softness in her voice.
Flamewar plucks at Shadow Striker’s neck cables with her fangs as she softly kisses her. She pulls out of the kiss and while still being muffled from burying her face in Shadow Striker's neck she finally replies, “Yeah, Slipstream found me sitting on the floor and talked to me. I’m sorry for exploding on you in public. I just…” She softly sighs before giving Shadow Striker another kiss on the neck.
Shadow Striker moves her hand from Flamewar’s and places it on the two wheelers head in an embrace. “It’s not entirely your fault, I.” She pauses for a moment before sucking in her pride, “I’m sorry. I was too quick to throw you out. I know how impulsive you can be.” She vents before getting cut off by Flamewar sitting in her lap and continuing to kiss her neck cables. Periodically tugging on them with her fangs.
Flamewar stops and rests her head on Shadow Striker's chest and whispers, “I never thought I would see you drop the stone cold and ruthless act Shadow Striker. But still I overacted just a bit, okay a lot especially in public. Just I’m-” She's cut off by suddenly being kissed on the forehead.
Shadow Striker wraps both of her arms around Flamewar and leans back, “Stop apologizing okay, we’ll learn from this. Now, I think I found something that should help you calm down when you need it.” She rolls the chair forward and grabs the small button covered device off her desk. She flicks a small switch on it before handing it to Flamewar. “I am gonna need you to go to a specific comm channel, it’s written on it for you.” She says with tired confidence.
Flamewar does as she's told with a confused look in her optics. Making sure to set up the exact comm channel. She then looks at Shadow Striker in confusion when the comm’s dead silent. Shadow Striker forms a faint smile and presses one of the many small buttons on the cube. Causing the sound of a clicking stylus to go through Flamewar’s comms directly into her audials. Flamewar’s optics light up as she begins to yell, “Did you make this Shadow? I am so impressed.” In her excitement Flamewar leans in to hug Shadow Striker, putting too much stress on the chair and causing it to snap.
They both wind up on the floor lying next to each other. Flamewar bursts into laughter and Shadow Striker slowly joins her with a soft chuckle. Flamewar kicks the broken chair away and scoots into Shadow Striker. “Hang on Flamey.” Shadow Striker says as she sits up and grabs two bottles of high grade from under her desk. “I still owe you some drinks.” She happily says while laying back and pulling Flamewar close to her with one arm.
The two of them stay like this for the rest of the night. Laughing and drinking away while cuddling on the floor. Without a single care for the hangovers coming the next day. A blissful experience.