Wild Ride (Cyberverse Mech!reader X Hot Rod)

17: No Deal

While I was peacefully recharging on my back, Bumblebee and Cheetor had located us.

"Is he... recharging on the ground?" Cheetor said in a hushed voice.

"Shh! You'll wake him up. He hasn't had any sort of rest for a while." Hot Rod whispered.

"The Anomaly doesn't rest?"

"Not really, Cheetor." Bumblebee whispered.

"What are you two doing up here anyway?" Hot Rod asked.

"Optimus and Megatron wanted Y/D for further negotiations. I'll wake him up." Cheetor said.

"Cheetor, I wouldn't do that!" Hot Rod said. Cheetor ignored him and gently touched my shoulder. I was so startled by the sudden sensation that I jumped up and pinned the yellow bot to the ground with my glaive to his neck.

"Whoa whao! It's okay! It's me!" Cheetor exclaimed. I blinked a few times and then helped him to his feet.

"Yeah, it's not a good idea to wake Y/D up like that." Hot Rod said.

"My apologies, I was not aware." Cheetor said sheepishly. I gently pat him on the back in my attempt to tell him it was all right, and Cheetor seemed to understand my gesture. I looked over to Bumblebee and then to Hot Rod with a confused look.

"Optimus and Megatron were looking for you to continue the negotiations." Bumblebee said. I threw my arms in the air in a dramatic exasperation of annoyance, followed by a shake of my head.

I reluctantly glided down the side and back to the negotiations with exhaustion on my face that the two leaders seemed to ignore. I took my place between the two and continued to act as the mediator as best as I could. However, the whole thing seemed to never end with constant bickering and snide comments from the Decepticons.

"Optimus, you expect me to agree to these terms?! Ridiculous!" Megatron snapped.

"Megatron, if we are to deal with Starscream, we have to work together this way!" Optimus argued back.

"It's foolish and idiotic!"

"It may be our only solution!"

"For a Prime, you seem dimwitted and stupid. If we did it your way, it would only destroy us!" The back and forth arguing continued until I had had enough. I slammed my fist into the table and scared the Pits out of both leaders. "What do you want?!" I pointed to myself and then towards the entrance, motioning that I was done hearing them argue.

"Y/D, wait." Optimus said. I shot him a glare and stormed out in an effort to cool my head. As I did, I ran into Clobber, and the hulking femme practically jumped out of her paint. She knew better than to stand in my way when I was pissed and quickly got out of my way. Hot Rod and Bumblebee saw this and went up to investigate.

"What's with him?" Bumblebee asked.

"He's really angry. I don't think the negotiations are going well." Clobber said. "I haven't seen him this mad at anything since Starscream cheated on him back on Cybertron."

"Wait, Starscream and Y/D? You're kidding." Hot Rod questioned in disbelief.

"That's what I said!" Clobber exclaimed. "Anyway, I wouldn't go bothering him unless you want -"

"Whoaaaaahhh!" The voice of a very unlucky Lockdown cried out as he was chucked through the air from a distance and landed not far from the trio head first into the ground. After a few moments of struggle, he then managed to pus himself out of the ground and shake the excess dirt from his audials.

"Don't try to talk to Y/D Clobber. He's really mad." He said.

"And that's why." She said with an amused laugh. "He'll scrap anyone and anything that gets in his way when he's really mad."

"I wouldn't have imagined he'd have that bad of a temper." Bumblebee said.

"Oh, Y/D? He's a sweet bot. Just uh, when he blows, he blows." Lockdown said. "I mean, you saw him blow up before. Quite literally." While the others were talking, I was storming around and trying my best to calm down.

'Stupid stupid! Why are they so stupid! None of this negotiating or anything is going to get us anywhere! We don't have time for it!' I thought as I slammed my fists into a massive boulder, the impact so intense that it disintegrated into dust. 'Constant back and forth back and forth! Absolutely maddening! Why won't they just shut up and agree to disagree for Primus sake?!' I wanted to scream, but the fact that I couldn't only made the agitation worse. It got so bad that I ended up demolishing around 8 or 9 boulders in a Grimlock grade temper tantrum.

I felt quite a bit better after that and sighed in relief as I plunked down on my aft and heavily vented. I definitely needed that outburst.

"Y/D? Are you okay?" I heard Hot Rod call from a distance. I looked over to where he and Bumblebee were hiding and felt a wave of embaressment when the aftermath of my fit was exposed. I nodded nervously and awkwardly stood back up as the young bots approached me.

"Wow, and I thought Grimlock could do a lot of damage." Bumblebee said with a small hint of fear. I awakrdly rubbed the back of my neck and gave a sort of embaressed smile.

"Hey, least you got it out of your system, big guy." Hot Rod said as he playfully punched my shoulder. I silently chuckled and sighed in slight fatigue, dreading having to go back to the negotiations. However, that would not be an issue as blaster fire rang out and put us all on the defensive.

"I guess negotiations are void!" Bumblebee exclaimed. "Come on!" Hot Rod and I followed the smaller bot back to where a massive battle was taking place, and we joined into the fray, eventually the Decepticons pulling back and fleeing.

"Optimus, what happened?" Hot Rod asked.

"Bludgeon attacked Windblade and then fighting all over broke out!" Wheeljack explained.

"At least no one got hurt." Hot Rod said. As if some unknown force had heard his words I felt a shock of agony course through me and sparks fly off from the small device Megatron planted on my back, my frame stiffening and silent screams escaping me. I fell to the ground and convulsed in an effort to get the pain to stop.

"What's happening to him?" Bumblebee exclaimed as he and Hot Rod tried to help me but were forced back by the electricity.

"Those readings are crazy! His spark is going to give out!" Wheeljack said, his words the last thing I heard before I went completely limp in the dust.

-meanwhile with the Decepticons-

"The device has been activated Lord Megatron." Shockwave said. "Soon he will fall into a death-like stasis."

"Why are we wasting time on this?" Soundwave asked in annoyance.

"Soundwave, if we are to gain the upper hand, we must eliminate a key component." Megatron said. "By neutralizing Y/D the Autobots will become one bot short. They will believe Y/D has rejoined the Allspark and will no doubt lay him to rest."

"Then we can retrieve his 'remains' and wipe his memory core to only obey Megatron." Shockwave said. "The tracking device will lead us to his grave."