Recharge and Forget

When Rumble entered the room, he could have noticed many things.

One of the ceiling lights was flickering in a way that suggested its imminent death; the window revealing the ocean was dominated by an organism resembling a neon squiggle; the number of datapads stacked neatly on Soundwave's empty desk suggested a new mission in the works; Ratbat was hanging from an assortment of thick wires in a hole in the wall; Laserbeak was recharging whilst using a berthpost as a perch, and his position was growing steadily more precarious.

Mildly interesting though these displays might have been, Rumble did not notice any of them.

What he did notice was that Ravage had stolen his berth. His berth. Last night he had stolen Frenzy's. That was fine; this was most definitely not.

"No," Rumble informed the room at large.

Frenzy rolled over lazily, one arm still tucked behind his head. "No... What?"

Rumble pointed accusingly at the black feline cassette. "No," he repeated with a scowl.

Ravage had the grace to look up once before turning on his side and ignoring the twin completely. His tail twitched in what could have been construed as a "shoo" motion.

"Slaggit, Ravage!" Rumble snapped, striding forward, fists clenched at his sides. "I just came off of a shift with Scavenger. Scavenger! Do you have any idea how annoying that mech is? All I want to do is recharge and forget." He flailed his arms for emphasis. "Recharge and forget!" The twin kicked the edge of the berth in retaliation to a reply that Ravage hadn't even made. "You, kitty, are impeding the forgetting."

"Why impede the forgetting, kitty?" Frenzy reiterated unhelpfully as he stretched.

"Yeah..." the blue cassette agreed, elongating the syllable. "Why impede?" Rumble reached over Ravage, trying to force the feline to face him.

Ravage simply raised his head and clamped his jaws shut on Rumble's outstretched hand. He let the fact that he was biting the twin sink in for a few moments before releasing him and lowering his head once more.

"You..." Rumble stared at his fang-punctured hand in bewilderment. "You bit me! You sonuvaglitch! You bit me!"

The red twin shook his head. "Why bite, kitty?"

"Shuddup, Frenzy!" he snapped, flipping a datapad in the air and kicking it at his brother.

Frenzy batted the datapad away before it could make contact with his face. He gasped and looked mock-offended. "I was only asking an innocent question."

"Feh!" Rumble exclaimed. "Like any question you ask is innocent."

"It could be!" the red cassette retaliated, defensively. "You don't know!"

"Bro..." Rumble waved a hand back and forth, indicating the two of them. "We basically are each other. I do know."

"Oh yeah, well..." Frenzy fumbled over a retort and came up with nothing. "You have a cat in your bed!" he shot back, rolling petulantly to face the wall.

Rumble stared at him, speechless. Then, with his hands raised beseechingly to the ceiling, he let out a wordless yell of frustration that dissolved into an extensive string of curses.

A squawk of protest cut through the exclamation as Laserbeak was jolted out of recharge and slipped sideways off his perch. There was a moment where it seemed he wouldn't catch himself, but his wings spread at the last moment. He landed neatly on Soundwave's desk, eyeing Rumble tetchily.

"Don't look at me like that," Rumble growled. "You should know better than to try and recharge when Frenzy and I are awake." He dodged the brief burst of retaliatory laserfire.