Dysfunctional Team: Pilot

Killshot online to the light of his room. He really hated getting up, but a job a job. He got up rather slowly, making sure none of his gears and wires were acting up. Nothing wrong there. He was on his pedes and went to get his gear: a red visor and headphones. Killshot was a renowned snipers for the Decepticons and the gear was part of the reason why.

The visor had many jobs, the primary one being to help him spot targets that blend in a environment or a crowd. It automatically identifies and scans them for weak points, usually the helm and the spark chamber. Another important feature was the map it could provide from scanning a area and keep it permanently in its memory banks in cause he comes back. It's very useful if you're trying to backtrack a long way. It was like a computer in miniature form.

The headphones are there more for his hobby than its ability to help. Killshot is a bit of an audiophile, usually listening to the music of other cultures. He is very interested in other races music and the headphones bring it out in pristine quality. He obtains the music by uploading them or recording them to his memory banks and plays the music through the headphones with a wireless transceiver to his memory banks, being able to turn it on or off at his own will just by thinking about it.

It's also really good at blocking out the screams somebot makes when they die.

He headed out of the room and to the bridge. He had to admit that Swindle had a very impressive ship. It was a much smaller ship compared to others like the Nemesis or Harbinger, but still a pretty dang good ship having its own bridge and med-bay, not that they get use much; having a crew of only two really limits how much you use something. It also doesn't help that neither of them were medics. They only knew the basics, which was enough for small wounds, but not big ones.

The technology was also something to be commended. The machines were very user-friendly and had some extremely fast processors. It had some of the latest tech on it as well from other races; Cybertronians don't like to say it, but some races can make stuff better than them. The best example would be the blasters on the front of the ship. The best Cybertronian blasters are more than capable of making big holes in small ships. The average Vok blasters, on the other hand, take their destructiveness to obscene levels, easily capable of blowing the whole fragging ship and then some.

He walked to the door that holds the bridge, listening to his music and not caring about much else. It was a rather undeveloped planet's tribal music, mostly just yelling and banging on some percussion instruments. He was making some rather uncivilized noise and saying unusual that would probably dumb down the intelligence of anyone nearby. Getting recordings from that planet to add to his collection was difficult, considering that the technological thing the planet was capable of was making a fire and would immediately wonder "WHAT THE FRAG IS THAT" or whatever it is in their primitive language, but it was worth it to him.

Other people like Swindle, not so much. Music isn't a market he can put in a stranglehold.

The door opened automatically leading him into the well-lit blue room. There were many screens in the room and a rather large table with a sort of projector in the middle, although he wasn't paying much attention to them. Only enough to track where he's going, what he could run into, and figure out that Swindle was not in the room. He was making his way to another door haphazardly, looking like that at any moment, he would trip and fall flat on his face. Fortunately for him, that didn't happen and he make it safely to the door: the energon storage room.

He entered the room, took a sizable cube of energon, and popping a seat at the table in front of the door that led to the door which he used to enter the room with his back to it. It was going to be an easy day for him. Shockwave was not known to back stab people like certain seekers and as such, Swindle should be able to take care of it himself. He could just sit here, relax (or go crazy), and listen to his music for the whole solar-cycle.

Unless something happens, of course.

But that was something to worry about later. He just sat back, enjoying the music, and slowly taking in the energon. Yep. Moments like this were the best. Being the bodyguard to an arms dealer was an easy job with some nice benefits, such as free energon and a place to stay. He also got a decent discount at Swindle's wares. Not enough to really damage Swindle's bottom line, just enough to make a sizable difference to Killshot and a good profit for Swindle.

Swindle didn't exactly needed a bodyguard in close corners melee and mid-range shoot outs, as Killshot has seen a few times during deals gone badly. It was the far away and hidden personal that Swindle needed help with. His guns were nice and easily capable of taking down targets at close-to-mid range and in melee combat, he had short, but sharp blades that pop from his wrists that he could use to easily cut up targets. However, once he was quite a bit away, those weapons wouldn't be able to hit accurately and reliably.

That was where Killshot come in. He would stay back and use his visors to figure out if there were any hidden snipers or guards too far away for Swindle to hit. Once found, he would translate those speakers with his headset to Swindle a much needed idea of what to use for cover if things go downhill. Luckily, most deals went fine and the ones that don't were not smart enough to use tactics, thinking he was alone. It was always a fun sight to see the arrogant smirk of a bot get erased from his face when they were hit.

The music was reaching a climax now; all the voices were screaming and the drums were just getting beat harder and harder. He was caught up in it and just slowly became more entrance with it, shaking his form to the music in the chair. It was so loud and intense that he didn't hear the door behind him open in a smooth whirr.

Swindle slowly walk in to see his bodyguard shaking in his chair like he was losing a few gears in his heads and saying some things in what sounded like gibberish. He contemplated on what to do: either a) let him keep on shaking and completely ignore him or b) snap him out of his hallucination and bring him back to the real world and get some payback for last solar cycle.

It was a very easy decision. He got behind him quietly and positions his hand near his spastically moving head. He had to time this right to get full impact and a more powerful blow. Killshot still didn't sense him, just happily moving along.

Suddenly, Swindle brought his hand up and brought it down to strike him.

"OW! SON OF A GLITCH! THAT HURT!"

Perfect hit.

Killshot's headphones were off form the hit, along with his visor, and his servos were holding his head. He was rocking himself back and forth, not noticing the smirk on Swindle's face. He was very pleased at the moment. He walked away from him and head to the energon storage room to get himself a block and then headed to the computer to see how much father they were from Shockwave's location.

Only 20 cycles. Good. He headed to a large screen in the room and tried to contact Shockwave. During that, Killshot slowly reach for his headphones examine them. The hit hit him with enough force to slam his face in to the table knocking the visor off his face showing his red eyes. At the moment, he was really pissed. Here he was, relaxing, with nothing to do and his employer just comes out of nowhere to hit him in the back of the head and maybe harming his gear in the progress.

The headphones looked fine, and it was still playing the music, so it was probably undamaged. He pauses the music and put the headphones around his neck. He then grabs his visor and check it. There didn't seem to be anything wrong with it and he put it back on his head, covering his eyes. He then looked at the physically abusing employer and ask him a simple question in a rather menacing tone, "What the scrap was that for?"

Swindle replied in the salesman voice of his "That was for yesterday's slap to the back of the head."

"Mine wasn't nearly that hard," Killshot argued.

"It was also for what you did a stellar cycle ago, remember."

"You still remember that. Come on, it was just harmless fun."

"I hardly called nearly blowing up a part of the ship fun. That, and do you know how much money that would cost to repair the ship. Now, shut up or I will deduct you pay. It would be more money for me to keep, anyway." It was days like this that made you wish you still had your old squad who do what you ask for free.

Killshot looked at him and turned away, preferring to look at the screen, although Swindle swore he heard him said "slagger" in a low voice. That was the end of that conversation and Swindle was still not getting anything from Shockwave. It was mildly worrying to Swindle. Shockwave was always quick to answer a transmission, even if he was in recharge. What the slag could be keeping him.

Killshot was slowly relaxing again. He sat back in his chair again and put his pedes on the table. He paid attention to what Swindle was doing. It looked he was trying to contact Shockwave and judging by the look on his face, he was nervous for some reason. Why?

"Hey, slag head. What are you so worried about? Is there a life threatening situation ahead I want to know about?"

"Shockwave is not answering."

"So?"

"He always answers in less than a cycle."

"He could be slow today."

"No, he always answers quickly. It could be Megatron, and the last thing you want to do would be to tick Megatron off."

"So you're saying something happen to Shockwave because he's not answering fast enough" he asked in a disbelieving tone.

"Yep."

"Yeah, right." Killshot obviously didn't believe him.

"I'm being serious here."

"Sure. Now tell me, how long have you been stalking Shockwave. Is it some heated love affair or-

"SHUT UP!" Killshot probably pressed his buttons too much. He was clutching his head, holding back the migraine he was having. He was seriously considering killing him right there and be done with him, but considering he needed the back-up, it was best to let him live, for now.

Killshot consider what to do next. Either shut up or try to soothe him. He was actually worried about him. Swindle acted like what he was saying was the complete the truth and not completely insane. Shockwave could easily just be in the middle of one of his sadistic experiments. Still, the amount of conviction in Swindle voice made actually believe him, even if he probably was a nightmare fetishist with a tendency to stalk. He finally came up with a decision to humor him and ask would could've happen.

"So," Killshot began "if Shockwave really is in trouble, what do you think could've happen?" Maybe making him think of what could've happen might help.

"I'm thinking of two options, both of them not good. The first is that Starscream, for some reason, tried to kill him and might've succeeded.

"Why would Starscream tried to murder Shockwave?"

"I don't know. He just has a tendency to be involved in stuff like this."

"Well you got a point there." Starscream always had an agenda to get ahead, even if it mean stepping on the backs of his allies. The question is what his agenda consist of and how did it play into his hand. "What's the other option?"

"Shockwave mentioned that Starscream had Autobot prisoners. I'm thinking that they might've escape and attack them."

"How could they escape?" Killshot asked in a interested tone. He had to admit, Swindle coming up with reasons why Shockwave was not answering a transmission was pretty humorous.

"It's Starscream," Swindle pointed out in a tone that sounded like the most obvious thing in the world.

"Ah, good point." This wouldn't be the first time Starscream accidentally let prisoners escape and he doubt he let them purposely escape. Starscream may be a backstabbing egomaniac, but he was completely dedicated to the Decepticon caused, even if he didn't always show. He just simply wants to be the leader and have complete power (which, let's be honest here, he'll probably never accomplished).

Swindle looked at the screen. Ten cycles till they reached the destination. Not fast enough. "I'm going take the ship off autopilot and speed us up." The autopilot had its own predetermined speed, which happens to be really slow compared to what the ship is capable of doing on manual. He keeps this pace so that every bot on board can have a nice, relaxing ride instead of a fast, not-so-relaxing one and it also saves them fuel.

Swindle took control away from the autopilot and begin increasing the speed. Killshot felt the ship speed up rather quickly. Obviously, this was going to be a shorter trip now. He measured by how fast it was speeding up that it would probably take them roughly 2 cycles to reach now.

Looks like today isn't going to be a relaxing day.