Dysfunctional Team: Season 1

Talos Four, City 17, Periphery Heights, Moscow hotel, nighttime

Cooldown was on the 23rd floor, walking through the halls towards his and Warmup's room. A couple of days ago, Bombline had brought them here to get the money from their employer and left to meet him as soon as they arrive on the planet, leaving them to fend for themselves for a little while. He had given them instructions to wait here at the hotel while he was getting money from the job. He later said that he wouldn't be with them for a little while longer as he had made a deal with their employer for another job and was making arrangements for the job.

This was a little annoying for Cooldown, but he got over it quickly. He and Warmup went to this fancy hotel and wait for him to get back. Cooldown had gone out a little while to explore the area for anything of interest. So far, the only thing worth noting was the bars, the arena where a concert was for Rosanna, with poster on the arena walls (Hey, Look at me, I'm waving; I'm in need of saving), and the capitol building nearby where Metalhawk was. He had just gotten back from exploring the area and was coming in to recharge for the night.

He had reached the door and opened it to let himself inside. It opened, showing his room. In it were two berths on the right side of the room and a table on the far wall. Om the left was a single large-screen TV with two cabinets to the left of it, holding energon and various other substances. TO go along with that, a unexpected guess was sitting at the table.

"Hello, Cooldown," Bombline said to the cyan grounder. Cooldown gave a momentarily look of surprise before switching to a casual smile.

"Hey there, Bombline. The deal went good I'm guessing," Cooldown said to his friend.

"50,000 shanix added to our account seems like a good deal, although I'm not here to talk about that," he answered, getting up and giving a look around the room. "Tell me, where's Warmup?" he asked.

"I don't know. He was here when I'd last saw him," Cooldown replied. Bombline frown at that. "But I could give him a call and see where he is," Cooldown said to call him down, bringing a communicator out. "Just give me a second." Cooldown pressed some buttons on the device, trying to get Warmup. It took a few seconds before an answer music and a voice came from it. The music was some extremely poppy synths while the voice sounded like some high-pitch harpy singing, instantly giving pain into the other two mercenary's hearing.

Hey, look at me, I'm waving.
I am in need of some saving.
I can't help looking at you.
I got this ticket here for two.

"Hey, Coolly, what's up," Warmup voice pierce through singing, letting the two hear him.

"Warmup, where in the pit are you and why don't you sound like you're in pain," Cooldown asked his twin.

"I'm at the arena, watching Rosanna shake those find hips around," Warmup said, lust dripping from his voice. "I wonder how much she buffers those."

Hey come here, I want to share something
I want to show you where it all begun
Me and you, hanging around at this special place
Where me and you can go at our own pace

"Get your head out of the gutter and come to the hotel," Bombline shouted to the crimson grounder.

"Oh, Bomby, you're there. What's up, man?" Warmup asked the jet.

"We got a job and want to inform you about it, so come over here right now instead of watching that pop-star move around," Bombline told the car.

"You wouldn't be saying that if you watch her move around right now. Damn…." Warmup said, getting more and more attracted to the singer.

I want to go to a place where we can be safe
A place where we can live without strafe
A world we can just lay around
Where love and happiness abounds

"I swear, those lyrics are the epitome of cheese," Cooldown said.

"I don't care. Look, I'll be there once the concert's over, alright?" Warmup told them.

"Ugh, fine. Don't do anything stupid, alright?" Cooldown told his twin.

"You got it," Warmup said.

Hey, look at me, I'm waving
I am in need of- He hung up.

"You were too nice to him," Bombline said to Cooldown.

"What do you expect, he's my twin. Besides, he's allowed some fine every now and then," Cooldown defended Warmup.

"I would agree, if it wasn't for the fact we're leaving tomorrow," Bombline said.

"Oh, well then, sorry," Cooldown said, sincerity somewhere else right now.

"Ugh, never mind. I'll just explain it right now to you," Bombline said as he went t take a seat the table in the room. He motion for Cooldown to come sit down as well. He agreed, taking a seat opposite of Bombline. "Alright, you know that ship we ran into on Cybertron?" A shake of the head yes. "Well, our employer knows the captain of the ship. He a Decepticon called Swindle."

"I've heard of him," Cooldown interjected. "He's a black marker dealer, right?"

"Correct. The guy has been on dealer since before the war begun, building up a web of connections to use to help him wheel and deal. He has many allies, but few actual friends."

"A bit of a loner," Cooldown said.

"Right. The guy is captain of the ship, "The Merchant," and uses it to move around the universe and carry cargo. Our job is to either capture him or kill him, and bring him to the employer. Bring him alive will give us a substantially higher pay than killing him."

"How much?"

"250,000 shanix alive. 100,000 dead." Cooldown gave a double take at that.

"You're serious?" he questioned unbelievably.

"Yes, I am," Bombline confirmed.

"Damn, that's a lot of shanix." Cooldown gave Bombline a serious looked. "What did Swindle do to piss him off this much?"

"I don't know. He's a arms dealer. He's bound to make some people mad," Bombline hypothesize.

"Good point. So when will we leave tomorrow?" the car asked the jet.

"As earliest as we can. I would rest as much as you can before we leave," he informed him as he got up from the seat. "You can informed you twin about all of this when he gets here. Until then, I'm going to my room. Later," Bombline said, as he exited the room, leaving Cooldown to himself.

Now by himself, he thought briefly about this Swindle character. A black market dealer was a potentially dangerous person and could be hard to find. What did he do to get the employer this mad to send a strikingly high price on his head? With all of these thoughts in his head, he got up to the left cabinet and opened it up. He looked at the carious liquids before picking his poison: Sweet Dream Fuel. Alright, not that poisonous.

He picked up a couple of glassed from it and close the cabinet. He went back to the table and set the stuff down. He opened the bottle of Sweet Dreams Fuel and pour some in the two glasses, before setting it back down and sit down, holding a glass in his hand, waiting for Warmup to come back.

XXX

The Merchant

"There, all done. You're internal comm. should be working properly now," Hook said to Skywarp.

"Finally, took you long enough. Any longer and I would've been punching you in the face," Skywarp aspirated.

"You know it's not a good idea to threaten you're medic who a perfect job at fixing you," Hook threaten.

"If you were perfect the first time, I wouldn't be having comm. problems in the first place," Skywarp fired back at the Constructicon.

"Shut up and get out of here," Hook told the annoying Seeker.

"Alright, you purple-and-green monstrosity," Skywarp said as he headed for the door. Hook wanted to give the disrespectful punk a swift kick in the aft for the comment, but chose not to. It would be unwise to make rivalries on this ship. Skywarp opened the door and walked out, bumping into his fellow flyer in the process.

"Watch where you're going you idiot," Skywarp said to Misfire before walking away. Misfire, in response, gave him a strongly symbolic and meaningful middle finger. Skywarp didn't see this and kept walking away. Misfire watched him go before he entered the room. Inside, Hook was cleaning his equipment. Scavenger was nowhere to be found.

"Hey there, Hook. Can you come look at mine head?" Misfire asked the doctor. Hook responded by motioning with a flick of his hand to take a seat at the table. Misfire abided by sitting at the table. He looked around the room, looking for his batch of syk.

"So, you trip over's Scavenger's tail and hurt your head, correct?" Hook said, approaching the flyer.

"Yeah, see this dent? I think something important was hurt there," Misfire told his doctor.

"A dent, that's it? I swear, some people complain about the stupidest thing," Hook bemoaned.

"Hey, Scavenger was the one who wanted me to come here, not me," Misfire explained.

"Of course he did. He's all worry that a single injury could lead to the end of someone's life if we're not quick enough. Bah!" Hook said, earning a look from Misfire. "What?"

"I've never heard someone say that," Misfire answered.

"What?" Hook wondered.

"That sound. Bah! I've always seen it written down, never said out loud," Misfire explained.

"Oh, for the love of- Okay, look, take this," he said, handing him a device. "This is a buffer, use it to buff that dent out. Shouldn't be too hard," Hook ordered him.

"Alright, thanks for telling me that, even though I'd already knew that," Misfire said, observing the buffer.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just give it back to me after you're done with it," Hook said. At that comment, Misfire optics got a little wider. He was holding Hook's buffer….

"Okay, ew. Take it back," Misfire said to the medic, holding it out so he could take it back.

"Oh, don't be a protoform who's just learned to speak. I clean it often enough," Hook reassured the jet. At the end of that comment, his communicator beeped. He got it out and analysis it. "Oh, you got to be kidding me…." He looked at the jet. "Scavenger got himself in a bit of trouble in the cargo hold. Something along the lines being in mortal danger from something called a Kremzeek." Misfire looked confuse. "Yeah, I don't know either. Apparently, his reactions too it are 'It's killing me!" to 'It's ticking me! Make it stop!' Misfire face got even more confused.

"And I thought I imagine some crazy stuff," Misfire said.

"Yeah, you go do whatever. I'll go make sure he's okay," Hook said, as he exited the room, leaving Misfire to himself. Misfire waited until the door closed, before springing into action and begin searching the room for his drugs. They had to stash it somewhere in here. Misfire checked the cabinets first.

Nothing.

He checked the drawers.

Nothing.

He checked under the desks.

Nothing.

Cursing at Primus, he wondered where the heck those drugs could be. He sat in the chair behind the desk, thinking about. He gaze lifelessly at the room, not reacting to anything. Just looking around at the room, wondering where those drugs we-

Wait. There was something under the table. Misfire went over there and looked under the table. The box was there. The junkie grabbed the box and opened it up.

His precious syk.

His prize in hand, he got and headed out of the room. Today was looking to be a good day.