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Red Alert paused in his tale, glancing up at Inferno, gauging his reaction. Inferno looked back down, completely serous.
Well, not completely. Some small part of his CPU was gibbering in pleased pleasure about how Red Alert was just about made to fit into his arms. But that was only half of his CPU. The other half was serious, listening to Red Alert.
Red Alert looked at Inferno, and was torn, unwilling to reveal what had happened so many vorns ago. But, Inferno looked so serious, as if he was actually listening to him, Red Alert decided to take that leap. "Well, the decepticons came in and reprogrammed everyone…"
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Red Alert screamed in agony as some soundless mind wave assaulted his CPU, attempting to make him stand up and rush to fight. He ignored it, his glitch fighting off the mind wave as he attempted to crawl towards a consol. He reached it, and slowly typed in a code. "Actions complete. Now uploading virus." Came the computers mechanized voice, and Red Alert sighed softly as he slipped into unconsciousness.
He was ignored by all others, for they had been programmed to kill all those that moved.
It was nearly two orns before the decepticons came aboard, searching for any survivors. Red Alert stirred weakly, his glitch, small as it was, only bringing him out of recharge, and not into fighting. One decepticon nudged another, pointing at Red Alert. "There. That one doesn't have a mark on him. How'd he escape?"
"Don't know. Should we take him back?" Asked another.
The leader of the group looked at Red Alert and slowly nodded. "Might as well. Now someone get to the controls and figure out what the code is.
The decepticons scurried to their jobs, two picking up Red Alert, tied him up, and tossed him in the back of another. Red Alert stirred weakly, attempting to fight, but was quickly put down back under. But not before he heard unhappy cursing as a mech called out, "Boss, they wiped the files clean! If I try to recover, a virus will be uploaded too!"
hah, got you good. Red Alert thought, before succumbing to the wave of darkness.
0o0o0o0o0o
When Red Alert woke up, he was unsure of where he was. He glanced around, optics slightly curious, slightly wary at the various machines, and wires that lay above him.
He knew he was strapped to a table, which probably meant that they were going to reprogram him or something like that. He sighed, optics off-lining. They came back on with a jerk as his auditory receptors caught a faint noise. He stiffened slightly, then forced himself to relax, pretending to still be in recharge.
The decepticon was not fooled. "Now, now. I know you're awake, because I personally set your awakening time to right now." Red Alert warily onlined his optics, peering at the mech who was talking.
He wasn't anything special. Just a medic, with the purple decepticon coloring instead of the autobot coloring. Red Alert sagged against his bonds, wondering what they were going to do to him. Probably take apart my CPU he thought gloomily, optics watching the medic wander through the machines. The medic stopped before one particularly sharp, pointed instrument, and Red Alert winced.
Then, in a desperate bid to take him mind off of what was bound to come next, Red Alert began to mentally name off all of the machines he could recognize. To his own surprise, he could name many of them. In fact, many of them were often in psychiatrist rooms, where his creators had taken him in the hopes to help destroy his glitch. Red Alert stared at them, mentally going through what each machine was capable of.
The medic noticed his gaze, and chuckled softly. "You can probably identify what most of these are, what with your glitch." The medic paused. His own CPU was usually slightly scrambled, giving him the tendency to ramble on while he talked. "In fact, your glitch saved you when we sent that mind wave to your ship. The rest of your buddies tore themselves apart. But your glitch fought off the wave, and instead put you into a near stasis lock. I bet you were probably the one who also managed to wipe the data from off the ships computers."
He chuckled, louder. "Let me tell you, that threw the attackers into a rage. They still hadn't gotten the very important information, information that Megatron himself ordered them after. But you wiped it out just in time. If you had been a click slower, our compute expert would of gotten to it."
The medic chuckled again, the sound grating on Red Alerts auditory receptors, but he kept quiet, watching the medic. The medic paused, peering closely at Red Alert. "Yep, you are the unusual one. Usually they'd be screaming for me not to. Of course, I always did anyways, but their screams always made me feel ashamed." He patted Red Alerts shoulder, ignoring the burning optics of his captive. "I'm glad you aren't screaming. Yessirie, screaming always does ruin a good meal of energon."
Red Alert wasn't screaming because he couldn't. His voice capacitor wasn't online, despite his body working to make it so. Otherwise he'd be letting off a high enough of a screech, guaranteed to shatter glass. The medic started flicking on several of the machines, talking all the time. "Lets see, this one should help enlarge the glitch, while this one should pinpoint it. I wonder if this machine will be able to sift through his memories… nah, with his glitch it might be a delicate process. Don't want to damage the goods quiet yet. Now, lets see here…"
Red Alert wondered what was going to happen to him as he listened to the insane wanderings of the medic.
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Red Alert cut off with his story-telling with a snap, as his auditory receptors caught the faint footfalls outside of the door. He pulled away from the surprised Inferno, and stared at the door. Jazz came bounding in, smiling brightly. "Hey you two! Whatchya doing?"
"Nothing." Red alert muttered, and looked up at the clock. Still five breems until his shift was on. He wondered for a split moment whether or not he should just go early, when Jazz sat down next to him. He tensed, feeling trapped. Inferno apparently saw this, for he stood up hastily, asking Jazz, "Hey Jazz, you haven't told me what the odds of Wheeljack and Ratchet becoming sparkmates."
Red Alert snorted softly, shaking his head. Inferno cocked a head at him as he asked, "Do you know Red?"
"How could I not? I was their when they were first introduced. Those two went head over heels for each other, and three nights later were interfacing."
Jazz's jaw dropped in shock. "That fast?"
Red Alert shrugged, looking away. Jazz suddenly realized that right here in front of him was a very big source of information. "What about Prime and Elita, have they ever done anything?"
"Jazz, you should know. You interrupted them the last time she came. Along with Ironhide and Chromia. Between the two femmes, I'm surprised you weren't killed."
"Perceptor?"
"I don't think you need to know about that."
"Then Hound and Mirage?"
"Secret for now." Red Alert said, a slight glint coming to his optics.
Inferno was stunned by that glint. A teasing glint? He didn't think Red Alert knew what teasing was. But it vanished as quickly as it come, making Inferno wonder if he had actually seen it. Red Alert stood up, and hastily excused himself.
Jazz watched him go, and sighed dramatically. "That guy. How does he know so much?"
"Well, he is the security director. And knowing Red, he probably has hidden cameras and listening taps everywhere." Inferno said dryly.
Jazz laughed, and leaned against the table. "You know, I met someone who knew Red Alert before the war." He said causally.
Inferno perked up, even as he resented Jazz using his nickname for Red Alert. "Oh really."
"yes." Jazz paused, and shrugged slightly. "He said that Red Alert had always been a little twitchy, but he usually had a good sense of humor. But then one-day Red Alerts ship disappeared, and he was presumed dead. Then, Red Alert came back, twitchy and jumpy." Jazz paused, looking at Inferno.
"Nobody knows what happened during that blank time, but when he came back he was nearly dead, and certainly out of his CPU, mumbling about decepticons, reprogramming, mind waves, data, and other things. The mech couldn't believe that they were the same mech."
Inferno fell silent, remembering what Red Alert had told him. Then he looked up, smiling slightly. "Don't worry about it. War does strange things to a mech. Look at Prime for example."
Jazz nodded, even as Inferno became determined to find out more. What had happened to Red Alert while in the hands of the decepticons?
0o0o0o0o0o0
Red Alert sat down in front of the screens, but he couldn't concentrate on them. Infernos question had brought up too many memories. After he caught his CPU wandering for the fifth time in as many clicks, Red Alert gave up. He was about to call someone to take over while he sat and shivered in his room for the next couple of orns when the door slid open, and Inferno peeked around the door. "Umm, Red?"
"Yes Inferno?"
"I'm just wondering if you'd be willing to tell me the rest."
"Now?"
"Why not? No one else should be coming by for awhile, and the decepticons are still licking their wounds, so they probably won't attack."
Red Alert muttered something softly, but inwardly he had to agree. The decepticons were less likely to attack now then usual. So he turned slightly, so he could still watch the screens, and look at Inferno at the same time. "Well, the medic did experiment on me."
Red Alerts optics darkened at the memory, as Infernos fury at the decepticons rose. Red Alert played with a slightly loose wire as he said softly, "They attempted to find a wave on which they could control my CPU, but my glitch always fought it off. There were consequences of course. My glitch grew larger and larger, until it seemed like it would fry my CPU before too long, so they had to pull back. They also began searching for a way to duplicate it, so that way the autobots couldn't control their troops."
Red Alert sighed tiredly, huddling down into his chair. "Then began the torture. They wanted to see how my enlarged glitch would react to being put in a stasis lock, and several things like that…"
The medic smiled as he looked at the screeching Red Alert. "Yes sir, he's coming along nicely. About half of his CPU is scrambled, and I've just about pinpointed his glitch."
"Good, good. Do you think we can transfer it into our own troops?"
The medic fell silent, thinking. "No. We'd need real machines to try that, and I only have the broken down stuff. To completely capture his glitch you'll need to get some of those new fancy machines."
"Very well. I'll see what I can do."
Red Alert thrashed on the table, his glitch and CPU warring with the waves that were attempting to take over his CPU. His hand clenched, and lashed out, despite the restraining bonds, catching the delicate machine and breaking it. The medic tutted, walking over casually. "Third one this week."
"Third? Shouldn't you be tying him down more securely?"
"Nah, if I don't give him enough room to thrash around he'll hurt himself."
For the first time in orns the medic switched off all of the machines, and then began walking away. Red Alert slowly relaxed on the bunk, the ropes and wires that had been cutting into him now slowly slipping off now that he was beginning to relax. Even in his fogged, pained state Red Alert recognized what that meant, and slowly he relaxed even more, until at last he was mostly free.
Slowly he stood up, staggering in pain. He moved foreword, and collapsed, unable to move another step. His CPU and glitch warred for control over his body, CPU demanding that he rest, his glitch demanding that he flee.
It was his glitch that won out in the end. Slowly Red Alert got back up onto his feet, and staggered out the door. Instantly alerts went off, but Red Alert ignored them, and continued walking. He heard the sound of approaching feet, and ducked into a small room, hidden from the outside. The feet went by, and Red Alert could hear the screams that suddenly arose.
an attack Red Alert realized, looking around. the Autobots are attacking. That gave him the last amount of strength needed to beat back the glitch and fall into a deep recharge.
Inferno smiled as Red Alert stopped. "And then?"
"I was rescued." Red Alert said flatly.
Inferno frowned, "You don't sound too happy about that."
"Nobody believed that I was Red Alert." Red Alert admitted softly. "I had been missing for nearly a vorn."
Inferno stiffened. "Nobody's ever survived that long before! Not unless they were special."
"And I was. I'm just glad I got out when I did; otherwise my CPU would of fried. Badly." Red Alert said softly, then his optics went back to Inferno. "Out."
Inferno didn't bother trying to argue. He knew that Red Alert wanted some time alone, and if he wanted that, then Inferno would give it to him. But still, he hesitated slightly while standing, optics dark.
Red Alert didn't notice as he wrapped both arms around himself, wishing for something.
Inferno scrapped all of his plans, and sat down next to Red Alert, pulling the shivering mech into a tight embrace. Red Alert yelped, struggling, but Inferno murmured soothingly, "It's alright Red. If you ever see any of that lot again just point them out and I'll set them straight."
Red Alert let loose a tiny, shaky laugh, but he didn't protest.
For how long they sat like that, neither knew, but both wished that it might never end.
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Ok, the flashbacks weren't exactly what I wanted, but it's all right. And writing Red Alert and Inferno for these past couple of paragraphs made them seems rather ooc like, but I think I got Inferno down well, if not Red Alert.