Title: Fair Game

Characters/Pairing: Very much onesided Vortex/Arcee

Warnings: Ominous-mindscrewing-stalker-Vortex.

Transformers (c) Hasbro

"So… you're a femme huh?"

Arcee quashed the urge to roll her optics, instead keeping them rigidly fixed to her opponent's stance.

"Perceptive. Tell me you're not the brains of your team"

Her answer was an amused snort complemented a powerful fist strike. It was easily dodged.

"More like the charisma and prowess"

"That's not saying a lot"

"Ouch. You're a snarky one ain't ya?"

She gave a short huff, launching a curved roundhouse kick at Vortex's helm. He caught it, easily turning the momentum against her to send her toppling. Arcee landed on all fours, quickly springing out of the way of a plasma blast and rolling back onto her feet. She looked unimpressed.

"And here I thought it'd be purely hand-to-hand combat for once" she droned, eyeing the idly held blaster.

"Don't tell me you're that naïve. Figured you were a smart one"

Arcee smiled.

"I am"

She launched herself backwards just as her finger pushed the activation switch of a control node. The ground at Vortex's feet erupted in a controlled blast of dirt, gravel and grass. Arcee landed several meters from the explosion, forced back a few more through the force of it.

I'll have to thank Wheeljack for those remote-control grenades later.

Vortex, to his credit, reacted surprisingly well to the situation. After the explosions roar had died to a distant hum in her audios, Arcee only counted nine explicatives in total. She waited for the dust to clear before wandering closer. Her optics remained neutral at the sight of the mech sprawled on the broken ground, bottom legs badly scorched and torn up.

"That was a pretty underhanded move, Autobot"

Arcee was only partially surprised to see he was still online. She gave a small shrug.

"Everything's fair game in war"

The mech's frame shook with a rasping chuckle.

"I quite agree"

A fresh shot of plasma then promptly burrowed itself deep into Arcee's abdominal plating. She quickly smothered her pained cry into a guttural snarl.

"Frag it" she hissed, dropping to her knees and clutching at the gushing wound. Damn it femme! Leaving yourself completely open like that. A fragging rookie mistake if there ever was one.

"Sorry kid. But you didn't expect me to ignore such an open target, did you?"

Arcee vented her intakes in a quivering sigh, optics dropping to glare at the comfortably positioned mech. How anyone could be comfortable with half their leg-plating blown off was beyond her. Her bright gaze then warily flickered to his still smoking blaster. Vortex gave the arm clutching it a slight shrug.

"Eh, don't worry. S'empty now"

She snorted.

"And I'm supposed to believe you?"

His visor brightened in what seemed disturbingly close to glee.

"Ooooh. Very good, doll face. You're catching on" Vortex remarked, merrily releasing four more shots into the ground ahead of her. Arcee didn't flinch, though her posture and expression tensed considerably. She knew how many shots a standard issue blaster held. But he could have, and probably had, made upgrades to his own. Not to mention she can't be certain how often he'd used it before encountering her.

"How many you figure I've got left?"

Arcee remained anxiously silent. The mech sniggered.

"Aww, come on. Gimme a number here. How about a hint: it's somewhere between zero and ten"

She didn't answer. There was no way she was going to take part in his twisted game. Her optics twittered shut and a terse sigh hissed out her nose.

"Ahem"

Arcee was unable to quell the bleat of surprise at the sudden shot that scorched the earth next to her knee. The blast's heat just singed her armour, leaving a dark smoking patch colouring the grass.

"I wouldn't ignore me if I were you sweetie. Don't react well to the silent treatment"

Arcee felt her intakes begin to quicken slightly. Ok…ok. This was fine. She'd just have to humour him until backup arrived. If backup arrived. Keep practical. It's what she was good at after all.

"Five?" she cautiously ventured after a steady intake. Vortex seemed pleased that she'd agreed to play his game, visor shining with a wicked gleam.

"Five huh?" he hummed, lifting the gun to inspect it further. "You know what. I can't remember myself actually" The barrel then promptly turned towards her. Arcee felt her spark clench. "Think I know how to find out though"

The dull clack of a trigger being pulled caused her to flinch…. But nothing came.

He made a curious huff, trying it several more times before tossing the blaster aside. He then let a heavy sigh gush from his intakes.

"Guess it was zero eh?" A short snigger crackled from his vocaliser. "Lucky you. Was sure I had about three more shots in that thing" Arcee remained silent and Vortex snorted. "You don't talk much for a femme do you?"

She swallowed.

"Too be fair, the battlefield isn't the best place to make that sort of assessment"

He gave a fresh burst of static-lathed laughter.

"True. But we ain't in combat so much now are we sweet-cheeks?" he stated. Arcee's optics ridges creased at the pet name.

"It makes no difference"

Vortex sniggered.

"Pretty close minded ain't ya?"

She didn't answer. Her wound was continuing to leak freely and already she could feel her equilibrium systems begin to falter. Arcee's frame gave a slight wobble before she fell back onto her aft, hands propped behind her to keep her torso upright.

"Looks like we're both gonna be offline soon enough anyways. Figure I may as well ask now before one or both of us pass out from energon loss… Or someone finds us. Whichever comes first" He gave a listless shrug, indifferent.

Arcee frowned tiredly at him. Her vision had begun to blur with noise and remaining online was becoming harder by the second.

"Ask what?"

"Two things. One: name?"

She hesitated before uncertainly replying, "Arcee"

"Arcee? Cool. You free next Thursday?"

"I…. wait, what?"

"Are. You free. Next Thursday?"

She knew her mouth had dropped open.

"You…. Wa… W…Why?"

"So you are free?"

"I didn't say that!"

"Well, if you knew you weren't gonna be free you'd just say no" he shrugged, "Plain and simple. You wouldn't bother digging any deeper than that. Anyways, seen as you are free, we should meet up"

"NO!" she knew the shrill tone was unnecessary, but she couldn't say she cared at this point. And damn it, if there was one thing she was going to be one hundred percent adamant about in life, this would be it.

"But you're not busy"

"It doesn't matter! Why would I…?" she let that trail off, optics narrowing in scepticism. "Wait. You're kidding aren't you? Or doing one of those weird mental-games again"

"Nah, too drained to kid or screw around with ya. So, how about it?"

"No!"

"Ok, you think on it. I'll call ya later about it"

"I don't need to think about it! And you don't even have my transmission code!"

"Don't worry about that babe. I'll take care of it" he assured before letting his helm drop back against the grass, visor dimming offline.

Arcee gaped, "What do you mean by that?... Hey! Answer m-" she stopped herself, realising it was fruitless, and internally whimpered.

Primus, why me?

A/N: XDD Seriously, it's not even so much a pairing as Vortex being psycho-stalker-copter and Arcee being the unfortunate victim.

On another note, I luff slash but for some reason prefer writing mech/femme crack =S Food for thought? Though it's probably on account of there being so little of it too. That and I adore the femmes x3

Anyways, yesh XD Tried a different writing style with this, though I doubt it's noticeable. Less description, more to-the-point talking and action... and cwack X'D