* * *
Reflector sat in a corner of the medical ward, carefully rebuilding one of his arms. He was still unsure as to his capabilities and had let the situation with the fliers get out of hand. Winning the bet, despite getting his arm cracked open, seemed to impress them, but he found it all rather counter-productive. He could have wreaked much the same result by simply surviving his missions.
It was late, and the downtime-duty technician had learned to ignore him when he came sneaking in. Two strangers also sat in the med-bay, a cassette-host and one of his cassettes. The 'host worked at the cassette-bird's back, adjusting his wings from what Reflector could see.
He wondered what brought them out here. The front wasn't anywhere near this sector, but that could change in a moment. Might even change because of these two. Strangely, that thought didn't bother him as much as it ought to.
He kept four of his optics on the task with his arm and two surreptitiously on the cassette-host. A spy, he had to be, and wasn't that what Reflector did with himself? The camera would be a poor spy indeed if he didn't find out what brought them into his sector of operations.
The cassette-bird flapped its wings then transformed and returned to its 'host. Then the dark blue spy turned towards Reflector. "You are brothers?"
He had a very melodious voice, Reflector noted, as he lifted his heads. "No, I am not."
The cassette-host nodded. His visor did not flash as people's usually did when Reflector denied seperate identities, nor did the inflection in his voice change. "Allow me to repair your arm."
"No." Reflector didn't hesitate to decline. Everytime Skydive or Stalker touched his systems, he had wound up hurt and disoriented for hours. While all the little adjustments they had made were proving quite beneficial, he never wanted to end up in that condition again. No one knew more than the basics of how he worked, and he planned to keep it that way.
Still, if the 'host had perhaps asked him for something else... He tried to shake the small smile from his faces, but it kept creeping back on.
"It would be no trouble."
"Your offer is most gracious, but I must decline." He didn't know why he phrased that quite so politely. It wouldn't do to offend someone more powerful than him, certainly, but that was rather more... flowery than he what usually went with.
The downtime-duty technician shook his head. "Soundwave, sir, your harmonics are interfering with the scanners in here. If we get any trouble, I'll need you to leave."
Reflector froze for an infinitesmal fraction of a second. Then he carefully packed up his tools and headed for the door. He could finish the job safe in his own quarters-
"Wait."
He turned one head towards the cassette-host. "Yes?"
"Remain with me."
"No." It took all of his willpower to get out of that room, and he cowered in his quarters for hours afterwards.
End