* * *
The Travalian got Yrpaxi's attention just outside the company's vehicle-bay. "Is it just me," he whisper-whistled, "Or is our war machine sulking?"
He'd been sulking for the past month, but Yrpaxi had been doing his bloody-bedamned best to ignore it. "What do you expect me to do about it? I just run the armory."
The Travalian clicked two of his claws together. "Is he not part of the armory?"
"He's part of the crew, and you know it."
"AIs should not be drawing pay with the rest of us. Hmph." His long neck curled sinuously, and Yrpaxi could hear the snap of his inner teeth. "His emanations are unsettling Seriso, and when she is unsettled, the rest of us suffer. Find out what is ailing him and fix it."
Yrpaxi grumbled but obeyed. Sure, he certainly liked Blitzwing better than most of the rest of their crew, but it was hard to be friends with an alien war machine twice again as tall as you and better armored to boot. Still, doing anything for the Travalian was galling. The chitinous bastard made his stomachs heave.
Blitzwing sat in robot-mode, leaning on one of the other tanks, with a singularly massive datapad in his hands. He glanced up briefly when Yrpaxi entered and grunted in greeting. 'Bout usual. If it weren't for the air of brooding that hung over everything, Yrpaxi wouldn't have paid him the slightest mind.
"Seriso says you're sulking." Yrpaxi cantered across the floor to stand in front of the triple-changer.
One of Blitzwing's wings twitched. "Galvatron put a bounty on Octane's head."
Okay... First name was familiar. Guy who exiled Blitzwing in the first place, and the new Decepticon overlord. Second guy? Blitzwing had never mentioned him in the few times Yrpaxi levered stories out of him. "Friend of yours?"
"Taught him a few things." Blitzwing abrubtly hurled his datapad across the vehicle-bay. "Galvatron never put a bounty on my head! I didn't betray the Decepticon cause by joining the Quintessons! I warned him the Quintessons were tricking him! I saved his life! And he exiled me! He exiled me and forgot about me! He thinks I'm worthless!"
Yrpaxi felt his horns beginning to itch. "Oy gevalt... Blitzwing, did you ever think that him leaving you alone was, I'unno, a reward?"
Blitzwing looked at him as if he'd just crawled out of his mother's belly and was still dripping gore and filth on the ground.
"... Right, doesn't work that way with your kind. Oy." Looked like it was going to be a long ship-month.
End