prying up the corner
The wind swept across the metallic paint, carrying moisture that condensed like tears before dissipating. In place of clouds and mist, sand grains appeared. I arrived at a desert and landed on a rock atop a mountain.
Telling the Cosmic Emperor that I ran away in anger would be too embarrassing, no matter how you look at it.
I don't want to talk to the Cosmic Emperor, or to anyone else. I just need to be alone for a while.
But one person broke this solitude.
"What are you doing?" I asked angrily at the machine that had suddenly emerged from the ground as half a red and white eagle.
A clear male voice rang out: "Are you an apostle? Why are you sitting here alone?"
I turned my head away, not wanting to see him.
But he deliberately revealed the remaining blue and white mechs, then tilted his head and leaned closer, as if I were something laughable. "Shouldn't you be inside the Decepticon warship, suppressing the Decepticons?"
"Shouldn't I be asking you that? I can go wherever I want; I don't need your help."
He curled the corners of his mouth into a smile, his eyebrows furrowed slightly, trying hard to suppress a laugh: "I noticed a signal from a dark super-energy entity nearby, so I ran over to check it out, only to find you secretly wiping away tears all by yourself."
"You...! Hmph," I warned, pushing him away with my superpower, "Say what you want. Get out of here!"
The other magnetic field in the space hadn't disappeared, nor had the light and lively spark that crackled with fire. Instead, it drew closer once more, and I heard its voice:
"Hmm...? Your wings seem to be saying you don't want me to leave?"
He tapped on my wing, causing a slight metallic tremor. The tremor, combined with the friction against the ground, created an itchy sensation that constantly stimulated the sensors on my back. I had to flap the wings on my back and then raise them high to avoid any possible contact. Why is he so annoying?
The sand on the ground leaped up with a sudden tremor, and he sat down beside me, cross-legged. I saw the phase sensor on his arm and the white paint on the outside of his thigh.
He leaned his upper body as if he had no idea about keeping his distance, his shoulder armor almost touching mine. I also leaned my mech away from him.
"Can you tell me what happened? I'm sure I'll laugh at you."
"Get away from me! You're really annoying!"
Completely oblivious to being rejected, he continued rambling on: "The last time I saw you was in Shockwave's lab. We were all shocked that day, because that was the Decepticon Shockwave! He was already famous before I went into hibernation."
He seemed lost in memories.
“We were all wondering why he suddenly contacted the Autobots. Then he said he had trapped the Angels and asked the Autobots, especially Optimus Prime, for help, and that we needed to go to the Nemesis. For that mission, just to be on the safe side, Optimus Prime only took an ambulance, with the others providing backup. I hadn’t been with the Leader’s Guard for long, and they wouldn’t let me go, so I sneaked over when no one was looking.”
"I was terrified when I first saw you, just a head. I didn't expect you to be alive. Then I wondered, who is it? Is it some poor experimental subject? Decepticons are really scary. Then Optimus Prime and the others were about to enter the lab, so I thought I should hide. I never imagined that you were actually the Angel, and that you beat up all the famous Decepticons."
His visor was almost glued on.
"Can you tell me how you defeated them? I want to write it down and tell the leader!"
"Is that your real purpose?" I said angrily. "I'm the leader of the Decepticons now, I can't tell you that."
"Then why are you sitting here alone? Shouldn't the Decepticon leader be busy directing the Decepticons?"
It shouldn't be a problem to tell him, right? I think they'll find out sooner or later anyway. "They never listen to me! Even beating them a few times doesn't work!"
"Oh, is that so?" He kept laughing, his back wings trembling, and the machine parts squeaking as he suppressed his laughter.
Enraged, I grabbed both sides of his mask and yanked it outwards. His mask deformed, but laughter still blared from the speaker. Couldn't he just stop for a second?!
Now that I've caught this Autobot, I'm going to gather some information from him. I asked, "Smokescreen, when did you come to Earth? I don't have your information."
He made a ripped sound with his torn and deformed mask, but his sound generator was clearly not on the mask.
"That's top secret—well, I'll tell you. I've been in hibernation for a while, until recently when my hibernation pod arrived on Earth, and that's when I finally joined Optimus Prime's leader's bodyguard. I know nothing about the Autobots."
"So... you only recently arrived on Earth. Did you know Optimus Prime and Ratchet before?"
"No, this is the first time I've been able to fight alongside Optimus Prime. Optimus Prime is even better than I imagined! He's tall and mighty, yet approachable..."
He wanted to keep going, as if the entire universe's most beautiful words weren't enough to describe Optimus Prime. If he kept going, it would never end, and I didn't want to hear him praising his leader in an endless cycle.
"Alright, alright, that's enough. You like Optimus Prime so much, does he like you back?"
"I don't know if Optimus Prime likes me, but I know he would never abandon any Autobot! So it's okay! Besides, I'm getting along pretty well with Bumblebee and the others. I believe I'll integrate into the Optimus Prime's guard!"
"Oh. You two get along quite well. Humph."
"Eh?! Are you jealous of me, Apostle? Doesn't anyone care about you?"
Hmph... if I keep hmphing, I'll start to hate myself for it, but I can't think of any other reaction. So I silently turned my back, not wanting to talk to him.
"Don't hold a grudge. Aren't you an apostle? Even the Cosmic Emperor doesn't care about you?"
I feel like an apostle abandoned by the whole world, someone no one would like.
"..." I continued to respond to him with silence.
He must have run out of things to say; the speaker was switched off as soon as it was turned on. A soft blue glimpse from the optical lens shone into the color receiver, and the worry contained within made me very uncomfortable. No Decepticon had ever looked at me like that before.
After a long while, he tentatively placed his hand on my shoulder blade, and I heard him say:
"I know a principle: if no one likes you, you should just like yourself. Think about what you like to do?"
I like... I like Unicron.
I told him, "I enjoy watching the mission that Unicron gave me be completed step by step."
Yes, that's it. I am an apostle of Unicron, and I only care about my mission. How they see me is none of my business.
I made up my mind, brushed the hand off my shoulder armor, and stood up. Even though he was an Autobot and had ruined my plans time and time again, he was still pretty good.
"Thank you, Smokescreen! I'm off to oversee the reconstruction of the Space Bridge!"
He immediately stood up with me, grabbed my waist armor to prevent me from leaving, and his back wings swayed with his movements.
He wailed, "Eh? That's not what I meant. I meant, do you have anything else you want to do?"
No!
I grinned and pried his arms off me. But as soon as I let go, he climbed back on.
Repeating this action once is fun, but repeating it several times can become a bit annoying.
I pushed him away again, and in the brief moment before he got any closer, I transformed into my airplane form. Before I even started accelerating, he lunged forward and clung to the fuselage, refusing to let go.
"Get down!"
"I'm not coming down!"
"Are you coming down or not?!"
"I'm not coming down!"
I tried to scare him, "Then you'll come with me to the Space Bridge. There are tons of Decepticons there, they'll definitely tear your armor apart."
Instead, he lay down on the machine and adjusted himself into a comfortable standing position.
"Then please, Your Excellency, take me flying!"
I shook the fuselage, trying to shake him off.
He had one foot on the tail and one foot on the nose of the plane, yet he managed not to lose his balance and remained firmly on me.
He even boasted, "Luckily, I used to ride a flyboard. Hehe."
Does he think of me as his toy? This guy.
I suddenly tilted the fuselage and lifted it into the sky.
The strong airflow didn't knock him down; instead, he kept shouting, "Is this what flying feels like?! It's so exhilarating!"
If he still doesn't give up after we've climbed tens of thousands of meters into the air, I'm unlikely to let him leave.
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