《▪︎Bad Girl▪︎》(War for Cybertron: Siege)

Part 2

Draft 2

Cortex's POV

"I am telling you, Cortex, this is an outrage!" Sentinel pounded his fist furiously on the large table that separated us. "I was a Senator, and although I appreciate the sanctuary you have provided me, I deserve to be treated as such!"
I folded my servos under my chin and gave him an unimpressed, cold glare, atruggling to keep my temper under control. "Sentinel, we have been over this several times before. We do not do classes here. There is no rank of upper and lower bots. And I already have my advisors and all I would need to rule this city. If seeing a former miner having enough energon to live on happily offends you, I'd be more than happy to escort you back to the surface."
As expected, his face-plates paled and he shut his insufferable intake for a moment.
I took the opportunity to rise from my seat and leaned on the table with both servos, attempting to soften my voice to calm him down."I understand this is not what you're used to-"
Sentinel flew up like someone had set a firecracker on his seat and slammed both his servos on the table, fury blazing in his optics. "Damn right it's not what I'm used to! Being spoken to and treated like a commoner!? It's an outrage of the highest sort! Do you know how long it took me to claw my way up to this position?" He barked furiously at me. "Only to have it stripped away by a mere, lower-class femme who took it overnight."
"Do you have a problem with being ruled by a femme?" I raised an optic ridge, trying my best to keep my cool with this insufferable bastard. I couldn't help but feel he was simply asking for my fist to connect to his face. "I do appreciate any suggestions of improvements I could make to my people to give them a more comfortable life."
"You're too harsh!" Sentinel huffed like a spoilt child. "Just last week you imprisoned a mech for flirting with a femme he was attracted to. You let your personal feelings and interests cloud your judgement, and now an innocent is in chains!"
Anger boiled in my veins and I clenched my servos into tight fists on the table's smooth surface. My patience was being worn thinner and thinner by the moment.
"That mech was imprisoned for assaulting a femme far younger than himself!" I growled lowly. "Something your High Council greatly overlooked in your so-called Golden Age."
I shook my helm and let out an emotionless chuckle. "I will never let my people suffer the way we did on the streets and mines like you did. I will not blame the victims of assault for something they couldn't stop. My people will know they are safe, and I will continue to encourage them to stand up for themselves."
"You are encouraging them to inflict harm on innocents!" Sentinel argued. He seemed hell bent on engaging me today. "Bots are scared to court now because they can be arrested for any little thing that upsets their partner. That's no happy life."
"Then perhaps..." I forced my dentas to unclench. "They should learn to be more decent Cybertronians to their partner, and learn to love instead of abuse."
Sentinel opened his intake to speak again, but I held up my servo to silence him. "If I must hear your ridiculous complaints again, Sentinel, I will have you either imprisoned or exiled. I gave you shelter from this War you and your High Council did nothing to stop. You may go in peace."
Sentinel grumbled under his breath as he grabbed his papers and he stormed out the hall with a great huff, slamming the doors behind him.
I exhaled heavily, a small puff of flame escaping my nostrils as I slumped back in my chair. "I swear to Primus, he has got to be the most infuriating little scrap I've ever had to deal with."
"But you dealt with him rather calmly," Banshee came to my side from the shadows, her very presence soothing me. "And you didn't even need me to de-escalate the situation this time."
I snorted and tugged on her arm gently. Understanding, she slid onto my lap and moved some hair out my face-plates lightly with her digits. "I still want to rip his circuits out."
"Who doesn't?" Banshee smirked. "But you handled the situation very well, and if he comes to bother you again we can deal with him accordingly."
I sighed in frustration and leaned my cheek on my fist. "Upper class bastards like him simply cannot see a world where they and the bots they stomped on and abused live together as one. He wants a life where he can ignore all the bad and cruelty and go back to ordering bots around and sip on his energon."
"It can't be helped, love," Banshee shook her helm. "It's been engraved in his coding by now. Some bots just can't accept change. Others, are happy for it. And if seven out of eight bots are happy, then it doesn't matter, does it?"
"No," I mumbled tiredly and rubbed my helm. "Anyway, how are the preparations with Zi coming along?"
"She says the cloaking devices are almost complete," she replied happily. "We should be ready to infiltrate the gladiatorial pits within the next couple of days."
I nodded, a tightness growing in my chest. It couldn't be avoided any longer. "Megatron will be ruthless if he discovers us within his base. As much as I'd love to crack his skull open, getting Zi to the control room is a priority."
"Well there's a small chance you may get to beat on him a little," Banshee shrugged, smiling. "I am glad you're taking my approach on things finally."
I rolled my optics, but a smile still crept across my dermas. "Yes well...there's a reason you're my advisor, darling. Although, I still think we could overpower them all by bashing in the front door."
"We'd lose too many in a direct assault," she cupped my cheek in her servo. "You know this too."
I nodded quietly, holding her wrist and pressing her servo more against my skin. "I know..."
"This is how the Liberators will win the War, my love," Banshee whispered softly to me, looking intently into my optics. Her golden orb seemed to relax me, and in that moment I felt I would agree with anything she asked me too.
"You're not using your powers on me are you?" I teased her a little, pinching her chin.
Her cheeks turned a lovely shade of pink and she smiled shyly. "No...I would never-"
"I know you wouldn't," I pressed my fore-helm to hers. "But you're so cute when you're flustered~."
She huffed, but didn't pull her helm away. "Anyone could walk in..."
"Eh, let them see," I smirked, bumping my nose on hers as our dermas inched closer together. "Some bots need to see to believe I'm yours."
I felt her heaters really kick in at that and she pulled away to hide her face-plates in her servos, letting out a muffled squeak.
I smiled softly and held her waist. Banshee was my most trusted advisor, but first and foremost she was my sweetspark. My lover. The femme I wanted to be my Sparkmate for life. She could be tough and strong for others, but when it was just us, only I ever got to see this sweet, easily flustered side of her. It made her all the more endearing to me, and I would protect her with my very life.
I let her relax a bit, gently rubbing her sides to help her calm down. "You're alright?"
She sighed and nodded, dropping her servos from her blushing face-plates. "Y-yeah...you just caught me off-guard is all."
I nodded, chuckling. "Shall we go check on Zi now, or do you want to stay like this a little longer?"
Banshee paused a moment, considering the options I'd placed before her, before leaning her helm on my chest-plate with a happy sigh. "Let's stay like this for a moment longer...please."
I nodded and stroked her back-plates, letting her listen to my spark beat and relaxing for a moment.

***************************************
Zi lifted her helm when we entered the laboratory and nodded to us. "Finally made it?"
She was a rather petite femme, barely coming to my hip at her full height, when she wasn't hunched over a data pad. She had very long, black hair she kept tied in a braid to keep it out the way, and always had her purple and gold armor well-polished. She was probably the only bot from upper-class I didn't despise with my life.
"We got a bit sidetracked," I smiled, gently rubbing Banshee's lower back. She glanced up at me and blushed slightly with a little smile.
"Yes yes that's adorable," Zi gestured for me to come over to what looked like a pile of scrap on her table. "Come look at this, Tex."
I cautiously approached, unsure of what I was looking at. "Is this the cloaking tech?"
"No, dumbaft," she scoffed, as if it were obvious what she'd just made. "This is the device I'm working on to hack the consoles at the Pits."
"Ah...doesn't look very portable..." I speculated, rubbing my chin. It looked like such a mess of cords and bits of metal and a motherboard.
"Well it will be once I'm finished," Zi twisted a strand of her bangs in her digits, something she did when she was thinking rather hard. "It'll be about the size of a regular USB. Easy to sneak in and easier to hide once it's plugged in to the console."
I nodded,"And this is what we'll use to hack into the cameras right?"
Zi nodded back in response. "Aye, it is. And we can download Decepticon scouting schedules, battle tactics, and weapons power at the same time, to give us the upper servo on them."
I grinned and slapped her on the back-plates, nearly toppling the petite femme over. "Great work, Zi! After this mission, taking down the cons will be an easy feat."
"As easy as it will be taking out over a thousand Decepticons," I heard Banshee mutter behind me.
I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose,"Yes yes...I'm still working on the recruits. But I still feel between the three of us, we would be able to pull it off."
Zi turned to look up at me,"Cortex, I'm flattered you hold us and our skills in such high regard, but we are still Cybertronian, and we can still be overcome by impossible odds."
Banshee set her servo on my arm,"She's right, Tex. We need to keep recruiting and keep getting as much information on our enemies as we can before we make a drastic move."
I grumbled under my breath, but of course they were both right. We couldn't do a head-on charge on both factions with just the three of us and hope to win. It wouldn't be enough just to cut the helms of the leaders off to subdue their followers. Especially the Autobots.
"We've got this under control, trust us," Banshee pleaded with me softly, giving my arm a squeeze. "We'll free Cybertron yet."
I sighed heavily and nodded. "I do trust you both. I'd trust you with my very life."
"And us with ours," Zi cracked a rare smile and awkwardly patted my servo. "Besides, my inside informant is already proving quite useful. He can get us inside unseen."
"Oh you mean your sweetspark Jetfire?" I purred teasingly.
Zi's face-plates turned several shades of pink and I swear I saw steam escape her audios. "NO!! He's not my sweetspark! Informant!"
"Mhm," I chuckled and patted her back-plates again. "Well good luck, Zi. I'll come check up with you tomorrow morning."
Zi grunted and swatted my arm,"Yes yes, git now!"
I smiled and took Banshee's servo, leading her out the lab. It wouldn't be long now before I could finally get the vengeance I wanted, and free Cybertron in the process.