Sex, Lies and the Autobot Leader

(or The Crush)

by Phantom


Chapter 4


Crystal awoke from pleasant dreams to find herself snuggled against the large, warm form of the mech that she loved. She sighed happily, wriggling closer. The object of her affections murmured something and shifted slightly. Unable to resist, Crystal traced the planes of his face with a fingertip. Primus, he looked so young and defenseless without his mask! Her finger playfully traced his lips, enjoying the warm metallic texture that had brought her so much pleasure the night before. As if in response to her actions, Optimus stirred slightly.

She smiled craftily and covered his lips with hers, applying pressure until the mech's optics flickered to life. “Good morning,” she purred holding her new treasure close.

“This *is* shaping up to be a good morning,” Optimus said teasingly, grinning at the femme.

Crystal flickered an optic sensor at him, the equivalent of a wink. “Stick with me and every day will be a good day,” she said playfully.

Prime's chuckle was cut short by a gasp as he consulted his internal chronometer. “By the Matrix, I'm late!” he exclaimed.

“Oh, so am I!” Crystal said, somehow not sounding remorseful at all. The two bots ran around in a blur of motion. Optimus paused to give his new ladylove a brief kiss before attaching his faceplate.

The two darted out the door, forgetting all about discretion in their haste to get to their posts on time. Suddenly, something made Optimus stop in his tracks and turn, bumping into another figure. The angry pink femme glared at him. She opened her mouth to tell him off.

Optimus said cheerfully, “See you later, babe!”

Alita's mouth worked angrily. Babe?!! Optimus had never used that word before around her. How dare he call her that! The angry words died in her throat, however, as she realized he was looking down the hall at someone else. He didn't even notice her!

“Not if I see you first!” a trilling voice answered, sounding giddy with happiness.

Optimus waved and walked on, realizing that his slight tardiness was dipping into the zone of severe lateness. Though he could afford to relax his schedule a bit more, the Autobot army did not run itself. He quickened his pace, his mind running through his 'things to do' list of the day, though it occasionally flashed back to last night's pleasure.

Alita was left gaping in the middle of the hallway. Her processor struggled to make sense of the scene that had just played itself out before her. It was worse than being snubbed -- it was like she didn't exist for him anymore! She had relished his mournful expression, the way he bravely tried to drag himself through another day without her while she worked her way through the Autobot army, dating a different mech every night. She figured that some femme would snatch him up sooner or later -- after all, he had been elected “Most Eligible Mech” in their secret election -- but this was intolerable! Her former life mate was dating her worst enemy! Of all the femmes for him to take up with!

A small, strangled noise of rage finally escaped her vocal unit as her hands clenched into fists. Leave it to Crystal to twist and pervert even the most righteous of males! With her, Optimus had been gallant and almost too respectful at first, and even when he had finally loosened up, he kept their relationship behind closed doors. They rarely even held hands in public, wanting the troops to accept them as co-commanders and not as a romantic item. Still, word leaked out, as it does in such tight circles, and their relationship had been an open secret, never acknowledged but widely known and accepted. Optimus and Alita became off-limits for anyone seeking a long-term relationship.

Alita didn't even mind the fact that he was having a spontaneous fling. Sure, it surprised her, since her former lover wasn't known for spontaneous action, but it had happened more than once in the past. He had always returned to her, more faithful than ever. Each pardoned the other's indiscretions and chalked it up to loneliness or the need for a change of pace. But -- ugh! This time Alita had to question the Autobot leader's sanity. Her face twisted into a grimace, causing a few passerby to shrink away, lest she vent her anger upon them. Crystal was very popular among the males, running through the ranks faster than she used up a bottle of polish. Only Crystal could brag of such an immense track record. She had gone out with three-fourths of the Autobot ranks, and the other fourth was either too young, gay, physically unable, or had too-high standards to accommodate her. And then there was the Decepticon army.... Alita's CPU quickly killed that train of thought. Best not to get into that. She couldn't blame Crystal for doing her job.

Finding her mobility again, Alita whirled on her heel and stomped loudly back to her temporary quarters. The hall's occupants quickly pressed themselves up against the walls in order to avoid her wrath. Alita rarely got angry, but when she did, she was meaner than a cyber-pit-bull. The fuming femme muttered as she stomped, plans of revenge rapidly forming and dissolving in her mind. One thing was sure -- she'd get that femme if it was the last thing she did!


Chapter 5

Heads turned to follow Crystal as she traipsed happily down the hall, humming loudly. That in itself was enough to feed the gossip mill, which was already churning out wild rumors about the events of the previous night. Every optic seemed glued to the femme, who, oddly enough, was oblivious of the unusual attention paid to her. Only one mech's gaze mattered to her now.

“Hi, guys!” she chirped as she bounced into the femmes' private rec room. Heads swiveled at the unusual chipper note in the femme's voice. Truth be told, Crystal usually skulked around, going about her business and generally keeping to herself. She was the fly in the ointment, the friction point within the normally tight unit of the femme fatales. Some of the femmes were disgusted with Crystal, others tolerated her for the sake of the group, and a select few were friends with her. Even her friends, however, were sometimes perplexed by her behavior.

“Hello, Crystal,” Chromia said, sounding a bit guarded. “You sound awfully happy today. Did you have a nice time last night?”

“You could say that,” the femme purred, half of her wanting to savor her secret, the other half wanting to scream it out from the highest rooftop.

“Don't keep us in suspense,” Moonracer chided, pulling out a chair for her friend. Moonracer and Crystal often got into mischief together, causing the elder femmes to shake their heads wearily.

Crystal allowed a sly smile to cross her face. “Well, I met someone last night. A guy....” This announcement was greeted with a chorus of groans. “Hey, come on! This time was different.”

“How so?” Sunrunner sneered. “They all seem to end alike.”

Crystal was in too good of a mood to let such biting sarcasm to get her down. “This mech actually means something to me.”

“Ooohoohooh! Did it really happen with Optimus?” Moonracer squealed, bouncing in her seat. “We all know how he's suddenly become available.”

“Actually, yes,” Crystal said, trying to sound casual, but a tremor of excitement betrayed her.

“OhMYGOOOOOOOOOD!” Moonracer screamed and hugged her friend. Crystal finally allowed her excitement to show, and the two jumped up and down, yelling excitedly.

Sunrunner scowled and opened her mouth, but Chromia shook her head. “Let them have their fun,” she said quietly. “Don't spoil this for Crystal.”

When the two calmed down enough to be coherent, Chromia gestured for them to sit down. “So tell us about it,” she said, trying not to let on how shocked she was. She had been friends with Optimus for an awfully long time. How this had happened was beyond her understanding, but she could see how pleased Crystal was about it and vowed not to spoil the poor femme's happiness.

Crystal sat down with a blissful smile, eager to tell her tale. She began, “Well, I went to Club Cyber like I usually do....” Despite themselves, all of the femmes found themselves leaning in to soak up every detail. Arcee and Phoenix (who had just returned that morning) looked up from their holomagazines and pulled their chairs over to the ever-growing throng.

“And we chatted for awhile at the table, and....”

“Come on, get to the good part!” Phoenix said impatiently. “Did you go out with the guy or not?”

“Did I ever!” Crystal beamed. “And it was even more fun than I imagined it would be.” Her eyes glazed over at the memory, a smile tingeing her faceplate.

She was immediately bombarded with questions, such as “Did you dance together?” “What did you do?” “Will you see him again?”

Crystal waved them all away with a laugh. “Give me a chance, and I'll tell you all about it.

Chromia was torn between turning away and drinking in the details. Much as this voyeuristic peek into the Autobot leader's private life sickened her, she had to admit, a part of her was quite curious as to what the upright commander got up to in his spare time.

“Well, I think it's disgusting,” Sunrunner growled, but her voice of dissention was lot amidst the excited din of gossiping females.

Crystal was in the midst of a lengthy description of the previous night's fun, when an unnatural hush fell over the group. Oblivious to the expectant horror written on the faces of her comrades, Crystal chattered on, caught up in the moment.

“Well, isn't this a cozy scene,” a feminine voice said, in a tone cold enough to solidify antifreeze. That finally got through to the love-struck femme.

Whirling, Crystal's gaze locked with the flinty-eyed expression of the Femme commander. “Slag, just what I needed to spoil my good mood,” she muttered at a sub-audial tone, which was received by its target nonetheless.

“What was that, soldier?” Alita asked, her voice taking on a dangerous edge.

“Absolutely noting that you should concern yourself with, Miz Femme Commander,” Crystal replied with more than a touch of sarcasm.

“Ladies, please, let's at least pretend to be civilized,” Chromia said nervously, not wanting the situation to deteriorate any further. Normally the two femmes rubbed each other the wrong way, somehow managing to irritate each other just by being in the same room, so the deliberate provocation was bound to open a whole can of worms.

Alita clapped her hands together, businesslike. “Okay, ladies, time for your assignments. Chromia, you'll supervise the continuing integration of our faction with the general army. Moonracer, you'll work on upgrading our old weaponry to current standards. And Crystal,” her voice took on a smug note, “your assignment is to clean out the femme waste extraction facilities.”

The femme commander relished the shocked look of disgust that came over her adversary's features. “Ugh! No way! I did that last week! It's Sunrunner's turn!”

“Afraid not,” Alita replied coldly. “I need her to monitor radio signals coming from the Decepticons' last known position, just to make sure they're not yet at full strength.”

“But I'M the intelligence specialist!” Crystal argued. “That should be my job!”

“But Sunrunner needs to learn more skills,” Alita said calmly, allowing a small, triumphant smile to tinge her faceplate.

'Slag you!' Crystal thought viciously, just barely biting the words back from her vocal unit. That would only make things worse. “As you command, Alita,” the femme said mockingly, saluting sloppily and turning on her heel to go.

“A word, please,” Chromia said firmly, taking her commander's arm and steering her into the tiny sleeping nook reserved for any femme that needed a place to crash. Chromia wasn't about to directly challenge her leader in front of the troops, but once they were alone, she let fly. “Alita, what is wrong with you? This has nothing to do with duty; this is sheer vindictiveness! I have to confess that Crystal isn't one of my favorite people, but she doesn't deserve this! And you can't use her position to get back at her. Do you really despise her that much?”

“Yes!” the femme commander spat. “I am sick of that girl tearing her way through the male faction of this army! She's nothing but lowlife scum, and I am going to see that she realizes just how low she really is!”

Chromia arched an optic ridge. “Seems that you're not as over Optimus as you'd like to think.”

Alita fixed her friend with a piercing gaze. “Leave him out of this! It's over, and that's it.”

Chromia shook her head ruefully. “It seems that your head has accepted that, but your heart hasn't. You wouldn't be so cruel to Crystal if you had.”

Alita glared at the mention of that name. “Oh, believe me, that's just the icing on the cake! That femme has had this coming for millions of years! Now that we're not so dependent on her, we don't have to tolerate this kind of behavior. I'm sure that she still has some marginal value, so if we can manage to discipline her, perhaps we can get some use out of her yet.”

“Listen to yourself!” Chromia cried. “Alita, this is wrong! You're letting jealousy blind you! Nobody, not even Crystal, deserves this kind of treatment.”

“My mind is made up,” the pink femme said coldly. “My decision stands. Good day, Chromia.” With that she exited, leaving the elder femme shaking her head sadly. What had become of her best friend?


Chapter 6

“Slag it all,” Crystal grumbled under her vocal modulator as she lugged out the proper cleansing supplies. She couldn't believe how a day that had started out so wonderfully could go rotten so fast. And to top it all off, she had just had cleaning duty last week! Of course, she didn't buy Alita's flimsy excuses for a moment. She saw right through her commander's efforts to jerk her around. There had never been any real liking between the two femmes, but Crystal had done her best to keep to herself. Now her relationship with the Autobot leader had raised Alita's ire, but that didn't mean that Crystal had to stand around and take it. She'd play along for now, since Alita was just mad enough to slap her with insubordination if she disobeyed, but she'd find a way to get out of her sphere of influence very soon. Then, very soon indeed, she could get going with a little revenge plan of her own. Still, many said that living well was its own revenge, and she herself had Optimus, didn't she? She'd see to it that that pink nightmare never got her boy-toy back!

Crystal jerked the cleansing unit back and forth, venting her frustration. The silicon tendrils of the unit spun around in circles, capturing whatever dirt and particulate lay on the floor. This was the easiest, part, though. Crystal was *not* looking forward to cleaning the individual waste extraction units. That was where the job got messy.

Crystal studied the mop-like device in her hands as the motor spun the cleaning tendrils around. Its handle hummed busily, and the femme allowed her mind to wander back to the morning's pleasant activities. “I wonder if Optimus is free tonight,” she mused.

Her thoughts were jolted back to reality as the mop jerked in her hand, threatening to spin right out of her hand and splash cleansing fluid everywhere. Crystal hastily grasped it in both hands, getting the mechanism under control. She glanced down at the blue cylindrical handle in her hands, noticing a few dials and switches on the side. “Wait a second,” she murmured. “This is an automatic mop!” She cackled aloud. This wouldn't be so bad after all! She hummed to herself as she programmed the mop, then leaned back against the wall, her mind wandering back to the previous night. Alita could assign her to the waste extraction unit for the entire week, for all she cared. She still had Optimus, didn't she?

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