It was the truth. Tarn had come planetside expecting Fulcrum to be slacking on his work, expecting the reason of the cyberforming delay to be his fault. However, that hadn’t been the case. In fact, that couldn’t have been further from the truth. The reason of the delay had been something completely foreign to Fulcrum’s abilities. And the rest of the planet had been in top condition -Tarn had seen with his own optics-.
So yes, Fulcrum’s performance had been flawless. Attracting all of Kaon’s disapproval to himself was the least Tarn could do for him as an apology. Also, a check up, in case those beasts had left anything harmful on them.
The short walk inside the metaphorical lion’s den went surprisingly uneventful, with most of the DJD members busy in their own tasks. Kaon left Tarn and Fulcrum in the medbay, where Nickel tended to them. The tank was the first one to be attended, as he had been the one to sustain the worst damage.
Repairs done, Tarn walked out of the medbay and decided to take a seat on one of the couches of the lounge area in front of the medbay while Nickel finished with the K-class mech, nursing a cube of medical grade energon as he got comfortable.
He did. That son of a glitch. Okay, maybe that was a little harsh, but what was he thinking? Fulcrum could have grabbed him by the canons and dragged him back into the medbay if he wasn’t a tank, leader of the DJD, and, well, likely to tear his arm straight off if he tried.
The walk through the ship was bad enough, not that Tarn even noticed. Oh, that mech was right at home, walking around like he owned the place. He probably did. Meanwhile Fulcrum was walking around like the place was rigged to explode and anything could set it off. Don’t walk too close to Kaon. Don’t lag too far behind. Don’t look up. Definitely don’t make eye contact. And, for the love of Primus, don’t act like you hate them all. Fulcrum was practically walking on Tarn’s heels, hoping to just disappear into his shadow.
It didn’t work. Well, not completely anyway. What mech gets a chance to walk around the Peaceful Tyranny and (hopefully) live? Fulcrum couldn’t help it. He had to peak into every room they passed. He may have even seen Helex! He thinks. Well, it was blue.
But no, as if the stress from that wasn’t enough to stop his spark, then he had to be alone in the same room as one of them. At least that one was small.
When it was over, Fulcrum tiptoed out of the medbay, stiff and tense, but definitely still alive. Nickel forced him to take an energon cube on his way, and his fingers gripped it like a vice. Now he officially survived a private meeting with two DJD members. This was beginning to happen way too often. And there was the mech who abandoned him. Oh, he just looked so comfortable, sipping that cube, lounging on his couch. Fulcrum had a thing or two to tell him.
“Tarn. Thank Primus you’re still here.”
Fulcrum slumped, collapsing into one of the seats on the couch and ditching the cube on the floor. He held his face in his servos and shook his head. Yeah, that about summed it up. When he was done, he peaked through his fingers, making sure Nickel wasn’t still around. “I can’t believe that happened.
“This place is just--” he threw out a servo dramatically. “It’s the Peaceful Tyranny. Just please tell me that’s never gonna happen again.”
