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Orion had been several blocks away on his own patrol when he’d gotten the call on the radio that an arrest had been made down at the downtown energon warehouse. He was about to confirm that he’d received the notification and was ready to go about the rest of his night but the sound of a voice on the other end of the communication line made him stop short with a frustrated grunt.
“Hey, careful with those! Not so tight, do you really have to twist them that—much!”
If Orion hadn’t been in alt mode he would have scowled. Instead, he pulled into the next alley and accelerated, speeding off towards the warehouse. He felt obligated to check in whenever Starscream was caught doing something stupid, feeling guilty that he likely encouraged the mech by paying him any mind.
The warehouse was a tempting target, though it was more obvious a mark than Starscream usually went for. Orion hoped he hadn’t goaded the officers into arresting him on purpose – again.
He pulled up to the site and changed to root mode, two of the officers standing about startling and going rigid in surprise, hastily saluting the captain. “At ease,” he grumbled, waving a hand to get them to relax. “I heard that it was Starscream being taken in,” he said, looking around but not seeing any sign of an arrest in progress, and the seeker’s distinctive voice was missing from the scene.
“Yes it was, sir,” one of the cadets replied, nodding. “Springarm and Wheelarch were the closest officers nearby when the call for a break-in was received and they managed to apprehend him,” he said, gesturing to the broken-in window far above them – a flier’s work, undoubtedly. “They’re already heading to the precinct, sir.”
Orion nodded and walked towards the warehouse building, frowning beneath his mask. He nudged the still-ajar door open, waving again to not spook the officer that was speaking to the warehouse foreman within. The bitter smell of processing energon stung his sensors, the pinkish glow of finished fuel pulsing from the crates upon crates that held cubes of engex of varying grades.
A much too tempting target, he thought. It was as though the energon dispensaries wanted to give the police more work to do, setting up such irresistible traps for thieves.
Which was why Starscream’s being caught here was still not adding up; he was usually much smarter than that.
Another officer was taking stock of what had been damaged in the break-in, pursuit, and eventual arrest. Several crates lay busted on the ground, energon pooling in thick rivulets in the grooves of the floor. He saluted when Orion approached, immediately holding out the datapad he had been recording on.
“Did they manage to get away with anything?” Orion asked, perusing the losses. Starscream had those two accomplices and he hadn’t heard them in the commotion over the radio. It was possible they had gotten away.
“He was here alone, sir,” the cadet replied. “He didn’t make off with anything, but it didn’t look like he was interested in the energon at all. This lot was lost in the scuffle,” he explained, an unhidden frown pulling at his expression. That meant it would be coming out of the precinct’s budget, and out of their pay. “He was apparently after those,” he said, gesturing up above the boxes.
Orion’s gaze followed to where he pointed, his optics narrowing in surprise. Tucked into shelves far above the energon supplies were brightly glowing crystalline shards, emitting a soft blue light that lit up the upper tiers of the warehouse. “What are they?” he asked, not recognizing them immediately.
“Crystal samples, from Praxus,” the cadet replied. “Not worth much and not useful on their own. Some energon dispensaries are experimenting with distilling and mixing them into fuel to see if it affects the flavor,” he said, taking a step closer to the captain. “It allegedly can make cheap fuel taste richer than it is, but there’s been no real proof of that claim yet.”
Orion nodded and vented a frustrated sigh. He made note to question the foreman of the massive supply of the stuff he had stored away. “Why would Starscream go after it if it’s not worth anything?” he asked of no one in particular. Nothing about this was adding up.
“Couldn’t tell you, sir,” the cadet said with a shrug. “You know what they say about seekers, though,” he said with a short laugh.
Orion looked to him, glaring. “No, what do they say?”
The cadet blinked. “Oh, nothing. Just that they like shiny things,” he said.
“Hm.” Orion looked back towards the crystals, a hypothesis forming in his mind. “See if we can retrieve a few of the crystals, for evidence,” he said, handing the datapad back to the cadet. “Tell the foreman I’ll pay for it if it’s an issue.”
Perhaps none of this made sense because Starscream rarely made any sense, he thought with a frustrated huff.
.o.
“About time, you idiot!”
Skywarp pouted, throwing his hands up. “Whatever, Screamer. I got here eventually, didn’t I?” he said, crossing his arms against his canopy defiantly.
“You can teleport. Why did it take you hours to post bail?” Starscream demanded, jerking his hands away from the officer behind him as his cuffs were removed, rubbing at his wrist joints as though he could scrub the soreness away.
Skywarp shrugged, unbothered. “I dunno. TC said you deserved to rot a little in jail for getting caught for no reason.”
Starscream scowled but had no retort; he had cost them credits, and what did he have to show for it? Exactly nothing. “Get out, I’ll meet you outside,” he grumbled, shooing the other seeker away.
Skywarp chuckled and waved goodbye, disappearing with a smug sounding pop.
“Okay, show off,” Starscream sniffed.
There were only a few mechs in front of him in the line to retrieve his belongings. He hated waiting in line, especially when he had almost nothing to pick up. He only ever carried a form of ID and the access key to their place, which was why he was surprised when the mech dismissing him came back to the desk with a box, rather than the envelope his meager belongings were usually kept in.
“Alright, Starscream. Did you enjoy your stay with us?” the mech said, snorting.
“Your hospitality is, as always, incomparable,” Starscream replied, sarcasm his native tongue. He narrowed his optics, staring at the box. He clamped down on his confusion, not wanting the other mech to sense it.
“Good,” the mech grunted, his capacity for snark apparently exhausted. “Sign here and move along. You’ve got something odd in here so I have to make sure you received it,” he said, turning the datapad ledger over to the seeker.
Starscream signed, nodding as though he weren’t surprised. He never had to sign for his stuff; none of it was ever valuable enough. “See you soon, I’m sure,” he said blithely as he picked up the box and trotted outside, his curiosity putting a nimble bounce in his step.
Skywarp was waiting at the door, standing straight and tilting his helm when he saw that Starscream had something in hand. “Whatcha got there?” he asked, mirroring Starscream’s curiosity. “A present for being a loyal guest?”
Starscream snorted; he almost wouldn’t doubt it. He stepped aside to stand against the wall beside Skywarp, not wanting to wait a moment more to open it. He tore at the top of the box, titling his helm in confusion as he peered inside.
Beside his ID and access key was one of the Praxian crystal samples that had caused all this mess; its soft blue glow was dimmed after being contained in a dark box for so long, but it pulsed with renewed energy as soon as it was exposed to the outside air once again. His spark did a small flip as he reached in to lift it up, keeping it close between them to prevent too many others from seeing.
“Heeey, it’s one of those things you were hoping to get your hands on,” Skywarp said, always adept at stating the obvious. “I guess it is pretty,” he said, optics going wide, just as enamored by the shiny light as any seeker would be.
Starscream nodded, though his excitement at having the object was tainted with confusion. He turned it over in his hands, holding it still as he noticed a small black dot pressed against the crystal, marring the glow in that spot. He raised a hand and pressed his index digit against it, blinking as a packet of data was transmitted by the touch, a message popping up in his HUD:
Something tells me it wasn’t fuel you were looking for in that warehouse, despite what the arrest record says. –OP
Starscream stared at the message for a moment and then scowled.
Of course!
“What an idiot,” he muttered viciously.
“What?” Skywarp asked, optics bright with mischief. “What, what, who’s an idiot?”
Starscream pushed at the other seeker, forcing the now-empty box into his hands. “You are,” he groused, scowling. “Find somewhere to throw that away and come on,” he instructed, pushing past Skywarp and tucking the crystal into subspace.
He’d had an experiment in mind for the damn crystal but he couldn’t bring himself to imagine smelting it down now. It was such a pretty thing and it would look good, displayed somewhere in his hab suite.
He could always steal another, he told himself, ignoring the voice in his head that told him he was going soft, so easily won over by a silly gift, a kindness so small and subtle that only he and Orion would ever know of it.