Oneshot: The Spire

[silberstreif]

Beta: none
Continuity: G1
Rating: PG
Characters: human, Skywarp, Thundercracker, Starscream
Note: Written for the tf_speedwriting weekly challenge, prompt 2: Masterlist - Setting: Collapsed building.

Summary: There is a collapsed building in the middle of the city and justice demands that someone has to be blamed. After all, aliens are just myths.

Setting: A collapsed building

The Spire

Harold looked up from the coffee he had been nursing to the black, sleek TV on the wall of the tiny café. Around him the other conversations were slowly falling quiet as well. There was some kind of press statement going on and a sense of foreboding hit him. Usually, he didn’t concern himself with news much, but in the corner was a tiny picture of a ruin that seemed familiar.

“It has collapsed,” the man in a black suit said, matter of fact. “Because it was during the night, nearly no one was in the offices. But we’re still missing 28 people.”

The screen changed and showed the smouldering ruins of a building being hosed down by the firemen to catch all the dust. Parts of it were still standing, reaching like glittering shards into the sky. But the whole middle and left side had broken down into one giant heap of rubble.

Harold, who had worked in construction for no less than twenty-fire years, recognised with a jolt the remains of the Spire. The Spire had been in the middle of the city. Theirs wasn’t a big city, and as the only one of those super-modern buildings made of glass and steel and nearly approaching skyscraper-highs, it had been looked upon with pride by the people. Not anymore.

“As you can see some parts are still standing. Experts expect their collapse in the next several hours, which is why the whole area is being evacuated. Please to not resist the governmental officers. They’re here to help you.”

He could still remember when they built the Spire, less than eight years ago. The architect had been a bit arrogant, strutting around and telling everyone of his vision of modern buildings, how they should be more than functional, more than nice. ‘The Spire will not only be a symbol of the strife of the city, but will change how you see every building around it as well!’ he had always preached. When the Spire was completed, Harold had reluctantly agreed. It had certainly be more than just a tower.

“But why?” asked one shocked woman on the street. “Buildings don’t just collapse!”

The black suit looked down at his notes, then answered: “We can only speculate at this point. But we think it was bad concrete.”

He flinched. It was his company that had provided the concrete. And the concrete had been the best quality, Harold was sure. So how could they say it was the concrete? They had rows of tests done and every result showed that it could not have been the concrete!

Again they showed the Spire. This time Harold looked at it with a professional’s eye and not as a shocked citizen. It was a strange ruin, really. If an earthquake happened the materials would’ve worn down on the weakest points. If the concrete or steel had been of bad quality, the same hold true. But this… the damage was asymmetrical to the buildings structure. Of course, he was no architect or statistician, but this looked more like a force had hit the Spire and destroyed it.

But there was no evidence of a force. A bomb or rocket would’ve left a crater, and surely they would’ve starting hunting the terrorists. So what?

Harold didn’t know. Beyond of course that is concrete was not the reason. But still the black suit was blaming the concrete, blaming his company, blaming Harold.

There was now a crying man on the screen, praying for his daughter’s life. The mayor came and demanded justice. And again and again the black suit – what was his name anyway? – repeated his line about the concrete.

28 dead.

God.

Harold fished his mobile phone out and called his brother. “John? Yeah, have you heard about the Spire? … Yes, I think I need a lawyer.” He glanced at the screen. “A good one.”

~

The night before:

“Screamer, slow down!” laughed Skywarp as they raced through the black sky. “Or I’ll teleport on top of you!”

“You wouldn’t dare,” snapped Starscream over the commlines and even accelerated. He wasn’t he fastest Seeker ever for nothing and he loved to show off. Soon he was barely more than a red point at the horizon, that never came nearer and never vanished. He was teasing them.

Thundercracker who was neither that fast nor a teleporter tried to follow the other two F-16 at a more leisurely pace. “He would, Starscream and you know it. Can’t the both of you wait?” Sometimes he regretted having chosen power over speed.

“Waiting is for grounders!” With a whoosh of purple Skywarp teleported and appeared far ahead - on top of Starscream.

The Air commander screeched in surprise and dived down in pure reflex. Above him Skywarp was cackling, and never one to hold back, he gave Starscream a good smack with the wing as well.

“Skywarp!” Starscream screamed enraged as he lost control over his own descent. “You rust infested-!”

Thundercracker from behind them, suddenly realised that they were above a city. And that Starscream was falling directly into a large, glass building. “Starscream look out!”

It was too late and with a not so elegant turn Starscream crashed into the building. Glass flew down in a glittering rain and with a grimace the Decepticon Seeker was now standing in his robot mode in the middle of the building. “I scratched my paintjob!”

If scratches were the worst of this crash, then Starscream had controlled much more of his fall then he had let on, Thundercracker knew. But of course, that wasn’t that unusual. Skywarp was the prankster, but Starscream was the drama queen and he loved being the centre of attention as much as he loved taking revenge. It was the reason, why despite their differences both his wingmates actually worked together well. Just sometimes Thundercracker wondered where he fit in – on other orns he knew: He was the audience, who loved to be amused by their antics. And Primus, it was true. Even now he was smiling.

“Aw, poor Screamer.” Skywarp teleported nearer, now also in root mode, looking for a moment contrite – before his face became mischievous. “If you catch me, I’ll might even paint you anew tonight.”

That elicited a growl out of the downed Seeker. “Catch you?” Starscream started slowly to rise, a dark look on his face, wings high on the back. “I will bind and shackle you!”

“As if you could,” said Skywarp with a wink and teleported once again. Starscream wasted not another astrosecond, transformed back into altmode and raced after him.

Only Thundercracker remained behind for a moment and hovering over the destroyed human. Fragile, squishy organic humans.

“TC, are you coming?” asked Skywarp over the commlines.

“Coming,” he answered. The building had probably been empty anyway, and he still didn’t detect a movement. As Starscream probably would’ve said, he was overthinking this. Without a last look back, he rose into the sky and contacted his wingleader: “Starscream, do you want to team up?”

“Mh, are you suggesting what I think you do?”

“I guess. After all, I like Skywarp shackled as much as the next mech.”

“Hey, you two, not fair!” complained Skywarp.

“Then fly faster,” was Starscreams amused answer.

And off they were all three into the sky.

Comments

[skylar-matthews.livejournal.com]

Aww... I feel bad for the humans and that company now. All because some Seekers decided to roughhouse in the sky...

And I would stay to chat but I'm literally heading out the door to work now.

[silberstreif.livejournal.com]

That was fast, thanks. ^^

Yeah, I wanted to show the contrast. For the Seekers it was barely more than a stumble in a night of fun. For the humans, well, it's horrible.

[skylar-matthews.livejournal.com]

Happy coincidence. I refreshed just before work and decided to breeze through it because it's yours and you're pretty awesome.

Speaking of your projects involving random humans; how goes the one you sent me a while back? I haven't seen any more of that go up yet.

[silberstreif.livejournal.com]

Thanks.*blush*

With the coffee? I wrote part 2 twice, because I wasn't happy with the first version. The second is okay, I can send it to you?

Besides that, I just have no time at the moment *sigh. It will get better...

[skylar-matthews.livejournal.com]

Possibly? I don't recall that but sure, let's go with it. And when are we ever happy with our own writing? It's like a law or something to never like the words you create, some of us just learn to accept others do like them though.

Oh so not fun but yes, hopefully. I might be getting a new job soon with a more consistent schedule so maybe well even find a time for me(/us?) to hang out with you two in that one program you mentioned a few times.

[rose0mary.livejournal.com]

Nice!

I feel sorry for Harold - he did nothing wrong, just help build a building playful Seekers accidentally destroyed.

Starscream would withstand impacting a skyscraper with nary a scratch to show for it.
Love the banter between Thundercracker, Skywarp, and Starscream.

[silberstreif.livejournal.com]

Thanks. :)

Yeah, poor Harold, he just... had bad luck.

^^ Those three are fun to write.