Snake Eyes

By Snare-chan

Pairings: None
Ratings: T
Category(ies): Humor/Adventure
Warning(s): Violence
Status: One-shot, complete
Summary: Crossover between the 2007 movie and Generation 1. Sideswipe wins a bet, but the reward isn't so easily won.

Notes: Awhile ago, sosurrealrawr over on livejournal made the request of Blackout/Sideswipe for their birthday. I'm afraid the appeal came too late for me to make it to that special date, but I did promise to myself that I'd have something come Christmas. It's not quiiiiite shippy, but it does have Sideswipe and Blackout interacting! Maybe someday I'll write some real Blackout/Sideswipe. XD Until then, there's get this! The story takes place prior to the movie, so they're all still fighting on Cybertron.

Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers 2007 or Generation 1; wish I did like everybody else. They should put TF in stock, then I'd buy it all!

The city was in a complete state of havoc. For all intents and purposes, the location was beyond saving – had been for numerous decades, as soon as it was first reduced to tatters when the war between Optimus Prime and the Lord High Protector Megatron had begun.

Walls supporting buildings were hole-riddled or no longer present, long since torn down to use for more practical materials, such as guns or spare parts. Dust and scrap was all that remained to show for eons of hard work and care. Large, thorned towers had replaced all the good here.

Above, stars should have permeated the sky, but the sheer amount of artillery being unleashed didn't allow for such splendor. Chemicals clogged the atmosphere and felt super-charged by all the excess, discharged energy being produced by the weapons on the battlefield. The signs of warfare crowded upon them all from every angle and could not be escaped.

By all appearances, Sideswipe preferred it this way. He excelled in this kind of environment; it wasn't a matter of life or death to him, so no fear took hold long enough to cause him to falter like some of the other Autobots. Put simply, the exhilaration he felt toward the challenges that met him out here – here, where the odds were always against him and nothing was ever for certain – was what got him rolling in the morning.

A cannon blast grazed his side by a calculated one and a half meters, close enough for the heat and wind to be felt in its passing, and allowed him the advantage of getting in closer to his target. His speed was clocked in milliseconds as he unloaded on his assailant, offlining him in two precise hits. He didn't stop running and dodged through another barrage of incoming firepower, taking cheap shots if and when he could while he ducked under beams and leapt over fallen frames.

His destination was a spiked tower that hadn't fared very well, having broken in half with its top now embedded in the ground. When he was close enough, he slid the rest of the way, taking temporary refuge behind it to recalibrate his chosen weapon. The fight had been going on longer than expected, thus it was starting to show signs of partial overheating, smoke billowing from the tip even as he pressed his back flat against the slab of metal. It came apart in his hand, gears grinding and metal molding to absorb the weapon back into himself, those couple of seconds of defenselessness nearly costing him as he switched over to his secondary assault arrays.

Something big, fast, and noticeably pissed joined him and knelt down, snapping out an arm and resting along Sideswipe's front. The electric-based weapon gave a piercing static cry as bright light erupted from it, effectively taking out a Decepticon that had tried circling around to blow Sideswipe clean off the face of Cybertron. Whoever it was went down with a groan and the creak of metal.

His second gun now in place, Sideswipe smirked and surveyed his savior.

"Thanks, Sunstreaker."

"You're late," the newcomer groused in reply, retracting his arm and instead turning it to the other side to take aim and knock a flier straight out of the sky with a single, clear shot. "I'd snuck past the enemy lines cycles ago."

Not that they were supposed to have come this far, but the two of them were never very good at abiding by the rules. Safe advice never looked so good, either. As far as Sideswipe was concerned, such regulations got in the way of his fun.

"Glad to see you left me some."

"Shut up and start firing. I need to head back and get my exterior repair kit," came the clipped reply. "I owe one of these glitches for scratching my shoulder."

Sideswipe was unfazed and even went so far as to chuckle as he stated, "Sounds like your problem, not mine."

"Oh, it will be your problem if you don't shut the motors in your mouth and put your gears to some better use."

The fight picked up in earnest after that, two new waves of Decepticons appearing from the east. A whole squadron was an assortment of fliers that congested the sky, while another ground-based group came crashing in below them.

Sideswipe and Sunstreaker split their concentration – each taking up one side, Sideswipe to the left and his twin to the right – and picking one of the new squads to handle on top of that. Keeping to their cover, they were able to eliminate those who wandered directly overhead or looped around. This method had Sideswipe on a high enough alert to pick up a distant, but rapidly approaching target, his optics adjusting further to heighten his sight to triple its normal capability.

"No way… Sunstreaker, get a look at this."

For once, his brother listened to him instead of brushing him off when the option to make heads tumble were present. He shifted in close behind his back, grabbing hold of his shoulder and going so far as to shove him aside a little as he enhanced his own vision to get a closer look. A slow, dangerous smirk came into place across his features when he picked up on what Sideswipe had spotted.

"One of Megatron's closest."

"I think it's one of his original troops that we were warned about. Do you think it's Blackout?"

"Gotta be. I've noticed an increased amount of drone activity and communications shut down. Besides, he only appears when he thinks the pickings are easy; must have come in with the last wave of aerials," Sunstreaker stated aloud, shifting into a position that would better allow him to spring forward into action.

"Cover me; I'm going to go and clip his wings."

Sideswipe grabbed hold of him, fingers digging into the grooves he knew existed, and halted the other.

"I don't think so. I spotted him first – he's mine."

Sunstreaker sneered and harshly shrugged him off, snapping, "I'm the superior fighter between the two of us. I'll have him down and kissing dirt twice as fast you can."

Glaring sullenly, his twin wordlessly pulled out an oddly shaped die with symbols that resembled numbers on it and held it up between them. Sunstreaker exhaled some extra air from his vents in the form of a sigh, the extra heated air coming out of more like a hiss because of the fact. He looked ready to argue further, and then settled on snarling out his choice. Sideswipe did the same and then flipped the object into the air. Before it could land, however, a shot rang out and blasted it, Sideswipe narrowly catching it while Sunstreaker whipped around to brutally illuminate the threat.

"I win!" Sideswipe crowed, glancing down at the die in his hand. "Now you cover me!"

"What? Wait a minute, let me see-"

His twin was off and running by the time he had turned to address him fully, a curse finishing his sentence instead of the rest of his demands. Sideswipe could pick up on him activating more than one cannon and letting loose a few choice words that equated to catching up and beating delicate components out of him for leaving him behind.

Sideswipe smirked, ignoring him. There were bigger matters to put his energy towards, such as closing in on Blackout. The mech was an easy target, his immense size making him easy to keep within his sights and firing range. He could be a lousy shot at times and preferred hand-to-hand combat, and so sprinted his way towards the Decepticon's location with a certainty and speed that befuddled more than one of the creep's associates. He ducked under punches, dodged shots and once, he even purposely lowered himself to the ground and slid across it to get past a Decepticon by going under him. He left these guys to Sunstreaker, knowing he could handle them and hopefully blow off some steam in doing so.

When he was relatively two body lengths away, Blackout took purposeful aim at him and let loose an EMP blast, the large shockwave it created spreading out and promising to surpass Sideswipe's position. He deftly avoided it by leaping into the air and vaulting off of one of Blackout's own, the four-wheeled sharp shooter letting out an indignant cry at being used as a springboard and then again as it was struck in the back by the EMP shot.

He landed with a flourish, retracting his guns and replacing them with knives, the elongated blades attached at the entire length of his arm and going well past his wrist, the entire outside laser cut to the finest edge. Immediately as his feet touched the ground, he took off sprinting again, intending to gut Blackout from the waist up.

He didn't take into account that the Decepticon was notorious for having a personal drone at his side. In the briefings, Sideswipe could remember being told about it, a beastly machine with higher than usual intelligence that was still more tool than sentient being. He hadn't spotted it being deployed earlier or mangling anything on the battlefield, so it hadn't crossed his processors again when moving into attack.

It was that medium sized and notably destructive weapon that sprang out of the debris littering the ground, knocking into his side and sending him skidding. Sideswipe initiated some evasive maneuvers and tossed the cretin aside, the drone known as Scorponok letting out a few agitated clicking sounds that reminded him a lot of his twin, thus making it easier to deduce what it might be implying.

"Yeah, well, get in line," he scoffed at it, returning to his feet just in time to be picked up by the middle and hauled up to Blackout's optic level.

The Decepticon was looking awfully smug, his grip tightening at the barest hint of a struggle, so Sideswipe didn't give it to him.

"What, giving up already? How disappointing."

"Far from it, fang-face. Your ugliness startled me for a moment, is all," Sideswipe drawled, bringing back one arm and slicing his right blade across the other's visage.

The cut went deep and severed a good chunk of visual sensors, Blackout's optics dimming to about twenty percent of their usual efficiency and reverting to basic programming, their coloration now a dull, plain old orange instead of their usual vibrant, glowing red. The act had him roaring in fury and flinging Sideswipe aside, the soldier righting himself in midair.

"How's that for giving up?" he taunted, simultaneously avoiding Blackout and his little minion.

He caught the thing in the back and ducked one of Blackout's punches, the Decepticon's aim off because of his lack of sight upgrades. Differentiations and degrees of shades could be picked up, Sideswipe surmised, and shapes or outlines too, but the other's depth perception was shot. The soldier was also fast and experienced in battle, never giving the enemy the chance to pin him down. By the time Blackout picked him out in his grainy feedback from what was surrounding them, he had moved on to take a strike.

The drone ducked beneath the fallen bodies, burying itself, and disappeared from view and his sensors. It caused him to tense in preparation for a surprise strike, until Blackout revealed his chest cannon and took a few wide barrages that had him dancing about the field to avoid getting hit. Though he never once forgot about the hidden threat, he wasn't able to concentrate on it.

"You should flee with the rest of your fellows, little Autobot," Blackout informed him darkly, his voice managing to turn the word "Autobot" into something that sounded entirely derogatory.

"Afraid of losing? Don't worry; I promise to be gentle when I send you back to the smelter you crawled out of.

Without warning, claws sprang up out of the ground, catching a foot. He swiped at it, managing to remove one of the sharp barbs that had embedded themselves into his armor, but at the risk of getting stung in return. Scorponok's stinger came flying up next and needled dead center into his back, sending such a shock that he cried out in immense pain. Initially, his body started to collapse against his wishes, arms shakily preventing him from completely falling face-first as the blades were planted into the ground.

Roughly, but with a casualness that bellied satisfaction, Blackout wedged his digits under Sideswipe's chest plate, wrenched him up and proceeded to slam him back into the planet.

"It's unfortunate for you that I don't hold similar convictions. I never was very capable of grasping the concept of being 'gentle.'"

He slammed Sideswipe into the ground again, snapping something, to emphasize his point.

Against his better judgment, Sideswipe used a turn of phrase that was beyond insulting, and downright vulgar, about the Decepticon's leader, faction, and creator, too. For having almost all of his systems paralyzed and showing signs of the other's "tender" mercy, he was proud of coming up with such an offense at the spur of the moment. Blackout's expression prior to putting enough force on him to embed him into the ground made it entirely worth it.

"When I'm finished with you," Blackout openly seethed, "I will have effectively made you wish that you had never been manufactured."

"Promise?"

Furious that he wasn't producing fear in his victim, the Decepticon looked ready to make good on his promise when a barrage of firepower came whizzing by. As Blackout snapped to attention, more shots came into contact; an electric-based blast nailed him in the shoulder. It wasn't powerful enough to damage him permanently, but it did make him stumble back from the force of it, a few systems spasming at the power surge.

He didn't stick around, sending a blistering glare in Sideswipe's direction that promised retribution later, and changed into his flying mode as soon as Scorponok had joined back with its master. Whoever had just saved Sideswipe's frame hadn't given up, continuing to drive Blackout off until the Decepticon had moved on and out of normal sight.

The soldier turned his head jerkily, some of Scorponok's venom playing havoc with his locomotive functions, and spotted Jazz with Sunstreaker in tow. He was a bit surprised to see Jazz there, this being Ironhide's unit's directive, meaning the lieutenant must have been in stealth mode to retrieve something from the region. Either he actually liked him, or Jazz had retrieved what he'd come for and stumbled across them. To make himself feel better, he guessed that the lieutenant actually liked him.

"Good to see you guys," he greeted, voice thankfully giving out on him only once.

In reply, Sunstreaker called him an idiot. It was nice, being reminded that he cared.

Jazz was quick to come to his aid; despite his smaller build, he was quick and efficient, and had Sideswipe back on his feet in no time. He had to brace himself against the lieutenant, but he figured that the point was to move him out of the hot zone, so a little bumper draft wasn't going to hurt his pride for long.

"Looks like Blackout got you good," his superior stated as he hefted him up. "I hope you gave that hunk o' junk a run for his creds, because if it weren't worth it, rusting in the brig is going to seem mighty-"

"Stupid?" Sunstreaker supplied, taking out a Decepticon in the same breath.

"We leader types prefer to be politically correct. In the field, we call it 'careless,'" Jazz corrected. "But, and you didn't hear this from me, 'stupid' does work, too."

They started to make their way back, sticking to as much cover as they could and all of them pitching in to provide return fire when they were able. It was during one of their breaks behind a spire that Sideswipe remembered something, tossing the die from earlier at Sunstreaker when they were about to proceed forward.

His brother caught it without looking, staring down at it intently. There was a laser burn in it now where it had been shot. Frowning, he looked from it to his brother, then back down to the die in his hand. Patiently, Sideswipe waited for him to figure out the meaning behind it, his twin turning it in his hands when his optics widened in true, unabashed surprise, and then fury. It was a trick die, made with the "top" to have two opposing numbers, but the rest matched only one of the two shown.

Had Jazz not signaled for them to make a run back for their borders, Sideswipe wasn't sure what his brother would have done to him, because the look he slowly turned on him made Blackout's earlier show seem like playtime.

-Fin-