Cavalier was back in humanoid form before Deathstrike finished speaking. His sword was once more at his side, and his shield once more retracted into his forearm. But there were few people in the universe who would have remarked on those facts in the situation Deathstrike was in, though admittedly Deathstrike was probably among them. Cavalier's optics churned like a nuclear war, his features almost blank, his frame visibly quivering with rage. He had intended to do something entirely different, to tell Deathstrike that this was a misunderstanding, to call Breakout, to do anything, but then Deathstrike had started issuing orders as a Decepticon, on top of everything else that had been going on, and something in Cavalier simply snapped.Cynical Cat wrote:"Do I look like an Autobot?" asked Deathstrike. "Did I ask you for your opinion? No. You will not kill each other here. Accusations will by handled by adjudication and then if you both still want to kill each other when that is over you can invoke the Code Duelo and do it properly. Now disarm and stand down. I grow tired of repeating this."
"No," he said to Deathstrike, standing directly in the Decepticon's face, his voice distorted and chillingly even, so even that it was clear that Cavalier had removed his higher functions from interface with his voice box. "I don't think I will."
He stared into Deathstrike's face like a mechanical conjuration from some lower pit, and what was going on inside his optics would have taken a thousand mechanics a hundred years to divine. Outrage and fury and a million other things churned within it, but one thing was absolutely clear. Cavalier was about as inclined right now to take orders from Deathstrike as he was to commit ritual suicide.
"I don't give a pile of engine waste about your orders, Deathstrike," said Cavalier in a chilling monotone. "Walk out of this room while you still have legs."
Right then, the cavalry arrived.
The arrival of others, the shouts of Counterstrike and Longshot, the weapons being brandished at him, something in all that triggered a change. Something served to bring Cavalier, reluctantly perhaps, back to the reality of the situation. His churning optics flickered, his attention shifted ever so slightly, and his posture changed almost imperceptibly from open defiance to the show of it. He looked past Deathstrike at Longshot and Counterstrike and the other two dozen-odd security forces who showed up, guns drawn, demanding that everyone stand down.
And by the time Cavalier spoke again, he was Cavalier once more, and whatever had come over him a second ago was gone.
"No murdering here," he said to Counterstrike, while keeping his optics locked on Deathstrike. "Blastcap and I were having a disagreement about old times. Deathstrike saw fit to blow the wall down. Maybe his weapon malfunctioned, I don't know." If Deathstrike didn't want to take that way out, then he was free to explain why he had just opened fire inside the base in response to harsh language to Breakout.
"But if you all don't mind, Blastcap and I have a matter to conclude, in private. You boys can shout a while if it'll make you feel better first, but we've got a matter to conclude."
