Springer stands close to the exit when he suddenly experiences a feeling as if he was beeing watched. Taking a few steps back, he turns around and looks ath the crowd in the bar. Suddenly, he notices that a bot was looking at him but quickly turned his head.
Springer smirks, but then walks over to the bot. Towering over Paperweight, he suddenly picks him up and slams him to the wall!
"I know your kind! Always out for a story and not realising the repurcussions of what you are doing! You bots have no idea what damage you are doing to the Autobot cause!
Springer puts him down, but still looks at him sternly. "What, and process long before you answer, what do you want from me?"
Powerglide landed near the gates, coming to a screeching halt just as he touched down in robot mode. He glanced down at the slightly cracked pavement at his feet. "Hrm. Don't know my own strength."
He dusted off his shoulders, despite the fact that there was no dust on his entire body, and strode off for Autobase. "This patrol work is making me want to self-deactivate. I need to find something with a little challenge."
Paperweight was scared — no doubt, as he is in front one of the Autobot army's most powerful fighters — but he kept his cool, and tried to play innocent.
"Cool your engines. I'm just here to get a drink. And aren't you Springer?" He asked innocently.
Maybe I was a little too hard on this guy.... nah, he can take it. Reporters like him are like scraplets or cosmic rust. Hard to get rid off.
Springer looks down upon this reporter bot. "You don't have to act so coy. You know full well who I am and even more so, what I am capable off. I also know that bots liek you don't just come here to get a drink. Even when you're not on duty, you're looking for a story. It's in your programming. So, tell me, what's your name little reporter bot and is there a specific reason why you were scanning me with your optics half a breem ago?"
****
Iacon, road to Protihex
(OOC: If there is one, tried looking through the maps and couldn't figure it out. Please, correct me if I am wrong)
Freeway speeds over teh high way as fast as he can, trying to stay ahead of the other Autobots that he is traveling with. Pointblank however is close behind him.
"Hey Pointblank! Took you long enough! I was thinking that maybe there's a new speedster in town that goes by the name of Freeway! By the way, what's keeping Blurr?
Pointblank laughs. "Dont worry about Blurr, Freeway. I guess he consumed a bit too much energon so he needs to shake that off first. Knowing Blurr however, I'm sure that by the time we get to Protihex border, he'll be waiting for us, telling you and I what's been keeping us. Don't forget, you're talking about Cybertron's fastest Autobot or have you forgotten that you already lost to him back at Maccadam's?"
Freeway grumble's and is clearly not amused by the comment from Pointblank. "Oh yeah? Well, I bet I can race you! Eat exhaust fumes Pointblank!"
Blurr: -with a burst of speed, catching up with Freeway and Pointblank- "Hey, guys. What say we catch a shuttle? To go to the Protihex would mean that we have to go through the Wastelands or Crystal City. And trust me, none of them are looking good at the moment."
Haywire: "Shuttle. Whose shuttle?"
Blurr: "Iacon docks should have one or two we could charter."
Freeway: "Where's your sense of adventure Blur or are you just scared! Who cares that we have to go through enemy territory! We might be able to scrap some stinkin' 'cons while we're at it! "
Pointblank: "Yeah, we could do that. However the chance of us surviving that is non existent. It would be much wiser if we took the shuttle. I'm with Blur on this one. Let's head for the docks."
Freeway: Maaaannn, and I really wanted to burn some rubber! But alright, lets go, It'll be faster anyway."
Blurr would have smiled had he been in robot mode. He says: "Besides, Freeway, it'd take way too long for us to reach Protihex if we have to stop and fight mutants every two nano-kliks. Pointblank and me have living guns, but I'm worried about you. You'd slow us down, and give them mutants indigestion." He laughed again, changes direction to the docks.
Freeway is clearly agitated from the comment of Blur. "Slow?! I'll show you slow! Afterburners... MAXIMUM SCORCH!" Steering a little out of control as he puts the pedal to the metal, Freeway speeds off towards the shuttle docks of Iacon. "Haywire, Blur, eat my dust!"
Pointblank can't help but laugh at the whole situation. "Haha, it's been a while since I had a good laugh. Seriously though Blur, must you taunt him so? He's only a young 'bot that still feels the need to prove himself in the Autobot ranks. Maybe we should let him win this one."
Paperweight, being oblivious to Springer's bad mood, replied, "Name's Paperweight, Springer. And I for one, am looking to see who you really are. Since you've been kind enough to confirm your identity, could you please tell me, what have you been doing all this while?" Paperweight said, poking his finger onto Springer's chest.
From the distance, Monocle, one of the bar's frequenters (OOC: he was introduced some time ago but was sidelined. Thought it'd be fun to have a third party) sighed and said in a matter-of-fact way. "Reporter, I wouldn't do that if I were you. You would surely be up for a beat-down."
___________________________________
Autobase
Flatfoot returned to the ISS base after the whole Banzaitron fiasco. He was tired, but he saw Rapido approaching.
"Hey, looking for Prowl? He's out. Red Alert's inside, though."
Having caught up with the general flow of the orn's news from the approved CBC channel, Tabbiloid rose from his haunches and transformed. Slight, even delicate, his root mode was not made for fighting, but, then again, Tabbiloid preferred to fight in his own rather special way...
Was it not an Earther who wrote: the pen is mightier than the sword.
He laughed, as always, at the conceit. Of course, he did not employ a primitive writing instrument.
Three strides took him before a very modern commlink panel and he toggled Sundor's preset number. "I do hope he's there," he murmured to himself, his vocals the low, sawing purr of the feline he mimicked.
(OOC: @ desolate: I’m going to assume Rapido knocked on the door.)
While the remaining crime analysts that he summoned earlier toiled at their makeshift stations, Red Alert sat at his superior’s desk as he argued with a mech on the other end of his commlink system.
“Listen, listen! Are – you – listening to me?!” Red Alerted shouted. “My team is working as fast as they are able….Yes, I know. I KNOW!....”
But during his continued ranting, Red Alert was, to his relief, interrupted by an incoming transmission. He scanned the incoming transmission's ID before resuming.
“...Fine. Listen, I have to take this call. We’ll continue this discussion later,” Red Alert said, then switched over before the mech on the other line could dispute the matter. “I’m busy here, Prowl, so make it quick. What do you need?”
“Be mindful with your tone, Red Alert,” Prowl answered. “In any case, my meeting has concluded and I shall be returning to Autobase shortly. You may resume your post at ISS HQ and I expect a report on my desk when I arrive.”
“Already taken care,” Red Alert answered. "Anything else?"
“No, that is all,” Prowl said.
“Good. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m optics deep in a corporate scandal,” Red Alert told the chief strategist. After he ended the transmission, Red swivelled in his seat towards the busy crime specialists. “Alright, people. Let’s pack it up. We’re heading back to ISS HQ.”
At that moment, the office's door automatically slid open, revealing Rapido on the other side.
“Ah, yes. Rapido. I've been expecting you,” Red Alert said. “Thanks for coming. Come on in. We’re about to head back to the ISS.”
_____________
Border Regions
After finding a suitable room in the abandoned apartment complex, First Aid quickly placed Blades onto a fold-out gurney and set up his sub-spaced gear. After hooking the former-Protectobot up to the portable life support and diagnostic equipment, First Aid accessed his built-in laser scalpel system and began to work.
(OOC: @ zigzagger: I'm assuming were leaving right away.)
As Rapido entered the hectic office he threw a quick salute. Years of military service had ingrained the action into his processors. "Looks like I'm just in time" he replied, as his optics scanned the room. Turning his gaze towards Red Alert "I'll follow you. We can discuss the situation on the way there."
"Probably I'm too harsh... but I won't let him get too... big-headed. Won't let him win, but won't let him lose either. I've got a reputation to maintain, in any case." Blurr replied to Pointblank. The light blue Autobot revved up his engines, and accelerated, keeping up with Freeway, but not overtaking him, keeping exactly in the same speed with him.
"Doooooon't-" Haywire started to say, as the momentum slammed him towards the back of the seat.
After a while of driving side by side, Blurr said to Freeway, "Yo, shuttle docks are over there. Slow down or the momentum will cause us to crash into something."
Haywire wanted to say something sarcastic, but the G-forces kept him at bay.
Blurr slowed down and intended swerved into a stop in the docks. The momentum, however, carried him over and he slammed into a pile of crates. "Ow." Blurr transformed, shaking him off the thankfully empty (and now broken) crates. Had it been filled with something volatile, like, say, Energon... Haywire jumped off, his mechanical suit and modifications protecting him from the impact that would've otherwise killed a normal Nebulan. That didn't stop him from uttering an entire wave of Nebulan, Cybertronian and English curses.
Blurr ignored the chattering Nebulan on his shoulder, and gestured at a smaller, much smaller version of Ark, gesturing at it as he turned to Pointblank, Pinpointer and Freeway, Blurr said, "This is the Good Fortune. Belongs to Jackpot, but he lent it to me. Besides, he could get one of these easy enough."
"Paperweight, huh?" Springer replied. "It'll be deadweight soon, if you don't remove your finger from my chestplate! I don't think you realize who you are talking to. I am not the same Springer from the Great War. Mechs change, as do I. It's normal for a 'bot if it has seen as much as I have." Springer grunts. "Hm.. Now I'm starting to sound a little like Kup. Anyway, you should listen to the 'bot over there." Springer points to Monocle. "You do not want to annoy me."
Springer realises that bullying this 'bot isn't going to do much good, as he has probably been roughed up before and it isn't really his style to damage an innocent 'bot. Even if it is a spark of a glitch reporter. "You know what reporter bot, I'll make you a deal; I'm sure that you hear a lot of very interesting things. You provide me with some usefull information and I'll tell you what I have been doing for the last couple of Deca-Cycles."
**** Iacon Shuttle docks
Freeway comes to a screeching halt as Blurr crashed into the pile of crates. He quickly transforms to robot mode. "Woohoohoohoooooo! Oh yeah! Now that was fun!" Freeway walks over to Blurr and helps him to his feet. He laughs as he hears Haywire swearing his lungs out.
Pointblank finally caught up with Blur and Freeway. He transforms and sets Peacemaker up in his shoulder. Wow, Haywire is really giving Blur an audioreceiver full. I'm even hearing things I never heard before! Peacemaker thinks.
"We can always use some good fortune" Pointblank said as he headed towards the shuttle. "Now if you 2 are done fooling around, we should go. I want to get there as soon as I can." Protihex. The area where the Space Mafia is most active. I'm sure that with some good strategy, we can rid Cybertron of this menace. It's time that my actions are going to make a noticable difference again...
"Sorry about all the theatrics," Cobalt told Prowl as they moved out of the base, through a different exist that looked like nothing more than a hall of mirrors. "The boss is what we in the business would call professionally paranoid."
He led the similarly-designed Autobot through what must have been a dizzying series of twists and turns, ones that Cobalt himself only knew because he had loaded them directly into his brain. Eventually, though, they came up through a basement and into what looked like an otherwise-normal house.
"I think you can find your way back from here," Cobalt said. "Autobase isn't very far away, and you can actually see the Decagon off to the east."
_______________________________________
Iacon West District Six Constituency Office
After finishing his press conference, Sundor returned to his office just in time to pick up on Tabbiloid's call.
"Yes?" he asked the reporter with a fair measure of the haughtiness that he always tried to reign in.
Paperweight took the hint and removed his finger from Springer's chestplate, but he did not relent. "Well, I'll take you on that deal. Do you know what's happening in Protihex and Kaon? Or Altihex?"
Monocle sighed, the upper-class mech settling down on a chair around the table. "Revolution in Kaon. Megatron arrives, Kolkular got blown up by rivals..." he said, adjusting his monocole optic.
Cobalt led Prowl back through the Secret Service’s labyrinthine maze until they reached a nondescript basement. After Prowl spoke with Red Alert and gave him his instructions, he contacted Autobase to request for transport. In the basement, Landmine and his band waited for him, secured as Prowl had requested. When the Pretender’s head perked up at the chief strategist’s arrival, Prowl gave him a long, stern glare.
“Stand up,” Prowl told them militantly, to which they complied. “Now move.”
Once they moved up from the basement and into an “otherwise normal house”, Prowl turned towards the similarly designed mech.
“Yes, I think we will manage. Thank you,” Prowl told Cobalt.
________________
Autobase, Prowl’s Office
“Yeah, we are,” Red Alert answered Rapido. “Just let me finish up here.”
After closing out the monitor on Prowl’s desk and double-checking the datapad that contained his report, he stood up and approached Rapido.
“That should do it. Alright, people, let’s go,” Red Alert said to the other ISS officers, then gestured Rapido towards the hallway outside of the office.
“So..." he continued as they walked. "I assume you’ve been following the news feeds, yes?”
"It's good of you to respond, Sundor," Tabbiloid said, making no effort to cover his sarcasm; they both had their faults and both knew them. All the better to be able to understand the enemy's faults. "The corruption scandal is now mainstream - are you satisfied? To my shame, there was little opportunity to gather any information on the Church candidate..."
"I've been keeping up on the recent Tzai Industry situation, if that's what you're refering to." Rapido replied, as he continued to walk alongside of Red Alert. "Though I have to say, as much use as they are, I was never big on news feeds. I prefer to get my information right from the source."
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