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Post by Impactor/"Imp" on Nov 30, 2010 15:49:25 GMT -5
Impactor doesn't have the background information to quite understand all the details of what just happened, but he's canny enough figure out that something just happened that was off - there are reactions from two realities to confirm it.
In his own reality, Ultra Magnus's first ever mission was supposed to have been working with the Wreckers on Operation: Volcano. Things didn't go as planned, something Impactor himself knows all too well, but as a result, the zombot happens to have the frequency for his own reality's Ultra Magnus, and according to the database, frequencies seem to correspond across universes...
Impactor gives it a try, activating his radio to send a message to Ultra Magnus.
//Let it go. Either he's telling the truth and he really did get confused, which means it don't matter, or he's on guard now, which means it's not time to keep prodding. I'll keep an eye on him - should be easy, I room with him.//
Out loud, however, all he does is take another guzzle (but not, of course, a Guzzle) and grunts. "So am I going to get my story, or what?"
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Post by Tessan Toov on Nov 30, 2010 16:19:13 GMT -5
Twin Twist isn't sure why calling Ultra Magnus a rookie is making Topspin snicker. Twin Twist's own Ultra Magnus is only about five centuries old!
He eyes Skyfire's drink a bit, but that's Skyfire's drink, and no one would ever go drinking with Twin Twist if he started stealing their drinks. Stealing is wrong, anyway.
The innuendo of Springer saying something wrong or Springer not saying something wrong goes over Twin Twist's head, but he can at least follow that Ultra Magnus has his priorities all screwed up. Stumped, he demands, "Wait. You rammed Menasor, and this is not awesome? Menasor, as in, made out of five Stunticons, over sixty feet tall? That Menasor? Not a different, shorter Menasor? How is that not awesome?"
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Ultra Magnus
Major
Disappointing Fellow Autobots Since the Age of Internment
Posts: 565
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Post by Ultra Magnus on Dec 2, 2010 1:23:30 GMT -5
OOC: Skipping Topspin due to timeout.
Imagine Ultra Magnus's surprise when he gets a radio transmission from Impactor. He shouldn't be surprised; so many people from so many different realities seem to know him. Wreckers especially. What's one more?
//All right then,// he radios back, sipping his drink. He turns his gaze from Springer to Twin Twist and lowers his glass. "Yes, that's the Menasor I hit," he says, "and I was just doing my job. I don't expect to hear how 'awesome' it is just doing what I'm supposed to do." He stares into his drink for a second, then downs the remainder in a couple of gulps. He turns a wry smile on the group. "…Gave me one hell of a headache, though." Can they really want to hear about it that badly?
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Post by Topspin on Dec 2, 2010 3:34:11 GMT -5
Topspin gives Springer a strange look, but he shrugs and lets the matter drop for now.
He looks surprised once Twin Twist explains just who Menasor is. "Whoa, five Stunticons? Are you talking about those psycho gestalts?" Psycho and a pain. A near-invincible one. Topspin does agree with Magnus about doing your job, but still, he's impressed. "Sounds like you've got bearings, man." Or this Ultra Magnus could be crazy, not that they're mutually exclusive concepts. Hell, they often overlap.
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Post by Springer on Dec 2, 2010 3:39:49 GMT -5
Springer cocks a brow at Topspin's description, and rifles through the available memories.
"H-uh. Sounds kinda similar to what Thunderwing became...just with more 'bots, and less apocalyptic."
---
"Nice save, numbnodes. How 'bout you slip up again, so I can have my slaggin' body back?"
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Post by Gertrude Huldon/Guzzle on Dec 2, 2010 7:52:33 GMT -5
Oooh, story time! It especially catches Guzzle's attraction once it's explained (well, kind of) just what a Menasor is. Like Topspin he's impressed, though his optics go wide as he gives an impressed whistle, leaning forward and turning to face the other Wrecker, an eager look on his face. "Yeah, back home there ain't many gestalts, but they were mean as frag! There was Abominus, and, err..."
Great, who else was there? He knows there was the one on Earth, but he honestly can't remember the name, and he knows he told Springer about it. Topspin probably knows too. So he turns towards his boss and the cartographer, with a "help me out here' look on his face as he looks in between them. "What was the name of the one on Earth again? The one that Omega Supreme had to take down?"
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Post by Impactor/"Imp" on Dec 2, 2010 8:48:00 GMT -5
Impactor sets down his mug so he can make a quick, small wave with his hand to emphasize what he has to say. "Magnus. Just because you're 'doing your job' doesn't mean something ain't story material. Sometimes it might mean that. For instance, we don't much want to hear about the gripping trials of form-filing. But this thing? This sounds like it's got potential."
"Tell."
And then he picks his drink back up.
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Post by Tessan Toov on Dec 2, 2010 9:24:47 GMT -5
Twin Twist shrugs and asides quietly to Topspin, "Predaking was more of a pain to put down."
Decepticons don't seem so invincible when one hails from a reality wherein every last Generation One Decepticon is dead. Thunderwing? A flash in the pan.
Twin Twist nods enthusiastically and agrees with Impactor, "You can take pride in doing a job right, Ultra Magnus! Spires, that's all Impactor and I were ever doing." Okay, so sometimes Twin Twist gets into some extracurricular destruction, but he's not going to talk about that now, but he does admit, "Except those times I cut the wrong wire. That was very much doing the job wrong."
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Skyfire
Major
I'm a scientist, not a....
Posts: 891
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Post by Skyfire on Dec 2, 2010 9:38:27 GMT -5
Skyfire noticed that gaffe, Springer, and he's filing it away. Few things escaped his keen intelligence, though he did not know the significance of the discrepancy between what Springer from Topspin's reality should know and Springer seeming to know about the events of Ultra Magnus's reality. Perhaps it was just coincidence--the same incident in both realities, but Topspin seemed rather puzzled. A trivium... yet his suspicions of Starscream and his Decepticons started out as just that, trivial little things that didn't quite fit.
What if the Autobots are just more of the same, only with better lies? Skyfire frowned slightly, and picked up his replacement drink. He thought he'd laid that fear to rest long ago--their actions had spoken loudly enough for him to take up the Autobrand. Well. All he could do now was listen, and consider every scrap of information. If the Autobots were a lie, there were far too many of them, with new, unbriefed ones arriving every day, to keep a perfect masquerade. Perhaps he should volunteer for rock watch more often--it might settle his fears.
"My reality's Omega Supreme seems to have a concern about the Constructicons," Skyfire tossed out.
--- Skippable
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Ultra Magnus
Major
Disappointing Fellow Autobots Since the Age of Internment
Posts: 565
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Post by Ultra Magnus on Dec 2, 2010 10:49:08 GMT -5
Is that a wince Magnus hides behind his glass as he's prompted to tell?
"Fine, fine," he rumbles, resenting the pushing and showing it briefly. "I'd just returned to Cybertron with… a group of prisoners," and he refrains from explaining that to avoid the tangent, "and was in the middle of arguing for their treatment… I'd been told they would be rehabilitated like any others had been, brought back into society, and that was why I'd agreed to bring them in at all. But the terms were changed on me while en route to Cybertron, so I left them with Topspin and Twin Twist standing guard." Watchful eyes will see the way his hand shakes before he masks that, too, by sloshing around the last little dregs in his cup. "While I was in the middle of that, the alert came down – the Stunticons had somehow escaped their containment and were rampaging through the detention banks. It was a job for the Wreckers… and we answered the call.
"Menasor was one of the worst Decepticons we had. Powerful, ruthless… nearly unstoppable. Taking him down was as harrowing as I'd thought, and… it took more men than I'd feared. To a man, the Omnibots were killed and the Protectobots… crippled, incapacitated." There's no way to conceal or disguise the fact that Magnus blames himself for the losses. Always striving for perfection and falling so woefully short, he simply knows that a superior commander could have saved them. "Whirl… was the next to fall. Roadbuster after that. Everything we threw at that monster just seemed to make it angrier." All the firepower, all the hammering they gave Menasor and of all things to work…. "It was words," Magnus says. "Words cut through where lasers couldn't. I started taunting it, got it to focus on me instead of the others and I took my shots. Five psychotic Decepticons trying to work in concert?" He shakes his head. "That was where to attack. It was paralysed as the Stunticons took my bait and started bickering amongst themselves again."
He pauses to flag a waitress for a refill and finds himself wishing it was Aflodai sidling up with his drink. Who knew he'd find himself partial to his bouncer job and the staff at the Get brothers' little pub?
"I gave the signal and Twin Twist moved in," he goes on, glancing up at the Twin Twist that's here. "Drilled that monster's foot so hard it fell. That was when I laid on all the speed I could and drove straight into its face. It was enough to knock Menasor out, at least." Without realising it, he rubs his head in imitation of his recovery on that nightmarish day – which seems an unreal time ago already.
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Post by Topspin on Dec 3, 2010 10:41:35 GMT -5
First Menasor, now Predaking. "Damn, how many gestalts do you guys have?" he asks, voice just as quiet. The technology fell into Decepticon hands, Devastator was proof enough of that, but they hadn't gone to town with it--not like they could have, looks like. Here's hoping it stays that way.
"Yeah, we have those." Topspin nods at Skyfire before looking at Guzzle, "'Devastator'. I think you're looking for 'Devastator', Guzzle."
Although he's already begun to focus on Ultra Magnus as he tells his tale, Topspin perks when he hears his name, wondering just how many of him are there out there in the multiverse. He notices the shaking hand and braces himself to hear a pretty heavy story. Topspin frowns slightly. They're not his, but he feels small pangs all the same when Ultra Magnus mentions Roadbuster and Whirl. It makes him hate this gestalt business all the more.
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Post by Springer on Dec 4, 2010 20:56:50 GMT -5
Springer leans over on his arm, grinning. "Slick tale, Magnus, but..." he looks over at Topspin and Guzzle. "You guys mean to tell me we get those monsters in the future? Greaaat."
Somehow, Springer's drink has been refilled. Or maybe he never drank that much. Things run together, and he was busy paying attention to Magnus' story. He takes a drink, then looks at it. "So Magnus' Twin Twist drilled this Menasor guy in the foot." He glances at Topspin. "And ours drilled Thunderwing in the foot..."
He then looks over at Twin Twist. "So, have you drilled a giant in the foot?" Springer's half-grinning. "Because it looks like we have a running multiversal theme here."
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Post by Gertrude Huldon/Guzzle on Dec 6, 2010 6:20:32 GMT -5
Guzzle snaps his fingers when Topspin answers him, nodding and going "Yeah, that's it, thanks". Then his attention is back on Magnus, sipping occasionally from his drink, and when he's done he raises his mug at the other Wrecker, a sly grin hidden by his mouth plate. "Heh. Well done, Magnus. Ya know how to bring the pain."
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Post by Impactor/"Imp" on Dec 6, 2010 9:59:40 GMT -5
Impactor sets down his drink so he can prop his elbow on the table and lean his head against his fist. He grimaces as Twin Twist speaks of cutting the wrong wires, muttering, "Tell me about it," as the Jumpstarter describes it as 'doing the job wrong.'
He listens with interest at the descriptions an talk of the Combiners, particularly from Twin Twist, his own future. He grunts. "These... 'gestalts' weren't really being seen on Cybertron by the time I was out of commission," he wasn't really in a position to keep up with current events in the period between Operation: Volcano and the business in Kalis, "though we did have a few bruisers who were a good size on their own." Trypticon springs to mind.
The zombie listens to Ultra Magnus's store, absently scratching marks into the tabletop as the other speaks. Not the obsessive, repeated 'X' theme that other versions of himself might have scrawled, just a random collection of lines to focus his thoughts on. The larger Autobot is clearly glossing over some details without leaving out the unpleasant ones, like the deaths of fellow Wreckers. Interesting, that. When Ultra Magnus finishes, he looks up and says lowly, expression firm, "Magnus, it's the stories where not everyone makes it back that are the most important ones to share. That's how we remember them."
He straightens so he can pick his drink back up, and lifts it. "To Whirl and Roadbuster, the Omnibots, and the Protectobots." He has no idea who the Omnibots and the Protectobots are, but they're fallen or cripled Autobots. He's not sure from the story whether they were Wreckers or not, but they fell or were injured alongside Wreckers, alternates of people Impactor knew and led and battled with, and that's good enough for Impactor.
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Post by Tessan Toov on Dec 6, 2010 10:50:36 GMT -5
"Just don't let Omega Supreme get near Buzzsaw. It doesn't go well," Twin Twist comments to Skyfire. "Probably not in the way you're thinking."
Then Ultra Magnus finally mans up enough for Wrecker Preschool Story Time, and Twin Twist falls silent, overcharged enough that he can stay still, too. There are a lot of casualties in this story, and that's not unusual, but the fatalities are a bit. Twin Twist knows he's lucky that that the two most major recent fatalities in his life are separated by five hundred years – his Roadbuster, just a few days ago, from his perspective, and his Impactor (twice), five hundred years ago. The deaths of close comrades can often be a lot more tightly clustered than that. He supposes he could get torqued off at Ultra Magnus for getting some of his team killed, but really, Springer angsted enough over Impactor's death, and Twin Twist remembers Emirate Xaaron pleading with Springer to get his head back in the game. That pleading happened right after zombie Impactor had flung Broadside into Topspin, and they both landed on top of Twin Twist's back, and Twin Twist can say, Broadside's heavy. If that's what happens when Springer angsts over dead comrades, Twin Twist doesn't want to see what Ultra Magnus does (or does not do).
Twin Twist answers Topspin quietly, "All of them." Twin Twist may be an unreliable narrator, but it sure feels that way to him, that their number of combiners was equal to 'all of them'.
But to think of Springer angsting over death, this Springer doesn't seem moved by the death at all. Twin Twist gives Springer a weird, questioning look, as he rubs the back of helmet and admits, "Now and again." Off-panel, but it's not to say it never happened! "It's not like I have a lot of options where I'm going to hit someone, if I'm at ground level. If you want me to drill someone in the head, I'd need an airlift." He glances over at Springer, Oracle, and Skyfire, in that order, hopefully. "Or some of those rocketboots." Over at Impactor. "Or just to fall off a building or a cliff or something."
Impactor's dead, and on half a brain module, he still remembers what Springer seems to be ignoring. Twin Twist raises what he thinks is his drink (but might not be, at this stage), and he agrees, "Hear, hear."
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