Nearly Elsewhere in the Swamp

[Fleetwind]

OOC: This is crossposted from Reply #39 of the Elsewhere in the Swamp thread.

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Fleetwind steps back as the other two take off and fly away. One positive as far as that event goes is that he now won't be expected to jump in the path of any shots fired at Starscream.

Not that he was planning on it, anyway.

The pale yellow Seeker then turns his attention back to Shortround and gives him a pleasant, friendly smile. "Supply runner? Excellent! We were in need of someone with a reasonable carrying capacity. And, uhm, yes. It doesn't surprise me to hear Starscream's voice sounds different to you." The hover-craft's build-lines seemed to suggest something not from Fleetwind's reality. "But, uhm... look, are you familiar with the concepts of time travel and alternate realities? Because this will be a lot easier to explain to you if you are."

[Shortround]

Shortround blinks. "Time travel? Isn't that stuff... Not do-able cause it leads you into a huge paradox? Though the Autobots recently got some Vector Prime guy to help them who can apparantly travel through time, or so he says... As for alternate realities... Aren't they realities where some things are different, like instead of me you might have a... Blue and yellow Autobot who no one likes?" he says.

[Fleetwind]

Fleetwind immediately brightens. "So you do already know of the concepts! I'm not qualified to theorize on how it might or might not be possible, or what paradoxes might result, and so forth. At this point, it really doesn't matter. Look, my most recent time stamp before I woke up on this planet was..." and Fleetwind gives the Cybertronian time stamp that corrosponds to 2005. Specifically, the middle of Unicron's attack on Cybertron from the animated movie. "We seem to have had a few decades worth of variance, but it's not just that people are being pulled from different times. They are also being pulled from different realities. A 'Demolishor' none of us recognize claims to be Megatron's right hand man, but describes a Megatron and a Starscream completely different from the one most of the Decepticons here know. A 'Sky-Byte' claims to serve a Megatron, but he insists that both he and his Megatron are something called a 'Predacon,' so if that Starscream seems different from the one you know, he probably is."

"One thing I can tell you, Shortround: it is in our best interests to co-operate, for our mutual survival. There are Autobots here. I woke up next to one of the most powerful from my own reality... or one very like it." Fleetwind pauses a moment, and sighs. So far he's had a hard time impressing on these outsiders just how powerful Omega Supreme is. "Does your reality has gestalts? Do you know what they are?"

[Shortround]

Shortround blinks. "Demolisher? Green tank guy? I've heard of him... Didn't he die once? Can't say I've heard of any Sky-Bytes or... Predacons. They like Terrorcons?" he asks, "Uh... They're some Decepticons who can make big swarms of themselves and turn into robotic animals, they can also control turn energon into weaponry" he adds, aware that Fleetwind might not know what they were.

Shortround stares at Fleetwind and nods "Yeah, Gestalts, there were four of them, apparantly amazingly powerful as well. Though they're all dead now. Even heard they were nearly as powerful as Prime's buddy Omega Supreme... Slaggin' showoffs" he says. "I'll help you guys, don't wanna run into Prime ever since he decided to pick a 'harmless' earth vehicle with giant laser cannons" Shortround adds, looking around to make sure no 'firetruck' Primes are coming by to destroy them.

[Fleetwind]

Okay. So Shortround did get the concept of multiple realities, and even got it to the point where he could figure out that he needed to describe things from his own reality. He was just slagging hard to follow.

Fleetwind hesitates. He holds his hands up, palms down, fingers splayed, and lowers his gaze slightly before bringing them back up. His hands jerk briefly, then he lowers them again, things close to straight in his mind.

"All right. Answers, in order. Demolishor. Tank guy, yes. Mostly green? No, he's mostly tan. I wouldn't know if he died, because to my knowledge, we don't have one."

"I've heard of neither Predacon nor Terrorcon, but in my reality, something with the '-con' suffix is pretty much always part of a Decepticon subgroup. Sky-Byte is, however, very adamant that he is not a Decepticon, only a Predacon. He does appear to turn into an animal of some sort. I... have never even heard of turning energon into weaponry." Energon is a liquid! What would you do with it? Make a squirt gun? That didn't sound very effective!

"And the powerful Autobot I mentioned? He is the Autobot called Omega Supreme from my reality. I don't know how he compares with yours but... I tend to use the 'gestalts' as a comparison marker. Truth be told, though, I think Omega Supreme's a bit more powerful than any single gestalt in merged form. It's hard to be sure. Our gestalts our not dead. In fact, except for the Constructicons, most are very new. And component-members from two of them in our reality are also in our world. Hook, of the Constructicons, and Dead End, of the Stunticons are with the group that will be joining us shortly."

[Shortround]

Shortround nods "Odd, he used to be green, might have gone back to one of his old paint jobs. Terrorcons and Omnicrons can turn energon into weaponry, like swords and stuff, though they're all slagging insane"

Shortround stares at Fleetwind again "Wait... So there's ANOTHER Omega Supreme and he's nearby? Please say that your one can't merge with your Optimus Prime. And uh... I thought only the central unit of a Gestalt had a personality and the limbs were just mindless drones... Least that's how I thought it went" he continues, in his typical long-winded fasion.

[Fleetwind]

Fleetwind tilts his head curiously at the idea of turning energon into a sword. Perhaps he means an energy sword? But anyone with the right equipment and technical expertise create those! In fact, Fleetwind had a set of energy daggers of his own! The Seeker still tucks the information about energy weapons away for later.

"Optimus Prime merging with Omega Supreme? That sounds like it would be very... awkward, to say the least." He pauses and then steps back. "Our Optimus Prime is... was, anyway... a big guy, yes, but not that much bigger than, say, I am." Fleetwind stands up on the "toe" portion of his foot and holds his arm up not very much higher than his head to demonstrate. "In fact, as I understand it, Starscream once managed to very successfully impersonate our Optimus Prime, though he had a fairly elaborate costume for it. Omega Supreme, on the other hand..."

Here, Fleetwind looks around for a moment, making sure the coast appears clear, then darts upwards. He hovers for just a moment, well above Shortround's head and looks down at the hovercraft. Then he quickly jinks back down and lands in his previous position. "Did you see where I was hovering? Had Omega Supreme been here, I could have been standing on his head. Except, of course, that his head has a cannon on it. And one of his arms ends in a cannon. And the other ends in an enormous claw. So I wouldn't have been standing very long. As impressive as Prime was, I... don't see how he could add anything significant, power-wise, to Omega Supreme."

"Now, back to gestalts, I don't know how they work in your reality, but in ours each component member has their own personality. And then they merge into one larger robots who... seems to have a different personality, really. Most of the gestalts are in a five-robot configuration, with a larger central member and four smaller ones that serve as limbs, but the Constructicons, our original gestalt, are a bit different. There are six of them, all the same size. Two form the head and trunk, and the rest form the limbs." Also, the Constructicons are lead by their right foot.

[Shortround]

Shortround watches Fleetwind fly up and land, and visibly shivers "Yikes... That's tall" he says. "Dunno why the two merged, but Prime could wear Omega Supreme's two halves as armor, slagging showoff battleship train thing... Corse, Prime used to be a sort of semi-Gestalt, he had some drones that he controlled and would combine with him"

Shortround nods upon hearing about Gestalts "Ah, so the Constructions are like Diaclone Construction Vehicle Robos or something? No central component? The other ones sound simular to what I heard our Gestalts were like"

He's not aware that no one would have any idea what a Diaclone Construction Vehicle Robo was, or that the Construction coming is actually a green version of one of them.

[Fleetwind]

Fleetwind stares blankly at Shortround for a moment. Finally, he speaks, his brow ridges drawn together in faint bafflement. "We don't have any... Diaclone Construction Vehicle Robos. The name sounds horribly awkward, though." He tilts his head so that his direct line of sight drifts somewhat over Shortround's left shoulder as he tries to work that out. "I mean, it seems to me that in the heat of battle, by the time you're done shouting, 'Diaclone Construction Vehicle Robos! Merge for the kill!' all the component members will have been shot!"

No, no, it does not roll off the tongue.

The Seeker shakes his head, and his gaze returns to Shortround. "And actually, our Prime doe-didn't combine with anything. And you must understand, I never encountered the mech... I was a low ranker back on Cybertron while the big stuff generally went down elsewhere." Just like Fleetwind prefers it. "But based on the files, Optimus Prime did have one drone, I believe. And his trailer converted to a combat station, of sorts, but judging by the combat recordings, he didn't employ that very often in combat. I suppose it cut down on his mobility too much."

[Shortround]

Shortround shrugs casually "Well, Diaclone's the series. It's a toyline of these transforming robot things that humans apparantly control and use to destroy each other in a futuristic wasteland. You know, like Zoids or Gundam, cept they transform and they aren't Macross or that one Microman series with guys like Cassette Robo"

Oh boy. Shortround's gone and allowed his nerd-self out. It was his rants like this that made him avoided on Cybertron.

Shortround continued "I haven't seen our Optimus either, not good for supply runners to encounter anything like him, but rumour says he's got serious firepower nowerdays. He used to just leave his trailer behind, but now he wears it as armour. And he can combine with that random pal of his, Wing Saber or whatever"

Shortround looks around at the swamp and crosses his arms over his chest, in an attempt to be a bit more secure. He's still gripping his plasma rifle in one of his claws, as a 'just in case' precaution "So uh... When'd everyone else say they were getting here? I'd feel a bit safer if there were some other Decepticons around..."

Shortround doesn't add that at even the slightest sound of danger he'll be liable to set fire to the rest of the swamp.

[Fleetwind]

"Human... toys?" Fleetwind still looks faintly puzzled, but he shrugs it off. "If that's what you prefer." Fleetwind tends to view organics and the interests of organics as beneath him, but mocking a fellow Decepticon to their face was a good way to get shot in the back.

(He does not yet know that with Shortround, it's possible that that may happen anyway, entirely by accident.)

"Our Optimus Prime is dead." Fleetwind grins very wide. "Happened not long before I was pulled from my reality. Megatron killed him in a battle on Earth."

"The others should be here shortly. They're only a small distance west from us, but they had some other matters to tend to first. Still, they're near enough. If trouble comes up that's beyond us, we should be able to join up with them fast enough."

That's right. Fleetwind is explaining how easy it will be to run away if things go wrong. Coward power!

[Shortround]

It always happens entirely by accident with Shortround. Some unlucky Decepticon finds themself stuck in an elevator, a line or a dismal swamp with him, and leaves with a newfound respect for wanting to stay away from him.

"Well, not all of them are toys, cause people can pay through the roof for them, but yeah" Shortround explains "You can make a killing on the secondary market as well, this one time I spent heaps on a full set of G2 Stunticons"

Shortround is visibly less worried when Fleetwind mentions his Prime being dead "Our Prime died once. Then he came back to life... Which was wierd, but eh", he shrugs casually, as if Autobot leaders rising from the grave was a regular occurance.

Shortround is also visible less worried when Fleetwind mentions the short distance for the rest of the group. "So, who else do you have in the group?", he asks, sounding interested.

[Fleetwind]

Fleetwind is well aware that those on the upper ranks of the Decepticons get reported "dead" and then "not dead" on a fairly regular basis, and wouldn't be too surprising if this was the case with the upper ranks of the Autobots, but he still figures "currently dead" is an improvement over "currently kicking tailfin."

However, Fleetwind is really unable to focus on that, because Shortround preceded the comment with more toy talk. Which wouldn't be so bad, except for what toys he talked about. The Seeker stares hard at Shortround while the other talks, and for several moments after he finishes. Finally he raises his right hand, index finger up, and says, "Erm... well, a Decepticon belonging to the subgroup calling themselves 'Stunticons' is one of them." He pauses, then goes on. "The Stunticons are primarily warriors. Hook, as I may have mentioned, is a member of the Constructicons, and one of the Empire's top engineers." Perhaps the top engineer, but Fleetwind isn't in a position to make judgment calls. Hook and Scrapper and Shockwave and Soundwave and anyone else can have it out with each other over who gets to be 'Empire's top engineer.' Maybe in a knock-down, drag-out, no holds barred engineering show-down of some sort. "There is also Starfighter, another Seeker, like me. He appears to be a... secretary of some sort. And Skystrike who is also a Seeker. I think she's a warrior. You've heard of Demolishor, and we have someone who calls himself Sky-Byte - not sure what he is, he isn't one of ours. And finally there's Cannonball who... appears to fancy himself some soft of pirate." The Seeker pauses and considers. "We may not actually be seeing him."

[Shortround]

Shortround shrugs "Well, is the Stuncticon a bright neon car of some variety? They were this small line of random toys released on Earth, there were also Protectobots as well. Had to pay a whole slagging lot for them as well" he adds.

Shortround nods after hearing each of the names "Never heard of him, never heard of him, never heard of her, heard of Demolisher, got no idea who Sky-Byte is..."

Shortround pauses for a moment after listing off who he hasn't heard of "Wait... Do you mean THE Cannonball, the famous pirate?" Shortround asks quizzically. Everyone's heard of Cannonball, or at least people who keep an ear on the transfer of goods across space.

[Fleetwind]

"Neon? Oh, no. Dark. Reddish. Maroon, maybe? I'm not sure. I've never been good at color theory," says the pastel yellow Seeker.

"And... I mean a rather piratey Decepticon who calls himself Cannonball. He's not a famous pirate in my reality, so I can't really answer that. He might be the same guy, however." Still, that's an interesting bit of news. Fleetwind decides to alert his "empire's" second in command on the matter.

The Seeker tilts his head, and decides to ask Shortround for an explanation that he failed to get from Demolishor earlier. "Do you happen to know what a... 'Meeny-con' is?"