Howling Mine Arrival

[Needlenose]

OOC: See the locations thread for the description of the Howling Mine. Needlenose is here by himself, and I will probably not post his every move between now and when he finally meets up with other ‘Cons. As with Shrapnel, some of his actions will be ‘off camera.’

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Needlenose's optics come online, and for a moment, he wonders if they're working. He quickly decides he can't be dead or in stasis - it's too noisy for that, and probably a bit too smelly. Then his sensors adjust to the light levels, and he figures out his eyes work. It's just dark.

"Where the hell am I?" he mutters out loud as he pulls himself. Certainly not the Ark. "And what did they do to me? I feel strange. I feel... feel..." Suddenly, Needlenose brightens. "Actually, I feel pretty damned good!" Who knew surrendering to the Autobots would be so pleasant?

"Y'talking to y'self again, dude?" a voice, fairly close, comes out of the darkness.

"Where are we? I can't see a thing?" another voice complains.

"Turn on your hud's low light systems, man. Dude. Even I figured that one out, and I'm solar powered."

"... Oh. Well, where are we? I just see some sort of cave?"

"Sunny! Ziggy! There you are!" Needlenose looked around and spotted his Nebulans, both of which were near by, close to a strange looking control panel of some sort. The Mayhem kneeled to examine the panel, but he couldn't make out the language, and it appeared to have no power, anyway.

"Wherever 'here' is," complained Zigzag. "You haven't answered my question."

Needlenose shakes his head. "Not sure. It's not Cybertron, doesn't feel like Earth... I'd recognize their major languages." Well, English and Japanese, as those are the best languages with reguards to video games. Besides, if an Earther doesn't know one of the two, obviously they're not hip enough to bother with, anyway. "Maybe the Autobots dropped me here to keep me out of their way?" It didn't seem to fit with their standard operation, but it's not like Autobots always made sense. After all, they were content to be lead by a guy who first ruined him for creating work that wasn't 'practical' enough, then suicided over a video game. Logic obviously didn't often enter into things.

"Well, if I'm here," he mused out loud for the benefit of Sunbeam and Zigzag, even if he could just talk over radio to them instead, "maybe they dumped the others somewhere nearby?" It seemed worth a shot, so Needlenose decided to give it a shot.

It only makes sense that he'd try to contact the teammate he was closest with. The Mayhem activates his radio, dialed into Spinister's personal frequency, and inquires, // Spinister? You out there anywhere? //

[Needlenose]

As it turns out, the first person Needlenose is apt to radio is already on this planet. But he's out of date! And so much colder. Needlenose has a very frustrating conversation with Spinister as he makes his way up the tunnels. There are some branches, but it's generally pretty easy to figure out which way is 'up.' A number of startling discoveries are made, including the body of a Seeker and the fact that Needlenose's transformation system has gone offline. D'oh!

Needlenose finally makes it to the mouth of the mine and, after a creeping approach, determines that it appears, at least, to be deserted. Hmmm. Pretty rough area. It looks to be a mining encampment of some sort, but a road leads up to it before it intersects with a larger road. Looking down the larger road, Needlenose can see the beginnings of what looks to be buildings, but they're some distance down.

The Decepticon activates his personal radio beacon and waits.

Time passes...

[Spinister]

More time passes. Minutes overtake seconds and hours come up from the back of the pack to win the race, with a full day encroaching behind them.

Helicopters don't travel particularly fast, and even though Spinister's an alien helicopter who travels more than twice as fast as physics suggests a helicopter should, he's still not particularly fast in a world of jets and super-powered sports cars. However, if one did the math, Spinister's still late. How rude of him!

There's no sound of rotors to announce his coming, no blurry image on the edge of perception to herald that he is here. Instead, one moment, he simply appears, a decent distance away. The helicopter is mucky, like he took a dive through some things better left unmentioned, and he is also a bit battered. It seems that he managed to get into a bit of a fight somewhere.

Spinister lands, sending light detritus flying due to his blade wash. He transforms, still looking both filthy and lightly injured. Spinister seems to pay no mind to either of the two conditions and instead flips both weapons into his hands and surveys the area. Where would a sniper sit? Where would they put gun emplacements? What paths would be mined? He fails to greet Needlenose, disdaining even a bare 'hi'.

[Needlenose]

Needlenose's wings and antennae perk up as Spinister's arrival startles him. Although he had been keeping his Nebulans ready, during the long wait they had been allowed to transform and wander about nearby. Sunbeam spent his time kicking rocks, looking at the machinery, looking at the sky, looking at the mountains, and generally being a bored organic. And complaining about being a bored organic. Zigzag had set up several rocks in a row as targets, but Needlenose wouldn't let him fire at them because they didn't know when they would be able to recharge. So instead he was just throwing other rocks at them. He hasn't hit yet, but at least his continual string of misses provided some entertainment for Sunbeam.

Once Needlenose gets over the surprise of Spinister's arrival, his antennae both swing back in faint annoyance over the implied dismissal. He stands, and takes a few steps towards Spinister, but doesn't get nearer. His eyes are narrowed as he says, "What, not even a 'Hi, Needlenose,' or 'How're you doing, Needlenose'?" Then he considers what Spinister had said earlier. "'Glad you're not dead, Needlenose,'" he adds.

[Spinister]

Spinister's Nebulans detach and transform of their own accord. Singe stands a distance away from the others, aloof, but Hairsplitter runs over to Sunbeam and Zigzag, waving frantically. Singe isn't the best of company. Hairsplitter sprints over to the other two Nebulans, He exclaims, "Oh, it's so good to see you again! There was this horrible swamp, and Spinister dumped me with this bizarre little rhyming Autobot, and oh… you should aim like this." He picks up a pebble, takes a second to aim, and wings it into a crack in one of the rocks that Zigzag's set up, neatly cleaving the rock in twain. "See?" Hairsplitter's not trying to show off. He just has a thing about correctness.

Spinister pays no heed to the antics of his Nebulans and ignores Needlenose's petulance. If he was inclined to such things, he'd note how self-centred the little brat is. Here Spinister is, filthy and injured, and Needlenose is throwing a snit over the lack of a trivial greeting. Luckily, Spinister doesn't care. He stalks closer to Needlenose and circles around him, considering. There are no outward signs of damage that he can discern. Voice soft like quicksand, he inquires, "Why did you surrender?"

He could see surrender as an acceptable option under any number of contexts, but it is an unacceptable option under any number of scenarios, as well. Spinister is waiting to hear which one it was. That's an extraordinary amount of patience.

Spinister listens along to the radio. Skystrike and Starfighter sound like aerial units, which makes sense with their names. No idea on Demolishor and Sky-Byte. Dead End? So they have a Stunticon.

[Needlenose]

"Gee. Thanks." Zigzag grunts angrily in response to Hairsplitter's display. He crosses his arms and starts to wander off.

Sunbeam, for his part, waves casually at Hairsplitter and yawns. "Hey, dude."

No, Needlenose is not outwardly injured. He tilts his head at Spinister's slow circling, narrows his optics, and tenses. There is something about Spinister's demeanor that sets off Needlenose's instincts, newly developed as they might be.

"Uhm, let's see... on the Ark, no means of getting off it on our own, Thunderwing had just let his damned self get possessed by the Autobot Matrix and blasted you, pretty much taking you out of any follow-up action. Then he was blasted out to space with a harpoon of some sort, leaving Ruckus, Windsweeper, and I facing an Ark full of Autobots with no escape routes and an extra liability in the form of a Decepticon so far out of it he couldn't stand up on his own, and didn't seem to have much of an idea what was going on."

Needlenose crosses his arms and twists at the waist to turn towards Spinister once more. "That good enough for you?"

[Spinister]

Hairsplitter looks crushed. Everyone at work hated him. He's not sure why he thought signing up to conquer the universe would fix that fact. Sunbeam's not walking away, though. That's nearly the same as being friendly. He says, "So… how about this mystery planet, huh? It has at least 79 different species of dragonfly-type thing. I counted."

In the future, Spinister goes stupid? Needlenose is going to have to explain this again later and in better detail, if there is a later for Needlenose. However, he has the more pressing issue of Needlenose being unable to transform, and he doesn't directly answer Needlenose's question about the explanation being good enough. Roughly, Spinister demands, "Lay down and open up. I won't know that I'm seeing, but your wing panels are shiny enough," the preening little peacock, "We can take one off and use it as a mirror. If you see anything you need to look at in more detail," he yanks a thumb back at the nearby city, "I can find a proper mirror there."

Spinister will have at least an idea what he's seeing, but Needlenose doesn't need to know that. He trusts Needlenose. He doesn't trust him that much.

[Needlenose]

Sunbeam is lounging against some old, overturned mining equipment. His feet kind of wiggle back and forth in his boredom. He looks up at Hairsplitter and shrugs. "Dude, I saw a mine. Oh. And a dead Seeker."

Needlenose's optics stay narrow, and his antennae lower and move backwards, like a cat's ears. So recently Needlenose would have trusted Spinister with his life, and more, but now, suddenly, he finds himself reluctant to do so. "I..." he pauses. Of course, getting a better look at his insides does make sense at this point. But Needlenose feels great! But he can't transform. But he feels great! But he can't transform. Finally, his left antenna perks up slightly as he looks around. "Is this really the right place for that?"

[Spinister]

Hairsplitter makes a face over the abandoned mining equipment and tsks, "This is so irresponsible of the natives, just leaving their stuff around. Looks like that they might have been about as tall as we are." He waves Singe over and tries climbing up a ladder on the side of one of the dump truck-type devices. Hairsplitter tries the door, keeping himself busy.

Spinister reminds, practically pleading, "Needlenose, you've lost the thing that makes you a part of this species. You're ill. Combat medicine isn't always pretty. Now, we can try to see if the habitation here has an undefended garage and let you keel over while we're looking, or we can determine what the problem and course of action now."

He sounds upset, but he's not so much upset at Needlenose as he is upset for Needlenose. Spinister doesn't want one of his students with so much potential, someone he spent so much effort training, to die of some Autobot poison. He would mourn for the waste, and deep down, he'd mourn the loss of a friend.

Nastily, Singe comments, I think I saw some flowers over there.

[Needlenose]

Sunbeam asks Hairsplitter, "Have you even seen any natives, dude? Looks like they left the whole mine lying around." He points down road, towards the town that's shown no sign of life at all during the day. "Maybe that whole town lying around."

Spinister's reaction is enough to sway Needlenose. His antennae, head, shoulders and wings droop a bit. Here he was suspicious of Spinister, and Spinister was just looking out for Needlenose! He... feels kind of bad, actually.

And Spinister's words, 'You've lost the thing that makes you a part of this species,' tear at his core. It's all he can do to keep from shuddering.

"Yea- you're right, Spinister. I guess I'm just a bit... unnerved by the whole situation. Here. Help me get this wing off," and he reaches back, attempting to undo the necessary bindings to let him remove his right wing.

[Spinister]

Hairsplitter manages to get the door open and stumbles into the cabin, settling on the ceiling of the over-turned dump truck. One benefit is that there's not much dust on the controls. He peers out the open door and replies, "Uh… not unless the natives are small invertebrates, rodents, fish, or birds."

Spinister cannot say that the downcast droop makes him happy, but that's his Needlenose, right there. He pads over behind Needlenose and traces a finger up the root chord of Needlenose's wing. Decepticon wings generally are not designed to be removable. If they were, the Autobots would have it much too easy. However, there are ways to take apart anything. Spinister pauses, midway, and asks, "Here?"

He knows that there's a latch there, but he'd like to hear it from Needlenose, who doesn't seem to be showing any other odd symptoms, aside from a bad attitude.

[Needlenose]

"Don't be stupid," Zigzag finally snaps at Hairsplitter. "These things are sized for... something close to our size!" Technically, of course, the natives are also small invertebrates, rodents, fish, and birds, because one doesn't have to be sapient to be a native, but that sort of hair-splitting is for... well, for Hairsplitter.

Needlenose nods. "That's right," he confirms, and takes a step away from Spinister as the latches on his side are undone and his wing is removed. He then takes the wing back from Spinister and lies down, muttering, "I still don't like doing this out in the open like this," as he opens up his chest panel and holds his high gloss, very reflective wing up as a mirror.

Once more, Needlenose proves the usefulness of high fashion.

[Spinister]

Hairsplitter pokes his head out of the cabin again and cringes a little. He points out, “But... I already said that I thought the native sophonts had to be about our size. There could be multiple types of native sophont, however.”

Spinister stands over Needlenose, peering around the wing to get a look at the other Mayhem’s innards. What’s the little prima donna so worried about? It’d not like it’s raining, and he’s the centre of attention out here. Urgently, he asks, “Do you see anything? Oh. The Hook that I mentioned? He’s not our Hook. He’s pre-war, ex-Autobot. Probably not Shockwave’s creation. Still does the medical thing.”

He can haul Needlenose back for a better check-up later. Right now, Spinister just wants to ascertain whether he’s going to be hauling back a buddy or a body.

Mentally prodding Singe and Hairsplitter, he dispatches them out to stand watch. Spinister encounters a little resistance from Hairsplitter, who had been trying to decipher the controls of the dump truck. He falls in line, and Singe, despite his bitter attitude, is a competent enough solider when he isn’t sulking.

[Needlenose]

Needlenose doesn't order his Nebulans to stand watch. How lax! Of course, he had been doing the watching up until Spinister arrived.

"Not our Hook?" Needlenose asks, a bit confused. "Just how many Hooks are there?"¹ Then he grunts. "Does anyone have any idea how we got here? Apparently it wasn't the Autobots, after all..." He shifts his wing around and uses it to examine his internal circuitry and machinery. He shakes his head. "I don't see anything... uhm... hang on, hold this." He hands Spinister his wing. Assuming Spinister accepts, Needlenose uses the reflective wing to get a closer look at his fuel pump. He touches it next to where the input tubes are, and moves them gently out of the way. Then his bright white optics dim as he tries to access some information.

"Looks like I've taken on fuel recently, but it's not accounted for... I mean, I don't remember it, but my tanks are topped off, and they weren't before." He looks up at Spinister. His brows are knitted together in confusion, and while one antenna is sticking straight "up" (relative Needlenose) from his head, the other is cocked at a slight angle. "Why would the Autobots top me off?"

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¹ And just think: Needlenose doesn't even know of the Hook from the Hook, Line, and Sinker trio!

[Spinister]

Spinister takes and holds the wing, angling it as Needlenose needs it. He probably also ruins the wing’s finish just by touching it. At Needlenose’s revelation that the Autobots gave him a last meal, Spinister speculates, "Could be drugs – sedatives, truth serum; any number of things. Could be a poison."

Slow-acting poison doesn't make sense. If the Autobots wanted Needlenose dead, they could have just killed him. Killing a prisoner would... well, the Autobots would do that and turn around and say that's not something that they ever do. Maybe they did something slow-acting so he'd keel over once he was back with his own side. Needlenose isn't acting sedated. Truth serum is also a possibility, if they were preparing to interrogate him.

"Do you have any sample containers on you? Better take a sample. Check your transform joints."

He’s not happy about being out in the open here, either, but if something is coming that can be seen, Hairsplitter will see it.