Inside the Mine

[Sky-byte]

Sky-byte can only glare at Wreckage's response. This Decepticon is border-lining a contemptuous similarity in attitude as Scourge. Well, what Sky-byte has seen of Wreckage's attitude thus far. Is he implying that Sky-byte is a coward? Whether or not this is the case, Sky-byte rises to the bait. "Why in the world would we be afraid of an empty shell? Why we were just about to carry it out before you barged in here!" Amazement and frustration tends to make Sky-byte contradictory. He only huffs and stalks after Wreckage when the Decepticon pushes forward. Stopping only to address Starfighter's question. "We follow, I don't want him taking credit for anything that we might be finding down here."

If Starfighter thinks that just because Sky-byte has the sense to follow orders when he has to means that this shark would make a good shield. This jet has another thing coming to him. Starfighter seems to forget that Sky-byte can dive into a wall and that he can't.

Running away isn't cowardly. It's a survival skill.

[Wreckage]

Whether they follow or stray, Wreckage tracks ahead of the other two Decepticons. So long as they understand he will not submit to them – and, preferably, do not understand what he may do if they try again to exert control – he will not concern himself with their mutterings. Let them dislike him if they wish. That they fear him is enough for now. Their lack of focus on the surroundings, however, is almost criminal. These are Decepticon warriors?

He wonders, as he treads lightly across warped metal rails and sidesteps broken cables dangling from the ceiling, just how Starscream will keep a decent military unit with 'soldiers' such as these. Lord Megatron… probably would never bother. Then again, he kept Starscream. At least before he disappeared in search of the All Spark.

Wreckage's thoughts are interrupted by the new, different reek filling his olfactory intake; it chokes shut in reflex with an audible snap and the disgusted sneer he makes is genuine. The stench is very organic. Prey ahead, then?

[Starfighter]

"Oh," Starfighter said quietly as he followed Sky-byte down. He had no problem with other people taking credit for his work; it was taking credit for other people's failings that bothered him.

He kept his stylus moving as they walked, desperate to keep a current record of their location in relation to the rest of the mine when they lacked the benefit of a magical coil of wire. His hand stopped brushing Sky-byte every few steps, trusting to Wreckage to either take care of any problems ahead or to kill them both whether Starfighter heard him or not.

The seeker held his hand over his face as the odor of something disgusting floated back to him. He'd never sensed anything like it, and he really didn't want to do so again.

[Sky-byte]

One more time, Predacon, not Decepticon.

Sky-byte revises his opinion of letting Wreckage take the lead. How in the world is anything supposed to work if he can't see? With the tank's bulk and height, the Decepticon's white back is all Sky-byte can stare at as they go deeper into the mines. He only notices the frayed cables as they hang limply from the rough hewn ceiling and has to walk awkwardly along the rails. He doesn't trust Wreckage, he doesn't trust Starfighter much either. Stuck between two Decepticons...looking back on such a situation, he might sneer at the very idea. But right now, being between two Decepticons is better than being attacked by two Decepticons.

"Eeaugh!" Sky-byte's opinion of the sudden stench is very clear and he clasps both hands )or rather one hand and flings his Anchor Arm up over) on his olfactory sensors. But he can't see! What's up there? Unashamedly, he ducks down in an attempt to see under Wreckage's arms, if it's possible. Somehow he doubts that this is any sort of treasure that he's been hoping for.

[Wreckage]

At least the other two seem as disgusted by the scent as he. Wreckage momentarily tenses as Sky-byte peers beneath his arm. The proximity of the partially-organic shark is one Wreckage usually reserves for battle; he came very close to striking out in reflex. He restrains himself, however, with the utmost care. He will not be a creature of instinct. He will be a creature of reason.

The source of the stench is not in sight, however. Reluctantly, Wreckage re-submits his olfactory sensors to the abuse and sniffs at the air. It is at least near, whatever it may be, he decides. He eases forward, following the scent on the wind as it leads him down the tunnel, then into a branch to the left. In the wash of his optic light is something that he assumes was an animal, splayed across one of the rails and messily rent in two pieces. The flesh is rotten and teeming with insects.

Wreckage would be annoyed he bothered to come looking if he was not curious after what killed the animal.

[Starfighter]

There's a mild whimper and a rattle of wings on stone as Starfighter peers past the both of them and on to the disgusting corpse. It's far too close, and more visceral and squishy than anything he'd ever seen in a Cybertronian body.

"A-are they supposed to look like that? Naturally?" He didn't know anything about organics and how they worked, perhaps this was just some sort of strange reproduction method. Yes. It was very tiring and they're taking a long nap together and it's all very natural and romantic.

Please?

[Sky-byte]

Sky-byte would appreciate Wreckage's decision to be a 'creature of reason'. An unexpected chance to be acquainted with the tunnel walls, floor, or Starfighter is not something he looks forward to. He follows quickly after Wreckage, curiosity morbidly piqued. Again he ducks down, trying to get some sort of view.

What he sees earns a semi-disgusted grimace. Torn up organics aren't on his list of favorite things, but it's not something he's unfamiliar with either. It's a rather unfortunate side effect of doing battle on a heavily organic planet such as Earth. Well, as long as it's not human. He actually likes humans.

"No, last time I looked at organics, they aren't supposed to mangled and mid-eaten." Just like transformers are not normally crushed and half-rusted/molten. "Reminds me of road kill." Stupid automobiles.

[Blackarachnia (BW)]

The large Black Widow scuttled into the mine. It's not long before she's managed to catch up with the others. She was halfway up the wall (literally, not quite figuratively) when she found her quarry. She recognized Sky-Byte's voice from the radio. "So, you're the other Predacon here." She said. "But.. why were you built so big?"

"And what's that awful smell?"

[Wreckage]

"…Hnn." Wreckage again tolerates the shark's nearness, though with marginally less restraint than before as the discontented sound reveals. He may have to educate Sky-byte later in the matters of permission and personal boundaries. "Perhaps there is a predator in the tunnels," he grates in answer to the speculation. He suspects there are more of these prey creatures in the mines as well, if it drew down a hunter. Its threat to the Decepticons is likely minimal if it pursues prey as small as the sorry carcass in front of him, but he is not so fond of organics as to share potential living space with them. The sound he makes as he expels air from his ventilation could almost be a sigh. The thought of killing it seems so… unfulfilling.

Admittedly, he did not hear the spider's approach; too much talking going on, and she was far too quiet. Wreckage's reaction at her seemingly abrupt appearance is, to him, quite reasonable. Halfway up the wall is hardly beyond reach and there is a large machine gun pointed at her very quickly. He gives her a cold, sidelong glare but remains silent; may as well give the shark a chance to respond.

[Starfighter]

Yeeek!

Once again Starfighter manages almost instantly to slip around behind Sky-byte and hide from the strange little thing on the wall. Small shrieking things inside the mine shaft and they climbed the walls and they killed little animals and they talked and--waitasec.

Starfighter takes another look at the creature, this time seeing more than the thousand legs and drooling mandibles that his imagination dreamed up the first time, and sags back a bit against the mine wall.

This expedition is not good for his laser core at all.

[Sky-byte]

Permission and personal boundaries are things Sky-byte pays very special attention to...if it's him being intruded upon. Yes, yes hypocrite. He's a shark, not a saint. "If it's organic and smaller than us, we have nothing to worry about," Sky-byte snorts, starting to feel a bit less skitterish about this whole situation. It's when Wreckage whirls around and Sky-byte finds the large barrel of a machine gun pointing past him that the Predacon's wits scatter momentarily once more.

With Skyfighter's cowering form somehow slipping behind him again, Sky-byte slowly edges forward. He recognizes the voice from broadband. Absentmindedly, he moves to nudge the Wreckage's barrel aside, hoping not to have this new arrival blown away. Unfamiliar or no, friendly or no, this is a Predacon and Sky-byte's sick of being the odd-one-out.

"...why are you so small and organic looking?"

[Blackarachnia (BW)]

"Hn." Blackarachnia overheard everything that Sky-Byte said, knowing to take it as an insult. "The organics were necessary shielding for where we were located. But there haven't been people built at your size since the time of Autobots and Decepticons." Wait, someone mentioned something about the differences. "Perhaps we're from some VERY differing worlds. Blackarachnia, Terrorize!"

With that, the widow leaped forth from the wall, unfolding once again into all seven feet of Predacon glory that she was.

[Wreckage]

The look Wreckage fixes on Sky-byte for touching him is nearly murderous, his optics brightening as anger rises. The others could assume, given the lack of change in his general expression, that he was simply dialling up the luminosity of his optic fibers to better illuminate the impromptu conversation. Wreckage being helpful. One who assumes such is a fool, but it would make a somewhat serviceable lie should anyone ask, he decides even as he firmly locks his anger back into its place.

Slowly, quietly, he lowers his gun; he does not, however, disarm it. His optics remain bright as he peers down at this… small, vaguely human-like thing that is supposedly one of the shark's kind. Wreckage, so accustomed to being dwarfed by his fellow warriors and never given the dubious fortune of extended contact with Frenzy, finds this height dynamic somewhat of a novelty still.

[Starfighter]

Starfighter wondered why the Predacon was referring to herself in third person and what exactly she planned on terrorizing. Hopefully not him.

He slinked out from behind Sky-byte again, attempting to be unnoticed and not at all terrified of something a third his height. Perhaps she was one of those Mini-Cons Demolishor had talked about earlier--although he couldn't find any place for "powerlinking" and was quite intent on not looking for one.

[Sky-byte]

If Sky-byte had known that Blackarachnia had taken his comment about the predator in the tunnels as a remark against her, he'd be quite quick in attempting to get into somewhat good favors. But...he doesn't know. What he does grudgingly admit to himself is that disguising oneself as a somewhat organic looking creature with a somewhat matching size would make a much more adequate disguise than well...what any of the Predacons had back in his world. But then again, how is one supposed to fight off fifteen-foot car-bots if one's as small as Blackarachnia is. No, this Predacon will stick to being a huge Transmetal shark. "And is that a bad thing?"

Her transformation cry doesn't phase him. After all, he does it himself, sometimes. Well...her robot mode is certainly different from what he's used to as well. A lot less, well, complicated and...he can't help but keep thinking this, but smaller. Ah well, a Predacon's a Predacon, no matter the size. Right?