Decepticon Interim: Skyfire about town

[Skyfire]

(Arriving from 'Welcoming Skyfire' thread)

Skyfire flies over the small town again, this time much more slowly, without the sonic booms or wingtip vortices. He hovers over the largest clear space in town--the crater--settles, touches down, and almost immediately transforms. The Really Big White Shuttle is now a Really Big White Robot, taller by a third than even Megatron. He strides easily out of the crater.

Skyfire listens and looks for a moment, orienting himself as he looks over the roofs of small buildings, noting landmarks and streets wide enough to accomodate him. He listens intently; in the abandoned, lifeless town, the clanking and humming of live Decepticons carries a long way.

---
The scriptwriters forgot Needlenose was in there before they had Skyfire transform. Don't worry, he'll show up unharmed after the commercial break!

[Eye-fire]

Eye-fire, after returning to the mining town via Fleetwind, has decided to keep an eye on the new arrival.
He could also possibly try to explain away anything Skyfire saw that might be a bit odd or that didn't fit with Starscreams explanation.

Walking from out behind a building, he waved at the larger mech with his normal hand, keeping the other one pointed at the ground.

"Greetings! I don't believe we've met before, and I didn't properly introduce my self back there. My names Eye-fire." He says walking closer and extending his hand to Skyfire.

[Skyfire]

Skyfire extends a hand and clasps the other briefly. "Pleased to meet you. As you may have heard, I am Skyfire, explorer and scientist. I'm apparently rather badly behind on history, from what Starscream has told me. If you don't mind my asking a personal question, when were you built?"

---
(( Skyfire is hoping for a answer he can correlate to his own time. ))

[Counterpunch]

Eventually Counterpunch, in his local meanderings, comes across the second large crater. He stops and looks across it, the optic band tucked beneath his mask narrowing. One Decepticon, build similar to Shockwave's. And the turncoat. His fist clenches briefly, but then relaxes.

Normally, he's just move on, but he rather needs to get a clearer idea of what's going on with Skyfire. He begins to walk along the rim of the crater, gaze trained on Skyfire. Once he's gone several steps he asks, raising his voice just loud enough to be heard by the two at the center, and no louder, "So, you a new recruit?"

[Eye-fire]

Eye-fire transmits the date of his creation, Skyfire should be able to figure out the massive gap between when he was last in his proper time and the time to Eye-fires activation.

"I haven't been around for very long, really." Eye-fire says rubbing the back of is scope shaped head.

Eye-fire turns to look at the newcomer.

"I've never met you before. Names Eye-fire." He says.

[Skyfire]

Skyfire nods. "I see. I wondered if you might have been around back when I left Cybertron, or could tell me something about what happened after that."

Skyfire turns his head and looks down at the newcomer. "Hello, I'm Skyfire. I'm not sure I'm a 'recruit', really. I'm still trying to figure out what my partner Starscream has got going here. You are...?"

One of the more obvious things to those familiar with Autobot Skyfire is the large blank spot on his chest where an emblem ought to be.

[Counterpunch]

Counterpunch has, indeed, noted the blank spot.

Once he's been addressed, he leaps into the air and casually activates his antigravs, landing nimbly near the other two. He often makes a point to work in the use of antigravs when meeting other Decepticons for the first time. What he is not aware of, of course, is that he may well be fully demonstrating to Skyfire for the first time the use of one of the technologies Kup attributed the start of the War to.¹

"Counterpunch," he says, quietly, answering both questions. "And didn't your partner explain things himself?" His voice is soft, but there is an edge to it, an indication of anger that lies just below the surface.

---

¹ Well, outside of the odd floating gun, although robots with that sort of alternate mode tend to have odd rules, anyway.

[Shortround]

Hover hover hover

Shortround comes speeding around a corner, boxes on him again. Unfortunately Shortround then sees Skyfire. While he's seen larger robots, he has a tendency to be no where near them, and he's a bit too close to Skyfire for his liking.

"... Slag" he says softly to himself, as he looks up at the massive Transformer. Shortround then transforms and backs away behind some buildings, in case this transformer decides to shoot him.

He can't get over the very slight resemblance to a Macross VF-1S Super Valkyrie though... Or the resemblance to Skyblast...

[Eye-fire]

"It would have taken far too long for Starscream to explain everything. I, of course, will be glad to fill you in on anything. Or at least, I'll try." Eye-fire says. It took a little effort to drop the Emperor honorific he tacks on before Starscreams name, but he thinks Skyfire might find it a little odd.

"You seem to be.... tense. Is something the matter?" Eye-fire says watching Counterpunch closely. He's currently got it attributed to moving to this world suddenly or the lack a of refueling.

[Skyfire]

There's definitely an undercurrent of something going on, but judging from Eye-fire's puzzled tone, Skyfire isn't the only one out of the loop. Starscream running off hurriedly, this guy on edge, that hovercraft over there suddenly transforming and scurrying away... Something is off kilter here.

Still, by Starscream's admission, they are a military force, suddenly transplanted into what has proved to be a new warzone. They have good reason to be on edge. No, Skyfire still needs a better grasp of the picture before he can critique it. He watches Counterpunch's display of anti-grav technology with interest.

"Eye-fire has the right of it--I've just landed, and Starscream has hardly had the chance to catch me up on nine million years of history." Not to mention some questions he has about the history he thought he knew from before that. "Have you been here long, Counterpunch? And when do you come from? For that matter, when were you built?"

"Eye-fire, do you know where I can find Hook? Starscream did mention something about him checking my systems over, and I did come out of very severe icing conditions." Skyfire's internal diagnostics are all in the green, but there's other reasons for talking to one of the famous builders of Crystal City. Besides, those wing trim panels aren't shifting as cleanly as they should.

He turns his head to look over the buildings where the short Transformer disappears in. "Hello?"

[Starscream]

It wasn't long before Starscream had flown into the area. He needed some cooling-of time after dealing with the news of his apparent fate, and Skyfire did not need to see that.

The decidedly un-pyramid-jet-like F-15 transformed back into robot form, landing near Skyfire. "My apologies. We are learning more and more about ourselves than we could have come to expect."

Hmm, the blue person he doesn't recognize. "Another new recruit, I see. I don't suppose you recognize me?" It would save the Air Commander-come-Emperor a lot of hassle.

[Counterpunch]

"I'm fine," Counterpunch growls out sullenly at Eye-fire. And, indeed, he is. Perpetually angry, perhaps, but perpetually angry Decepticons are hardly all that unusual.

Never mind that the only thing that prevents Counterpunch from turning and attacking Eye-fire for suggesting he's anything other than perfectly fine is Starscream's recent orders.

"Just got here, from," and he gives a timestamp that matches up with the Earth year 2007, near the end of S3, not long before the Return of Optimus Prime, "built during the war."

He casts a suspicious look in the direction where Shortround retreated to, but appears to shrug it off. When Starscream arrives, however, he dips his head in a very low nod, one that hints at a bow without being one. "I recognize you, Air Commander. My name is Counterpunch."

[Blackarachnia (BW)]

A Black Widow made its way towards Starscream and company. Hmm, that big guy must be Starscream's new buddy. Hmm, they sure built them big back in the day. Blackarachnia shuddered at the thought of how much time was going to be spent securing fuel for all these inefficient bodies.

Blackarachnia said "Terrorize!" some distance away, transforming once again. Somehow, she doubted it was a word that would inspire confidence in Skyfire, before quietly making her way towards the others.

---

OOC: Blackarachnia will pose immediately after Starscream next pose round - Counterpunch was too fast with a post!

[Eye-fire]

"Hello Blackarachnia, and of course, Starscream." Eye-fire says greeting them without turning.

"Hook is probably still in the town, most likely doing repairs of one sort or other." He says pointing about where the he last knew Hook to be.

[Shortround]

Slag it all! They had seen him! Bah, stealth was for cons like Hardtop, not Shortround. There was a reason he stayed in the base most of the time.

"Hello!" he called, peaking out from the houses. While the large transformer wasn't armed, he just noticed Starscream was there, talking to the blue robot. Ah, another reason to get as far away as soon as possible. "I'm uh... Shortround"

Nervous? Nervous doesn't come to half of it. Larger transformers tended to be the ones Shortround had to run away from.