Interim: Flood Aftermath

[Sable Conolly]

Far, far downstream, Scourge finally came to rest. He fought the currents the whole time, but their rage out mastered his own. He was left exhausted, spent, and aching from his many injuries. Scourge slammed the Sword of Fury into a nearby rock for safe-keeping and passed out on top of a rocky slab.

Scourge awakens to the gentle tickle of sunlight on his frame. He grunts when his chronometer informs him just how long he was out. Scourge rolls over on the warm, sunny slab to stare up at the sky. He takes stock of his injuries. One hand is wounded due to his own sword, there are finger-marks raked into the side of his truck cab, a door has been wrenched clear off his body, his side and arm show gaping holes from having been shot multiple times, a wicked saw wound streaks down his face mask, and he's generally dented and busted from being swept away by a flash flood.

Now he knows how road kill feels. Those dirty charges have his electrical systems complaining, too. Scourge knows that he has to keep going, and he will, but right now, he's going to sun himself and try to get some of this abominable damp out of his circuits. Maybe those voices on the radio will give him some more information.

Groaning, Scourge draws his uninjured forearm over his optics.

[Screwdriver]

Screwdriver's search pattern is not what would call logical, or orderly, or, indeed, even a pattern. She had suspected she was stuck with the Sons of Camelot when Puss in Boots had caught up with her, but it seems their allies, her village elders, had never told them she's an exile. Still, it was time to move on, before her village had time to get them word.

Those fools could find Arthur themselves. She's far too clever to spend her time for them! And there was too much in this land of the fae to explore!

The little motorcycle rumbles by, driving mostly off road because the spikes make on-road driving more difficult, but then a most curious sight catches her attention. She transforms and stares in wonder.

Why, it's the Sword in the Stone! Celiban! And nearby lies the Black Knight! The Junkion approaches cautiously, but her rust colored frame, the perfect camouflage in her native setting, serves her poorly here. As she gets closer, she can make out new details. Uther Pendragon is the Black Knight? And he bears the standard of the Emperor!

"Curiouser and Curiouser," she murmurs softly.

[Sable Conolly]

Scourge wonders if he can just ignore the sounds and continue drying off in the sun. His black frame is getting nicely toasty to evaporate away all this nasty wetness. It's probably just the birds and the insects, right?

Wrong. He's a soldier, and a soldier's duty is to check on odd sounds that might be 'curiouser and curiouser'. Scourge sits up, the whine of his serves just barely covering his own groan, and he settles his arm down on his lap, the other arm back to prop up the rest of him. With pink-tinged red optics, he regards the strange little robot. Scourge can't make a symbol out on her¹, so he says bluntly, "State your intentions."

This is a whole new world. She might not even be an Autobot, Predacon, or Decepticon.

---

¹ As far as the show went, Scourge had no symbols. However, this Scourge has Decepticon symbols where the toy does, on his shoulders and doors, to help keep down confusion.

[Screwdriver]

Screwdriver stands very straight, feet together, hands clasped behind her back as she examines Scourge. When he tells her to state her intentions, she tilts her head slightly to the right as she considers this, then straightens it again, smiles brightly, and answers, "To crow and caper, caper and crow! With the merry coral, ding, ding, ding!"¹

Her smile fades and her expression turns into one of intense interest. She pulls her right hand from behind her back to point to the Sword of Fury and asks, "Who so Pulleth Out This Sword of this Stone and Anvil, is Rightwise King Born of All England?"²

---

¹ Dance, Little Baby. No, she does not take succeeding lines this time; she's a Junkion. Sometimes they mash things together!

² The Sword in the Stone; general Arthurian stories.

[Sable Conolly]

Screwdriver may be perfectly sane by the standards of her universe, Scourge admits. She just makes absolutely no sense in his own. He tentatively notes her down as harmless, although he's willing to reevaluate if the situation changes.

Moving rather less gracefully than usual, he stands up and grunts, "It's the Sword of Fury. My sword."

Why did he put it in the rock, again? Oh yeah, he was furious at his inability to either defeat the Autobot or overcome nature, and he really needed to stab something. The rock was just an innocent bystander. Putting a foot down on the rock, he wraps both hands around the hilt and heaves hard. The blade comes out cleanly, and Scourge scrutinizes it for nicks. The sword looks to be in good shape. Good.

He looks back to Screwdriver and comments, "King of England? I wouldn't say no to the job."

Rightwise born? Not so much. Then again, Arthur was conceived when Uther took the form of Gorlois to sleep with Lady Igraine. That's rightwise born? Sure. And Scourge is red, silver, and blue, too.

Stashing the sword, he turns back to face Screwdriver, and he withdraws a flame-painted panel. Figuring it's worth a shot, he holds it up and asks, "Know who this belongs to?"

[Screwdriver]

When Screwdriver sees the panel, she gasps, places both hands over her mouth, opens her large optics even wider, and takes two steps back. After a moment, she lowers her hands and continues to stare at the panel, reaching towards it with her left, doll-like hand. "King Arthur!" she finally says softly.

Then she looks up at Scourge, her head tilted now to the left, faint puzzlement painting her features. "But... know you not he, Uther Pendragon? Is he not your successor, wielder of the mighty Excalibur and wearer of the crown of Camelot?"

[Sable Conolly]

Scourge can understand the resemblance to Optimus Prime. He looks like him. He understands that fact, thank you very much. Uther Pendragon? He's not sure he wants to know what kind of universe has Transformers named Uther Pendragon, but apparently, he looks like the guy, too. If he looks like anyone else, he's going to find whoever is behind it and punch him. Looks like his are not meant to be commonplace!

He waves the panel and asks dubiously, "So this is King Arthur's panel? No successors as far as I know, no Excalibur, and no crown." He'd need to win and please Megatron enough to be given the ruins of Earth first before he can think about successors.

Scourge puts the panel away and decides to continue talking to her, although he collapses down into truck mode, his tanker trailer joining him. He questions, "Any idea where we are or what is happening?"

[Screwdriver]

Screwdriver frowns up at Scourge's apparent lack of comprehension, then she sighs heavily and reminds herself that she must modify her speech patterns to be understood by simpler minds. "Rodimus. Prime. The armor of flame is worn by Rodimus. Prime."

She shakes her head. It was so difficult talking to these people!

Some people might be surprised to learn that Screwdriver does listen to the general frequency. And sometimes, she does even learn things. She learned some interesting things when people were explaining them to Eye-fire. She points to the ground. "The land is named Gillanan III, though of the what, I know not. I blame the capriciousness of the fickle fae."

[Sable Conolly]

Scourge lets the name roll off his voice box as he repeats it back, "Rodimus Prime. Prime." His optics flash, and he wonders if that means what he thinks it does. He circles around Screwdriver, regarding her with a keen and perhaps somewhat ominous curiosity. "You're... flowery. Metaphorical. Rodimus Prime isn't a king, is he? He knew an Optimus Prime, and I am told that the resemblance is uncanny, so - ah. Rodimus Prime is the Autobot leader that succeeded Optimus Prime? Optimus Prime is Uther Pendragon?"

That would seem to be the way the puzzle fits together. Scourge looks grimly satisfied. An Autobot leader should be a challenge. He should not think poorly of his own showing, then.

Screwdriver, behold Mordred, clad in darkness and spite and ready to take a lance to end his creator.

[Screwdriver]

Screwdriver turns her head this way and that to try to watch Scourge as he circles around her, but doesn't actually turn her whole body. Flowery? Metaphorical? Are those compliments? "I'm a Junkion!" she explains as the larger robot makes these observations, as though that should explain everything.

(And really, for many Transformers from her own reality, it would.)

"Then you are not Pendragon?" she asks, once more puzzled. Then she ahs. "You bear the Emperor's standard! It did seem unlikely," she allows.

[Sable Conolly]

Scourge is not complementing Screwdriver, though she can think what she wants. He likes to be able to understand people, and he honestly finds the way she talks rather irritating. He isn't going off on her because she seems too out of it to respond to intimidation.

By the Emperor, he assumes she means Megatron, which is a close enough guess. He assumes that 'Junkion' is her faction, which is sort of close, too.

Scourge admits, "I am of the Pendragon, but I am not him." That's as much as he told Rodimus Prime. "Do you serve the Emperor?"

His missing door much clearer now that he's in truck mode, Scourge starts to rumble along at a rather low speed. Hopefully, she'll follow.

[Screwdriver]

Screwdriver transforms and follows after, rolling nimbly over the black desert and intentionally hitting many good sized rocks and dips so that she fairly bounces after the tanker. She processes Scourges declaration, then shouts, "Mordred!" This, of course, doesn't quite work, as Mordred is Arthur's son, not Pendragon's, but sometimes you have to shave off the edges to get things to fit.

"The Emperor has allowed me to serve in his court! I am the master toymaker!" she burbles happily back at Scourge. "My toys are the cleverest ever, and I can take make and mend and dent and disassemble any other toy in no time at all." She pauses for a moment, then adds, a bit sadly, "Except the soft ones. I've not yet figured those out."

[Sable Conolly]

Mordred? More dread? Scourge is rather intimidating! For his part, Scourge avoids rocks and bumps. He's injured enough as it is without getting his alignment all busted to pieces.

He takes time to think about what she says. He knows that he cannot take her talk of 'toys' literally, if the 'cons she knows are anything like proper 'cons. Besides, he's pretty sure he cannot take anything she says literally. So 'toys' has to mean something useful that 'cons would want. Scourge is guessing gadgets, weapons, or both.

Scourge declares, "We are allies, then. I must warn you, there is one known as Sky-Byte. He and I both serve the Emperor. However, he has lied to me and given me a false trail. I search out our true enclave on this planet, that I might resume service and teach him a lesson." A lesson in why Sky-Byte shouldn't do things that make Scourge want to beat him over the head with the Sword of Fury. "You are good with toys. Can you treat Transformers, as well?"

[Screwdriver]

"False trail?" Screwdriver answers, bouncing along happily after Scourge. "That wrascally wabbit!" That's what Rabbits do, right? Even if this Rabbit is a shark.

"Treat Transformers? Of course! Simplicity itself! My people are the most renowned healers throughout the lands, and I am their cleverest daughter!" Her voice gets low and sad as she continues. "They hate me for it. Jealous."

[Sable Conolly]

Scourge is not going to try to make too much sense of the rabbit comments. Maybe she knows a rabbit Predacon who is a filthy, rotten liar. He comments, "This one is a shark."

"Jealousy..." Scourge rasps out lowly. Therein might just be his problem. Perhaps Sky-Byte is jealous of him. There's a lot to be jealous of! Scourge has more subordinates, and his turn into a giant robot. Also, Scourge is just generally rockin'. Who wouldn't want a piece of that? He concludes, "I do believe that I suffer from that same problem-"

He doesn't know her name, does he?

"Yes. As your people envy you, perhaps Sky-Byte envies me. I am injured from fighting Rodimus Prime. Could you perform field repairs?"

The tanker truck slows down gently and rolls to a stop. They're getting into scrublands and forest now, much greener, and that just might be a swamp in the distance.