Screwdriver
Rookie
The Lady Protector, Her Splendid Primacy, Grand Duchess Screwdriver. The Devout Silencer of Common Sense and Logic
"And *I'll* live happily ever after..."
Posts: 225
|
Post by Screwdriver on Oct 22, 2007 11:59:28 GMT -5
Actually, neither have exchanged names, but Screwdriver is perfectly content to continue calling Scourge 'Mordred,' anyway.
When Scourge slows down, Screwdriver hits a large bump at high speed, starts to flip over, and uncurls into robot mode in the air to land on her feet. Like Rodimus Prime, she doesn't seem to have to use a verbal command to transform.
"Could I?" she asks in response to Scourge's question. "Could I, would I, should I? I could, I would, I should!" she declares, a wide grin plastered to her doll-like face. Then the grin fades without vanishing, she tilts her head, clasps her hands behind her back, and asks, "But may I?"
So not only can she perform field repairs, she's eager to!
|
|
|
Post by Sable Conolly on Oct 22, 2007 12:18:45 GMT -5
Scourge is not certain what to do about such enthusiasm. He does think it worthwhile to risk letting her repair him, however, because if she breaks anything, he'll just break her. It's that simple.
He notes her ability to transform without a word with no small jealously, and he transforms with a grumble of, "Transform."
Scourge sits down by the side of the road and holds out his injured arm and slashed hand, showing off his damaged side. The facial damage is obvious enough, and he'll need to transform back for the rest of the problems. He directs, "Get to it."
|
|
Screwdriver
Rookie
The Lady Protector, Her Splendid Primacy, Grand Duchess Screwdriver. The Devout Silencer of Common Sense and Logic
"And *I'll* live happily ever after..."
Posts: 225
|
Post by Screwdriver on Oct 22, 2007 12:59:52 GMT -5
Screwdriver's expression lit up with pure delight. She clapped her hands together once and did just as Scourge had commanded. She does not ask Scourge to lie down, instead simply stepping close and examining the damage.
Hmmm. The designs are both different and familiar, but not so far different as to be a significant hindrance. Besides, if Junkion repair skills were sufficient to bring Ultra Magnus back from the dead after no in-memory contact with Cybertronian-based Autobots, they could certainly handle an alternate universe Decepticon that's a repainted Generation Two Autobot!
Once she's done with her initial examination, one that involves no physical contact, but takes in the body's seams and other access areas, she gets to work in earnest. Now, she moves so quickly at her task that it's difficult to follow what she's doing, and Scourge, still sitting, has his insides laid bare. So, too, are Screwdriver's, as she opens up several of her own panels. A small tool kit is drawn from subspace, but as often as not, tools are pulled from Screwdriver's own body, or improvised on the spot from junk she had in storage.
So, too, are parts made from non-standard sources, and the little rust-red-and-orange mech seems to have no problem with pulling redundant or just plain excess parts from her own body to perform the repairs, or in reconfiguring Scourge's own systems to compensate, getting a duplicate system here or there back online that had been knocked out during the fight, and then using bits from the primary system to repair other bits.
In less time than one would expect, the flurry of activity is finished and Screwdriver is once more closing panels up. Of course, without a full junk yard available, there are limits to what can be done. Damaged armor is still damaged, and many of Scourge's internal systems, while operational, are routed through circuit-paths they were never intended to be run on. A Junkion can run forever on their own bizarre repair jobs, and, indeed, an Autobot or Decepticon can run indefinitely, but their work is always something of a headache to any more traditional medic that has to go in later and figure out the non-standard jury-rigs that a Junkion is perfectly willing to leave in place.
Finally, Screwdriver steps back and beams, pleased in her work, and expecting Scourge to be the same.
|
|
|
Post by Sable Conolly on Oct 22, 2007 13:18:26 GMT -5
Scourge looks at times dubious and alarmed as Screwdriver works on him. He's pretty sure things aren't supposed to go this way! Did she just pull out one of her own parts and stick it in him? However, her work, dizzyingly quick, seems to have the overall result of making the aches go away, so he doesn't try to stop her.
When she finishes, he stands up and stretches, feeling rather more limber than before. He runs a hand over his face, feeling out the repairs. Finally, Scourge comments, "Excellent work." He's self-confident enough that he has no trouble admitting when someone else is good. "This place had better have a proper repair bay, but this will do admirably until then."
He transforms back to tanker truck mode, engine purring.
|
|
Screwdriver
Rookie
The Lady Protector, Her Splendid Primacy, Grand Duchess Screwdriver. The Devout Silencer of Common Sense and Logic
"And *I'll* live happily ever after..."
Posts: 225
|
Post by Screwdriver on Oct 22, 2007 14:23:01 GMT -5
Screwdriver joyfully jumps just a little when Scourge says 'Excellent work,' the expression on her face radiantly happy. Oh, she knew she was good, yes, but it's always nice to hear that acknowledged.
Proper repair bay? What's that? All you need is a good junk yard! "I do what I can do!" she declares, transforming. "When my shirt and skirt don't meet, I make my little skin do!" With that, her own engine revs up and she's off again, once more cheerfully skipping over the landscape. While driving, sometimes she'll motor off ahead of Scourge, and sometimes she'll fall back, but she seems, in all, rather fearless.
|
|
|
Post by Sable Conolly on Oct 22, 2007 14:55:07 GMT -5
Scourge sees that Screwdriver responds well to praise. He files that away for later use.
She makes her little skin do? She uses her own parts for spares! Scourge hopes that she didn't need those pieces, if only because he doesn't want to have to lash her on top of his trailer and haul her. He agrees, "And you did it well."
Now that he's closer to full strength, Scourge motors up to near his top speed, so long as that doesn't badly outpace the Junkion. He has enough trouble keeping track of where she is, the way she falls back and advances, and he doesn't want to lose sight of an ally, not with known enemies on the prowl.
The swamp closes in around them, and the tanker truck keeps to the middle of the road, traffic laws be slagged.
|
|
|
Post by Shrapnel on Oct 22, 2007 15:12:59 GMT -5
Sitting in between a fork in the road is a circle of small, metal structures. Stubby stumps of metal rise from the ground, then at about hip-height on a Transformer, spread in a wide, curved plate of metal. Most of them almost meet each other, creating a circle of arches with a lot of extra space for the locals to stand under if it starts raining.
Shrapnel has already figured out that running electricity through them creates some sort of time-distortion field that affects the entire area inside of the circle. He's not sure how much time he's actually lost or not lost, but time is fungible anyway.
It's a good spot to stay out of the wet of the swamp, so Shrapnel perches on top of one of the broadest caps with a device set in front of him.
It's as long as his fore-arm, delicately shaped in fluted curves with a bowl-shape at the top and several cables attached somewhere at the middle. He's not really sure what it's for at all, but he's beginning to suspect that it's a form of artwork.
He pours another cupped handful of swamp water into the device's reservoir and activates it.
Scented smoke, redolent with a spicy, dry scent that conjures to mind sand and oil, pours from it, coiling around the Insecticon.
|
|
Screwdriver
Rookie
The Lady Protector, Her Splendid Primacy, Grand Duchess Screwdriver. The Devout Silencer of Common Sense and Logic
"And *I'll* live happily ever after..."
Posts: 225
|
Post by Screwdriver on Oct 22, 2007 16:31:02 GMT -5
It should be noted that Screwdriver generally stays off the road. Her wheels have spikes. They feel so much better in less firm and steady ground, whether it be dirt or the uncertain metal scrap of her home planet! She can, indeed, keep up with Scourge, and is, in fact, a bit ahead of him when she comes to the fork in the road. She leaps up onto the road, then spin-swerves to a stop and transforms, tilting her head as she curiously examines Shrapnel and the device he is playing with and the objects he is sitting on. Finally, she recites, "`You are old, Father William,' the young man said, `And your hair has become very white; And yet you incessantly stand on your head-- Do you think, at your age, it is right?'" That is what caterpillars ask little girls to recite, isn't it? 1 1 Answer: Yes.
|
|
|
Post by Sable Conolly on Oct 22, 2007 17:21:35 GMT -5
Scougre brakes rather noisily, as diesel trucks are wont to do when they aren't trying to be sneaky. The strange Transformer sitting on the stranger structures could see them coming. He mutters, "Transform," and does just that, rising up to his full height to regard the odd Transformer. He looks like he turns into some sort of animal, but he appears to be wholly machine. Megatron looks wholly machine, too, and he goes by Predacon, so Scourge tentatively marks this fellow down as a Predacon. He certainly doesn't look like his Junkion companion. Then Scourge notices the Decepticon emblem. This reality is out to give him a headache, he sees.
Speaking of his Junkion companion, he really has no idea what she's on about right now. Instead, he greets coolly, "You are a Decepticon?"
Perhaps he can scrounge up another ally here in his quest to punch Sky-Byte in the face.
|
|
|
Post by Shrapnel on Oct 22, 2007 20:51:50 GMT -5
So, evidently his new toy summons motorcycle-babes. Shrapnel can handle that.
"It would look awkward if you stood on your head, head," he tells her. The wheels do look like it would make it just as difficult for her as his antlers would make it for him.
- There is a big, black truck that looks like Optimus Prime. Perhaps he has gone goth. And evil. Or perhaps Megatron is getting more obvious in his fetishes with his sons.
"I'm an Insecticon, Insecticon!"
|
|
Screwdriver
Rookie
The Lady Protector, Her Splendid Primacy, Grand Duchess Screwdriver. The Devout Silencer of Common Sense and Logic
"And *I'll* live happily ever after..."
Posts: 225
|
Post by Screwdriver on Oct 22, 2007 21:40:29 GMT -5
Screwdriver shrugged. It's entirely possible that if she attempted to stand on her head, her wheels would just fall off. That's not a very big problem in her case.
She'd never seen an Insecticon before. But then, she wouldn't have; they were all gone by the time the Autobots first made contact with the Junkions. She begins walking in a circle around the purple and black robot, examining it and the device it's playing with and the object it's sitting on. She sniffs once, experimentally, at the air. Finally, she says, "One side will make you grow taller, and the other side will make you grow shorter." She steps closer to the strange metal devices and taps at one, an eager gleam in her eye.
It won't be long before the tools come out.
|
|
|
Post by Sable Conolly on Oct 22, 2007 21:48:37 GMT -5
Scourge hears logic and an odd voice coming from the Insecticon. Insecticon? That's a new one to him. Between the Insecticon and the Junkion, he's starting to wonder if he'll ever see a Decepticon or Predacon again.
He ignores the Junkion's assessment for now. Scourge looks Shrapnel up and down, and finally, he inquires, tone speculative, "Got any idea where I can find Starscream?"
That's the name he heard mentioned on the radio by the strange faceless voices. It's worth a shot.
|
|
|
Post by Shrapnel on Oct 23, 2007 11:09:33 GMT -5
"Starscream, Starscream." Shrapnel chuckles and points off down the left fork in the road. "That way and northerly. In the mountains, not far from the sea. That's where he's laying the foundations of his empire, empire."
Since the Insecticon is not entirely unhelpful when it comes to getting strange Decepticons to go away, he also rattles off a set of coordinates. These match the position where Demolishor was sleeping when Shrapnel wandered up.
"No, one side moves faster than the other side, side." Shrapnel sets the still-smoking device aside and shifts over to peer down at the motorcycle-girl. "I could show you, show you."
|
|
Screwdriver
Rookie
The Lady Protector, Her Splendid Primacy, Grand Duchess Screwdriver. The Devout Silencer of Common Sense and Logic
"And *I'll* live happily ever after..."
Posts: 225
|
Post by Screwdriver on Oct 23, 2007 11:22:03 GMT -5
The Toymaker, who now holds a small tool that seems to faintly resemble a screwdriver, opens her optics wide and steps back. One, two, three medium sized paces. She nods enthusiastically at Shrapnel, and answers, "If you would, Mr. Caterpillar!"
Taking the thing apart can wait until after the demonstration!
|
|
|
Post by Sable Conolly on Oct 23, 2007 16:36:34 GMT -5
Scourge now has to decide if he wants to accept the Insecticon's directions as valid or not. He could be making something up. He could be lying. He could be telling the truth. Scourge really has no way of knowing which option it is, so he asks, "Why are you not with this Starscream?"
The more he gets the Insecticon talking, the more he can gauge his reactions.
He rubs his chin and murmurs, "Is it useful?" asking of the device. Humans often create useless devices.
|
|