Hook-3
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Post by Hook-3 on Aug 12, 2008 22:55:52 GMT -5
Hook drifts up to the lock to watch from the other side of the crystal as Perceptor works on it. Perceptor might notice that the crystals around the lock are blackened and sooty in horizontal and vertical lines.
Perceptor's apology causes the Constructicon to double-take, quite openly staring at the microscope.
"Such a strange one," he says quietly.
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Grimlock
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Post by Grimlock on Aug 13, 2008 14:25:57 GMT -5
Grimlock moves aside as asked, lowering back to the ground to look over his hand. Mmmph. So much for being careful. Grimlock opens a channel to Perceptor. //We no tell Rodimus, 'kay?//
That's two foul-ups. Hopefully, there will not be a third.
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Post by Perceptor on Aug 13, 2008 19:46:02 GMT -5
// Of course not, // Perceptor replies. // Your secret is safe with me, Grimlock. // At least so long as Rodimus does not get the chance to examine that hand of the Dinobot's. "Thank you, Grimlock."
Blue optics shift from their studious attention to the lock to meet that red optic band for a moment. "From what I gather about my alternate," he murmurs as he returns his attention to the lock, "I am pleased to hear you say that."
Someone has obviously attempted to gain entry to this cage - or rather, to gain freedom from it, if those scorch marks are anything to judge by. The lock mechanism itself is not especially complex, but rather than charge ahead and disable it swiftly, Perceptor pauses, examining it more carefully.
If he had placed a valuable item in such a contrivance to secure it in an extremely remote location, he would certainly want to know if it had been tampered with, or worse, loosed. Fortunately, Grimlock's attempt at lock-picking does not seem to have damaged the mechanism at all. Even better, when Perceptor begins finding the components of the expected tell-tales, that sudden jar against the mechanism does not even seem to have set their alerts off, either.
"The lock is monitored. A few moments longer," he remarks absently as he works. Of course, he has also been muttering small notes to himself as he's worked. Quiet intonations of, "Now, where have you been placed?" and, "No, not that," and a soft, "Ah-ha!" of triumph when the sought after components had been located.
True to his word, after several careful moments of dissecting the mechanism and it's transmitter, another moment or two to manipulate the actual lock, and the has been disabled.
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Hook-3
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No One Knows What It's Like
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Post by Hook-3 on Aug 17, 2008 11:38:45 GMT -5
The lock chimes gently as it unlocks. For a moment, naked yearning and fear war on the Constructicon's face. Could he do this? Could he go back out in the world, go back to the War and save those who needed saving?
Yes. Yes, he could. He is a Constructicon, and he can do anything.
Green hands press against the crystal and shove - Grimlock and Perceptor might want to move, because Hook is coming out.
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Grimlock
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Post by Grimlock on Aug 18, 2008 18:14:30 GMT -5
Grimlock doesn't need to move, he landed on the ground, and is currently nursing his hand. Thankfully, auto-repair systems are easing the pain a bit, so it's a touch easier to flex his fingers.
Grimlock looks up as Hook comes out, and whenever the Constructicon does get free, Grimlock addresses him - "Me Grimlock make proposition. Us helped Hook out, so Hook help us?" He points to Perceptor. "Me Grimlock helping Perceptor find stuff to rebuild him scope so him can do better repairs on other good Autobots."
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Post by Perceptor on Aug 19, 2008 18:16:35 GMT -5
The cage is unlocked, but, really, Perceptor has no idea just how the confinement will open up, whether it be a door, or that the entire construction flops open like a twisted glittering flower. He needs to move.
He doesn't move so quickly, though, that he misses that fleeting look that crosses Hook's features, and the pause he makes to consider that expression is almost his undoing for the moment, for he almost forgets to leap clear until that last second. Perhaps it is a good thing that he is not encumbered by his scope; his landing is less than graceful, although he should be back to his feet in time to see Hook disembark from his prison.
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Hook-3
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No One Knows What It's Like
Posts: 94
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Post by Hook-3 on Aug 19, 2008 20:56:27 GMT -5
At the steady, strong pressure of Hook's pushing, bits of the cage slide past each other, no longer locked in place. He strains against the crystal for less than a minute, and then a tipping point is reached. The entire top third of the cage unfolds, rotating into a new arrangement. The crystal chimes deep as it unfolds, like bronze bells. Light shatters in the crystal, cast back out as rainbows and blinding gleams, potentially dazzling those below the unfolding.
Unfolded, there is only Hook there in the air, and then he darts down, dropping to the ground on the other side of Grimlock from Perceptor.
He startles at Grimlock's question. "You wish me to help with your wounded?"
You trust me that much?
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Grimlock
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Post by Grimlock on Aug 19, 2008 22:08:08 GMT -5
Grimlock doesn't trust him -that- much yet.
"Me Grimlock said help Perceptor, not all wounded yet." He crosses his arms. "Me Grimlock not usually trust so quick... but me already learned Constructicons can be good. Plus, how you talk about your Rodimus convince me."
A bit ham-handed way to handle it, but that's how Grimlock rolls. Figuratively speaking, of course. He's not a Mustang or a tank, after all.
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Post by Perceptor on Aug 19, 2008 22:48:36 GMT -5
Light splashes and flickers across Perceptor's features as he watches the cage twist around and through itself, reconfiguring to open across the top. Perhaps he should be more concerned with maintaining a visual on Hook - there is no 100% guarantee that this is not their own Hook, just yet, after all - however, his processor is filled with refractory values and reflective indices. If this crystal is durable enough to be forged into a cage suitable to contain Hook... What durability it might lend to his own scope workings! His expression is a study of almost awed want as he steps forward to lay a hand against the delicate looking crystaline latice.
"Can it be worked?" he asks softly, almost totally oblivious to Grimlock's dissertation behind him. "Can the substance be manipulated? Feasibly," he adds. Oh, to have his scope back again... to not be half blind now, and all but fully blind in his alternate mode. To have his very function restored to him.
It is an expression tempered with an almost childlike wonder as Perceptor's fingers gently stroke along that bright crystal, not something Hook will have ever seen upon his own hated Perceptor's features.
As suddenly as Perceptor had become distracted by the glittering crystal, he starts and turns with a faintly embarassed cough. "My apologies, Hook." Really, he wasn't lusting after the components of your prison. Okay, he was, but it's for a good cause, honest!
"Any skilled assistance would be appreciated," he explains, shoulders slumping tiredly as he sighs. Grimlock isn't the only one running around half naked, and most of the medical staff have barely taken time for the most minimal of recharge, if that. At least they have not lost anyone. Yet. He cannot help the way his optics slide uncomfortably toward the bodies visible on the surface, or the distirbed patches of ground that bespeak more bodies hidden below. "As would... raw componentry."
Reduced to corpse-robbing again, and none too happy about it.
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Hook-3
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Posts: 94
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Post by Hook-3 on Aug 20, 2008 17:48:38 GMT -5
Grimlock's clarification is infinitely more terrifying than these strange Autobots trusting him. To help Perceptor, to repair that horror so he could go out and do unto others...
Perceptor's soft question jerks Hook out of his thoughts. No, this wasn't the monster for all this mech looked like him. Perhaps... Perhaps he was even as good of a man as he seemed.
The Constructicon peeks around Grimlock to look at Perceptor. "Yes. It can be- worked. I know how."
The crystal is a familiar, terrible friend, much like Omega Supreme himself.
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Grimlock
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Post by Grimlock on Aug 21, 2008 2:51:31 GMT -5
Grimlock peers over at Perceptor. Why's he hung up on the shiny glass thing Hook was in? Grimlock thought he wanted sand, not glass.
Grimlock shrugs that off, looking to where Perceptor's gaze has drifted. "You talk to Hook while me Grimlock dig up bodies?"
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Post by Perceptor on Aug 21, 2008 14:03:28 GMT -5
Ah, but sand makes glass, Grimlock, dear lad. But that is a fabrication lesson best left for another time, perhaps. Perceptor's attention drifts back to the crystal, fingers lifting to just rest upon the surface.
"Could you instruct me in the technique?" he asks, pitching his voice to reach Hook on Grimlock's other side. "The refractory index and reflective properties..." His voice trails off as Grimlock pipes up, and he grimaces faintly, but nods.
"Yes," he sighs, very subtly hunching in on himself. He just cannot share Long Haul's enthusiasm for... recycling in such a manner. "Be careful, Grimlock. As undesirable as it may be, we need those components."
As he turns to glance at Grimlock, he catches the way Hook peeks almost warily around the dinobot commander, and winces again. "My apologies, Hook. That was unforgivably callous of me to make such a request of you." He came for sand, he'll work with sand.
"I have received some positive news, however," he offers hopefully. "Your comrades have arrived and are even now speaking with our own. I am in contact with your Starscream, and he is quite worried for you, Hook. Is there anything which I may pass along to him for you?"
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Hook-3
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Post by Hook-3 on Aug 23, 2008 20:56:33 GMT -5
Anything Hook might have had to say about working the crystal dies in his vocoder. He stares at Perceptor, stunned.
His comrades. His Decepticons.
Starscream.
Starscream is here!
"Starscream?"
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Grimlock
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Post by Grimlock on Aug 23, 2008 22:33:34 GMT -5
Grimlock stops after squatting down at one of the burial spots, looking up at Perceptor for a moment. Hm. More good Decepticons? Hope someone tells Slag... Maybe he should radio him. Or maybe he should ask Kup. Or Perceptor. He's not really sure.
Grimlock starts scuffing off sand, finding green metal underneath while he grabs Perceptor over the radio. //If we have good Decepticons, think me Grimlock should call Slag and make sure him no attack them?//
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Post by Perceptor on Aug 24, 2008 14:20:27 GMT -5
Relief at having offered Hook something good brings a soft smile to his features as he nods at the stunned Constructicon. "Yes. I am in contact with him now. He wishes to speak with you as soon as possible."
Now Perceptor's expression shhifts to something much less comfortable. "He also wishes that I... examine you for... 'traps'." Perceptor is definitely - and quite obviously - not looking forward to inflicting such a thing upon Hook. If even Shockwave had shown some wariness of his alternate... It would probably be as if Hook's nightmares had been given form to be forced to undergo such a thing from Perceptor's hands.
"Perhaps we can find components for a new radio unit for you, instead?" he offers, expression brightening as he turns to where Grimlock is gingerly uncovering the buried bodies - and shifting to keep the dead and greyed Optimus as at the edge of his field of vision as possible.
// I am certain, given Rodimus Prime's orders to us, that someone will see to Slag in the correct time. I am hesitant to alert him just yet that the alternate Decepticons are present, Grimlock, until someone else has already spoken to him in a personal and.. ahem... physical... manner, // Perceptor replies. // Perhaps you could contact Kup and share your concerns? Kup is likely the only one present that Slag respects enough to listen to, with you out of reach. //
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