Autobots-3: The Rodimus Convoy

[Rodimus Prime-3]

There is a reason why Primes, in some realities, are called "Convoys."

Rodimus Prime heads his, boldly taking the lead. It actually makes a certain level of sense, really. Of all of those there, Rodimus Prime has the best chance of surviving any traps or ambushes (with the possible exception of Pee-Dee). In his trailer ride Perceptor, Oracle, and their prisoner, the Seeker, Duskwing. Accompanying him on wheel are Nightbeat, Pee-Dee, and Bumblebee. Bumblebee was not ordered to follow, but he follows all the same. That is one of the qualities about him that appeals to the Prime. He doesn't even have to be ordered.

For quite some time, he's been silent, musing over the situation. Finally, he states out loud, "We'll be meeting outside their base, not far from the town on their surface." Yes, Rodimus already knew these details of the Decepticon camp. That is, he knew them from his own reality, and assumes them to match. "They'll have time to set up some... unpleasant surprises, so be on the alert, especially since, with these Decepticons, we can't be sure that threatening the prisoner's life will get us anywhere."

---

OOC: It's up to the players of Duskwing, Oracle-3, and Perceptor-3 how far along they are in their repairs and if Duskwing is awake (and if he's awake, whether or not his vocalizer is operational). Bumblebee-3 is skippable, as per player request. We're basically, 'far enough away from the Decepticon camp to get in some interesting conversation, but close enough that they shouldn't have to worry about too many boring travel posts.' Perceptor's already made his quick trip back to their own reality for supplies.

[Perceptor-3]

It had been fortunate for Oracle that Perceptor had been allowed to return to gather materials, or the remains of that shredded wing - courtesy of Spinister, apparently - would be shredded still. It isn't precisely a work of art as it stands now, but with the new panels appropriately shaped and welded in place, it is, at least, functional. The leg that had been flash-welded will still require extensive work to regain complete functionality, but at least Oracle is able to both walk and fly.

That's more than can be said for the Decepticon, however.

The most vital functions restored to keep the compounded damages from initiating a cascade failure, Perceptor sits back for a moment and offers Oracle a mild look.

"While I intend on keeping the subject's motor functions offline, you should be prepared for some attempts at retaliation."

Yes, he's about to bring Duskwing back online - mostly. Their relative quiet and calm is about to die a messy, rude little death, especially since Perceptor isn't about to bother himself with disabling Duskwing's pain receptors the way he had Oracle's. Not that he's normally in the habit of worrying about doing so to anyone, however... a little courtesy can buy a disproportionate volume of loyalty when applied at just the right moment.

A few quick adjustments within Duskwing's systems, and the Decepticon should reboot to consciousness soon enough.

[Duskwing]

One of Duskwing's optics came back online, glowing sullenly. At first, that dull glow was the only indication that the Seeker was even functional. Then the slack, neutral expression of unconscious disappeared from his face as he grimaced in pain.

Partially. Part of his facial controls were damaged and unresponsive, circuits shorted when Bumblebee smashed his head open and sent coolant leaking through the cranial circuitry. If Seekers kept their metaprocessors in their cranial compartments, Duskwing would be nearly mindless now, if not dead of cascade failure. As it was, most of his cranial sensors were damaged. One optic remained dead, and his right audial no longer functioned. Facial sensitivity was gone.

Too many things hurt, too many diagnostics blinked at him. Too much to sort out. He was damaged, and he hurt and Duskwing was pissed off. Where was he? That red 'Bot with the big shoulder gun was here, with his hands in Duskwing's circuits!

Duskwing cried out involuntarily as Prime rumbled over a bit of rough terrain. His cry was staticy and stuttering; his vocalizer circuits hadn't been entirely spared Bumblebee's brutality.

"W-what are y-you *CSSSSHHHK* d-doing?" Duskwing forced out as he tried to grab at Perceptor's arm.

[Oracle-3]

As far as she was concerned the aesthetics of the patch job on her wing could go hang for all Oracle cared. It existed again in the first place and functioned well enough for her to fly and that was more then she had expected Perceptor to be able to pull off so soon. The fact she would be able to fly again was good, since she wasn't going to be running any marathons. The leg wasn't grinding when she bent it anymore, but it wasn't anywhere near perfect. She was used to working with worse, but obviously more time in the repair bay was going to be required later. Everything was more then good enough for now though and she was certainly pleased at the easing of the ache as her pain receptors were disabled when Perceptor began repairs.

Simply nodding at his comment about watching for retaliation from the other Seeker, she moved around to where she could intervene if it became needed and still stay out of the way once her repairs were done. Considering the level of damage that needed to be fixed attempted retaliation shouldn't be that hard to deal with, but it would save Perceptor the annoyance if she took care of it. She hardly minded anyway.

Capturing Duskwing's reaching hand, Oracle pinned it down next to him firmly but without causing further damage before doing the same with the other arm. "Calm down and stay still Decepticon. You're being repaired thanks to part of a truce agreement that you be returned in one piece." It seemed rather counter purpose to let him mess up his own repairs by fighting against them, and the last thing they needed was him resisting because he didn't know about the truce, since as best she could recall, he was pretty well beaten into stasis when they were informed.

---

(OOC: Restraining Duskwing with player permission.)

[Bumblebee-3]

Bumblebee had been enjoying the silence, save for the rumble of motor engines. Bumblebee hates Rodimus Prime, about as much as he hates everyone else, but he also likes Rodimus' modus operandi. Besides, he needed to align himself somewhere, and so much of his business is also pleasure. It's good to have a job you love.

At the moment, he's just content to follow immediately behind the Prime. If someone else (and by 'someone else' Bumblebee is almost certainly thinking about Pee-Dee) starts talking too much and annoying Bumblebee, he will try dropping a gear or two to drown them out. But of course, he listens to his bosses orders like a good little sociopa--soldier.

[Pee-Dee-3]

Pee-Dee happily runs off along the side of the road, zipping forward or backward as it takes her. She stays pretty firmly on the left hand, though, tearing up earth with her wheels and flattening shrubberies and saplings with a cheerful disregard for personal safety.

"What all do we know about these Decepticons, Sauron sir? The fuzzy yellow sadist hasn't been sharing."

[Nightbeat-3]

If Pee-Dee's on the left, Nightbeat is on the right, keeping pace with the Prime. "Yeah," he echoes. "Spill it, Boss."

[Rodimus Prime-3]

"Watch your tone, Nightbeat," Rodimus says warningly. "You're no longer dealing with that weakling, Optimus."

Then, he does answer their questions. "Unfortunately, our captive is somewhat underclocked, so the information I was able to pull from him was limited. Based on what he's said and various other reports, these Decepticons, like ours, are lead by a Starscream, and have their numerous Seekers - Fleetwind and Thundercracker were specifically named - Needlenose, Spinister, Barricade, and Frenzy. We should assume they also have duplicates of the other more powerful Decepticons, such as Shockwave and Scourge."

"Our prisoner," he does not, to Rodimus, warrant a name, "compared my behavior to Megatron's, and was surprised by the way we behaved, so we should generally expect these Decepticons to have more in common with ourselves than the Decepticons that we know. Meanwhile, their Autobots consider themselves defenders of the good and the right and all that sickening dreck. We should expect to encounter goody-two-shoes equivalents to ourselves while we are here."

Including a 'heroic' Rodimus Prime. Truthfully, the Demon Prime doesn't find the thought as shocking as many of the others would. Unlike most of Cybertron, he knows what the Matrix was made for. It was never meant to be a force of evil. The idea of a Matrix that was never perverted is... not completely beyond comprehension. But just as their own Matrix was corrupted when Prime Nova pulled it from Prima's murdered carcass, no doubt this one could be twisted when the One Chosen to light the dark with all-consuming fire pulls it from the body of the One Chosen to light the dark with a healing, life-giving light.

He will drain this other Matrix dry, and add its power to his own. The very thought sends Rodimus's engine roaring at a higher pitch.

[Perceptor-3]

"Ah-ah-ah," Perceptor admonishes smugly, one hand darting in to tweak a series of components in the mangled shreds of the shattered portion of Duskwing's cockpit to disable the Seeker's motor functions. Otherwise, he gives no other explanation to the damaged mech, not caring what Duskwing makes of his sudden paralysis or of the Autobots crouched over him. He has work to accomplish - as little as he is allowed to get away with, if he has his way - and a limited time to accomplish it in.

Nor does he bother, even now, disabling the damaged Seeker's tactile network; even if he cared to go to the effort, such would rob him of what little enjoyment he may wrest from this situation.

"If the subject could be remanded to my care for a greater duration, a more thorough examination of the databanks and memory modules could be made for a more comprehensive data gathering," Perceptor offers absently to his Prime, his tome distractedly regretful. "And additional improvements might be made to the defective components."

Unfortunately, he has to give this wreck back to the Decepticons. Such a pity. A new world, fresh subjects, and he is required to return his very first new captive. He will have to remedy that situation at the nearest possible opportunity.

At least he gets Synapse as a consolation. That smile gracing his features should not be a comforting sight to the helpless Duskwing.

[Duskwing]

Duskwing's one dimly glowing optic stared dully at Oracle. "Huh-uh?"

Then the red Bot made a funny noise like his own vocalize was sputtering and did something to Duskwing's systems and his arm stopped moving. This was more familiar ground. Decepticon medics shut off his motor circuits when they worked on him. Sometimes the slagging patch-hackers cut off his vocalizer, too!

An' it didn't pay to catch 'em in a dark alley and beat 'em up afterwards, not if you were staying in the same district. You might end up on the same table again, and they'd do lots nastier things than just not turn your pain sensors off. Duskwing knew this from experience. He'd had to frag the guy that wired his pain sensors to his flight sensors so a new guy would get transferred in and he could get fixed. After that, he remembered not to beat up the new guy, and the new guy didn't mess him up worse than he did anyone else.

Duskwing gave Perceptor a surly glare as the sadistic Autobot worked on him. Just like one of those lazy hackers back home--didn't bother to turn off anything that wasn't right in his way, like pain sensors.

Slag, that was a creepy smile. "Wha-a-at the f-fragged-up ssslag are y-you sssso ha-a-appy abou-out?"

[Oracle-3]

Someone had really shortchanged the other Seeker when they were handing out the processors Oracle thought. She couldn't explain things any clearer and honestly, she didn't care enough to bother to try. If the idea of the truce didn't get through that wasn't her problem.

Sitting back to make sure she was out of the way, she watched Perceptor work with vague interest. She wasn't an engineer or medic of any kind so she didn't have more then a passing understanding of what he was doing, but it was still more entertaining then just waiting around doing nothing until they arrived. The novelty of seeing the inside of another Seeker kept her watching too, since normally they weren't this still when she was this close. Skyfire's pets being the obvious exception, but they tended to be boring after a while.

For the moment though she just rested to regain her energy while playing potential trouble deterrent. Wouldn't do for there to be a problem because she got careless, even though Perceptor was more then able to take care of himself.

[Bumblebee-3]

The 'fuzzy yellow sadist' nearly deviated from his convoy course with the intent of running into Pee-Dee and ultimately finding out just how far a Junkion could withstand being taken to pieces before they finally perish for that remark. Freak.

Bumblebee instead just drops down a gear, like he said he would. Though he doubts even the sound of a whining engine would be enough to drown out the noise when you have Punch on one side and Judy on the other.

[Pee-Dee-3]

Pee-Dee can well imagine what a good version of her is like. It's not like it's hard. Instead, her thoughts go meandering in a different direction.

"So these Autobotly Decepticons want to ally with us," she muses. "That's going to be interesting. Only one hand can wield the Ring.¹"

---

1. Lord of the Rings. J.R.R. Tolkien

[Nightbeat-3]

"Some goody-two shoes versions o' us, eh?" Nightbreat muses. "Dis I gotta see. Some Johnny Law version o' the ace o' crime alley? I'm gonna enjoy breakin' his knee caps and sendin' him to sleep wit' the sharkticons."

[Rodimus Prime-3]

"Well, I think it's a given that it won't last," Rodimus tells Pee-Dee and Nightbeat, shutting off his internal speakers at this point. "Which, of course, means that we must be on the alert for treachery. Or for... opportunities."

"And yes, Pee-Dee. Only one hand can wield the ring. But now, there are two rings." And both shall be his.

The roads are mountainous, and haven't been maintained in a year. Rodimus hits a bump, and does not try to soften things for his passengers.

"The sun also rises," Rodimus observes, and he's right: dawn approaches.