Dam It All

[Spy Shot 6/Cameron Otto]

Month 5, Week 1, Day 3. Hoover Dam. Semi-Private.

While more attention-drawing Autobots are busy being clearly visible on top of the Hoover Dam, a pair of more discreet Transformers are carefully picking their way down to a vent that Spy Shot remembers creeping out of on one of his braver days back in his universe of origin. It should be big enough for Rattrap to squeeze into, if his memory is correct. If he's incorrect, it won't be the fault of his memory, but of this universe's Hoover Dam not being identical to the one he grew up in.

Reaching the vent, Spy Shot peers into the grate, then nods at Rattrap. Nothing strange lurking in there!

[Rattrap]

On the one hand, thinks Rattrap as he slinks along in beast mode after Spy Shot, he's back to doing real work. On the other hand, he's back to doing real work. Because he just loves risking laser burns and bullet holes in his behind.

"This ain't exactly what I had in mind when I said vacation," he grumbles, sidling up to the grate as indicated. He eyes it, gauging the size; yeah, he'll fit. Might be snug, but better that than somebody having an easy time coming after him. He adds as he double checks for security devices on the inside, "Good thing I kept my svelte figure, huh?"

[Spy Shot 6/Cameron Otto]

Spy Shot tilts his head at Rattrap, even as he starts undoing a screw on the vent cover. "Yes, otherwise you would not fit." He pauses for a moment. "I did not think you could gain weight."

[Rattrap]

Rattrap gives Spy Shot a very long, sour look before, satisfied that there aren't alarms going off or traps just inside the vent, he starts on another of the cover screws with his nimble fingers. Oh, how it pays to be dexterous even in beast mode.

"Remind me to teach you about sarcasm, Big Eyes, 'cause whatever you've been readin' ain't doin' the trick," he mutters. "And next time, wait until I know we won't both get electrocuted or hit wit' disruptor bolts somethin'." He's all for enthusiasm about the job, not rushing into things, which invariably ends horribly as he's seen many a time before. He can think of quite a few parties who wouldn't mind a little more fried rat in their lives – one irascible, backstabbing, stinking traitor raptor in particular who Rattrap thinks would look much better in a prison cell or nailed to a wall somewhere – but this is his person we're talking about, and his opinion matters more than theirs.

[Spy Shot 6/Cameron Otto]

"Okay," Spy Shot agrees easily, then admits, "I was not expecting anything like disruptor bolts." After all, they didn't have anything like that in his version of the Hoover Dam! But then, this isn't his version of the dam, nor is Earth in quite the same time period as when he came from. "Do you think there will be such things here?"

If he were just on his own, Spy Shot would only undo a couple of screws and then squeeze in under the grate as best he can. However, he doesn't think Rattrap would do quite so well squeezing in-between grate and wall, so instead he attacks the next screw and waits for Rattrap to move the vent cover aside.

[Rattrap]

"Eh, plan fer the worst and you'll never be unprepared," Rattrap advises Spy Shot as he seems to pocket the last screw with a quick gesture. Then he tugs the vent cover free and nods for Spy Shot to lead the way in, partly because the little guy's the one with a built-in flashlight and knowledge of some version of this joint, and partly because Rattrap has to pull the vent cover back into place behind them.

Maybe there'll be disruptor bolts. Maybe there'll be laser net traps and stasis fields. Maybe there'll be nothing more complicated than a locked door and some tubby guards. Maybe Rattrap's just being paranoid.

[Spy Shot 6/Cameron Otto]

Scrambling into the vent, Spy Shot jogs a ways in to make room for Rattrap and gives the vent a good look over. It looks like the standard sort of vents he spent years crawling around in, but appearances can be deceiving, annoyingly enough. He'll keep a close watch for anything out of the ordinary.

Looking back at Rattrap, he says, "In my universe, the focal rooms were for Megatron and the Allspark. Should we look at those first?"

Really, he'd like to go look for the Allspark first. He kind of... misses it. However, frozen Megatrons are a bigger threat. Then again, he's not sure how likely it is to find either.

[Rattrap]

Fortunately for Spy Shot, Rattrap's stubby little legs mean he can't really get going fast enough in here to worry about running over the camera bot. He follows, whiskers twitching.

"If there's a Megadork here," he says in a low, contemptuous voice, "we need to know. Look fer that one first." He debates whether or not he should clear blowing up any available Megatrons. On the one hand, plausible deniability for the Autobots is a good thing, and no big ugly legendary Decepticon commanders is even better. On the other hand, he'd be blowing things up in a human facility. (Their fault for keeping a Megatron in the basement if you ask him.)

Eh, he'll call it in if it looks necessary.

"Lead on, Shorty," he says.

[Spy Shot 6/Cameron Otto]

Nodding, Spy Shot scampers through the vent at his quietest, pausing occasionally to peek out of grates to confirm that the layout matches up with what he remembers and to keep tabs on any humans that are wandering the place. Everything he sees he presents on the screen on his back, for Rattrap to keep track of if he wishes to.

Several turns and long stretches of vent later, Spy Shot finds himself at another grate, looking out through the slats at a rather familiar room. It's not exactly the same, but it is similar. However, there's one major difference.

"No Megatron," he says quietly to Rattrap.

[Rattrap]

Rattrap peers over Spy Shot's shoulder at the empty room below them and makes a sour face, his muzzle wrinkling into a ratty little sneer.

"Dat's just great," he mutters. "He could be someplace else, or he could be up and about fer all we know." Rattrap tends to err on the side of worst case scenario when in doubt. At least he can't be disappointed. "Eh," he goes on, "but if he was movin', I guess we'd know already." The bigjobs are noisy that way. Rattrap gives the matter of their missing Megatron a discontented sigh. Nothing to blow up, but then again, no giant death machine to worry about. Maybe. "Let's check on dis Allspark o' yours next. And keep an eye out in case the big ugly is just in a different room."

[Spy Shot 6/Cameron Otto]

"I think there was a fight," Spy Shot says, even as he moves to scurry past - or over, if there's no room - Rattrap to lead the way to where his Allspark room was. There are some signs that there was a struggle in the large, empty room: scorch marks, a few holes in the walls, some broken equipment. "Perhaps he was here and escaped."

Spy Shot rather hopes not. He dislikes Megatron and doesn't wish to encounter him again. Being around even an immobile, frozen Megatron was... unsettling.

[Rattrap]

Rattrap sneers with distaste at the thought of a Megatron loose, especially a Megatron ticked off after being locked in a little room. By humans, no less. If he did all the damage in there, he really wasn't happy about it at all, and that's an understatement. Unless Rattrap's optic circuits need recalibrating, some of the gouges in the walls include scrapes of purple paint. How very Grape-a-saurus.

"If I figure I won't get my little pink butt toasted," he murmurs as he lifts one foot, then another to give Spy Shot a little more room, "I'm gonna head down there and check things out." But that means a little more recon first. "Let's get goin'."

[Spy Shot 6/Cameron Otto]

Quickly scooting under Rattrap as he lifts his feet, Spy Shot gives a succinct, "Yes, sir," and makes a beeline for where his Allspark room was. He hopes it is there. He kind of... misses it. Its presence was much preferable to Megatron's or the murderous humans'. It was perhaps the closest thing we had to enjoyable company until he arrived on Gillanan III.

As he peers through the grate into the Allspark room, he feels a tickle of disappointment. "That... is not the Allspark."

There is a cube there, though. A very large, metal one with dimensions equivalent to the Allspark's. But it's not his cube. It's blank and smooth and shiny. Characterless. How unfortunate.

[Rattrap]

"Looks like they stole one a' Primus's dice," Rattrap remarks, peering at the metal polyhedron. Because of course Primus would play with faceless dice. How else does he keep anybody else from figuring out what the heck he's doing? "And," adds the rat, whiskers madly twitching as he sniffs at the air breezing past the vent, "looks like they don't worry about security patrols down here." After all, he's seen a few techie-looking types wandering around, but he'd expect armed guards of some variety in a top-secret joint like this.

Maybe the systems are all automated. Rattrap can handle automated systems; they lack the creativity of live opponents, and it's easier to screw with them. (He probably won't think quite the same thing once he has to tackle Rhinox's new Sentinel program.)

"Keep an eye out for me, shorty," says Rattrap as he backs and turns around. The smashed up room has significantly fewer humans running around it; that's as good a place as any to start with the snooping. And off he goes, assuming Spy Shot will follow just because the kid has been pretty agreeable so far.

[Spy Shot 6/Cameron Otto]

"Sector Seven is very secret and hidden. That is good security in itself." Really, the most they generally had to patrol for in his time were rogue Allspark creations such as himself. Not that most got far after birth.

Nodding affirmatively, Spy Shot trails after Rattrap back to the empty room. "I will keep both eyes out."