"You Did What!?"

[Rodimus Prime]

Day 11. Event Horizon quarantine. Semi-private

Rodimus rubs his head as he peers at the sensor readings. "Well, that anti-magnetic shower seems to finally be doing the trick - those 'sparkles' are finally coming off." The young Prime turns to look back at Twin Twist.

"I want those off before I start the repairs proper. Let me know when your radio is working again, Twin Twist. In the meanwhile, I... guess we can start the interview. But my first question is..." he looks back at Springer.

"Kup said something about a 'split spark,' but this is obviously not your Twin Twist. That... doesn't mean we have to keep an eye out for another Twin Twist, do we?"

[Tessan Toov]

Twin Twist is less than thrilled about having to shower in front of Rodimus Prime and Springer. He's not a huge fan of showers in general, but this is especially awkward, especially given what Arcee said. Ugh, Twin Twist still wants to vent his tanks over that catty remark. So gross, Arcee! At least this shower is making him look less-clean as opposed to more-clean, since his injuries (and there are a lot of them) now show a lot more clearly when they're not covered in glitter.

Just as soon as all the abominable dust is off and not a second later, he steps out, and he shakes his head back and forth, giving the side of his helmet a few good slams with the heel of his hand. Twin Twist reports, "Still shorted. But you're seriously gonna fix me?" He's pretty openly baffled that Rodimus Prime would spend his time fixing a grunt like Twin Twist.

His head tilts a bit more when Rodimus Prime talks about a split spark and the possibility of a second Twin Twist. Gee, then he'd really be Twin Twist.

[Springer]

Springer gives Rodimus a cyber-deer-in-the-headlamps look when he asks about the split spark. He puts forth a shrug and open hands. One of those 'don't look at me!' expressions. "Man, I don't know - all I know is that back home, those two had a weird nervous system overlap deal - sometimes if you punch one, the other feels it." He looks over at Twin Twist, rubbing the back of his helm. "...however, Topspin was feeling and seeing stuff that I assume was happening to yo, but you don't have a spark."

A sigh.

"So whether to expect another Twin Twist or not...I don't know. I'm not a rocket scientist. That's more Perceptor's department."

[Rodimus Prime]

Rodimus shrugs. "Sure, why not. Get over here," he says, laying out his tool kit. He has good reason to want Twin Twist's radio operational.

As Springer explains the 'split spark,' he frowns. "Well, I guess if you got a description of what Topspin saw, we could check to see if it matches with anything Twin Twist witnessed. Oooor we can just have Twin Twist tell us what the blazes happened to him and see if that matches up." He peers at Twin Twist warily, as though he has his doubts that he'll get anything useful out of that.

[Tessan Toov]

Twin Twist sits down where he's been ordered to, but he's pretty bad at keeping still. Not a very good patient. There's a bit of a glassy look to his expression, and he says finally, "...uh, wait. Topspin's here?"

Yeah, that's about all he got out of that. The important bit, he thinks.

Twin Twist does coinclude that Rodimus Prime wants him to explain his strange, strange journey, so he starts, "See, I had figured it was a Decepticon remnant that we hadn't killed yet and that they'd kidnapped me, but I guess not. Anyway, there was a Junkion wearing a crummy Decepticon symbol, so I figured that meant it was fair game to hit him. Or her." He rubs his chin, thinking. "Might have been female." He makes a boxy shape with his hands in front of his chest. "There was also a purple and blue Seeker. I got into a fight with them, and the Junkion covered me in dust and shorted out my radio. Also itched something fierce. So I drilled into another room, where there was a yellow Seeker, a blue Seeker, but not the first blue Seeker, and Misfire. I got into a fight with them." There is a pattern to this story. "Misfire was surprised about being dead, so I knew something was even weirder than I thought it was at first. And then I dropped into a tea party."

[Springer]

Springer nods at Rodimus. "Yeah, we'll see if anything from Twin Twist's story lines up with what Topspin told me and Kup." He figures that mentioning Long Haul right now miiiiight be a bad idea. Better to sort the current confusion out first before adding to it.

"Yeah, there's a Topspin here, but let's get you caught up and repaired before you two meet."

Springer nods periodically during Twin Twist's story. "Yeah, they've got a Misfire, I recall. Lot of blue jets, too, and...did you say tea party?"

[Rodimus Prime]

Rodimus gets to work on repairing Twin Twist's radio, but he scowls at all the squirming the Wrecker's doing. "Twin Twist, hold still!" he demands as one squirm nearly results in Rodimus burning through some of the wire insulation with his iron.

"Lot of blue jets, lot of Seekers. Misfire's from my reality, or a variant of it," which means he may be from Twin Twist's, too. Springer's confusion with the tea party is reflected in Rodimus's own face. He mutters, "Not exactly the sort of hobbies you associate with the Decepticons."

[Tessan Toov]

Twin Twist puts up his hands defensively and protests, "I've never been to a tea party!" Only someone crazier than Whirl pretends to be would even think about inviting Twin Twist to a tea party. "But it seemed like a tea party to me, on account of rumours. A bladed zombie jet that sounded like Mindwipe and a Micromaster Mega Pretender were just sitting at this table, sipping energon in these fancy little cups. Oh, I guess I should be drawing a map, since this was enemy territory."

He pulls out a sheet of carbon steel. If one knows Twin Twist, one knows why he carries a sheet of steel around. It's for emergencies. He fishes around in his demolition toolkit and ends up grabbing a knife, which he uses to go to work on making a map. For someone with a cartographer brother, Twin Twist is amazingly bad at making maps. He doesn't think in terms of doors, like normal people. Topspin, if he's used to Twin Twist's bad drill-tank-thinking maps, could probably make sense of this. Impactor, who isn't here right now, could probably make some sense of it, being a drill tank, though a rather different breed.

Then Rodimus Prime tells him to quit the fidgeting, so he freezes. It's pretty clearly hard for him to keep still, but he's trying. Twin Twist continues, "...sorry, sir. The naked bladed zombie Mindwipe said it was a party, and he popped out some daggers. The Micromaster Mega Pretender hid behind him. So I winged the tea pot into the zombie's head and booked it through the door. The yellow Seeker and the blue Seeker were following me, and I ran into a third blue Seeker."

The sooner he gets this story done, the sooner he can meet Topspin!

[Springer]

Springer shakes his head a bit. "Jeeze, three blue Seekers now? I assume one of 'em was Duskwing..."

Then he looks over at Rodimus. "Bladed zombie jet...probably someone from Breakaway and the triplets' reality. The name 'Mindwipe' doesn't ring any bells, though..." Then he frowns. "...a hiding Pretender? Must be like one of the ones from your reality, Roddy."

He chuckles a bit, though. "You really stirred up the Cyber-Hornet's nest, didn't you?"

[Rodimus Prime]

Rodimus shakes his head. "No, a Predacon. He said 'Micromaster,' remember? And Mindwipe is... well, in my reality he's a Headmaster. Very dangerous, though. Hypnotic gaze, he can force Autobots to do his will." Indeed, at least once he was able to convince an Autobot that they were teammates... until that Autobot removed his head and the Nebulan partner found that he wasn't affected.

He finishes repairing the radio and leans back. "Most of our repairs are being left for the medical techs. Which reminds me - don't shoot Long Haul. He's on our side." Rodimus seems to recall the others mentioning that he's been given the warning, but a little reinforcement wouldn't hurt.

"Anyway... Decepticon tea parties and smashed zombie tea pots. Got it. Go on?"

[Tessan Toov]

"He went on and on about mystical wrath blah blah," Twin Twist supplies helpfully. He then doodles out a Mindwipe going 'bleagh' on the side of his 'map' with a tea pot headed at his head. It's not a great picture, but it is enough to suggest Breakaway's reality.

Then, he tests out his radio and reports back, smiling, "Radio works. Thanks, sir!"

But he promptly goes back to being confused when Rodimus says that the Micromaster Mega Pretender is a Predacon, and he asks, "So the Predacons aren't a fusilateral quintrocombiner in every reality? They're little black feathery Decepticons sometimes? That's, uh... lemme just get on with the debriefing."

He'll get back to trying to make sense of out of that later.

"It was just a day's work, anyway, bo- Springer," gee, that feels strange, "Yeah, Arcee said that, and... the debriefing. Right. So I tore into that yellow Seeker with both drills, messed him up real good, took a few shots, and someone shot me with a pain rifle. Hurt but didn't do any damage. Didn't see the shooter."

If Rodimus thinks to ask when this happened backwards from now and thinks back to when Topspin was shot...

Twin Twist scoffs, "Pretty dumb, rifle that doesn't do any damage! So I drilled down and ended up in this peculiar place with purple sky. Naked blade zombie Bludgeon-Megatron was fighting some weirdo looking robot," because naked blade zombie Bludgeon-Megatron wasn't weird in the first place, "I landed at his feet and broke my central support strut. The Mindwipe zombie summoned this gross bubbly monster, something made out of tar, and some of the blue Seekers kept following and shooting. I tried to crawl away, I really did, but," his voice gets a bit choked, "the Megatron zombie slid one of those blades of his in right here," he points to just under his chin, "before I could brace myself, and I died."

He hangs his head, looking quite ashamed of himself.

[Springer]

Springer makes an annoyed face at himself. "Oh, right, right. I forgot about those little guys."

"Hypnosis, mystical wrath? Sounds like a real whack-job..." Springer says, shaking his head a bit while his browridge raises.

Springer pays attention when the purple sky is mentioned, though. "...Wreckage." Springer looks over at Rodimus, expression rather serious. "That's what Topspin saw. And then Topspin died." A pause. "And then he booted back up... Though I'm thinking that Kup's theory about the holo rooms is more than a theory at this point."

[Rodimus Prime]

"Sounds like Mindwipe," Rodimus answers sourly as Springer says 'sounds like a real whackjob'. When Springer confirms what Topspin saw and mentions the holoroom, however, he bursts out, "But that doesn't make any sense! Twin Twist doesn't even have a spark!" Rodimus knows. He checked when he was repairing his radio. Brain module only, as predicted.

He rubs his forehead and sighs. "As soon as this debriefing is over, those two are going to have to have a talk, but I half suspect we won't be getting anything like a real explanation for awhile. We may have to chalk this up to the weirdness of this place."

He looks up at Twin Twist and frowns. "Hey, uhm, Twist, about when were you shot with the 'pain rifle'? I mean, how long ago was it, since you're not synched to our time yet."

[Tessan Toov]

For a while, Twin Twist looks pretty furious about something he's hearing back on the radio, and then's back to confused, which is rapidly becoming his default look, then overjoyed, then just... confused again.

He asks quietly, "Died?" and he stares at his hands a bit. Topspin died, and Twin Twist wasn't there to try to prevent it? That's about the worst personal failure he can imagine, short of Topspin and other people dying. Or just a lot of people dying. "But he rebooted? You had him on disc?"

Eh, if Tracks can do it...

"Is this why you won't let me see him?" He scowls, optics scrunched up and narrow.

But there's a job to be done. He'd better get on with it. "The pain rifle was back at [time]. After I died, I was just in this really boring room, not as damaged as before - no neck injury, no broken support strut, no paralysis, so I figured, if Primus didn't want me to drill out of Hell, he wouldn't have put in a drillable floor. So I drilled the floor, dropped down into a hallway, and this naked zombie hellcat attacked me, all up on my shoulders. Two of the blue Seekers but not the first blue Seeker followed me down."

"Then the gravity went out and the hellcat caught a case of the glitters."

[Springer]

Springer splutters, shrugging openly. "I know it doesn't make sense! But...they're both here, and Topspin felt and saw when Bludgeon attacked Twin Twist! I don't pretend to know how it works - I just know what happened and what Topspin told me!"

Then he turns to Twin Twist. "No, like I said on the radio - we wanna get the usual rundown out of the way first after repairs."