Unauthorized Investigations

[Needlenose]

OOC: This takes place on day 12, the day after the party, in a secure area near the rubble formerly known as Autobase.

Needlenose, who is something of a lightweight to begin with, got fairly sloshed at the party. Then he wandered off to spend a bit of quality time with Spinister before falling into a defragmentation cycle. Of course, the thing about overcharging is that once the system's done dealing with the heat-induced stress and other problems caused by overindulging, the Transformer often finds themselves undercharged. This is a Transformer's hangover.

The same thing that makes Needlenose a lightweight also means that he doesn't suffer from hangover. As long as he's not trying to fly, he does just fine without energon. While most of the faction are either still deep asleep or recovering from the antics of the night before, Needlenose is wide awake. A chipper spring marks his movements as he heads towards his destination: the small warehouse to which the useful salvage (and much useless salvage) from Autobase has been moved.

There's no subterfuge to his step, and while he does watch the world around him, it's only as much that makes sense for anyone in a faction whose fellows aren’t known for their trust-worthiness. Sure, what he's doing would almost certainly be frowned on by some individuals in command. Starscream's already had Optimus Prime's body transported away, and Shockwave's had Perceptor's body set aside from him. That just leaves the one that Shortround identified as Thrust, which is earmarked for Engineering to study.

Needlenose wants to get a look at it first.

He's not supposed to. He's not been ordered to. But he's a Mayhem, and there's a lot to be gained simply by walking confidently and behaving as though one is exactly where one is supposed to be, and that anyone who questions that is obviously foolish, wrong, and possibly even a traitor. Besides, he reports only to Spinister and Starscream, and it's not as if either of them told him he couldn't examine the body.

And so it is that Needlenose bursts into the warehouse like he owns it, cheerfully calling out, "Hello, hello! Is anyone in here?" He is, of course, hoping that no one is, but if they are, such a bold greeting may work to put them off-balance.

[Blackarachnia (BW)]

Blackarachnia had been conspicuously absent from the party for a purpose, blast it all. With greater care and much less noise, she had snuck into the warehouse. In fact, she was just about to get a better look at the corpse of the robot known as Thrust-- which seems to be propped up against some debris, giving the effect of him sitting up from lying down, when Needlenose shows up.

If he is performing any kind of security check, he's really bad at it. Blackarachnia scurries into the nearest corner to avoid detection. Unfortunately the closest she has is, well, underneath Thrust himself. Whether or not she was noticed won't matter, as the moment Needlenose has a closer look at Thrust her cover would be completely blown.

[Needlenose]

No one answered. This, of course, does not mean that no one is here, but what it does strongly suggest is that anyone who is here isn't supposed to be. It just stands to reason.

Needlenose scans the surroundings before heading right for Thrust's body, his Nebulans walking after him. He also continues to watch around himself as he walks, though otherwise there's little indication in h is casual step of such alertness. The distance between the entrance and the body is closed quickly, after one or two turns to avoid other piles of debris, and he is about to reach down to open a panel on the deceased Decepticon when he does, indeed, spot Blackarachnia.

"Oh, hey there," he greets cheerfully. "You know, when I asked if anyone was in here, I was including organic-shelled spider-ladies in that, too."

[Blackarachnia (BW)]

"How very open-minded and inclusive of you." Blackarachnia hisses in irritation. It's not necessarily directed at the targetmaster, She doesn't like being made to look silly, and that's exactly what Needlenose has done.

She brings herself up with as much dignity as she can muster, then sighs. "So, let me guess. Got lost looking for the waste oil depository?"

[Needlenose]

"Well, I do work with Nebulans," Needlenose points out in response to the 'open-minded and inclusive' comment. "Speaking of which..." and now he shoots a look at his two partners, who seem to be looking for a seat. "You two behave!"

Zigzag, who is in the process of settling down and pulling out a magazine, rolls his eyes. "I don't need to be warned again every single time, you know," he grumbles.

Sunbeam, who seems to have some sort of portable electronic device that he's in the process of powering up, just stares at Needlenose blankly. "Huh? What'd I do?"

Meanwhile, the Targetmaster himself, deciding against the chest panel, instead moves the body so that he can better examine one of those strange ports. He answers, "Lost? Oh, no, I'm exactly where I wanted to be." If she's meaning to offer him a graceful out, he's not taking it, but largely because 'graceful outs' work against the whole, 'I'm authorized, darn it!' routine.

He looks up at Blackarachnia. "You?"

[Blackarachnia (BW)]

Blackarachnia smiles as Needlenose starts examining the body. "Hmm, I guess I'm in the exactly riceplace too."

She kneels down to get a better look at the port. "Hmm.. this is pretty oddly-placed and designed for a weapon's mount.."

[Needlenose]

"Shortround said they used to use these things called 'Mini-Cons' as power sources and weapons, a practice they were apparently still doing in Demolishor's time, but that at some point after it they suddenly, randomly stopped working," Needlenose explains as he, also, examines the port.

The Targetmaster gestures to his partners. "Sounds kind of what we use Nebulans for, only less willing, less organic, and, if you listen to Shortround, with a shorter shelf-life. They also don't seem to have the sorts of connections to their 'Mini-cons' that we have with our Nebulans."

And now, Needlenose begins to carefully remove the panel over and around the port. "I'll be interested in seeing what they've got to force another mechanoid in combination against their will." Because if Engineering is about to have that, Needlenose wants to know how to combat it. "Is it something in the large Transformer, or in the Mini-Con, and why did it stop working?"

[Blackarachnia (BW)]

"Perhaps it was in the Mini-Con, and they found a way to override it." Blackarachnia speculates.

"The way it's been explained to me, it seems more universal than the connection between a Targetmaster and their Nebulans."

Blackarachnia starts poking about some plating. "Help me get some of these panels off. I want to see exactly what is connected to these ports and whether it's designed to draw power from it, or distribute."

[Needlenose]

Needlenose was already in the process of removing one panel, so he nods. "Some of these'll be tricky. The damage is pretty bad." Needlenose snorts. "Looks like he was ground up or some such. Crushed between some very large gears."

The Targetmaster pries off one panel, and in the process, breaks it in two. He shrugs and removes the other portion. "Well, you can't always pick and choose the condition of your subjects," he declares cheerfully.

[Blackarachnia (BW)]

Blackarachnia almost lets a smile form, Needlenose's pleasantness is infectious.

"A factory incident? Wait, Demolishor knew him, he's got to be more than a menial labourer."

Wait, large gears... "How big did Transformers get in this Thrust's reality, again?"

[Needlenose]

"Weeeeell..." Needlenose drawls out, leaning forward to examine the cluster of circuitry nearest the Mini-Con port they're examining. Shattered. They may need more time than they have to reconstruct anything useful out of this.

"Weeeeeeeell... doesn't Shortround keep complaining about their Optimus Prime 'destroying Unicron wrong', or some such? So I'd say at least Unicron-sized, unless they've got a mini-Unicron to go with their Mini-Cons."

He shakes his head and hisses softly. "Gods, what a mess."

[Long Range]

Long Range is also up and about, goofing off as usual. Except now he's just seen someone who looks like Needlenose entering a warehouse, and he's curious.

Long Range is not hung over for two different reasons. One, he was careful about how much he drank so as not to become a hazard to the smaller bots and cons at the party, and he has big tanks, so what little he did drink was quickly diluted by the normal energon still in his system and what he drank at base.

Deciding that he might as well go and see what Needlenose is up to, so he merely unlocks his leg joints and goes stomping off to the warehouse.

_________________________

OOC: He's making some noise, so you'll probably be able to hear him before he gets there.

[Blackarachnia (BW)]

"How do you destroy Unicron wrong?" a bewildered Blackarachnia inquires. Of course, she is unaware of how Optimus Primal came back from being on a satellite that detonated.

She just makes a sound at the notion of a mini-Unicron.

At the sound of approaching feet, she simply makes an 'ugh' sound. Whomever makes THAT kind of noise isn't the sort of person to appreciate the work they're doing here. She pretends she doesn't hear it.

Suddenly, she snaps to. "Wait, I know what we need. Beast Mode." In her arachnid form, she scurries over the crudely-assembled debris. After carefully scaling the debris with her spider form, she rummages through until she finds a small container, about the size of a shoebox. "Ah-ha." She transforms back into robot mode, picks it up and returns back to Needlenose and the body.

She sets it down next to Thrust, opening the lid. But no, there are no shoes inside, instead it is a piece of Autobot diagnostic equipment, scavenged from the battle. "I didn't think to bring anything more advanced than some basic tools, but I figure this should help us learn some more about this guy."

[Needlenose]

"Wouldn't know, but apparently if you do it wrong, you have to evacuate Cybertron," Needlenose quips cheerfully, remembering Shortround's complaints on the subject.

The Targetmaster's antennae perk up at the sound of the heavy intruder out there. A tred like that can't possibly be Spinister or Starscream, the only two Needlenose actually reports to. Shockwave or one of the Engineers could have been problematic, but it doesn't sound like any of them, either. Time for Needlenose to abuse his position and bluff like mad.

His antennae relax once more as he watches Blackarachnia scurry off and return with a box. It's really pretty obvious that it's not a shoebox for Blackarania - she'd need at least four boxes!

The edges of Needlenose's optics crinkle up, suggesting the smile that he lacks the mouth for, and he reaches carefully into the box. The diagnostic scanner's seen better days, but it's still at least partially operational. "Very nice. This should be quite useful." Then he sets it aside.

"We'll be able to get more information if we can get more of the outer armor off." He returns to moving plating, leaving BA to the scanner, for the moment. Since it's an Autobot scanner, scaling issues mean it will be difficult, but not impossible, for Blackarachnia to operate.

[Long Range]

Long Range appears at the door of the warehouse, being a bit too big to come inside without crouching quite low, so unless Needlenose needs some help or something he'll cheerfully stand outside the door for now.

"Good Morning Needlenose, and Blackarachnia" He says as he spots the over sized spider. There's only one 'con with those colours and alt mode, and if it wasn't Blackarachnia he's sure that Needlenose would have crushed it by now.