Perceptor Updates Kup

[Emirate Xaaron-3]

Emirate Xaaron will feel absolutely terrible if Swerve, perhaps the only decent Autobot he's even known, perhaps the only one in existence, dies for him, and he'll even feel horrible if Swerve dies for him and Emirate Xaaron is left without knowing is Swerve is truly decent or not. Still, he'll let Swerve do it in an instant. So he shelters behind Swerve, despite the proximity. Emirate Xaaron moves now. He has to get to an outcome where there is a later before he can worry about what he might do in that hypothetical later, like collapse in a shivering wreck for a while until the terror bleeds out.

He whispers, more like mouths, really, "Kup." There's the chance he would have gone to pieces if Swerve had just said that, there's always the chances, but at least he could have dealt with and made himself somewhat ready when the actual danger is in closer range. He's doing his job correctly if Swerve feels the need to coddle him, but Emirate Xaaron cannot help but resent it.

His own Kup, he could somewhat handle. They were both politicians after a fashion, and Kup understood something that many of these Autobots fundamentally did not: that for Emirate Xaaron to survive as long as he has and so apparently helpless, he had to have something going for him. This is a different Kup, however, and Emirate Xaaron feels his chances are better running with Swerve than trying to bluff a strange Kup. Bluffing a familiar Kup is hard enough as it is.

[Kup]

Kup doesn't get an answer the other two, and they look set to run away. What the blazes?

"New arrivals, maybe?" he says, mostly musing to himself, but talking out loud as he does it. "But how'd Omega Supreme miss 'em?"

Louder, and firmer, he shouts, "You two! Halt right there, weapons disarmed!" Swerve isn't here, and neither Swerve nor Xaaron have reason to sneak around Perceptor's lab or run from Kup. Therefore, this is not the Swerve and Xaaron that Kup knows, and he's going to treat them as intruders, potentially dangerous intruders, until he gets the situation sorted out.

Of course, Swerve or not-Swerve, the red guy looks to be built for speed, meaning he can't do this alone. Kup brings up his radio. //Emirate Xaaron, Swerve, I request confirmation on your locations. Synapse, I need you in the air. We've got a couple of intruders at Perceptor's lab. Mirage, Bumblebee, Arcee, Pee-dee, I need you four converging on the lab from different directions to cut them off, but keep an ear out for Synapse, in case they change directions.//

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OOC: Kup and Perceptor are switching places in the rotation, as per arrangement with Perceptor's player.

[Bumblebee]

Beaten-up decades-old muscle car to the rescue!

Bumblebee makes his way towards Perceptor's lab, before unpacking and unfolding into a battle-ready Bee. His right hand slides back and turns into a gun, missiles unfold from the top and a protective yellow visor slides down over his face. He's guarding the lab from the north.

Nowhere to run, baby, nowhere to hide, Got nowhere to run to, baby, nowhere to hide.

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Reeves Martha And The Vandellas - Nowhere To Run

[Perceptor]

"But then... Why would they run from us?" Perceptor asks, perplexed as he hangs on tightly to keep from either adversely affecting Kup's driving performance, or from being thrown free.

The portal devise that he had not quite gotten around to mentioning to Kup yet is still only partially constructed, and thus, its location in the workshop that the "intruders" have just scuttled out of simply does not occur to him.

[Swerve-3]

"I'm afraid that isn't an option!" Swerve calls back to Kup. He manages to keep his voice steady, thankfully, though he can't stave off quite all the worried edge.

Things are just getting worse by the second. Swerve really does try to think things through better than this, but all his efforts this time seem ideally suited to miring himself and – more importantly – Emirate Xaaron deeper into trouble. Mustn't lose his temper… must keep a cool head. Or as close to having a cool head as he ever gets. Especially with the addition of Bumblebee, playing the intimidation as usual. Luckily, the yellow mechanoid isn't in Swerve's chosen path.

"Kup," he murmurs mostly to himself, but loudly enough for Emirate Xaaron to hear as he takes stock. "Perceptor, and Bumblebee…." And who knew how many others on their way here. He hasn't heard any calls on the radio… that worries him. He has no way to know just who is moving where. He'll have time to kick himself later for it. "I'm sorry for this, sir," he says to Emirate Xaaron even as he collapses into vehicle mode. "Let's go, and please, hang on!" Before any more reinforcements arrive.

As soon as Emirate Xaaron is aboard – Swerve hopes that doesn't take long, and he'll have to make apologies for his blunders later – the constable is off and speeding down a sidestreet to the west.

[Emirate Xaaron-3]

Brilliant, Swerve. Why doesn't Swerve insult Kup's factory while he's at it? Such rudeness would be uncharacteristic of the polite constable, but Emirate Xaaron cannot help but thinking that verbally denying Kup is counterproductive. Time spent talking is time that could be better used running even faster.

He does look to confirm what Swerve is saying. Oh Unicron, here a few minutes, and Bumblebee is already trying to kill them. The image of the rusted and battle ready sports car from hell is quite enough impetus for Emirate Xaaron to shelve his issues and pile onto Swerve. There is nothing dignified about him, and for all that he hates physical contact, his grip is firm. He clings to Swerve like a limpet to a ship.

Emirate Xaaron just keeps reminding himself that if loses it now, he'll probably lose it all. There will be time to be a whimpering wreck later. Swerve can probably feel Emirate Xaaron shiver, however.

[Kup]

'I'm afraid that isn't an option'? The voice is right, but the words are certainly not Swerve.

So it's a new arrival, a duplicate Swerve, but one who thinks he's got a reason to run from Kup. "Of all the diode-blowin', manifold-munchin'," he mutters, annoyed, as he swerves onto the side street after, well, Swerve. Mirage is at the end of this street. Kup only has to block the escape. And hopefully Bumblebee will think to approach from another direction, in between some of the buildings.

Speaking of Bumblebee, "Hey, Bumblebee, think you can cut the chase music? These guys are spooked enough as it is!" Then he mutters quietly to himself, though still loud enough that Perceptor might be able to here, "Sheesh. Third noisiest mute I've ever met."

You don't want to hear about the first and second noisiest.

[Mirage]

As side streets often are, the road here is nowhere near as wide as the main. The passage is made even narrower toward the far end by a large (possibly) delivery vehicle is parked along the right side. It is behind this vehicle that a cloaked Mirage is crouched when he hears Swerve turn into the street. A moment's consideration as to how best to (hopefully) stop or slow the pair without doing them serious damage, and Mirage, still crouched out of sight, switches from invisible to holo-cloaked.

And so it appears to be Emirate Xaaron that steps out from around the vehicle to block the rest of the roadway. And it certainly sounds like the Emirate's voice that calls, very firmly, toward the approaching duo, "Emirate Xaaron, Swerve! Please, calm yourselves. No one here intends you harm."

Swerve now has the choice between running over an unarmed clone of his commander or trying to squeak past. The Swerve Mirage knows would run him down in a nanosecond; but the Swerve Mirage knows would not be letting Emirate Xaaron perch on him like a clown riding on a toy car. In any event, Mirage has no intention of dodging; if he has to jump, it will be forward in an attempt to knock the Emirate off Swerve and onto his shiny aft.

[Bumblebee]

It's not love I'm running fr--BZT--There is a splash of white noise for half a second and then it's back to normal.

Chase music? It's Motown, Kup! Bumblebee tries not to let his feelings get hurt--but everyone else can talk as much as they would like. He turns to Kup as his gun-hand slumps down to his side... but then he gets his head back in the game and turns to face the lab again.

Hang on, the guy in there sounded like that grumpy red racecar...

Wait a second, it IS the grumpy red racecar! Bumblebee crouches back into a Camaro. Black smoke belches out from his exhaust--but less than usual, he's had a tune-up--and Bumblebee is off, taking an alternate route to try and head them off.

[Perceptor]

Perceptor... boggles, not to put too fine a point on it.

"'I'm afraid that isn't an option'? There was not a single mention of sludge in that response at all," Perceptor observes absently, surprised. That certainly didn't sound like Swerve, even if it sounded like Swerve. And he still does not understand why they had been skulking about his workshop. It isn't as if he keeps anything truly sensitive or dangerous there, unlike Wheeljack's old lab. Even Tiny has free access!

The most dangerous thing he's worked on is the energon still, and that is only if it malfunctions and explodes. The most potent weapon he's bothered working up has been the skeleton of new hand weapons for Holi and Wheelie....

[Swerve-3]

To have continued completely ignoring Kup would have been even more impolite. Though Swerve could have remembered to call him "sir", at least. Just one more little mistake to jot down on the list.

Swerve has to admit, privately at least, that Kup giving chase is a bemusing thing. The security chief has never had the speed to make the situation remotely feasible; even now, Swerve is outpacing him despite also carrying a passenger. It just doesn't parse. Why not send Bumblebee, or Sideburn, or Arcee instead? Or, Primus forbid, Nightbeat? Swerve can't think of any sensible reasons for Kup to join the pursuit… unless this Kup is somehow much faster on the road than the one he knows, or… oh, no. He's driven them both into a trap, hasn't he?

The sight of a familiar gold and silver form and the sound of the equally familiar voice that goes with it – ringing surer and more confident than he ever remembers hearing it – send horrible chills of confirmation down Swerve's relays and he can't quite stop the shudder that runs through him. His initial reflex is to listen and obey; Emirate Xaaron is his leader, after all. But this is a different person; his Emirate Xaaron is quaking with fear, holding tight, and counting on Swerve to see him to safety. His first priority is his Emirate Xaaron, not this other. He's doing his best to stay calm for that very reason. If he lets himself slip, his judgement can only worsen. He has to stay calm and keep his wits about him. And get out of this trap.

"Hang on, sir," he murmurs determinedly to his passenger. He can't strike the mechanoid at the end of the street full-on; the risk to Emirate Xaaron is more than Swerve is willing to chance. He'll have to try squeezing past instead. He might clip this other-Emirate Xaaron in the process, and it will be unfortunate if he does, but he'd like to think he can manoeuver a little more precisely than that.

[Emirate Xaaron-3]

They say a sane man would either run from his duplicate or kill him. Emirate Xaaron is somewhat acquainted with the idea that he could be more and less than he is. He did manage, somehow, to get a whole planet to follow him, if only because in following him, they gained the opportunity to trip him and see him smack his face in as he fell down the stairs. He's told it's terribly amusing. He's never seen the humour, himself. A version of him who actually did something with his tyranny could be terrifying. A version of him who actually heeded Primus's words... Emirate Xaaron doesn't want to imagine what a devious kinslayer he might be.

He has imagined it, however. Emirate Xaaron's worst dreams are not dark but drowned in burning light.

A version of him who would be calm in the face of the unknown, who could offer up such gilded words without flinching, is not a version of himself that Emirate Xaaron wishes to meet.

Emirate Xaaron definitely hangs on, and he mutters to Swerve, "You really wouldn't want to meet another me."

[Kup]

Emirate Xaaron? No, Mirage. Xaaron's still in the shower.

"Eh," he answers Perceptor calmly, making a hard right to get out of the alley by driving between two buildings. That scientist had better hang on tight! "Not every sentence Swerve uses has the word 'sludge' in it. Sometimes it's 'slaggin', or 'shoulder-hugger', or something along those lines. 'Course, his favorite word is 'Whatever,' and that's all assuming he hasn't slipped into purer Velocitronian, which is to say, more corrupt Cybertronian."

The tone Kup takes as he discusses Swerve's speech patterns is strangely casual, and contrasts the situation. As soon as he gets out from between the two buildings he makes a quick left - it looks like the racer was going to make it past Mirage, and if he does, Kup will have to cut him off some other way.

[Mirage]

Optics narrowed, the spy-cloaked-as-Xaaron, watches as Swerve approaches, and with seemingly no intent of stopping. The racer likely won't actually try and run him down while carrying a passenger, but most likely he will...do that!

As Swerve closes on Mirage's position, as he starts to swerve to so as to slip past, Mirage leaps, flying over Swerve and tackling Emirate in one motion. Momentum carries the pair a ways, and Mirage shifts in the air so that he hits the road first. If the Emirate is not too blinded by panic, he might notice that even as they roll those last few feet, very little of his precious metal hide actually touches the ground, as Mirage continually shifts so that he takes the brunt of the damage.

Once they come to a stop, Mirage-still cloaked- attempts to help the Emirate to his feet, saying, "Apologies, sir, but I really had no other choice." He looks down the road as Swerve skids into a 180 and roars back toward him, "and it seems I have accomplished my objective."

Posing of Swerve-3 and Emirate Xaaron-3 done with player permission.

[Bumblebee]

Bumblebee's short cut seemed to have lined up well, with this person who has Swerve's appearance but none of his mannerism just dead ahead of him, making good on his name as he turns sharping around and ready to race back to Mirage. One Emirate seems to have grabbed the other one, so this Swerve must be after his rider. Bumblebee decided it'd be best to keep the two of them seperate for now. To that end, he races into the way, skidding sharply, facing the red sports car. The Camaro now stands between Swerve and the Xaarons, motor revving and ready. Your move, 'Swerve'.