In The Fan Room

[Needlenose]

One thing about having a base in a mine is that air has to be circulated through. Oh, not all the Transformers actually have to breath, though many supplement their cooling systems with air cooling. And, of course, there's the Nebulans. Not to mention assorted base equipment that also requires air cooling. But adding the means to circulate air calls for equipment in and of itself, equipment that can get quite noisy, and so is set into small rooms off the various hallways, rooms large enough to allow easy work on the equipment, but still giving a cramped feel. Rooms with doors that muffle the noise of the equipment inside.

That it would be very difficult for someone even right outside these rooms to hear, say, a robot screaming inside them is just lucky coincidence.

These rooms are called "fan rooms."

Needlenose strolls down the corridor, away from Long Range and Scourge, and takes a right. He walks a little ways further, makes a left, then another right, and then he opens the door to a fan room.

"Well, this place looks suitably private, don't you think, Spinister?"

[Misfire]

Misfire follows along, trying his best to give the outward appearance of calm. Yes, he's worried. Actually, worried is an understatement, and Aimless being surprisingly silent is not helping. However, Misfire is starting to thing things through. There aren't that many here that he'd be expendable...not yet anyway. He hasn't done anything untoward that he can remember. Yes, yes, he can't aim- but everyone knows this, especially these two (or they should). So, unless they intend to frag him for something he does at some future point, he should be in the clear.

Not, of course, that this means they won't hurt him terribly. It just means they won't kill him. Probably. Maybe. Hopefully?

When they reach their destination, however, he can't help but twitch. The possible significance of such a choice is not lost on Misfire.

Nor on Aimless, apparently, as the Nebulan transforms and hops, down, "Well, um, I'm not really needed here. I'll just wait outside. I mean, it's kinda cramped in here and...yeah."

---

OOC: Aimless is going to try and duck out before Spinister can block the way. Permission is happily granted for Spinister or Needlenose to stop the little coward however they see fit.

[Spinister]

Spinister nods to Needlenose and looks to him, beckoning Needlenose to start. Spinister will just stand here near the door and observe. He'll also block off the exit, but that's incidental, isn't it? If Needlenose misses anything, Spinister will interject, to be sure. He crosses his arms and leans casually against the door, covering its handle.

Hairsplitter and Singe tumble down from their platforms and land on their feet. They tail after Aimless, trying to corral him. Hairsplitter comments, voice chiding, "Not needed? We do need to interview you, too. We really don't have to be unpleasant about this, you know."

Singe just cracks his knuckles, smirking.

Spinister now missing his robot mode weapons, it is true, but Needlenose is here, and his alternate mode has quite a few additional weapons. He an afford to let his weapons menace Misfire's weapon.

[Needlenose]

Needlenose crosses his arms and leans against a piece of heavy machinery, now more business like than intimidating, expression more serious, but tone still one that demands compliance.

"First, we need more details about where you were pulled from. I know we did a quick briefing before, but now we have to go in-depth."

"Misfire, you were at the start of the Time War, weren't you?" Of course, he might be from such an early point of it that it hasn't even been named yet. Wars tend not to get names until they're already going, or perhaps even after.

"You've actually seen the Future Prime, right?"

[Misfire]

Aimless stops and begins to back away from the other two, and winds up backed against the wall. "Alright, alright, fine. No need to get snippy about it. Don't know why you need me though. If I know it he knows it." He glares at Singe before plopping himself down on the floor.

Misfire for his part is actually relaxing. Not a lot, mind you, but Needlenose's change in attitude helps.

"Time War? There wasn't anything called that that I know of, but yeah, I've seen Rodimus Prime. I think that was what he was called anyway. It was a bit confusing." He spreads his hands, "Suddenly there were two Primes, Optimus and the new one who just appeared out of nowhere. He...kinda reminded me of Hot Rod, actually. The paint was the same. Then 'poof', Optimus Prime and some others disappeared, and then the Autobots started beating the slag out of each other."

The memory makes Misfire smile, though it quickly turns to a frown, "After a bit Soundwave and a group of Decepticons arrived in the same odd way. Then...I woke up here."

[Spinister]

Singe snorts, and Hairsplitter looks incredulous. Gesturing to himself and then the air, Hairsplitter protests, "Unless your binary bond to Misfire is extremely tight, there is a great of difference between interviewing you and interviewing your partner - differences of opinion, of attitude, of perception. What you find important is not necessarily what he finds important."

"Yeah," Singe pipes up, "can't say I'd think Misfire really needs to know which of the tinned alien foods'll give you the runs, but you do."

Hairsplitter's face twists, and he narrows his eyes behind the helmet's visor at Singe.

Spinister rearranges himself and withdraws a picture, based off Scourge's best description, interpolations, and the blurry composites brought back from the Time Wars. His question is simple, "Is this him?"

It certainly should be.

[Needlenose]

Well, Rodimus doesn't quite match Hot Rod's coloration. Unlike other Hot Rods, the one that Misfire is familiar with is noticably more purple-pink than red. Those Marvel guys sure did love their eye-searing colors!

For now, Needlenose just lets Misfire answer Spinister's question. There are some peculiarities to the coloration of the Rodimus that Misfire saw that don't match up with the one from any of these other universes - but do match the picture Spinister is displaying. Needlenose will have more questions for Misfire shortly, although many of the questions he'd normally ask others are less important now, like history and technology.

[Misfire]

"Pffft, as if they care about my opinions or attitudes, besides complaining about how bad they are," Aimless answers, "Babble, babble, bitch, bitch, whatever." A thought occurs to him, "Hey, what are they doing about us anyways? I mean, food and sleeping places and the like. We're in a room with two nutzor cars and something that looks like it was put together from the reject parts bin and a fisherman's gut-bucket. Can't deal with waking up next to that, gotta tell ya."

Misfire looks at the image Spinister provides, then nods, "Yeah, that's him. I was able to catch that he and the others were from another time...he had- Kup, Blurr, Ultra Magnus, and Red Alert with him. And some pink bot I didn't remember seeing on Cybertron before. Not that I know everyone, mind you."

Misfire isn't one to talk about odd coloration. After all, most other incarnations of him are red and black. This one is magenta, purple, and silver. Go Team Gaudy!.

[Spinister]

Crossing his arms behind his back, Hairsplitter says softly, in a voice that starts to echo his partner's, "You'd be surprised how much we care about complaining, Too much of it, and there is discontent in the ranks, and we lose our fighting efficiency."

Singe actually answers Aimless's questions, "Hairsplitter, Sunbeam, Zigzag, and I rack out in Spinister and Needlenose's room. We've set up cots on their shelves. Hook actually installed some indoor plumbing for us." He pulls out a map of the base and points out where. It's in an inconvenient place, of course, but it's there. "Soon as the new arrival room fills up too much, you and Misfire'll be shunted to a new room with a permanent roommate," who might just be a psycho car or a fishbee. He points to another spot on the map. "That's where we store most of the supplies we find that are usable for us." The cooler supplies are, of course, claimed by whoever finds them or Singe, if he bothers to push Hairsplitter over and take them away. Aimless will find a vast supply of blankets decorated with things like look like mutant sheep. Finally, Singe grins and lightly hits Hairsplitter on the shoulder, concluding, "Hairsplitter cooks."

Spinister calls up a different image, this one of a pink car and an oddly shaped robot. It should look familiar to Misfire, but not exact - this one is bustier than the one he saw, although still nowhere near as impressive as Shockwave.

[Needlenose]

Spinister has brought up the image, so Needlenose now adds the words to go with it. "Would that, or something similar to that, be the pink robot you saw?" Even if it's not the same, it confirms a connection between Rodimus Prime and Arcee over multiple realities, and since they've got one of each on Gillanan, something they can use to their advantage.

About this time, the weapons at Needlenose's side transform and the two Nebulans land, Zigzag with rather more grace than most would expect from him. Both meander towards the other Nebulans, and Sunbeam confirms. "Yeah, he does. Sometimes I do, but I've left the heat on too long a couple of time-"

"You burn the food every time you cook," Zigzag complains.

Sunbeam snorts. "So? You can't even boil toast, dude."

[Misfire]

"Ya know, I'm pretty sure you don't boil toast," Aimless mutters, as he looks over the map Singe is showing him. Other than that, Aimless decides to be quiet for the time being. If they want to ask questions, he'll answer. He just isn't in the mood to be ramble.

At Needlenose's question, however, Misfire nods, "He looked pretty closed to that, actually. Chest wasn't quite so prominent, I don't think."

"You said something about a Time War? What did you mean? I take it the incident I was involved in wasn't an isolated one?"

[Spinister]

Hairsplitter looks appalled at the very thought of boiling toast and blurts, "Pasta! You boil pasta, not toast!"

"Simmer down," mutters Singe.

Hairsplitter, at that cooking pun, is about ready to kill Singe. Of course, the psychic backlash would be killer, so he restrains himself. Instead, he inquires in an edged voice, "Do you remember anything of your arrival?"

"Heard anything about Llyra?" Singe asks. he doesn't have any hope, but he asks all the same.

"Just a clusterfrag," Spinister growls. He lost friends then, slaggit. Needlenose can ask the relevant questions.

[Needlenose]

Needlenose isn't going into the details of the Time War! He doesn't know them! The Time War was confusing!

He shakes his head. "Not... entirely isolated, no. I don't know if you'd heard rumors about it or no, but there's some sort of future Decepticon leader, Galvatron, who'd been stirring things up in our time already. Apparently that was leading to the end of the universe, or something, so those guys had arrived from the future to bring him back. Meanwhile, our guys tried to deal with the problem themselves - by ordering the Mayhems to work with the Wreckers."

Needlenose sighs and looks at Spinister, then shakes his head. His voice lowers. "Not many of them made it out. That's how I ent up on the team - had to get numbers back up."

"Be glad you missed that business, Misfire.

"But anyway, that's back home, and we've got to deal with here and now.

"Now, we normally ask about universe's history, significant technologies back home, that sort of thing, but seems like we already know all that for you, so I'll go straight to the other focus. Tell me about yourself, Misfire. What do I need to know about you. Just... pretend that I don't know anything yet. Act like I've never heard you've managed to flunk out of the Decepticon Military Academy over four thousand times. That sort of thing. Enlighten me!"

[Misfire]

"Ah," Misfire says when Needlenose explains the losses to the Mayhem ranks. Misfire looks at Spinister; a war to decimate even his ranks. It is something to worry over.

Needlenose's mention of Misfire's record, though, makes the interceptor grimace and sigh. "Look, I'm well aware that members of command will hear about that, if they haven't already. And ever mech here will hear that I have the most atrocious aim in the history of recorded time. Not like that can be glossed over. But...that is the only reason I flunked out so many times. Everything up to that- was not easy by any means. I managed well enough though."

He shifts his position, but doesn't truly relax. "I was one of the first Scorponok chose to become a Targetmaster back on Nebulos. Ironic, I know." Misfire smiles wryly, "I content myself with the idea that he wanted a truly loyal soldier amongst them." And Misfire is loyal, to the Decepticon cause above all else. "Truthfully, though, I doubt he thought of me one way or another. I was merely convenient to hand, and disobeying was not an option."

Aimless snorts, "Yeah, he didn't have a choice, but I did. Wasn't the second chance I was hoping for, though." He looks at Singe and shakes his head, "Nope, not a word. Sorry."

"As for our arrival, it was like Misfire said. Soundwave and co show up, and we get booted out of time. What he's forgetting to mention- or maybe he didn't notice since he was so worried about getting Scorponok's head back on his body- was that other Prime said the reason the 'Bots went poof was to balance out time or some such. Figure that's what happened to us. 'Cept we wound up here...not a 'limbo realm'. Spooky."

[Spinister]

Singe had to ask, no matter how slim the chance. He takes a step back and quiets, looking away.

Hairsplitter takes up the slack and inquires sharply, "Go over your background, please. As if I was not fully aware of it."

Spinister narrows his optics. He once theorised that their arrival here might have something to do with the Time Wars. He looks to Needlenose, as if to say, This is important.