|
Post by Sunstreaker on Feb 28, 2012 9:08:50 GMT -5
M6W4D1
This line is surprisingly secure, though likely not as secure as Ms. Zamaan's. Hunter has had time on his hands.
"Press the square root of forty-two if you want to speak to someone live... Hello!"
|
|
|
Post by Bluestreak on Feb 29, 2012 19:46:00 GMT -5
Now that Hunter has defeated the phone tree, he gets an live Transformer on the line! "Hello, this is Bluestreak of the Autobots. How can I help you, uh, sir or ma'am?"
|
|
|
Post by Sunstreaker on Feb 29, 2012 19:54:28 GMT -5
There's a brief pause. The voice that responds sounds like he's on a speaker-phone. "Bluestreak?"
"I remember him," a woman says from farther away. "Praxian gunner. Had command of his own unit last I heard." Her voice gets closer to the input-mike. "Hey, Bluestreak, it's Sunstreaker. What the frag is going on?!"
|
|
|
Post by Bluestreak on Feb 29, 2012 20:07:49 GMT -5
Long silence. "Sunstreaker?" Bluestreak sounds incredulous. "But we didn't have a Sun--" He breaks off abruptly. In the background, Summer and Hunter may hear, faintly: "Nightbeat! We got a Sunstreaker, only we never had one here, what do I do now?"
Back to the phone. "Um, I hate to seem rude, but do you have any way to confirm that? Anyone," --meaning Decepticons-- "can just dial up and claim to be anyone else, so I can't be giving out information until I know for sure who I am talking to. Also, who is the other guy? Is this line secure?"
|
|
|
Post by Sunstreaker on Feb 29, 2012 20:59:07 GMT -5
"It's as secure as it's going to get on this budget," Hunter replies. "I'm Hunter O'Nion. The Autobots picked me up when that clusterf- went down with the Decepticon base going into siege-mode ahead of schedule."
There's a brief flurry of movement as Summer tries to shove Hunter aside, and he anticipates it. Then she snarls into the mike, "I am trapped in a rotting carcass of meat, my memories have been tampered with, and I was already having a bad day before this happened. What. Is. Going. On."
|
|
|
Post by Bluestreak on Feb 29, 2012 21:19:02 GMT -5
Again, silence. Bluestreak freezes in sudden realization, then sends a private message to Nightbeat via the ship's console. " I think Sunstreaker is a new arrival. Going to try to establish reality and pullpoint. Or he's a Con trying to pull a fast one." Bluestreak then pulls up Kup's reality list from the database and studies it a moment before continuining. "Okaay. Things are even screwier than they appear at your end, because you have been dumped into an alternate universe, too. Sunstreaker, bear with me, I'll try to explain what I know once I get things sorted out, but first I have to ask a bunch of odd questions, okay? What's the last thing you remember as Sunstreaker before you turned up here, in a human body? What was the date, as best you can remember? Ditto for you, uh, Hunter. Also, do you--er, did you have a spark, a laser core, or a brain module?"
|
|
|
Post by Sunstreaker on Feb 29, 2012 21:59:59 GMT -5
Summer growls. Human vocal cords aren't meant to sound like a Lamborghini's engine, but she gives it a damn fine try.
Hunter is the one who answers. "The last thing we remember is me pulling the power on our- Sunstreaker's head." A beat. "Wow, that sounds bad even to me, and I was there." He sighs. "I'm a Headmaster. It's like- Actually, I'm only assuming you are who you say you are, so I'm not going to explain that part."
"Spark and brain-module!" Summer snaps.
|
|
|
Post by Bluestreak on Mar 1, 2012 12:59:35 GMT -5
Bluestreak makes a quick note in the database that he forwards to Nightbeat: Sunstreaker and Headmaster partner Hunter O'Nion from Springer Reality.
"Um, okay. Yes, that doesn't sound good, but I find the master-partner thing confusing anyway. We didn't have it in my reality. About when was the date just before things changed? It may be important. We probably ought to set up a meet so you can see who we are and vice versa. See, two bizarre things have happened to you--first, you were pulled into an alternate universe, this universe, from the one you knew. Transformers from all kinds of parallel realities and timelines have been pulled here. Uh, as Transformers, not humans, and both Decepticons and Autobots, and some sub-factions that attach to or are descended from both. It's complicated."
"Now if you're a Decepticon spy, you already know all this since it happened to you, too, and I'm not giving anything away. The second bizarre thing happened to the Cons, too, as far as we can tell, so again I'm not giving anything away. We don't know quite how it happened, but some mysterious force on this planet--which is Earth and I guess you know that by now--forcibly changed a bunch of Autobots and Decepticons into humans and altered their memories and pasts to make them 'fit' into society as humans. Not everyone was affected by this--I'm still a robot--but a lot of people were. Um, no, we don't know how to fix it yet. We're still--uh, nevermind."
"So, besides meeting up to, uh, establish our bona fides, do you need any supplies? Do you need extraction from where you are? I can give you a secure contact number so you don't have to go through the phone menus again. Also, be careful of letting anyone who you're not sure of know that you're an Autobot. I expect the Decepticons to target any humanized Autobots they know of, seeing how vulnerable we are."
|
|
Nightbeat
Minor
Eternal Foe of Kitsch
"Truth is revealed in the smallest detail."
Posts: 453
|
Post by Nightbeat on Mar 2, 2012 17:54:59 GMT -5
Summer might hear, over the radio, the sound of an engine revving in fashion that any Cybertronian can interpret as 'angry.' She might hear a car door slam. She might hear a voice say "You better have a damn good reason-" and then another voice, possibly one she's familiar with, continue "for waking him up. What is it, Bluestreak?" he asks. Because Muzzle, unlike the rest of them, actually needs to sleep occasionally, even when they're running on a skeleton crew. "I'm serious, if it isn't, like, Shockwave calling to come out of the closet or something . . ." he grumps, opening the file transfer pinging in his HUD.
"Well frag. Really?" The voice gets much less tinny and distant as Nightbeat pulls up a second chair at the communications console. "Lemme see if I can get Drift in here to confirm your ID."
|
|
|
Post by Sunstreaker on Mar 2, 2012 20:47:09 GMT -5
"[During Maximum Dinobots]," Hunter answers Bluestreak's request for a date. He listens as Bluestreak explains the situation. There's a surprising lack of discussion between him and Summer before he replies. "Honestly, I'd rather meet up before we talk about supplies."
Then Nightbeat shows up and drops his little bomb.
Summer bites off Drift's name. Then Hunter yells "Don't-", there's the sound of a punch landing, then Summer swearing loudly.
"Punch the wall, not the armored glass next time," Hunter says, voice distorted by facing away from the phone.
|
|
|
Post by Bluestreak on Mar 3, 2012 9:56:10 GMT -5
"Hunter, what's wrong? Do you need help RIGHT NOW?" Bluestreak says urgently. He glances over at Nightbeat. "I don't think Drift is one of Sunstreaker's favorite people."
|
|
Nightbeat
Minor
Eternal Foe of Kitsch
"Truth is revealed in the smallest detail."
Posts: 453
|
Post by Nightbeat on Mar 3, 2012 10:32:08 GMT -5
Nightbeat looks right back at Bluestreak. "You don't think the stuck-up pretty boy likes the angsty trigger-happy ex-Con? I don't particularly care for either of them, but since they both seem to be from the weird 'one-kill-shot-area-isn't-good-enough-for-us-we-need-sparks-and-brain-modules' reality," as opposed to the much more sensible Optimus-Prime-kills-himself-over-World-of-Warcraft-but-it's-okay-he-fits-on-a-floppy-disk1 reality, "we need Drift to make sure Sunstreaker is Sunstreaker."
1. Fortunately, there is no Chip Chase in that reality to snap the floppy disk with his mighty bicep-like fingers.
|
|
|
Post by Sunstreaker on Mar 3, 2012 16:02:38 GMT -5
"We're fine," Hunter says, sounding resigned. "Let me know when Drift gets here-"
"I know where the slagging first aid kit is!"
"- Or I could sit here by the phone." There's a sound of keys clicking.
|
|
|
Post by Drift on Mar 3, 2012 22:59:06 GMT -5
Drift can move fast: his entrance is preceded by a roaring engine and some squealing brakes. He's not happy at the thought of Sunstreaker: the only consolation is, Sunstreaker won't remember what Deadlock looked like.
He hopes.
He enters, pauses. He's still bad at this sort of protocol stuff. "Drift. Uh. Me. Reporting." Or something. Seriously? Can he just stab something?
|
|
Nightbeat
Minor
Eternal Foe of Kitsch
"Truth is revealed in the smallest detail."
Posts: 453
|
Post by Nightbeat on Mar 4, 2012 17:29:42 GMT -5
"Hi Drift," Nightbeat says, turning to give the blade-master a tired look, complete with a beckoning gesture. "Pull up a chair." Military protocol? The dignity of command? What are those?
"So, Sunstreaker, what does Sherma mean to you?" he says into the comm unit.
|
|