Crystal City Frequency Conversation

[Long Haul]

OOC note: This conversation is running concurrent to both the Zoo and Meetings thread, and the Expansive Plains arrival thread. It begins with reply #6 of the Zoo and Meetings thread, and occurs at the same time as events in that thread. Which this conversation is ended, another note will be made detailing which post in that thread the ending coincides with.

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Long Haul wants to narrow things down to only those from his reality, or a reality very similar. His future-teammates, indeed, his future-self, would consider his choice of frequency very foolish, due to who else might be listening on it, but the potential danger doesn't occur to this version of the Transport.

After all, what has Long Haul to fear from Omega Supreme?

Long Haul tunes his internal communicator to a frequency that he had last used... just a few hours before, from his perspective. He tunes it to the frequency common to those charged with the maintenance and protection of Crystal City.

// Hey, uhm, h'lo? Anyone out there? This is Long Haul. If anyone else is getting this, answer up. //

[Hook]

Hook's radio suddenly comes to life, listed on a very, very old frequency that he himself hadn't used in millenia. It had been quite a long time since the Constructicons felt safe enough to taunt Omega Supreme over their shared frequency. And what other use did it have, besides possibly leading the Guardian to him?

This was not a situation he wanted to encounter Omega Supreme in at all.

// Hey, uhm, h'lo? Anyone out there? This is Long Haul. If anyone else is getting this, answer up. //

This, however, is not Omega Supreme who is calling him.

//Long Haul?! What are you using this frequency for? And why didn't you answer earlier?//

[Long Haul]

Long Haul, as a rule, is not very good at disguising his emotions. However, when relief and fear battle as powerfully as they are right now, all the transport is left with is exhaustion, and it is this soul-deep weariness that leaves its mark on his tone.

// Don't... don't think your message got through earlier. My radio activated a moment, but it was all just static. And, erm... why wouldn't I be using this frequency, Hook? //

[Hook]

The sound of his gestaltmate-brother-teammate's voice is a balm to Hook's troubles, even if Long Haul does seem to be especially dim today. But Hook is no longer alone, and that's what is important.

The relief in Hook's voice is obvious, even with his usual brusqueness and irritation on top.

//I thought I almost made a connection with you, yes. There must have been some sort of atmospheric disturbance.//

Four short radio exchanges and no response from Omega. Given the situation, the Guardian might not be here to hear...

But it was a foolish Decepticon who put his life in the hand of such a 'might'.

//Honestly, Long Haul, what kind of question is that?//

[Long Haul]

Perceptor had claimed that, if he were to encounter his work-mates, they would not be the mechanoids he knew. Except that... this sounds like Hook. This wasn't just some stranger speaking with Hook's voice, this is Hook, and the obvious relief in his brother-teammate's tone makes the conversation that much more difficult.

What faction are you in? he wants to ask, but he can't bring himself to transmit those words just yet. Instead, he responds with:

//Erm... an honest one?//

[Hook]

Visions of Long Haul with half his head gouged off and missing most of his memory fill Hook's head. Lovely, he's going to have to add a complicated surgery on top of managing the other two Decepticons.

//Long Haul,// he answers patiently. //You do remember Omega Supreme, right? And Crystal City?//

The phrase 'Crystal City' covers so much for Hook, so much that Long Haul hasn't suffered through yet. The robo-smashing, deceiving Omega, the demolition of those endless crystals, the chase and the prey turned predator at the end.

[Long Haul]

"Missing most of his memory" is a description that's actually moving in the right direction, even if it's not very accurate.

(Although Long Haul mostly just keeps sensors in his head, and maybe a few of the less important memory modules. The important stuff is all down in his torso, silly Hook!)

//'Course I do!// Long Haul answers firmly. Why wouldn't he remember Crystal City? He had only just left it awhile ago to begin his supply run! //That's a stupid question!// There's a brief pause, as Long Haul realizes he's getting no where fast, and he decides to change tacts. //So, erm, Hook... if I'm not s'posed to be using this frequency, which one am I s'posed to be using?//

[Hook]

(Hook appreciates dramatic visuals and the tendency of a lot of people to not put very important things in their head.)

//Well, that's one good sign, at least.// Hopefully Long Haul's memory boards were near enough that the transporter could pick them up, as well. He'd hate to have to copy his own memories to replace what Long Haul lost. It was always rather... strange to have someone else's interpretation of events in your mind. //For private talk among the team? Use the Constructicon frequency, Long Haul.//

[Long Haul]

Can current flow cold? For it feels as if every circuit in Long Haul's body has just lost several degrees of warmth. "Constructicons." That's what Xaaron said their team was called. Long Haul had never heard the term before, but he has a pretty good idea what that "-con" suffix meant.

And now Hook is repeating that term back at him.

There is silence, a moment of hesitation, before Long Haul speaks again. His voice is audibly trembling. //I... I don't know that frequency, Hook.// he says sorrowfully. Not forgot; he doesn't know it. Another hesitation, and then, //Look, Hook... I think... I think... well, erm, I gotta think. Before I talk to you, that is. I'm a... a... I'm gonna have to go off-channel, 'kay?//

[Hook]

Long Haul's response is incomprehensible to Hook. He knows every word the transporter uses, he knows what they mean in conjunction with each other like this - he simply does not understand why Long Haul says this to him.

//Long Haul?// Hook did not say 'what?' when he wants something explained. Builder forbid he ever be reduced to 'huh?', as he felt that belonged to only the most inarticulate and stupid of mechs. //What is there to think about? It's a frequency. It has a particular amount of hertz and a specific wavelength.//

[Long Haul]

//And it's a frequency I don't know, Hook.// Voice soft and strangely pained.

There's a long pause. Something about the way Hook had asked if he remembered Crystal City bothered him. You don't ask a question like that about a city in which you live and work quite regularly.

You ask a question like that about a place you haven't been in awhile.

Long Haul realizes he should not give Hook a heads up, that if he makes it obvious he knows stuff he shouldn't, Hook will be able to figure out that he has other sources of information. Perhaps even derive that there are other Autobots there. But damn it, this is Hook! Perceptor is wrong on that count. This is his teammate. And that's what makes the whole thing so horrible.

//Hook, I remember Crystal City... because I was just there a couple of days ago. Only left for a supply run, and then I ent up here.//

Before Hook can react, Long Haul adds, hurriedly, //Look, I can't talk no more. ... Good bye.// And he cuts off his radio.

OOC note: Okay, apparently I go back into the Zoo and Meetings thread at about the same point where I left it.

[Hook]

//How can you not- Long Haul!//

Just there a few days ago? But-

Crystal City hadn't stood for nine million years.

Two memories, quick and scalpel-sharp flick through his mind: Dead End claiming to be from twenty years in the future, and Skystrike claiming to be from a year and a half in the past. Twenty-five years of difference between the three of them, and he had simply shrugged it off without hardly questioning it.

If Long Haul had come from an even farther point than that - from nine million years ago - he could very well have just come from Crystal City. If that were the case, then Long Haul could...

... Not know the frequency because he was from before the fall.

It's too much, too impossible, too surreal for Hook to hold onto the idea for long. It wasn't even that he had been a Decepticon longer than he had been an Autobot - he had - but the idea of his gestaltmate-brother-teammate not being who he knew him to be just didn't fit. That was Long Haul, Long Haul a little more confusing than normal, but that was Long Haul!

And Long Haul had shut him out.

//Long Haul?// He calls out plaintively on the Crystal City frequency. //Long Haul, answer me. Long Haul!//

//Don't leave me alone. Please, don't leave me alone.//

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OOC: And thus ends Hook's side of the conversation. He managed to get a round in on Expansive Plains before it ended. ^_^