robothell | CLOSED |

I see you've made the mistake of drinking the experimental first batch they've concocted for this gathering.

[Something Prowl's size shouldn't be so good at appearing out of the dark ruins of the forum. It was probably in part the fuzzy feeling blurring Verity's vision, but he seemed to have been keeping a habit of making himself sparse.]

[Aside from some extra bulk from the Combiner frame, he still held the same sanctimonious air and enmity for all that is fun and lighthearted. Still the same ol prick. Still, he was an Autobot. How dangerous could he really be?]

Well, you're the most gorgeous thing I've seen since blowing that funeral of a prom.

[ Verity smiled, or more aptly - she showed her teeth. A instinctive fear response coursing through her every nerve. The synaptic switch flipped where her only visible armor was a convincingly good mood.

She was happy to see Prowl, she told herself. That selfie lost to the wastelands of a wild and roaming iCloud account was testament to that. She was so happy to see Prowl, she kept telling herself. As she stood and walked down the steps. ]

Can you give me a ride back? My set wheels bailed on me in favor of whatever punch you size queens get your rocks off to.

I'm elated you have such an appreciation for wheeled vehicles.

[A little sarcasm to ease the conversation along. Detecting a human's biological markers for fear was a relatively simple task for a Cybertronian with his batch of senses. His perpetual analytical bitchface was hard to turn off.]

[Still, no need to exacerbate it any further. Prowl actually didn't want to antagonize her despite their... past disagreements.]

Where will we be going?

Edited 2015-05-21 07:01 (UTC)

Yeah, well, jets and I don't mix.

[ Must be nice being made of metal and not feeling your blood rush upward, burning the back of her neck and knocking her heart hard against the walls of her ribcage. Smiles and a disarming joke were easy to fake but the biological tells were why even Verity didn't play poker. ]

Southend in the retrofitted apartment block.

[ Verity grabbed the handle of what appeared to be a nondescript red aluminium briefcase and made her way to the curb. ]

Nice planet you got here by the way.

[He transforms, profile lowering and compacting into the heavy form of a police-marked SUV. Earth mode, and a shiny new one too. The door to the front passenger seat opens to invite her inside.]

Mmm. The Cybertronian propensity for destroying whatever we touch seems to be a universal constant.

[Prowl's headlights flick on.]

Though back home we'd have the wilderness to contend with.

Edited 2015-05-22 18:33 (UTC)

So is this ubiquitous complex with bulking up. Bit of a hobbyhorse you guys share with humans.

[ Verity makes her point by clapping her hand a couple times over the rear side panel before getting in the back seat. She wasn't banking on Prowl getting this big, but she had to adapt to the situation and not let slip any more disquiet as she settles in the seat. ]

Yeah?

[The door closes itself and locks as she settles in.]

Our planet reset itself, not that that's relevant here. It's mostly aggressive plant life and the tiny gathering of ships we call a city.

[The engine runs for a moment, as if waiting for Verity to do something.]

You should strap in in case we're attacked. A few Decepticons have decided to ignore the ceasefire message, per the usual.

So, Australia.

[ Small talk while effectively tying the knot of her own noose with this insistence she wear a seatbelt was going to give Verity heart palpitations. Regardless, she did as she was told as while figuring out how to bait Prowl. Once they were pulling away from the curb, she cast the line. ]

Brought you a souvenir.

[ From her 'suitcase' Verity dug out a scaled down data slug. Reflected in the review view mirror even though she knew Prowl could effectively 'see' everywhere in the interior. ]

Death records. Missing person reports. More encrypted data than you can shake a stick at. Superficially meaningless, but it's all collected from leftover Decepticon facsimiles on Earth I, uh...liquidated in the interim.

[ Every entry in that data slug the veritable flag stamp on the nosecone. She lost contact with Jimmy along the way, turned her into more than some wayward kid drifting along the Southwestern United States. But it's a busy five years. Spike's international temper tantrum lacked the vital experience she picked up kicking around space. ]

With the Decepticons in bed with the EDC they're going to find themselves blind in CENTCOM and a few other countries.

[ Beat. ]

You're welcome.

That wouldn't be an inaccurate comparison.

[They power forward over rubble as the engine growls to life, sucking in air and sending reverberations through the floor. Prowl apparently didn't need directions - he kept himself well informed of the city structures that were erected as their little gathering grew in size.]

[There's silence as she presents the information, certainly intrigued that Verity decided to keep this on her person. It's not like one planned to be winked to another dimension.]

You've certainly improved your decryption skills since we've last met. Not that the databases on your planet have much in the way of security.

Spend enough time with Perceptor and the likes of Ironfist it rubs off on you. It's markedly easier when you're tracking down information relating to your own handiwork. And I knew about Autobot and Decepticons both touching down before the EDC swooped down. Kept everything close planning to make contact but well...you know.

[ Information. Handiwork. All very clean cut terms dressed in a way to detach from systematically hunting down and executing sentient sleeper agents on the off-chance the Decepticons came sniffing around their backyard again. Not that her paranoia wasn't well placed as recent events confirmed.

Looking around the dark backseat of the inside of Prowl, she was reminded she had the best of the worst to live up to when it came to pragmatic brutality. ]

You know your way around the neighborhood.

Edited 2015-05-22 21:41 (UTC)

[Prowl doesn't object. Cleaning house is the logical thing to do. Sentient or not, some dead facsimilies were nothing compared to the casualties of a successful Decepticon infiltration.]

I'd be surprised if you weren't already in contact with us some other way, given how acquainted you were with the Wreckers.

[He makes a turn away from his usual path.]

Either way, I don't blame you for keeping your distance.

I had my reasons.

[ She was currently sidled up with one at this very moment. Knuckles went bone white as she gripped the edge of the seat. Forgetting that was as ineffective for masking her growing anxiety as if she reached out and squeezed Prowl's forearm. ]

Shortcut?

[ In a pig's eye. ]

There's a cave-in blocking the other route.

[Whether or not Prowl was lying was well blanketed under the blisteringly cool demeanor of an emotionless dashboard.]

The detour is a bit longer - so you'd best relax yourself and get comfortable.

[ One thing Verity hated most about talking to an Autobot while riding in one was the lack of a face to put to the voice. It wasn't like a phone call; without holo matter the empty vehicle always made her uneasy. ]

Right.

[ The pit of anxiety in her stomach was now a yawning chasm. She tried to be casual craning her neck and looking around every corner they passed, more so as she thumbed the buckle of her seat belt. Judging the speed they were going at - and how she would have to angle a potential jump. So she just kept talking. ]

How'd Earth go? It's been dark for awhile.

It was a simple matter of humans finding themselves with Cybertronian technology they had the unfortunate business of getting involved with.

[Her twisting and twitching doesn't go unnoticed through the myriad of sensors staring - feeling back at her. Small, barely detectable really, but always there. She may as well have literally walked into Prowl's hands.]

Your kind is quite adaptable, but there are some things best left undisturbed.

[ Verity goes stiff when her fingers freezing over the seat belt buckle. Now that Prowl had stopped speaking out of both sides of his mouth and gotten to the point, Verity felt the clammy grip of regret squeezing her. ]

Prowl.

[ And then it was all a deadening anger the more she had to hear this smug, manipulative monster talk. The name bit at the end of her tongue like an ice cube. ]

I've got one word for you: Aequitas.

[ Shoving her hand in the open briefcase it segmented then half-formed into armor around her forearm. With her other hand she covered her face and leaned back as far as she could in the seat as she fired an ion blast into the door. ]

[The blast melts through the more vulnerable interior lining, breaking the lock on the door. Prowl wastes no time to react.]

[The entire vehicle brakes to a sudden halt, and Verity will find the seatbelt wrapped around her snapping itself free, leaving nothing holding her from being launched forward onto the dashboard.]

[He then begins to turn hard, attempting to keep her off balance by knocking her body to the left towards the driver's end.]

Edited 2015-05-27 20:59 (UTC)

[ The force of the abrupt stop throws Verity against the other side of the backseat. Her armor only half-assembled up the opposite side of her body it was useless when her head struck the window with a sickening crack.

Stomach in knots riding out the sudden burst of adrenaline with the edges of her vision are all a painful, static haze at first the only sounds were tires tearing into the roads and the rush of air coming through the cracks in the door. Whistling like the draft was coming through her skull.

This wasn't like before. This wasn't Earth and this wasn't Ratchet trying to save her - Verity was on her own this time, and this wasn't five years ago.

Getting her second wind, Verity shoved her feet against the back of driver's seat with her back pressed flush against backseat. The grip she had on the door handle was white knuckle as she turned, waited. And when Prowl swerved again she threw her body weight with the momentum and between the front seats and grabbed the steering wheel. ]

Edited 2015-05-27 21:13 (UTC)

[At one point in time Prowl may have found himself sickened by the sounds she made as she was thrashed around, but all he could find himself feeling was a sharp anger at her meddling.

Feeling Verity start to clench the wheel, the gear stick clunks into reverse. Prowl's steering wheel vibrates with the roar of the powerful engine in front of it as the accelerator pedal goes flat against the floor.

The steering wheel twists in her hands as he swerves again, attempting to knock her off balance as he rushes backwards.]

[ Verity didn't register that she was bleeding; only that her brow and back of her neck were markedly cooler. She attributed it up to sweat and the swell of adrenaline coursing through her.

Shoulders knocked painfully hard against the drivers side door and she came dangerously close to being impaled on the stick shift but she did not let go. ]

No...you...DON'T

[ Holding on hard enough with jaw clenched she didn't know what would break first, her teeth or her wrists but shoring up all her strength (and, thanks to the armored gloves) she pulls the steering wheel hard in the other direction. ]

[The wheel pulls against her, the electronic assistance purposefully turned off to render it immovable to a normal human. Fortunately, the gloves give her the extra power needed to wrench it and his front wheels all the way to the right.]

[There's a loud grunt of pain as the sudden switch in direction slams him rear-first into a building wall. The snarling engine quiets for a moment as Prowl regains his sense from the impact, the broken door plate tightening against his frame. Small pieces of rubble begin to fall on the thick roof above her.]

Edited 2015-05-27 21:59 (UTC)

[ Vision blurred when Prowl fish trailed and they went spinning as her body lurches forward against the steering wheel, knocking her grip loose. Every chunk of rubble pelting the roof above is a nail digging into her aching head, but she doesn't lay slack against the dashboard for long.

Heart beating against her chest as adrenaline fades and a sense of fear and urgency grips her tight in its place. Verity kicks hard against the door until it's knocked loose, rolling out and onto the street. As the armor pulls back around her she crawls onto her side and frantically pulls herself back to her feet.]

[Prowl lurches forward out of the rubble, knocking the stone and debris aside. He was a little scratched and dusty from the impact, but looking otherwise unfazed by their skirmish.]

[Plates shift and slide as Prowl rearranges himself into his bipedal mode, flicking off a piece of rubble from his shoulder as he smoothly rises to his feet.]

You've apparently not learned much about the survival rate of the Wreckers, have you? Just give me the data slug. It's contents are none of your concern. It certainly isn't worth this.

You made it my concern!

[ Verity bellowed, seeing red as she staggered up on her feet. ]

You made it my concern when your bullshit nearly got us all killed!

[ And then she rears her head back and spits at him. ]

[Prowl liked a lot of things about humans, but their fluid sprays were certainly not one of them.]

Fighting a war is never going to be whatever heroic fantasy you imagined it as. Countless Autobots have died in far more stupid and pointless missions - that's just the nature of it, even if I try to minimize the casualties.

[He quirks a brow.]

But this isn't about me. It's about Ironfist, isn't it?

And it's not a fucking calculus problem for you to solve either!

[ Face red, posture aggressive Verity was the first one to get this shouting match rolling. ]

You couldn't even have the decency to let that monster stay dead! Everything makes some mess up kind of sense to you until you decide you don't like the consequences! Ironfist, the Wreckers, Ultra Magnus, and everyone else including me that you roped into this over the years are all just lose ends to you!

What is it? Giving you Aequitas is my ticket out? No.

[ Exposed; half out of armor with no other cover, bleeding from the side of her head, and staring down a giant robot that moments prior had her bouncing around the inside of his vehicle mod like a rubber shot through a cannon. Not the best position to be screaming at the top of her lungs, but Verity did so unflinchingly. ]

Because it's never over with you. I get it - bleeding yourself dry and all for something that doesn't even think twice about you and still going, but you're the one who keeps dragging us all back in. Deal with me - You don't get to take my family away from me and walk away!

[A hint of anger seeps into his voice.]

Decency? If you think what I do has any room for decency and etiquette then perhaps Garrus-9 hasn't quite hammered home what it is you're fighting against. You haven't the slightest iota of an idea of what it means to bleed yourself dry over millions of years.

[He takes a step forward, reigning himself in.]

You realize that Ironfist, Rodimus, the lot of them - they agreed to my plan. I didn't force them to do anything. I couldn't have brought Overlord onto the ship without full cooperation of the ship's high command.

But I suppose that'd make your narrative a bit more difficult to rationalize, wouldn't it?

So let's stand around for the next millennia or two so we both feel a little more validated. No? Deal. Not everyone gets to stagnant.

[ That burst of sudden anger subsided to its colder more venomous iteration: spite.

Verity laughed hollow with a static non-expression that was unnerving, inhuman. ]

No, with you writing the script it makes it sound like you operate on full disclosure and we both know that's bullshit. It's not much of a card game when the dealer plays out half the deck, right? You needed a suicide squad and prodded every chink in their armor. Ironfist was never going to say no to a spot on the lionized Wreckers, and after three years of nothing coming out of G-9, Springer wasn't going to leave it alone.

I don't know what Rodimus's deal was but you probably played him too and made it out like keeping everyone in the dark was the only option. Turn the Lost Light into a loaded gun and call the one who pulled the trigger a hero to the cause.

[ Armor almost completely on sans her helmet a few plated joints around her legs from the knee down, Verity detached the ion cannon from the forearm and trained it on Prowl. It was small, but deceptively so; it was still the kind of firepower that could put down a Cybertronian for good. ]

You wanted Aequitas to be my ticket out? This is yours.

Edited 2015-05-28 20:14 (UTC)

[There's a sigh as the armor begins to crawl up her other half. All said and done, Prowl didnt actually want to kill Verity. Would he have the option to pry the data from her without damaging her at all, he would.]

[But, well, here he was, about a nanoklik away from having an ion gun fixed on him. Not a particularly unfamiliar situation. His battle computer churns, running a thousand situations in the second or two it takes for his own weapons to draw.]

[As the weapon finally fixes on him, he discharges with a cold and practiced efficiency and without the slightest hesitation. One shot - low yield - aimed at the ground between Verity's feet to obliterate the floor altogether.]

Edited 2015-05-28 22:17 (UTC)

[ Verity balked at the jump when push finally came to shove. In the precious few moments before their standoff went into direct conflict, Verity's thoughts were in freefall and her finger shaking over the trigger.

It boiled down to one simple fact: she knew Prowl. This was not some facsimile whose sentience was academic or an unknown. There was a name attached to face that, for good or ill, resonated with her. And at the last second they both came to the same conclusion and her aim jerked upward with the crosshairs towards the plating in his shoulders; nonlethal but enough to slow him down.

The ion blast went off and at the same time a low yield burst exploded at her feet. The armor plating around her right ankle slid into place at the worst possible moment and Verity braced as she watched her knee buckle and the direction of the joint contort in the wrong direction. Verity bit back her urge to cry out and instead pushed that rush of pain in a more productive direction. Armor on, her helmet locked into place around her head and with the HUD activated she whipped around, looked for the first way out and in a full tilt run she would not have been able to achieve without the armor let alone with the leg plates holding her ankle in place, bolted away with warning shots going in a directionless spray patter over her shoulder. ]

[The shot connects, sinking deep into the armor plating and sending a jolt of pain up his shoulder. Pain that was far duller than it should be, even though it's been months since his last combination. Still, he's forced a step back, and takes another moment to check if the joint still works.]

[Keeping an arm up to protect his head from the occasional shot, he sinks energy into the blasters in his opposite wrist. The second blast is far more potent, ripping up considerable amounts of ground to her right side. The third shot explodes into a weak supporting column, causing the structure to shudder violently and begin to buckle and fall apart into what he calculated to be her likely escape path.]

You're making this more difficult than it needs to be.

Edited 2015-05-29 19:00 (UTC)

What, like we're going to talk it out?

[ Verity is glad for the sound amplifiers in her helmet; it meant she didn't have to yell until her throat was bleeding over the gunfire and hauling at nearly 20MPH on foot.

Any more verbal swipes are cut short when the second volley upends her when the ground goes out under her feet and by the third she's forced to evade only to end up being slammed hard against an already downed structural column. Being slammed into curved surface of the column even with the shock absorbers in her suit is murder on her already beat to hell body. The wind is knocked right out of her and she swears she hears something crack.

Instead of going down, Verity reacts. Deploying the wheels on the thighs of the armor they slide into place over the feet and she throws out her arms, pushing herself away from the weakened structure. Rubber burning she skids effortlessly in a daring move under the collapsing column before it can box her in. She doubles back into the open with her rifle detached from the arm again, firing with Prowl's limbs and the segmented plates around the joints in the crosshairs. Aiming was difficult while moving, but if Prowl wanted to drag this out than so be it. ]

[As the shots begin to land their marks, he pushes into his vehicle mode and digs his treads into the dry ground. But rather than simply rush forward, he curves around into the remaining structure to act as some minimal cover for the irritating gunfire. Even while needing to compensate for falling debris, it was only a few moments before he passes her running speed.]

[As soon as he spots an opening, he twists his wheels and quickly slides sideways out of the jagged remains of building with a snarl of the engine. Tires screeching, the black and white bulk of an SUV doing a ridiculous maneuver out of Tokyo Drift pushes him into her path mid-transformation.]

[Don't mind if he just reaches out with a curious hand to attempt to snatch her right off her feet.]

[ Verity knew she was neither shooting blind or handling something more antiquated like Earth weaponry; she can see where the metal puckers under each successful it. There is more than one moment where she stalls, training her weapon and not firing even when Prowl doesn't duck behind the debris. It occurs to her she's regulating herself. Lethal action wasn't a problem in these sorts of situation, but subconsciously or not she isn't cutting loose.

She only starts to second guess the rationale behind that when tires shriek on the broken pavement and a massive hand comes over her. Feet off the ground she fights to get her arm free enough to give her enough time to get in one more shot, aiming at the half-transformed leg where on a human the achilles tendon would be located. Pay back before she's completely immobilized without enough room to struggle and only enough energy to inhale sharply when pain shoots up her sides like glass digging into her lungs. ]

Hng!

[The shifting machinations whine as the shot misaligns something near the wheel's suspension attempting to shift back into place. He stumbles on the foot as pain shoots up his leg, doing his well best not to squeeze Verity too tightly as he rises to his feet more carefully.]

[Prowl's grip was far from gentle, but he no intention of hurting her any further now that he has what he wants. After a few jagged breaths, he regains his posture.]

A conversation is exactly what I need. But not with you.

[He examines the suit with a sharp eye, looking for any kind of information port that he might be able to access from the cable extending from his own wrist. Datamining the entirety of the EDC took a minute or two at most, the only barrier keeping him out of this was largely physical.]

( To say that Arcee had been watching is putting it mildly - Arcee always watches. Autobot she may be but it's easier to survive here and deal with it if she falls back on what she knows. With what had occurred on Earth means this was only a matter of time; it's not something she's going to look over, however. Not with the Autobrand heavy on her chest.

Her landing kicks up even more dust and dirt than their previous activities - she's not surprised Prowl brought down a whole building in his efforts to get whatever it is. Whoever it is. He likes his extremes. That's fine. Arcee likes her's. Her swords are unsheathed the moment her feet gain purchase on the ground - the flame cutting through the dust as she saunters towards Prowl. )

Let the human go.

( The threat is obvious in her tone, and this time he doesn't have the Constructicons backing him up. But if slamming him into a wall wouldn't stop him, she's going to have to resort to more drastic measures. )

[Verity, of course, resists - first, always, and relentlessly. Her HUD display goes as haywire as the heart beating rapidly in her chest as Prowl attempts find a way into the suits computer. Unbeknownst to him, Prowl would physically have to peel away the plating to find where she stashed the hard copy. Struggling wouldn't do anything when he would come to that conclusion, but that didn't stop her. ]

I can't b-

[ Breath. And no she could not. Prowl might not be actively attempting to squeeze the life out of her but it was aggravating injuries that were there before he nabbed her and it was excruciating. Verity only saw Arcee on the approach as a brightly colored blur obstructing the uniformly grey rubble surrounding them. The burning heat of the of her sword reflecting orange in the blue tint of Verity's visor as she tries to claw her way free, mutely urging Arcee to intervene since she clearly didn't come here to help Prowl. ]

Edited 2015-05-29 22:06 (UTC)

[Although Verity struggled in his grip, he didn't release - any looser and she'd have room to slip an arm out and fire more rounds.]

[Prowl is calm as Arcee lands a few feet away, swords drawn. He knows better than to draw his own weapons when he was injured and had one hand occupied. If anyone was familiar with just how dangerous her combat prowess was, it was Prowl.]

Dropping her would only exacerbate her injuries [It was almost as if he was discussing the weather.]

And her name is Verity. She's stolen intelligence that she has no business sticking her nose in. [He looks down at Verity's helmet, spotting the data port at the base of the head, just above the spine.] After retrieving it I'll be finished with my business here.

Edited (ENGLISH HARD) 2015-05-30 01:10 (UTC)

You're smart, Prowl. Figure it out.

( A way to release her without harming her, that is. When she's close enough, she doesn't hesitate to raise one towards both him and Verity. She doesn't actually use Vertiy's name because she's Bad at Being Likable. )

Then leave it to Prime. You've injured a human, Prowl. Prime won't like that.

Screw Prime - I don't like it.

[ It was Verity. Her voice was reedy; thin with the air being strangled through her windpipe like forcing sound out of a dented whistle. Whether it had been Arcee showing up with that firm warning and firm grip on the hilt of those nasty looking blade, maybe even the injuries - whatever it was, Verity noticed Prowl's grip slackened by no more an inch or even two. Only noticeable because her lungs were burning but she took advantage of that only unconscious slip up immediately.

Arm loose she lunged forward and grabbed the only thing she could - the cable on Prowl's wrist and then she yanked. Deep wired - not supposed to come out, she mused briefly, at least not without hurting like hell. (Unless it was numbed because you were say, a combiner head, but details. Sparks shot up against her helmet and Verity was holding one nastily fraying cable in her hand. ]

[An actual streak of pain dimly races up his arm as one of the extensor cables are ripped out of place. Even the changes of the combiner frame didn't completely mask the pain something that deeply engrained being torn out of its socket. There's even a slight hint of what would have been a grimace that streaks across his face.]

[His grip twitches as he looses some feeling in one of his fingers, and lets her fall - only to hold her upside down by the leg. Humans tend to doze off it you dangle them long enough.]

You should have thought of that before blasting my cabin.

[There's some genuine irritation there, but he looks at Arcee, extending the hand towards one of the swords.]

You can hold her while I read the suit if that satisfies whatever artificial moral hangup is keeping you here, just be careful of her bite.

( 'Artificial moral hangup'. Irritation flashes across her face at that, grip on her swords tightening. She's been trying,she knows he knows he hasn't liked it. But Prowl can live with it, and live with her choosing to do something he doesn't like.

Arced looks from Verity to Prowl and then back to Verity before sheathing one of her swords. Her extremely limited experience with humans leads her to believe that Prowl isn't carrying her appropriately, so she wraps her hand around Verity's waist - still holding her upside down. When she has Verity firmly in her grasp and Prowl has let her go, there a flash of light as Arcee severs the connection between the two of them with her sword. No more wires for you, Prowl. )

You're done here.

( And she raises her remaining swords to cover both her and the organic, taking a step back. )

CLOSED |

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