OPEN |

[orerrible]

Who: Shockwave and YOU, unfortunately
Where: Around
When: Oh man who cares.
What: Cracks knuckles despite only having one working hand - it's time for Science.
Warnings: Shockwave. Will update as needed.

( a ) city

The laboratory was stopgap; very much a work in progress with antiquated equipment identified after the sheets of dust and debris were pulled back revealing something, well, altogether underwhelming. Shockwave had worked in greater want for his nigh impossible standards met in the past, but he felt the simplicity that ruled his life now more challenge than before. All because he was presented with the rather disturbing mystery to be opened up and examined: What, in his absence, could have so thoroughly salted the earth. Reverse engineering the apocalypse certainly seemed like a task he could accomplish given time.

Shockwave needed to work - too many questions to be answered, and after Emma carved that much-needed stricture into his brow he was...spurred to begin anew with greater purpose. The bare bones of what he surmised to be a university research lab would have to suffice. For now.

Prodding the nerve endings of the network, now more noticed by the outside world than a ripple in a greater reservoir, he examined the footprints left behind by the minds behind it, amused with how rudimentary it was. Impressed that even existed at all. A Beowulf cluster suddenly superseded all other priorities; something closed and close to the chest away from prying eyes. In the matter of hours all useable hardware had been cannibalized with the stripped parts left out the front doors out into a narrow alleyway between the lab and desolate campus like bones spat out at the mouth of a monsters' cave. The afterthought of his mess a warning written loud and clear: Stay Away.

( b ) wildcard

( pick your own adventure; finding holo avatar Shockwave in somewhere too small for his regular old purplesaurus rex self or any other feasible random encounter )

Comments

[optout]

Of all the things Optimus expected to find that day, Shockwave (the purple one) certainly wasn't one of them. For a moment, his spark stops. Seeing just the COLOUR was enough to put him into a bit of a frozen state. His fears only confirmed when he notices just who and when it is.

No. The world wouldn't tease him like this, would it? He'd gotten Shockwave back, they'd certainly gotten closer during his time here. And now...now he has to deal with this. A part of him doesn't want to. Wants to just forget that he saw this. But he knows he can't just let it go, that this demon is going to catch up to him eventually.

Slowly, but not softly (it's impossible to when you're that size), he pads up to him, unable to find the right words to say. He tries, oh...does the try, but all he can come up with is a name.

"Shockwave."

And the pain that comes with it is heard. As much as he tried to tie it down.

[orerrible]

It was inevitable. Shockwave loathed the notion of a single, unavoidable outcome under the pretext of foresight. Too arrogant of someone, he knew that now, to delude themselves into thinking there could only ever be one end in the road. And yet despite his better judgement and all evidence to the contrary - Shockwave knew Optimus would find him eventually.

Back stiff and turned away, fingers gone loose around what half-finished project he left on his workbench. Sentiment kept his rifle built into his arm still at his side - reason turned the safety off.

"Prime."

A name was too close for comfort now. A harsh, burning sound in the intimacy of it that Shockwave left a thing so simple yet complicated as a name well enough alone. Yet somehow he had to fight through a heavy silence just to say that much.

"Not chasing that shadow today, I see."

[optout]

Optimus had a way of making things that seemed impossible, or even too arrogant to assume become real. When he wanted something to happen, he certainly made it happen. He'd say it was by will, or hope. Stubbornness was the real key player here, though. They all knew that.

He watches Shockwave intently, eyes never moving off of him as he walks forward, although making sure to leave enough distance between them.

"We are on a new Cybertron. Although I'm guessing you found that out already." Shockwave wouldn't have built a lab on a planet he knew nothing about, all things considered. His eyes flash up at the mention of chasing shadows. Oh...how stranger things have happened.

"I've already found it."

[orerrible]

"How very poetic. Should you find yourself with the opportunity to inflict that line on my more affable doppelganger, by all means."

Almost before Optimus could get a word in edgewise, Shockwave retracted the canon on his arm. With the way things were between them as it stood, Optimus was more likely to fire a round in his own brain module then turn his weapon on Shockwave.

"The demonstrable fallout of something as apocalyptic as it appears to be self-inflicted left no room for doubt as to whose ashes we're standing on." Soundwave intoned, back turned as he plugged away at one of the few monitors he managed to tap into the power grid. Finding himself...displeased with Cybertron was an incurable constant.

"Rest assured, I've no intention of finishing whatever our predecessors on this Cybertron started."

[optout]

"Doppleganger is the wrong word. You are both truly Shockwave."

Sorry, was there a point to that statement? Something about using poetry on a object of your affection? Oh well. But he notices that canon retracts, and that puts him at east slightly more. Reassured that the Shockwave he knows is still inside there.

"It seems that way, yes. That the war ended on a much more sour note than our own universe had. In some ways...I'm grateful that we didn't reach this point." It was still a shitty situation, but he'll take the one his universe granted them over this.

"...So you're going to help, then."

[orerrible]

"Neither of us should exist."

Shockwave answered flatly as he continued tinkering with the impossible conundrum of a electromagnetic cage with a entrance large enough to accommodate him without compromising the delicate projects he had half started and strewn all around him.

"Though with some luck we've yet to suffer a paradox being aware of the others' existence." Shockwave supplied after a tense moment of silence when the screen went idle and he realized he stopped working. Left with little more to do than actually look Optimus in the eye. Left wondering if he said that more for Prime's benefit; the idea of flickering out of existence less worrisome than his continued disquiet.

"As opposed to what?" He challenged, almost daring Optimus to accuse him of idleness or a repeat of events. Both rather inflammatory accusations in his eyes - eye.

[optout]

"And yet you do."

There's a lot of 'shoulds' in their world. Megatron should be dead, the war should have never happened. Starscream should have never been elected. But in the end, that didn't matter. The choices people make are not always the most logical, but you play with the cards you're dealt.

Although Shockwave's words silence him a bit. Even in this state, talking to him was somewhat of a surprise. After being shoved to the side for so long, actual conversation was uncharted territory. His ears flick slightly, thinking things over.

Especially at that question.

"Shockwave." His voice just as firm. "You know why I'm cautious. I believe your words, and don't expect you to lie to me. But I need to know if I have your support in this specific goal.

From you. And not from logic."

[quantumechanic]

Of course Nautica saw the cannibalized hardware and immediately popped in to say hi.

"Hello? Anybody home?" She knocked on the door frame, sticking her head in to glance around before deciding that was definitely enough courtesy for the fallen world in which they found themselves, and she invited herself in, getting about ten paces before stopping to crouch and poke at Shockwave's half-built project, continuing to address whoever might be listening. "If you're running a supercomputing cluster that's fine. Just let me know your power requirements and I'll scale up what the grid can provide over the next couple of weeks."

[orerrible]

Knocking was an improvement. Such an out of the ordinary change of pace that it nearly threw him, Shockwave waiting for whatever explosion that took out a wall those small, polite knocks surely had been prelude to. Instead, there was someone that simply existed to exceed expectation in her wake.

Shockwave had dimly given how he had slide the canon in lieu of arm out into an active state a second thought when she walked in and, of all things, offered assistance. What that autobrand blazoned on her chest, perhaps he expected the typical reaction of being regarded as some sort of Decepticon boogeyman. Not entirely undeserved, especially from young Cybertronians with his machinations still fresh in their thoughts.

Now he was navel gazing, and with a guest at the door and everything.

"Can you provide the technical specifications for the grid?" Right to business, priority masking his curiosity.

For all of two seconds.

"One of the colonists?"

[quantumechanic]

Since arriving, Nautica had developed slightly better instincts for self-preservation--the still-unpainted welds running along her back and impellers stood out, bare metal against her purple frame, and the lesson they represented wasn't any more fully integrated--but even she recognized that this version of Shockwave was Bad News.

Not that she had any idea what to do with that knowledge. When she looked up to see the source of the voice, her face went through a rapid transformation from her default friendliness, to shock, then confusion, then something that wasn't quite panic. She still wasn't any good at being afraid of people, but her natural urge to make friends warring with the intellectual awareness that she shouldn't be trying to make friends right now caused some unsettling cognitive dissonance.

Wait.

That wasn't hostile at all, and Nautica made a quick u-turn back into confusion. "...Yyyyyes?" It wasn't entirely clear which question she was answering, until, "You know about the colony Titans?"

[orerrible]

"I've carried that particular nest egg of information since well before this war was anything more than something for the senate to wring their hands over." Shockwave said mildly. Playing things close to the chest had always played in his favor since even before the Shadowplay, but he saw no harm in being transparent with present company where this was concerned.

"The technical specifications for the grid?" Shockwave repeated as he loomed over Nautica. Even without a hint of malice to his disposition he tended to loom. Not as though he could try smiling more.

[quantumechanic]

"Um. Sure." Still uncertain but heartened by the fact that she wasn't dead yet, Nautica got to her feet, making Shockwave only twice as tall as she was, and dusted at the nonexistent dirt on her knees. With a flick of her thumb, she popped open the panel on her wrench and turned on the hologram projector, a three-dimensional representation of the city's limited power resources springing to life in the air between the two mechs.

"So far I've just restored the city's original power infrastructure to the buildings that are in use, since we don't have what you'd call a plan, and half the people here won't talk to the other half without trying to kill th--uh." Maybe she didn't want to talk about killing with the Decepticons' leading scientist moving right along. "Anyway, pretty soon we're going to need a less haphazard system than just me sending someone out to the crater for energon every few days."

[orerrible]

"Speak plainly." That massive singular point of an eye flares wide then retracts to a scrutinizing pinprick (MRS. BRISBY, bellowed the Great Owl that sort of thing) a cold yellow light hanging over Nautica in almost comical facsimile the interrogation lamp. There was a beat. "-Please. I'm no more loyal to the Decepticons than you are and only find their squabbles to be interfering white noise."

"The devil is always in the logistics." Shockwave intoned after an unnervingly quiet few moments of going over the three-dimensional resources Nautica was so kind enough to map out for him. His massive hand hovered over the interface and Shockwave highlighted a few areas of note. "Clearer roads would be a stopgap solution. With no one suited to transforming into the sort of vehicle we need and the generated cube system being as antiquated and cumbersome as it is we should instead be looking down. Piping the raw engeron to closer facilities. This project can run concurrent with my plans to retrofit human populated building with running water."

Shockwave tilts his head and looks back at Nautica, "Is the damage you sustained related to shoddy transport methods?"

[phase6kindofbot]

There wasn't much that could hide from Sixshot's nose and the scent of one of his creators was certainly not a detail the six-former would simply let slip by.

There was also the minor issue of Phase Sixer just not understanding 'Stay Away' and especially not in the form of vaguely ominous rubble. Black Shadow might have understood it, socially nuanced as he was out of the pack. Overlord just didn't give a flipping cog about such things.

Sixshot? This was a mech who just stared out the window in a depressive haze whenever he had down time. Socializing was not the guy's strong suite.

He does have enough grasp of manners to just wait outside in canine form instead of barging in at least. If nothing else, Sixshot is good at waiting.

[orerrible]

Hell. A small red dot on the rudimentary radar Shockwave had put together was unexpected, to say the least, throwing the proverbial wrench in his day.

Shockwave shut down the monitors he was working on and remotely opened large shutter doors near the end of the building Sixshot was skulking around.

"Of all the things to interupt me," Shockwave said coolly as though this were only an unwelcomed social call, "It had to come crawling out from the crater of Metroplex's heavy-handedness."

[phase6kindofbot]

Sixshot lifts his massive lupine head up at the sound of shutter doors clattering noisily as they rolled up. He doesn't move from his spot, merely peering curiously at the familiar, purple figure the doors had revealed.

Shockwave's words don't inspire much of a change. At least, nothing beyond a curious head tilt.

"I was pulled from the fight against the Reapers on Earth." Which means he hasn't the slightest idea who Metroplex would be. As far as he knew, Starscream had shut him down and that was the end of that. No one had really informed him otherwise.

[orerrible]

"My mistake." Shockwave neither elaborated nor gave any reaction when Sixshot's massive head appeared through the open shutter doors. He could glean from that reaction and evidence that presented itself over time since his arrival that Sixshot was...somewhat displaced as current events went. And Shockwave was disinclined to be the one to break the news.

More out of saving himself the time, but having suffered a lapse into a broader spectrum of emotion he could nearly call it pity.

"Putting the cart before the horse as I've heard it called." Shockwave commented in reference to that phenomenally stupid decision on Megatron's part to order in a Phase Sixer when Earth could barely be considered phase two. All out of wounded pride.

"Earth is no longer a concern to anyone."

[phase6kindofbot]

He was curious, of course, if only for a little while; Shockwave knew his fate? His future?

But the vagueness wasn't new and Sixshot wasn't bred to question. He was Megatron's most loyal dog, so obedient that his hesitance in the face of the Reapers had surprised their ex-leader. Depression had eaten away the rest of his cares eons ago, either way.

"Megatron's defected," he says simply. "What about you?"

[orerrible]

"Defection implies loyalty to begin with."

Shockwave has always been something of a wild card; not necessarily unpredictable but having long since enjoyed operating out of certain assumptions set in place for Megatron's so-called inner circle. Unlike Starscream he never changed his tune to stay in the good graces of his peers, and unlike Soundwave had no personal stake in the so-called cause. Shockwave operated exclusively as a free agent so it was never any wonder when he finally got around to making it official.

a) i'm sorry

[officerjuicebox]

"Whoa--"

You'd think being big as he is, he'd be a little more aware of where his feet were going. Then again, maybe he never really had to. What with feet like that. Like tank treads or something.

Regardless, in his routine Avoidance Of Dealing With Paximus And Guilt, the big bot ended up in that abandoned little quarter. Ended up literally tripping over that warning, saving himself from going face-first into the dirt by the barest margin, and the loudest possible crashing sound.

Sorry, Shockwave.

you say that but i think you're l y i n g

[orerrible]

A natural disaster had greater command of subtlety when Roller literally came crashing in. Shockwave flipped quick as a switch to idly mapping out the power grid to lopping out of the building on a warpath; his cannon aimed outward and that singular yellow optic burning bright through the darkened corridors he charged out from.

Guns blazing not being a figure of speech here, Shockwave was fully prepared to quash whatever he perceived as a thread. Until everything even his own thoughts all came to a screeching halt when he saw the massive figure picking themselves up off the ground.

Impossible.

"Roller?" Only Shockwave could make a simple questionable sound so flippant even as his thoughts and emotions were doing cartwheels.

maybe

[officerjuicebox]

He's quick to straighten up, holding his hands out in a gesture of warding and reassurance all in one. Look, see, he's unarmed, he's not nearly as terrifying as his frame makes him look.

"Sorry."

And he means it, too. He looks awkwardly around at all the junk, including the bit lodged under his foot. "I'll clean it up, just... relax."

Wow, that's a lot of purple. And one... oh. Uh. Ouch. Then he blinks -- whoever this is just called him by name. They know him. That doesn't bode particularly well.

"Do I know you?"

huuuurgh

[orerrible]

"No-"

Shockwave found the sounds and shape of his own name forming in the back of his head before it all fell away. As he found himself reticent - empathic almost, to wish to avoid the past. He holds out his only functioning hand.

"You don't."

8D

[officerjuicebox]

"Right."

He lowers his own hands, looking at the bot. There's some weird, nagging feeling. Like familiarity. But he can't place it. Not entirely.

"So you know my name. But I don't know you? How does that one work?"

>8(

[orerrible]

Shockwave tilted his head, eye dilating.

"I'm old." A casual lie that was not entirely a lie but miles away from the actual truth. "Enjoying a long, eidetic memory."

Then, almost because he wanted to avoid to revelation at all costs.

"Orion spoke highly of you. The name must have stuck."