OPEN | heck

[wreckers]

Who: Verity and YOU
Where: The crater
When: shruggles
What: Verity sees Cybertron in person for the first time and is not impressed.
Warnings: TBD??

[ One last bullet in the chamber. Had she been any more poetic Verity would call herself the gun in this analogy, now locked and loaded. Ironfist perhaps never intended nor even anticipated for Verity to ever touchdown on Cybertron. Even after exhausting the precious little time left before his number came up to upgrade her suit and entrust her with the backup Aequitas neither of them particularly wanted this one last shot to fire. Neither did she, but when you wake up on a dead planet next to a smoking crater you don't question why. You're just glad you kept the suit. ]

What a shithole.

[ And this was coming from someone who used to hitchhike and pickpocket her way through Phoenix, Arizona. Maybe living in deep space for nearly over two years with a pack of natives given to wax poetic about how great Cybertron used to be she expected something less...desolate. Ghost town didn't even do it justice. Part of her almost felt the same pang of longing she saw behind the eyes of the Wreckers whenever they talked about this place as she kicked a rock into the yawning mouth of the crater.

This place must have really been something. ]

Comments

[phase6kindofbot]

[There's a low, sleepy rumble from not too far away, a rumble that sends the scrap metal piles rattling. Should Verity turn and look, she will find herself face to face with a terrifyingly familiar and very huge murderous space robot dog.]

I didn't miss it.

[The massive canine mech lazily tilts his head, peering down at the tiny... Earther? Human? Didn't smell Cybertronian or mechanoid for that matter, appearances aside. In fact, the scent of this creature was... actually cataloged in his databanks for some reason.]

Have we met?

[wreckers]

[ Yeah. Verity would be hard pressed to forget those heavy footfalls digging deep furrows into the ground and heated plates from freshly transforming from one thing out of six steaming like hot rain on asphalt. The smell was nearly the same, too. After the Wreckers, even after Overlord and Garrus-9. You don't forget your first time being run down by a Phaser Sixer hot on your heels up and down the good state of Florida.

Verity is not stupid and steels herself against the feeling of every vein in her body freezing to ice. Ironfist didn't skimp on the upgrade en route back to Earth before...before nevermind, but Verity would be courting winding up as a smoking smear on the ground if she tried it. ]

Yeah.

[ Didn't stop the smart comment from falling out of her mouth. ]

If the "Warriors Elite" are kicking around here shouldn't things be a little more on fire?

[phase6kindofbot]

[The answer has the massive mech leaning closer. So close that Verity could probably make out her own reflection in the lens of his red optic. The blades of the iris shift, aperture widening and narrowing in silence for a long moment.]

Ah, one of the ones Ratchet let out while I was chasing him.

[Of course, now that the mystery was solved, Sixshot falls into his baseline apathetic disinterest, lifting his head away.]

Suppose you wouldn't know it, but Megatron's an Autobot now- and he's declared peace. Well, our Megatron anyways.

[wreckers]

[ Verity sees the rippling outline of herself distorted and peering back at her and finds it almost as chilling as the massive eye oscillating behind it. Like in all the movies, she thinks, looking away from a mirror only to see the serial killer behind you when you look back. ]

Been a while.

[ Her voice is unaffected even as sweat builds in her palms and at the nape of her neck. Long enough that she learned to temper fear and instead think of creative ways to brighten those red eyes with an ion blast and make for cover in the city if it comes to that. When it comes to that.

But then - she starts laughing. It starts low then she's practically shaking with it. ]

And that must have been a popular change in the script. So how are you with that? Bet the Decepticon conclave doesn't know whether to shit or go blind with that one.

[phase6kindofbot]

[Sixshot watches her laugh, lupine face unreadable. He knows she is afraid, he's seen this kind of fear before many, many times. He induced it, after all, in countless aliens and Autobots, soldiers and civilians alike. It was just peculiar to see it now, after so many people had stopped treating him like he wasn't made to be the very embodiment of death.

He waits patiently until she is done and then shrugs in answer as well as a quadruped could.]

Something like that.

[The ranked sorts hadn't appeared until a few weeks or so ago and none of them had shown any particular inclination towards taking over. Shockwave had been vague, Soundwave he only knew was around due to scent. Tarn wasn't part of the Command cadre but had tried for a power grab- and then had the ambition beaten out of him by the defected Megatron himself.

Which left... the young Megatron in charge of things, really. Somewhat ironic.]

[wreckers]

So I took notice of the fact I'm not running for my life.

[ Pushing it, but news coming down to her from a Phase Sixer that Megatron changed colors really flipped the script. And while she had no idea how that translated down the chain of command with the other 'Cons - she was going to ride out this tenuous lack of doom and death coming from Sixshot if it meant answers.

And you can also look a Phase Sixer right in the eye so many times before you're just dead to it. ]

[phase6kindofbot]

You can still run if you want.

[Considering how disinterested he sounded though, Verity wasn't really guaranteed much of a chase. In fact, as far as getting answers went, Sixshot decides to be somewhat helpful.]

The Autobot clinic is three blocks away from here. Just keep heading up this road, take the first left and keep walking.

[wreckers]

[ Sixshot barely got a word in edgewise before she was taking off her helmet - and for a few reasons. This was not a Decepticon with much in the way of 'fighting spirit' to speak of, Verity stopped caring since Garrus-9, and her scalp was starting to sweat and she was positive this place didn't have showers. ]

War ending was really that big a downer, huh?

[phase6kindofbot]

[It was more 'confused despair about being abandoned by the person(s) he existed to serve and being haunted by the utter emptiness of his future and meaninglessness of his creation' being a downer, but Sixshot decides that's not a thing he particularly wanted a small alien stranger to know.

He watches Verity take her helmet off, watches the somewhat familiar face the act revealed. The Decepticon hound had not really paid attention to the humans during the chase, but his peripheral senors had still logged information about them.]

Suppose it was.

[And with that, the Phase Sixer was standing back up in preparation to leave.]

Wasn't a real party to begin with.

[imatruck]

[Too late for Grimlock to get any habits better than punching or his current hobby: scrounging. But what else does one do in an garbagehole other than wait for backup? The only good thing is that Grim doesn't take much to entertain.

But even someone busy in the digging into trash hobby has time to catch suspiciously human-looking things saying suspiciously-human things.

The green dinobot slides down a garbage pile in an undignified whump.]

Hey, you're not Cybertonian!

[No way.]

[wreckers]

[ Damn. Verity was already a bit jumpy already feeling like one bad orbital bounce gone wrong away from being the first person in recorded history to go upchucking down an alien crater. The excitable green dinobot sliding down the trash pile did nothing to help her nerves.

Clenching her fist the ion blaster on her forearm ejected to a ready position but other than that her stance was pretty neutral. ]

You're not a garbage truck.

[imatruck]

[Well excuse him for liking life big and loud. And with that blaster ready, it doesn't calm his punch-happy tendencies.

He crouches down in that classic dinosaur stance, tail swaying slightly.]

Yeah, duh.

Didn't think little things lived here.

[wreckers]

Humans. That's the word you're looking for, 'Big thing.'

[ Verity takes half a step back with the heel of her boot digging into the soft soil. Even with Barney the friendly dinosaur sponsored by John Deere wagging it's fat tail at her she found the whole situation a little too Jurassic Park for her liking. ]

And no. My showing up wasn't part of the program.

[ That she knew of. ]

You Autobot?

[imatruck]

...huh, didn't think humans came in that.

[The whole red armor setup is very Cybertronian. Like a mini-Cybertronian. But no way those don't exist.]

Yeah! Sorta! I got promoted a couple weeks ago!

[wreckers]

I'm what you call special circumstances.

[ Verity stamps out the urge to extend her arm and give that stupid green snout a pet. ]

Promoted from What?

[imatruck]

You're the first special circumstance human I met, then.

[He grins and bobs his head.]

From prisoner! Now I'm Bee's right hand bot!

[wreckers]

I'm familiar with the Autobot penal system.

[ Verity does not elaborate and doesn't really want to. ]

Bumblebee? [ That's a name she hadn't heard in a good long while. ]

[lethalimpact]

[Megatron told him about these creatures--humans as he called them. Smaller life forms that were squishier than the average Cybertronian. Although they were praised for being just as resilient and driven. Maybe he tuned out a bit at that part, but he'd given a good few minutes to the convo. That has to count for something.

But this is him seeing one for the first time. And....well, they certainly were as Megatron described them.]

Yeah, you're no prize yourself.

[Hi Verity, remember King Asshole? He hasn't changed much, really. Except for being two handed and having hazard tape.]

[wreckers]

[ Oh look, an asshole she finally recognized. Verity might have noticed the decided lack of old dents in place of hazard paint along two hands instead of the more familiar drills. Truth be told, her immediate assumption was Cybertronian affectedness. Maybe hazard paint and ambidexterity was in this cycle.

Size queens. ]

You're breaking my heart, Impactor.

[lethalimpact]

[Well...THAT gets his attention. His head spins around, as if he was just going to walk by and pay her no mind. But she knew his name, and he's certain he's never met organics--let alone this specific one.]

What are you.

[The right answer is 'who', Impactor. But he doesn't care at the moment. She's got his full attention now--for better or worse.]

How do you know my name?

[wreckers]

[ Well then. ]

I'm not taking off my helmet.

[ Yet, anyway. She still thought the read out that this air was actually, well, air was bogus until she had a second opinion. Not to mention the response was more kneejerk. Since day one with the Wreckers she didn't like being out of armor once they were groundside. At all.

Not the most pressing issue right now. She would like to think the human on the team made some kind of impression. ]

Really? It's Verity - you know, Garrus-9? Wreck n' Rule? ...No?

[ Come on man, Garrus-9 was ride or die. ]

[lethalimpact]

[His brow rises as she lists off the terms--both unfamiliar and yet...somewhow obviously pinging something to her.

Wait. Wreck n' Rule. Garrus-9. It was the information he'd learned about himself in the future. The one First Aid had told him about--and this "Verity" was a part of it?]

Ah, right.

[His hand goes to his head, palm on the forehead part in particular.]

I'm not from that...'when'. If you get me

[wreckers]

What? You mean to tell me this place isn't just messed up - it's screwing with time?

[ It's time. It's complicated. ]

[lethalimpact]

[A grunt.]

Looks that way. Apparently I'm behind in the times. Same as Megatron.

[See: he's a miner baby who's only offense is writing really schmaltzy poetry.]

Point is, haven't met you yet, but if you're part of the Wreckers...ya look a little short for it.

[wreckers]

I was very persuasive.

[ She was a stowaway who happened to have the technical skill of a fucking robot - no offense. ]