[open] Brainstorm has competition

[smarterthandad]

Who: Valeria and visitors
Where: Her under-construction lab
When: Anytime from about a week after arrival on
What: Tiny supergenius for hire and/or underhanded plotting
Warnings: Val's Prowl-level ethics, idk

Based on what she acknowledged was her incomplete understanding of the Cybertronians' factions and the balance of power as it stood after their war, Val had decided that Optimus Prime asking for her scientific expertise counted as carte blanche to do what she wanted--not that she wouldn't have anyway, but the imprimatur of authority never hurt--which had at first mostly involved browbeating Drift into helping her scout locations, and then move heavy objects even an adult human wouldn't have been able to budge. Now, though, things were finally coming together to the point where she could get some useful work done.

She was rapidly filling up the floor space with remote-controlled equipment to let her manipulate enormous Cybertronian technology without needing to call for help every time, but much of it was still half-built. The spacious catwalk around the edge of the room at convenient Transformer eye height was quite finished, however. Val was used to having to look up at people, but 20 feet or more was a bit much, thanks. She should probably add some antigrav scooters when she got a chance; a room large enough to host even Optimus or Megatron comfortably made for a lot of walking when you were three feet tall. As with so many other things on her to-do list, that would have to wait until more pressing concerns were out of the way.

Like the fact that it didn't seem as though their war was quite as over as they said it was, so in true Cybertronian fashion, she'd focused on weapons. Her own Earth had something to say on that front, and after throwing together a few basic EMP grenades and an x-ray laser (you know, just in case) Val had switched to more interesting designs. Duplicating Iron Man's repulsors with Cybertronian tech had been a snap, though an adequate portable power source was taking time. Obviously it should run on energon, but she didn't fully understand that delightful concoction yet, and for the moment, her new toys were hooked up to a smallish fusion reactor that hummed in the corner behind a symbolic barricade of hazard tape.

The sharp zap of a repulsor blast and the metallic clatter of the makeshift target Val was practicing on were audible from the street, though hearing her giggling about the minor havoc she was causing would require being inside the lab. Not much of a feat--the door was unlocked and she had rigged an enormous "come in, we're open" sign of the sort that hung in the windows of stores on Earth. She found it funny, even if no one else was going to get the joke.

Comments

[towardspeace]

Megatron simply looks around the makeshift lab for a moment after he steps through the door, his expression somewhere between restrained amusement and equally restrained curiosity. She certainly seems to have made progress since the last time he took a look in here.

"Valeria," he says. "I assume you are keeping yourself busy."

[sparkwhisperer]

Tarn has been pacing the city for days in search of a Decepticon alliance. As it turns out, to his dismay, this new Cybertron is full of mostly Autobots and traitorous rubbish. His energy is low, his frame is littered with scuffs and scrapes, and he's irritated. He glances at ‘come in, we’re open’ sign but ignores it, figuring he will find more of the same in the relatively fixed up building. That is until he hears a rather powerful sounding blast. He pauses briefly, before doubling back to investigate. If it is an Autobot he would like to know who it is and what weaponry they have hiding in there that would cause such a sound.

Tarn enters slowly, glancing around the makeshift lab. Fairly impressive given what they have to work with here. After a few seconds of investigation he observes that the establishment seems to be strangely empty. But—the blast? Where did it come from, if not here? Tarn loudly clears his throat before taking another step in.

[pffft]

Now here was a sight he'd almost expect from Brainstorm - well, sans the human accommodation of things. Of course, the jet might have been delving a little more into the reality bending area of weaponry by now, but given Val isn't exactly in her element, she could get a pass.

In the end, Prowl is impressed at the set-up, familiar as he was with human adaptability. Taking one look at the target that clattered to the ground, he glances back at the girl who fired the weapon to begin with.

"Testing the quality of your merchandise?"

[milkruns]

After June cooled down from the initial shock of discovering there was an unsupervised three-year-old on Cybertron -- a three-year-old -- she decided to pay Valeria a visit. Based on what Ratchet said, she's...some kind of a supergenius? Which, granted, definitely sets her aside from the rest of the toddler bunch and is apparently enough to convince the Cybertronians that she can take care of herself perfectly fine, but going on general Cybertronian judgment when it comes to human kids...that's not a ringing endorsement.

It's not like Valeria is her child, but as far as June knows she's the only even remotely qualified parent for light years, and June figures it wouldn't hurt to at least check on her.

June's only metric for "genius child" is inexplicable computer wizard Raf Esquivel, so needless to say she's a little bowled over when she wanders into Val's lab. This is...a whole new level of gifted child. June glances around with a slightly thunderstruck expression on her face, trying to locate a tiny human in the vast swath of supertech.

"Valeria?"