[ INTRO LOG ]

[robotsatan]

You don't know how you got here. One minute you were walking, sleeping, maybe dead -- then you're here, your feet suddenly carrying you down an empty street. Where's here?

Any Cybertronian would recognize this as their home planet, Cybertron, but it's not a Cybertron they've ever known. It has all the familiar hallmarks, but none of the specifics -- the city isn't one anyone here could identify, and even at a glance it's obvious that no one's set foot on the planet's surface in hundreds of years. The city and its surrounding areas all bear the marks of devastating war, of dust and rust collected over centuries. With no one in sight -- right at first, anyway -- there's plenty to explore. In fact, if you start walking, you'll find that your feet may just carry you in one particular direction.

A) The crater.
On one edge of the city is a massive crater left by some wartime weapon that seems to have taken out a large chunk of the surrounding metropolitan area. At the center of the crater it's broken through the surface of the terrain to reveal what looks like it might be a promising energon deposit. There is some strange but native vegetation growing around the edges, too, that no Cybertronian would be able to identify -- small, metallic, brittle-looking sprouts that bear a curiously organic-looking fruit of some kind that doesn't look like it's intended for consumption by any natives of the planet. In one rocky nook of the crater, light catches on the surface of a pool of water, which seems strangely out of place on Cybertron. On closer inspection, it seems that somehow an underground water source has formed a spring in the crater.

B) The center of the city.
If you follow where your feet seem to want to carry you, you'll find yourself in the middle of the ruined city. It seems that the center of the city was once home to a massive forum, and some of the pillars and structures still stand. At the very center of the forum is a massive, elaborately constructed fountain, although it has now long since run dry of whatever used to fill it. One of the low, inner walls of the forum has a terminal embedded in its surface, although it looks curiously ancient, out of place with the rest of the city, and unlike the rest of the technology still left around, there doesn't seem to be any way to power it on or operate it. There are a few scattered pools of water and a few of the strange metallic plants in the city, too, but they're not quite as plentiful as in the crater.

The planet was obviously once home to a massive network of communication relays, but those have all been long since destroyed. However, with the bits and pieces left behind and a few determined minds, it wouldn't be too hard to build a working, if rudimentary, one...

Comments

Crater

[caseopened]

Not many people would be happy about being displaced into an alternate Cybertron. After all, people have schedules, things to do, people to save...Nightbeat being one of them. But when you're transported like this with absolutely no explanation to a Cybertron that's clearly seen better days...? All Nightbeat can ask is--

Why? What caused this? Where is he?

The questions quickly escalated in his head as he inspects the crater, a smile as big as his face spread nicely across. If there was one thing he loved, it was solving mysteries, and he just stumbled upon the motherload.

The crater itself was a good place to start, and the free flowing Energon + the foliage was enough to grab his attention. He squats down, a briefcase many would say looks like Brainstorm's (it is Brainstorm's, if we're being honest) pressed to his chest as he inspects one of the leaves of the plants.

"Hmmm...Interesting."

[quantumechanic]

"That means 'I'm stumped,' right? It's okay, you can admit it."

Nautica had snuck up behind him (for values of "snuck" that involved "her footsteps were pretty light and Nightbeat was too fixated on weird machine-plants to notice anyway") and was leaning over his shoulder, face still covered with dirt from Megatron grinding it into the ground, wrench and briefcase both held in hands clasped behind her back.

1/2

[caseopened]

"Who says I'm going to accept that?" The response was almost automatic, as if Nautica being here with him wasn't strange at all to him. In fact, that made things less weird. After all, they were last seen together, so of COURSE they'd come together, right?

Two fingers pinch a leaf and bring it up close to his optics, other hand resting on his chin. He doesn't even look back at Nautica right away, what a good friend.

"These plants aren't like anything I've seen on Cybertron, but bear a significant resemblance to Earth. Coincidence, you think? The odds are astronomical. There has to be a connection."

Okay, now he'll look up.

2/2

[caseopened]

...

"Uh...Nautica? You've got something on your..."

His hand reaches up, gesturing to...all of his face. Yeah. That should get the message across.

[quantumechanic]

"Hmm?" Nautica reached up with her wrench hand and ran a finger down her cheek, leaving a clean streak, and squinted at her now-dirty fingertip. "Oh, that. Megatron tackled me. Alien plants are not the weirdest thing going on right now."

[caseopened]

...Well, she's right on that one. If Nightbeat had eyebrows, they'd be raised right now, as he tucks the briefcase under one arm and rising up to standing-height.

"You make fun of his paintjob? The Captain's not usually so...well okay maybe he's pretty much KNOWN for that, but he's supposedly reformed.

Do we need to call Optimus on this later?"

[quantumechanic]

"Only if he's answering to Orion Pax right now. Megatron is--and I promise you I'm not suffering from hallucinations from targeted EM exposure--from before the War and thought I worked for whatsisname. Sentinel. So I don't really blame him. If I worked for the Senate I'd tackle me, too." Nautica shrugged. Megatron had been fairly reasonable, under the circumstances. No point in carrying a grudge over a misunderstanding. "We straightened it out and he seems pretty nice, but I am just baffled."

[caseopened]

And, for once, Nightbeat coughs out a laugh, trying his best to hold it in. "He thought YOU worked for Sentinel?" Sorry, Nightbeat's going to focus on that a moment, because not only would Sentinel practically MELT at her cheery disposition, but--

"You're not really that guy's posse."

So take that with some comfort. Oh wait, time travel and what not.

"So...this is the Megatron before he became the big bad. I don't know about you, but I'm sensing a mystery."

[quantumechanic]

"A mystery? I'm sensing about half a dozen." Nautica gestured to encompass the crater and by extension the entire world, ever-present wrench in one hand and suspiciously familiar briefcase dangling from the other. "Right now we don't have proof that any one particular bizarre, inexplicable event is connected to any other."

[caseopened]

"Even better," he scans the area again, the blue glow of his visor brightening. That is, until he sets sight on the briefcase.

And quickly checks his hands.


And sees that he too is holding one.

"Uh. Add one more to that dozen."

Re: Crater

[nerdica]

"Isn't it?" Look who's here to help, Nightbeat. Nautica has one hand clasped around her wrench and the other around one of the strange looking fruit - beaming. "Everything indicates an organic form of consumable energy, but my scans say it's native to Cybertron."

Which is, as far as Nautica is aware, impossible. You can't just grow organic life on a planet that doesn't support it without some very questionable changes to soil make up and atmosphere. She's never read about anything like that happening, and sure - she hasn't read everything - but if it was a common occurrence it surely would have made at least one book.

"Hi, Nightbeat."

[caseopened]

Ah, Nautica! You're back from...where you were! He's not surprised to see her (why would he? They were practically inseparable for the time being. Partners~ There's a smile as he turns his head, blue visor shining as he stands up, briefcase in hand.

"New--or old-- species, perhaps. Maybe when Optimus sent Cybertron back to it's primordial stage, this was one of the first bits of life. We can't rule it out, after all."

It had to predate him, if that was the case, and he was one of the older Cybertronians in existence.

[nerdica]

"He did that?" That part was not in the history she's read. Then again, she's slowly becoming aware that all of her reading doesn't cover the ins and outs of the war in any true sense of depth. "Well, I wouldn't rule it out, but I would wonder where whatever he used as a template got the information from."

What was the planet they were supposed to tell Optimus about? Eart? Something like that. But her attention is grabbed by what's in Nightbeat's holding.

"You still have it?"

This. Was probably going to be Trouble.

[caseopened]

"Yeah, have one of the Lost Lighter's fill you in on that part. It's how I found out myself." There were facts, and then there were things that were only witnessed by a select few. And once the war was over, not many really wrote about it. Too busy trying to fix the broken world they called home.

Oh right, the briefcase.

Nightbeat goes all smiles, holding it up.

"Where it's safe, naturally."

Not it's not and you know it.

[nerdica]

"Rewind might have actual footage of it," she says, excited at the prospect. The archivist, in the few words they exchanged, was someone Nautica couldn't wait to talk to more - he apparently had her love of knowledge and that was something she wasn't going to pass up.

His smile is echoed by her's for a brief moment before she frowns again. "Is it really safe here? Consider it - we find Stormy's-- Brainstorm's time machine and end up here? It's hooked up to the quantum engines to ensure that he's capable of jumping through space as well as time--"

It's not that she doesn't trust you, Nightbeat, it's just that she doesn't particularly trust that briefcase.

[caseopened]

"It's a possibility, I mean the guys got more recorded on the war than ANY book you'll find. Rumor has it he even has Optimus's biography." Not to entice her even more, that is.

But the attention turns back to the briefcase, lifting it up a little more, making sure his thumbs are pressed securely on both sides. They hadn't found anything in it just yet, but...who knows if it was REALLY empty.

Brainstorm was quirky that way.

"Then consider it a possible hook back to our world. A figurative rope around our waist." Always looking on the bright(er) side of things, aren't you Nightbeat.

"As long as we have it, we'll be safe."

[nerdica]

Too late, she's grinning wider. "Oh, I should get him to share that! It'd go perfectly with the copy of Towards Peace I have. Just think, an authorized autobiography for Megatron and a biography for Optimus Prime!" This is exciting to her, Nightbeat, and she beams at him. Books. She frikkin loves books.

Oh. Right. Briefcase.

"Or you'll be yanked back and I'll be left here," She points out - since he's the only one holding it at this point. "But we could figure out how to work it, now that Perceptor isn't here to help." It's a mystery, isn't it? And she knows how much he likes those.

[caseopened]

"Certainly an interesting contrast to have in your library, that's for sure." It was nice to see Nautica excited over something, that's for sure, even if the situation didn't really call for it. Then again, Nightbeat was often the same way. Maybe that's why they got along so well.

Oh right, back on topic.

"True. But we're going to have to tread carefully. Dangerous waters when we're dealing with the unknown."

A smile.

"But that's what makes it fun.

[fuckinstoplights]

Someone is watching you, Nightbeat.

Someone hiding in that foliage you're poking. Someone in the shape of a bird. More or less.

He doesn't understand what's going on here. Where he's been taken, why he's here. Where Shadowmaru has gone... nothing makes sense and he's feeling more antsy than ever. He was supposed to be safe. Be free. Instead, he's been apparently abducted.

His hand tightens on his weapons.

Just a little closer... then he'll get his answers.

[caseopened]

To his fortune, Nightbeat was incredibly perceptive. He gets the feeling that someone is watching him very early on, although he doesn't let onto it until they make the first move.

When he moves closer, Nightbeat takes the humorous approach, although keeping the briefcase close to him in case he needs to use it as a weapon.

Because...well, that'll go over nicely.

"Do you really want to use those?"

[fuckinstoplights]

His head jerks back, his grip tightening on the chain and sickle in his grasp. His wings begin to slowly mantle up, like the hair bristling on a cornered animal.

"If I have to," he says, managing, just barely, to keep his voice calm. Neutral. "Who are you?"

And where are they. But the first question seems more important, for now.

[caseopened]

"What makes you think you have to?" There's a friendly smile, turning his gaze back to the plants. "I'm not exactly making threats."

"Nightbeat. My name. You asked for it."

He taps a finger to his chin, studying Kagerou for a moment. Something's obviously on his mind, and his eyes under that visor dart back and forth as he looks the robot over.

"You're not Cybertronian, are you?"

[fuckinstoplights]

"I don't know you," he answers, flatly. His wings bristle, trying to make himself look larger. "You could be Brave Police. You could be here for me."

And damn if "Nightbeat" didn't sound like a name the commissioner would have come up with. He stays back, but doesn't put his weapons away.

"No. What's that?"

[caseopened]

If that was going to intimidate Nightbeat, Kagerou would have to try a little harder. Being dead kind of has that effect on you. But he'll tuck the briefcase under an arm, putting both his hands up.

"I'm not armed. There's nothing to worry about."

A smile.

"A race of beings that look...pretty similar to you. Not exact, there's definitely some differences, but to a novice, pretty similar."

"Now how about you put those weapons down and tell me about this Brave Police?"

[fuckinstoplights]

"You don't have to be armed to be dangerous."

That much he knew from training Shadowmaru alone. The other BP could do harm with just his hands, if he had to. No way of knowing if this odd unit was the same.

He shook his head.

"I'm not putting them away. How do I know you aren't lying? That you aren't one of their other models, sent after me now?"