Things are about to get weird...for these guys now

[1_true_leader]

((As assigned by HT, I'll be NPCing Sunstorm for the time being. And head's up to the crew on this, slightly different start from what was suggested.))*After leaving the Arctic -- first retrieving the pair of spears from the doorway and finding they could subspace the weapons now (and, subsequently, the entrance to the passage was sealed again)--

Comments

(Reflector's PoV)

[reflector_trio]

*Reflector descends at the rear of the party and pauses on the last step when he sees no one else in front of him in the chamber. The three components trade looks and examine the room intently. Nothing.

With trepidation, Reflector stepps inside.*

** Welcome to the Dreamtime, kiddy. You're in for a ride.**

*With a pained fascination, Reflector watches threads of bright green light weave around his forms, then constrict abrubtly. He whimpers, not knowing what it feels like to suffocate, just that his systems are straining and straining against the darkness, but it's too heavy for him to fight and he is getting weakerThe release hurts. He- They stand together and look at each other, mind fragmented in three. Spectro snarls, Spyglass shivers, and Viewfinder looks at the three of them

Viewfinder's Log

[reflector_trio]

The rock is further away than it appears to be. Or perhaps our senses are misled in this place-that-is-not-a-place.

Spectro doesn't like this place. His "instincts", for lack of a better word, are constantly on edge. Something, he mutters, something is watching us back.

I shouldn't have pointed out the discontinuity between the stars and the planet. They're making Spyglass nervous. He's starting to personify them.

He is also incorrect in his assessment that these bodies are like they were before the mental split. While the Reflector-gestalt is still an option, so too is another gestalt. I have examined my own software as we journeyed and have determined that it is a combination of our robot-modes in a more "traditional" gestalt.

I must go now. Spectro has spotted something up ahead.

Spectro's Log

[reflector_trio]

I told him we were going in circles.

Coming up on a ridge where you can look down at yourselves still standing at the entry point really emphasizes that point.

Hate this place. Spyglass thinks it's the leaking stars that are watching us.

Spyglass is getting weird. He needs to take a break.

Except none of us can, because this place isn't safe. It's barely survivable. We've got to find a way out.

Spyglass's Log

[reflector_trio]

We circumvented the spot where we still stood at the entrance to this place. Spectro says he sees another group of us further along the path, where we had to detour around a canyon.

Viewfinder thinks this placement is important, I can tell. He's even blanker than usual, even considering that he's not used to having facial expressions since he wore a mask before the Reflector experiment.

Viewfinder wants us to retrace our path, though, and see where else we find ourselves.

The stars keep looking at us. It's making Spectro jumpy. I'm glad he hasn't drawn a weapon yet.

[cideways]

(( I'll leave Blitzwing and Megatron's initial scenarios in the Dreamtime to you, Shiri. ))*Sideways was fairly certain that the stairs weren't supposed to lead into one of the viewing galleries in Unicron's ring. For one thing, Unicron didn't have any internal stairs

[sargncharge]

*Whirl looks around as the room suddenly seems to go white. When his optics readjust, he finds that all of his companions have gone missing with the exception of Thundercracker.*

WHAT THE SLAG JUST HAPPENED??

*The scene around him begins to shift, and suddenly he is back in the battle of Gideon Seven, where most of his unit was wiped out. As he watches, three of his friends have their sparks extinguished right before his eyes. Just as Jhaxius raises the gun toward his own head, he hears a strange voice calling to him from the void.*

[Voice] Do you remember this moment? This is the very instant in which you turned your back on your faith, when the young idealist died.

[sargncharge]

*Whirl stares into the gun barrel, renouncing Primus once and for all, and turning away from his future as a priest. It is at that moment that Roadbuster arrives with a relief column, and Jhaxius escapes with his renegades*

Why are you showing this to me? WHAT DO YOU WANT?

[Voice] If the fires of your convictions are not stoked, you shall fall in this quest. Your empty shell will remain within this rock for all eternity.

And if I allow my faith to return?

[Voice] Then all things are possible. Perhaps even the means to stop those who are corrupted.

*Whirl sinks to his knees* I accept that I was wrong. I ask Primus to fill me with his spirit once more.

[Voice] SO BE IT!

[1_true_leader]

((Going to temporarily step in here since this part of the thread seems so lonely. ^^;; ))

*Thundercracker looked on in silence. He wasn't familiar with this event and it seemed to be moving around him, anyway. But he can hear the words outside the memory being exchanged. He steps over to Whirl as the Voice's last speech fades and he peers down at the Autobot.* Just like that? It's just that easy to recall one's faith..?

(Blitzwing's PoV)

[triple_football]

(( So, I changed my mind about Blitzwing. Had an idea. ))

** Welcome to the Dreamtime, kiddies. You're in for a ride. **

*Green threads of light wrapped around the dazed Blitzwing and Sunstorm, contracted, and suddenly they weren't in Uluru anymore.*

---

*Blitzwing wants to scream, but cannot. His vocalizer was cut hours ago, he knows. He's seen the reports on this process, had felt it intimately. The surgeons took the two subjects and flayed them together to make a new triple-changer.

But he was already a triple-changer!

Bits and pieces from the reports on the triple-changer experiments he'd skimmed years ago come to him as the golden Seeker was combined with him.*

"Combined subject 3b failed to integrate minds properly. Descended into insanity in four vorns. Memory suppression modules did not fail."

"Increasing memory suppression leads to a longer short-term union of the subject minds."

"Previously antagonistic subjects combined as a triple-changer subject go insane faster than previously neutral subjects."

"Group 4 given

(Starscream's POV )

[1_true_leader]

*Starscream turns away from Megatron, scowling and about to mutter something when he finds himself face to chest plate with another Transformer. He steps back into a tense stance and looks the stranger over...but finds he doesn't seem to be such a stranger after all. He looks like a seeker with a futuristic design...and when Starscream looks at the face, he could swear he was looking into his very own, although this one's optics are purple without any augmentation of power. In fact, the other has a faint trace of a golden glow around him. He also has a golden crown with red jewels in it perched on his head. The other is smirking and stands with an extreme confidence and strength. The other doesn't open his mouth to speak but Starscream hears a voice, deep and condescending.*

Is this all you aspire to? The contaminated power, the one who compromises in his own use, the faulty of two? I absorbed the very Spark of Primus! My path is what you should be seeking! Your own future is what you should be concerned with. Knowing you as I, the

Re: (Starscream's POV )

[starscreams_co]

*Megatron turns away when Starscream starts cowering at thin air and comes face-to-face with... himself. Dull silver and black armor, the black fusion cannon mounted on his right arm, red optics burning with the fire that consumed worlds-

But there were differences. The suggested alt-mode was no longer a gun, but a mobile artillery piece. The primary cannon was mounted casually at his hip, the turret covering his back with yet another layer of armor. Most startling of all was the circular design etched into his helm with Cybertronian runes proclaiming his defeat of Optimus Prime, his reinvigoration of Cybertron, his conquest of worlds.*

The people desired their emperor to bear some mark that set him apart from the common soldier.

*The voice was much the same, a little more gravelly, a few more of the earmark signs of a misrepaired vocalizer.*

"You are not-"

Who you will become? No, not as it stands. But- The vision smirked. I should be. I am the one who has won. What awaits you is even worse than defeat - you will be remade as

[1_true_leader]

*The Other Starscream leans to look past the chaos seeker at Megatron.*

The fool will always be standing in your way. You let him. Why? Even as you are now -- even as less than I -- you could destroy him.

*His optics narrow slightly, his mouth thinning as he looks directly at the Other Megatron.*

There is always a weakness in the one who leads. The stronger should take advantage of that.

*The Other doesn't seem to be aware of the irony in that statement..*

[starscreams_co]

*The Emperor does not deign to speak to Other Starscream. His gaze does flicker briefly to Starscream himself.*

I tell you the truth, you will regret every instance when you spared that Seeker's miserable life.

*Megatron himself turns to look at Starscream, seriously considering the words of his double. He does not see the Other Starscream, of course. His right hand flexes.*