What a wonder is a gun! What a versatile invention!

[areyoulovinthis]

Who: Swindle and "Magnum". Kino's welcome too.
What: Testing out their shiny new toy.
Where: An abandoned warehouse in Zone 4.

Comments

[not_your_gun]

Megatron obliged, lowering the cannon for Kino to work on, listening to her ramble with great interest, pleased by the add-ons the green Decepticon had included. "You do try to think of everything, don't you Swindle."

It was admittedly strange to watch the human creature scrambling over his arm, her small hands allowing her easier access to make adjustments. It...tickled, but he could see the use, now, for keeping something so fragile around a workshop. "...however, if you can compact the EMP technology, I will certainly return for the adjustments."

Which reminded him..."...so we ought to talk about payment, Swindle. As I mentioned over the network, I might have an arrangement which would satisfy us both--" His optics blinked at Kino's cough, glancing away from Swindle and back down to the small Organic, removing his arm from the table once he'd gotten the go-ahead and sighting along it once again.

"...hm. Swindle. Your human seems to be broken."

He picked a new target, locked, and fired. This time, the hole was through the bulls-eye.

[areyoulovinthis]

He watched Kino work with a grin, clearly proud of her work. To think, it used to be he'd have to take the whole cannon off and take it apart for the fixes that took the human maybe a cycle, tops.

...even that seemed to be a bit too much for her, though, so soon after the spill. "Kino? You okay?" His voice was barely a whisper now; no need for Megatron to have to hear. "If you need some more time to recover, I can take you back home. We're almost finished here." He wasn't worried, really. Just taking a professional interest in her health.

"I remembered you mentioning that. So, what have you got for me? If it's anything like those schematics and blueprints you've got Cometfall working on, then you'll make me a very happy mech. Or have you got something else on your processor?"

[kinos_journal]

I am not 'broken'
Kino kept her lips pressed together until that wasn't what was going to be said, and shook her head. "It's all right" she assured firmly, quiet but not trying to hide the reply from Megatron. She didn't think she could speak so he couldn't hear, considering he was a robot. She appreciated Swindle's concern, but she would be fine.
She wouldn't allow herself to be anything else.

"But I wouldn't argue with a ride home, when we're done."

She leaned back against the cooler and watched the bargaining for Swindle's payment. It would be interesting to see what Megatron paid him with, and what Swindle considered it worth. She was still far from proficient with how credits and value really worked in this city.

((Feel free to skip over Kino from here on, unless one of you needs to ask her something direct. She'll sit and be a good quiet little human.))

[not_your_gun]

Ah, now that was more like it. He gazed at the hole in the target fondly, paying little attention to the other two while they discussed the human's health. It did not seem to be life-threatening, and as long as Kino kept working for Swindle and helping him achieve this sort of success, he did not much care what happened to her in the meantime.

"Cometfall's blueprints will be yours. Personally, I'd like to see a few more mechs taking advantage of being harder to trace by the authorities." He briefly ran through a few options on his new weapon, selecting different combinations of intensity, wavelength, and beam spread in order to get the most out of this test run, and took a few more shots.

Perfect.

...or at least acceptable, for now.

"...I've run into a different streak of luck, however." Lowering the weapon, finally, he reached around behind him to a storage compartment, and pulled out...an arm.

It was a fairly intact arm, probably from a Primax Gamma at one point in its history, but certainly re-usable and with the added benefit of having a pair of lasers still attached. He tossed it over to Swindle so that the 'connoisseur' could get a better look.

"Found a source of...parts." He smirked. "A large source."

[areyoulovinthis]

"Well, I know I've got plenty of customers who'd be interested. And if there's enough of us using them, it makes it that much harder for the authorities to sort through all of it." He paused, thinking. "If you've got anything you really want hidden, let me know ahead of time! I can arrange for a few distractions, especially with those blueprints."

He caught the arm easily, without any signs of being bothered by it. Looking offline bodies was something Swindle had gotten quite used to back home, and this particular arm was in better shape than most of the ones he'd dealt with. And those lasers were decent quality, worth quite a bundle.

"Parts, you said? Are they all as nice as this one? Or am I going to have to worth with pieces of scrap metal to get to anything good?" He knew how it was with parts. No consistency in quality, unless you were dealing with a specialist like Lockdown. Now that was a bot who knew his upgrades, and never damaged a single one that he'd sold to Swindle. Good business partner.

[[Sorry so fail--am done moving now.]]

[not_your_gun]

"The offer is appreciated, Swindle. I will most certainly keep that in mind." Having handed over the object in question, his hand returned to his gun, running extra diagnostics checks and re-accustoming himself to the familiar weight.

"...they're varied." He glanced back, honest. "Some are worse. Some are better. I didn't have any interest in digging at the time. A number of them are older pieces, but you seem to be able to get use out of anything..." Megatron smirked.
"...so I'll have my bots bring in parts for you, and you keep a tab on how much they're worth. This way, when I send someone to get equipment...we don't have to deal with any inconvenient credit exchanges."