Armada'verse and a Starwars 'verse. Iacon and deep space. Hunting Ch 1
Blackout looks around as the PINpoint sets her army down on a fairly quiet sidestreet next to a warehouse that says it belongs to a medical supplies firm, then looks back to where Ro-tor is hovering curiously near Mouse and where the rest of the Commandos and her minions are in more or less neat ranks behind herself and Mega-Octane. "Everyone come through alright?"
There's a low murmur of confirmation from Mega-Octane's crew as he nods and looks around. "We're all here. What is this place?"
"Cybertron." She intakes deeply of the slightly metalic air, then turns a curious optic toward where a little purple Minicon has just yelped, turned into a normal-sized car, and fled. "...The slag? Anyway, Requiem, grab someone so we can ask directions."
"Yessir!" The rookie salutes, then strides away, Beamrider balanced easily on his shoulder.
Mega-Octane frowns as he takes stock of their surroundings. The others are looking around curiously. This is the first time since emerging from stasis that they've been to their homeworld. "Cybertron? Why did you bring us here?"
The other Commandos fan out a little, Ro-tor moving upward to get a better look at the sky, Armorhide tramping over to peer at the main street. The vibrations of passing truck-formers are faintly audible through the metal ground, but no-one is heading their way, until a hovercar pulls out from the warehouse.
"Because I have another ally here." Blackout doesn't watch as Pink zips up to join Ro-tor and Hormah deedles over to help Armorhide look. Instead she gives two quick strides and snags the hovercar. "Wait a moment. I need some help."
Ro-tor seems to give the Minicon a momentary eyeball despite being in 'copter mode, but the city drags his attention back to itself. He hasn't seen anything like this on Earth...
The hovercar yelps as he's dragged to an abrupt halt. "Hey, do you mind? I'm... um..." He takes in the gang who've halted him. "...Can I help you?"
"Funny air in this place," Rollbar remarks, keeping his optics on the hovercar. Mega-Octane merely watches what Blackout does.
"We need directions." Blackout lifts the car slightly to make sure he can't take off on her. "Do you know of a mech named Skywarp?"
"...Skywarp?" The stranger is getting more anxious by the nanosecond. "I know of him, I heard he was around here, but... I don't know where he is now."
"Do you know anyone who does?" She pauses and looks from the car to the warehouse. "And were you supposed to be in there?"
Hormah looks back with a snerk at that.
The car sputters over a few stray sniggers from the Commandos. "Of course I was! I work there! And I don't know how to find him! I'm sorry! Can I go now?"
"Maybe I can find him..." Movor starts to mutter, but there's a low sound from another doorway further down the street.
Skywarp leans against the door frame, smirking at Blackout even as he assesses her company with surprise. "Maybe I can help you."
Blackout pauses, but then chuckles and drops the car before striding toward the black jet, absently calling Requiem back as she goes. "Are you up to a little fun?"
Skywarp glances at the car as it takes the wisest option and flees for the main street.
"What kind of fun are you thinking of?" he asks, straightening up at Blackout's approach.
Noticing that they've picked up whoever they came for, Armorhide turns away from the traffic and comes back, ignoring the hovercar that streaks past him.
Like Movor beside him, Mega-Octane's focus is now on the black and purple jet. He and the others have heard about Skywarp, but never seen him.
Frankly, he's not as big as Mega-Octane was expecting.
"Oh, a little hunting." Blackout's tone is playfully challenging, and as she reaches him instead of lifting him to greet him as she does most of her male friends, she drops to one knee and offers him a much warmer version of the greeting that she gave Mega-Octane a few moments before.
Skywarp responds in kind, though he pulls away from the kiss long enough to remark, "I've already hunted once today." Indeed, his prey is lying inside the door.
"Gah! Ewwwww...." Hormah shudders and turns away from where she's tailing Armorhide back. Requiem just pauses a moment and then makes his way to Mouse, who is looking a bit overwhelmed.
Mega-Octane looks at the pair of them for a minute, then gives a 'hmph' and looks around again. While they socialize, he's waiting to move: impatience at the delay is his only response to the sight. Rollbar, in contrast, gives a 'heh', sharing a glance with Armorhide.
Movor looks around at the noise from Hormah and tilts his head. He's seen that behaviour before, just never in real life, and her enactment of it amuses him now. "What's your problem?"
Blackout resumes the greeting for a moment, then lifts her head to smile at Skywarp, her engine a contented rumble as Hormah makes wordless 'bleah' sounds and beeps complaints that make Pink giggle.
"This is a ship the size of an average organic planet, full of combat drones." The black femme's gaze goes over his shoulder. "And I see that."
"...Tempting." He half-glances backwards. "I'll need to stash that somewhere first." Then again, maybe not. He muses on the uses he could find for a dead jet-former on the battlefield.
"I hope they hurry it up," Armorhide mutters. "This place is giving me the creeps." And it's hard not to try and do something about the mixed pack of Autobot and Decepticon out on the street.
"Yeah." Ro-tor transforms and lands beside the others. "There's something too weird about it." Too... familiar, in a way. They don't like that at all.
"What did she do?" Blackout decides to steal the liberty of rubbing her cheek against Skywarp's before she makes like letting go of him.
"Eh, takes weird t' know it, b'y," says Hormah, her squick forgotten in the chance of snarking with a favorite uncle.
Skywarp doesn't move to escape too quickly. "She took orders from the wrong person." What more is there to say?
"It ain't us," Armorhide says decisively. "It's the ground. It's like it's new and normal at the same time." Ro-tor says nothing, but he doesn't seem so keen on looking at the skyline any more.
"Well, it figures," Movor rationalises. "First time back in a real city and all that-"
"Never mind that," Mega-Octane says shortly, cutting off the smaller Decepticons' chatter.
"Grumpy," Hormah cheeks at him cheerfully.
"Hrm." Blackout rumbles, then sits back on her heels and looks at Skywarp expectantly. "So?"
"Owwwww!!!!!" Pink has unexpectedly met another jet.
"We don't have time for pointless conversation," Mega-Octane informs her, though it's possible he just wanted an end to that line of discussion.
"So then I'll come-" Skywarp's head snaps up as the Minicon cries out. "What now?"
He glances at Blackout. "Another Minicon?"
She watches as Requiem catches the tiny femme and speaks to her soothingly, then glances after the jet she'd run into and growls. "Nightwish... stupid glitch. Yes. I've got two of them now. That one was created in my service."
Hormah, distracted from being impertinant, is also scowling after the variable coloured jet.
Skywarp eyes the passing jet but doesn't think much of her. "Let me guess: Nexus?"
Armorhide looks enquiringly at Mega-Octane. "Do you think we're allowed to shoot the flier?"
Mega-Octane shakes his head. "Not yet."
"Ye ain't after wantin' t' shoot t'at bit, b'y," Hormah tells the tank-bot, still scowling.
"Beamrider swam in the wrong fountain." Blackout snorts, then glances toward where Sheol is watching everything in good-natured silence.
"Weee!" Pink is off again, badgering her creator till he swears.
"Why not?" Armorhide's gaze swings round to her. Mega-Octane is busy giving the undisciplined Minicon a disapproving look.
"Idiot." Skywarp follows her gaze. "...And what about that jet?"
"I've told you about that jet," says Blackout, heaving herself gracefully to her feet and straightening as one hand goes up to where Scorponok sits silent. "Thunderclash's lacky. The wench had something happen to her, but it looks like she's been repaired."
Hormah shrugs and holds up a hand for her little friend, who zips over and sits in it happily. "It'd bounce."
Skywarp freezes, realising that she has told him before. He looks after Nightwish, wondering now whether she took notice of the group below her and how much is going to get back to Thunderclash. "Slag it."
"Plasma doesn't bounce," Armorhide points out, watching her interact with the tiny bot.
"Still wouldn' do not'in' useful," says Hormah, gently poking at Pink to make her giggle. Then she tilts her head and deedles before looking up at her creator. "T' big boss sez t' jet's runnin' scared 'n don't remember nut'in' right now."
"Scared?" asks Sheol, her voice a softer version of Blackout's. "What's she afraid of?"
"Didn' say." Hormah grins at her baby sister.
Blackout, after eying Skywarp for his outburst and listening to her minion, rumbles impatiently. "We should have more bots. That ship's big."
"You chose the target," Skywarp points out, not quite managing a smirk as he looks back at her. "Don't tell me you don't think you can handle it now."
"I thought you might have friends," she retorts archely.
"Where're you getting your information?" Movor asks Hormah, frowning.
The almost-smirk vanishes from Skywarp's face. "I suppose you would." He turns away, nudging the corpse with his foot as he thinks. "Define 'friend', though..."
"Primus," says the half Minicon absently, turning her attention back to Pink as the little one beeps earnestly.
Blackout's fingertips touch the top edge of the jet-former's nearer wing. "Anyone who can fight and who'll listen to you."
Then she turns and frowns as she registers that her own natives are starting to get as restless as the Commandos. A scowl has Requiem, Beamrider, and Mouse snapping to attention while Hormah ignores her and Sheol grins at her.
"He does mind-reading for you now?" Movor's visor flares in surprise.
Most of the Commandos' restlessness emanates from Mega-Octane: the others under his command seem content to wait. Patience on the job isn't something they have a problem with.
Skywarp seems to still at Blackout's touch. "If I want to trust them with knowledge of other universes..."
"Do they need to know that they're in another universe?" She tilts her head at him.
Hormah just shrugs and walks over to stand by Sheol.
"I've got a feeling some of them might pick up on the change of planet. And I doubt they'll buy that I have a warp gate stashed in my cockpit."
"The ship's in deep space." Her hand goes from his wing to his crest. "And I and some of mine look so strange we could very well be experimental models with warp technology."
Oh, that feels very nice... "I still have to find some who won't ask too many questions." He thinks. "Or try to recruit you." It annoys him after a while, and there are days he'd like to accept.
"Are there any rookies? They're usually good for keeping their vocalizers offline just for the chance of sport and spoil." She absently and gently wipes away imagined dust, then drops her hand and touches his helm instead.
"What are you making such a fuss about?" Requiem quietly asks in the background. "You're always touching Rap when he's around."
"'At's diff'rent."
"How?"
"Shut yer trap."
Skywarp shakes his head, though gently so as not to dislodge her fingers. "I don't deal with the greenwings. And I don't feel like dragging any more shells home today if they get themselves slagged."
"It's different 'cause she doesn't like him," Ro-tor informs Requiem.
"You think she's jealous?" Rollbar asks.
Mega-Octane ignores the psychoanalytic commentary.
"Alright, then. Let's go." Blackout stoops for another kiss.
"Jealous 'o what?" Hormah scowls her disgust. "Rap's ten times as pretty as 'at ol' fart."
"Hey!" protests Requiem.
"So what if it was us-" Armorhide starts to wonder. He cuts off at the realisation that the words 'let's go' have just been uttered. Everything else is suddenly much less important.
Skywarp makes this one quick, nodding at the ex-dissident beside them. "Business first."
"Alright." Blackout turns to look at her team and her friends. "Ready for flight."
"Yes, sir!" Requiem salutes and transforms, then lets Hormah jump onto his back. Both smaller Minicons transform and then zip around excitedly. Sheol bats at them playfully.
Mega-Octane steps forward, studying Skywarp. "How long will it take?"
Skywarp's attention shifts from Requiem to the green mech. "No more than a minute," he says, privately not too keen on this one's tone. Of course, he might outrank me somewhere....
"Wait here." He steps aside, reaches down and grabs the shell. Might as well cheat and PIN it to safety.
Blackout nods, then snatches Pink out of the air and shakes her absently as the tiny jet squeals and giggles. "Mouse, do you understand what's happening?"
The massive rookie slowly turns her head. "Ve... go soon... ja? Fly und hunt."
"That's right. Be ready."
"Ja, meine Dame." Mouse nods in her ponderous way.
Mega-Octane frowns at the space Skywarp has vacated. Meanwhile Ro-tor looks up at Mouse curiously. "What's her story?"
"She got hurt," says Requiem in his terse way, his lights blinking in time with his voice.
The 'copter-bot glances at him, flicking the rotor blades on his back. "I mean where did you find her?"
Hormah glances over at them. "Nazi Germany, b'y."
Mouse flinches at the word and turns her quizzical, sad optics toward her small teammate to see what she's saying. Hormah pats her and deedlebeeps to her soothingly.
Ro-tor draws a blank on that one. "Nazi Germany?" he echoes. Beside him, Movor's perked up with interest, though.
//Aye. Ye ever hear 'bout t' biggest tank ever planned? T'ey couldn' make 'er 'cause t'ey didn' have no engine 'at'd work.// Hormah shifts her feet and then hops off of Requiem to land on Mouse's arm. //In t'is one 'verse t'ey found somet'in' 'at'd work. Proly never would 'o cared she was alive if t'ey'd know'd.//
//Maybe they would have,// Ro-tor sneers. //Humans are soft. But that's disgusting. Being used by fleshlings....//
"Wait a nano." Movor looks between Hormah and Blackout. "You guys fell into an Indiana Jones movie and stole their tank?" He pauses. "Good call. They always blow those things up."
//Nazis weren't after bein' soft,// notes Hormah, scowling. But then the scowl turns to a snerk. "T'ere weren't no Indy, b'y."
Blackout looks up from playing with Pink, then clicks her com on and pings Skywarp. //Nearly done?//
//They were to anything that wasn't human,// Movor points out cheerfully, not sure why this conversation is going over the comlink but unable to resist adding his two credits anyway. Out loud he says, "Around the Nexus? Are you sure about that." And then, noticing the stare he's getting from Armorhide, he shrugs. "What? They do blow 'em up. One time the guy actually did it right in front of me!"
"Huh." Armorhide frowns. Lousy Nexus.
//Almost,// Skywarp replies, though it's another few seconds before he makes a reappearance.
Hormah just rolls her optics at Movor, but then perks with interest from her perch in the crook of Mouse's arm as Skywarp comes back. "Hey, Boss, we t'ere yet?"
"Shut up, brat," growls Blackout without anger.
"Yessir."
The black femme lets go of Pink, who zips up to land on her shoulder. "Alright. Hormah, you're with Mouse and Sheol. Requiem, you're with Beamrider. Scorponok and Pink, with me." She waits for their acknowledgment, then turns to Skywarp. "Would you rather work with a team, or alone?"
Requiem is looking a little wistful suddenly.
Skywarp weighs his late tendency to keep to himself against not knowing what they're up against. Sense prevails over solitariness. "I'll take Requiem and his Minicon." He exchanges a look with Mega-Octane. "I presume you're the Commandos Blackout talks about."
Mega-Octane nods stiffly, sizing the jet-former up in return. "I'm Mega-Octane, the team's sub-commander."
"Interesting." Skywarp's gaze lingers on them a moment longer, and then he turns to Blackout. "Well, I'm ready if you are."
She nods and then turns to Mega-Octane herself. "So?"
"We're waiting for you," he says, the others falling into line behind him without a thought.
Another nod, and she turns her attention to her symbiont. "Ready, Scorponok?"
Scorponok transmits his readiness, spinning his claws with an excited clicking. He's eager to hunt.
Blackout nods and moves so that her PINpoint beam will catch everyone, then presses the button.
((written with the mun who plays Skywarp and the Commandos.))
There's a low murmur of confirmation from Mega-Octane's crew as he nods and looks around. "We're all here. What is this place?"
"Cybertron." She intakes deeply of the slightly metalic air, then turns a curious optic toward where a little purple Minicon has just yelped, turned into a normal-sized car, and fled. "...The slag? Anyway, Requiem, grab someone so we can ask directions."
"Yessir!" The rookie salutes, then strides away, Beamrider balanced easily on his shoulder.
Mega-Octane frowns as he takes stock of their surroundings. The others are looking around curiously. This is the first time since emerging from stasis that they've been to their homeworld. "Cybertron? Why did you bring us here?"
The other Commandos fan out a little, Ro-tor moving upward to get a better look at the sky, Armorhide tramping over to peer at the main street. The vibrations of passing truck-formers are faintly audible through the metal ground, but no-one is heading their way, until a hovercar pulls out from the warehouse.
"Because I have another ally here." Blackout doesn't watch as Pink zips up to join Ro-tor and Hormah deedles over to help Armorhide look. Instead she gives two quick strides and snags the hovercar. "Wait a moment. I need some help."
Ro-tor seems to give the Minicon a momentary eyeball despite being in 'copter mode, but the city drags his attention back to itself. He hasn't seen anything like this on Earth...
The hovercar yelps as he's dragged to an abrupt halt. "Hey, do you mind? I'm... um..." He takes in the gang who've halted him. "...Can I help you?"
"Funny air in this place," Rollbar remarks, keeping his optics on the hovercar. Mega-Octane merely watches what Blackout does.
"We need directions." Blackout lifts the car slightly to make sure he can't take off on her. "Do you know of a mech named Skywarp?"
"...Skywarp?" The stranger is getting more anxious by the nanosecond. "I know of him, I heard he was around here, but... I don't know where he is now."
"Do you know anyone who does?" She pauses and looks from the car to the warehouse. "And were you supposed to be in there?"
Hormah looks back with a snerk at that.
The car sputters over a few stray sniggers from the Commandos. "Of course I was! I work there! And I don't know how to find him! I'm sorry! Can I go now?"
"Maybe I can find him..." Movor starts to mutter, but there's a low sound from another doorway further down the street.
Skywarp leans against the door frame, smirking at Blackout even as he assesses her company with surprise. "Maybe I can help you."
Blackout pauses, but then chuckles and drops the car before striding toward the black jet, absently calling Requiem back as she goes. "Are you up to a little fun?"
Skywarp glances at the car as it takes the wisest option and flees for the main street.
"What kind of fun are you thinking of?" he asks, straightening up at Blackout's approach.
Noticing that they've picked up whoever they came for, Armorhide turns away from the traffic and comes back, ignoring the hovercar that streaks past him.
Like Movor beside him, Mega-Octane's focus is now on the black and purple jet. He and the others have heard about Skywarp, but never seen him.
Frankly, he's not as big as Mega-Octane was expecting.
"Oh, a little hunting." Blackout's tone is playfully challenging, and as she reaches him instead of lifting him to greet him as she does most of her male friends, she drops to one knee and offers him a much warmer version of the greeting that she gave Mega-Octane a few moments before.
Skywarp responds in kind, though he pulls away from the kiss long enough to remark, "I've already hunted once today." Indeed, his prey is lying inside the door.
"Gah! Ewwwww...." Hormah shudders and turns away from where she's tailing Armorhide back. Requiem just pauses a moment and then makes his way to Mouse, who is looking a bit overwhelmed.
Mega-Octane looks at the pair of them for a minute, then gives a 'hmph' and looks around again. While they socialize, he's waiting to move: impatience at the delay is his only response to the sight. Rollbar, in contrast, gives a 'heh', sharing a glance with Armorhide.
Movor looks around at the noise from Hormah and tilts his head. He's seen that behaviour before, just never in real life, and her enactment of it amuses him now. "What's your problem?"
Blackout resumes the greeting for a moment, then lifts her head to smile at Skywarp, her engine a contented rumble as Hormah makes wordless 'bleah' sounds and beeps complaints that make Pink giggle.
"This is a ship the size of an average organic planet, full of combat drones." The black femme's gaze goes over his shoulder. "And I see that."
"...Tempting." He half-glances backwards. "I'll need to stash that somewhere first." Then again, maybe not. He muses on the uses he could find for a dead jet-former on the battlefield.
"I hope they hurry it up," Armorhide mutters. "This place is giving me the creeps." And it's hard not to try and do something about the mixed pack of Autobot and Decepticon out on the street.
"Yeah." Ro-tor transforms and lands beside the others. "There's something too weird about it." Too... familiar, in a way. They don't like that at all.
"What did she do?" Blackout decides to steal the liberty of rubbing her cheek against Skywarp's before she makes like letting go of him.
"Eh, takes weird t' know it, b'y," says Hormah, her squick forgotten in the chance of snarking with a favorite uncle.
Skywarp doesn't move to escape too quickly. "She took orders from the wrong person." What more is there to say?
"It ain't us," Armorhide says decisively. "It's the ground. It's like it's new and normal at the same time." Ro-tor says nothing, but he doesn't seem so keen on looking at the skyline any more.
"Well, it figures," Movor rationalises. "First time back in a real city and all that-"
"Never mind that," Mega-Octane says shortly, cutting off the smaller Decepticons' chatter.
"Grumpy," Hormah cheeks at him cheerfully.
"Hrm." Blackout rumbles, then sits back on her heels and looks at Skywarp expectantly. "So?"
"Owwwww!!!!!" Pink has unexpectedly met another jet.
"We don't have time for pointless conversation," Mega-Octane informs her, though it's possible he just wanted an end to that line of discussion.
"So then I'll come-" Skywarp's head snaps up as the Minicon cries out. "What now?"
He glances at Blackout. "Another Minicon?"
She watches as Requiem catches the tiny femme and speaks to her soothingly, then glances after the jet she'd run into and growls. "Nightwish... stupid glitch. Yes. I've got two of them now. That one was created in my service."
Hormah, distracted from being impertinant, is also scowling after the variable coloured jet.
Skywarp eyes the passing jet but doesn't think much of her. "Let me guess: Nexus?"
Armorhide looks enquiringly at Mega-Octane. "Do you think we're allowed to shoot the flier?"
Mega-Octane shakes his head. "Not yet."
"Ye ain't after wantin' t' shoot t'at bit, b'y," Hormah tells the tank-bot, still scowling.
"Beamrider swam in the wrong fountain." Blackout snorts, then glances toward where Sheol is watching everything in good-natured silence.
"Weee!" Pink is off again, badgering her creator till he swears.
"Why not?" Armorhide's gaze swings round to her. Mega-Octane is busy giving the undisciplined Minicon a disapproving look.
"Idiot." Skywarp follows her gaze. "...And what about that jet?"
"I've told you about that jet," says Blackout, heaving herself gracefully to her feet and straightening as one hand goes up to where Scorponok sits silent. "Thunderclash's lacky. The wench had something happen to her, but it looks like she's been repaired."
Hormah shrugs and holds up a hand for her little friend, who zips over and sits in it happily. "It'd bounce."
Skywarp freezes, realising that she has told him before. He looks after Nightwish, wondering now whether she took notice of the group below her and how much is going to get back to Thunderclash. "Slag it."
"Plasma doesn't bounce," Armorhide points out, watching her interact with the tiny bot.
"Still wouldn' do not'in' useful," says Hormah, gently poking at Pink to make her giggle. Then she tilts her head and deedles before looking up at her creator. "T' big boss sez t' jet's runnin' scared 'n don't remember nut'in' right now."
"Scared?" asks Sheol, her voice a softer version of Blackout's. "What's she afraid of?"
"Didn' say." Hormah grins at her baby sister.
Blackout, after eying Skywarp for his outburst and listening to her minion, rumbles impatiently. "We should have more bots. That ship's big."
"You chose the target," Skywarp points out, not quite managing a smirk as he looks back at her. "Don't tell me you don't think you can handle it now."
"I thought you might have friends," she retorts archely.
"Where're you getting your information?" Movor asks Hormah, frowning.
The almost-smirk vanishes from Skywarp's face. "I suppose you would." He turns away, nudging the corpse with his foot as he thinks. "Define 'friend', though..."
"Primus," says the half Minicon absently, turning her attention back to Pink as the little one beeps earnestly.
Blackout's fingertips touch the top edge of the jet-former's nearer wing. "Anyone who can fight and who'll listen to you."
Then she turns and frowns as she registers that her own natives are starting to get as restless as the Commandos. A scowl has Requiem, Beamrider, and Mouse snapping to attention while Hormah ignores her and Sheol grins at her.
"He does mind-reading for you now?" Movor's visor flares in surprise.
Most of the Commandos' restlessness emanates from Mega-Octane: the others under his command seem content to wait. Patience on the job isn't something they have a problem with.
Skywarp seems to still at Blackout's touch. "If I want to trust them with knowledge of other universes..."
"Do they need to know that they're in another universe?" She tilts her head at him.
Hormah just shrugs and walks over to stand by Sheol.
"I've got a feeling some of them might pick up on the change of planet. And I doubt they'll buy that I have a warp gate stashed in my cockpit."
"The ship's in deep space." Her hand goes from his wing to his crest. "And I and some of mine look so strange we could very well be experimental models with warp technology."
Oh, that feels very nice... "I still have to find some who won't ask too many questions." He thinks. "Or try to recruit you." It annoys him after a while, and there are days he'd like to accept.
"Are there any rookies? They're usually good for keeping their vocalizers offline just for the chance of sport and spoil." She absently and gently wipes away imagined dust, then drops her hand and touches his helm instead.
"What are you making such a fuss about?" Requiem quietly asks in the background. "You're always touching Rap when he's around."
"'At's diff'rent."
"How?"
"Shut yer trap."
Skywarp shakes his head, though gently so as not to dislodge her fingers. "I don't deal with the greenwings. And I don't feel like dragging any more shells home today if they get themselves slagged."
"It's different 'cause she doesn't like him," Ro-tor informs Requiem.
"You think she's jealous?" Rollbar asks.
Mega-Octane ignores the psychoanalytic commentary.
"Alright, then. Let's go." Blackout stoops for another kiss.
"Jealous 'o what?" Hormah scowls her disgust. "Rap's ten times as pretty as 'at ol' fart."
"Hey!" protests Requiem.
"So what if it was us-" Armorhide starts to wonder. He cuts off at the realisation that the words 'let's go' have just been uttered. Everything else is suddenly much less important.
Skywarp makes this one quick, nodding at the ex-dissident beside them. "Business first."
"Alright." Blackout turns to look at her team and her friends. "Ready for flight."
"Yes, sir!" Requiem salutes and transforms, then lets Hormah jump onto his back. Both smaller Minicons transform and then zip around excitedly. Sheol bats at them playfully.
Mega-Octane steps forward, studying Skywarp. "How long will it take?"
Skywarp's attention shifts from Requiem to the green mech. "No more than a minute," he says, privately not too keen on this one's tone. Of course, he might outrank me somewhere....
"Wait here." He steps aside, reaches down and grabs the shell. Might as well cheat and PIN it to safety.
Blackout nods, then snatches Pink out of the air and shakes her absently as the tiny jet squeals and giggles. "Mouse, do you understand what's happening?"
The massive rookie slowly turns her head. "Ve... go soon... ja? Fly und hunt."
"That's right. Be ready."
"Ja, meine Dame." Mouse nods in her ponderous way.
Mega-Octane frowns at the space Skywarp has vacated. Meanwhile Ro-tor looks up at Mouse curiously. "What's her story?"
"She got hurt," says Requiem in his terse way, his lights blinking in time with his voice.
The 'copter-bot glances at him, flicking the rotor blades on his back. "I mean where did you find her?"
Hormah glances over at them. "Nazi Germany, b'y."
Mouse flinches at the word and turns her quizzical, sad optics toward her small teammate to see what she's saying. Hormah pats her and deedlebeeps to her soothingly.
Ro-tor draws a blank on that one. "Nazi Germany?" he echoes. Beside him, Movor's perked up with interest, though.
//Aye. Ye ever hear 'bout t' biggest tank ever planned? T'ey couldn' make 'er 'cause t'ey didn' have no engine 'at'd work.// Hormah shifts her feet and then hops off of Requiem to land on Mouse's arm. //In t'is one 'verse t'ey found somet'in' 'at'd work. Proly never would 'o cared she was alive if t'ey'd know'd.//
//Maybe they would have,// Ro-tor sneers. //Humans are soft. But that's disgusting. Being used by fleshlings....//
"Wait a nano." Movor looks between Hormah and Blackout. "You guys fell into an Indiana Jones movie and stole their tank?" He pauses. "Good call. They always blow those things up."
//Nazis weren't after bein' soft,// notes Hormah, scowling. But then the scowl turns to a snerk. "T'ere weren't no Indy, b'y."
Blackout looks up from playing with Pink, then clicks her com on and pings Skywarp. //Nearly done?//
//They were to anything that wasn't human,// Movor points out cheerfully, not sure why this conversation is going over the comlink but unable to resist adding his two credits anyway. Out loud he says, "Around the Nexus? Are you sure about that." And then, noticing the stare he's getting from Armorhide, he shrugs. "What? They do blow 'em up. One time the guy actually did it right in front of me!"
"Huh." Armorhide frowns. Lousy Nexus.
//Almost,// Skywarp replies, though it's another few seconds before he makes a reappearance.
Hormah just rolls her optics at Movor, but then perks with interest from her perch in the crook of Mouse's arm as Skywarp comes back. "Hey, Boss, we t'ere yet?"
"Shut up, brat," growls Blackout without anger.
"Yessir."
The black femme lets go of Pink, who zips up to land on her shoulder. "Alright. Hormah, you're with Mouse and Sheol. Requiem, you're with Beamrider. Scorponok and Pink, with me." She waits for their acknowledgment, then turns to Skywarp. "Would you rather work with a team, or alone?"
Requiem is looking a little wistful suddenly.
Skywarp weighs his late tendency to keep to himself against not knowing what they're up against. Sense prevails over solitariness. "I'll take Requiem and his Minicon." He exchanges a look with Mega-Octane. "I presume you're the Commandos Blackout talks about."
Mega-Octane nods stiffly, sizing the jet-former up in return. "I'm Mega-Octane, the team's sub-commander."
"Interesting." Skywarp's gaze lingers on them a moment longer, and then he turns to Blackout. "Well, I'm ready if you are."
She nods and then turns to Mega-Octane herself. "So?"
"We're waiting for you," he says, the others falling into line behind him without a thought.
Another nod, and she turns her attention to her symbiont. "Ready, Scorponok?"
Scorponok transmits his readiness, spinning his claws with an excited clicking. He's eager to hunt.
Blackout nods and moves so that her PINpoint beam will catch everyone, then presses the button.
((written with the mun who plays Skywarp and the Commandos.))