Meet-n-Greet

[cityship]

The rest of the crew assembled on the Observation Deck to meet the latest editions to their numbers. After the revelation that their worlds are gone, many of them are even more eager to see people they knew from home

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[derpjack_ftw]

||You have been Chosen to accomplish a Great Purpose. You have been Chosen to help fight the Ohm, a race of insectoid beings that are the destroyers of worlds . . . You have been Chosen as champions of life, as protectors of the worlds and peoples that are left. The others are waiting for you. They will explain everything.||

The words rang in Wheeljack's mind, leaving him reeling. W-what . . . what had happened!? Where was he? Where were the others? Optimus Prime, Ironhide, Ratchet, Bumblebee, Prowl, Jazz, Beachcomber, Bluestreak, Smokescreen . . . anyone!?

And this Stacy-being's words . . . champions of life, well yes, that was the base definition of being an Autobot: All life is sacred. It was what he had been fighting for, life and freedom, for a hundred thousand vorns now. But this . . . something in the being's communication made it sound . . . different. Sinister, even. Well, no, not quite that, but . . . something. An' what does she mean by "the worlds an' people that're left?The Cybertronian - once sixteen feet

[talks2stoplight]

Despite everything that was happening around the ship, the moment Ratchet had heard that a new batch of pod sleepers had been woken up he was heading directly to the obs deck. Being taller than most afforded him a good view over the heads of everyone else but he didn't need his optics to pick up the presence of Cybertronian life. He turned in the direction his sensors pointed him and spotted a face that he was pretty sure he knew even better than his own.

"Wheeljack!" He moved as quickly as he could through the crowd, trying not to knock anyone over in his rush to get to his friend. It would've been impossible to hide the relief and joy in his expression so he didn't even try, thankful to luck or fate or Primus or whatever had conspired to spit a familiar face back out into the world at large.

[derpjack_ftw]

Wheeljack spun at the sound of a familiar voice. He'd have been relieved and glad for any familiar voice, but that one . . . exponentially more so.

"Ratch!?" He peeled himself off the wall and slipped carefully through the throng of people to meet his best friend, pulling the other into a hug on reflex. Then he stepped back, meeting the other's optics. "Ratch, where...where are we? What's goin' on?" He'd heard a number of things, but too unbelievable. He needed to hear them from someone he knew, someone he trusted.

[talks2stoplight]

While he was not usually one to engage in displays of affection, he'd spent too long quietly worrying about his friends in the pods, especially after the bomb scare and, well, he made exceptions for Wheeljack anyway. He returned the hug, lifting the other clean off his feet before setting him down and promptly going back making sure everything on the engineer was where it was supposed to be.

"You're okay? How're you doing with the slime? Took me days to- what?" He stopped when he realized that he was trying to talk at the same time as Wheeljack, pausing his inspection with his hands on the other mech's arms. His expression sobered when he caught back up with what he was being asked. "This is Stacy. She's a ship; She saved you... and everyone else here. At least, that's what we're told."

LOL I was /this/ close to using that icon myself! XD *does this time, just for the hell of it*

[derpjack_ftw]

Wheeljack yelped in surprise in spite of himself. The medic was not normally one for physicality, though he usually tolerated well enough the engineer's need for touch-contact as a means of connection, so to be picked clean up like that . . . well, it wasn't unwelcome or anything, but it was certainly startling.

And telling. Very telling.

"I'm okay! Ratch, I'm...I'm okay! Promise." The inspection was more than a cursory medic's once-over - Ratchet was worried. That didn't bode well. The only thing missing on him was a munitions shell for his shoulder cannon, so he'd retracted the thing - everything else was intact. "Those tentacle things did a decent job, but I've still got slag in places I really don't wanna think about." There was something else he really didn't want to think about either, but he had to. He looked around the room at the gathered multitude, his voice small. "S-saved...?"

blargh icon twins! X)

[talks2stoplight]

"Yeah, you'll have to- well, it'll work itself out in time." Satisfied from his own inspection and Wheeljack's insistence, Ratchet stepped back and folded his arms over his chest; reigning himself back in. The attempt at humor seemed to fall uncharacteristically flat as he tried to figure out how to explain what had happened to them. To everyone.

"The story goes that some race called the 'Ohm' are moving from world to world, destroying everything they find. We're talking complete obliteration. This ship- Stacy- is some sort of.. trans-dimentional lifepod. She found us before the Ohm did."

XDDD

[derpjack_ftw]

Had Wheeljack been human, all the color would have drained from his face. As it was, his optics dimmed in shock, and he swayed just a little on his feet. Suddenly, all those countless pods made . . . at least a little more sense.

"C-complete . . . obliteration . . . ??" He was having a hard time wrapping his processor around that. Entire worlds, all those lives . . . "S-so . . . Earth's gone? W-what about . . . what about Cybertron!" Surely Cybertron was still intact! Even energy-depleted as their home was. It was far enough away from Earth, completely out of the planet's galaxy in another sector altogether - surely Cybertron had escaped! Right!?

"S-so what . . . w-what now? Are the others down in that cavern somewhere? M-maybe we should go look. Wait . . . what about you? I didn't see ya down in the cavern with the others. You been around longer? Are you okay?" Now it was his turn to look his friend over, though the sudden concern was probably irrational and merely born of a need for something - anything - else to

/completely rewrites her post because she's special like that 8B

[talks2stoplight]

He nodded to Wheeljack's assumption about Earth. At least that answered the question of where the engineer had been before waking up in his pod. As for Cybertron... "I don't know." It was the truth and while his own personal opinion was that it seemed to be statistically unlikely that their homeworld had been spared, he made the choice to keep his pessimism to himself

Yes, but question is - what KIND of "special"? XD

[derpjack_ftw]

Wheeljack crossed his arms and gave the taller mech a 'look'. Every medic worth his skills had at least one common trait, a fault as it were - they tended to neglect themselves in their focus on seeing to everyone else around them. In the tens of thousands of vorns that the two had known each other, Wheeljack knew his best friend was no exception - was a model example, even. The grin and the tease, however, were audible enough in his tone. "Without me ta make sure ya do take care'a yourself? I don't think ya want me ta answer that, Ratch." Still, he found himself brushing fingers over one of the more awkward patches on his friend's plating. He'd not missed the other's wording either.

"Who hurtcha, Ratchet? There're Decepticons here too?" Not that he'd want to see anyone destroyed, necessarily, even members for their enemy faction . . . but if they'd attacked his best friend

the ~*special*~ kind of course!

[talks2stoplight]

Ratchet made an indignant little noise at the reply, but it seemed the good natured teasing only went so far as a distraction before reality sank back in. "It's a long story. Pretty sure I saw another Cybertronian here when I woke up but he didn't stick around very long and I haven't seen him since. There's different problems around here than our old war, anyway."

He nudged Wheeljack's hands away with an arm, a wordless dismissal of the worries. "You probably heard the speech when you woke up about being chosen and everything? Turns out we were rounded up to fight the Ohm. The deal seems to be that if we can get rid of them, all the worlds they destroyed can be put back together."

XDDD

[derpjack_ftw]

He was going to worry, of course - that's what friends did, especially two war-weary veterans - but he also knew when to drop it. For now. He'd try to corner the medic later to get him to let Wheeljack finish the repairs.

He nodded a bit numbly. "Yeah. Still tryin' ta wrap my processor around all that, but . . . y-yeah." He tilted his head. "So these . . . Ohm. You met one yet? Or seen one? I mean . . . how's that all work?"

[talks2stoplight]

He shook his head and spread his hands in a gesture of futility. "No idea. The only things I've seen so far have been Stacy's insides." The conversation he'd had with Zetta not too long ago crawled its way up through his memory banks then and he paused in consideration before continuing.

"Look, to be honest, all this business with the Ohm and the worlds- all we have to go on is Stacy's word until we see it for ourselves. Maybe it's true... maybe it's not. I think it's worth believing because no one else seems have a better explanation, but so far the only trouble I've seen has been from within.

[derpjack_ftw]

"Great." The frown was heavy in his tone. "What kinda trouble? An' . . . what about this...Stacy? Who is she? Is she trustworthy? I mean, I get that she's . . . all this, a sentient ship - a sentient, half-organic ship, but . . . " He waved an arm to take in the whole room, and by extension, the whole entity.

[talks2stoplight]

"The best I can gather about Stacy is that no one has any idea if she's on the level or not. She's supposed to belong to a race calling themselves Daligig, but if they manned her before, they were gone by the time I woke up. Supposedly they're the ones who started her on this 'save the worlds' mission

[derpjack_ftw]

Trust Ratchet to focus on the mundane and leave speculation to others. While some might think that a negative, Wheeljack knew full-well that his friend's practicality had helped keep him grounded more times than he could count. He just nodded with a soft, noncommittal grunt, determining not to form any opinions one way or another till he knew more.

"Pathogen?" He delved into the language downloads that Teletraan I had input into all of them, as that was a word he'd not really much come across before. 'pathogen: any disease-producing agent, esp. a virus, bacterium, or other microorganism.' "Somthin' organic? I'm guessin' you an' me're immune to it, then? What're the symptoms? Is there a cure for it yet?" Were this something mechanical, his mind would be working on eight different possible solutions for the problem . . . but he knew next to nothing about carbon-based breakdowns and how to handle them.

[talks2stoplight]

For as close as they were, there would always be this divergence: Ratchet had ages of medical knowledge at hand and Wheeljack had to look up the word 'pathogen'. On the other hand, Wheeljack could probably build a fusion reactor out of the things he found under the couch.

He shook his head. "Right now all we can do is try to keep it contained, but we're working on the details. It manifests in standard human flu symptoms- increased core temperature, sweating, skin pallor with potential for nausea and dehydration- but for some reason, it's pushing the host's aggressive tendencies way over the edge." Translated from medic speak, the general gist was that people were getting sick and going mad. "We've got some unusual cases so far, so I can't say whatever this is couldn't jump the line to something techno-organic, so I'm warning you now. But if you see anyone around the ship acting unduly violent, comm me immediately. They gave you the stuff for that when you got here, right?"