The Energon Pub

Autobase Tau - Medbay

To be honest, Afterburner hadn't quite expected a answer of this sort. It was easier to be a aftport when others rtesponded in kind, against civility? Not so much. Remington was dealt another edged looke from the orange, surly mech, the ripping of the bandaging adhesive done in a quick jerk befor he returned the roll to it's usual compartment.

The patchjob wasn't worth much.. he knew it, scowling at his own inability, Afterburner rose and made his way over to the offered spot next to Strafe, clunking down heavily beside his comrade. "She fixin' ya good?" questioned the gunner as quietly as he could without fear of seeming to be whispering sweet nothings into his team mate's ear.

Outside Autobase Tau

"Don't hold back Magnus, tell me how you really feel" Roadbuster thought to himself as he listened to the City Commander "Oh slaggit, don't ask Mirage, anyone but that stuck up pain in the aft" The Wrecker thought to himself with dismay.

The arrival of Chase, and the imminent arrival of 2 more of his fellow Throttlebots, brought Roadbuster out of his thoughts and back to the matter at hand. He didn't particularly care that Magnus was still in conversation with Mirage, while he'd been standing, waiting, Roadbuster had recieved a message from Trailbreaker telling of a possible sighting of Skyjack somewhere out to the south of the base, and he wasn't prepared to wait any longer.

Stepping forward, the Wrecker looked down at Chase, Freeway and Searchlight before addressing them "Ok you 3, we've got a 'Con infiltrator on the run and he'd got a head start on us. Now Trailbreaker got a report from one of the patrols to the south saying they saw a Mech fitting the description of the fleeing slaghead, but they couldn't work out where he was heading, so that's where we'll begin the search.."

Roadbuster paused only long enough to transform "..Chase, I want you front and center and don't go too far ahead, Searchlight and Freeway, you're with me, let's go!"

--------------------------------
Autobase Tau ~ Medbay

Jedishen laid back onto the table to allow Wheeljack easier access to his injuries, and nodded his head while listening to the Engineer reel off what could be done about his various injuries "Well I think they were prototypes, I've certainly never seen anything like them before.." The Scout commented, wincing slightly as Wheeljack began work on his knee "..Bit of advice? If you do want to take a look at them, make sure you do it from a distance, preferably with them on a monitor and you looking at it" Jedishen joked, reaching up to detatch the broken visor in preparation for the new one.

Somewhere South of Autobase Tau

Hunting was never her specialty. She was not the kind to harm others, be friend or foe, particularly not from behind or from a safely guarded position. Though it would fit her, since she had always hidden herself in the shadows, where she could not be seen, nor heard, nor noticed in any way.

But still, following someone undetected was something she could perform well enough to earn reputation for it. A reputation few got to ever know about, though. As a covert operations agent, she was exposed only to her direct superiors, and only if absolutely necessary.

Lowlight leaned out from behind a wall, scanning the area in front of the tall, massive edifice. A lone shape was moving constantly, as if trying to shake off its pursuers. Lowlight wasn't sure that the mech had even realized he had any. She cloaked herself and became virtually undetectable the moment she noticed the suspicious individual.

As light as she was, Lowlight quickly moved after Skyjack. She could not yet confirm his destination, nor his intentions, so she decided to not give a report yet, but as soon as she could draw conclusions, she would take the necessary measures.

But for now, she would find out the indetity and intentions of Skyjack.

Autobase Tau: Medbay

Arcee was a little surprised to hear Remington address her directly, knowing the Fembot was busy performing repairs. She hadn't intended to create a distraction but, well, what was done, was done. She smiled a little as she listened to her talk, Remington quite successfully boiling down Beretta's overall pattern in life to just one sentence. There was no getting away from it either, it was true.

The Fembot in the CR Chamber always seemed to find that one pitfall, that one all or nothing risk, that'll send her right into the Med Bay once more. She understood Remington's frustration, not being able to convince someone you cared about just how crazy they were being, how reckless they were acting. Unable to make them see that such a life can only lead to one, final, outcome.

Off hand she could immediately think of two more such reckless Autobots, both hot headed and full of bluster. Damn them both, damn them all really, damn them for not being able to see that when all was said and done, it was those around them that would have to pick up the pieces. That would have to live with the consequences.

But she was getting off track.

Arcee smiled more sincerely towards Remington before sparing a glance back at the occupied CR Chamber.

"I'm sure she doesn't mean to be like this, at least we can be thankful that shes still functional".

Primus knows this war had claimed enough Sparks as it was.

"Who knows...maybe one day she'll take a desk job..."

Autobase Tau - Command Center

Another message from Mirage reached the Command Center from the Brig.

Mirage wrote:Confound it, Magnus, just reprimand me already and start the paperwork. I'm already in the Brig; once the forms are all filled out, simply let me know and I'll lock myself in.

The transmission ended abruptly.

Outside Autobase Tau

To say that Magnus was surprised by Mirage's words would have been an understatement.

"What the slag did you do now, Mirage?" he muttered before looking towards Roadbuster and pointing towards the gathered Throttlebots. "Take them and get going. I'll send Mirage after you after I've dealt with the situation."

He then headed back inside the base and headed off towards the brig.

Autobase Tau-Medbay

Strafe was feeling a lot better now most of his more annoying damages had been repaired. Though he wasn't quite a hundered percent he definately didn't feel like he was going to keel over any second and for that he was very greatful to Remington.

Of course he was also delighted to see Afterburner as it was he was rather worried to be on his own; fearing for the safety of his team-mates. "Yes she is" he replied to Afterburner's query "Still feel a little dizzy though" he added as an afterthought.

Autobase Tau

Sighing, Monco holstered his revolver after awhile and continued to walk around the base.

Autobase Tau - Medbay

At Arcee's remark, the tool Remington was working with fell out of her hand and clanged as it fell on the ground. The technician femme broke out in laughter, her fingers loosening up around the handle, and could not hold it any longer.

She laughed for several astroseconds, but finally she gathered herself, took what she had dropped and resumed finishing the patch-up job on Strafe.

"Yeah, sure," She said to Arcee as she could speak again from laughing. "And dump the whole desk on her clients when they infuriate her, or something like that."

For Remington, it was extermely unbelievable - yet, very humorous - to even imagine Beretta doing any kind of monoton job that required focus and calmness. She would then get the Matrix and become Berettimia Prime, right? Remington thought up the most unlikely outcome of her teammate's imaginary high clerk carreer and chuckled.

"There you go," She then said to Strafe as she reattached the last plating on his right torso. "But I ain't no CR chamber y'know. You should spend some time in one, to fully restore your internal systems' capacity."

With that, she stood up and walked around to the other end of the bench, crouching down beside Afterburner, and looked on him with a scanning look, with one optic-ridge raised.

"Primus... can't you guys do anything else than wrecking yourselves and your stuff?" She complained and shook her cranial unit, but eventually, reached out and began wiping off plate fragments of Afterburner's injuries.

"Can you move your arms and legs?" She asked as she pulled some shrapnel out of Afterburner's left knee joint.

Autobase Tau - Medbay

"Eh, y'er always alittle dizzy if you ask me, bolt brain" muttered the Technobot gruffly, sending a rough but restrained elbow into Strafe's middle, a love tap really!

Chuckles (AKA: Remington) receives a curious look, the sudden out burst slowly drawing some of Afterburners ire, a heated look turning to none other than Arcee, "Hey, Lady" piped up the irritable mech, "Whaddya tryin' to do, get our wires crossed? She's working here and you're crackin' jokes?" asked Afterburner harshly, jostling Strafe once more "Getta load of her, a reguler Jokeatron" he cracked sourly befor fading into a series of quiet mutters.

Chuckles (Remington) caught a breif moment of his anger, a sharp look and a curl of his lip, a mising dental peice revealed, it faded however, and quickly. Afterburner knew better then to lash out at medics and mechanics. He liked his anatomy how it was.

"It's a give and take relationship" he commented, cringing as the peice of metal was jerked from his knee 'Wondered why that was achin' he thought befor continueing, "We give 'em hell and hopefuly they ain't tough enough to take it.. These new guys though.. and that sparking farking wire of a traitor!" he snarled, features shifting from the almost pleasent look to a bitter one once more, "I see him again and you can be-" he was cut off by her question. Curious of that himself, Afterburner gave it a try, the arm closest to Strafe was working fine, it's twin on Afterburner's other side felt a bit stiff... blame the recoil of his sonic blaster. PPne leg was fine, moving a bit sluggishly but goof, the other one was another matter, sparks and a trickle of fluid issued from the knee joint when Afterburner tried to move it, his face contorting in pain, optics flashing behind a cracked lense cover as he bit back a bark of pain, "It.. aches a bit" he informed

Autobase Tau - Brig

"Of all the ridiculous, glitch ridden, stupid things to do..."

To say that Ultra Magnus was angry at Mirage was a bit of an understatement. In such a critical time, for him to go and get himself involved in other matters was nothing but stupidity on his part, especially since his talents were required for an important mission.

Entering the brig, he took one look at Mirage and let out a long suffering sigh.

"OK, Mirage. What's so important that you have to disobey an order from your commanding officer?"

Outside Autobase Tau

Chase transformed and sped away in a southerly direction, "Been here five minutes and I'm already getting some action! Slagging awesome!" he said happily.
Freeway and Searchlight transformed and rolled along beside Roadbuster, "Don't try to stop him driving off. It's like holding back the tide," said Searchlight.
"How are things like here?" Freeway asked Roadbuster.

Autobase Tau - Medbay

Strafe nodded to Remington "Thanks I will" Of course he wasn't going anywhere till he was sure that Afterburner was going to be alright and didn't get himself into a fight in the meantime. When Afterburner elbowed him Strafe just snickered taking the jibe in all good faith "Yeah sure; so what would that make you?" he teased with a playful tone.

He sighed as Afterburner shouted at Arcee sending the femme an apologetic look as if to apologise for his team-mates irritation. He shook his head as he was nudged once more the area Afterburner seemed fond of nudging was still a little tender so he wisely dodged the moving of his team-mates arm.

"Afterburner don't start on about Stormfire; it might not have been entirely his fault" he reminded quietly; bits of his own paranoia seeping into his thoughts. "Though I have to admit falling that far wasn't an experiance I'd like to duplicate" he twitched a little nervously at that thought.

Autobase Tau - The Brig

"Consider it intelligence business, if you must name it, Magnus."

Mirage kept his tone level, which by his standards meant that he was showing only a moderate amount of his considerable annoyance with the city commander.

"Now if you'll excuse me, Stormfire and I were discussing a matter of some importance. I'm sure Roadbuster and the others can handle retrieving a single Decepticon."

OOC: I've gone and edited my original post, J. Please do the same with yours.

Autobase Tau - The Brig

"Well, you seem to be disobeying an order from your commanding officer," Magnus intoned, clearly not amused by Mirage's tone of voice. "And quite frankly, I don't see what could be more pressing than having to deal with a mess caused by an wayward Decepticon that had found a way to sneak his way into our base and managed to totally trash it."

"And yes," he continued. "Roadbuster is capable of handling the situation. But as you know, he can be a bit...overeager when doing so, which is why I asked for your...assistance in the first place."

Outside Autobase Tau

"Thanks for the advice.." Roadbuster replied to Searchlight, as he and his 3 strong team moved out, with Chase already quite a distance ahead of the Wrecker "..Is he always this..... deaf?"

As they continued on their way, Roadbuster turned his attention to Freeway's inquiry "Oh things are wonderful here. What with the energon refineries getting toasted by 3 'Cons who nobody has ever seen before, the base taking a pounding from the same 3 'Cons, the base itself running on backup power thanks to the infiltrator, and half our active soldiers down in Medbay, I'd say things couldn't be better.." The Wrecker half joked, his voice tinged with anger at the state of the region, knowing he watched it all happen, powerless.

"..Ah, don't take no notice of me, let's concentrate on finding the little fender-head before he makes it back to 'Con territory, it's the least I can do"

Autobase Tau: Medbay

It pleased Arcee a great deal to hear Remington laugh, to feel more at ease despite recent troubles. This war could have a depressing effect on everyone, its endless nature and the inevitable harm it brought to friends and family. Especially the harm that said friends and family brought down on their own heads.

She smiled and joined in with Remington's renewed sense of humor, adding her laughter too the other Fembots own. The world they lived in was indeed a dangerous place and such circumstances demanded they take them seriously, but if an Autobot could not, at times, keep a light spark, then what kind of future were they fighting for? Besides, the thought of Beretta shuffling paperwork was too insane to not consider funny. Arcee estimated roughly an hour before the Fembot in the CR Chamber lost her Cortex entirely.

Some Bots just weren't built for the desk job.

Neither was she really.

As Afterburner made some typically scalding remarks, Arcee raised an optic but stopped herself from responding after Strafe offered her an apologetic look. She smiled slightly at the more polite Autobot before turning back to the CR Chamber that had been occupying her attention before. Afterburner was just a rude Bot who didn't know how to switch off his Audio's, besides, this was probably the most attention he ever got from a Fembot.

She really shouldn't interrupt his rare treat.

Looking at the comatose form of Beretta, Arcee couldn't help but sigh.

"When you wake up someone will have to have a serious talk to you about threat assessment".

Autobase Tau - Medbay

"A bit, huh?" Remington looked questioningly at Afterburner and raised an optic-ridge. She noticed that the injury the other mech suffered hurt enough, but he just couldn't help but display some rough-tough bravado and make like it was nothing.

Taking another tool, a pressure cleaner with a barrel widening outwards from the handle, Remington placed it on the edge of the torn plates around Afterburner's knee, covering the entire opening.

"This will also hurt... a 'bit'," She said, then bushed a button on the device. A soft click and a sharp hissing sound could be heard as the vacuum created inside the tool sucked in all the dust and shell fragments that were still in Afterburner's injury. It all happened in less then an astrosecond, but it was certainly not the most comfortable feeling. Now that the injury was clear, Remington could examine the damage under the platings.

"You have no skeletal damage," She intoned as she zoomed her visuals onto the opened area. "But the actuator needs some fix," With that, she began to detach some larger armor plates to be able to get at the damaged internal parts.

"Don't think that will work," She said to Arcee while working and allowed herself a slight smile. "She won't listen to you unless you can outdrink her, under the table. And even then, it's just maybe."

Autobase Tau - The Brig

"What could be more important than that mess?" Mirage asked Ultra Magnus rhetorically. "Perhaps dealing with the other mess, which left several Autobots in the Med Bay with severe injuries."

He knew that Magnus had arrived on the scene of Stormfire's berserker episode just as Stormfire seemed finally to calm down, and probably had not received a satisfactory explanation of what had happened. However, neither had Mirage, or anyone else, for that matter. And a satisfactory explanation is precisely that for which I am hunting now.

"I find the threat of a violent Transformer in our midst and wearing our sigil more of a menace - pardon the word, Stormfire - than a violent Transformer already probably hundreds of kilometers away from here who we already know is our sworn enemy," he explained. "Stormfire here is one of us, but there is something amiss with his personality programming that has turned him into a threat to his fellow Autobots. I aim to discover and deal with whatever is amiss."

Now if Punch would just show up to lend a hand...I'm afraid abnormal psychology is not my primary function.

Autobase Tau - The Brig

"I'm sorry about that," Magnus replied to Mirage, with genuine concern for Stormfire, but also with the knowledge that there was no real time for him to stay here and listen to it. "Do what you can for him, Mirage. I'll be back later to check up on you."

He turned on his heel and headed out, heading back outside the base. He keyed his comlink. "Roadbuster, what's your status?"

Autobase Tau: Medbay

I could do that...

Arcee allowed herself to idly believe for just a moment before having to except reality. She was more than able to have a good time when she wanted to, but over energizing wasn't something the Fem had much experience with. In fact, she didn't really have any.

...alright maybe not.

Arcee excepted with a sigh, her shoulders slumping slightly in defeat. Remington was right, Beretta wasn't much for listening to anyone unless it was what she wanted to hear anyway. Getting her into a state wherein she didn't know what she was agreeing to anymore was more or less the only way to knock any sense into her.

Which in itself was completely insane.

Why did some Autobots have to be so difficult?

Arcee looked thoughtful.

"Maybe if I could convince Spri......"

The thought quickly passed, Arcee shaking her head and dismissing it almost instantly. That was a bad idea, that Autobot was just as bad as Beretta herself. Putting them into a room together, and over hyped on Energon...only Primus would know what could happen next.

No.

That was no good.

She had to face facts. Their best move all round was probably to just leave Beretta in the CR Chamber permanently and save everyone some time. She absently wondered if they would be allowed to get away with that...or...there was another option...

"Remington..."

Arcee began to ask with an innocently curious tone.

"...do you think Beretta would mind waking up with another ten inch thick reinforced chassis bolted to her frame?"

It may end up looking somewhat...unsightly...but at least she would be more durable.

Outside Autobase Tau

"No, Chase isn't deaf," Searchlight explained to Roadbuster, "It's just that he expects everyone to be so much faster than what they are,"
"Just three Cons caused all those problems?" Freeway asked, "I think your security systems need to be beefed up. So what does the Con we're hunting look like?" he asked as Chase continued zipping along ahead of them.

Autobase Tau: Medbay:

"That's 'cause Technobots are built Hardcore." boasted Afterburner to Remington a solid knock delt to his chestplate with a fist for empasis of his mechlyness.

The mechanic lost his attention for a moment, his attention ddrifting to Strafe, "Whaddya mean ? That slagger almost scrapped you and now you're tellin' me to go easy?!" he erupted, almost jumping off of his bench, his attention dropping to Arcee and Remington, his moutyh gaping to say something.. only to clamp shut once more once Remingto activated the device, his optics flickering in shock and pain.

It seemed to silence the mech, he slumped back against the wall once she had finished, allowing systems to catch up, "S'sonufa constructicon.." he muttered quietly , shaking it off as best he could.

Interjecting himself into Arcee and Remington's A-B conversation about C, Afterburner piped up, "I don't see what all th'slaggin trouble is, she don't look so tough, I could drink her into shutdown without even feeling over-clocked." he boasted/offered.

Autobase Tau - Medbay

Hearing Arcee's suggestion to have Beretta remain still, or at least storm around with armor protection proportional to her recklessness, Remington would have burst out in another wave of frame-shaking laughter, hadn't she been performing a delicate operation on Afterburner's knee actuator. Instead, she only allowed herself a slight chuckle.

"I'd like to see Retta's face when you suggest that to her," She replied, her smile spreading wider. Beretta never took kindly to those kinds of suggestions, but she had always looked funny retorting, or simply throwing some dramatic tantrum as a response.

Turning her attention back to repair work, she removed the last armor plate surrounding the wounded joint, and began the precision work of recalibrating, reattaching and restructuring the loosened compartments. The tools in her hands moved lightly, sparks flickered up as she cut and welded. Given the nature and endurance of a standard Transformer body structure, Afterburner shouldn't have felt much pain, only sudden stings here and there. Though considering his attitude that he had described as 'hardcore', Remington doubted that he would care about it, even if she punched a blowtorch into his knee and ignited it, output on the maximum.

"Ohhh, now that's an interesting challenge," She said in response, her tone reflecting surprise and excitement, but she did not look up from her work. "Just be careful not to burn yourself afterwards, Afterburner."

Remington smirked as she pulled a pun on the trigger-tempered mech's name, then lowered the tool she was working with and examined the results, zooming onto the repaired parts.

"That should do it," She then stated, and began to put back the removed armor plates, and to take care of Afterburner's other, lesser injuries.

Autobase Tau - Hallways

This was the first time Snipe had ever been in Autobase Tau, and it felt almost as big as Autobase Prime. Which didn't surprise him when he ended up lost AGAIN in the hallways. "I should have asked what we were suppose to do here." he said, then sighed. Snipe Shade was beginning to think that these Bases were made specifically to confuse the slag out of him.

But not too long after, Snipe saw a door entrance that looked "promising".

"Come on, door number 1!" he said as the door opened and revealed the wide surface of outside. "Ah... great, i think." It wasn't what he was hoping to find, but at least he could do something here that he couldn't inside, for etiquette reasons.

Opening a wide comlink signal, Snipe said, "Anybody out here? Need assistance with anything?" He figured that if Autobase Base Prime sent info to this place that he was heading over, somebody would try looking for him. Alteast, he hoped so. In the meantime, Snipe felt quite comfortable on the outside. After all, he DID spend alot of his life in this type of environment. Whether training, going on missions, or just hanging out.