The Energon Pub

Hangar

>>"Understood Scrapper. Draft a mission plan and submit it to me. However, if a raid against a human nuclear facility is required we may require Megatron's authorization to carry it out."<< Starscream said as he strode into hangar of the base. He nodded in acknowledgment to Thudnercracker as he approached the other Seeker. >>"Have your selected team members join me in the hangar.<<

"Megatron has seen fit to assign me command of a forward staging area for an upcoming operation." He said looking over at Thundercracker. "We will be utilizing the Stunticons and some Constructicons to construct the base. Our roll will be to provide support if it is needed." Starscream lowered his voice. "As you can expect I am weary of Ramjet's presence on this operation. I will hope that even he has enough processing power to know better then to interfere with one of Megatron's plans, but we shall see. To that end I would like you to keep an optic on him to ensure that this endeavor goes smoother then our last."

Interrogation Chamber

Skywarp's optics flickered slightly as he slowly began to regain consciousness. At first he wasn't sure exactly where he was. The ceiling above him looked similar to the one in his personal quarters, but it was much too dark in color. What he did know was that he was lying down on something that didn't feel like is own recharging bed. The seeker was still very groggy from his impromptu nap and raised one hand to his forehead as he tried to regain his bearings. The last thing he remembered was leaving the repair bay and heading for the lower levels to perform some maintenance work. Why he had been assigned such a menial task was just as big a question as where he currently was or what had happened to him once he arrived in the storage room to gather the necessary equipment. After that, his mind was a complete blank. Although, some 'cons would argue that 'Warp's mind was always a complete blank. However, this situation was a bit different.

Skywarp lowered his hand to his side and slowly began to sit up. As he did, he looked to his right and spotted the last thing on this backwater world that he wanted to see - Darkride. The teleporter's optics suddenly widened like a deer caught in an earthen vehicle's headlights. As a sudden rush of energon shot through his circuits, the seeker swiftly leapt off the table he had been lying on and immediately began checking himself over to ensure that all of his limbs were still attached and nothing was missing or tampered with.

Once the seeker was satisfied that he was all still there, Skywarp looked directly at Darkride with a scowl etched clearly across his faceplate. "How did I get here? What have you done to me, you cretin?!" The angry teleporter rushed towards the interrogator, stopping just a few feet in front of the smaller mech. 'Warp didn't know what was going on or how he had come to be in his nemesis' chamber, but he would find out one way or another.

Skywarp then raised his right arm and pointed his laser weapon directly at the torturer's head. "Answer me, Darkride! Now!"

Storage Depot

The drones didn't take too long to load Long Haul's truck bed up with the needed equipment. In fact, there was so much stuff to take along on the upcoming mission, a small hover cart was also filled and then attached to the Constructicon transport's back end. Once the automations were finished with their task, Long Haul drove out of the storage room and headed back down to the labs.

Lab Facilities

The green dump truck entered the main laboratory and rolled up to Scrapper, who was still preparing for their new assignment. "Okay, boss, I've got what we need. Everything that was on the datapad you gave me should be in my truck bed along with some stuff the drones had to store in the hover cart behind me. I'm ready to go when you are."

Lab Facilities

>>Acknowledged. We will join you presently.<< Scrapper sent his reply to Starscream as Long Haul. "Ah, Long Haul, excellent. This is going to be a mission where being prepared will really help." Not to make the mission easier, so much as to avoid Starscream having anything to complain about. Not that he wouldn't find something anyway, but it might delay matters at least.

Scrapper beckoned Bonecrusher over to join them, which the Demolitions Expert did reluctantly. "Right, while the others continue the refinement of the energon, we will have to support this war effort. Be sure to be efficient and punctual around Starscream, he is in command of this mission, and we will have to work at our best with him. But don't forget, our ultimate allegiance is to our team, and to Megatron." With this, Scrapper lead his team to meet their fellows.

Hangar

The team entered the hangar bay and joined up with the others. Scrapper gave Starscream one of his patented crisp salutes. "Well met, commander. I have my plans compiled and ready for approval. So, we await the Stunticons before departing?"

Scrapper wasn't sure which ideas filled him with more dread: Taking orders from Starscream, or having to use the Stunticons to try building something.

Interrogation Chamber

Standing some distance from the table, Darkride watched as the black and purple Seeker began to stir. He kept his optics locked on Skywarp as he finally sat up and looked in the interrogator’s direction. On cue, Darkride flashed his unwitting guest a sinister grin. A low chuckle escaped as he watched the teleporter stand up and take stock of all of his appendages. The scene was quite comical; an elite Seeker desperately trying to figure out what happened to him. Such delicious irony, the interrogator thought.

Darkride quickly composed himself once Skywarp began to demand answers, but before he could even respond; the irate Seeker rushed toward him, stopped and abruptly aimed his weapon at the torturer’s head. Without so much as a flinch, Darkride raised his hand and moved the barrel of the weapon aside. He then sauntered past Skywarp and into the main chamber where he began gathering some instruments. At the same time he gave the Seeker what he was after….answers.

“Contrary to popular belief, I am not without couth.” he said and then paused. “You arrived at my door and began to pound on it with your repugnant meat hooks.” He looked back at Skywarp as he continued to explain. “When the door opened you stalked into my oubliette and obviously slipped on the remains of some of my past guests, because you wound up on my floor unconscious.”

His arms full of various implements of pain, Darkride made his way across the room where he deposited his burden.

“I was going to leave you there, but your carcass was in my way, so I deposited it on my table.”

With his explanation given, the sadomasochist returned to his work. “I trust you can see your way out?”

Lab Facilities

Hook was far too engrossed in his work to pay attention to the comings and goings of the other Decepticons in the lab. He had completed his examination of the ore samples they had and the sample that Slipstream had returned from Cybertron with. While the so called ‘Ultra Energon’ was intriguing and certainly had its uses, the amount of experimentation he could do with it was limited due to the small sample size. They would need to find a larger deposit of the ore to further refine into ultra energon before he could do anything more then make conjectures and hypothesize.

There were, however, other projects he could work on. He had located an intriguing one buried in the various half completed projects that Shockwave had left behind upon his disappearance. This particular project involved harness the power of multiple Transformers at once, focusing them so that the whole would become far greater then the sum of its parts. The idea was intriguing to the surgical engineer. He only needed a suitable group of test subjects to modify and he believed he had located just such a group. Now Hook kept himself busy drawing up the necessary modifications that would be needed to allow them to undergo this ultimate transformation.

Hangar - Before the arrival of the Constructicons

"Of course Starscream." Thundercracker acknowledged Starscream's words. However he did not like them at all. Sure, he could keep an optic on Ramjet and keep Screamer up to date with whatever he saw the conehead doing. The problem was that if someone as thickheaded as Ramjet had decided that to seek retribution against Starscream - it was for certain that the conehead would be a liability, not an asset to the mission. With the addition of Motormaster's gang of loose cannons, the whole operation sounded like it was doomed to fail before it had really began.

Being certain to check first that none other than Starscream heard his next words, Thundercracked leaned towards the seeker commander a spoke quietly. "I just don't get it. How the frag we going to pull off this task with half of team commissioned having more than one screw loose within their craniums?"

Interrogation Chamber

Skywarp watched Darkride very closely as he pushed the seeker's gun barrel aside and walked past him. 'Warp turned, keeping both optics locked on the interrogator to ensure he made no sudden moves towards him with any of his torture devices. The explanation as to how the teleporter had found himself lying on the table was short and simple. It certainly seemed believable enough but with a mech like Darkride one could never really be sure of anything.

"That better be all that happened, Darkride," Skywarp started to say as he made his way towards the door. "If I later find out you did anything else to me, you'll wish you were never created." With a scowl clearly etched on his face plate, 'Warp turned and exited the interrogator's chamber.

Corridors - Upper Levels

Skywarp marched out of the turbo lift and headed back down towards the med bay area where he had last seen Thundercracker. He wanted to tell his blue friend what had happened. It all seemed a bit strange to him. Why couldn't he remember exactly how he ended up on that table? Sure, according to Darkride, 'Warp had hit his head when he fell, but he had suffered from much harder hits plenty of times during battle and had never lost his memory before. And why couldn't he remember the moments just before the accident? After all, the prankster couldn't even remember arriving at the interrogation chamber to begin with.

After checking inside the med bay and not finding his friend, Skywarp continued onwards down the hallway until he encountered Nightraven and Hellion. The teleporter immediately approached them with a newly formed smile across his face plate. 'Warp always thought of himself as a ladies' mech when it came to femmes even though he never had any luck scoring with them. And while Hellion was a bit too violent for his tastes, 'Warp wouldn't mind taking his chances with her sister even if she did have an unhealthy obsession with Thundercracker.

"Well, hello there! How are you ladies doing? I'm looking for 'Cracker. Have either of you by chance seen him lately?" Skywarp fixated his optics more on Nightraven since she was the one who would most likely know the current whereabouts of her blue crush.

Hangar Bay

Long Haul followed Scrapper into the hangar, still in dump truck mode with all the equipment needed for the upcoming mission residing both in his truck bed and in the attached hover container behind him. Starscream and Thundercracker were already there waiting as Scrapper approached the Seeker Commander and began speaking. Long Haul listened and overheard the mention of the Stunticons being a part of the mission. They were certainly an unusual choice to help build something new when their expertise was more akin to destroying things instead of creating. Regardless, they would have to make the best of it and hope the job would get done in the same exemplary manner that the Constructicons were accustomed to doing things.

Hangar

Starscream turned to Thundercracker and lowered his voice so only the other Seeker could hear.

"I will admit, that is a concern that has been weighing on my processor. I am certain Ramjet will either make an attempt on my life or try to sabotage the mission to make myself look incompetent. Regardless of his personal grudges against me I do not want his own machinations leading to the disruption of this operation, I concur with Megatron about its importance to the overall cause. As for the Stunticons, my hope is to impress upon Motormaster the importance Megatron has placed upon this operation and hope that it is sufficient enough for him to keep his team under some sort of control so the base can be completed in a timely fashion."

He turned away from Thundercracker to greet Scrapper, returning his crisp salute. The Seeker commander respected the Constructicon leader, and his team for that matter even if they were Megatron loyalists. They took their tasks seriously and undertook them with efficiency and skill, though not front line warriors they were no less vital to the Decepticon cause and Starscream felt that the rest of the army could use some of the discipline the Constructicons had.

A data update from his personal computer was transmitted to Starscram before he spoke.

"Excellent Scrapper, I knew I could rely upon the prompt arrival of you and your team. We still have to await the arrival of Ramjet, though I think we shall proceed to the sight before the Stunticons arrive. I just recieved an intelligence update from my personal data unit, the Autobots have engaged the Stunticons elsewhere and it seems the battle is still on going. For the time being, and for the sake of time constraints, I believe it will be best for us to proceed to the sight of the new base and begin preliminary work, with the bulk of the labour to be carried out once Motormaster and his team are free to join us."

Corridors

Hellion was shaking her head as she dragged Nightraven down the corridors. “I tell you Nighty, those two are a couple of slagheads if I ever saw one. I doubt between the two of ‘em they could even get one neural circuit to light up.” She shook her head in annoyance. She was sure Ramjet and Hooligan would try something against Starscream, something that would likely blow up in their faces and get them both scrapped by Starscream or Megatron himself. Either way she wasn’t going to let them drag her down with them. They were more then welcome to whatever trouble came down on their heads.

The femme lead her sister down the corridors until the met up with Skywarp. She hadn’t expected to meet the other seeker but it was a welcome surprise. He wasn’t the brightest of cons, but he wasn’t out and out stupid like those other two were. Sure, he played pranks of his own, but they weren’t as stupid as anything Hooligan and Ramjet could come up with. His sense of humor was crude and a bit cruel, which suited her just fine. He was much better then his pal Thundercracker too. Hellion couldn’t stand the boring and cowardly seeker. What her sister saw in him she would never know.

She flashed Skywarp a smile. “Hey Warp, how are ya? Didn’t expect to bump into you here.” Her smile faded as she saw where the other seeker settled his optics and heard his question. She grunted in response. “Nope, haven’t seen Cracker anywhere. I’m sure he’s around somewhere crying about the war and how terrible it is.” She snickered. Hellion wasn’t really into peace or ending the war. She was good at fighting and killing and didn’t really respect anything that went the opposite from that.

Corridor

"Go head off to where Screamer is Ramjet. Don't keep him waiting, it'll look bad. I'll catch up and sweet talk my way into being allowed to come." Hooligan advises. "The less he sees of us together the better. I'll follow shortly." Hooligan says as he begins to head to his quarters, almost walking into Snowcap.

"HEY!!" Snowcap stepped back. "Watch it. I'm walking here."

"Oh Sorry Snowy." Hooligan said half heartedly.

"Whatever. Move it. Unlike you I have things to do. I don't have time to waste with idiots." Snowcap says as he pushes past him.

Hooligan says nothing, only mentally noting the ice warrior as his next target.

Snowcap headed off towards Megatron's chamber, eager to request a task to perform.

"Ice cold aftkisser." Hooligan commented as he headed off to his room.

Hangar

"Understood, Starscream." Scrapper was unsurprised to find that the Stunticons had gotten themselves into a fight already. No doubt they'd sought the Autobots as soon as they'd arrived on the planet, or gone on a rampage in violation of the Infiltration Protocols and brought them down on their own heads. It wasn't a good precedent for the operation to come, but perhaps if Motormasters team had the padding knocked out of them now, they'd behave for long enough to get the job done.

"Well, Bonecrusher, Long Haul and myself are ready, in any case. We have all the equipment for making the base, as I said, it'll be making the weapon that will be the issue. I'm working on several possible ideas however, so once we have things settled, we can decide on a course of action."

Assuming theres a 'we' in the desicion making for this mission...

Corridors

Skywarp was slightly taken aback when Hellion responded to his question instead of her sister, Nightraven. He was even more surprised that Hellion seemed to be in a somewhat pleasant mood, which was very unusual. Normally, the berserker warrior walked around pissed off at something or someone while 'Warp had always managed to stay out of her way. Otherwise, he would likely end up with her foot planted squarely in his aft section. Thankfully, that was not the case here as Hellion was actually smiling at him.

"Well, I was doing fine until I got assigned to maintenance duty on the lower levels, and then I somehow ended up in Darkride's chamber with no memory of how I even got there," Skywarp answered Hellion in a somber tone. "He said I slipped and fell and that's why I can't remember, but I'm not so sure. I trust that little slagger about as far as I could throw Trypticon. Otherwise, I'm okay. How are you?"

The teleporter cracked a smile when Hellion mentioned that she hadn't seen Thundercracker anywhere and then made other comments regarding the blue seeker. "Well, I don't think I've ever seen him cry, but he does complain about the war a lot I must admit." Skywarp conceded as he turned and approached a computer access terminal on a nearby wall. "I'll find out where he is," the prankster said as he interfaced with the terminal and checked the latest mission logs. He soon found exactly what he was looking for. "Well, it looks like 'Cracker's been assigned to some mission on the other side of the planet." Meanwhile, I'm stuck here with maintenance duty and having to deal with the likes of Darkride. That figures. What do I have to do to get a little respect around here?

Skywarp turned away from the terminal and regarded Nightraven and Hellion once again. "I guess I'll just have to talk to him once he gets back," the teleporter started to say before thinking of something that the three of them could do together. "Say, I could go for topping off my fuel tank right about now." Although, I don't know why since I shouldn't have expended that much energy doing simple maintenance work. "What do you ladies say we head down to the mess hall and get us a round of energon drinks? My treat, of course!"

Skywarp hoped that the seeker sisters would take him up on his offer. With Thundercracker out of the way, maybe he could finally score some points with the femmes, especially with Nightraven whom he preferred over her more violent sibling. Although, with 'Warp's less than stellar track record at wooing the ladies, he would likely settle for whoever gave him the time of day.

Corridors

Nightraven wasn’t prepared for another meeting with yet another off kilter Decepticon warrior, and she certainly wasn’t prepared to bump into Skywarp. The Seeker femme stopped in her tracks and was just about to answer Skywarp when her sister chimed in. Nightraven turned her head to look at Hellion, her mouth opened slightly at her sister’s demeanor towards Skywarp.

Her attention was brought back to the teleporter when he finally spoke up. While Skywarp made his way to a terminal, Nightraven elbowed Hellion in the side and whispered.

“What’s wrong with you? ‘How ya doin'?’ Pah-lease!”

Before her sister could respond Skywarp had moved back in front of the female Seekers. This meant they had to listen to his attempts at wooing them. But his suggestion of getting something to drink wasn’t a bad idea. At least while they were all in the mess hall she could try and get some information out of Skywarp on what Thundercracker thinks of her.

Nightraven flashed Skywarp a warm smile and nodded.

“Sounds good to me. Come on Helly.”

The black femme took her sister by the wrist and began to tug, urging her to follow.

Corridor leading to Hangar

Just how long was this bloody corridor anyway? It seemed like Ramjet had been walking for weeks without ever getting anywhere. Hooligan had left him just moments (or was it days) ago, cutting off down a side passage, and Ramjet had continued on his seemingly endless trek.

There must be something still screwy with my chronometer, he thought, shaking his head to clear it. I feel like I've smoked some of that herbal energon the Insecticons came up with that time...

Finally, he saw the doors to the hangar bay ahead. The conehead slipped inside, keeping his back to the wall where he could observe and gather his wits. It seemed that everyone else who had been summoned was already there, most of the Constructicons, Thundercracker, and of course Screamer.

Ramjet growled low in his throat at the sight of the Seeker commander. It was going to take every erg of his will to keep from ripping that pretentious, whiny, jackwagon's face off, but he knew he had to be up to the task. Everyone would expect him to move now, but he had to wait - let everyone forget, and then...

Well, time to play the game.

"Ramjet reporting as ordered," he announced, stepping forward and joining the assemblage.

Corridors

The good mood that Hellion had quickly evaporated as Skywarp played up to Nightraven and her sister teased her. It wasn’t that she had any particular feelings for Skywarp one way or the other, but she was irritated to be practically ignored in favor of her sister. She wasn't vain or desperate for attention, but she didn't liked being ignored. Nightraven’s comments only exasperated the situation. By the time Nightraven was tugging on her hand Hellion was irritated and heading towards angry.

She looked at her sister and frowned. She whispered back to her in an annoyed tone, quiet enough to Skywarp wouldn't hear. “Don’t pah-leez me Nighty! What are you up to being all flirty with Warp here? He ain’t exactly your favorite con, and you are dragging me along too. This isn’t some dumb attempt to cozy up to Thundercracker’s best buddy to get closer to him or something is it?”

Hangar

Starscream's optics fell on the form of Ramjet as the thick skulled Seeker entered the hangar and announced his presence. The Seeker Commander was not pleased to see him coming with the rest of the team, normally it would be Skywarp coming with he and Thundercracker. Even if the black and purple seeker could be tireseome with his constant pranks and ignorance, he was still reliable on a mission and more importantly listened to Starscream's orders. Ramjet on the other hand was insubordinate, and unreliable, both dangerous characteristics for such an up coming operation. Regardless this was the team he had and he had to make do.

"Good, we are all assembled. Our first priority once we reach the base site is to secure the perimeter to ensure no one will detect us. Once that is completed we will move to preparing the construction site and get the initial phase of under way. We will need to wait for the Stunticons to arrive as they will make up the majority of the labor we require to construct the base."

He looked to Scrapper.

"Scrapper, you and your Constructicons will carry out preparing the foundation for the base. Once ready submit to me what materials we will need to complete construction and if we need to carry out limited raids to secure what we need. Only remote locations where our chances for detection and uncovering our operations to the locals or the Autobots are candidates for supply raids."

He then turned to the two Seekers coming with him.

"Thundercracker, once we have determined that our location is secure you will preform long range aerial patrols on regular intervals to ensure no one is approaching us on the surface. Ramjet, you will patrol the perimeter of our base site to ensure in the unlikely event that one of the humans sub surface naval vessels approaches the area. However, both of you will accompany me on any sort of raids the Constucticons require as we are capable of striking any targets rapidly and extracting before any one can arrive in the area."

He looked over his assembled team.

"I cannot reinforce how critical this mission is. We must execute our objectives to the best of out abilities as failure here is not an option for us."

He walked to the hangar door and hit the switch that opened it.

"Decepticons, move out!"

He dived out the opened door and transformed into his jet mode and set his course for the location where the new base would be constructed.

"Soundwave, Starscream. Me and my team are in route to our base location to begin construction. Once the Stunticons are ready to join send them immediately, we will require their presence as soon as possible."

Hangar

Scrapper nodded at Starscreams explanation. "Right, the initial building won't be a problem. So long as the site is secured, we'll have that done in no time." The raiding shouldn't be too difficult either, Scrapper had already worked out some possible locations to use, assuming Decepticon intel on them was up to date. The nuclear material for the weapon itself would be the only thing to worry about.

As the Seekers headed out, Scrapper turned to his Constructicons. "OK fellas, lets get after them!!" Transforming and engaging his unwieldy but swift flight mode, Scrapper took off after the others. Hopefully, things would stay simple for as long as possible, before Starscreams prescence invariably complicated matters.

(OOC: With Cry's okay, I'm NPCing Astrotrain to give Long Haul and the Constructicons a lift.)

Hangar Bay

Long Haul sat in his dump truck mode and watched as Starscream and the seekers took to the skies. Scrapper soon followed in his seldom used flight mode. This left Long Haul still in the hangar with only his Constructicon buddies to keep him company. "So, what about me? I've got a payload of materials in my truck bed, and I can't fly in this mode. I guess bouncing to the location would've been too easy for everyone."

Long Haul sighed as another voice from across the hangar suddenly addressed him. "We transports and the services we provide are always taken for granted, my friend."

"Huh? Who's that?" Long Haul asked as he then noticed a familiar triple changer walking over to him from the far end of the hangar. "Astrotrain! I didn't even see you over there. Are you part of the mission, as well?"

"I'm afraid not," the military transport replied, standing over the green dump truck full of equipment. "I rarely get to leave the base unless someone needs a lift somewhere. Otherwise, I simply loiter the hallways or get assigned desk duty."

"Well, actually, a lift is exactly what me and my comrades could use right now," Long Haul replied sheepishly. "I can't fly in this mode and my truck bed is full of stuff for the mission. Any chance you could give us a ride?"

Astrotrain let out a chuckle and shook his head in disbelief. "Really? Well, I suppose as a courtesy to a fellow transport I can grant your request. Not to mention it gives me an excuse to get the frag out of here and stretch my legs so to speak. However, I do find that a transport requiring a lift from another transport to be very ironic," the triple changer responded with a grin before transforming into his shuttle mode. The rear doors opened and a ramp extended to the hangar floor. "Get in."

"Thanks, Astrotrain," Long Haul said as he and his Constructicon teammates entered the space shuttle's cargo hold. Once they were inside, the doors closed and Astrotrain launched himself out of the hangar and into the skies, following the others to the mission destination.

Corridors

Skywarp was pleased that the seeker sisters had agreed to have drinks with him. Although, 'Warp suspected that Nightraven's true motivations were to learn more about his buddy, Thundercracker, and what he thought of her. Nighty's obsession with 'Cracker could be extremely annoying at times, but there was still something about her that the teleporter liked. Perhaps now was his chance to make her see that she liked the wrong seeker.

"Good. Follow me, ladies," Skywarp replied with a smile. The black and purple mech walked ahead of the sisters as they whispered to one another so that he couldn't hear them. He didn't know what exactly they were saying, but he was pretty sure that he was the subject of their discussion, which suited him just fine. 'Warp very rarely got attention from any of the femmes he encountered, as most of them considered him to be a joke due to the pranks he liked to play. At least now the sisters would get to see a different side of him.

Mess Hall

Skywarp entered the mess hall and approached the energon dispensers where he filled up three tall glasses with the glowing purple substitute. He wished it was the real stuff, but since they had been unable to procure any pure energon from their recent failure of a mission, the less tasteful alternative would have to suffice.

Skywarp then turned around as Hellion and Nightraven entered the mess hall. He placed his own glass down on a nearby table before taking the other two glasses over to the sisters. The teleporter smiled as he handed the drinks to them. "Here you go, ladies. Fresh energon right out of the tap. Enjoy!" Skywarp then took a seat at the table and grabbed his glass, taking a sip as he motioned for the femme seekers to join him.

Hangar

Thundercracker listened carefully what Starscream had to say. His role was clear enough, leaving no reason to ask questions. The Air Commandant had also come up with a way to minimize potential hazards Ramjet would cause by giving the conehead an assignment difficult to fail with. Though given how boring the duty assigned to Ramjet was going to be, there was still a good chance of a catastrophe brewing.

"As you command Commander." Thundercracker saluted Starscream after the seeker commander finished with the orders given to him and Ramjet. And somewhat later as Starscream transformed and headed out of the base, Thundercracker did the same.

Corridors

Nightraven released her, now irritated, sister’s wrist as they both followed behind Skywarp. She took a quick glance at Hellion and narrowed her optics. Hellion was getting too worked up about the whole ordeal. It was strange that when Skywarp showed interest in her instead of Helly, the berserker grew visibly upset. Could she possibly be interested in the prankster? Nighty hoped the contrary.

“I’m only ‘flirting’ in order to get some information. And yeah, he isn’t someone I want to get to know, or even be alone with, hence, the reason you’re coming along,” she whispered.

As they drew nearer the Mess Hall Nighty whispered back to Hellion once more.

“Just bear with me, Helly. I just want to know more about Thundercracker. After that Skywarp’s all yours.” Nightraven flashed her sister a wry grin.

Mess Hall

Once they arrived at the Mess Hall Skywarp moved right over to the Energon dispensers and filled three glasses. Nightraven grimaced as she watched him move to an available table and take a seat. Her twisted features were not in reference to the teleporter but, instead, to the liquid Energon substitute. She had never liked the stuff, which is why she tried not to drink it on a regular basis. Instead of refueling regularly, Nightraven waited until her tanks were nearly depleted, and only then would she touch the foul substance.

Not wanting to appear rude, Nightraven returned Skywarp’s smile and took the glass that he offered.

“Thank you.”

She cleared her throat and glanced back at her sister before she took as seat next to Skywarp.

“I’m…surprised you’re not with Thundercracker. I hope there wasn’t a falling out between the two of you.”

Corridors

Hellion folded her arms in front of her chest as they continued towards the mess hall. She heard what her sister said but it only made her roll her optics. She wasn’t really interested in helping to dig out info on Thundercracker, the most boring Decepticon ever. On top of that she was going to have to watch her sister get the information by schmoozing with Skywarp. That wasn’t something she wanted to even think about, let alone be witness to. Only for Nightraven would she follow along. She simply grunted in response to her comments towards her

Mess Hall

She followed the others into the mess hall, arms still folded in front of her. The femme was quick to take up the glass offered by Skywarp. She brought it up to her mouth and chugged the entire thing down. She wiped the excess off of her mouth and ordered another, stronger drink. If she had to watch this then she was at least going to refill her tanks and get some use out of this time.

Bounce Chamber

Hot Spot staggered for a moment, the confusion and disorientation of orbital bouncing throwing him off balance for a moment. The other Autobots and Decepticons around him had the same problem. He quickly glanced around at his new surroundings, knowing instantly that this wasn’t any sort of Autobot facility and, by the size of it, not a human one either. That left only one option, and it definitely wasn’t a good one.

“Autobots, take them out quickly!” He opened fire on Motormaster, still in front of him. Maybe if they could silence the Stunticons quickly they could prevent them from sending out some sort of alert. They would need every advantage they could get, for they were now in the absolute heart of enemy territory on this world.

Bounce Chamber

Lore-lock slid into the wall, had he been in robot mode, he would have blinked, "wall? What the slag?? Where did that come from he thought. Then Hot Spot called for the bots to open fire. So the scout quickly returned to bot form and leveled his crossbow at Dead End. Lore-lock let loose a short volley of energon bolts, before he brought out his axe, again.

This skirmish was starting to remind him of the heavy fighting from the early days of the war, brutal and vicious. Moreover, it was re-igniting that part of this mech's spark that loved to fight. He closed on Dead End fast, and swung with purpose, his axe arcing like it was going to cleave the poor 'con clean down the middle.
To his fellow 'bots he call, "No mercy, No quarter!"

Bounce Chamber

Breakdown ahd been trying to find his way out of the holographic fog. But, to his dismay, it was everywhere. He then recieved a sdignal form Motormaster. The enxt thing he knew, he was in a Bounce Chamber, surrounded by his fellow Stunticons... and Autobots.

He wasn't sure who came over with them, at the moment. He transformed back into robot mode and then noticed Dead End under attack, and about to be split in two by Lore-Lock. Breakdown opened fire on the Autobot, while he had the advantage.

"Die! Die! Die!" he yelled as he let loose a succession of shots at the Autobot. He was certain of one thing, they had the upper hand now. His limited sensor range could detect numerous Decepticon signals within the immediate vacinity. It seemed as if they had arrived at their destination, at last. It would be only a matter of time now, before their host would "greet" them. of course, part of him was worried "he" would yell at them or possibly crush one of them, for not coming sooner.

Mess Hall

Skywarp took a gulp from his glass of energon as he listened to Nightraven’s question regarding him not being with Thundercracker. ‘Warp was a bit taken aback by her query even though she was clearly just probing him for information. He was simply surprised by how Nighty was going about getting said info.

Skywarp placed his half-empty glass down on the table before responding. “Everything’s fine between me and ‘Cracker. We’re as tight as can be. The only reason I’m not currently with him is because someone decided to assign me to maintenance duty on the lower levels. Otherwise, I’d be out on that mission with him, I’m sure. Instead, I wake up in Darkride’s chamber with no memory on how I got there. Just my luck, I guess.”

Skywarp was about to pick up his glass again when he noticed that Hellion had already drank all of hers and was demanding another, stronger one. “Sure thing, Hellion,” Skywarp responded with a smile as he took her empty glass and stood from the table. He quickly went back to the energon dispensers and filled the glass up with more of the glowing purple liquid. This time, however, ‘Warp made sure to up the strength level of the drink and give the berserker femme the kick she desired. He then returned to the table and handed the newly filled glass back to Hellion. “Here ya go. Hope that’s strong enough for you.”

Skywarp then sat back down and took another sip of his energon drink before returning his gaze to Nightraven. “How’s your drink? You’ve barely touched it since you sat down. I know it’s not the pure stuff, but it’s all we’ve got I’m afraid. Perhaps I could scrounge up some flavor packets and give your drink a little added taste. Would that be better, ‘Raven?”

Bounce Chamber

Smokescreen had been at an abandoned drive-in theater watching Wildrider run blindly out of his smoke cloud when suddenly the diversion expert found himself inside an orbital bounce chamber surrounded by both his Autobot comrades along with their Stunticon adversaries. The trip had been instantaneous but still a bit jarring and certainly unexpected. Once Smokey had steadied himself, he peered around the room and quickly realized that he wasn’t on board the Ark-19. Some kind of malfunction had apparently happened somewhere that caused all of them to arrive inside what Smokey assumed was Decepticon Headquarters. He didn’t know of any other ‘con bases on Earth, so his assumption was warranted.

Reacting to Hot Spot’s order, Smokescreen opened fire on Wildrider again, hoping that the terrorist’s prior disorientation had been worsened even further by the sudden orbital bounce.
______________

The thick growth of trees disappeared before Drag Strip’s optics and were quickly replaced with the plain steel walls and ceiling of an orbital bounce chamber. The architecture was clearly that of a 'con base, which meant he and his comrades had finally arrived at Decepticon Headquarters on Earth. Unfortunately, so had the Autobots!

“How in the pit did they get here?” Drag wondered aloud as he took a step forward and found that his equilibrium was all messed up. As a result, the yellow racer toppled over to the floor in a daze. He managed to sit up and realized that this was more than just the effects of an orbital bounce. His injured left shoulder was also a factor as energon continued to seep out of the throbbing wound. Soon he would be too weak to fight and become an easy target for that young Autobot that shot him with an arrow earlier.

Knowing that he couldn’t sit on the floor for long, Drag Strip forced himself to get to his feet. He quickly scanned the room for Hex and located him on the opposite side. The yellow Stunticon lifted his blaster with his right arm and fired several more shots at the silver mech, hoping to take him out before it was too late.