Protihex-City state

[FrostWhisper]

Silentsong had turned away from Vibro and Laser as soon as Vibro started screaming. Silentsong hadn't shown any emotion aside from looking away but she couldn't bear to see anyone in pain and inwardly she was horrified. Silentsong wondered what was so powerful that to obtain it the Autobots would harm one of their own. She also wondered how anybot could do such a thing. Silentsong marched up to Laser, she was going to speak her mind about this, if nothing else. "How can you do such a thing?" Silentsong asked Laser, the anger she felt leaking into her words. "You put a bot through pain and act as if it were nothing. What kind of a monster are you?"

[Laser]

Laser set Vibro down, pleased to get results. He rubbed his forehead to cool himself down, and listened as Vibro gave a rundown on what he saw. "This is spectacular news, brother. However, we need to get moving. Now. You can give us a debriefing on the way, yes? Give us your orders and our destination, and we shall do ask you ask. Meanwhile, I shall retrieve Beam and help Towreck with recovering these weapons. We'll be back in only a few nano-cycles. Keep the ship running. Aegis--" He looked towards her, "--You and I will not be going along on the ship. If it is alright with Vibro, we shall leave a few nano klik's early and scout ahead. Towreck!" He searched until he found his hefty friend. "Come. Show me this armory."

Silentsong was suddenly accosting him about the issue at hand. She had but arrived, so she was ignorant of the events that transpired before and why the trance had been so important. She wanted to know what kind of monster he was to do such a thing. A thing harmless and necessary to save this world from ultimate consumption. So Laser would humor her, and answer her question.

"Only the very best kind, dear sister," he said as he turned to go.

"I am a Guardian..."

****************

Aeron seemed so...sickly now. He was barely holding on. Beam was worried. "Are...you okay man?"

"I don't have much time left...let me continue..."

****************

"Gaaaah!"

I awoke strapped to a chair in the middle of nowhere. I couldn't recognize anything, but I knew something was wrong. I was supposed to be dead...the execution was over an hour ago. I was about to completely freak out when Sharp stepped out the truck behind me.

"Oh good, you're awake." He was holding his massive pistol, and dragging the body of the truck driver out of the vehicle. "You've been out for a while now."

"....how did you do it?"

"I contaminated the lethal injection with a special serum that would render you offline for a considerable amount of time. Enough time that would be necessary to get as far away from the prison as possible before waking....and enough time for me to intercept the mega-truck."

The thought of lying amongst thousands of dead chilled me. "I'm so glad I didn't wake among the dead."

"It's not so bad, Aeron." He was screwing a large contraption onto his pistol. "As you'll soon see."

"So what now?" I was feeling kind of awkward.

"Are you ready to go to the 'underworld', valiant Quintesson?"

I was really confused, and I really was wishing I was dead. "What? Okay can you explain that now? Or later? Because..."

"You will return...soon. Say hello to my elder brother."

Then I realized! He was attaching a suppressor! He was about to kill me! "WHAT ARE YOU DOING? I THOUGHT--"

He fired one shot through my skull, almost killing me instantly. Instead, I slowly
faded away. The last words I heard was:

"...His name is Lazarus."

**********************

Beam was in all out fear. She couldn't wrap her mind around this. Everything seemed...connected, it a strange way. But Aeron was nearly dead in front of her, so she grabbed him. "Aeron! Who is Lazarus?"

Aeron coughed, smoke coming from his body. "The harbinger of death...the reaper of lives..."

Beam started punching him to keep him alive, but in vain. "Yeah? So what? I need more specific examples!"

"...He--" more coughing, "--controls the fates of hundreds of thousands, and knows the destiny of a hundred other populations....he is the face of war...and the destroyer of worlds."

Beam was horror stricken. She could feel the chill of terror creeping up her fingers and into her spark. Everything was making sense now...terrible, horrible sense.

Lazarus....Laser....

"Aeron...will I ever see you again?"

"Soon short stuff. Real soon." And he took one last drag from his blunt, collapsing in a puff of smoke. He passed with a light wheeze.

Beam got off of him. She stared at his body for what seemed like ages. It was a front. A folly. Though he was completely offline, this man wasn't dead. Somehow, someway, he still existed. As she left Death Row, walking steadily down the streets, she came to a frightening reality.

Laser and his brothers were harboring an unfathomable evil...

*******************

THE VOID

Bloron watched from his mega truck, barking orders at others marching through the warehouse. "WHAT THE HELL are you doing with those parts, Gaia? GAIA? Put them over there! We don't need them right now. Vice? Where's Vice? Somebody get me my mechanic."

"He's at training, sir."

"THEN GET ME THE BACKUP!"

Bloron looked to his left, watching a cloud of smoke leak out of the building. "Aeron! You've had your smoke break! Get back to work!"

Aeron grinned, taking one last drag and blinking his black eyes. "Yezzir. You got it...."

[concentratedrandom]

Starport didn’t understand what was going on, but he was able to realize Vibro had agreed to this earlier. It wasn’t easy watching one of his oldest friends screaming, being in so much pain. He was already sitting down, but he had to restrain his legs with his arms to keep himself from doing anything. When Laser first walked in, Starport was ready to apologize right then. But seeing his actions, what pain Vibro was going through, not sure if Laser felt nothing or felt the same pain and acted as if he didn’t, Starport wasn’t sure if an apology would even matter to him. What torture his spark had gone through throughout his life, seeing battles and wars often, would his words really matter? He was thinking his words over when he saw Silentsong storm up to Laser and attack him with her words. Standing up, he walked over to them and kneeled down next to the angry bot.

“Laser is no monster, he is a true Autobot. He has given much more than most of us have given for the greater good. Vibro had agreed to do this earlier, and I’m sure he would do it again. Laser does what he must and is always ready to act as is needed. Silentsong, please calm down. I know this wasn’t something one would want to see, but to keep others from seeing much worse, it must have been needed. I still don’t understand fully what’s going on here, but I trust their choices. Earlier, you asked what you could do to help. I’ll tell you what to do, stand tall with them, trust them.”

Standing back up, he looked at Laser walking away, and he spoke without a doubt in his words.

“For in this world, each other may just be the only thing we can trust.”

[FrostWhisper]

Silentsong calmed down a bit while Starport talked. For Silentsong, trust was part of the problem, she had found herself letting down her guard and showing her emotions too much, she found that the other Autobots were easy to trust, but she was scared to trust them. Silentsong quickly made her face seem void of any emotion. "I'm sure you are correct," Silentsong replied with a flat tone to her voice. "I am sorry for my behavior, I will apologize to Laser when he is not busy.

[Bivile]

"Go? Now?" Watertight's voice rose a bit, turning his head suddenly.

Aquatic Autobot was feeling a little lost. He wasn't sure exactly if he understood the objective. Maybe he did arrive at the wrong time. If he hated something, it was looking like he didn't know what he was doing and having to play catch-up. Maybe he was thinking too hard about it. Surely, he'd be filled in later. Right now, it was his duty to just take the orders as they came, like a good soldier. He honestly hoped it didn't involve combat. Unfortunately, he knew that that would likely be the case. Still standing by himself, his heightened animal-like senses happened to pick up on nearby screaming - but it wasn't like he needed them to be able to hear that.

Watertight released his trident from the holding place on his back and caught it in his right claw. Blue mech trotted toward the source of the noise, his cyan optics alert. Craning his neck a small bit, his attention primarily resting on the bot that appeared to be in some pain, or at least discomfort. He'd always cared about the wellbeing of his fellow life forms, so he couldn't help but to look on forlornly. It didn't appear to be his place to interfere. Besides, he wasn't dealing with Decepticons and Watertight had every bit of faith that his new acquaintances wouldn't consciously bring harm to each other. The scientific mind in him was curious though. Not able to come up with any specific questions - at least, not any he was brave enough to speak - he shuffled a small ways closer.

"Is everything alright?" He asked quietly, even though he had been watching.

[Rexacon]

Vibro nodded as Laser had left, they would handle getting the rest of the crew set up. Looking at Towreck and the others, Vibro want everyone to be on the same page.

"Okay, while Laser gathers up the remaining members. Towreck, get anyone who doesn't have weapons or needs something to fire. While Towreck gets that, everyone should get to the ship. Captain Cutlass, is your ship ready for transportation?"

[Towreck]

Towreck looked behind him as he was following Laser. "Was already on it." He said as he walked out the door. "Alright Laser, off this way." Towreck said as he transformed and headed for the building he knew the most, the armory.

[Laser]

Even as Laser left the scene, he heard the noble words that left Starport's audio processors. He had dealt with several bots today that gave him a hard time for his rough way of caring. They had criticized the way he approached matters at hand, and grumbled behind his back. But after hearing Starport, Laser was finally starting to realize that at least one bot was starting to "get it". And even though it may have not meant anything, or even if no one even cared to try to understand for the entire remainder of their company, this was worth it. And he would take it on any day.

"Apology accepted, brother." he thought to himself.

He followed Towreck, lightly hovering. He started to think on exactly how old these weapons would be and if any one of them would be useful, when he received an update from his computer.

Unit 766 is located at these coordinates...the Decepticons appear to be mobilized.

"Can you access the memory banks and find an exact destination?"

Attempting retrieval...

**************

Spironok exploded from the ground, shrieking and throwing dirt and metal in all directions. It had been sleeping when he received word...it was time to mobilize. Seemingly on cue, it saw a stone-faced Beam strolling down the pavement.

"What is this miserable creature doing?", it thought to itself.

Beam dryly noticed Spironok and suprisingly made a bold statement. "Get the hell away from me, you stupid bug." She walked right past it. "I've got a lot on my mind."

Spironok rushed to her and placed the tip of his forearm onto her forehead, beginning his communication ritual. The green lines began rippling into her body..."Listen to me you little wretch--"

Beam was frightened at first...but then she turned on him. Her eyes returned to their natural blue and the grid lines become turning the same color as well, returning the hypnotic state to Spironok and forcing his four optics to become blue...

"No YOU listen!"

Spironok exploded off of her, flying and shrieking into a nearby dumpster. There was smoke everywhere, and Beam was astonished. "...oh wow....I um..."

The she busted out laughing.

"Ha! I just totally whupped your slimy ass with my MIND! Did you see that? Huh? Huh? Oh my God you flew a mile!" She rolled around. "How do you feel Spike? Taken down a notch? Little more humble, I presume? Ahahahah."

Spironok stared at her. "Shut up."

"Good one, buddy. Maybe you can--wait...I understand you now!"

[Cutlass Rebooted]

Cutlass was surprised by Silentsong's curiousity regarding the ship. "The ship is big enough for a crew of at least twenty, though I'm betting I could fit more bots on board if I have to." He was about to lead the way towards the ship when Laser walks in accompanied by several other bots. He smirks a little catching sight of Aegis. Is that another lady I see? I'll have to introduce myself properly later.
Volca follows Laser inside, looking a little alarmed as he suddenly picks up Vibro.
Tecton watches as Laser induces the trance wondering why he had offered any medical assistance at all. Such an invasive process, but I guess that process is faster than what I had in mind... He continues to observe in silence.
Cutlass scowls at Vibro when he asks about the ship. I've only been stood there in that doorway having asked about what you lot wanted loaded onto the ship, and now you choose to ask me if the ship is ready? If I hadn't decided to be nice and stay to help you guys I could be out of here making a fortune on arms dealing and smuggling, which to be perfectly honest is what I really would rather be doing right about now rather than being sat here waiting for you lot to get yourselves into gear. With a sigh he actually answers him. "I've been waiting to load the ship up with any of the stuff we'd be taking with us from here. Which I did ask about a while ago, now it's up to you guys to sort that out." He turns away from Vibro to face Silentsong. "Ready for the tour Miss?"

[DarkXenith]

OOC: OMG.... How much posting?!? I was only away a day! *Ahem*

---

Jumpstart's optics narrowed to thin, neon slits as Laser put on his performance and dragged Vibro through hell in the process. It was all the medic could do to refrain from taking the large flier to task physically...not that he'd stand a chance against a guardian class, but the impulse was there.

Clawing his fingers against the rising urge, he took his ire out on the console, crushing the platework along it's edge and discharging enough power into it to cause the delicate PCB beneath to to explode in a shower of sparks. Throwing up an arm to shield his optics, he barked:

"Fraggin' useless GLITCHED OUT HEAP OF SLAG!!"[/color][/size]

Feeling no better for the outburst, he finished up by kicking it and stalked out of the immediate area, into one of the adjoining rooms of the facility. Venting harshly, he leaned back against the wall paneling and offlined his optics, almost rhythmically clenching and relaxing his fists to regain control of his temper. It didn't really help... the tell-tale tendrils of electricity still arced around his hands and lower arms.

What he needed was a drink. At least 70% proof, straight up.

And he needed it now, Primus-dammit.

---

Aegis watched the comings and goings around the room, noting names as they were mentioned and filing the information away for future reference. Not offering much in the way of greeting to anyone, the blue-grey flier turned away and headed for the door as the screaming began. It wasn't her place to question the actions of a guardian and she knew it, their ways were unfathomable to most. All the same though, his callous actions left her cold.

Raising her wings, the femme checked herself and spun on her heel as Laser addressed her directly with an order to fly point with him upon his return. Nodding her acceptance of the instruction, she responded calmly, "I will await your return outside. I'm fairly certain I detected other life-signs on the perimeter, I'm going to investigate. Comm check with me when you're ready, I'll RV at 2km over this location but be advised I cannot possibly match your airspeed."[/color]

With that, she was gone, back outside and up into the air.