[IC] Transformers - One Shall Fall

[ShiningSector]

Turbulence watched as Prism converted her Cybertronian body into that of a impressively large ground vehicle. He had been somewhat skeptical at first in regards to Prism transporting Autobot flyer due to his above average sized alt mode but now he could very well see there was no issue to certainly speak of. With Nightscream and Sklog already taking off ahead of them and Prism now literally honking at him, Turbulence nodded and hurried up to her vehicle mode.

"Hope you have good suspension." said Turbulence as he too switched to his chopper mode.

While his transformation went off without issue, Turbulence was once more greeted with internal alerts as took airborne. He could definitely feel the poor instability of his rotors trying to keep him up with thick vapors already steaming from the friction of his damaged components. Luckily though, it was only a brief moment as he neatly landed atop the wide and flat surface of Prism's vehicle mode, his own landing skate's magnetizing to her hull just before they hit the road. Turbulence was once more impressed how much throttle Prism backed; then again he was never carried before.

"Ever thought about getting a trailer? Just curious."

[Forsythe]

Nightscream reached Kaon well before anyoen else. Seriously, how did the Autobots manage to resist them for so long when it took them ages to even get anywhere? Was Megatron that poor a strategist or Prime that good? Well, not like it mattered now anyway. Once she opened the gate, the 'Con headed straight to the lab to prepare.

The place was teched up from the basements to the roof. A bit of a bother now if Nightscream had to say, since she had to pry and leave most of the automated doors open. Accessing her mainframe, she searched the lists for where spare components she would have to get to fix Turbulence's drive were, along with somewhere to do it. What she found closest was an infirmary attached to a prison complex, something she didn't feel like using unless the aerial autobot was falling apart by the time they got here. Those were a bit gloomy serup mostly used for interrogations rather than fixing.

Well, labwork it was. She cleared one of the rooms nearby and dragged in a recharging station. Now all that was needed was to fetch some fresh energon and the spare parts. Firing up the long range comm array, she connected to the incoming group: "Prism? Nightscream. How far are you?"

[rocketrobie2]

As Sklog trotted along once again towards Kaon he began to wonder about his brothers and sisters back on the ship. Did they miss him? Did they even realize he was gone? But eventually Sklog tried to put his mind towards his task to try and drown out his woes. He began picking up speed so that he could get to Kaon faster and begin helping out with looking through the warehouses for any supplies.

Sklog looked behind him to check and see if Prism and Turbulance were coming and saw the normally airborn bot riding atop the ground bound Prism. He turned back to looking forewords once more but suddenly blacked out for a moment. His legs buckled and he tumbled across the ground but he managed to regain consciousness quickly and easily recovered from his spill. Sklog continued on as if nothing even happend.

[pyroman]

"I'll admit, I've thought about it." Prism relented. Having a trailer certainly would do some good. Maybe it could have doubled as power armor to enhance her already strong build. However, as much as she liked having things to have them, a trailer wasn't something that she absolutely needed. Optimus wasn't a wasteful leader, and she wasn't going to be either. Maybe if she had been a bit more talented in the building rather than destroying, she could have made her own. Not to mention she already carried all of her equipment inside of her alt form, and she didn't really carry anything big or heavy enough to need a trailer.

Receiving Nightscream's transmission, Prism was quick to respond. "five clicks out, we'll be there shortly." She said back to her aerial companion. "Those doors should be open by the time w-Hey!" Had she actually had eyes in this form, they would have nearly bulged out from their sockets upon seeing Sklog suddenly tumbling about. He then went on as if nothing had happened at all. Maybe some sort of power failure? They were all battered to some extent, and maybe that was Sklog's problem. Turbulence had his rotor give out on him, and Prism's memory was spotty at best. She wondered if Nightscream had any similar problems. It didn't seem likely, but the possibility still lingered in her mind.

[ShiningSector]

Apparently Turbulence potentially wasn't the only one who needed technical attention. Just ahead of him and Prism, Sklog in his animal alt mode was charging forward towards the gates of Kaon in an almost unstoppable fashion with the metallic ground shaking underneath every heavy footfall. However, the Decepticon Dinobot in the roughest of brief moments Turbulence had ever seen suddenly stumbled upon his form's small legs as if his Spark had been extinguished. Turbulence watched on, helplessly, as the brute collided with the hard surface and sand with such mass and velocity. To him, it was almost as if an energy mortar had gone off.

Miraculously, Sklog quickly picked himself up and continued rushing forward as if the incident never occurred, showing no sign of questioning the unexpected moment. Turbulence could only speculate what may have occurred; some internal failure was most likely to blame for the unusual happening aside from plausible structural or incompetence issues that could have added up.

Upon arrival at Kaon, Turbulence could see the rising towers and skyscrapers in the distance, overshadowed by the considered "natural" dark and gloomy skies that hung over the Decepticon City. Amazingly enough, there was no signs of any sort of damage inflicted by the long-lasting war; it was clear the Autobots had never gone far into launching a retaliatory offensive after the brutal invasion of Iacon. But with much of their faction leaders and elite soldiers now off-world, was there anyone maintaining one of the few still intact cities of Cybertron?

"...I see they've added more spikes." Turbulence openly added as they past through the deserted city streets.

[Forsythe]

Stepping to a console and linking to it a feed from the gate camera, Nightscream tuned in just in time to see the dinobot get up. Sighing, she pathced bakc to the comm lines: "I see everyone is in need of a checkup. Get everyone in here, I'll see what I can do. I'm no Shockwave though, don't expect a complete overhaul or precision procedures." she warned and paused. IT was one of the things that worried her - she did not see Shockwave's name on the list of Cons that boarded the Nemesis. It could have been that he was already on board, but she couldn't be sure. If he remained, that could be... problematic.

Nightscream wasn't without her own problem either, and it was what annoyed her greatly about her lack of medical knowledge to go with engineering. As a pre-war bot, she wasn't armed to the teeth like the generation Prism came from. That is not to say she was a pushover - Nightscream modified her frame with top end weaponry. The problem was her power core - she couldn't run all of her systems simultaneously even under ideal conditions, much less in a fight, and her greatest defensive ability was such an energon hog that she risked her spark activating it without being hooked to the power grid.

Now that she thought about it, Shockwave's files could hold the key. She knew he tampered with creation itself, although not much more. If she could find and decrypt his files...

[pyroman]

Prism would have nodded to Turbulence had she been in her standard form. She may not have actually seen the city of Kaon this close before, nor was she from a time before the war like her aerial companions, but she was aware of the general architecture of the city itself. It did, in fact, seem spikier than what she was informed of.

"You heard her, big guy. Off to the lab first for a check up." She spoke up to Sklog, who she assumed was doing fine, given the circumstances. It wasn't like she could very much go on her own in the city. She needed to get Turbulence to the lab, not to mention the fact that she didn't know left or right in Kaon, so someone who knew the area would be great help. Nightscream seemed to know about Shockwave, that cycloptic decepticon with the arm cannon who turned into a gun.

Prism didn't respond. Instead, her focus was on whatever was falling out of the sky. "Please tell me I'm not the only one who caught that." Prism spoke on comms so Nightscream could hear her, as well as Turbulence and Sklog. It didn't seem nearly big enough for a transport ship of any decent size, and by the fact that it was falling and not landing, it was probably a pod of some sort. Maybe just some scrap.

Whatever it was, it was going to have to wait until later. Right now, Prism was working working her way on going to the decepticon lab so she and the others could meet up once again. Maybe she would ask for Nightscream to see if she couldn't make some port for a possible trailer upgrade. She laughed at the thought. She didn't need any more weaponry, but some additional power armor certainly wouldn't hurt. However, it would do some stress on her, and that was enough of a problem to refuse a trailer in these times.

[rocketrobie2]

Sklog wanted to go and get started on packing up supplies but the direct orders from both Prism and Nightscream overwrit his own preferences. Sklog hadn't seen much of Kaon much to his new found displeasure but if there was one spot in the city he knew it was where to get patched up.

Sklog almost seemed to be on auto-pilot as he headed straight for the lab but his attention got caught by the piece of metal falling from the sky towards Cybertron. To him it was just a hunk of metal but after a moment he thought maybe, just maybe, it was his Brethern coming back for him. With hope in his eyes Sklog went to change his path but he once more blacked out momentarily and tumbled. Instead Sklog continued towards the city now knowing there was no way he'd make it to the crash site in his condition.

[ShiningSector]

"What...Oh, I see it."

Turbulence's visual sensors and GPS had quickly caught on to the object Prism had noticed diving through the dark clouds. It was somewhat impressive of her to notice something like that in the stormy ebony above them, especially before he did. Turbulence tracked the new anomaly but found no course corrections in its trajectory nor propulsion of any kind; it was likely the object had originated from some orbital wreckage like a warship or space station. It wouldn't have been surprising if Cyberton's orbit had formed a ring of artificial debris by now with all the vessels, platforms, and unfortunate Cybertronians that were destroyed in space during the war.

"Whatever it is, it'll impact well away from us. At present course, it should crash land somewhere on the other side of Kaon..." After making his report, Turbulence couldn't help but finally notice Prism had been driving down the main street for sometime now. After Nightscream's latest broadcast, the Autobot flyer had already traced the signal back to its original source; the location they were moving away from. Unintentionally of course and it was likely Prism was familiar with the Decepticon city by name only.

"...Take the next right here, Prism. This should take us directly to the lab."

[pyroman]

"Got it." Prism replied to turbulence, taking the right that he had mentioned to her. He was glad that someone knew their way around the city, because Prism certainly did not. She was actually curious if she was the only post-war bot of their little group. Turbulence and Nightscream seemed to have both been from the time before, but Sklog was different from any of them. He was a dinobot, and from what she remembered, they were created during the war like she was. Optimus had Grimlock and the others, but she could not quite remember what fort of animal based cybertronians that decepticons had under their sleeves.

It wasn't long before Prism finally reached the lab. Hopefully she couldn't see too many broken and dead decepticons, scrapped and mutilated.

[Forsythe]

When they boarded the elevator, it become apparent just how secure Nightscream's lab was - the cabin stopped a tno less than sub level 30, bypassing some of the more tank purge inducing areas before arriving at their desired destination. The place was dimly lit with faint blue-white lamps, half of which seemed to be turned off. Despite looking neat and orderly, it smelled perhaps even sickeningly clean - a place used to assemble sensitive machines and perform dangerous experiments.

behind the elevator door was a hallway that surprisingly wasn't too long, with only a few doors to each side - the autobots could clearly see the end of it, suggesting that while Nightscream's research might have been important, not many were ever given access. The first door on the right opened and the former decepticon welcomed her guests as warmly as one of their former faction could - with going straight to the task at hand. "Follow me." Nightscream waved them in.

The room in question was obviously a break area, but the set of recharge berths in the far back also suggested that the workaholics that frequented this place didn't even need to leave when they fell tired before their task was done. The room also featured a couple of tables and chairs along with other basic furniture and a energon treat vending machine. "Alright, make yourselves comfortable. Now what do we have here."

She approached Turbulence from behind, slowly waving a scanner across his back. "Damaged motor but the control mechanisms seem to be intact, sans the weathering. I should be able to get you flying with what I have here - it doesn't seem like you are in need of a transplant." Finishing with scanning the rest of the aerial autobot just to be sure there wasn't more of him about to give out, Nightscream moved to the dinobot.

The scanner was hard time making heads or tails of what it was reading - What interested her more than his health though was the state of his system - his memory banks were barely used - too empty in fact. She wondered if the dinobot even could speak, but thought it best not to poke fun of the 'five times heavier than I am' people. Without samples and in-depth study though, a sparkling's guess at what could have caused him to crash so spectacularly was as good as hers.

With a curious 'hm...' she finally moving over to Prism. At least this patient could tell if something was wrong. "Have you noticed anything that requires attention?" the ex-con asked, thus far doing only a general scan to see if any problems would pop up. Not that she needed another bot that needed care rather than that could work, but now that they were here she wouldn't just let them go offline either because of some glitch that could have been avoided.

[ShiningSector]

"Looks like this is our stop." Turbulence called out to his fellow Cybertonians once they had arrived to Nightscream's lab.

The laboratory structure itself wasn't as tall or imposing like much of the buildings in Kaon though it was certainly much wider, seemingly spanning into other complexes. The facilities were notably vast and varied, expressing a specific function to each one; Turbulence couldn't help but notice one of the structures playing host to a series of miniature towers and a complex array of fences and cell. He could only guess what that layout was meant for but for most things Decepticon-related, it probably wasn't good.

Seeing an elevator shaft reveal itself to them with its shudder doors folding back, Turbulence reverted back in his bipedal state and finally free of the annoying remarks from his internal readouts as they dimmed to silent whispers of concern. For a moment, the Autobot eyed the entrance to the elevator, scanning and skimming the cabin for any details that could present a trap or some sort of defensive system. While these Decepticons were in the same boat as he was, Turbulence was still unsure if any of them had agendas of their own. Nightscream was perhaps the only Cybertronian he was unsure and possibly skeptical of and Sklog honestly didn't give off any hostile vibes though the large Decepticon could pose as a serious threat if he ever felt unforgiving. Alas, he was perhaps allowing his soldier side get the better of him; it had barely been a single planetary rotation cycle since he re-activated and the last thing he had remembered was fighting his "former" opponents and that thought was still uncomfortably fresh.

"After you guys." Turbulence said to Prism and Sklog, offering up his placement in the elevator first before he joining them.

The elevator's decent was smoothly swift, reaching its destination in no time. Once the elevator doors retracted, Nightscream was already there to greet them before leading the trio into what immediately appeared to be a break room with recharge stations and an assortment of furniture. Not wasting any time, Nightscream had came up behind Turbulence and initiated a diagnostic scan of him. A bit of fair warning was something the Autobot may had appreciated as Nightscream's scanner nearly made him jump with his internal components twitching in response to the scan's frequency and non-harmful radiation.

The scan didn't take long and Nightscream concluded what his readouts were complaining about; a damaged motor. Thankfully that was the only component that was in need of repair or replacement as far as Nightscream's scanner verified. While she was off checking out the others, Turbulence decided to ready himself for the eventual procedure by pinging his maintenance clamps that held much of his external framework and armor-plating securely in place. Only Primus and the medics who operated on him before knew this wasn't the first time he needed repairs like this.

"Whenever you're ready Nightscream." said Turbulence with obvious eagerness once he was sure the Decepticon flyer was finished with the others.

[pyroman]

Prism had waited until Turbulence stepped off before transforming back into her bipedal form. She could have transformed back if she so wanted to, but she wasn't going to let him hit the ground and suffer more damage. She didn't know exactly what was wrong with him and she didn't want to make things worse or even potentially fatal.

Upon stepping into the elevator, Prism laughed and bowed her head. "So, you pre-war bots do retain those manners." She smiled to herself. "And here I thought that chivalry was but a distant memory..." Her chuckle turned hollow at the end, deciding to be quiet now as the rode the elevator down all the way to sub-level thirty. Nightscream must have been one of the higher ranking members of the decepticons way back when to need such a secure workplace.

She couldn't help but to laugh at Turbulence's surprise upon being scanned, and waited calmly for her own turn.

Prism knocked her head, chuckling and setting her arm back down. "Memory is spotty and gives out, but nothing else." Prism found a place to sit down and watch her aerial teammates. "You can go ahead and do whatever you need to do with Turbulence first, he needs repairs most of all. I'm not sure what was with Sklog and that thing where he just kind of blacked out and acted like nothing happened, but you should check that out first before me."

[Forsythe]

"Actually, Turbulence is the only one I dare repair with what I have here." Nightscream frowned, "I can't even tell what could be wrong with Sklog, and I don't want to prod around your head because even if I fixed the problem you might not be all there anymore. Until then I suggest keeping a log on an external device." the seeker suggested, pausing in thought for a couple of seconds. "Actually, Turbulence's repairs will take a while. Sub level 2 were trooper barracks. We are going to be here for a while, we might as well get comfortable. I suppose you can go look around there, the Nemesis was loaded in a hurry and personal possessions, including terminals, should still be there. With any luck you'll also find secret stashes of energon some troops used to set up. That's the one thing we're short of."

Fiddling with the console to turn the lights on in the upper areas of the base, she turned to the autobot flier: "Down the hallway and left." she instructed. "do yourself a favor and don't get off at level S20. It's not a pretty sight." She mentioned over her shoulder to Prism and followed Turbulence out.

It was apparent the destination room was more of a lab rather than medical facility. The room was dominated by a modified repair berth in the center. The berth was a standard model, but with several things welded onto it - the most noticeable the menacing four-pronged shape of a spark extractor looming over the berth on a robotic manipulator. "Don't worry, damn thing never worked in the first place." Nightscream waved her hand at it, hoping there wouldn't be too many inquiries about the nature of her work in the latest weeks.

Tapping on the berth to signal Turbulence to lie down, she went over to the storage space to fetch some supplies she would need to fix what was wrong with him. "Now, I can either do this with you online or induce stasis. I recommend the latter but I would understand if you wished otherwise." She kept for herself that inducing stasis with her limited medical equipment meant blasting the autobot with her null ray.

[rocketrobie2]

Sklog was a little saddened when the doc-bot said that she didn't know what was wrong with him but he kept that to himself, after all a dinobot doesn't even have enough facial servos to display a wide variety of emotions. Not wanting to sit around and do nothing Sklog decided to accompany Prism to go down to the barracks and look for anything useful. He of course didn't say anything and simply made his way back to the elevator while his newfound curiosity nagged at him as to what was in sub level 20.

[pyroman]

Prism wasn't sure to expect when when listed her troubles to Nightscream. There was little that the former 'con could do to help Prism's memory, and it was safer if her head just wasn't touched at all. She felt bad for Sklog, though. The poor guy couldn't get any treatment either, and his problems were far worse than hers.

The orange bot walked with Sklog into the lift once more, her hand slowly raising to touch one of the buttons. Nightscream had told her to stay away from sub-level twenty due to a possibly grotesque sight. Prism followed orders as well as any demolitions expert could. Most times, she'd follow her orders and then some, but there were other times in which her boom sense kicked in and told her what would be far more interesting. Slowly, her hand passed the button to sub three and moved to twenty, pushing it lightly and watching as the doors shut once more.

Hopefully Sklog wouldn't get antsy about her choice to disobey Nightscream, given the fact that they were both on the same faction, and she and Sklog not. However, she was not quite sure if Sklog would care of even notice if they weren't going up as far as originally planned.

[ShiningSector]

Per Nightscream's instruction, Turbulence came into the hallway once more and turned left at the only door this side of the corridor. It was pretty easy to find but that probably meant the facility itself was immense as hinted at by the array of windows preceding it. Before entering the room, Turbulence could not help but over hear Nightscream advising both Sklog and Prism not to access Sub-level 20 all because of something visually disturbing. The thought didn't sit too well with him but being as this was a Decepticon laboratory, the same thought didn't surprise him either.

Entering the facility, Turbulence could make out several operating tables and berths, most being aligned with the windows as if they were meant to be viewed from the outside. Nightscream lead him to a particular berth that almost appeared more of a torture slab with notable restraints, a console with a set of operating tools, and a mechanical arm of disconcerting appearance. If Turbulence could actually show his face hidden away behind his visor, it would be hard not to tell of his utter disapproval and questionable look. What was this place even for? He was quick to shoot down that question, wishing not to know of its purpose but Nightscream's eventual mention of the robotic limb over the berth never functioning properly had Turbulence in a predicament of quite know how to interpret that piece of detail.

"You don't say..." Turbulence declaimed, not hiding the censure in his voice.

Turbulence as first hesitated but complied soon after he decided to give the Decepticon Seeker the benefit of the doubt, believing her to be acting with good intentions as he laid back into the berth. However, that vaguely positive sentiment was still overshadowed with his skeptical distrust as he refused to be operated on without his own supervision, "Forgive me...But I would rather be online for this."

[Forsythe]

"You don't want to listen to the medic's advice, fine by me." Nightscream shrugged, "Pay the price." she turned around and faced him, a soldering gun in one hand and an angle grinder in the other. Setting the tools on the berth, the seeker took measurements of Turbulence's weight and rotor, quickly calculating how much power the fixed engine would need to dish out at minimum. "Very least I can do for you is try to zap you with a null ray at minimum setting. You'll be numb for a while and then hurt all over but far less than if I just started digging in your guts." she offered for the last time.

[pyroman]

The elevator came to a stop and the door opened slowly. It was far too deep below for any sort of light to move around other than the light in the lift. Prism looked around to the best of her abilities. It was a large room indeed. The wall seemed to be a little higher than the one in Nightscream's lab, and it spread out far left and right.

Prism transferred auxiliary power to the lights adorning her body. She was a bot of war, designed for big, flashy demolitions and meant to take a hit. Her spark wouldn't be too taxed turning her into a lantern, just as long as she didn't start flaring her weapons at everything at the same time.

"Alright big guy, let's have a looksee." The bot turned to look at Sklog before turning back around. Prism glowed a pleasant blue, illuminated the immediate area around her. Her eyes widened upon seeing a few parts laying around, the floor stained with oils and various other liquids. "What happened here...?"

Prism began to look around. The part that the floor was littered by scraps and parts of what she assumed were failed decepticon trainees wasn't surprising, but the fact that they were mutilated obviously after death, and maybe even during, is what startled her.

It seemed that Megatron had a similar idea to Optimus in regards to their home planet. Leave a few 'Cons and 'Bots to fight other what's left, and when they winning faction returns home, they can wipe out any remaining opposition.

"Someone tried to fight their way out." Prism noted to herself, her hand drifting over one of the several holes on the floor. They varied in size and depth, but she knew that it was much more than a sparring match then went down.

She didn't want to report in to Nightscream. Not yet. Unless they were dying or being attacked by someone more than a demowoman and a massive hunk of metal, she wasn't going to say anything yet.

She continued looking around, but her search stopped when she found a bot on the ground.

Dead of course, she looked at the body in question with that already inserted in her mind. She looked over the body. The left arm was missing, as were both of the legs. Whoever they were, they also seemed to have had a full set of wings at some point, and most likely an antenna to match the other one on its head. The chunks of missing parts all around the body and the cavity in their chest made it obvious as to what happened.

But what really happened?

"Sklog. You know this guy? I don't remember and bug con's. Especially any with missing legs."

[rocketrobie2]

Sklog hesitantly followed Prism through the dark sub level of mutilated bots. He wasn't much afraid at first, after all he'd seen plenty of dead in his line of work and one dead bot is the same as the next, but what really scared him was the beast before him. A mixture of emotions flooded Sklog as he saw the bug-bot laying in a heap of scrap on the floor. Back when Sklog was only a young Sparkling he remembered the larger cons talking about monster such as these, wether this was in the same line as the ones spoken about so long ago was yet to be known. Sklog stared at the corpse with both fear and anger. This thing was the reason, the inspiration, for Sklog and his brethren with Sklog being the equivalent of a cheap knockoff compared to this beast.

"Sklog want to leave." Sklog said quietly as he nudged the body of the con with his foot, giving him some slight comfort in knowing that he was alive when it was not.