Viracide wondered where in Cybertron these guys are going. He could get over the fact that he was chosen just to be a grunt on this mission. But anything was better then sitting around doing nothing. "Uh, Goldstreak, do you at least know where we're going?"
"I'm sure you'll be told soon enough," said Silverquick, one of the technicians, obviously distracted. He glanced at the computer padd in his hand, then turned to a nearby technician. "No, I said point three isograms of protium in the fusion preburners!" Consulting the padd again, Silverquick stepped over to a console and begins typing furiously. To no one in particular, he said, "Is the subject here yet?"
"Not yet," came the response. "We're set up over here. Power levels at seventy-five percent and counting."
Viracide realized he was being spoken to, and turned to reply just as the speaker moved away. He caught a look at him as he started typing on a computer terminal: an average-sized Maximal, blue-grey with patches of silver, a slender body with obviously powerful legs, and for some reason, he looked wet. Odd, but Viracide had seen weirder, and just in the last few hours.
"OK, when power level is at 90 percent, initialize the laser driver, and EPS flow regulators on preselect." Silverquick tabbed his internal comm system. "Scanner, we're almost ready here."
"Be arriving soon," responded the comm. "Scanner out."
"Alright, we're go for the process," said Silverquick. The few devices in the room that weren't on came whirring and chirping to life, and the various technicians started moving around like cyber-fleas on a hot plasma conduit.
"We'll be all set in just a couple of nanoclicks," a technician said.
"Very well," responded Silverquick, as a pair of rather large Maximal guards entered the room, shepherding a wounded Maximal and carrying another.
Goldstreak watched Silverquick, fascinated by what was happening. Wow...he thought, they are going to 'Transmetallize' someone... What's that? He stood back and watched as the the two new bots were caried into the room.
Scanner inspected Jynx first, and frowned at the injury on his leg. "What word?" Scanner asked.
The other agent shook his head. Scanner nodded. "Get him in an R." The agent silently agreed, and took Jynx out of the room.
Scanner turned to Velocity next. "All right, it's time." He addressed the other Maximals. "Shield your eyes."
Velocity was lifted toward the Transmetallization chamber. The researcher at the door gives him a sympathetic look before the tube is bolted. "It stings a little," he whispered. He shut the tube tightly, and gestured for Silverquick to pull the final switch.
Silverquick keyed in the final command sequence to activate the process. The door to the Transmetallization chamber hissed as a secondary set of locks clamped down, and a faint whine was heard emanating from the chamber.
"All systems nominal, Transmetallization in progress," Silverquick reported, turning to Scanner. "The process shouldn't take more than four cycles, given the subject's size. But I'm curious, why turn him into a Transmetal?"
Goldstreak watched on fascinated. He simply couldn't help himself as the metalic bot flicked the switches. He covered his optical sensors just as the process began, as he backed towards Viracide. He then whispered to him: "What's a Transmetal?"
"Transmetallization is a type of bodily enhancement," interruptted another researcher. "It’s caused by radiation: in lab experiments, we reproduce the type of Transwarp radiation that accelerates the process. It cleans and fuses some organic parts of the Protoform body, causing it to handle energon radiation a bit differently."
Goldstreak looked at the scientists and tried to look like he knew what they were talking about. He nodded once, twice, three times. Then lied. "Ok... I get the picture: stupid question."
"In the case of this particular subject," the researcher appended, in response to both Silverquick and Goldstreak,"we’re hoping that a new radiation-handling method will counter SOME of the effects of his chemical dependency. Of course," the scientist added, with a glance at Silverquick, "some subjects simply undergo the process on accident..."
"Ready here!"
"Full power!" came the call, and the device was activated.
—BB, Logan Bryson, MC, AF
The empty guard station stood against the dark Cybertronian sky. It appeared to be completely abandoned, when suddenly a sequence of bleeps and quirks fired off into the air. A single proximity alarm was set off.
There was a hiss, and suddenly the air near the computer seemed to fill with a vacuum, when out of the blue a large chameleon appeared in the void.
"This-s-s i-s-s-s s-s-such a was-s-ste of my talents-s-s,", Charmacon said to himself, "s-s-stuck on guard duty with that fly. But being a good Charmacon gets-s-s me better jobs-s-s s-s-soon..."
He turned himself towards the proximity alarm, and observed its readings. "Hello, who have we here?" He thought, "three unidentified s-s-signatures in the s-s-south, heading northwards-s-s? I bes-s-st call Paradox, as-s-s he seems clos-s-ses-s-st..." Activating his radio, Charmacon transmitted a code towards Paradox's transceiver... "Paradox, are you there?" he said, "activate your s-s-scanners-s-s, if you'd be s-s-so kind."
Paradox listened to his fellow guard and responded, "What What What is it!? I got better things to do, Oh Oh Oh Unicron! Where's my scanner, blast blast blast it." Paradox walked over to the gate wall and activated an integrated sensor array. Paradox opened a channel to Charmacon. "Somebody's coming, I'll check it out." Paradox drew out his crossbow, "It's just going to be one of those days..."
"Affirmative," Charmacon said, " We'll intercept the targets-s-s at coordinates 65 mark 5, we'll rendezvous at 64 mark 5, and approach them S_S_SILENTLY! You think you can manage that? No head-on engaging, we have no idea what we're up again-s-st. Await further ins-s-structions. Charmacon out."
"Hmmmmmmm..." he muttered to himself, "now what's-s-s going on here, this-s-s is-s-s s-s-supposed to be an uninhabited, non-tactical area. We were dumped here on 'guard duty'" (Charmacon shuddered when uttering the words) "because of that unfortunate accident in the s-s-shuttle bay, where we 'accidentally' opened that hatch that was s-s-suppos-s-sed to keep that Maximal s-s-shielded from radiation. S-s-so what are the-s-se vi-s-s-sitors-s-s doing here?"
Charmacon transformed into his beast mode, engaged his cloak, and slowly trod towards the earlier mentioned coordinates.
—MdJ, BB
Velocity was now accustomed to having his twitching beast mode body held by those stronger than him, and could take some comfort in the situation. At least he was going on to his final destination—maybe he could find out what this was all about. Glancing over at his new friend, Jynx, he hoped the guards wouldn't be too rough on him. Sure, he had tried to free a criminal (which, Velocity thought was a pretty decent thing to do, if a bit rash) and then resisted arrest, but Velocity was sure that if the positions had been reversed, he would have done the same thing. Actually, the dog realized with a frown, he was pretty sure he never would have done something that decent in the first place, a fact which didn't make him feel any better about himself.
However, when he entered the room, he was convinced that he had abandoned real life a long time ago, and this was nothing more than the hallucination he had always privately suspected it was. Real life couldn't be this bizzare. A bunch of bots stood around—a giant gold one, a smaller silver one, one whose spark was clear through his stain-glass body...
Whimpering, he wished he would wake up soon.
Velocity listened to the conversation between the bot who had talked to him earlier, and another guard. He nodded slightly—at least his imaginary friend would be okay. Even though he was only in his mind, it was nice to know that. Maybe this would be a happy dream after all! Maybe they would release him into Maximal society with a full pardon, and he could get a dream-job with a dream-girl at his side. Wasn't that what Talking Bot meant when he said "it's time"? Yes, everything would be okay from now on. The little dog wasn't even phased when the dream-bot noted how it "stings a little". Well, obviously getting used to normal Maximal society would be hard for anyone. The darkness of the interior of the tube did disturb him somewhat, but he wasn't going to let that ruin his good mood.
After all, it was only in his mind...
"Progress report," said Silverquick.
"Halfway there, all boards green," a technician replied.
"Very well."
A final, stunning flash filled the column, spreading white light in waterfalls from its apex. The light cleared at last, and the researchers rushed to open the doors.
Velocity’s body, now shining, hairless metal, fell forward in a faint on the cold floor.
"Well done," Scanner said. He opened up the black box he had confiscated from the guard. He removed a tube of glowing white liquid, and handed it to the scientist by the door. "Inject him with this."
"But... this is..."
"Precisely. It will wake him up."
The scientist nodded once, and walked over to Velocity. Kneeling down beside him, he opened a panel on his arm, and poured the liquid energy in through a tube. He winced at the rocket-fuel scent before he shut the panel.
Goldstreak looked down at the new Velocity with wide eyed wonder. Wow, that's Transmetallization. Maybe some other time.
Viracide, on the other hand, was unimpressed. "The Transmetal II procedure is much more impressive." Viracide looked at the new Velocity and smiled anyway. "Welcome to our mission, whatever it is... At least tell me who our commander is going to be." Viracide hoped that they would point the finger at him, but he knew that was just a dream, and next to impossible.
As Velocity opened his eyes, he knew something was wrong. For one thing, he didn’t have eyelids. Was he in robot mode? Standing up and taking a few jaunty steps forward (for some reason, he felt a lot better than he had before, which must be part of the dream too) he concluded he must be. After all, his hearing could clearly identify his footsteps as metal walking on metal; he had to be in robot mode. Then, why did he have four legs...?
Peering down at himself, he was shocked to see two brown paws, tipped with white claws. His stunned eyes took in the details of the rest of his body—his prominent shoulders and haunch joints decorated with silver, his jagged tail of the same color, his golden upper legs and his brown lower legs, and his golden metal body. He spun around, catching his reflection in the tube he had been placed in earlier. Gold head, silver hears, a brown mohawk, a black nose and two wide, orange optics.
Whimpering, Velocity was about to bolt and get away from these bots, or bite himself to wake himself up. He wasn’t sure he liked this dream too much; he had always enjoyed his beast mode, and they’d taken it from him. Before the chihuahua could do anything rash, his brain kicked into gear, and a thought struck him. He’d seen bots like this before, all metallic, with a third mode...
"Transmetal!" Velocity yelped, looking as overjoyed as if he’d just discovered the meaning of life. Turning back to the odd bots gathered, he favored them with a great big grin as he skipped lightly towards them on his paws, his tail wagging. "Hey! Hey...lookat me, hey! D’you see this? I’m a Transmetal! I’m all...metal!" He giggled at the first bot that spoke, Viracide, not understanding the comment in the least, but happy someone seemed to appreciate his new body. "Man, this is the best dream ever!" he added, since in hallucinations and dreams he was pretty sure no one cared if you talked out loud.
Viracide noticed how excited Velocity was, just like he was earlyer. in his best Scanner voice he repeated the words that were said to him, "Take it easy. Subdued enthusiasm, please." The voice didn't sound that much like Scanner's though, so Viracide ended up chuckling to himself.
Goldstreak looked down at Velocity straight-faced and said, "Good for you."
If Scanner was at all amused, he did not show it. He walked over to address Velocity first. "It’s no dream." He handed him the black box he had taken from the prison guard. "There are two additional 'dosages' in this container. I trust you know how to use them. Do your best to wean yourself when you can, as we will not provide any more."
He turned to the other members of the Maximal team. "There will be time for introductions later. For now, we are behind schedule. Follow me."
Velocity looked over at Viracide, confused but still maintaining his cheery demenour. "Why should I 'take it easy'? Not every day I get to be a Transmetal, Mr...I Can See Your Spark Guy," he added, unable to think of Viracide’s name and simply coming up with a description. However, as Scanner spoke, Velocity’s ears flicked forward, and he looked up at him in even more puzzlement. Not a dream? Then why was everything turning out so well for him? He had gotten out of prison, met a new friend, gotten a new body: he was never this lucky in real life.
As the Talking Bot handed Velocity the black box, his orange eyes widened. "Maximize!" he yipped quickly, transforming into his golden, silver and brown robot mode, and nearly yanking the box out of Scanner’s hands, and slipping it into his subspace compartment. He nodded at Scanner’s instructions, but the foolish grin on his face told everyone there he wasn’t listening to a word said. Velocity was about to transform into beast mode, when he realized everyone else was in robot mode. He might as well explore his robot mode body first—he’d have more time to be in beast mode later—wouldn’t he? Doing an anxious hop-skip step over to Viracide, which looked twice as odd on two legs as it did on four, he gave him a confused look. "So...what’s happenin’, guy?" he asked. If this was real life, which, now that Velocity thought about it some more, it could be, it would be nice to know what in the Pit was going on.
Viracide looked at the Tranmetal dog, "Got no idea, all I know that we've been selected for a important mission. I just want to know who will be commanding us. At least I don't think it's me or you." Viracide looked away for a second to view all the Maximals that were with them then continued, "You sould have become a Transmetal II, they're Ultra Gear in my opinion."
"Some of your questions will be answered in the briefing room." Scanner gestured for the Maximals to follow. "Gentlemen, if you will?"
—LA, AF, BB
"I was told I'd know our contact when I saw him," Nightfall explained, "and if I hadn't met him by the time we crossed the border, I was to contact command for further instructions. Let's get to some cover and I'll make my call." Nightfall walked foreward, keeping to the shadows as she looked for a suitably protected place to stop.
Paradox neared the intruders' location. "Hey Hey Hey intruders, I know you're around, so you might as well come out and tell me who you are..." Paradox's loud steps could be heard by anyone around; he wasn't sneaking on anyone.
Paradox neared thier location, "Hey Hey Hey intruders, I know your around, so you might as well come out and tell me who you are..." Paradox's loud steps could be heard by anyone around, he wasn't sneaking on anyone.
Aspis cringed visibly at Nightfall. Silence was DEFINITELY an integral part of future sneaking. Then he spied a small gap, where is seemed like the ground had eroded from the wall..or maybe someone dug a hole. Ah, it didn't matter. Aspis motioned with his head for Nightfall to follow and slithered through the hole.
She sighed, with the wingspan of her fuzor form, she couldn't get in a tight space like that... And of course, her 'gifts' were quite inconvenient at the moment...
She looked around, spying another hole, half buried under collaped wall sections. But enough of a gap for her... She hurried over, switching to beast mode and squeezing in, though she scraped up her wings a bit.
Out of the blue, the aforementioned vacuum was created near Aspis and Nightfall and was once again filled with the presence of Charmacon. "Dammit, Paradox!" he said, "I told you to approach them s-s-stealthily!!! Leave it up to you to blow a great tactical approach!" "If even this-s-s s-s-stupid fly will not obey my orderss-s," he thought "how will I ever move up rank?"
Paradox looked at Charmacron strangely, "What What What I'm no cloaking expert here! Anyway you'll never catch them in that hole, here here here I'll transform and follow them. Beast Mode!" With that Paradox transformed into beast mode.
"Hey, I'm the s-s-superior officer here!" Charmacon shouted. "I'd s-s-say we give them 10 nanoclicks-s-s to s-s-surrender, or we'll blas-s-st them out of the hole!"
"Surrender? Why would they surrender? They wouldn't have come here if they wanted to surrender. Ten nanos may be just enough time for them to do whatever there doing! Hmmmm, wait a second, the hole has to end somewhere somewhere somewhere. I'll fly up and I'll see where they exit. You should stay here just in case they double back." Without waiting for any confirmation Paradox flew into the sky and started looking at the ground below.
"Well, obvious-s-sly...." Charmacon replied, "h-hey! Where are you going? I was-s-sn't done talking!" Charmacon was really starting to get angry, and a red plasma conduit pulsated on his forehead.
I have a good mind to start firing that fly out of the sky, he thought, but instead he opted for something he knew: the scientific approach. "hmmmm let us-s-s s-s-see what we're dealing with," he said to himself, as he whipped out an extensive scanning device. "Recalibrate the readings-s-s, activate proximity s-s-scanners-s-s: that s-s-should do it." The readings came rolling by on his screen.
Subject #1: Snake, asp. Length 7 feet. Designation Transmetal, possibly
Transmetal II. Obvious venom capability. Allegiance: Predacon. Faction: Unknown.
Subject #2: Snake/Fish hybrid. Length 5 feet. Designation Fuzor.
Allegiance: Predacon. Faction: Unknown.
Charmacons eyes spread wide open upon reading this information: they weren’t already in the database? "Paradox!" He shouted through the comm system, "they aren’t rival Predacons-s-s!"
"Then why are they sneaking in? Something strange is going on." Paradox flew down and hovered below the floor still watching for the intruders. "And I Paradox will find out what!" Paradox looked at his comm-link. He thought it might work. "Predacons who are sneaking into this base, identify yourselves."
Nightfall shook her head. They didn't seem to be from Predacon command, considering they hadn't expected the two snakes. Just great, some stupid border guards got lucky. "Aspis!" She hissed, looking around. "Have you spotted another way out?"
Aspis had, but he had also spotted something he was not entirely prepared for. At the end of his tunnel, a large, black and red pterodactyl, perhaps the same one the pair had spotted circling above before, was staring him down with intense yellow eyes. Not speaking, the dino cocked his head to the side, and blinked once.
"Aspis?" She called, heading after him, then spotting the new arrival. "Hmmmm... Predacon Command?" she asked, looking over the eerie beast. "I am Nightfall, this is Aspis. We were told to meet a representative of Predacon Command..." She pulled her dart launcher. "ID please?"
Paradox rushed, now in robot form, and stood by the pterodactyl, "I found them them them first, they were trying to sneak in. I tried to stop them, but..." Paradox backed off when he noticed that he was slightly annoying the pterodactyl.
Charmacon didn't know if he should be scared, relieved or annoyed at the current situation. This new... Predacon? Was he friend or foe? The feeling to just cloak and leave Paradox to the whims of these unknown Preds was overwhelming. But then again, that wouldn't be quite good when aiming for promotion and recognition, right? Even if the annoying bug was stupid, he was still a loyal soldier of the Predacon cause. Whatever that was. "why is it only Preds against Preds these days," he thought, "we should be hunting down Maximals instead of each other." "Right!" He said with his most impressive voice, "I don't know who you are or what you are doing here, but this-s-s is-s-s my des-s-signated teritory. I want names-s-s, purpos-s-ses-s-s and ranks-s-s, pleas-s-se!"
"Classified." Nightfall responded. Actually she wasn't sure, but better to say nothing than too much.
Charmacon was about to throw a fit out of rage. "Clas-s-ss-ified!" He shouted, "Clas-s-ss-ified!" "This-s-s is-s-s my patrolling area, and you'll ans-s-swer my ques-s-stions-s-s, or I will blas-s-st you all to s-s-smithereens-s-s! You will res-s-spect my authoratay!" He pointed all his guns at the female Predacon, hoping this would finally clear something up. Who knows. He might actually fire unless he got some answers soon....
"Yes, classified. Threats won't do you any good. Either you'll kill me and find out nothing, and likely answer to someone higher up, or I'll kill you and be on my way. Rather a waste of at least one Predacon."
Paradox tryed to calm down Charmacon and save that pretty Predacon from getting blasted. "Hey Hey Hey, they're not going anywhere. We should report this to Serascar, maybe he's expecting them." he looked over at the pterodactyl. "Wouldn't you say so?"
The pterodactyl flew to the top of a ruined pipeline, and regarded the entire situation with apparent amusement. What fools these mortals be, he thought to himself, though his response was an animal scratch and pacing on the edge of the pipe.
He looked to Nightfall, who had addressed him first. Having no other way to respond to her question, Laserbeak disenganged his holographic disguise. He nodded to her, and looked north, to the sector heart.
"Oh slag..." Nightfall said softly, then looked to the guards. "Do YOU want to argue with him?"
Then, sounding the call of the falcon over the stale air, he lift off, and flew in the direction of the warlord's tower.
—BB, MdJ, CB, KH, AF
Deep below the city, in an underground sector, a Maximal military complex lay hidden. Scanner and Kitfox led the motley Maximal group down through the high-tech halls, and into a thick-walled briefing room. Within the room already were two other Maximals, patiently waiting. The pair could not be more different: one male, and ex-Predacon, with green scales and the spires of a stegosaurus, and the other, female, with white fur and a young face. They sat in unpadded chairs facing a huge video screen.
Scanner checked the room’s entrances, front and back, and gestured for the other Maximals to take a seat. Kitfox stood up near the front podium, and the other Maximal Agents took places by each entrance. Scanner walked to the front, and turned to address Kitfox. "You are dismissed. We'll be contacting you."
Kitfox wrang his clever face into a scowl, and stayed stubbornly in place.
"We'll be CONTACTING YOU," Scanner reiterated. A momentary staredown ensued, and Kitfox finally backed down. He walked for the back entrance, but caught Goldstreak's eyes before he left the room.
The doors again locked, Scanner took a place at the front. "Gentlemen..." he looked to the female, and nodded, "ma'am... thank you for coming. Most of you have met one another already. For those I've just brought in, I'd like to introduce to you Digit, one of our engineers," he gestured to the female, "and Snarler, from our prisoner rehabilitation program." He gave Velocity a slight glance before he continuned. "There will be time for better introductions later. Over the next few days, you are all going to become a team. You've been specially chosen to undergo a mission so secret that these two gentlemen guarding the doorways were not cleared for the information until today."
Scanner dimmed the lights. "After the end of the Great War, we, meaning the new Cybertron population, lost contact with a few of our key planets. One such planet, code name King Four, will be your team's destination." He brought up an image on the viewscreen, of a planet with a thick layer of purple clouds. "Unfortunately, I cannot reveal to you at this time the location of the world itself." He brought up a much larger map, revealing a sector of the galaxy. "Your first destination will be HERE..." the map zoomed in again; "the Maximal military colony called Cerebros Station. The colony WILL be expecting you, and will identify you as the King Four team. They will brief you further, and guide you to your final destination."
"You will be issued a Maximal exploration ship: this is a Maximal exploration mission. Your directions upon reaching King Four are to report the status of the world: who holds it, whether it is peaceful, and the conditions of its land and resources. However, there MAY still be combat on the planet, so we do NOT plan to send you unarmed. Should you discover there is fighting on the planet, do not choose sides: defend yourself and make your findings part of your final report."
"You may notice we have not issued your team a Maximal commander. We hope that after your training, which will last a week, a natural leader will emerge. Chain of command will be resolved by the Maximal method."
The lights went back up. "I will now entertain any questions you may have, provided you are cleared for the answers at this time."
Viracide spoke up, "What's the name of the ship?"
"Whatever you decide," Scanner answered plainly. "Next?"
"Just one...Mister... Scanner, yes, that's right," said Snarler, raising his hand in the air as if still at school. "What is the current condition of the robots on this planet: have they undergone the great upgrade or are they still great big energon guzzlers?"
As he finished the sentence his true build was evident; he was a Mega Maximal, and dwarfed most of the other Maximals around, yet he appeared to radiate a smooth karma that made everyone feel at ease around him.
"That information is classified."
Velocity divided his time between trying to figure out if Primus was playing some sort of joke on him, fidgeting in his seat as his mind tried to comprehend what was happening, and stealing glances at the femmebot, Digit. He pinched himself a few times, but didn’t wake up. No, this was no dream. This was real, and he was paralyzed with...fear? Anxiety? Happiness? He couldn’t quite tell. On one hand, he was out of prison, and going far away from any former gang members to boot. On the other hand, he was part of a secret (which was a synonym for 'dangerous') mission, to try and find an uncharted planet where there could be fighting. He really was not sure what to feel, but nervousness seemed to be his main emotion.
As Snarler stood up, Velocity paid particular attention to the bot who would be 'rehabilitating' him. If he had not been sitting down, his tail would have tucked between his legs—the guy was huge! As it was, his ears flicked against his head, before scrutinizing him a bit more closely and realizing that...well, he looked like a pretty peaceful guy, actually. Hanging out with him might not be that bad. Assuming that Maximal rehabilitation didn’t mean random beatings, of course.
He snuck another glance at the sitting audience, before raising his own shaking hand. He tried to pretend that nobody else would be listening to his stupid question. "I...uh, well...this might not be about the mission...but..there was a bot, he—he was brought in with me. Jynx was his name. He was put in the R-Chamber, I think. What’s gonna happen to him?"
Unlike his first two answers, which he had fired off without pause, Scanner seemed to give serious thought to this particular question. He looked over to the agent by the room's front door, and the agent nodded once.
"Absolutely nothing. We will do a scan of his files, and if he is unaware about the mission, he'll be set free. We regret the unfortunate misunderstanding."
Velocity nodded emphatically as his question was answered, despite the fact it wasn’t the one he wanted to hear. It would be nice to see another familiar face... everyone except Mr. I Can See Your Spark Guy seemed a bit anti-social, as far as he could tell with his limited knowledge. Well, maybe he’d meet up with his friend after the mission was over...if he survived it, that is. Trying not to dwell on that thought, he tried to listen to the other questions. It was hard; he wanted to be out doing something else, not just sitting here. He began to swing his legs back and forth underneath his seat, occasionally swinging them so hard that he smacked into the chair in front of him.
The femmebot looked up at the sound, then gave Velocity a warm smile as if to make him feel more at ease. At that moment, Digit caught sight of something else however: a small flying droid hovered very close to Scanner's head. The robot's single arm opened and closed rythmically in a mechanical manner as he approached his target.
"Orb! Orb!" Digit whispered to her droid. "Cut that out, and come back here!"
The flying robot froze in mid-air, then quickly diverted from it's course and dived under Scanner's view straight through the group of Maximals. Orb hid behind the femmebot, who could do nothing but smile nervously, and then moved a bit more behind Snarler herself.
Silverquick spoke up. "Are there any restrictions on equipment available for requisition? I have a list..."
Scanner rolled his eyes slightly at the building chaos. "Present the list to us when you have it compiled, and we will address each item individually."
Snarler then realized that he in fact knew nothing about the mission, and being a large transformer, especially in beast mode, he raised his hand.
Unfortunately, Goldstreak didn't hear any of the briefing after the introductions. He couldn't take his eyes off the femme-bot Digit: there was something about her that just captivated him, but he didn't know what. It wasn't until Snarler spoke again that he started comprehending what was happening in the room, and he looked around at the others, suddenly confused.
"Just wondering about the terrain sir," Snarler said. "Being a rather large beast I was concerned about what the landscape is like. I mean is it swampy, dry desert plains, icy or merely one huge dense forest? Also, what are the energon levels like?"
"Classified." Scanner rethought the statement. "To better answer your question, it is a temperate planet with varied climates. Energon radiation levels currently unknown."
"Well, once everyone has finished asking questions, do you all want to come round to my barracks?" he asked. "I mean if we are gonna be working together, I suggest we should really get to know each other and become friends..." as he moved over to the rather nervous Velocity.
"Sounds great, Snarler," Digit replied. She looked around at the other Maximals. She was fascinated by the translucent form of Viracide, and was amazed by the advanced technology that was clearly visible even from where she sat. She couldn't wait to get a closer look.
Shaking Velocity's hand, the huge Cybertron said, "Hi, as you've been told my name is Snarler. Hey, no need to shake so much, friend; I'm not gonna harm ya, I just want to make sure we are all like one big happy family. Tell ya what, what games do you like? How about a game of chess, hey, that'll be fun."
"If there are no more questions," Scanner nearly interrupted, not interested in side coversation, "you are all free to adjourn. DO NOT discuss the details of your mission with ANY outsiders. Be aware that you are being monitored at all times. Training begins tomorrow. You are scheduled to depart in three days."
"Scanner," said Silverquick, hustling to catch the retreating Maximal, "I'll need a hypramagnetic flux capacitor, a bioneuronic transtator, several isoboritic chillers, and at least one class-7 liquid-electric shell generator. If I think of anything else..."
"File the proper requisitions, and we'll see what we can do." Scanner opened the front door. "Dismissed."
—AF, BB, David Thomas, LA, LB