Another Brick in the Wall

EDC HQ - Training Grounds - 

Once the heart of the enemy presence on Earth, Decepticon Island--still named such with a wink and a nod--is a shell of its former self. The sprawling city stands in blackened ruins from when Computron turned it into ash. Many structures still stand, but are used now for urban training so collateral damage poses no issue. Other sections of the city have been carved out to provide more natural terrain. Both holographic and mechanical training equipment litter the island to create any sort of scenario that the EDC Commanders can think of.

Most of the EDC's retrofitting was done underground, with heavy lifts present to carry anything from a single man to a heavy jet fighter to the GroundBridge terminal. The Command Bunker can be used both to monitor the training operations and defend the area. Despite how relatively unimportant this satellite base is, it is well defended thanks to all the training weapons hidden throughout the base that can be ramped up to combat levels and turned against any attackers.

Contents:

Repugnus

Horsepower

Grapple

Fusillade

Moonracer

Shockwave

Obvious exits:  leads to EDC HQ - Ground Bridge Hub - .  leads to Decepticon Island - Cove.

Apocryphacius has found out that he only has 148 years to live (as long as he stays on Earth). He does, however, have options, but he also has no pressing need to do anything rash. Apocryphacius can make some considered choices with regards to his future. One thing is for certain, though. If he continues to be terrified of Autobots, he is going to have some serious survival problems. So he has invited a few Autobots over in order to explain one of his pet projects to them, in the spirit of FRIENDSHIP and COOPERATION!

Or maybe he's just trying to desensitize himself to how Autobots look.

It could be that. Apocryphacius hasn't put on his dark goggles yet. He explains who whoever is there, gesturing to his equipment as he goes, "There are certain radio frequencies that can trigger defragmentation in most Transformers, via certain backdoor loopholes in your hardware. The more exciting thing is the phenomena can be generalized to other sapient beings, such as humans, Nebulans, Quintessons... potentially others, as I examine neural structuring. Now, you may be asking, 'What good is a new version of Ambien?'" He raises one tentacle, somewhat excitedly. "Imagine, being able to put your enemies quickly and painless to sleep? Then you could humanely imprison them and subject them to the due process of a fair trial!"

Apocryphacius feels like such a hypocrite saying this. His equipment looks something like a brain monitor hooked up to a radio transmitter. According to EDC regulations, it rigged to explode, in case of an emergency.

"Uh huh." Is all Horsepower really has to contribute to the matter. He's only half listening to the Quintesson, and moreso eyeing over the device itself. As a mechanic and weapons specialist the machine means more to him than the alien speaking, since that's why he was here. To make sure he doesn't try anything funny. Or insane. Or whatever else Quintessons may be. Let's just say Autobot Command may not be entirely convinced Apoc isn't a problem when he doesn't have Cross holding a gun to one of his faces.

So Apocryphacius is trying to de-traumatize himself. Problem: Repugnus is here. And it's not just that it's Repugnus, the same guy that Apoc likely suspects of 'entertaining' him, but also most of his torso is an extremely bright yellow color. You could almost say it's... neon.

"Wow!" Repugnus says, walking around the device, appraising it. "Sounds almost like some kind of... some kind of... SLEEP ray. Yeah, I could see a lot of use for this! Say, I wonder... does this ray make Transformers dream? And have you run any test trials?"

He's being as subtle as a brick to the face, but for him, that's the fun of it.

Not too far off, but apparently hanging out to the fringes, is a certain yellowish architect. He doesn't seem to have any actual interest in the machine Apocryphacius is so eager to display, yet... There he was. Looking a bit listless, but Grapple was there nonetheless. He isn't even looking at any nearby architecture.

Moonracer looks curiously at the device, listening to Apocryphacius. She personally thinks it's a good idea, but doesn't speak up directly in the presence of other officers. She does however, give Apoc an encouraging smile. She'll do her best to protect him... until the end, anyways.

Apocryphacius visibly flinches when he realizes that the Autobots sent Repugnus here. With a whimper, he pulls on his dark goggles. Well, that was a fantastic 30 seconds. Now he's noticeably anxious and on edge, like he expects something awful to happen any moment. His faces click and ratchet around, and he is pretty obviously looking for something he could hide /under/. This movement puts him pretty close to the edge of the beach. A pair of tentacles flailed in the air, Apocryphacius admits skittishly, "Yes! Yes, it has been tested before! I am /sincerely/ sorry if it in any way disturbed you, R-re-repugnus, sir," and he is sincerely sorry about that, really. Apocryphacius suspects that Repugnus is an awful person, but that does not mean he deserves to have awful things happen to him. Does it?

Horsepower will find that the device is basically just set up to monitor neural activity and to, if triggered, set up a radio trigger that causes a 'sleep' state in sapient beings that it is tuned for. It has some onboard memory to generate 'sleepscapes' for the sleepers, and there is a limited ability for someone at the controls to influence the nature of the sleepscape.

If Grapple has any interest at all in Apocyphacius's sleep device, it's very little, or there at all. I fact, he kind of looks... Bored. And perhaps a little sad. Perhaps an invention or schematic of his own was turned down or scrapped again.

Moonracer immediately notices Apoc's horrified reaction to Repugnus. She has her suspicions about why Apoc is so terrified of Autobots now - but nothing she could put her finger on directly. Nothing that could be an accusation. She walks over to stand near Apocryphacius, standing somewhat between Repugnus and the Quintesson, trying to be moral support.

Horsepower really, really, REALLY has to resist the urge to facepalm at Repugnus' complete lack of subtly. Grapple is being fussy again, and Moonracer is... well, honestly he's just glad to see her out doing things. A device for non-lethal incapacitation would probably catch her interest. He makes note of the necessity self-destruction addition, and grunts a bit. Everything seems to be in order.

To that point, with business done for the moment, curiosity takes over. "An' it can run different radio signals fer different species at the same time? Don't gotta set it seperately for each?" Trust him, he knows how much of a pain changing settings in middle of a firefight could be.

Repugnus hunches over the controls, as if studying them, but the fact that Apocryphacius is cowering from him does not go unnoticed, of course, and a big, cruel grin spreads across his face. "Oh! Well, good thing you warned us about the test beforehand, so no one like, say, me got caught in the area of effect. Oh, wait, you didn't. But, eh, no big I guess! I didn't die! Say! What's the setting for Quints? Maybe we could use this sleep ray on that weird-ass Quint guy that's going around and making trouble. Then we could 'arrest' him and put him on 'trial.'"

He doesn't mean any of those things.

Boomslang has arrived.

Despite the standard Decepticon posturing that claims they have no concern what Earth Defence Command does, the truth is entirely different. Decepticon Intelligence keeps a close optic on the activities of the native species of any planet the Decepticons are fighting on, and Earth is well known to have the native species that's caused the most interference over the years. Thus, all EDC bases are under constant surveillance by Decepticon patrols that skirt as close as possible to them, satellite scans, and long ranged sensor sweeps from Trypticon, currently in Newfoundland. It is the first of these--a patrol by the Femme Escort squad of Quicksilver, Fuse, and Ice--that has caught wind of the same sorts of energy emissions from the last time this Dream Machine was set into motion. It was Fuse who noticed the similarities upon returning to Trypticon, and so the trio alerted Decepticon Command. Now, Shockwave, leading the Femme Escort squad (and possibly Fusillade) race towards Decepticon Island with the intent to steal or destroy Apocryphacius's weapon. <> Just now, Shockwave's laser gun form can be seen over the shattered remains of what was once the tallest spire on the island. Shockwave transforms, and the escorts do the same. The Seekers do the same. "Decepticons, attack! Primary objective: the device. Secondary objective: kill the Quintesson. Tertiary objective: kill any Autobot in the area!"

Space Going B-1R Lancer arrives shortly after Shockwave's summons, dropping out of supercruise. The bomber circles, trying to spot any particularly appealing weapons emplacements. <> she announces as she dips down low, and streaks along one of the ruined causeways.

F/A-18 Super Hornet  supercruises off of Fusillade's right wing, descending with his radar set to anti-radiation so as to remain watchful for hostile sensors. "Mmhm," he sends back distractedly, paying more attention to bogeys than static targets.

Apocryphacius admits to Horsepower, "...er, eh-heh, yes, it can run multiple signals at once, you see the multiplexer here for multiple simultaneous resonant signals... why, it could put everyone on this island to sleep with the correct settings -"

Oh, Faraday's cage, is Repugnus messing with the controls?

Rather pathetically, Apocryphacius pleads, "Please do not touch those controls, Repugnus, sir! The tuning is exceptionally delicate. In any case, by the time I knew that... 'friendlies' were in the area, it was too late. Honestly! Was I supposed to let Needlenose destroy the ship? ...was I?"

Looks like someone is pretty deeply confused as to what constitutes appropriate behavior.

There is a crackle at his radio, which he picks up, still drifting dangerously close to the surf. Apocryphacius talks to someone on the other ends, "...fusion reactor moving through the air, with radar signatures for a few fighter jets and one supersonic bomber. Sigh. Yes. Well, I think we all know what that is, do we not?" He pulls out his medical and selects a syringe, tapping it a few times, and he announces aloud to the Autobots, "Incoming."

Somehow, -somehow-, Grapple looks surprised at the announcement of incoming Decepticons. Somehow. Perhaps he wasn't paying attention to what exactly the center of attention was, but, still. Yes. "What?" He then looks up with an expression of pure bafflement, looking for the 'incoming' in question.

And that would be the -other- reason command wanted a couple of Autobots to see to this little activity -- Inevitable Decepticon intervention. At 'fighters' and 'fusion reactor' it's not hard to get a good guess at to what's coming, to which Horsepower lets out a vented sigh. "Ah reckon geek talks gonna have to wait... Shoulda packed an SAM rocket." Instead he has to opt for a large laser rifle, taking up position near the machine since he was already nearby. "Can't be lettin' them cause no evil nap times, now can we."

Repugnus peers at Apocryphacius as he asks that question, standing up straight. "I dunno. SHOULD you?" His voice sounds almost TOO serious, but in all likelihood, he's having a good laugh behind his stern facade. Serves the Quint right for working with Cross anyway.

And then Decepticons. No one seems surprised they're here, least of all Repugnus, who sighs. "Welp, we suspected this would happen, didn't we, guys?" He transforms into monster mode, and begins scanning around with his bulbous eyes. Naturally, his thermal sensors pick up Shockwave immediately. "Woah, Shockwave's right up at the top of that spire, there's no missing him. Moonracer, take a shot at him, or make a sandwich, whatever you femmes do. Rest of you, do your thing, and don't let the cons touch that device. Speaking of which..." He glances at Apoc with his horrible, ugly bug face. "...can you tune this thing so it only knocks THEM out?"

Repugnus twists and flips around into his horrific creature mode!

Moonracer is drawing her gun and tenses for just a moment. "You sure I shouldn't be in the kitchen getting some water boiling for you, lobster-claws?" she asides to Repugnus. Nevertheless he's ranking officer here and she carries out her orders. Attempting to get a good fix on Shockwave, which really is its own little reward for the season, she weighs which part of his body is the most effective spot to hit. She's probably only gonna get one shot before that kicks the big purple one-eyed hornet's nest.

Combat: Moonracer takes extra time to aim her next attack.

Fun fact! Needlenose had no idea there even /was/ a ship, let alone that maybe he should destroy it. With Shockwave hovering above the blackened skeletal structure of the spire, the Femme Escort squad zooms downwards in their robot modes, spraying missiles and lasers at the Autobots. Small explosions start hitting the ground amongst them, making sure that life is interesting for the Bots there. "Ten points for the Quintesson!" Quicksilver cackles, firing a gauss cannon in Apocryphacius's direction. She isn't really aiming so maybe she'll just hit the dream device instead by accident. Whoopsie-doodle, right? Shockwave meanwhile scans the area from here, initiating a powerful jamming signal that should remove further attempts of enemy communication. This won't prevent the GroundBridge from working, but every bit helps. Staring downwards, Shockwave spies Grapple staring back at him. Horsepower has gone to get an actual weapon, but soon he'll have other things to worry about. Repugnus is there, but with Shockwave high in the sky he need not worry about the Monsterbot. That just leaves... ah, the femme. Shockwave immediately notices that he's being aimed at, and so ducks behind the spire to remove her line of sight.

Combat: Shockwave sets his defense level to Protected.

Laser fire begins criss-crossing the sky as Fusillade and her escort bear down on the guarded EDC-Autobot position. The bomber savages two weapons platforms, and swoops back upward in a climb as she merrily leads away any aerial units that may be in the vicinity. <>

"Must've liked the results that human got with QuinTech," Boomslang returns, swooping towards the source of an incoming targeting laser alarm to try to cut it off before the source (Moonracer) can direct fire against the exercise commander!

Combat: F/A-18 Super Hornet  sets his defense level to Guarded.

Combat: F/A-18 Super Hornet  strikes Moonracer with his Autocannon (Pistol) attack!

While Shockwave may be obscured, that doesn't mean he's safe. Not from Repugnus's thermal vision, which reveals Shockwave's heat signature right behind the spire, glowing like a sun. "Moonracer!" Repugnus sniffs poutily. "That was MEAN. And for the RECORD, LADY, they're MANTIS claws, not CRAB claws! Anyway, just follow my targeting data and you should be able to shoot right through that tower and hit the dude behind it. Oh, and watch out for..." Moonracer gets shot right then. "...nevermind! GUYS! Cover her! Come on!"

Combat: Repugnus analyzes Shockwave for weaknesses Moonracer can exploit.

Apocryphacius is obviously more afraid of Repugnus than he is of the swiftly approaching Decepticons, and he /has/ been knocked out by Shockwave before. He seems to be on the verge of an anxiety attack as he processes Repugnus's question. "Tune it to only knock out the Decepticons? I, ah, well, I am afraid to say that there is nothing fundamentally different about their minds compared to yours. You /are/ the same species, legal concerns aside... though I could potentially spatially tune it if I adjusted the antennae..."

He starts to approach closer to the machine, but Quicksilver fires on him and, inadvertently, the machine. Certain buttons are fried. The screen scrolls wildly and eventually settles down on Setting: Everything, and it flashes, once.

Immediately, Apocryphacius falls asleep, and being an egg-shaped creature, when his hover column cuts out, he just rolls down the beach, towards the waves.

The Shared Dream Server boots up to a randomly selected scenario. This one is a pretty cheery one, with cartoony physics and a construction bent...

The best thing about this dream, though, is that Apocryphacius isn't in it at all.

Apocryphacius transforms into his Trivia mode.

Apocryphacius (Trivia)

Trivia is a rather boring repaint of Skids. He's a bright neon green with some magenta detailing on his hands, door 'wings', pelvis, and feet.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v71/Lunatron/Icons/Trivia_zps6330013f.jpg

At first, Grapple tries to take cover. And by 'taking cover', he flinches at the incoming blaster fire, is somehow miraculously not hit, and then boggles in alarm. "Decepticons!" Then, he belatedly realizes that everyone else already knew that. He then grabs for his own gun to fire back, only to end up knocked out by Apocryphacius's machine. Whoops. Thud, goes the architect, to the ground.

Moonracer takes a little laserbolt to the upper right thigh, causing her to flinch and stagger. She shakes it off quickly. "Hng. Sea bug, land bug, not much difference," she grumbles. "Don't cover /me/, cover the damn device! I'm expendable!" Oops, too late.

Apoc goes rolling down to the waves, and Moonracer runs after him to get him by a tentacle and pull him back up. We're gonna need him if this thing goes crazy, right? She just manages to snag him and keep him from submerging before she, too, drops backwards - still holding onto Apoc.

And here come the fireworks. As in clusters of missiles. Explosive plumes erupt where they hit, creating a beautiful display of pyrotechnics.

That Horsepower strides out of, only looking slightly sooty to go with the gritted scowl on his features just moments before his battlemask slides into place. Being built to withstand explosives comes in handy at times. Thinking about Moonracer even before Repugnus is saying anything, he levels his rifle at the F/A-18 as it makes its pass and pulls the trigger...

Only for the shots to go wide as a stray blast kicks the machine into everything mode, and the weapon slips from the engineers grip as conciousness slips from him, likewise faceplanting in the sand.

Despite how the old saying goes, this probably isn't going to be dreams about electric sleep for androids.

=================================== Rumors =================================== Message: 8/1                      Posted        Author Trivia                            Sun Dec 23    Anonymous -- Trivia, Forgettable Autobot! -- Species: TRANSFORMER Faction: AUTOBOT Function: ENGINEER

Quote: "It is better to be alive than to be a memory."

Note: An utterly forgettable Autobot, Trivia serves as an engineer. His creations aren't as dangerous or creative as the work of others, though they are serviceable. Equipped with wrist-mounted 'sonic screechers' and whatever it is he has built that day, which may or may not work, but is not liable to be especially interesting. Transforms into an unmemorable Honda City Turbo. Slow and poorly armored. Not too brave.

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Quicksilver waves the arm that has her gauss cannon attached to it up, down, and side-to-side, giggling the whole way. The recoil sensation in the over-sized weapon makes her arm go numb after a while, but it's a good kind of numb so that's ok. The Femme Escort isn't even aware at first that the bullet are hitting the machine as well as Apocryphacius, but that's cool. Shockwave peeks out from behind the spire to see that Boomslang has blasted Moonracer. Good mech. With the jamming field in effect, he is confident that... wait. Shockwave senses a new signal being sent. He watches as Quicksilver's head suddenly jerks back before she falls limp all the way to the ground. Ice and Fuse quickly follow suit, landing in a crumpled heap.

The Quintesson has fallen as well, and apparently not from the bullets. Moonracer, Grapple, Horsepower. Shockwave quickly descends to a landing on the ruined spire, trying to jam the signal bef- His optic flashes once before going out, and Shockwave falls forward with a loud clang. Chibi-Shox struggles to pick up a Kreo brick with his hand, fumbling around with it. "It is a concern, Grapple," he tells his wayward Autobot friend, "How only one appendage gives us such a disadvantage." He waves his useless (but adorable) gun arm around a bit before accidentally dropping the brick. Shox bends over to pick it up, trying to connect to... whatever it is he and Grapple are building. Something awesome, no doubt.

"...and that's why gentlemen don't actually prefer blondes," Boomslang is saying, leaning over a translucent plastic campfire on stubby little legs and rotating a chicken drumstick the size of his own torso on a simple spit.

The spit does not actually go through the drumstick; rather the drumstick bolts onto one side of the spit.

Snickt-snackt, Fusillade's rotary carriage goes as it locks into position to dump cluster bombs on the valiant defenders! However, as the wave propagates out to her position, the bomber's wings spasm, and she tips forward on a long, slow descent that eventually ditches her into the surf along the beach. There's a screech of metal as her belly gouges up onto the artificial beach, and then...

"I guess it makes sense, if they don't get much practice because they are used to depending on looks," Fusillade says, pulling out a wedge that she sets down as a side of cheese for the alpine repast. "Oh, for the love of..." She frowns as her accessory weapons snap off -- again -- to either side of the glossy brown palm tree trunk set on its side.

"Ah, but that only makes all that we build even grander!" And little Kreon Grapple presses a flat piece on the side of.. Whatever it is. "We overcome! And, well.." One little stubby limb ends in a round tube; he sticks a hook in it. "Sometimes, it can come in handy." He grins at his own pun.

All around Decepticon Island, EDC soldiers start to fall asleep and wake up as citizens of a town in the border between LEGOland and MEGABLOX. LEGO and MEGABLOX have always been at war as long as anyone can remember. LEGO's superior engineering has allowed it to hold out against MEGABLOX's vastly superior weaponry.

Then the KREONs invaded.

Of course, EDC soldiers at the Hub notice that the soldiers on Decepticon Island are falling asleep and go to check on them via the GroundBridge. Then they, too, fall asleep.

The Dream Server whines under the load, and it semi-autonomously starts to look for more storage space. Hey, is everyone using all of their minds all the time? Hmm.

The Autobot Trivia is picking up one of his friends to drive him home from work, because that is what Autobots do! Only...

"We run into this problem every time, Dave. I am a mini-fig. You are a mini-fig. And yet... I still end up agreeing to drive you home from work," Trivia sighs. "...look, help me rearrange my pieces into hatchback mode, at least?"

Bug Creature  had been focusing on getting that targeting info to Moonracer. When she ran off to save the Quintesson, he was about to yell at her for it because Repugnus cares more about what the Quint made than the Quint himself. But he doesn't have time to, as waves of a familiar feeling wash over him. "Crap! TURN OFF THE--" Clonk.

Kreon Repugnus approaches Shockwave and Grapple, holding what look like two human Kreon limbs. "Hey, guys! Need a hand? Or two?" He waves the limbs around, which are the same scale as his own limbs. "Get it? Get it?"

The creature spins and twists about into Repugnus's robot mode!

The F-18 produces that distinctive transformation sound as it flips around and pops out limbs to assume a humanoid shape.

The sleek bomber rears up, wings collapsing onto hips even as the rear fuselage splits to form arms. The horizontal stabilizer slides up, the forward fuselage folds up accordian style, and Fusillade hops up on thrustered feet.

Fusillade

http://i.imgur.com/099CT.jpg LEGO!

Boomslang trundles over to the campervan to get a (2x2 smooth round) plate for the huge chicken leg. "Exactly! The LEGO Friends might have more articulation but what good does it do when they're all one piece? It's a degeneration, I tell you."

Shockwave moves back to the big pile of Kre-O brand bricks and starts shuffling around in them like a big kid playing in a pile of leaves. "Still, it would be useful to be able to remove it in favour of an appendage that can better manipulate its environment at will," Chibi-Shox states, apparently unaware that he could do just that. Still, it would make him look less cool so it's for the best he doesn't realize. When Kreon Repugnus makes his arrival, Shockwave glances over at Grapple because he can't tell if the joke was funny or not. Even Kreon Shox is kind of a square. "Repugnus, your assistance is required. I cannot find a two-by-four piece. An /orange/ two-by-four piece." Shockwave turns and looks at the awesome thing that he and Grapple are making. "Remind me once more what you plan to do with a giant crane truck?" he asks Grapple.

Grapple stops to stare a Repugnus's and his two extra limbs. Poor little Kreon face now looks horrified. "Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Where did you get those?" He then stops a moment at Shockwave's question before turning to his own pile of parts. A hooked hand shuffles through them. "Ah, here is the orange two-by-four piece..!" He holds it out. "And grander construction, of course! We will be able to transport parts, perhaps even PRE-BUILT!"

Trivia is reassembled into his hatchback mode by his good friend Dave. Then Dave climbs on top of the comically small hatchback, and they go driving off to drop Dave off at his house, which appears to be made of LEGO Belville pieces. Truly a nice house in the upper class suburbs.

The next day, Trivia will pick Dave up for work, and Dave will have forgotten about their scale issues all over again.

For now, though, he starts to drive over to see what Grapple and Shockwave are building. Trivia does not pay overly much attention to the angry humans, because hey, arms just snap on and off and on.

This is a world with few lasting consequences.

Meanwhile, the Dream Server starts to load copies of its running software wherever it can find space. Surely, this will cause no problem at all.

Trivia transforms into his Honda City Turbo  mode.

Shockwave puts his hand (and gun arm) on his hips, looking indignant at Grapple's comment. "Are any Kreons meant to wield such power, Grapple? Think about what we may be unleashing here!" Kreon Shockwave never got the original's doctorate in Evil Science. At the angry humans, Shockwave watches as they finally get their arms figured out and toddle off.

Boomslang opens the door of the campervan to look for a plate but just bangs into the door. He tries turning sideways and climbing up that way but his legs don't really work like that. "Oh for... hang on." He tries it another couple times but his wings are just not compatible with the 2-wide door. "Can you bring the camp? I need to make some changes here." He rapidly begins disassembling the upper half of the campervan from the top down.

Honda City Turbo  is stuck in hatchback mode, because he cannot rearrange his own pieces (until he is animated doing exactly that in a later episode; continuity isn't a big thing, here). His opinion is pretty simple, "If it ruins everything forever, just take it apart."

It really is just as easy as that!

Repugnus, as Shockwave already knew, doesn't really give a damn about the ethics of construction. That's fairly obvious by the horrible things he keeps making, things so obscene that others are forced to deconstruct them before any children see them. In fact he's going through Shockwave and Grapple's unused blocks bin right now, and is starting to assemble something that might be two nuclear power towers. Maybe. Or maybe not...

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/images/ca/CASONboobs_0459.jpg

Grapple looks back at his pile of pieces and notices Repugnus putting a few of them together. He swipes one of the round parts and presses it to the side of the crane vehicle in progress. "We won't fail. What could possibly go wrong?" What indeed, hmm?

=> In the Real World: <=

Moonracer has lost her grip on the squid. Her right leg is sparking from the precision laser wound, causing continual pain pulses through her neural system. She's slowly leaking energon. This is probably going to affect her dreaming.

=> In the Dream World: <=

"Still meddling in untested brickwork I see," says a harsh female voice behind the group working on the giant truck. "No good can come of this sort of thing! It's unnatural!"

Sitting astride a black plastic horse with little red painted on eyes is Moonracer. Or rather, she's sitting sideways on it - LIKE A LADY - because you just can't always get those little peg mounts to fit on the plastic horses right. A complex clear green plastic gun in one hand and plastic white cape hanging off the other side of the horse, she has a dour look on the four builders.

Most noticeable is that one of her legs is partially melted on the side, rendering it impossible to fit on any peg naturally anymore.

Fusillade plugs the transparent orange pieces in, and "VRRRRM!" the dune buggy comes to life. she reaches out with one hand to clamp onto the buggy as it leaps away, and the two Decepticons bounce down the beach, completely oblivious of the fact that it would probably be easier to fly. "Hey, I see something ahead! It looks like Twin Peak!" she announces to Boomslang.

Shockwave gives Trivia (who?) a glance. "But then we could /just put it right back together again/." SCARE CHORD! Shockwave shakes his head at Grapple's confidence and feels something by his leg. "Ah, the two-by-four smooth orange piece!" He bends over, awkwardly grabbing it with his lone hand. Fortunately, his hand and the width of the Kre-O brick is the same size to account for enhanced playability. Shockwave walks it back over to the truck and slaps it into place. Then, he hears an all-too-family voice behind him. He whirls to confront... "...FE-male Kreons!" he exclaims. "I thought they were recycled!"

Boomslang holds up a telescope (a black 1x1 round) to his eye with one hand and peers ahead, jostling around as the dune buggy bounds over the beach. "It looks like Shockwave! And that orange Autobot who does contract work for the Constructicons sometimes. And that blue fe-male Kreon. I wonder what they're up to!"

Grapple jumps at the voice -- and almost stumbles a bit. He ends up leaning against his own work in progress, if only to then stare at the speaker. "..FE-male Kreon..?" He stands back up properly. "Unnatural?!" And he's staring at that half melted limb in horror.

Honda City Turbo  is just That Guy who is always around but never does anything memorable. A trivial Autobot of no consequence.

The hatchback drives into the pile of parts to rummage through them, pushing them around with his bumpers. Beep beep beep. He murmurs softly, "I think I saw a spare set of pants in here..."

Meanwhile, Apocryphacius's body goes floating off into the ocean. The security camera records it floating away, but no one is awake at the base to notice. The Dream Server's fans whine more piteously, but its running software seems to have successfully uploaded to multiple locations.

Repugnus completes his suspiciously designed... structure, and steps around it so everyone can he's there too. "Female Kreons? Extinct!?" He pauses. "Man, I wish, ha! Say, that leg's not looking so good. I know a place, though, where you can get a new pair of legs. Be right back!" He begins to wander off in the general direction of a nearby LEGO village.

Horsepower eyes Moonracer's leg at the mention of recycling. "Well it sure looks like somebody tried to."

Fusillade gets ambushed by Sentinelese, and is dismembered because none of her pieces are red. This might take a while to sort out...

Fusillade vanishes out of reality.

Fusillade has left.

"Stop right there!" Moonracer snaps to Repugnus. "I will KEEP my leg as it is, thank you! I will wear this wound forever! Furthermore, I am all too aware of how you intend to go ... 'procure', such a replacement." She gestures with the gun hand. "An exactly what are you four up to over here, hmm? I advise you against playing 'Builder'. There is a price to be paid for the poor arrangement of brick."

Grapple is a trembly little Kreon, and takes a step back from Moonracer. Though, he isn't actually looking at her; no, his painted-on eyes are looking a that LEGO pony. "I... Have a license!" And he holds up a flat little square-brick piece with painted-on scribbles. Looks legit.

Honda City Turbo  protests, "All I am saying is that building a set of spider-legs is /always/ a viable fashion choice." He looks over at Shockwave. Back him up here!

Horsepower likewise has a plastic square with squiggles decoed on it that he holds up. "Yeah, relax li'l lady. We've got licenses and everything." At the mention of spider legs he turns his head (and not the rest of his body) to look at the hatchback made basically of lying on one's stomach and replacing robot kibble with vehicle kibble. But that's how vehicle modes work, is it not.

Then he turns to Grapple, gesturing vagely in the hatchback's direction since he doesn't have a finger to point with individual. "Any idea who that is. Don't reconize him."

Grapple turns to look at Horsepower's general direction, ad then just swivels his head to look further. "...I have absolutely no idea..." Still, he gives a polite wave with his single proper arm.

Shockwave watches as Repugnus goes off. Where does he find all these replacebody Kreon parts on such short notice? Oh well, it is a mystery for the ages! "We are trying to make life better for all Kreons," he tells Moonracer, even though Shockwave himself is unsure about whether it will be successful. He doesn't comment on the spider leg viability.

Repugnus freezes in his tracks, spinning around with a sheepish look on his face. "Okay, okay! You want a bribe, I get it." He wanders over to a patch of tall grass at the edge of the beach, and gives it a kick. The grass explodes, dropping some multi-colored studs. Repugnus gathers them into his arms, and walks over to Moonracer with them. "Okay, here you go. Now can I go?"

Boomslang has disconnected. <Pose Tracker> Moonracer's pose:

Moonracer looks at Grapple's 'license', then to the others. "Your paperwork is in order." She seems disappointed, turning her attention to Shockwave. "If you think female Kreons are exinct, you've spent entirely too much time with your head in a brickpile. I will be watching you. There are /instructions/ to bricklaying and deviation is ... suspect."

Repugnus only earns a sneer. "I can never be bribed! I should have you taken to court for even trying!" She snaps her gun to an empty peg on the horse's head, turning into a Gunticorn. "I have more pressing matters to attend to, but I would like to very much be kept abreast of your 'achievements', gentlemen." She wiggles the plastic reigns bolted to the side of the Gunticorn's head, and it wobbles its feet, trotting off along the way.

Shockwave gives off several sweatdrops at Moonracer's words. He tries not to look at Grapple, as he knows that would give away their terrible secret: the orange crane truck... /is built without instructions/. "Affirmative, ma'am!" he says, knowing better than to mess with Female Kreons.

It isn't until Moonracer is no longer looking at him does Grapple relax and let off a few sweatdrops of his own. Oh, he does not handle confrontation well. He's a builder, not a talker! He then turns back to the crane in progress... "Not too long, now." And snaps the license piece right in to the side of the vehicle. "Now it's official, as well!"

Honda City Turbo <Trivia> flickers his headlights at Grapple in response to the polite wave. To accomplish this, clear yellow studs attach to his headlights and then fall off.

Repugnus just smiles at Moonracer as she threatens him, then rides away. Then he turns to the others. "I think she really likes me. Oh, and good thing she didn't take my bribe. I need more studs for a big block set. Gold and blue studs are really hard to find these days, though, what with the war going on."

Shockwave watches as Moonracer trots off into the sunset. It isn't until she's out of sight that he turns back to Grapple and their machine. "We are committed now, Grapple. The die has been cast." Shockwave's thoughts of turning away from this machine has ended. There is no turning back.

Despite the dire vagely concealed 'official' threats, Horsepower waves after Moonracer all the same. "Not a problem, miss." Once she's out of range, -then- he grumbles a bit. "That was a bit too close." He makes a rubbing sweat off motion across his brow with one clampy shaped hand, then grunts as it knocks his helmet crooked and he has to straighten it out. "Y'all need another hand there?" Pause. "My own, I promise."

Grapple turns to look to Shockwave and Horsepower, head pivoting back and forth. "Yes... We don't have long to build, and it is almost finished! Any help would be appreciated. The more bricks, the better! Bigger!" Oh, he's in his happy place again. He practically dives in to a nearby pile.

Shockwave waves at Horsepower to come join their growing rebellion. A rebellion of engineers against the fascist control of those who say that the only good instruction is instruction from one of those glossy pieces of paper that they fold up and include with officiak Kre-O kits.

"Hold that thought." Horsepower walks over to where he left his previous construction. Picks it up. Not hard to due since it's just Kreo studs and all, it's not really that heavy. He walks back over, sets it down next to the pile of parts for the crane. Grabs the molded kreon sized hammer off the side of it, and gives the trailer-base a solid wack.

It promptly collapses into pieces into the pile. And is mostly orange pieces, so it matchs the parts already being used. "There, now we oughta have enough parts. Ah can build a new trailer later."

Honda City Turbo <Trivia> helpfully drives through the piles and pushes useful-looking pieces over to Horsepower, Shockwave, and Grapple with his front bumper.

Meanwhile, the Dream Server overheats and, as per EDC regulations, explodes.

This /should/ wake them all up immediately, only it doesn't, because the software is now caried in several people's /minds/ and is being rebroadcast via onboard radio.

Instead, they will wake at a normal point for their sleep/wake cycles, and the next time they fall asleep?

They'll be right back here.

Unexpected contagious brain diseases. Construction toys. Two great tastes that taste better together!

Repugnus, again, doesn't care about the ethics in this debate, but he does resent any attempt at controlling him, so he has no intention of turning in his fellow Kreons any time soon. On the other hand, he's not much of a focused builder, which he demonstrates by building a crude hammock made out of grey 2x1 pieces between two palm trees.

In his dream-dreams, he begins to dream of being in the Minecraft universe, and stacking dirt blocks into two suspicious-looking hills.

<pre style="white-space: pre-wrap;">================================= Decepticon ================================= Message: 2/100                    Posted        Author AAR: Raid on Apoc's Device        Sun Dec 23    Shockwave --

Shockwave appears on the screen from the command chair in Trypticon's Command Center.

"A routine Aerospace patrol operating near the Earth Defence Command base located at the old Decepticon Island detected the presence of another attempt by the EDC and their pet Quintesson in creating a 'dream machine' to disable Transformers."

A link appears at the bottom of the screen which will take anyone to the 'Southwest Pacific Patrol' posts back on October 10th.

"Accordingly, a strike force was hastily assembled, consisting of myself, Fusillade, Boomslang, and the Femme Escort squad: Ice, Fuse, and Quicksilver. Our mission was a success and the dream machine was destroyed despite the presence of numerous Autobots."

"During the battle the dream machine was activated, knocking all present--Autobot, Decepticon, and humans--offline for approximately ten thousand astro-seconds. Nevertheless, this delay did not hinder our mission. The Quintesson Apocryphacius went missing in the battle and may be dead. Shockwave out."

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===================== Autobot =================================== Message: 3/141                    Posted        Author Weird trip                        Sun Dec 23    Repugnus -- Repugnus appears onscreen, looking bleary and scratching behind his head for a moment.

"So, uh, that Quintesson Apocryphacius invited some Autobots to watch him do some experiments with his latest invention, and, get this... IT'S A DREAM RAY! Yes, he invented a machine that sends you to sleep and makes you dream. Gee, where have I seen that before? Oh, yes, back when Cross was still running the EDC. I brought this up with the Quint in my usual tactful manner and he sputtered a bunch of excuses at me. Whatever. Frickin' squid.

"Anyway, so the Decepticons attack as per usual. Primus knows how they found out--maybe Laserbeak was hiding somewhere? Weird space radiation? Could be anything. Doesn't matter, because the Decepticons accidentally shot the device, which set it off and plunged everyone present--and, I am told, many EDC personnel at the island--into some kind of weird dream, where we were like, LEGO people or something, and Autobots and Decepticons were friends and making stuff out of those plastic bricks and there was a war or something and studs and dammit I don't know. But thankfully, the dream eventually ended and when we all woke up, I guess both sides were too embarrassed to continue fighting and the Decepticons just left. I guess part of that might actually be because the dream machine exploded. I'm not sure if that's because of the damage it sustained or if it got overloaded, but the upside is that this bad science experiment is over and we don't have to worry about these strange, shared dreams anymore.

"Oh, yeah, and the Quint was AWOL when we came to." Repugnus shrugs. "I don't give a damn. Honestly I should've killed him myself. Oops, did I say that out loud? Well, yes I did, because that freaking guy kept messing with the natural laws of the universe and carelessly putting everyone in danger. Not that he's alone in that regard coughcoughPerceptorcoughcough, but I had enough of the guy and I hope he's dead. Welp! That's my report! Doodliedoo!"

BLIP

OOC: Repugnus is wrong about this little problem being over with, of course!

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