Special Training

 Saboteur Foxfire says, "Hey, Mirage..."

 Specialist Mirage says, "Hmm, need something?"

 Saboteur Foxfire says, "Well, I was wondering if you could do me a favor. You know how I got an invisibility cloak?"

 Specialist Mirage says, "Yeah, you used it well that night in Nightsiege. A bit rough, but still effective."

 Saboteur Foxfire says, "You think you could meet me in the Metroplex training room? I'd like some tips on using it effectively."

 Specialist Mirage says, "Well it's not really my policy to reveal my tools of the trade, but I guess I could slip a few to you since you bailed us out from that hell hole that night in Nightsiege. Training room in 20 minutes, don't keep me waiting, got it?"

 Saboteur Foxfire chirps brightly, "Got it!"

 Specialist Mirage is such a snobbish jerk, ain't he?

 Saboteur Foxfire wouldn't have Mirage any other way, for some reason.

AC Training Chamber

This stark, spacious chamber is well reinforced and shielded to stand up to the strain of many practice bouts. A gleaming training drone stands in one corner of the room, ready for work. The walls are sheathed in reflective alloys, allowing the combatants to observe their motions and progress.

Broken skeletal remains of buildings long ruined by war and time sits everywhere and in the middle of it all is a wrecked street leading to nowhere. This is present day Cybertron... on Earth? Close. It's actually just one of the many Autobot training programs that's being run at the moment and it's as close to the real deal as it can be thanks to the high performance holograhic systems installed in the training chamber!

In the middle of the shattered street stands Mirage who's leaning on a large piece of building debris, looking a bit impatient.

Foxfire bounds into the training chamber and skids to a stop, nearly tripping over his own paws but managing to keep from falling. He peers about at the holographic ruins, a small frown on his muzzle, but he shakes it off, and approaches Mirage. "So where do we start?"

Decibel is here and yet not as he seems to be off by himself half in the wreckage of a burning car. As the flames lap at his frame his arms vanish into a plume of smoke as he opens a panel in the wall. "Don't mind me, just replacing this photon emitter here, won't be but a moment."

Mirage frowns a bit, as he sees the silver fox bot skidding to a stop nearby. Is the small guy ready for the immense secrets that the Autobot counter-intelligence specialist is about to impart to the cassettibot? He shall see soon enough, dun dun dun. Mirage takes a look back, seeing that his division CO, Decibel is still in the area. He's probably there to steal his lucky char trade secrets! Dastardly!

"Well, I heard from Jetfire that your systems are based on an extension of holographic technology?"

Foxfire glances to Decibel, then looks back up and Mirage. That's the problem with being a cassette--everyone's taller than you! He perks his ears and nods. "Yeah, exactly."

Only half listening to the duo behind him Decibel continues his adjustments and wonders why he's doing work that operations should be seeing to. Maybe he's a perfectionist that doesn't trust them to get it done, maybe he's bored and saw if needed fixing, or maybe he's keeping tabs on the rest of Intel.

Mirage gives the cassettibot a good look over, before snapping a finger, "Well, let's just start with the basics." He pulls out the remote controls to the training chamber's holographic projector systems and enters in a few commands. Soon a group of gumby Decepticon seekers materializes down the street south of the two Autobots.

"We're more sophisticated than the walking brute that fills the majority of the Autobot ranks. Unfortunately that also means we can take a pounding like most can. Our worth is our ability in making a decisive action in one single moment. What that key action is will be different everytime." The Autobot counter-intelligence specialist shrugs slightly before continuning, "I can't help you without being there myself. What I -can- help you is how to survive after you had made that decisive move and now need to beat a hasty retreat. Believe me, you'll need to. The Decepticons will be doing everything they can to get their hands on you once you've single handedly ruined their day."

Foxfire nods again in understanding. "Of course--I can't count all the times I've gotten Decepticons ticked at me." That's why he's an expert in demolitions. He lifts a forepaw and points it in the direction of the Seekers. "So what d'you want me to do about them? Cloak and then get 'em from behind?"

Decibel closes up the panel his work complete and begins to turn only to stop dead in his tracks as he taps his temple a time or two. Muttering he moves out of the holo-image as the energy fields turn it solid again and begins to fiddle with the data control on his arm. Voices begine to replay as soft whispers, inaudible to most at a distance, those that can hear Mirage and Foxfire's earlier radios transmissions. Sighing Decibel shakes his head while ending the recording and moving towards the pair to see what they are up to now that cat seems to be out of the bag.

Mirage shakes his head, "Getting them is easy. Getting away from them after they know you're around. That's the true trick of the trade." He leaves the silver fox bot and dashes into the group of gumby seekers, brushing pass one and off balancing another before running for the nearest block of debris with a broken opening in the middle. Once he passes through he clearly makes a run towards the right, and soon the seeker gumby jumps through the hole after the Autobot counter-intelligence specialist, racing off towards the right as well.

Moments later, there's a blue shimmer in the middle of the hole before Mirage materializes into view again as he steps back out from the hole, "Those gumbies think they saw me running to the right, exactly what I wanted them to see. You have a hologram generator, and I have my electro-disruptor. We both have the ability to make people see what we want them to see, never forget to take advantage of both of your cloaking field and holographic system." He returns to the cassettibot, looking down, "Our survival depends on our ability to deceive our enemies. A successful operative rarely needs to use his weapons, you're usually already in big trouble if you do."

Foxfire takes all this in. "Right, got it." He's eager to start the actual, physical part of the training itself, but doesn't verbally push the matter.

Mirage taps his foot, maintaining his stare at Foxfire as if expecting something. A brief second or two passes before a smirk comes across Mirage's face, "Well? Aren't you going to give it a try yourself? I want you to apply what you just saw and incorporate your demolitions skills along with it." The Autobot counter-intelligence specialist lifts up his datapad once more and keys in some command. To the south the gumby Decepticon seekers remateralizes again back into their default position. "I expect some degree of creativity. Got it?" Mirage says, point a finger at the cassettibot expectingly.

Decibel watches Mirage go running around and waits for the little plays of light he's so good to begin. Glad to have him on his side Decibel moves off and sits on some rubble happy to watch the two operatives interact and train, bettering their skills. It never hurts to have more field agents able to do the hardest jobs and still get away without any trouble.

Foxfire was waiting for that! "Right, okay. Back in a flash." He runs off toward the group of Seekers, vanishing into thin air in the process. A moment later, he can be seen running a half-circle around the gumbies, one of which turns and shoots at him, only for the shot to go right through him, indicating that this Foxfire is a mere hologram. It vanishes, and the real Foxfire appears behind the Seekers, catching them off-guard as he sets a small explosive. He flees, and the bomb goes off.

Mirage raises an optical groove, his expression mostly neutral. That's high praise from the snobby guy. He gives Decibel a look, "Small vicious fellah, ain't he? Didn't take him for the kind to bomb his pursuers. I'm impressed."

Foxfire normally only does that on Rodimus's orders, but he wanted to show off for Mirage.

Decibel seems unmoved his thoughts elsewhere until he detects Mirage speaking to him. "Well whatever works. We can't afford to be picky when on assignment, if it takes blowing up a few people that get in the way then that's what we have to do. Especially if you get snagged along the way, not everyone is so easy to fool."

Loadout comes down into the training room area. To partake in the training? No. To watch the training? Well no that wasn't quite his intention either. Upon exiting the shaft he has one looks like a strange sort of vacuum cleaner in hand...which is really a sonic scrubber of sorts. That he fully intended to use on the training room which, in his view, needs a total going over?

Though he didn't expect it to be occupied. "Oh...perhaps I should wait, then."

Mirage nods in agreement, "That's true, one can only play with the hand that life deals them." The Autobot counter-intelligence specialist then waves Foxfire over, "I like what I saw there, Foxfire. Remember, if they've got seasoned professionals with them then you might want to consider dropping a bomb along with a hologram while you run the opposite way. Works wonders."

Perhaps it might be to Loadout's horror that the training chamber is projecting one of the dirtiest, run down places in the galaxy! War torn Cybertron! Dun dun duuuun.

"I'm not sure if you were ever supplied with a voice changing module, Foxfire. You might want to get one installed now that you're capable of infiltrating deep into enemy territory." Mirage comments as his body frame visually distorts for a moment before changing shape into... Runabout! He even sounds like Runabout when he begins speaking, "With a bit of savvy, you can do a passable job of fooling your enemies. Your body design makes this a bit difficult though since you can't actually touch people. That's what cloaking is for. Don't use this trick too often though, but when you're running and need to let your cloaking systems to cooldown, don't ever forget to keep a calm mind and use other advantages that you've got."

Foxfire bounds back over to Mirage at the beckoning. "Well," he says, "if I project a hologram of a living being I can make it so that it speaks in whatever voice the being has in actuality, but other than that, no, I'm not skilled in vocal mimicry." He tilts his head slightly as Mirage becomes Runabout, and hms to himself. He nods. "Okay."

Loadout is ineed horrified! Though he also knows the difference between reality and a holographic training room simulation too on top of it.

Still doesn't mean he isn't give some of those rusted piles a second and third look for good measure, but he finally manages to overcome his snap-cleaning reflexive instincts and just focuses on what's taking place instead, curiously eyeing the faux-seekers amongst the others. "I take it this must be where target practice and other things take place then..."

"And that's about all I can teach you with cloak for today. Cloaking in itself is just cloaking, but in conjunction with some savvy and other talents, it becomes a remarkable tool." Mirage explains to Foxfire as he concludes the brief training session. Sure he probably has a few more tricks under his sleeve but he can't just go and reveal the entirity of trade now just because somebody managed to pull him and the rest of his team from a Decepticon city stronghold while underfire, right? Well in a rare display of generousity, Mirage gives out one last advice, "Well maybe one last advice. On the field, you want to always be aware of who poses the biggest threat to you. When you determine who's your greatest threat, you usually only have two choices there and then. One. You turn tail and run. Two. You find a way to shut that threat down first before he can shut you down. We're not ground pounders..." There's a look of annoyance on Mirage's face when he utters those words, tch, walking uneducated brutes, "...indecisiveness or the wrong move has a greater consequence against us."

Looking over to Loadout, Mirage replies, "You could say that. You're the new guy aren't you?"

Foxfire lifts a front paw to salute as best as a quadruped can. "You got it. Thanks, Mirage!"

Mirage nods, "We're even now."