Insulation

Summary: Fulcrum needs help testing the insulation on the hilt of his new Thunder Hanmer. And who best to help but Frenzy?

NCC Medical Ward

''Like its previous incarnation, this medical ward was designed with the medic in mind, with all the modern advances to make the dirty work of repairs a world easier. It is well lit, the blue and violet metal of the walls and decor is a shade paler here, and the ubiquitous filigree is missing, all to assist in ease of cleaning. Still, the place veritably sparkles. In the furniture, there is a subtle motif of blades and sharp edges, as if to evoke the scalpel of a surgeon, although it is all quite safe. Around two dozen beds, more comfortable than their sharp looks would suggest, fill the medical ward, laid out in a tidy grid, and more can be flipped out of the walls should emergency demand it. A set of tracks on the ceiling mirror the grid of beds, allowing advanced scanning equipment and tolls to be swiveled around to the various beds. Computer terminals and cabinets are molded right into the walls at intervals, and while there are the normal medical security cameras, it appears as if someone has set some of the cameras specifically to watch the cabinets.''

Arachnae tosses a few shards of shrapnel over her shoulder, pauses and then curses softly to herself for a moment. Adjusting her grip on the clamps, she nabs a spool of high rated conduit and starts to re-route, to her painfully slowly at that, leads that link Socurges energy stores to weapons emmiters.

Fulcrum trudges into med bay carrying a large roll of some sort of rubbery plastic under one arm, the ends of the metal spool jagged messes of torn metal. In his other hand he holds a long, solid-looking metal rod. P-Perhaps he is going to make a flag?

Scourge takes care to shut down his brand new super-chip powered targetting system, as she is getting close to those arrays. Obviously, she's not going to harm it or anything. But better safe than sorry. He continues to wait.

Beatdown trudges into the med bay looking dented and covered in mud and what looks like blood. He has his stick in his hand. Perhaps he is going to hit something?

Arachnae hnns, tilting her head as she eyes something.. she hadn't had hand in installing. "Now this.." trailing off while she focuses on some other damaged sector.. "Hrnn." A hiss, an irritable flick of her wings a glower at the ploers and then a resigned hiss-whiff of air out of intakes. damned regulations.

Fulcrum stops partway into medbay, optics flickering in surprise at the fact that there's actually people here! "Errr" he emits quietly, before he realises - oh right, there's been raids. Right. Sidling to a relatively empty part of the room, he puts the roll of industrial-looking material onto a table with a heavy THUMP, then turns his attention to the computer at the side, bringing up some interesting and dangerous sub menus.

Frenzy pops out from nowhere behind Fulcrum, peering over his shoulder to see what he's got going. Apperantly Nae's lesson hasn't quite digested well with Soundwave's more impulsive creations. "Hey, whatcha got there, tall green and ugly?"

Beatdown is also attracted towards Fulcrum, probably because the seeker is looking to be inconspicuous. He strokes his chin (his chin, not Fulcrum's). "My my comrade, that sub menu looks both interesting AND dangerous"

Scourge looks up at Arachnae and quirks a brow, "Problems?" He hopes not. He needs to be ready for action again ASAP. Never know when a Decepticon will randomly decide to attack Disneyworld or something and he'll have to bail them out.

Arachnae shakes her head, optics narrowing as she focuses. "Having to get used to the tools aspect of the job again." She pauses, flashes talons, "Not officially on the list as approved for delicate repairwork." Wry smirk that fades, talons resheathing. more bits are tossed over her shoulder before she brings a small laz-welder into play, re-welding a few spots here and there.

Arachnae begins work on Scourge's injuries.

Fulcrum is THE most inconspicous Decepticon ever, except for maybe Runabout and Runamuck. And Blot. And a few others. Nevertheless he's not subtle. "Uhh" he drones, as Frenzy pops up from nowhere, then Beatdown begins an interrogation. His optics flicker again. "I am.. about to test a way to make a Decepticon's system more efficient and powerful" he replies after a while, as his keystrokes cause a large, tesla-coil-like device to slowly lower from the ceiling.

Arachnae murmurs over her work, "Frenzy has had enough experience with electrical devices this cycle."

Scourge ahhhs, "Yes, well, it is somewhat to use "approved" tool when working on a technology far beyond that of the common Cybertronian. You, sister, are amongst the few of our kind that understand enough about Unicronian technology to properly repair it."

The Con tape's eyes light up with Beatdown. "Sweet! If it works I get first dips on becoming totally awesome?" Frenzy flips his legs over and sits on Fulcrum's shoulder.

Arachnae smirks, "Call it my own private obsession. That isn't quite private." Wings flick and she temp-seals one section, moving on to another. "Actually, I resort to approved means when working on High Command only. As everything done to those of your stature is recorded and noted in case of future difficulties."

Fulcrum gives Beatdown a Look. Hm, the corrupt copticon is quick on the uptake. Because a) Fulcrum is totally lying, and b) He WAS going to suggest he test it on Frenzy. "Actually, it works now, in theory" Fulcrum says, craning his neck to look at the tape bot sitting on the other side of his shoulder-intake. "If you'll just stand on the table here, we can begin the procedure."

Scourge hehs as he leans back again, "Well, good procedure to be sure. But I have yet to have "difficulties" with any of your work. Unless you count those spider-drones. But given we told you to make them, we can hardly blame that on you, now can we?"

Frenzy is quick to act. He leaps from Fulcrum's shoulders onto the table with both arms wide open. "Let's get this party started. Make me totally awesome! AHAHA!"

Beatdown nods. He can't really see any drawback in testing whatever the hell it is on Frenzy. He waves his stick at the table. "Go on then Frenzy, stand there, do as the nice man says. Make him... totally... 'awesome'"

Arachnae snorts, "As those were special ordered, I'm hardly going to take the.. fallout for the simple fact that they worked well withinthe parameters of the request." Wings flick again, hands now cutting plating to fit over the holes.

Fulcrum nods, tapping a final few keys on the med-computer, causing the strange equiment to emit an ominous hum that slowly rises in tone. "There should be no adverse side effects" states Fulcrum, as he idly takes a Laser Screwdriver to the role of material, cutting a strip from the roll and wrapping it around the metal pole he carried in with him. "Now hold this. By the material end." He offers the jerry-rigged rod to Frenzy.

Frenzy does as he is told.

Beatdown watches the scene eagerly. Part of him hoping that Frenzy is going to get horribly maimed by this. It always warms the tubes of his fuels pump to see someone smaller than him getting horribly maimed. Preferably whilst being hit.

Scourge laughs, "The worked all too well. However, I managed to utilize them to unlock potential that my normal systems could not. So they did serve their purpose." he cringes a bit but does not make any noise to indicate further pain.

Arachnae sparks a welder and starts securing the panels to Scourges frame. "Ahh, those were nice drones." Smile wisps across her face, welder sparking as the panels are sealed into place. "I don't htink I need to remind you of the ususal time to let these things settle in, do I sir?"

Scourge shakes his head, "No. I will take it easy for a time to insure that the new parts are properly assimiliated into my systems before returning to full and active duty. Only a fool would push it and risk further damage unless absolutely neccessary."

Fulcrum nods and takes a step back as Frenzy takes hold of the end of the metal rod with the rubbery-plastic material wrapped around it (ooh-er). "Now.. very carefully point the metal end at the electrostatic generator" the blacksmith suggests, as the lights flicker slightly, the tesla-coil like device now humming dangerously and vibrating slightly, arcs of electrical energy occasionally sparking over its surface.

Beatdown steps back from the scene as SCIENCE is about to take place. This is after all, Fulcrum's show, the scally!

Frenzy notices the vibrating and sparks and arches a single brow with an inquisitive look towards Fulcrum. "Is it working? I don't feel any more awesome. Point at what now? You mean that big thingy over there? Mmmkay." The tape again, does as told.

Scrapper strides into the medical bay waving a datapad around excitedly. "What th-?" the Constructicon stares at the huge crowd of Decepticons present. "Wow, you guys really /did/ get slaughtered in the last few nights, didn't you?" he says with a chuckle. Most importantly, though, Scrapper's attention is drawn to Frenzy, Fulcrum, and their sparking and vibrating tesla coil. Is this thing going to vibrate to create popular video game songs?

Arachnae dusts her hands off, stepping back to look over the work. "There.." She headtilts as if listening to something then smiles, "Alright, shifts over." She looks over as Scrapper comes in, "Your turn."

Soundwave appears in the room when nobody is paying attention. The guy has a habit of doing that. Lurking in some corner, or under a desk, or some other place others may take for granted, typically in his alternate mode. Keeps people afraid of him, on their toes all the time. He likes that. But he's not sure he likes what Fulcrum is doing with his cassetticon. Even so, he'll just wait and see for now before he interferes.

Fulcrum essays a little nod to Scrapper as he cues up a thick lead sheild to drop from the ceiling in front of him, protecting Beatdown and him from.. well, whatever's going to happen to Frenzy. The lights are flickering a lot now, and a few residential lights are going off over New Crystal City. The device is arcing wildly, and as Frenzy puts the rod near the business end, a large spark leaps out and makes a connection....

Beatdown makes sure he's firmly behind the shield, nodding in approval at the gigantic spark shooting at Frenzy. "And.." he waggles a finger "... this spark will make him faster, stronger, more alive?" he enquires. "Dare I ask HOW?" (Magnets, he thinks. It's gonna be magnets)

"I-what?" Scrapper says, staring at Arachnae, "My turn for what now?" He steps fully into the room, trying to figure out what Arachnae was even doing before he showed up. As the lead shield drops from the ceiling and protects Fulcrum and Beatdown and not anybody else, Scrapper instinctively takes a large step backwards, almost bumping right into Soundwave.

Arachnae looks over at the glowing experiment, widens optics and wraps wings around herself. "Uhoh..."

"Man this blows, I don't think it's gonna work Ful-AAAAAAAHHH!!!" Untold amounts of electricity course through Frenzy's tiny frame, the insulation obiously not enough to keep the volts from escaping the rod. His body shines an electric blue as lights pop overhead. His interior make-up is highlighted as parts of his external shell become transparent. His feet are lifted from the table as the energy shoots /out/ of him, his small cassette body unable to with hold such immense quantities of power.

Having informed others that she would be in her quarters, Fusillade's rest gets unceremoniously interrupted by the rolling blackouts in the residential area. Scowling, she tromps down the main thoroughfare, moving towards the bigger patches of darkness. She halts at the doorway, citrine optics wide in alarm at the spectacle. "Well, looks like I found it...." She hnnns to herself as she stands far back, and huhs to herself as she makes out the silhouette of the responsible party. Feeling as if she's walked right into a steampunk sci-fi special, she gingerly makes her way past the arcing sparks, and closer to Scrapper's location. "Hsst. So, I gotta greenlight for the Rushmore thing? Have you cast the lens emitters yet?"

Whoops! Fulcrum covers his optics at the flare. Looks like one sheet of insulation isn't going to be enough.. probably have to make a multi-layer wrapping, compressed under pressure, probably with ceramic gell binding.. Oh right, Frenzy. Fulcrum hits the OFF button, the lights in medbay suddenly snapping back to full brighteness, though the room seems MUCH darker with the sudden absence of large arcs of electricity. "Hmm" he says, as the lead shield rises. "How do you feel, Frenzy?"

Magma meanwhile, had been making his way towards the source of the blackouts as well, having had his data analysis rudely interrupted... along the way he nearly runs into Fusillade as they both discover what they were looking for, "Oh my..." he comments, just staring at Frenzy for awhile.

Beatdown steps slowly behind Fulcrum in an attempt to get a bit more shielding. "Aaah well... this is novel" he muses. Obviously Fulcrum is trying to solve the age old Frenzy is blue / red debate by making him crispy black instead. Hack grumbles as he walks into the room and shakes his head. He pauses for a moment as he watches Fusillade work on Frenzy and kept help but let a small chuckle to himself go. He then procedures to find himself an open desk and start to wipe off one of several marks that looking like they have been stamped all over his body.

Soundwave's optic band glows as he observes Frenzy being electrocuted. Didn't Fulcrum get the memo that 1) You don't mess with Soundwave, and 2) Messing with Soundwave's tapes is the same as messing with Soundwave? The tape deck of doom angrily shoves Scrapper aside, growling, "OUT OF MY WAY, FOOLS!" as he stomps towards Frenzy, even after the electrical currents are shut off. He walks around the insulating sheet and scans Frenzy for damage.

Soundwave pulls out a medical scanner and runs a check on Frenzy.

"Heh heh heh," Scrapper chuckles in a good natured way at poor Frenzy's plight. He either doesn't notice Soundwave or figures Soundwave's in on the joke. "Are you going to need another Cassetticon?" he asks Fulcrum, snickering. As Fusillade inches towards him, the Constructicon rubs his chin, "Ah yes. The Rushmore thing. I had Mixmaster do the casting, and he's promised me that the material he used is '28% more bitchin' than the next leading brand'. Whatever the slag /that's/ supposed to mean... also, I-oof!" Scrapper suddenly gets rudely shoved out of the way, falling forward.

Soundwave + zapped Cassetticon = Arachnae departing with all due haste. "have fun minding the castle, Scrapper!" Cheerful wave of a taloned hand as she duck dodgers herself out of medical.

Frenzy coughs a puff of smoke. "Hey pops." He looks drunk. His words are slurred. "Am I awesome... now? Cause... cause... I don't feel so awesome." And with that, the char black tape falls yet again unconscious.

Fusillade takes a steel-spun tunnel, as reflective and color-shifting as energon, to the NCC Spinal Pathway to the south.

Fusillade has left.

Uh oh! Fulcrum didn't see Soundwave. He casts around for a way out of this predicament. Maybe he shouldn't have let the Cassetticon volunteer for the Awesomisation process! Or rather the 'test how well that insulation works' process. "Hmm.. ah, that shouldn't have happened" he remarks to no-one in particular, carefully backing away towards the door. "I'll.. I need to check on a few things..."

Speaking of another Cassetticon: When Scrapper falls forward, he bumps a tray on wheels. Said tray full of blades and laser-scalpels and other tools rolls forward, into a rack containing canisters for post-operational repainting. One of the paint canisters falls from the rack -- and hits the gently curved lip of a broad tray. Said tray tips up like a see-saw -- but it happened to be holding Ratbat's little mess of purple angles. So as all of this happens, Ratbat flies overhead, landing with a clatter on one of the open beds before tumbling off of that and onto the floor. Whether or not the weak flaps of his wings that follow are voluntary or not: debatable.

Beatdown is already edging round the room to make sure everyone knows he had nothing to do with this. At last, Fulcrum has invented a machine to... electrocute Frenzy. "So uh..." he mutters attempting conversation. "Soundwave... IS that Frenzy?" You paged Scrapper and Blueshift with 'Okay, we run for the door, I transform, then Scrapper, you jump on my back and we fly to.. Mexico.'

"FULRCUM!" Soundwave booms. After checking the readout, Soundwave's hand starts to slowly crush the scanner. The plasteel casing cracks. in his powerful fingers. "Do you know why I am crushing a sophisticated medical scanner in my hands right now, Fulcrum? I would not normally do this, as it means greatly inconveniencing myself until I acquire a new scanner. What are your theories... Fulcrum?" His hand closes completely, the scanner utterly crushed in his grip, little pieces of circuitboard and plasteel sticking out between his fingers. He indirectly answers Beatdown's question, too. "Perhaps it is related to Frenzy in some way, Fulcrum?"

Hack absent mindly continues to clean several more marks off his frame as his upper right leg splits open and he draws a rather dusty gun out. Hack gives the gun a good shake sending a small cloud of dust into the air. Hack then casually states, "Look I don't know exactly what went on here before I entered the room, but what I did see was you just shock my good pal Frenzy there. Now I haven't used this in awhile.... it may still work, it may not... but I would recommend staying right there until Soundwave has had the chance to finsih speaking with you."

Scrapper climbs back up to his feet, holding his head. He sees Ratbat fly through the air, but isn't even aware that he's the guy responsible for it. "Hey Soundwave, what's the big idea?!" he demands, clearly angry. While Soundwave's a big scary guy, Scrapper can only be pushed (literally in this case) so far. As Soundwave rants about Frenzy, Scrapper snorts and shakes his head. "You're so overprotective of your tapes, Soundwave. Get over it already."

Fulcrum winces. "It.. it is hard to be completely certain" Fulcrum replies, stalling for time as he scrolls through a whole list of possible responses. "P-Perhaps the Scanner has been bugged by the Autobots? Perhaps it was broken before you crushed it?" And then the list throws up a passable answer. Not a GREAT answer, but still. "Perhaps you.. you are angry at Frenzy for volunteering for potentially dangerous experiments? I did warn him it was dangerous..."

Beatdown hops behind Scrapper. All non-tapes together and all! Plus he doesn't want to get in trouble. "Yeah, Scrapper's right, you're out of line. You're not Frenzy's MUM". As Hack moves to his gun, he whirls round, energy baton at the ready to PROTECT Scrapper. "Whoa whoa WHOA mister, put the gun down. PUT. THE. GUN. DOWN!" The sirens on his back make a little whizzing noise as he says this.

Arachnae sticks her head back into medical for a sec.. Lifts a brow and really ponders whether or not she should go back in.

Soundwave scowls at Scrapper for a moment. "If you were more skilled at creating new life, rather than simply recycling it, you would understand." Clearly a reference to Scrapper's zombie-building moments. "As for YOU, Beatdown, you had best not try my patience. I have little of it at this time."

Soundwave returns his attention to Fulcrum, scowling at him for a moment. He's hiding something--he senses it. But he knows just how to get the information... ask. "Frenzy. You asked if you were awesome now. Did Fulcrum tell you that this experiment would make you awesome?"

"Obviously his short term memory will be a bit fuzzy" Fulcrum quickly interjects. "Due to the amount of electricity that NON FATALLY passed through his body."

Frenzy coughs. The optic lights beneath his visor fluttering on and off. "The colors, duke! The colors!" *headslump*

Arachnae mutters to Scrapper, "... saying... at... little... is somehow better... zombies?"

Hack gives a sideways glance towards Beatdown and if he had eyyes at this point you feel like he would be rolling them. Absent mindly taps the gun with his hand that he has been using to polish himself and says "Its an EMP disrupter, if he tries in runs something Awesome will happen to him and prevent him running from a superior officer." Hack continues to use his off hand to polish out another mark this one bright orange and yellow and you can make out the word 'Monicus' just before Hack buffs the M off.

Scrapper raises a lime green hand and opens and closes it, miming someone talking. "'Bitch bitch, moan moan, my tapes are unique and delicate flowers that need protecting'. That's all I'm hearing from you, Soundwave!" Scrapper retorts. He stops miming with his hand and jerks his thumb for the door, "If you and your Tapes want to take this to the arena, by all means, but you're not dumb enough to start a brawl in the medical bay." Scrapper sticks with Beatdown, grateful for his protection even if he doesn't explicitly say so. Leaning to the side, Scrapper whispers back to Arachnae even though Soundwave'll probably be able to overhear.

Beatdown waggles his stick at Hack. "Look you mook, I don't care if its a sodding turbo raccoon, no guns means no guns. Or I'm going to have to apply my stick awesomely to your head. All procedures were followed, I am witness to that fact, Frenzy volunteered for the glory of Galvatron!"

Fulcrum decides to remain quiet, a frown creasing his face at how this has escalated. And both sides have good cases! But he's going to stick with the side that doesn't want to make him test the Awesomisation process.

Soundwave shakes his head at Frenzy, and scoops the little guy up with one hand. "Indeed, Fulcrum. He may require time to recover. And now that I have had time to consider your experiment--" Whatever the hell it was. "--I believe it has merit. Substantial merit, in fact. We may learn much from it. A great deal, in fact. Perhaps I should not have been so hasty to condemn you." Soundwave then glowers at Arachnae and Scrapper. If only he outranked the Constructicon!

Arachnae hitches her wings up, because as you know, MSE folk do tend to stick together. Especially in medical. A shake of her head as she looks down a bit at Scrapper, lips curved into a smirk hidden by the battle mask she has yet to shift away. As Beatdown speaks, she feels the need to interject, "If anyones kicking any afts in here, it's going to be Scrapper. He's head of the division. Hack, stow it or get spaced." She murmurs again to Scrapper, optics fixed on the entire show warily.

Arachnae mutters to Scrapper, "... one.... the ones... done... that's why... alive,... slag. If... get... up,... time to... the designing... Besides,... volunteer to play with... coil. Seriously. After the... he'd think..."

Fulcrum nods. Of course it was valuable! "I will be conducting the next tests using myself as the subject" he replies truthfully. Of course he will - now with the data from Frenzy, he knows exactly what the tollerance is on that insulating cloth. That, couple with the superconducting materials he 'aquired' from that Japanese plant.. yes, things are coming together nicely!

Hack when it looks like Soundwave isn't going to take Fulcrum for further questioning, Hack gives out a small grunt and lets his aim slide off his fellow Decepticon and allows the barrel to swing downward. Hack returns the pistol to the holster in his leg. With a small grinding noise the leg slides closed. Hack rubs his right calf and mumbles about having it looked at later. Hack tosses his polishing rag aside and leaves his workstation to attend to Ratbat who is still laying on the ground in a heap.

Soundwave's optic band gleams malevolently at Fulcrum. "I agree, Fulcrum. As a matter of fact, we will perform these tests.... now. Using the same insulating material. After all, we must test the effectiveness of this material on larger Cybertronians, should we not?"

A glance at Hack. What's he--oh, Ratbat fell over. Great, all his tapes are getting wrecked and cruelly experimented on. Just great.

Arachnae uhohs.

Beatdown smirks at Hack with a Winning smirk. Oh yeah, who's the daddy now. But instead he just nods and relaxes, glad the situation has defused itself. "So uh Fulcrum... what's the next step in your science?"

Scrapper is indeed enough of a suck-up that he'd more or less roll over for Soundwave if Soundwave outranked him. The Constructicon folds his arms and spares a grateful look at Arachnae. "Darn straight. I'm all about kicking aft," he confirms. Glancing at her he mutters, "Darn straight. Nobody respects MSE like they should. Why, if it weren't for us they'd /all/ have been thrown out of Astrotrain at one point or another." Scrapper's optical visor narrows at Soundwave's suggestion. Where's he going with this?

The purple collection of sharp points and scorched plating flaps his wings weakly -- as if Ratbat were using it as a gesture to respond to Hack's noticing him.

Fulcrum shrugs. "Actually, we can extrapolate the results from the data aquired from the test" he replies. "Frenzy's specifications are quite well documented, it's really just a question of scaling up." He trudges over to the larger med console and begins to do just that, frowning as he taps at the keys, bringing up the reams of numbers that the sophisticated sensor suite of the medbay table has recorded.

Arachnae doesn't want to be around for another Tesla moment. Really, really really doesnt. and a bit of nervousness is betrayed by shifting and flicking of wing panels. She steels herself, backing up Scrapper nonetheless. "Well, since you *are* in charge of MSE, Scrapper..." voice softly pitched, but not whispered, "You can have toe joy of kicking it back into shape. Like the old days." Half smile hidden by mask.

Soundwave shakes his head. "I disagree, Fulcrum. I believe we require more... raw data." His head leans forward a bit. "Stand over here." Ooooh....

Beatdown looks from Scrapper to Soundwave and back again. Ooh, its a powerplay, whose side are YOU on. Or more importantly, who will he be hitting people for?

Hack leans in closer to Ratbat as he pulls out his personal scanner. The scanner dies in the middle of the power up phase and the scanner's screen goes dark. Hack eyes the scanner in the tradion of all great mechinics gives the side of the device a solid blow with his hand. The sudden jarring effect on the scanner seems to have done the trick as the scanner leaps to life and begins to run a diagnostic of Ratbat's systems.

Hack pulls out a medical scanner and runs a check on Ratbat.

Scrapper arghs both mentally and out loud at Arachnae's comment. "Yes. Yes, thank you very much for the opportunity." The Constructicon steps forward to try and put out the latest fire. "Soundwave, stand down. Stop harassing the other medicsbefore I ban you from the medical wards." Scrapper isn't worried about being banned from the DCI Offices in return, because, you know, who cares? What Scrapper wouldn't do to have his team around here as back up.

Sunder has been recovering from a few nasty injuries, courtesy of Ultra Magnus and Rodimus Prime. But now, he realizes he's nearly out of talon polish. He goes to the drawer where the stuff is kept and rummages around a bit before snorting in disgust. Scrapper is out of his customary shade of talon-hardening paint. #3 Arcee pink, to be exact. He grumbles softly, not wanting to interrupt the intriguing conversation just yet.

Fulcrum is being given conflicting orders, but ONE of these commanders is pretty much his division head (Fulcrum's technically in Operations right now, but it's not like that hasn't changed before). So he sides with Scrapper. Also, this means he doesn't get electrocuted, again a plus. "I will happily send you the results of the second test" he says to Soundwave, knowing this isn't QUITE what the tape momma is after.

The medical scanner that Hack uses reinforces what can be gleaned just by looking at Ratbat -- that he took a full-on plasma attack and then got bounced around like a little, ugly, shrieking pinball, smashing himself up. The bat lets out a tiny noise like glass being wiped too hard.

A dull roar is heard from outside the door, as Laserbeak's shiny black metal skin gleams from the flurecent lights of the repair bay. The demented Decepticon condor perches himself high above his fellow bretheren on a support rigging on the ceiling. His creepy yellow optics scan the action going on below him.

Soundwave immediately regrets giving up command of medical to Scrapper. But then, he had little choice. There's been so much activity for him to keep track of that he simply didn't have the time to manage MSE, as well. And if he didn't run MSE, and the whole organization started to fall apart on him, that would look very badly on him--bad enough, perhaps, for Galvatron to cannon him. Still... he may have one extra bargaining chip on his side.

Soundwave replies, "Very well, Scrapper. But bear in mind that such a threat, if ever enforced, may come to haunt you. If your laser core were to suffer damage in battle, none could repair it with my level of skill. Not even Hook. Remember that." He gently drops Frenzy on a table--the little guy can probably recover on his own. And lastly, a glower at Fulcrum. "As for you, I had better not hear of such an incident again. And I can hear very well."

Arachnae gives a slow shake of her head, "Anytime, Scrapper." She shifts wings behind her, reaching up to tap her mask, shunting it back away to reveal a fairly thoughtful smile.

Symphony has been here all along, but she tucked herself up in a high corner of the room after Arachnae finished with her tune up and has been silently watching this whole time. She has something of a gargoylish appearance to her as she stares down at everyone from that nice little perch point, glad once again for her climbing abilities.

Hack whinces slightly at the sound Ratbat makes and frowns while looking over the scanner. Hack turns to one of the MSE Gumbies and says "Put him up on that table there." The Gumbie respond and lifts Ratbat up onto one of the repair tables. While the Gumby is doing all the liftwork Hack grabs a chair and uses as a makeshift stepstool so he can actually see over the table and work on Ratbat. As Ratbat is laid out before him Hack rubs his hands together and says "Alright.... first thing is first, let me see if I can get that auto repair back online and see if we can have you up and about again." Hack's laser scaple pops out of his right forearm as he leans over Ratbat and begins to go to work.

Fulcrum takes that as his cue to leave. "I will make sure I deny any of your creations if they volunteer for experiments in future" Fulcrum replies. Woo, off the hook! Maybe. "If you will excuse me, I have some things to attend to." Picking up the roll of insulation and the (slightly charred) metal pole, he trudges from medbay, headinf for his quarters where he can work on PHASE TWO of his CUNNING PLAN.