Party In The ICU



Autobot City - Repair Bay

This is the main repair bay for the Autobots. Several operating tables lie in a row here, and a long bench lines one wall. On the bench are assorted tools used in repairing damaged Transformers. Scattered throughout the room are various repair bots, awaiting the arrival of more wounded to repair. The room gives you the perception of being immaculately clean, not a tool out of place.

On the left side of the operating arena are wide sliding doors that open into the recovery ward. Less frantic than the busy repair bay, it consists of two rows of immaculate beds on opposite walls for those needing peace and quiet to rest and recover from their repairs. The sounds of quiet conversations between medic and patient, or between visitor and patient, are about all that disturb the quiet.

Impactor has arrived.

The med bay isn't bustling as it would be after a fierce firefight, but it's not barren, as a good chunk of the recharge slabs are occupied by mechs either unconscious, reading or propped up watching the holovids their comrades have brought over. Likely some amusing Terran videos. Those Terrans do the darnedest things! A trio of mechs are perched in the corner, looking grim.

"Tell ya' what, live executions... Things are gettin' pretty bad."

"They're sure to get worse. Expect it."

Air Raid doesn't really stand out from the rows of the recovering. Except that he's on his front, because friggin' jet kibble. His slab is... draped with energon, that a hapless drone is trying to clean up. Seems someone has stopped him from bleeding out completely, but there's still a gruesome stab wound right through his fuselage and chest. And he's zonked.

Shiftlock has decided to visit the Autobot base today, because.... well... She doesn't have many other places to go, now. Her original home base was compromised, she's being tracked by Ravage here and there, and she can't be sure she wouldn't just lead the Cons to other resistance cells and compromise them. Autobot facilities seem more secure.

After having delivered a body to the Magnaron facility for examination, the Crystal Sentinel made her way to Earth, considering taking up Sky Lynx and Hardhead on their offer. At the very least, she owes Mirage, Swerve and Broadside for their help, and she likes to repay her debts.

While functional, her exterior doesn't look much better than many of the wounded here, paint on her chest and feet burnt black or entirely off, and it wasn't even her own doing this time! The attacks have been frequent as of late.

Sorry Torque, this is why Shiftlock can't have nice things.

Gruesome stab wound? Say no more, Dr. Torque is on the case. Especially since it seems no one else is. She gives Air Raid a rather worried look when pulling up beside his berth with her tray of medical tools, his sleeping state gaining a quirk of a brow. Surprised he can be asleep with the state of him right now.

But she doesn't question it, instead just shaking her head with a minor smirk and moving around back to get to work on his fuselage. She'll do her best not to wake him up, already puting on some pain dampeners, but you never know. While working she glances up a moment to spot Shiftlock, eyeing the burned paint a moment before offering a smile to the other femme. "Evening, Shiftlock. Stopping in for a checkup?"

Impactor stomps in, shouldering past Shiftlock like she didn't exist, passing by Air Raid... The Wrecker stops in front of the trio of whiney mechs, who happen to be standing in front of the cabinet he needs access to. The three freeze up with wide eyed disbelief, unsure of how to react.

"Move."

All three mechs climb over each other, scrambling tobe the first that gets the hell out of Impactor's way. Impactor steps forward, scowling (more) to find that the cabinet is locked. He stabs his harpoon hand into the door and yanks back, pulling the door off.

He can't believe his optics. "Two Autobot strongholds, two planets, not a single damn box of adrenergon..."

As careful as Torque is, Raid wakes on his own accord. He jolts upright, pulls his rifle from subspace and levels it on the poor cleaning drone. -WOP- /Crunch/. Raid clutches his weapon, optics wide, peering over the edge of his slab at the smoldering drone, flattened into the ground. "Scrap... Sorry buddy... Torque, baby! Agh, what the frag..." Belatedly realizing he'd been injured, he appears downright offended. Thank goodness for pain dampeners. "I don't have time for this!" Then he spots Impactor. "It's Impactor," he murmurs, going a bit starry-eyed. HE'S SO HARDCORE.

"Nah, I just came to give you a hand, you guys have been a real help latel--" Shiftlock lurches forward as she's shoved aside by Impactor. She stumbles and catches herself, glowering at the big guy with the harpoon.

Suddenly the big guy with the harpoon is just tearing apart things to look for medical supplies, and she goes from frowning in barely contained rage to frowning in disapproval. Air Raid jerking away catches her attention a little, and she learns the big harpoon-handed guy's name: Impactor. Apparently he's kind of a big deal. Bonk.

"Any substitutes you can use?" she asks Impactor while he rifles around for supplies, trying to subtly suggest he might try the next best thing instead of spearing doors and pushing people around. Back to Air Raid. "Wow, you look like the pit, kid. Who'd you slag off?" she asks with a grin.

Torque glances back to Raid when he begins to stirr, though she doesn't expect him to pull his rifle out on the spot! "Er, Raid it's okay!" She tries to bring him down from attack mode, frowning at the shot up drone once he does, sighing and rubbing her head. "Look, just hold still, okay? I'll get you patched up quick and you can--."

Enter Impactor, flaunting his badassitude that pretty much draws her attention the moment he comes into the room, antennas flicking upright and optics getting a bit brighter. Cue Wrecker fangirl mode. The femme opens her mouth to greet him, but it promptly dies on her lips when she sees him rip open the cabinate, jaw just left hanging open a few moments before it turns into a bit of a scowl. "Impactor, we needed that!" She huffs at the giant mech, a balled fist on her hip. "If you wanted some adrenergon you should just ask instead of going about ripping the facilities apart."

Elita One has arrived.

Impactor turns around very slowly when Spindrift addresses him. He stares down at her, door slowly falling off the harpoon blade. "Who the hell are you?"

Air Raid looks between Torque and Impactor. Then back. And again, his glare deepening. Suddenly Impactor is not so cool. He reluctantly lies back on his front, rifle vanishing back into subspace as Shiftlock addresses him. She earns a scoff. "Blitzwing. I nearly had him runnin'! But he had to go all tank. I forget that this aft-hats are triplechangers sometimes. Ugh."

 Whirl says, "Impactor!"

Elita One 's optics flicker back to light. It takes her a moment to regain her faculties. Once again she finds herself in the medbay. Some clever, or not so clever Bot has put her in a different bed than the one that bears the notation "Elita One's bed" She mutters, then props herself up weakly.

Shiftlock smiles at Air Raid. "Awesome. I hope you kicked his aft." Wait, was that a compliment? It was.

Impactor rounds on her and Shiftlock faces him with a complete lack of fear; she refuses to be cowed by anyone, even when by all rights she should be - it's the principle of the thing. "Shiftlock. I'm a Crystal Sentinel working with the Autobots. Who the hell are you?"

Impactor may be one of her idols, but dear Primus. Torque just sighs and steps away from Raid for a moment, snatching up the door where it falls and sort of just.. shoving it back onto the cabinate before moving back and continuing to fix him. "Well, I'm glad you came back at all." She smiles to the flier, finishing his fuselage and making a motion for him to move so she can get a look at his front.

 Whirl says, "Word on the street is you're back from doing whatever it is you go off and do sometimes. I assume it involves stomping heads and harpooning guys."

Combat: Elita One compares her Firepower to Shiftlock's Courage: Success!

 Elita One says, "Hmmmhh?"

Air Raid doesn't rightly know what to make of the compliment. Maybe it's SARCASM. He eyes Shiftlock warily but offers a quick nod before Torque returns. He moves to sit on his knees as she instructs, disgruntled as ever, biting down to keep from yelping in pain. Looks like his main lines have been cauterized, at least. "Thanks Torque," he eventually responds, tossing a half-hearted salute to Elita.

Combat: Torque runs a diagnostic check on Air Raid

Combat: Torque expertly repairs Air Raid's injuries.

Combat: Torque is able to repair some of Air Raid's internal systems damage.

 Whirl says, "Elita! Have you managed to kill Shockwave yet?"

Impactor looks over Shiftlock's head (well, looks straight ahead- she's much smaller than him) over to Air Raid, as well as the mech fixing him. "I owe you a cabinet, doc. Air Raid, introduce me to this backwater Empty. I don't have time to educate."

He gives Elita a nod. "How's the running, gunning, hiding, and running game going, Elita?" !attack all=scowl

Combat: Impactor is size 7, a lot larger than you.

Blurr enters from the Main Lobby - First Floor to the north.

Blurr has arrived.

 Impactor says, "Rodimus had me n' Buster hunting an Ultraklor through the Corsair Astrorockbeds, Whirl."

 Whirl says, "Awwww, and you didn't take me?"

 Spindrift says, "And then we went and blew up a Con bunker last night."

Elita One wakes up to sour attitudes. That was refreshing. Half her innards just recently got stuffed back inside, this was nothing. With a flat response, she looks towards Impactor, "About as well as you can see, unless your optics got banged loose, you thickhead." The scowl fades, intentionally just a facade, "Not well, but surviving. She sits up a bit more, with great effort, an energon IV still in her arm.

 Whirl says, "Oh maaan."

 Whirl says, "Did you bring me back any Decepticon hands at least?"

 Impactor says, "Packs a punch, for a tape."

 Spindrift says, "Ravage don't even have hands."

 Whirl says, "His paws then."

 Whirl says, "I can make a necklace out of them."

 Shiftlock says, "Ravage doesn't take well to having his head shot."

 Elita One says, "what happened?"

Torque nods to Raid's thanks, setting him up with a few more dampeners so it's less of a strain to sit up. "Just relax, yeah?" She says with a smile, hands quick and precise in patching him up. A nod of greeting is also sent to Elita before Impactor is given a momentary glance over her shoulder. "Appreciate it, Impactor. ..What'd you need adrenergon for, anyway? I can provide you some if you really need it."

Whirl has arrived.

<Autobot> Spindrift says, "Impactor an' I went lookin' for terminals, found Ravage and Rumble tryin' to fortify a bunker down there by the look of it. They were movin' a cart of sentry parts 'round, at least."

<Autobot> First Aid says, "What's an Ultraklor?"

Backwater Empty?! BACKWATER EMPTY?!

It hurts 'cause it's true.

Shiftlock grunts dimissively and just avoids the big, loud, ugly Captain Ahab. "Don't worry about educating me on this guy. I think I know all my tank can handle," she grumbles. She refocuses her attention on Torque. "Anything I can get for you? I'd like to help if possible."

Air Raid is not still at all, poor Torque. He twitches and jerks away and wriggles about everytime something hurts or /doesn't/ hurt. Apologetic looks are given every instance, until she hits him with even more dampeners. "Urg, Primus bless your sweet lasercore, Torque." When Impactor speaks to him, he stiffens, then tries not to laugh at Shiftlock's title. "Uh... She's not a backwater Empty, Impactor sir. She's like she said. Shiftlock. Fiesty rebel."

<Autobot> Blades says, "Like a normal klor, but ultra."

Impactor gives Elita a nod. "You know how t'take yer licks, I'll give you that much. Spindrift and I had a run in with Ravage and Rumble over one of your bunkers last night. One of the terminals got blown up."

He pauses, giving Air Raid a look. "Fiesty rebel, huh? My least favorite kind of rebel." He glares down at Shiftlock. "The hell are you doing in Autobot City, rebel?"

You know what friendly repair scenes need? MORE WRECKERS!

"Greetings my fellow Autobots!" Whirl chirps enthusiastically, eyeballing everyone in the room with that beady little optic of his. "Good to see all of you, especially /you/ Shiftlock.." He turns his full attention on the femme, no doubt horrible thoughts that should never be spoken of floating through his mind. "Anyway, I can tell you guys are having some kind of important conversation so don't mind me, just getting some ammunition." Of course he says that, but he still manages to gravitate towards everyone else, standing a uncomfortably close.

"Hey hey, it's cool, boss." Whirl waves his pincher hand around a bit. "Shiftlock is totally awesome, giver her a chance!"

<Autobot> Impactor says, "Well now it's just a grease stain on a rock in space, First Aid. But before we got to it, guess it looked like something a Terrorcon would wanna hump."

<Autobot> Torque snickers

<Autobot> First Aid says, "Wow! Was it evil?"

Elita One eyes Impactor and Shiftlock's discussion before laying back down. She then manages to return the nod to Torque. She adds to Impactor's comment, "Lots of practice." Her arms cross as she considers something, then stretches out to grasp at the datapad on the small table beside her. A mutter crosses her faceplate, "Things need to change..."

Torque is used to squirmy patients, so Air Raid is no trouble. At least she doesn't scold him like some medics would. In fact his jerking is quite amusing. When Shiftlock asks to help out Torque purses lips in thought a moment. Wellll.. "Sure." She says finally with a smirk, gesturing with an energon stained hand to one of the back rooms. "I need another canister of sealant. Should be third shelf, should be on the left. And grab a bock of adrenergon for Impactor. Bottom shelf in the center."

Just as she's about to return to her duty she hears a very familiar, unsettling voice. Whirl. Torque visibly wretches with a grimace, likely seen by Raid only, keeping her back turned to the ground and doing her best to be invisible while working.

<Autobot> Spindrift says, "... Now I regret actually knowin' what 'hump' means."

<Autobot> Blurr says, "...what /does/ hump mean?"

"WHIRL." Impactor marches over to Whirl and they do like a big arm wrestling looking handshake, muscles bulding. "You son of a bitch."

http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm192/corkyandjake/DILLON_predator.gif

<Autobot> First Aid says, "Euphemism for sex, Blurr. Like a lot of the human languages, to be honest."

<Autobot> Blurr says, "Oh. But that doesn't make any sense, Terrorcons wouldn't mate the way organics do."

<Autobot> Torque says, "Tell that to them."

<Autobot> Elita One says, "....that explains a lot of things the Healthabots say"

"IMPACTOR!" Whirl returns the manly handshake. Wow, so macho, so sexy. Everyone in the room should be jealous of how awesome they both are at this very moment. "Glad to see you again! I was starting to miss punching dudes with you, you know."

Combat: Torque runs a diagnostic check on Blurr

Combat: Torque expertly repairs Blurr's injuries.

Combat: Torque is able to repair some of Blurr's internal systems damage.

Combat: Torque runs a diagnostic check on Elita One

Combat: Torque expertly repairs Elita One's injuries.

Combat: Torque is able to repair some of Elita One's internal systems damage.

Air Raid watches Whirl with some indifference, until Torque grimaces. "You want I should uh, beat 'em up for ya'?" he quietly asides to her. "Things'll change!" he abruptly assures Elita, as if she needs assurance. "Can I lie back down now?" he nigh pouts to Torque.

The subtle interplay of personalities in the room is like an intricately woven tapestry of rich and magnificent colors -- that are wasted because the picture is a crayon drawing of a butt.

Morale isn't what it could be.

Shiftlock is appreciative of Air Raid's little nod of approval, and, well, even Whirl's vouching for her, even though the look on Torque's face the moment he comes into the room is causing her to wonder if Whirl's approval is a good thing to have. She heads to the back room, speaking over her shoulder to Impactor, since he was so kind as to ask her why she was here.

"I'm here on behalf of the Sentinels in Crystal City. They want me to make sure you guys aren't just as bad as the Decepticons, or trying to pull one over on us."

Elita One raises her optics to regard the Wrecker love fest. She notes that next up will be probably some bravado and/or denting. Offhanded to nobody, she says, "I heard we'll see Ultra Magnus back at his post soon..." Preoccupied for the moment, she puts down her datapad, filled with schematics of herself actually. She ends up looking over at Air Raid. "You're in too, eh? What happened?"

Blurr stumbles into the repair bay, looking terribly drained. Torque, or any medic, really--would be able to tell he took a fairly extensive beating and THEN delayed getting repairs; thus inflicting further energon loss upon himself. His body is scratched, scorched, cracked, and stained with his own fuel. It's almost a miracle that Contrail didn't jump on the opportunity to end him at that joint on Monacus. Of course, she probably has other plans...at the very least she must have decided he was more useful alive than dead.

At any rate, he smiles weakly at Torque. He still doesn't like being in here...but at least the fembot's presence helped ease his circuits. "Hey....Torque. Everyone..."

Impactor looks sort of amused by Shiftlock. "And you weren't clear on this vorns ago?" He walks towards the rebel, leaning down over her. "Freedom is the right of all sentient beings. What rock've you been hiding under that you've never heard that gem, Sentinel?" He smirks. "Let me make your visit a little easier. "Since apparently you've never heard of Optimus Prime, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt for never hearing of me. The name's Impactor, commanding officer for Autobot military operations. Field leader of the Wreckers. And there's nothing to pull over you- I'm every bit as bad as any Decepticon you've ever met. And if you and your pretend rebel friends want this war won for you, you're gonna thank Primus for it."

Torque tries to give Raid a smile that says 'it's okay' in response to his concern, but it's clear she's a little uneasy with Whirl in the room. At least he didn't beeline for her first. Thank you, Shiftlock, THANK YOU. "Hold on, I just gotta seal you back up and you can go back to laying down." Seal him up with the sealant she asked for, to be specific. "It'll be good to see Magnus back. Wonder where he's been." She picks up on Elita's comment and remarks back while sparing a glance at the sound of the medbay door sliding open. she doesn't like what she sees however, looking surprised at the state of Blurr. "Primus, blurr, what happened to you?"

Since she can't attend to him right away, what with still being with a patient, a few gumbie medics see Blurr to a medical berth so he can get off his feet and relax as they prep him and begin repairs.

You will no longer hear messages on channel <O-Autobot>.

Elita One bolts up, wincing. "Impactor, you son of a hitch!" She gets out of bed anyway, pulling out her IV as she does. A totally bad move, but hey, passion got her into this hospital stay as well. "I've worked in and with countless rebels on Cybertron for vorns now. You can't simply belittle this cell simply because they're untested. The sheer fact that they're seeing freedom after all this time is..." She fumbles for a word then sags, slumping back onto her bed. She raises a hand dismissively, "You know what I mean...ugh"

"He's right, Impactor is one mean son of a bitch!" Whirl says after concluding the MANLIEST HANDSHAKE EVER INVENTED. "You know how many faces that harpoon has gone through? A lot! Mine included." Is that why he looks the way he does? The world will never know.

And Torque.. sweet naive Torque, did she really think she could be in the same room as Whirl without him noticing her eventually? The blue Wrecker steps right up to her, standing so close that the glass of his chest scrapes against her armour. "Heeelllooooooo Torque~ I see you're quite busy today."

"I... Well the WIND was blowing the wrong direction, so I was at an /obvious/ disadvantage, but 'cons don't give a slag about a fair game," Raid began explaining to Elita, but trails off to talking to himself. Blurr gets a broody look but nothing else. Then Whirl strides up to harass Torque. Raid twitches, and jerks back his fist to try and sock Whirl right in his stupid optic!

Combat: Air Raid strikes Whirl with his Punch attack!

Elita One slumps back down into her bed, a weak pained expression on her face as she self-administers that IV that she took out. "Yeah?" She questions Air Raid, "Galvatron choked me out. I shoved a glass gas missile into his skull first...stupid move." She sighs as she gets comfortable, "But oh so satisfying."

All Whirl wanted to do was talk with Torque and then Air Raid goes absolutely crazy and starts punching him in the face...thing. The glass of his optic shatters around the Aerialbot's fist and Whirl stumbles back a bit, stunned by this unexpected turn of events. ALWAYS! ALWAYS GO FOR THE EYE!" He picks a piece of shattered glass out of the hole in his face with his pinchers and tosses it aside before walking back up to Air Raid. 'Heheh..ah... that was a good punch there buddy! Now it's my turn!"

Whirl reels back an arm before letting loose and striking Air Raid right in one of his optics with everything he's got. Teach that little bitch to punch him!

Combat: Whirl misses Air Raid with his AN EYE FOR AN EYE (Punch) attack!

Shiftlock comes out of the back room with the sealant and andenergon, tossing the box of the latter to Impactor, scrutinizing him with her eyes and keeping a steelly expression etched into her youthful face.

"The rock I've been hiding under is the tunnels under Crystal City, trying to help people who have never gone without creature comforts survive being suddenly homeless and hunted by Decepticons. Yeah, I'm not very old, I'm not familiar with the long and storied history of the Autobot-Decepticon war, but from the looks of it, maybe that's for the best."

She resumes walking towards Torque - time to intercept Whirl - and she doesn't give Impactor the benefit of adoration or even continued eye contact. "I've seen your kind before, and yeah, they're usually wearing a purple badge. Seeing as how you're being so open about it, I'm not sure having you win the war for us is such a good idea. Walking weapons like you are only good for death and destruction - what do you add to Cybertronian society other than that? Warp cannons and land mines can do your job, and they have the side benefit of being less egomaniacal."

She tries to come in between Torque and Whirl, handing Torque the sealant she wanted. "Guys, COME ON. This is a medical ward. Can we measure our dipsticks later?"

Blurr chuckles at Elita's comment about the glass gas missile to Galvatron's face. "Heh, yeah....th-that was...that was great." he half-mumbles. "Should have seen him screaming." He also smirks as Air Raid as he punches Whirl for harrassing Torque. It seems Shiftlock hasn't solved the problem completely, after all. Well at least she helped. Blurr would totally join in on the Whirl-punching party, if he weren't so banged up.

He waves a dismissive hand at Torque's question. "Oh, uh...scuffle down in the Istoral. I came out on top, though." he brags, grinning. "That node was ours."

Okay, so.. a lot of things start to happen. First, Elita gets out of bed. Not a good thing, Torque looking her way with a worried expression and directing another gumbie medic to check on her. "Elita, please, you have to stay in bed, alright?" Second, this draws her attention long enough for Whirl to make his move, sidling up behind her and forcing her to freeze up in surprise, antennas upright with tips emitting a single flash of alarm, looking like a deer in the headlights. And third, Raid decks Whirl in the face. She's appreciative, but seriously, no fighting in the medbay!

Whirl Shiftlock has Whirl she tries to hold back Raid, setting the sealant she's handed aside for the moment and gripping the mech tight by the shoulders. "Damnit, you two, no fighting in the medbay!" Torque frowns disapprovingly. And here comes the commanding side. "Raid, /sit down/. Whirl, back off /now/."

Elita One notices Blurr finally. There's an awful lot happening here! She looks back to Torque, nodding, "Right right, just..." She motions to Air Raid, "I'll stay put, it's your ward to deal with." She shifts in the bed, sitting up a bit more, "I don't remember much else, Blurr. I...let my emotions get the better of me and made some real tactical failures because of it. I had hoped that maybe if Alpha Trion was really in there, that maybe he'd remember me." She softens her tone, "Just to hear him again....well.." Her voice trails off, then returns to normal, "Well, that certainly didn't work out, and now I wouldn't be surprised if the Warlord is out for my inner energon now. So...." She turns around her datapad, displaying schematics for herself (LOOK AWAY!), "I realize now that my frame needs reworked. We've got the tech, and the resources." She nods reluctantly. "Hard to say I need upgrades past what Alpha Trion himself has done, but..." She shrugs.

Impactor smirks, watching Shiftlock walk by. "Tell you what, Empty. Normally, pains in the aft like you get my special attention, but you're not worth my time. Not yet." He looks past Air Raid punching Whirl in the face to Torque. "Doc, she's your problem now. Use those future Wrecker fists and turn this Empty into something resembling an Autobot. Is she screws up, you've screwed up. She pisses me off, well... You get it." He taps his head with his harpoon hand. "Whirl, quit mucking around with that Aerialbot."

"Whirl harasses the medics!" Raid tries to defend himself, somehow managing to evade Whirl's punch with a painful twist. "Impactor sir, control your helicopter!" Torque reins him in with her strong grip and tone, and he sits right back down with a glower. "Hmph."

There's nothing more Whirl wants to do right now than wrap his clamps around Air Raid's neck and just throttle the hell out of him until he stops moving, but Shiftlock gets in the way which is probably a good thing for everyone involved. Then, surprisingly enough, Torque starts yelling at him. How rude! "Tch! I wasn't even doing anything! That little twerp needs to be put in his place."

He DOES back off however, for now, though he keeps gesturing aggressively at the Aerialbot; shaking his null ray module 'hand' at him over Shiftlock's shoulder. "You're lucky Shiftlock stepped in when she did or else I'd be inflicting all sorts of horrible pain on your ass!"

You will no longer hear messages on channel <RP-Coordination>.

Good, Raid listens to her. This gets him an approving nod from Torque as she releases him. "Thank you. Just leave it to me, alright?" Turning back to Shiftlock and Whirl now, she's forced to stop when Impactor speaks up, slowly looking his way with a rather surprised look that gradually becomes a look of awe, the femme nearly starry eyed. "....Future Wrecker?" She barely even catches that it's about Shiftlock, though what Torque can do for the femme is beyond her. Either way the medic straightens up like a true warrior and nods sternly. "Yessir!"

Back to Whirl, who she gives a hard look and levels a finger at. "Whirl, if you want to stay here then be quiet. If not, there's the door." Said finger then sweeps to the medbay entrance.

Elita One casts a sideglance to Torque. She smirks for a moment quietly, but leaves the comment unspoken.

"You keep callin' me Empty like it's an insult," Shiftlock says to Impactor. "Yeah, you know what? I *AM* an Empty. I fight longer and harder than warborns WITH nothin' and I GET nothin' in return. SHE-," the copper and black femme says, pointing at Torque, "-is *not* my keeper. I am *not* your little soldier to push around. You can rattle your harpoon at me all day, I don't give a unicron-fragging oil-leak if you're pissed off, and if you're gonna up and slaughter neutrals and allies because you have less control over your temper than a Stunticon, maybe it's better if I die right now, so I don't have to live in a world you helped bring into power."

She pushes Whirl's claw away from her shoulder, gently. "Enough," she says softly. "This doesn't help us win."

Elita One openly grins at Shiftlock. "And that is the sort of tenacity I like to hear." She sighs warmly, "Conviction." She settles back onto her bed, remarking softly, "Perhaps things are not so hopeless after all."

Air Raid grinds his dental plates, optics burning an angry cerulean at Whirl's retort. He gestures wordlessly - it's hard to discern what he's trying to get across. Strangle. Kill. Death. "Can I lie down /now?/" he asks of Torque, oblivious to the lecturing. Until Shiftlock raises her voice. Oooh, she's badass too. And can CURSE.

Oh right. She needs to finish up Raid. Quick to do that she takes the new canister of sealant and applies it to the patched up wound at his front, the application fast acting and drying quickly as she nods to him. "There, you're finished now, you can lie back down now."

Torque totally did that.

"Hey, don't beat yourself up over it, Elita. Not many 'Bots out there can do a number on Galvatron like that and live to tell about it." he says, grinning. Shiflock gets an annoyed glance. Primus, she certainly has a temper. "Look, Shiftlock. If you want to stick around here, you'd better start paying respect to superior officers like Impactor here just like everyone else does, whether you're officially an Autobot or not. This is -not- your little underground hidey hole where anything goes as long as you can survive. This is a military organization, and you'll treat it as such for as long as you're here. You want our help, you play by our rules, got that?" he asks sharply. Not that he himself is the best example of showing respect to superior officers...

Whirl may not have a face (and right now, no eye) but it's painfully clear that he has nothing but utter contempt for Air Raid right now. Someday, probably sooner than later, when he doesn't expect it, Whirl is going to drop out of the shadows and beat his head into the ground. Over and over and over again until the jet is unrecognizable. Soon... soon..

The helicopter just huffs when Shiftlock pushes his 'hand' aside. "Hhnn..." He lowers his head, staring down at the femme who so bravely stood between a Wrecker and his potential victim. He says nothing further, just blank, emotionless staring.

<Autobot> Getaway and Rev, a moment of: "... and that's not even the most difficult part! Did you know that some brigs are built with tritanium alloy bars sheathed in molecular bonded synth-metal? They are practically impenetrable! Not even that laser scalpel you pilfered from medi--" "Rev!" "Don't 'Rev!' me! You are underestimating the construction expertise of the Decepticons, Getaway! There are numerous versions of these exact schematics available for perusal, with variations on the lock mechanisms and electro-stasis probabilities that should be considered befo--" "Will you relax? I've got this." "You most certainly DO NOT have this! If you think, for even a milicycle, that I am going to accompany you on this foolhardy attempt to get yourself into trouble just so you can get yourself out of it, for the SHEER SAKE of seeing if you can do it, then you've got another thing coming!" "That is not the only reason." "Oh? Then, by all means, do enlighten me! What other reason could you possibly have for wanting to break /in/ to a secure and heavily guarded Decepticon holding facility just to turn around and break out again?!" "Uh. Because it'll be /fun/, obviously." "... Oh for crying out Nebulon!"

When Blurr looks back to Elita One, she has a single expanded optic, a look of skepticism. Perhaps represented as O.o She remarks softly, "You're hardly one to be telling others how to work." Her gaze shifts over to Whirl. "Hey Whirl, I've got some good video footage here you might want to see. Ever wanted to see Galvatron get glass gassed...in the face?" She adds, "It was SUPPOSED to be for Shockwave, but small victories can be good too." She taps on her datapad, giving Blurr another amused look.

Impactor gives Elita a look. "You call that conviction?"

Impactor stares at Shiftlock for a long moment. "Let me explain something to you- you're lucky you're getting some reality from me, understand Empty? Because if you dropped this undisciplined load of vomit at Ultra Magnus' doorstep, he'd drop you right off at the Crystal City gates. So here's the deal. As long as you're attached to the Autobots, she IS your keeper, and you ARE my little soldier to order around." He gives Blurr a nod when the speedster speaks up.

"That's The Way It Is around here." Impactor points his harpoon hand at Shiftlock's forehead. "You got a problem with it, you know your way out. Have fun playing war with your friends. You stick around, and you keep pretending you're shiny and new and important, I'll gut you tailpipe to transmission."

He turns the glare back at Elita. "Let's see if you're still calling it conviction when our new little star player here gets an Autobot killed."

Air Raid thuds back onto his front, listening to Impactor lecture with unsurprisingly coldness. Chicks dig that, right? He won't leap to any sort of defense for now - Imp is kinda' scary, so he just drifts off to recharge.

Elita One does have the datapad up, and playing in a repeat, the scream of Galvatron as his face turns all skeletal and glassy then fading into static. Elita herself, well she seems to have drifted back to sleep.

Blurr pffs at Elita. "Maybe, but that doesn't justify her talking to Impactor like that." he says, glaring at Shiftlock before looking back to Elita. "I mean come on, you should be--" And then he realizes she's drifted back into stasis. "--er, never mind then..." he shrugs.

Shiftlock folds her arms and narrows her optics. "Like you said, I'm some backwater Empty, I don't know military protocol from a street sign. Sometimes being able to think outside of military strictures is a good thing."

"But you know what really goes far? Respect. I will take orders from Sky Lynx and Hardhead because they talk to me like I'm a person and not *thing*." She points at the floor. "I would get down on my hands and knees and scrub every inch of this base with a rag in my TEETH if they asked me to, because of respect. I don't respond well to threats, seeing as how that's what I'm used to Decepticons giving me, and well? I tend to tell them to go choke on a big bag of pistons."

"I'll follow your orders when I have an Autobot badge. Until then, I'll work with people like Jazz, Sky Lynx and Hardhead, who are more properly my liasons."

She stares back at Whirl next --

-- And then leans in, giving him a kiss on the side of his head. "Lay off Torque. She works hard."

Shiftlock starts to walk to the door.

Impactor watches Shiftlock go, clearly not that surprised at the outcome. "Greenhorn rookies are all the same. She'll grow up or she'll die." He does give Whirl a look, though. "You know I'm probably going to make you kill her, right?"

"I don't think you understand what we're saying, Shiftlock." Blurr counters even as she starts toward the door. "We -just- got finished telling you, if you want to stay here, you've got to play by our rules. And our rules are that you -don't- get to pick and choose who you take orders from. Whether you feel like they 'respect' you or treat you like a 'person' or not. You can't do that, well...you know how to get back to Crystal City, don't you?"

While Whirl considers Impactor a friend, there's no way in hell he would ever talk back to Impactor the way Shiftlock did. Not after the last time. Still, while he doesn't agree with how she reacted, he does respect her for having the metaphorical balls to snap right back at Impactor like that.

Then, just in case Shiftlock hadn't already started taking his attention away from his current fixation (in this case, Torque,) the femme leans in and gives him a smooch on that part of his face a cheek would be if he was blessed with such facial anatomy. The Wrecker freezes, only his head moving slightly as his gaze follows her on her way towards the door. Yeeeaaaauupppp, Shiftlock has definitely caught his full and undivided attention, it's only downhill from here.

After a long while, he responds to Impactor with a shrug of his shoulders. "I'll deal with that when the time comes. For now, let me have my fun."

Impactor stares at Whirl for a long moment. And then he grins.

Combat: Impactor strikes Whirl with his Punch attack!

Blurr watches Whirl's reaction to the kiss with a smirk, inwardly congratulating himself.

Whirl finds himself the recipient of an Impactor level punch which leaves a nice fist shaped dent in his armour. Does he mind? Not at all. Hell, he doesn't even seem to notice. He's far too busy thinking about that kiss he just got and making plans on how he's going to make Shiftlock his.

It's going to be /awesome./

Shiftlock's heard what Impactor said to Whirl about her, and she does take into consideration what Blurr has said. It's giving her a hell of a lot to think about.

She's not liking the Autobots much anymore.

"I'll just show myself out so you can order Whirl to kill me later."

Impactor rolls his optics as Shiftlock walks out. "Primus, but I hate rookies. Everyone of them acts like they're the first damn robot on Cybertron to have a transformation cog." He notes the adrenergon box o nthe floor and picks it up. "Got what I cam e for. See you back on Debris, Whirl."

"Yeah, see you later boss," Whirl asides before taking off after Shiftlock. "Ah! Wait! Shiftlock!" He strides right behind her, following closely behind her as she makes her escape. "Uhh..heheh, hey, maybe we can get those drinks I mentioned before. Maybe talk a bit? Maybe put together some plans about killing the Cons who took your friends?"

Shiftlock looks at Whirl, all the bravado drained out of her. "Yeah. You wanna do that? I'm game. He's right you know. I couldn't protect my friends. I'm no good to the rest of you."

Whirl goes to put an arm around Shiftlock but hesitates a moment before dropping it back to his side. Is this the first time Whirl has ever respected a woman's personal space? Truely this must be the end of times. "No, you couldn't," he says flatly. "Not by yourself at least. The Decepticons are cruel and if they caught you with the rest of your buddies, your corspe would've been hanging up on display too. I know sometimes the Autobots can seem like real assholes." Particularly Air Raid and Blurr, cough cough. "And sometimes it's hard to tell which side are the 'good guys,' especially to an outsider like yourself, but we're a team and we work together, fighting as hard as we possibly can to keep things like what happened to your squad from happening again and again."

He sighs and shrugs one of his shoulders. "I know Impactor seems like a real asshole, but he's seen some shit and he's seen what happens to robots like you. I haven't dismissed you yet, though. I think you could be a big asset to the Autobot cause if you gave us a chance and vice versa."

"I'll try," Shiftlock says. "I want to. I've seen things too, probably not the same as you guys... but I don't want to be written off just because I'm not a mech or a war machine."

"Hey." Whirl grabs Shiftlock's arm and pulls her towards him, staring down at her with an intense look (or atleast as intense as someone like him can manage.) "I wont write you off. I wont ever write you off, and I'll make it my duty to make sure the Autobots don't turn you away. I'll teach you everything I know and you will show everyone what they'd be missing if they were to dismiss you.

Shiftlock finally smiles.

"Thank you," she replies, hugging Whirl.

Uh oh, she hugged Whirl.

Wow, a kiss and a hug in the same day? This is the best thing ever! Whirl would smile if he could but he cant so he just wraps his arms around Shiftlock and holds her close. These feelings... they are foreign and a little bit confusing for the Wrecker but at the same time he is appreciative of them.

So.. He eventually loosens his hug on her and cocks his head to the side. "Drinks, yes?"

"Sure," Shiftlock replies. "Let's go."