The King's Shilling

Fri Nov 30, 2033

Memorial Square

The city's tallest towers form a ring around the city's center, more like a hexagon than a square due to the intersection of three thoroughfares. These lofty, deep-seated towers, sturdy yet graceful, block out the view of the rest of the city and dominate the square with sheer height. Even the dark indigo steel gleams in the sunlight, set off by the brilliant sparkling of the crystals. Linked by a series of seemingly-delicate aerial walkways, the glinting towers form the base of what looks like a six-sided spiderweb touched by dew. The "strands" are of the same indigo steel/titanium alloy as the towers themselves, but the numerous, everpresent crystals give them a deceptively gossamer aspect. In the center of the square is a perfect, miniature copy of the original Crystal City sculpted from sparkling quartz crystal and lit from beneath.

Contents:

Sideswipe

Scorn

Whirl

Spinister

Ministry of Peace

Abandoned Construction Project

Obvious exits: Down &lt;D&gt; leads to Basement Level. North &lt;N&gt; leads to Tower Promenade. Northeast &lt;NE&gt; leads to Residential Sector. Northwest &lt;NW&gt; leads to Academe. South &lt;S&gt; leads to Crystal City Spaceport. Southeast &lt;SE&gt; leads to Industrial Park. Southwest &lt;SW&gt; leads to Emporium.

Fly &lt;Up&gt;

Galvatron Wants You! PAX CYBERTRONIA

The massive banner, complete with an image of Galvatron pulling the heart out of the universe and laughing in grand victory, flutters triumphantly in the breeze. Below it, groups of Crystal City citizens, inspired by the current and ongoing Galvatron Festival, gather round a small table to register for the Decepticon Empire.

Manning the table are two smaller Decepticons: Mechashoe, formerly one of Shockwave's lab assistants, and a thin, short mech named Doublesize. They hand out applications and interview intersted parties.

MEANWHILE ON THE ROOFTOPS

Spinister watches the gathering, flanked by the best Nebulons ever.

Blades went AWOL after his repaint and re-opticing into an Empty with red optics mostly dark grey with some dark teal and back accents. He's banged-up from fights with the turbowolves that prowl Cybertron and prey on the unwary and fights with various thugs that /also/ prey on the unwary. There's a tight knot of hunger in his fuel tanks; he hasn't had a decent cube of energon since we left Iacon to head out for Crystal City - a meandering path that took him through a number of Empty encampments, all the better to gauge the pulse on Empty life - until he made it to Crystal City. Blades is dingy and starving and banged up with obvious scrapes and dents of different ages, and there is an edge of wariness about him - and an edge of violence. Something about his bearing and his optics say, 'I am seriously considering finding out much energon is in you. Because I want to eat it.'

He skulks to the end of the recruiting line and coolly sizes up those ahead of him. Could he take that guy? Could he outrun that female? Then he looks back over his shoulder - and up, at the rooftops.

"Amazing how big of a crowd Lord Galvatron was able to pull in. Not that I doubted him or anything." Smooth, cool voice of Scorn is heard as she steps up beside Spinister, giving the mech a devilish little smirk before optics turn to the lines of citizens waiting to sign up for the Empire. "Mm.. Curious how many will make it. A few of them look dead on their feet as is." Predatory gaze lingers on Blades in particular, almost mimicing his look while a hungry, chesire grin lights up her face.

"Any in particular catching your optic?" She asides to the silent mech, scanning the crowd yet again, curious on who she could give special treatment to by shoving them ahead in line. The primising ones should always sign up sooner, naturally.

Sideswipe had been tuned into this little escapade and decided to do his own detailing paint job. Black painted body with burn orange highlights and where he used to e black in the face and hands, he's now dull gray. His optics turned yellow, neutral. Then he'd gone to the training facility and let Hardhead beat on him for awhile....well, they beat the tar out of each other but hey, it was all in fun! His self-repair took care of some of the major dents, but he was still pockmarked with some decent ones and his 'new paint job' was scratched and scuffed all to the Pit and back. He'd had his rocket launcher removed before repaint and hadn't replaced it with anything. Strangely without it, he looked...different. The paint job and eyes helped with it too. He'd left out of Autobot City on the sly on a supply transport ship and slipped off once on Cybertron amongst several crates. He wandered the streets for awhile, getting some of the dust and dirt from the city ground into his paint and joints....tussling with a few mechs along the way to add to the look.

Even though Whirl already considered himself a master of disguise, Rack n' Ruin made a good point: how many robots out there could possibly have pinchers and null-rays for hands? It's kind of Whirl's gimmick, a big indicator of who he is, and also it kind of makes him look like a Shockwave wannabe which is never good so he had one of the gumby medics replace (under threats of violence) his hand-like apparatuses with actual, functional hands. He has fingers and everything! It's pretty amazing. Besides that drastic change, not much else about him is different. His baby blue paint scheme has been painted over with dark blues and purples but the rest of him is pretty much the same. He's still has the single eye and it's still obvious he turns into a helicopter but he scraped his Autobot emblems off so that should cover it, right? Yes, truely a master of disguise this one.

Currently Whirl stands in line at the recruition booth, a good thirty robots away from Blades but he manages to push and shove his way to the front of the line in just a few minutes. "The Decepticon's best hope coming through! Make way for the best of the best!"

Mechashoe smiles brightly up at Whirl. "Well this one sure has spirit! And I like your mustache! Doublesize, check out his sweet mustache! What's your name, youngster?" He hands Whirl a clipboard. "Just fill out this information and bring the form back to me. We've only got these really thin, easily breakable pens, but it's not like it's your first day with hands. NEXT!"

As another Empty approaches the table, a massive, terrifying piece of Decepticon walks down the line, inspecting the Empties. He's somewhere between Dinobot and a Guardian, and comes to a halt in front of Sideswipe. The beast leans down, and sniffs him. Glaring.

On the roof, Spinister gives Scorn a nod. "All are of use to the Empire, in some form or another. He stares right back at Blades, intrigued. Singe sits on the ledge, legs crossed and yawning, helmet off. "Creator this is boring. Just smelt them all and let's go home. I'm badly in need of a manicure."

Blades remembers Scorn from the Olympics. Tough gal. Not that an Empty would know that. All an Empty would know is that Decepticons are overfed. Clean. Well-armed. Dangerous. Nasty business. The rest? Is a matter of opinion. Spinister. There's a mysterious cookie. Now, would am Empty notice them? Maybe, maybe not...

Blades grins and gives them a cocky wave.

Sideswipe stands in line, his shoulders sagging a bit as he waits. He looks down at the ground, kicking at a piece of debris. He can see the massive Con coming down the line and tried to ignore him until he stopped right next to him and leaned over, sniffing. He shrunk back in 'half' surprise, "Uhm...sorry ser...Der a prablem?" he asks, imitating a bit a New Jersey accent.

"Hm, I suppose you're right." Scorn snorts softly, giving Singe a glance when he speaks, smirking at him, "Now now, be nice Singe. Nothing wrong with recruiting new cannon fodder." With that said she drops from the building, wings flaring out, fluttering heavily and allowing her a gentle landing beside the crowds.

"Remember, everyone, complimentary energon for those who sign up!" A good enough perk for any Empties. And speaking of, she catches Blades in her sights once more, weaving through the crowd, pushing aside those less important while making her way over. "Well hello there. Aren't you a delightfully scrappy little thing." The femme nearly purrs, shmoozing up on the apparent Empty. "What's your name, mm?" She produces an application form from subspace, but doesn't give it to him just yet, keeping it just out of reach.

"Ahaha, yes, thank you! It's always nice to meet someone who can appreciate a fine mustache," the helicopter robot who is definitely not Whirl says as he takes the form from the Decepticon with the most unfortunate of alt modes. He steps out of line and begins filling out the form with all sorts of made up information. Or at least he would if he didn't keep snapping the pens in half everytime he picked one up. The repetitive sound of snapping pens attracts the attention of a few Empties who all turn to look at him and watch as he destroys writing utensil after writing utensil.

Whirl scoffs when he looks up to meet the stares and pushes his way back to the table.

"Hey! Remember me? I was just here like five seconds ago. Right, so listen.. this information form, it's bullshit right?" He puts an elbow on the table and leans towards Mechashoe. "That's not what you guys want to see, right? You don't want forms full of crap information that wont matter in the long run anyway, you want action." He leans in closer. "I'll kill anyone you point me at. I'm serious. This is my way of showing you guys who dedicated I am to this thing.."

The monstercon snorts steam at Sideswipe. And then smiles a big derpy smile. "No problem friend. Frightclaws just like to see new friends. Frightclaws likes new friends and energon and baby turbofoxes. Do you like those things?"

"Frightclaws. Leave the wannabes alone." Lash, a small slender black and purple Decepticon pads up to the two. She gives Sideswipe a look. "He won't bite. Unless I want him to." She gives him a looking over. "You might make the cut, big mech."

Autobots will recognize Frightclaws and Lash as the Decepticons Scattershot rescued along with Bottlethrottle from a Decepticon science center. Buzzkill, who sucks, was totally there. Apparently after their stay in Autobot City, the two rejoined the Empire. Jerks.

Meanwhile, Mechashoe shrinks in his chair, clearly not comfortable with Notwhirl in his face. "I...err..the form?"

"HEY. Doublesize gets up, and throws a chair, super bro angry. "Ok bro, hold up. Get out of my boy's face. You want to fight someone? FIGHT ME. Doublesize, TRANSFORM!" And then Doublesize transforms into his alt mode: an identical robot that is 2 times bigger than his normal robot mode. He puts up his dukes.

Spinister, if anyone is keeping score, is gone.

Blades rather deliberately sizes Scorn up when she approaches him, and he mutters under his exhaust, "Hnnn, probably 30 astroliters. Wouldn't bet on more than 40." But he gives her that smile. Always smile for anyone with a badge. Smile and scrape and silently hate them when their backs are turned. "I'm Razor, lady. You got gorgeous optics, babe. You want I should do a lil' trick for you for one of those applications?"

Now where did that terribly mysterious Spinister go?

Combat: Scorn is size 5, the same as you.

Sideswipe looks up at Frightclaws and smiles a derpy smile right back looking interested, "Oh I do like new freinds, yeah." He rubs the area over his tanks and grimaces a little, "Yeah, I'd like enahgon too if I could get more of it. Not enough lately ya know." He looks over at Lash, "Thanks fer tha warnin' Ma'am." he says, looking back down to his feet and shuffling them slightly. "Names Banter...lookin' fer work. Heard you guys were lookin ta hire."

Whirl was just getting started with the death threats when Doublesize has to get all up in his face like that. "Oh yeah? You think I can't handle it? Look at you, you're shorter than I am!" The Empty who is totally not Whirl (seriously guys) just laughs at the poor guy.

And then Doublesize 'transforms' and Whirl just laughs harder.

"Seriously!? What kind of crappy alt mode is THAT supposed to be? I can't believe they even let you into the Decepticons. No really, I literally CAN'T believe it. I refuse to believe it. I refuse to believe they would let someone like YOU into the Empire but I have to fill out your stupid forms." He puts up his fists, his totally awesome fists that he's definitely always had. "I'm taking this as my initiation. When I beat you, you gotta give me a free pass into the Empire."

Scorn nearly lights up at the compliment. Blades, or rather Razor, is on the right track to gaining her favor. "Good to meet you, Razor. Glad to see such an eager mech come to join the Empire. You look like you'll do well." Especially because of that lecherous, back-stabbing look about him, beneath that veil of smiles. She's the same way, so she can see spot it quite easily.

The only thing to catch her off guard is the mention of doing a trick. Like.. a show of strength type trick to impress her? A magic trick? ...Turning a trick? She figures he means the former, but she's all for guessing the latter. An Empty wouldn't be her first choice, but they're always oh so desperate, willing to do /anything/. With a rather teasing smirk the Insecticon pulls a pen from subspace, scribbling something on the back of his application, a number, before leaning in and shoving pen and paper in his hand, whispering a little something. Did she just say to meet her later? Oh boy.

Lash gives Sideswipe a long look. "We're always looking for a few good mechs...Banter." She glances up at Frightclaws while handing Banter his app. "Come on, Claws. Let's stay out of trouble." She scowls. "Too many DoJ's here..."

Doublesize glares hate daggers at Not Whirl. "Oh you done asked for it- COME AT ME MECH!" And then Doublesize punches Whirl in the fae. And his arm explodes. "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. AHHHHH. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH MY ARM!"

Mechashoe sighs and starts picking up arm pieces.

And then a murmuring, like a wave, picks up through the sad little Empties. You can almost hear the fear: Spinister, agent of the Empire and tool of the much hated Contrail, is here. He scans the group, before pointing Singe at Doublesize, pulling the trigger and engulfing the idiot in flames. He points at Notwhirl. "You." And then, he moves down the line. "You two." He points past the line, at Lash and Frightclaws." He gestures to a fat looking Empty with a pug face, and then stops in front of Sideswipe. "You...." He looks to Blades, and gives him a long, long stare. "And you. Step out of line."

Whirl looks as dumbfounded as he possibly can when Doublesize's punch results in arm pieces flying all over the place. "Uh..That.." He coughs and tweaks his mustache a little. "Yes, everyone saw that, right? I think we all know who the winner is.." He turns to Mechashoe. "This means I'm a Decepticon now, right? That was the deal, remember?"

Then Doublesize spotaneously combusts. Wait, that can't be right. Whirl looks over to the incredibly mysterious Spinister and he can't help but feel the Decepticon is even more mysterious in person. He steps out of line and shrugs, "I didn't know he was going to explode like that, really."

Blades takes the pen and application form Scorn suspiciously, like he isn't quite sure what to do with them. Then he sticks the pen in his mouth and chews on it, looking at the form pensively. He murmurs something back to her, a low, "Oh, I'd /love/ to serve you, lady."

For dinner.

Then the mystery man reappears. And he wants Razor to step out. Razor gives a very real look of uncertainty about this. It's a valid fear for an Empty to think that maybe the Decepticons are just going to smelt them all for their metal, once they get out of sight.

Razor's a nasty piece of work, though, and he swaggers out of line.

Scorn can't help a large, toothy grin at Razor's response, giving a delighted little hiss. But this dies down when Spinister pulls him and a few others out of line, snorting softly at the mysterious mech, lips pursing in displeasure. Killjoy.

This is fleeting however, soon returning to a sly smile, snatching up Razor by the arm after he steps out of line, tugging him along like a pet. "Well well well, it's your lucky day! Seems you get special treatment, unlike all these other mechs." A hand waves off dismissively at the other civilians she passes, showboating that Razor is clearly better now than them.

Lash freezes in place, not looking very thrilled, and leads a very confused Frightclaws in between Blades and Sideswipe. The fat Con also steps forward, chest puffed out.

Spinister gestures. "The rest of you, continue the application process. The six of you, however, will report to Polyhex immediately. You have been deemed worthy of a high honor in service of the Empire." He gives the group of them the slightest of nods. "Welcome to the Mayhem Attack Squad." He gives Scorn a look, as if to say 'have your fun and be done with it.' And then he transforms, and takes off.

====================[ Decepticon -- Mayhem Attack Squad ]===================== Name               Rank/Title               Function                Last On -- Carnivac           3/Courage Wolf           Hunter/Tracker          Nov 14 Spinister          3/Mayhem Attack Leader   Aerial Assault           Misfire            1/Marksmech              Interceptor             Nov 26 Needlenose         1/Horndog                Aerial Warrior          Nov 19 Warsong            1/Singing Sage           Commando                Apr 16 Blades             0/Boy Toy                Air Support              Sideswipe          0/The Situation          Warrior                  Whirl              0/Not Whirl              Aerial Assault          

=
==================[ +roster/help ]===============================

"Mayhem Attack Squad, eh?" Whirl rubs whatever passes for his chin thoughtfully. "Sounds pretty badass.." He looks over his shoulder at the others still in line and flips them off with both hands, something he's never had the opportunity to do before. "Suck it, nerds! You're looking at the future of the Decepticons right here!"

Scorn nearly stops dead when Spinister tells the little group they're in the Mayhem Attack Squad, the squad she's also in. "What??" Fists clench somewhat, optics narrowing ever so slightly. She actually showed skill, talent, to be picked for that team! And yet these guys got a pass just like that? Outrageous!

This doesn't bode well for the others, Scorn now in a bit of a mood as she turns to look at them all, mouth set in a thin line. "None of you better show up late, or you'll be earning a few good lashes." She also makes sure to give Whirla smack behind the head, just because, before snapping wings open and buzzing off after Spinister.

Blades allows Scorn to take his arm, though he's thinking to himself, 'What will it take to flip her and break her back' - and he freely allows that show in his posture, though his smile doesn't falter. Of course Razor would be wary like that. Scorn shouldn't expect any less. "Special, huh," Razor repeats, one part flattered, one part sceptical.

His optics narrow at Spinister's revelation, and that knots in his fuel tank tightens. Does Spinister know? Is this a sick game for him?

This may be the best chance those two filmmakers will get, though.

Razor tries to take Scorn's hand, to give a kiss on the back of her hand - and a not entirely friendly bite.

Then he tosses off a Decepticon salute at Spinister. It's an old salute, but it's accurate. "You won't be disappointed, boss."