The Search for Crosshairs Part 1

Autobot City - Munitions Bay

The staging area of Metroplex functions in many ways as an armory. It is a very large room with heavily armored walls, gleaming and shining in perfect military spotlessness. Upon these gleaming silver bulkheads are racks upon racks that hold every manner of weaponry. From Ion Cannons to Plasma Ejectors, Rail-Guns and Auto-Cannons every sort of possible weapon is ready to be grabbed in an emergency. Benches line the walls for 'bots to re-arm and perform last minute adjustments before heading out on one of any number of missions.

In the very center of the room is a raised dias with cables to be connected to individuals and their various forms of firepower. From here, the armorer can perform calibrations and scans to make sure that each is functioning at their best. Located in the back behind thick blast doors is a storage facility for various explosives along with a special workshop that is further armored and secured behind protective forcefields for ordnance modifications and disposal.

Contents:

Crosshairs' Workbench

Deek's Datapad

Requisitions Officer

Streetwise stands just inside of the entrance to Crosshairs' sanctum sanctorum. The Protectobot's hands are on his hips and he pans his gaze slowly back and forth over the room. "Well...I guess this is a good a time to start as any." He announces cheerfully, then turns to look for other Auboots. "So I figure we can split up into pairs and go at this by area of expertise. We need to cover forensics, check on Crosshair's medical logs, and..." he pauses, as if deciding the best way to phrase his next words. "...and if necessary someone will be breaking into his journal to review the last few entries." He pauses and then adds in an even smaller voice. "And work our way backwards from there."

Sit-Com stands in the doorway, wearing a Sherlock Holmes cap and holding an ivory meerschaum from which bubbles float out if he "puffs" on it. "Captain's log. Stardate 314823.2. Our man Crosshairs has been AWOL for quite some time. It is up to us to find him." He puffs, allowing some bubbles to float away.

Sit-Com, imitating Data in the TNG episode, Elementary Dear Data.

Impulse hmms softly, standing up against the wall outside Crosshairs' facility. Unlike Blurr, he isn't the twitchy zip-around-all-over-the-place type. "That last will be me, most likely," he volunteers. Yes, the speedster and resident computer hacker is prepared for that. "Forensics is something I'm not too knowledgeable about, as are the medical logs. But hacking... I can do that." He'd had to the same thing a few years ago to see what DepthCharge had done with TAI as part of investigating the Aquabot while he was under the control of a Decepticon cerebro-shell. Hopefully this won't be as crazy as, say, the Books of Primus during the 2029 Olympics.

Penumbra is off to the side outside the door way as he sorts through his small case of tools and supplies. He shuts it in satisfaction and peeks in on Streetwise. "Hopefully this time around I won't be dealing with planted evidence. That's always a glitch of a time."

First Aid strolls into the munitions bay along with Streetwise and the others. He's still wearing the detective's hat he borrowed from Nightbeat. He looks adorable in it. Approaching the now deactivated forcefield around Crosshairs's workstation. "I'll take a look at the medical logs," he tells Streetwise. This is something he doesn't specifically need to do here, but he might as well stay within the company of everyone else. The Protectobot pulls up a seat, drawing out a datapad from which to download the logs. He glances up from it towards Penumbra, "Is that actually a common situation?" he asks.

Crosshairs has arrived.

It is likely un-noticed that the smallish figure of a person is now in the room. Specifically, he has walked in in the last ten seconds. Blue skin marks him as Nebulan, and there is something like an air of exhaustion about him. It might of course, be the pyjamas he's wearing. Feet are bare as well. There is a faint, tired yawn from him. "Might have told me that you were down here." He says it to nobody in particular. The person, of course, is Pinpointer -- Crosshairs' targetmaster partner, though he is currently devoid of his armor.

Streetwise shares a knowing look with Penumbra, but lets tho other Autobot answer First Aid's question. Instead he turns to Impulse, then leads the way to a terminal. Like everything else in the Munitions Bay it is advanced, perfectly maintained - and in low-power maintenance mode, as if whoever used it last was careful to leave it in a ready state for the next user, without wasting Autobot energon. "Records indicate this is the terminal that got the most regular use," he offers the newly returned Autobot speedster, before turning to join Penumbra. "Looks like we're partners on this one...just let me know if you need me to do anything. Otherwise I'll be scanning for trace energy emissions."

Streetwise also is careful to avoid tripping over Pinpointer on the way. So much for his famous attention to detail and the surroundings.

Sit-Com POINTS at Pinpointer. "When was the last time you saw Crosshairs?" he wonders, taking another 'puff' of his bubble meerschaum. He looks around, examining various objects.

Penumbra chuckles and looks to First Aid. "No, just the last time I dusted off my kit. Paint trace in Prime's office safe... when it turned out to be evil Prime behind the mess all along.... but it's always a possibility." He turns to Streetwise and nods. "Let's go it." He pulls out a small orb that looks scale size to a pool ball in his hand. He presses a button on it and it hovers to just above his head over the station. "Scene log, Earth date November 14th, 2032... 14:52 hours. Begining preliminary visual sweep. Associate Investigator Streetwise performing energy emission trace scan." He pulls out a magnifying screen with a lit up rim and begins to visually sweep in a grid like pattern in a slow and methodical fashion.

First Aid tips his detective's hat at Pinpointer's arrival. "We didn't want to stress you with our investigation." He idly wonders who woke the Nebulon up in the middle of the night to tell him about this. The Protectobot goes back to reading his datapad, pulling up the medical logs for both Crosshairs and his Nebulon partner. He doesn't get very far before glancing up again. "You know, this place is way tidier than normal."

Pinpointer is about to say something to First Aid, when Sit-Com speaks to him. He stares at the Junkion, and demonstrates a quite abnormal bad mood for the usually cheerful Nebulan by giving Sit-Com the middle finger, promptly. "Are you going to ask me questions that are going to insult my intelligence, or are you going to read the posts that I've already made?" He glares at the Junkion, clearly irritated. Probably his lack of sleep. Wandering forward, he rubs his head as though it was bothering him or he can't really wake up. "Yeah." He says to First Aid. "It is. I haven't been here for a long time. I've been trying to focus on picking up some human woman and . . " He trails off, and rubs his head some more. "Well, nevermind. I've just been more focused on personal things. Been three months since I was here, but.... yeah, his is a bit too neat."

Impulse nods, and accesses the terminal, bringing it up and entering his security clearance -- good thing his status in Intelligence is still good to go delving into other records. Soon enough, he's reading rather raptly. Weapons aren't exactly his area of expertise, but he does have a decent technical background from his covert ops days during the Second War. And there are LOTS of weapons designs and projects to look through. Even being a fast reader as a result of his speedster abilities, he's still gonna be busy for several minutes, looking over things.

First Aid starts to read from the medical log, but once again stops before getting very far. "Wait, what's the date on this thing? Three years ago?!" First Aid leans back in his chair, closing his optics in frustration. "Metroplex, could you please confirm that this is indeed the most recent medical report on Crosshairs?" The low rumbling voice comes swiftly. "Affirmative, First Aid." The Protectobot shakes his head. "Your partner has missed his last *eleven* maintenance checkups," he tells Pinpointer. A hint of anger slips through the doctor's voice.

Penumbra mentions over his shoulder while continuing his sweep for physical evidence, "Behaviour patterns can sometimes be a key to finding the out of the ordinary... the pattern of missing checkups is an insight and can help predict other patterns."

First Aid shakes the datapad at Penumbra, "Actually, going by this it looks like missing checkups is /typical/ for him. He's missed hundreds over the past few vorns. Here, let me read from the latest one. Ahem... 'Had to trick Crosshairs into thinking he was going to a gun show, when actually Grapple and I just ambushed him when he wasn't looking, dragged him back to the lab, and gave him his medical exam. Ha ha ha ha. Signed, Hoist'. You know, we have these maintenance checkups for a reason, people."

Sit-Com is taken aback at Pinpointer. "How rude!" he exclaims. He looks over at First Aid. "He just doesn't like going to the Doctor," he says.

Penumbra will find. . absolutely nothing except a thin layer of dust that has is also fairly out of charater for the nominally meticulous weapons master. He has not been here for some time, that is clear. But there is nothing physically out of place, things are where they are supposed to be. There are no bombs (that Crosshairs didn't make) and nothing that would suggest that anything foul happened. Pinpointer shrugs helplessly at First Aid. "I can't make him do anything, First Aid." Pinpointer says quietly. "You of all people should know Crosshairs has a mind of his own."

Impulse keeps snooping around, but remains almost eerily quiet. His focus is completely on the work before him as he reads through report after report. Just think what sort of encyclopedia Impulse could be if he had the data storage capacity of Soundwave.

First Aid tucks the datapad away, as there's nothing useful in there. "I'd like for you to undergo a medical exam as well, Pinpointer. If Crosshairs was experiencing any medical distress, it might have had an impact on you." First Aid is worried that maybe Crosshairs had a robo-heart attack or something while by himself. Glancing at Impulse, he asks, "Any luck?"

Pinpointer heaves a grumpy sigh. "If you haven't anything better to do, might as well get it over with now. If you want to transform, I can step inside your ambulance mode." He shares Crosshairs' loathing of doctors.

Penumbra leaves no square inch un-observed and finishes with quiet satisfaction that that much can be said. He puts away his magnifyer screen and speaks to the hover recorder, "Scene Investigation, physical sweep turned up no out of place trace." He turns looks around glancing from each gathered. "Better check the video logs.... Metroplex, can you transfer access to security video logs of this area to my padd please?" He takes out a padd from his kit case.

Pinpointer heaves a grumpy sigh. "If you haven't anything better to do, might as well get it over with now. If you want to transform, I can step inside your ambulance mode." He shares Crosshairs' loathing of doctors.

First Aid on the other hand loves everyone - even people who don't understand the importance of medical checkups. The Protectobot shifts down into ambulance mode, opening the rear doors for him. "Have a seat." He idly tries to look over Penumbra's shoulder at the padd, despite how hard this is when you're a vehicle.

First Aid folds down into Ambulance mode.

"Nothing out of the ordinary, at least so far," Impulse replies. "Just projects, designs, typical workload for him..." His voice trails off as he moves closer to the end, pausing for a moment. Then he starts typing again, checking on several other factors to confirm what he's apparently seeing. "This... now this doesn't seem right."

Pinpointer sighs, grunts and sits down in the back of First Aid. He's modest enough to close the ambulance doors behind him. "While you're scanning, why don't you tell me where this damn headache came from?" He says, irritably. "It's bringing out the worst in me. I can't concentrate on anything!"

The padd in Penumbra's hand hums quietly during connection establishment and he hunkers down to the floor to begin viewing. He asks without taking his optics off his screen, "What's that, Impulse?"

"And it has Excedrin written all over it," Sit-Com says, shaking his head. He looks over at Penumbra. "We need a timeline, stat."

"Headaches? Hrm," First Aid murmurs, momentarily distracted from Impulse's find. The rear doors slam shut. One cannot see what's going on inside the Protectobot, but presumably it's very medically sound. It probably involves The Nozzle. "Do you normally suffer from any headaches? Either before or after undergoing the *Master process?" At Sit-Com's comment, he adds, "Are you receiving any treatment for headaches at the moment?"

This time, the exceptionatly-irritated Pinpointer huffs from inside the ambulance. "Everyone gets friggin' headaches!" He snarks. "You Cybertronians get them!" He grumbles, and seems to calm himself with an effort. " . . . but, no, not especially. Just if I drink too much of whack my head. Nothing like this. Ever."

Impulse turns from the console. "Two months ago, Crosshairs finished up everything. All his ongoing projects were wrapped up, any loose ends tied. But he didn't start anything new. No new projects, no new designs, nothing. It's like he decided he was going on strike, or quitting or something." He glances over at First Aid and Pinpointer. Headaches... Suddenly, his expression one of grim purpose, he turns around and starts typing again. "First Aid, confirm something for me while I look it up," he says quietly. "What are the side effects of cerebro-shell implantation?"

Oh boy, First Aid thinks at Pinpointer's uncharacteristic reply. That ain't good. "Mmhmm. Just a standard question I have to ask." The Protectobot's inward scanners begin giving Pinpointer the once over. Mechanical arms from inside the ambulance take care of the nitty gritty. All these years of Cybertronian advances on Earth hasn't done much to make going to the doctor's any more comfortable. Replying to Imulse, he says, "Aside from rampant betrayal, headaches have been reported as one of the many symptoms. If you're thinking of the sort Bombshell used, I may be able to scan for it."

Penumbra arches an optic ridge and idly strokes a finger along his stache as he review the video log and replays it again.

Occasionally, Pinpointer swats at one of the mechanical arms and he makes a very credible attempt to bite one of the ones that is moving around his head. "As far as I last detected . . " He says, irritably. "I am not showing signs of rampant betrayl and neither is Crosshairs. Just got a headache that is making me pissy."

After a moment, First Aid adds, "So far nothing. The deeper regular scan for a checkup should reveal most any other kind of cerebro implantation. Now as for this headache, ah, you might be suffering from a calibration error due to not being able to maintain your mental link with Crosshairs. It's just a theory at this point, but... well, this could be serious, Pinpointer." He then quickly adds in an attempt to remain optimistic, "I'm going to pour over Hi-Q's old notes on the matter. If anyone had an answer for this sort of thing, it'd be him."

Penumbra furrows his optic ridges now and enters a few commands into the padd, zeroing in on a more specific time frame, zooming, adjusting resolution, and then setting the playback to loop.

Pinpointer will be concerned later. Now this is a time for irrational irritation. "That's fine." He says to First Aid. "I'll deal with that later. In the meantime, how about some Morphine or Demoral so that I can retain some base level of functionality?" You'd think he'd be more concerned, but not really.

Ambulance  isn't sure what to make if Pinpointer's cocnern. "I'd like to try you on over-the-counter painkillers first." A robotic arm from within First Aid hands Pinpointer a bottle of Tylenol. "If you find there's still too much pain, I'll prescribe the larger stuff." This medical exam will also be handy in figuring out what he can safely prescribe for the Nebulon. The Protectobot glances his sensors over towards Penumbra, curious as to what he's looking at.

More irritation from the grumpy Nebulan. " . . . I've tried Tylenol, Advil, Tynenol with Codine and Tylenol for Geriatric Constipation, and none of them are helping. It'd be vastly more preferable if you'd give me something that, you know, works."

"The programming from cerebro-shells can be pretty insidious. After that mess with DepthCharge and Magnus, it's something I've been a bit concerned about." Impulse glances back over at First Aid as he hears the results, and nods slowly. "I wonder..." He turns around from the console after saving the progress he's made. "Tell me about this 'binary-bonding' stuff. It's new-fangled tech as far as I know. But how exactly does it work?"

Penumbra cocks his head after only a couple loops and adjusts the zoom to pull back for more playbacks. "Well ain't that a..." He then speaks up to the recorder. "Scene Investigation log, review of video log entry... last footage of missing subject on scene. Record data, video loop file." The hovering recorder makes a tone indicating the task was performed.

Ambulance  retracts the Tylenol, now drawing up his prescription pad. The mechanical arm swiftly writes down a prescription for Demerol, signing it with an illegible mess that's probably his signature. "We have a makeshift pharmacy in the research lab." Or More to the point, they can make damn well anything there. To Impulse, he replies, "I've studied a lot of Hi-Q's documentation, and I'll freely admit that most of it is beyond me. For Targetmasters in particular the process is less involved, but it still includes rewriting synaptic patterns of both the organic and Transformer - not to mention the physical modifications both most undergo."

Sit-Com peers at the video replay. "Curiouser and curiouser," he says, "Someone call Horatio Caine."

Pinpointer snatches at the demerol. Ah, Narcotics! He tucks the perscription into his pocket and knocks on the Ambulance doors. "Let me out." He says. "The gist of it is that in the case of targetmasters, our brains are re-wired to serve as an auxilliary processor due to irreperable laser core damage. I'm sort of like a math coprocessor for Crosshairs, without it he can't just distances or anything out beyond what he can reach with is arms. We also chose to reconfigure our bodies into weapons for the sake of . . I'm still not sure why I did that, but moving along . . "

Pinpointer snatches at the demerol. Ah, Narcotics! He tucks the perscription into his pocket and knocks on the Ambulance doors. "Let me out." He says. "The gist of it is that in the case of targetmasters, our brains are re-wired to serve as an auxilliary processor due to irreperable laser core damage. I'm sort of like a math coprocessor for Crosshairs, without it he can't judge distances or anything out beyond what he can reach with is arms. We also chose to reconfigure our bodies into weapons for the sake of . . I'm still not sure why I did that, but moving along . . "

Ambulance  gave Pinpointer a prescription. He can have it filled elsewhere. What's the worst that can happen, right? Per request, he opens his doors and lets Pinpointer out. "What have you got there, Penumbra?" he asks.

Penumbra rises to his feet and brushes his hands over his legs to dust them off. He then holds up his padd screen for the rest to see the video loop close-up tracking Crosshairs. "Check this out. Looks like Crosshairs had a moment of minor physical glitching recorded here as he was leaving." In the loop, when watched enough times, you can pick up on instances of a twitch under Crosshairs right optic and in his left arm. Irregular and only a couple times. "What do you think?"

Ambulance  squints his sensors at the video Penumbra shows. "Huh. I wish I could hazard a guess as to what caused that twitch, but it could be any number of a dozen things ranging from a trivial one-off glitch to a major breakdown. Pinpointer, you ever see anything like this?"

Pinpointer is peering at the video as best he can from the ground. "Not that he ever let on around me. Then again, he was pretty tight lipped the last few months now that I think of it. He didn't really have much to talk about besides work -- so I kind of was busy doing my own thing."

Sit-Com holds out a sonic screwdriver and points it at the video camera. The screwdriver makes a neat sound and light show, but doesn't do anything else.

Impulse starts checking up something else, more on a whim than anything else, and it seems to pay off. "Here's something else," he says. "Interplanetary cargo flight to Monacus. Among the cargo manifest... one gray-painted offroad vehicle." He looks over at the others. "If that's him, it sounds like our next stop is going to be Monacus. Maybe someone saw him there."

Ambulance  shifts back up to robot mode, now stepping over to Impulse. "Oh, wow. Nice find! Ok, so what do we have here? First Crosshairs is extra tight-lipped for a while even to his partner, acting odd in a subtle fashion. Then he suddenly puts all of his affairs in order. Then, while apparently suffering some kind of mechanical problem, he... books a trip to Monacus?" First Aid scratches his head. "We should track down that freighter. Maybe see who else was on the passenger list to see if anyone remembers him being on board."

Ambulance  flips up into robot mode.

Penumbra stops the loop and turns off the padd. "A lead. Very good, Impulse." He then turns to First Aid, "And good line of thinking... We're piecing something together here."

 Crosshairs says, "So, quick summary."

 Crosshairs says, "1) Pinpointer is in a bad way. 2) Crosshairs' strange twitches. 3) He's been gone for awhile, everything is in order. 4) He's gone to Monacusa."

 Crosshairs says, "If someone wants to post. Any more investigations, toss me an @mail with what you want to know. I'll get another scene posted soon, or FA will :)"

 First Aid is trying to see how best to make a Blue Femme joke out of this.

"Over the river and through the woods, to Monacus' house we go," Sit-Com says.

 Impulse sadly, could not think of a Horatio Crane one-liner that wasn't incredibly corny as hell.

 First Aid says, "Corny is good in that case."

 Impulse says, "The closest I could come was 'let's hope our gamble on Monacus... doesn't break the bank'."

 Penumbra says, "SCIENCE!"

 Impulse is BLINDED!

 Penumbra says, "I mean... YEEEEEAAAAAHHHHH!"

<OOC> Sit-Com applauds.

<OOC> Impulse says, "The funniest one was one of the mock ones from when Justin Beiber was killed. "I guess this means Justin Beiber... will never say never again.""

<OOC> Penumbra says, "YEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"

Autobot

Message: 3/104

Posted: Mon Nov 14

Author: Penumbra

Update: Crosshairs

~spinny~ ~Text only report filed~ TO: Autobot Command & Intel Divisions FROM: Penumbra

Investigation status update into the case of the missing Autobot Crosshairs. He's not here. Evidence gathered and analyzed suggests lead. Long story short, Monacus. The Investigation team is working this lead. All to date investigation details gathered available in scene investigation log.

~End of file~ ~spinny~