Spacing Out

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.''

Sit-Com is prepping his side of the repair bay, awaiting incoming wounded. Some are of course going to be shunted off to his tag-team partner, so repairs can be given more efficiently.

Crosshairs is pacing the medical bay with an irritable expression on his face; hands folded behind the small of his back. He's clearly waiting for the wounded to arrive. "When Jetfire arrives, I'll handle 'im. You can attend to whomever else, and make sure ya do it right -- I'll be checkin' yer work." It's not really Sit-Com's fault, Crosshairs is pissy like this with everyone.

Sit-Com nods at Crosshairs. "I'll be Doogie Howser, you be House," he says.

It's a good thing Jetfire is a pretty big spacecraft, with all the people he had to carry home between the brainwashed and the rescuers. And he's not exactly in pristine shape himself as he finally walks into the medbay and sets down Steeljaw on a table. "Not entirely how I planned it, but it worked out in the end I suppose."

Crosshairs gives a sidelong glance to Sit-Com. "Right." He snarks. "Whatever that means." He beckons to Jetfire. "Over here." He states to the flyer. "I'll have ya right as acid rain before long. I've even got a little package for you that I've been workin' on for the last quarter stellar cycle or so. Little bit of a surprise for ya, if you want. Reverse engineered some firing circuits to fix a defect in your design."

It's almost a little sad that Steeljaw is so small (Or Jetfire is so big) that he fits in jetfire's hand easily. The lion, half gray and half gold from the quick paint job that had been placed on him for the sneaking mission, shakes himself off lightly. Carefully, he sets down what is apparently a prize from his mouth. Looks a little like Catechism's face. "We got the job done, that's what counts, right?" He replies to the big jet, nodding his head a little.

Sit-Com peers at the lion-tape's prize. "Oh, you got Nicholas Cage's mug," he says, "Now the doctor is going to have a look at you, so do you have a place to put your prize that's out of the way?" His tools are all ready. No mere junkion patch jobs here. This repair work is the real deal.

"Yeah. It got the job done, and everyone is back to normal." Jetfire was about to get to work on the tape himself, but he's quickly sidelined by Crosshairs, and knows darn well better than to argue with him. Though he does give a concerned look around, but also sees Sit-Com there ready to work, and the interns can handle those that weren't actually harmed in the fighting. He's satisified with that so goes to sit at Crosshair's station. "Flaw in my... oh, right." It only takes a moment for him to get back onto that track. "You mentioned something about that when working on the recoil compensation for my rocket launchers, yes?"

Andi Lassiter arrives probably a bit late, but it's better than never, right? She's travelling in style currently, one of the security mechs holding her in his hand. "Jetfire," She calls across the way. "I heard that people were back from China...is there anything I can do to help?"

And tuck the prize away Steeljaw does. Where he does, who knows. He just picks it up and places it aside, like placing it in a pocket, except that the tape doesn't have pockets. He does have a subspace pocket, though. "Sorry about that. I'm starting a collection," He admits amusedly, before walking up in front of the doctor. Actually, Steeljaw isn't in too bad of shape. It looks like his backside was crushed once, and his front legs are a little dented. The paint job is the worst part, but he'd probably rather get rid of that.

Crosshairs may not outrank Jetfire, but he is certainly pretty difficult to argue with. "Right." He's saying. "I copied over yer missile firing circuits, to make an interface to connect that circuit to the conscious part of yer neural net. Only think is, it's . . gonna take some practice, because yer gonna have to figure out by trial and error which command pathway goes to what thruster. I'll install it while I'm repairin' ya, but . . gonna be a bit like a human tryin' to learn to ride a bike." As he speaks, he goes to work repairing Jetfire's damage. Combat: Crosshairs expertly repairs Jetfire's injuries. Combat: Crosshairs is able to repair some of Jetfire's internal systems damage.

Sit-Com nods and gets to work on that back end. He takes off the dented armor and bangs it back into shape. "So what does a Decepticon with no face look like?" he wonders. Combat: Sit-Com expertly repairs Steeljaw's injuries. Combat: Sit-Com is able to repair some of Steeljaw's internal systems damage.

Jetfire nods a bit as he leans forward a bit for Crosshairs to work. Since most of the damage he took was from behind while he was protecting the electromagnetic scrambler, that's where most of the severe injuries are. Well other than when he got shot in the leg and slugged by Shockwave. "Like learning to ride a bike... though falling down doesn't hurt so much since there really isn't a down to fall in space," he chuckles.

"Slightly better than a decepticon with a face looks like," Steeljaw replies, a sly smirk on his feline muzzle. Ah, cats. He holds still though, letting Sit-Com work on his back. "Though I think she will be rather ticked off for a while." His tail twitches a few times as he turns his head a bit to glance at Jetfire at Crosshairs. "Speaking of trial and error. I think I have an idea for what we talked about earlier, Jetfire. After I rest, I'd like to talk to you about it some more."

Crosshairs tinkers away with Jetfire; the basic repairs completed. He barks an order to another nearby worker, and a trolley arrives loaded with missiles. "Fresh out of the armory." He adds; as he continues to work. His face is highlighted by a circuit probe now as he works on integrating the module to bridge the hackjob he did in creating a recoil dampening system out of Jetfire's verniers with his conscious thoughts. Little sparks go here and there. "Activate power junction 49-A, an' initiate subroutine #44. Then concentrate on being -REAL- still for a minute while I check and see what has power."

For as often as he is the one doing this sort of thing for other Autobots, Jetfire can't help but feel a little odd when he's on the other side of it. He gives a nod to Steeljaw as he recalls said previous conversation. "Will do." Then bows his head a bit, optics flickering and dimming slightly as he turns his attention inward to his own systems and finding the right pathway to activate the requestion junction and initiate the system. Grips the sides of the station a little more tightly with his hands, just to be sure he's good and braced still.

Sit-Com grins at the Lion. "Maybe we should all give em all a good face-off. Then replace their mugs with John Travolta's." He finishes the work on the back armor, and reattaches it, welding it into place solidly. Then he starts working on the lion's paws.

Crosshairs grunts at something. "Bah, fraggin' . . hold still." He reaches into the access panel with the circuit probe again, and the blue sparkles happen for a moment more. "Okay." He says, sitting back up and crossing his arms. "Now, interface with port 99-3322A and activate the system. Then -SLOWLY- imagine drifting . . . directly down into the table, and a few of the thrusters should fire. Yer gonna have to calibrate it on yer own through trial and error, though. But let's see if y'can make something happen." His attention flickers to STeeljaw, and his optic ridge raises, though he doesn't ask.

Steeljaw cringes a little bit, not in pain, but simply the strange sensation of having a part of your back being fixed back on to where it belongs. Very disorienting, even to someone who's rather used to it by not. "It might be an improvement," The cat replies, smirking in such a way that shows off more of those nasty fangs. He lifts a paw dutifully when Sit-Com finishes off on his back, holding it up patiently for the junkeon. "But not Nicholas Cage's face. He's funny, I like his old movies." Now that the cat isn't in as much pain as he was the night before, he's a good deal more sociable.

Andi Lassiter realizes a little bit late that Jetfire's one of the ones being worked on currently, so has the security mech set her down on an out of the way empty table.

Jetfire gives a bit of a vage nod, not wanting to do too much moving other than agreeing. Lets go of the sides and moves his arms out of the way. "Alright, accessing..." There's a brief pause as he goes through the matter of aligning the new connections as the port is activated. Just relax, and focus on the imagery. Just slowly drifting down.. down... a few of the venier ports in his sides and legs open and puff, hssss softly.. but then sputter and die out again. After a moment of realizing it Jetfire opens one optic partially. "It started to fire, but I don't think the system got enough power to fully operate in this mode yet. May need to recalibrate the flow regulators to allow for a slight increase in energy allotment to the previously dormant hardware," he observes way too calmly for someone that's actually being working on.

While Sit-Com is working, he's listening to his wrist-TV. Robot Chicken! Skeletor vs. Mo-Lar, Eternian Dentist! He carefully fixes the first paw, making sure the claws on each are restored to razor-sharp edges as well. Then he starts work on the second paw.

Crosshairs hmms; and gives Jetfire a sharp poke in the shoulder with the circuit probe. "Stop bein' a difficult paitent an' work." He says to him, but thinks. "Should be some auxilliary power from the circuit that usually fires your boosters when you are in your alternate mode, so let's borrow it from there." The circuit probe dips into another access panel for a few minutes. "Figurin' on stabilizin' the flow like you said, too, and makin' a little more available. You've got a real conservative design on paper. Could do lots more."

Steeljaw works the digits of the one paw to make sure they're back in working order, before lowering it down and raising the other one for Sit-Com to take care of. He goes quiet now; but only because he's listening. To just about everything that's going on around him, including the wrist-TV and the conversation between Crosshairs and Jetfire.

Jetfire chuckles softly at that observation. "My original design is for deep space exploration, remember. The whole point was for a base system that could be adjustable and still function for long periods of centralized support." It may not look like he's doing much, but Jetfire is watching the various systems internally as Crosshairs works. "Okay, now I'm getting a higher charge flow into the system, you're on the right track."

Crosshairs is a humorless blob. He simply nods for a moment; holding the circuit probe between his teeth as he uses another device to make another adjustment. "That ought t'do it." He grunts. "Give it one more shot, an' if you get sustained firing, go play somewhere else with them."

Andi Lassiter uses her computer to access the repair bay's medical database, curious to see what Crosshairs is doing but not wanting to go over there and be openly nosey.

Jetfire waits a moment to make sure Crosshairs isn't pokeing around with his probe anymore, then flips on the system a second time. This time there's a click as the ports open and hiss when they fire seemlessly, causing a small bit of fog around the med-station from the venting. And stay open this time until Jetfire actually shuts it off again. Pushes himself up to sit a bit, smiling. "I think you got it there. Thanks." He'll just have to practice a bit to get use to the operation now.

Sit-Com chuckles as he watches a Star Trek parody on Robot Chicken where the Redshirt gets the best of the rest of the crew. Not that this takes away from his careful work on Steeljaw's other paw. "Anything else need a weld or a touchup?" he wonders.

The steel lion's eyes flicker a little bit, going dim as he runs a quick diagnostic on himself. Which doesn't take long. He's a tape, there's not a whole lot of systems to double check, at least compared to a full sized transformer. His eyes flicker back up after a moment, and he shakes his head. "All systems are good, thanks again Sit-com." He starts to stand up, then glances back across his half gold, half gray body. "I need a good dip in some pain thinner though. It wasn't really even worth it once the trap was sprung."

"You found Arkeville and were able to procure vital information, so it was worth enough in the end," Jetfire replies as he sits up fully and swings his legs over to edge to get down. Noticing the human for the first time he just assumes she came in while he was being worked on, and leans over a little to see what she's working on at the computer. "Hello Andi, I didn't see you come in."

"Evening, Ms. Andi," Sit-Com says, as he finishes up with Steeljaw. He reaches into subspace and pulls out an energon chip and offers it to the Lion. "For being such a good patient," he says.

Steeljaw gives a laugh. "I didn't need it though. The humans were too scared and everyone else too distracted. Oh well, it was worth it to confuse Catechism for a while thinking I was a different lion." Lowering himself down slightly, the cat stretches his front legs out far in front of him, his tail lashing a few times. He pauses mid stretch to glance behind him. "Hello, Andi," Steeljaw adds as well, "I heard you there, but it wasn't a good time to say something until we were finished." Oh, but then the lion is distracted. He can't turn down a good ener-goodie, and chews on it thankfully.

Andi Lassiter smiles over toward Sit-Com and Steeljaw. "Hey, guys. Everything all under control now?"

Sit-Com nods. "It's all good," he says, "I've sent Dr. Foreman out for coffee."

"Good, for being put back together twice in two days," Steeljaw snorts a little as he finishes off his snack, his tail flickering slightly behind him. "At least this time I didn't get stepped on."

"I think so. But it's appreciated that you came to see if you could help all the same," Jetfire replies to Andi. He pushes himself up onto his feet and stretchs a bit. "It'll take a while to sort through all the returness, but as many of them didn't actually fight the Operations interns can handle most of it."

Andi Lassiter looks around, and a bit belatedly realizes that she made the hurried trip here for no good reason. With a faint sigh she starts to pack up her computer to start back home.

"Anyways, I'm going to take a rest cycle before I start playing around with Crosshairs' modifications too much. See you guys later." With that Jetfire strolls out to head down to his lab/quarters.