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 Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 2:53 pm
"Kid, there's always someone out for energon."
Clank loaded his rarely used handgun with an ammo cartrige in a flash. He didn't need the Autobots knowing he was a more than decent shot... he preferred the peace and quiet. It was a quick wrist flick and the safety was turned off.
"Betcha didn't know I kept this in my toolbox."
Besides, he was sure some of the Autobots hated each other even more than the Decepticons did. They were young, with their processors full of stupid ideas. It didn't help that the base made them stir crazy and claustrophobic.
"If you don't want to help scrape up the body, do somethin' else. There's a lot of other jobs to do." It was the closest to considerate Clank got. He waved Twitch off and slid the weapon into the normally empty holster at his hip. The kid had probably wondered why he had a slot at his hip, and now he knew.
Clank then prepared a few cleaning solutions. He hesistated. The kid was young.
"You shouldn't have ta' see those kind of things. Now go away, ye' bother me."
Clank could mix chemicals like no one's business, and over the years he had only improved... yet here he was, scraping old energon of a poorly constructed base in the middle of friggin' nowhere. He loathed earth.
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Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 7:05 am
Twitch wanted to leave as soon as Clank pointed out 'there's always someone out for energon.'
Twitch really wanted to leave when Clank pulled out the handgun.
So as soon as Clank gave his customary 'Go away' line, Twitch already had all of his stuff packed and was leaving at a speed that would have made his instructors joyfully weep if they had saw him.
He actually knew about the dagger (not that he would admit that to Clank- that would mean having to confess the almost-prank and Clank hated when people tried to mess with his processors), but had figured that the holster was simply a threat to keep away young Autobots with less spine. He hadn't really wanted to think otherwise. Daggers were one thing.
Guns, on the other hand, meant that you feared your opponent enough that you didn't want to be anywhere near them when you were fighting and that you were fighting to kill.
Which meant that Clank (who Twitch was pretty sure could beat people with his bare fists) was at least a little worried... meaning his coward-self should be very worried.
"Primus, I hate guns." Twitch thought with a shudder. He pulled out the work list, scanning it for any job that Clank hated.
"N-not a hard task," Twitch muttered with a chuckle, getting odd looks from the two Autobots he passed.
"L-let's see: new rooms, p-power generator check-up... H-hello, what's this?"
Task Number 326 was a tempting target indeed. 'Ventilation not working properly -Mist' Probably meant that it was dusty or some minor thing that most Autobots wouldn't even consider a problem... still, it offered quite a bit. He could get a task done that Clank would have hated to do, he would be kept out of the way from some stuffy high-ranker...
"And it's not often you get to prank a tower bot. Clank might actually forgive me for what I'm about to do." Twitch adjusted his course, whistling cheerfully and already coming up with plans of what he could do with the materials he had on hand. "I needed an excuse to get more service work anyway. I've almost used up all the ones that Prowl gave me when I rigged his door to dump all that Earth dust on him. Not my best work, but it WAS his fault for not expecting me to use the same trick more than once."
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Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 10:29 am
Mist hated rusting, she hated it. No, loathed - no, despised - that awful feeling that accompanied the rust. The rust just wormed it's disgusting way from the very inside of her joints until she could see the awful discoloured abomination and feel her limbs seize. It was like having a clamp on her gears, painfully clinched onto her couplings.
It made her feel vunerable and ugly. The deep, almost brown orange was a monstrosity among the pale blue hues and delicate silvers of her ornate armor. Movement became nearly impossible as the rust progressed. It was one of her deepest fears that she would be trapped in her own body, her own joints unusable in battle. Flexibility was her only advantage.
Dirt and water worsened it, especially salt and water. It was punishment on her gears. The vent blockage made her joints itchy and unbearable all the time.
Mist was forced to flex her joints obsessively if she even wanted to go near her room. She had made it clear to Prowl she needed it fixed hours ago, but she was still waiting.
At least she had this solar cycle off.
Mist swung herself onto her balancing beam, carefully steadying herself. Once she centered her balance, she did a few handsprings on the scarce few inches of metal. There was no room for error. Her poise had to be perfect.
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Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 10:48 am
"Frag."
By the time he had reached the body, there was almost nothing left. Everything had been sealed up for security, and the red tape was still up.
Clank stepped over it, dragging his kit along.
He began by scraping at the energon that had dried onto the nearby surfaces. That energon was quite stubbornly clinging to the floor and outside walls of the ARK. Even his best scraper did no good against it. The goop that clung to the old energon made it near impossible to get off.
Whoever killed the mech was sure messy. There was no signs struggle, nothing knocked over or dented... just a big, sloppy mess.
Whatever the clear fluid was seemed to latch onto metal. It wasn't an acid, but it did eat through metal. It broke up both the ionic and covalent bonds, turning it into a mush of alloys. Without any heat, it broke metal into a goopy mess.
Perceptor would definately want some. He scooped some of the looser globs into a special containment vial, meant only for the most dangerous and unstable chemicals. Clank slid it slowly and carefully back in to the hazardous materials compartment in his cleaning kit. Nothing would get in or out of it. He took a bit for his own sampling and continued on.
"Diiiis-gusting."
He slopped some of his best cleaner onto it and watched it dissolve. Clank's best cleaner wasn't necessarily base regulated protocol, but almost nothing would stand up to it. It was a strong acid, meant to be watered down, but that slime was just too stubborn and revolting for him. It dissipated with a satisfying hiss, leaving nothing but scortch marks where the goop and energon once stood.
Whoops.
"Better get that cleaned up."
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Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2010 12:17 pm
Twitch peeked into the pratice room just in time to see Mist complete an impressive 4-flip handspring. That was 4 more than he ever expected to do. He quietly moved to the side of the room, Clank's advice echoing in his mind.
"You're going to bother people- that much I've already figured out. But save us both some trouble and at least wait for higher-ups to recognize you first, ye' hear? Especially if they're doing something already. Especially if ye' have to talk to Wheel Jack."
He sat down, watching Mist perform even more feats of flexibility. He would have prefered to just go to peoples' rooms and get his jobs done, but as he wasn't an official maintainace worker he didn't get any spare set of keys (not that anyone would trust him with them anyway). Clank had the only spares, and didn't plan on making another in the next millenia.
"So in the mean time," Twitch thought with a sigh, "I've got to 'pretty-please' every 'bot just so I can fix the stuff they complain about."
On the plus side, no one ever suspected him to set pranks when they were watching him. Like they knew the difference between wires besides 'red' and 'blue.'
"Their loss, my gain."
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Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2010 6:44 pm
Mist dismounted smoothly.
Her timing in the last handspring had been lax. A frown marred her face. Unacceptable. Her eyes narrowed in irritation and dissapointment.
The trapeze was next. It was something that was made from scrap, crafted by Wheeljack and Perceptor. They always found the physics behind her work "fascinating", and contributed it to the training room shortly after she arrived.
Mist climbed it, and grabbed the slim bar suspended high above the floor. She began to swing in a pendulum notion, getting use to the feeling. She began a twist in her actions. She began to wind the string up, twisting and turning it, and released herself as the pendulum action reached maximum height. She spun quickly through the air, and caught the second trapeze in a hair trigger action. Her fingers grazed the bar, and she was swung to the second platform.
The trapeze was her forte. She hesitated, as bright flash of - ew - orange and green caught her optic.
Who was that outside the practice room? She hoped it was the maintenance. She climbed down the ladder and approached him.
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Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2010 12:43 pm
Seeing Mist approach, he matched her scowl with a grin.
"N-nice to see you, t-too. I h-hear you've got problems?"
It was double-meaning comments like this that made people doubt Twitch's claim to cowardliness. Others who knew him better had a theory that he was a coward sometimes and just plain stupid at others. Twitch simply thought that sometimes the risk of getting beaten into scrap was worth the reward of seeing others' reactions.
That and he knew all kinds of hidey-holes he could sprint to until tempers cooled down
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Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2010 1:57 pm
A sigh of irritation crossed her lips. She could see the rust on her wrists.
"I am Mist."
She introduced herself formally, bowing with all the propriety that was inbued into her systems. She rose gracefully.
She was still scowling.
"The problem is in the vents. They aren't functioning properly." Her tone insinuated the problem was with him. Mist scratched at her wrists, stopping quickly. How embarrassing. The faster he fixed them, the sooner she could get back to training.
"Here are the keys to my room." She held them out for him in her outstretched hands.
"And thank you." A reluctant thanks was given. Mist still had difficulty addressing those below her, but Primus help her, she was learning.
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Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2010 12:40 pm
Twitch eyed the keys, grinning even further. This was almost too easy.
"Y-you sure you don't want to come with me?"
If she doesn't come, then that increases my choices by about 15 additional possibilities. I could even set multiple ones! Haven't done that in a while...
But that might mean an even hasher punishment, one that would probably involve a lecture on responsibility and banishment from further maintainance work, something he wasn't willing to give up.He shook himself from his daydream and put on a more serious face.
"S-standard procedure, I mean. S-so you can be sure that I don't steal anything or s-smuggle a Decepticon in. S-stuff like that. Y-your choice, of course."
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Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 4:47 pm
"I don't care much what you do with my stuff. It can be replaced. But for you, some of it would take a lifetime and a half to earn back in credits."
Mist waved her hand in his face. Her snotty air had returned with a vengance. She seemed to be looking down on him, even though he was taller.
"I'll come with you. I'm going to make sure you don't touch the flowers."
It had taken her weeks to figure out how to keep the flowers alive. Hound's gifts flourished only briefly... A few thousand credits later she had a full blown garden. It had taken all her patience and a great deal of help from Perceptor and Wheeljack to figure out how to grow them, and she'd be damned if he screwed that up. She was particularly protective of those because they'd all been gifts. Cosmos had even doted a few of the flowers onto her from his travels after finding out she had a garden, and those specimens couldn't be replaced.
"And to make sure you don't screw it up."
Mist didn't need to remind him of who she was. Being the sole heir to the monetary assets of the Autobot empire was very nice at times.
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Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 4:51 pm
Clank paused in his work briefly. He clenched the vial between his thumb and forefinger, a confused look settling onto his faceplates.
"I hav' a feelin' in my processor that Twitch is about to do someth'n' stupid."
Perceptor looked over to him curiously from the lab bench, peering past the thick lenses that hung over his eyes.
"Did you say something?"
Clank grunted.
"No, s'nothing."
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Posted: Thu Jan 07, 2010 5:31 am
Several minutes after being marched down to Mist's room, Twitch figured out the problem with the ventilation.
It was missing.
Filters, emergency lock-down doors, everything that was a standard inside of vents was gone. All that was in here was a hole about the size of his head, puddles of what looked like previously melted ventilation door, and a clear film covering everything that flaked off as he touched it. It would take weeks of earth-time to find all of the right parts, let alone putting all of the little parts together to make the section air-tight. And of course, Ms. Priss had to have a room with a view, making this particular shaft connected right to the outside air with all of it's rust-making elements coming right in.
"S-slag" The shaft echoed his sentiments dully.
He could either tell Mist that she needed to move out for a little while, or he could make a patch filter that would keep out all the nasties that he would have to check-up on every three days until a real filter could be made. He crawled out backwards, sighing at the look of annoyance still on Mist's face.
"W-working on it," he muttered, shifting through his box for materials.
Some bots had no idea how hard the maintainance crew had to work.
"But nothing a little joke won't make better." Twitch thought, grinning as soon as he had turned away from Mist. It wouldn't take long at all, and nothing that wouldn't be easily fixed once he was finally caught.
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Posted: Thu Jan 07, 2010 3:04 pm
"I really don't know what happened to that vent. One day it was fine... the next, it was covered in some sort of slime and ripped apart. It looks like something had just tore through here... I had someone clean up all of the stuff that had been tipped over and ripped apart, but it really looked like an attack."
Mist just felt lucky that she wasn't there when it had happened. There was a genuine fear in her voice; the fear of the unknown.
"I had stayed over at Hounds for a few hours where he had shown me holoforms of where he had been on his missions... and I returned to my room totally ripped a part. Hound insisted on searching it before I came in and found nothing; Prowl did a brief investigation and it was ruled that a stray animal that had got in through the vents."
It still made her nervous. These sort of incidents just bred paranoia amoung the ranks, compounded by the fact a mech had recently died. This area was suppose to have been the safest part of the base.
"I had a sample taken by Perceptor of whatever that slime is to be sure. You can scrape it all up."
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Posted: Fri Jan 08, 2010 11:33 am
Twitch just grunted as he scrubbed at the flaking material. It was coming off easily, but it was a mind-numbing task. Still, Clank would kill him if he didn't clean the area first before putting in the make-shift filter.
Plus, he really didn't want to talk or think about anything that could make a hole through metal.
'Stray animal.' Right, and Clank's going to suddenly start hugging random mechs and I'm going to be the next Ironhide. Dumb, processor-rusted...
Several minutes later the section of the vent was spotless, the filter patch had been fitted in, and all the necessary wiring (plus some extra) had been done.
"T-that's all I can do for now," Twitch said as he started packing away tools. "I-it'll take a couple more w-weeks before we can get the new p-parts, but I've a-added some additional p-precautions to the patch. A-anything tries to get through th-there before the vent's c-completely fixed, th-they won't be h-happy." Twitch straighted up, hoisting his box with him.
"Y-you should be n-noticing an air ch-change in about ten m-minutes. E-either me or C-clank will come by t-to check on the f-filter every three days or so."
He started walking out, but paused as he noticed Mist rubbing at her joints again. Maybe if he was tactful...
"Y-you know..." Twitch began hesitantly, "R-ratchet has s-some p-pretty good r-rust s-serum. I-i'm s-sure if y-you asked h-he'd-"
As he watched her face turn from confusion to outraged horror, Twitch decided that he hadn't been quite tactful enough and that a very hasty retreat was in order.
Twitch also wanted to be far away from the angry fem once the music started, and he only had 8.74 minutes left before that happened.
Find a good hiding spot now, before everyone starts hunting me down.
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Posted: Fri Jan 08, 2010 3:30 pm
"Thank you for fixing it."
Mist thanked him graciously, if still a bit peeved from his earlier comments. She didn't take to being teased well.
Then he had to open his mouth again.
"You don't think I haven't tried? It just doesn't help in the long run... Most places I just can't get to rust serum, like in tight spots or in battle, so it's just not practical. My creators spent a lot of money trying to find a way to stop it..."
Mist jumped over him like a hurdle, vaulting herself over his shoulders and blocking him from the hallway.
"It's a big advantage in battle anyways. Keeps me sharp."
The irritation had simmered away to pomp.
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