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Post by Bumblebee on Jul 8, 2023 21:03:32 GMT
Characters Appearing: Bumblebee , Skyfire Location (s): The ranch near the Malto residence Timeline: July 9th, 2023 Plot Summary: After running a few secret missions, it's nice to unwind a little. Especially when you have a run in with an old friend!
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Post by Bumblebee on Jul 8, 2023 21:33:35 GMT
Primus Bee needed a break.
The number of 'secret missions' he was tasked to run just kept piling up to the point that he needed to get extra help training the Maltobots. There was so much going on with that whole Decepticon jailbreak thing that had happened months ago, and honestly Bee didn't know how to break it to Optimus that it had been a simple accident. He'd had to help Hashtag calm down after her little 'oops'. Her accidental discovery of her powers had caused the G.H.O.S.T. systems to crash and therefore all the Decepticons had managed to escape. Eventually it was going to have to come up, but Optimus was so busy and Bumblebee was starting to get that way himself between the training, the secret missions and trying to tend to Nick's needs.
It was a lot, and Bumblebee was just grateful to have one afternoon where he could just chill and decompress for a little bit. He was tired, and even going out for a drive at the moment sounded exhausting.
The Autobot scout just sprawled out on the ground as the cows passed by, staring up at the sky. It gave him time to just shut his processor off for a bit and not think about anything more than watching the clouds fly overhead. It was weird having this kind of downtime and the mech knew he wasn't going to get it again anytime soon, so it was best to enjoy the quite while he could.
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Post by Skyfire on Jul 14, 2023 9:16:24 GMT
Skyfire had been waiting overnight for Bumblebee to return from his mission, after his meeting with Nick. Still, he had to remain out of sight since it was possible that Starscream and Nightshroud would be able to track him - so he transformed into primary mode and walked over to where Bee was laying on the ground, sitting down next to the smaller Autobot.
"Good to see that you're able to remain calm, considering everything that's going on."
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Post by Bumblebee on Aug 11, 2023 0:26:23 GMT
That familiar thud and that oversized mech that had walked right into Bumblebee's line of sight.. all he could do was smile when he saw the familiar sight of Skyfire. When was the last time he'd really seen the guy outside of a quick communication that was passed around here and there even if not directly. It was nice to see a friendly face, especially when Bee couldn't exactly go out of his way to pay the Autobots a visit whenever he wanted to with this whole hiding from G.H.O.S.T. thing, not to mention keeping the very same organization from finding out about the Terrans. Optimus' orders and all.
"With everything going on? Sure does narrow things down, doesn't it?" The scout teased as he got up to his pedes, his grin not fading even the slightest. There was so much that had been going on as of late that he didn't even know where to start.
"It's nice to see you either way, Skyfire. Been a long time! How've ya been?"
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Post by Skyfire on Aug 15, 2023 9:57:57 GMT
Bumblebee had always seemed to be one of the more 'youthful' Autobots, at least to Skyfire. But he'd also been the one who'd shown Skyfire the way things were in the War, during those few days in the ice and snow, near where he'd been found. The encounter with Bee and his human friends was the thing that had shown Skyfire the error of Megatron's (and Starscream's) ways. He owed a lot to the small yellow scout-bot. That didn't change Skyfire's general frustration with how casually his friend could react to situations that could potentially reignite the Great War.
"I've been functional. Since the breakout at the GHOST prison, I've been trying to track Starscream and Nightshroud, while working on other projects. They escaped with Soundwave, who Nick has told me that he was held prisoner by. I am glad that you were able to save him. Had you called for my aid, I would have joined you."
They seemed like simple statements, though a little bit ominous. Anyone who knew Skyfire at all (even for just a few cycles, rather than millennia), would realize that there was more going on in his cogitation matrix than he was letting on. The experiments he was talking about had taken him to his crash site, twice; and one of them had involved flying in formation briefly with Thundercracker. And it had somehow involved the site of the ruined space bridge, too. Whatever it was that he was thinking about, it was big, and it was very probably dangerous.
"Do you know what cave system Nick was being held in? Or where Soundwave would have fled upon his defeat?"
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Post by Bumblebee on Aug 17, 2023 21:32:31 GMT
Bumblebee wasn't surprised in the least when Skyfire mentioned the breakout. It had only happened a few months ago, but it was still a pretty big deal that many Cons had escaped. Skyfire being as concerned about it made complete sense considering Starscream used to be his best friend as he understood, but war changed bots and sometimes it wasn't for the better. Bee knew that perfectly well when it came to Breakdown. He and the Stunticon were practically brothers, and yet they were divided by the war. If only they'd gotten to experience that time before the war, but alas there was nothing he could really do about it.
"Yeah, I heard about the Decepticons breaking out from Hashtag, one of the Terrans. She.. might've been there when it happened but she's not entirely sure." Bumblebee chose to be careful with his words, not sure if he wanted to tell the entirety of her oops to Skyfire quite yet. "She did tell me what happened afterwards though, with her encounter with Starscream; how he'd used Clematis as a means of escape and then let her go in the tunnels. I told Clematis she could stay here for awhile while things smoothed over between her and G.H.O.S.T. if she needed to." If nothing else she was at least nice enough to comm Skyfire to tell him she was alright once she got out of the tunnels with Hashtag and Starscream. Bumblebee himself had only just met the azure and lilac femme just days before the breakout had happened, but he didn't know Nightshroud personally. Just by name and only from Clematis.
Though that wasn't all Skyfire wanted to talk about. He must have met Nick at some point recently considering the tall seeker knew about the whole thing between him and Soundwave. "Thanks. Being a good scout really pays off in situations like that, but I wouldn't have wanted to bother you. I know you don't like to fight unless you have to, and it was just Soundwave." Bumblebee chuckled a bit with a grin. "As for where he was being held, yeah I can give the coordinates to you. Not sure what you'll find out there but not like I'm gonna say no either."
The yellow mech commed the coordinates over to Skyfire giving him the location of the mountain range about two hours away from where they currently stood. Once that was complete, Bee looked back up at Skyfire. "Hey.. I know you and Starscream have a lot of history together, and I dunno your history with Nightshroud, but you know you don't have to handle this all on your own right? We're all doing our best to recapture the Cons that got away, and while I might be busy training the Terrans I'm always here to help. Just.. have to get someone to babysit the Maltobots first."
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Post by Skyfire on Sept 12, 2023 0:48:33 GMT
Skyfire had been so fixated on the situation with Starscream during the breakout, he wouldn't have known any new mechanism that he bumped into. In fact, that was literally the case with the one minicon. "He released her only because he realized that her weight would have slowed him down. He needed all the thrust his afterburners could give to evade me. She was his means of escaping me, given that I was willing to prioritize her safety over his imminent death."
The big mech shook his head and his tone was bitter. "I almost wish I hadn't. Still, if I'd done as I wanted, I would be no better than him."
When Skyfire received the coordinates, immediately his logic circuits went into high function. "Yes, you are the best ground scout we have, and all of Cybertron owes a debt to you." For all that the words could have been sarcastic, the lack of sharp tone indicated that Skyfire was being honest with his small friend. But his focus was elsewhere. He was trying to track energy sources near that location, or the range Soundwave or Starscream would have without additional energon from that cave. There was a hydroelectric plant nearby, but there had been no reports of foul play recently.
He shook his head at Bumblebee's offer of help. "I allowed it to happen, by not disabling Nightshroud and seeing to it that she was fitted with a restraining bolt when I had the chance; I was too high-minded. I did not self-destruct when I could have done so and destroyed both Starscream and Soundwave - I was too cowardly. This was my fault, Bumblebee. Some virus-ridden part of my gratitude matrix toggled, because they did save my life; against Megatron's inclination. It was Starscream who ordered every erg of energon they had to spare pumped into my shell - and it was Soundwave who did it. I do have them to thank for restoring my life, just as much as I owe you and Wheeljack after Starscream turned and shot me in the bearings. The Decepticons deserve nothing short of the Pit, and I was too weak to send them there. It's only luck that Clematis was not dismantled or catastrophically deactivated; I had no hand in that."
There was a lot of anger in Skyfire's spark, but thanks to the bug in his emotion circuit, he rarely expressed it. "I missed all but the last year of the Great War. I was never a soldier before that, just an explorer. But this one is my fight. I must find Soundwave, and Starscream, and all the others who were allowed to escape by my ineptitude. And when I do, I will decide whether or not to subject them to Human justice, or whether I will deal with them as the Overseers and the High Council once dealt with mechanisms who were glitched and out of function. They deserve no less."
He continued his calculations, trying to figure out where Soundwave would be, or where Starscream would be. His first guess was energy sources near that cave; but he would go and see if there were any clues he could identify. Meanwhile, he let his cold words sink in to Bumblebee. Skyfire was not only one of the largest Autobots, he was also one of the oldest. He was old enough that his parts had not been constructed cold and pressed, but rather poured hot; an interesting contradiction compared to his cold demeanor. The Functionalist movement had been one of the first to get struck down on Cybertron when the first protoforms developed - they'd been one of the groups that both the Decepticons and the Autobots had railed against. To hear Skyfire speaking in their rhetoric, even though he hadn't been active to hear it, might be chilling to his small friend.
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Post by Bumblebee on Sept 12, 2023 2:20:42 GMT
Bumblebee wasn't quite sure what he was expecting Skyfire to say, but he was more or less blown away by what did come his way.
Skyfire was dead set on taking down Starscream and Soundwave, and the implication that he'd almost regretted putting Clematis' safety first because of that was horrifying. The fact that he almost wished he'd sacrificed an innocent bot just for the sake of a personal mission. Bumblebee hadn't known the azure and lilac femme all that long, but it was long enough that he knew she didn't deserve that. Bee wouldn't tell her what Skyfire had said to him, but it did leave him wondering just how far the giant seeker would go to terminate his old friend. Apparently sacrificing his own life wasn't off the table either.
Bumblebee sighed to himself as he listened to everything Skyfire had to say as hard as it was to hear. He couldn't pretend to know what was going on in the other mech's processor, but it truly was chilling to the spinal strut to hear this side of him. Maybe it was the stress, or maybe it was some underlying form of PTSD from only being encased in ice not once but twice.. Bee wasn't a doctor and there was no way he would ever have the answer to that, but what he did know is that he couldn't allow his fellow Autobot, his friend, to sacrifice himself like this. It wasn't worth the cost. "Skyfire.." The yellow bot spoke softly with a frown. "That isn't some virus-ridden part of you that made you want to spare Starscream or whatever you want to call it. That's called empathy. They saved you, and Starscream was your friend. I think maybe you felt you owed them a favor, but Skyfire.. sacrificing yourself isn't the answer."
The smaller bot shook his helm. "We've already lost you once before, and I don't want to see you punish yourself like this. Maybe you could've stopped Nightshroud, but you didn't know what was going to happen.. right? You could know every single plan, prepare every single strategy and still fail, and you know why? Because you can't always win. We all fail sometimes, but we're a team. The Decepticons may have escaped, but we can track them down. We can recapture them, but it isn't up to us to decide what happens next. That's up to Prime and Megatron, and I'm not so sure Optimus is going to be willing to just terminate them. I know you probably don't wanna hear that, but I don't want to hear that you threw your life away because of your beef with Starscream. You're important to us, Skyfire. Not just because you're smart and you're incredibly skillful.. but because you're our friend. You're my friend."
Optic ridges narrowed as Bumblebee continued. "This isn't just about you, Skyfire. I meant what I said. We can help you, but only if you let us.. and you're not gonna brush me aside so easily."
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Post by Skyfire on Sept 12, 2023 2:54:00 GMT
Skyfire looked at Bumblebee, having decided to offload the mapping of possible search locations to his coprocessor. Finding energy sources was something he was very good at, after all. What he wasn't good at was being a hero. He'd only done it a couple dozen times since his reactivation, after all - almost every time it was called for. "Empathy? For mechanisms that have none, like those two? That sounds like a deep flaw in my processing to me. There is an imbalance there, and it should be corrected."
He shook his head, looking at Bumblebee, optics fixed on the smaller bot's. "It was my foolhardy attempt to show Nightshroud how wrong she was about Starscream that inspired her; and my attempt to reconcile her with Clematis that gave her access. I've been over it already with Prime. This was my fault. My foolish attempt to help a friend reconcile with a Decepticon backfired. Again. But this time, I didn't get rolled down a mountain for it. Their reason circuits are fried. There's nothing that a good bare-metal reprogramming and a total refit wouldn't solve for them."
Skyfire's shame was obvious. He cleared his vocoders with a sound like a human sigh.
His expression lightened, but was one of determination. "I can track them. You are the best ground scout we have, but Starscream travels by air. And... where I believe he is likely to go, I would rather you not follow. Raw energon is entirely too unstable for you, my friend. Unless you've learned it without me knowing, you don't know how to section or cube a raw crystal."
He shrugged. "Besides, I have reason to believe that my self-destruct would be..." He thought for a moment, trying to find the right word. "I don't believe non-fatal would be the correct term, but my spark case is reinforced with strong materials. I believe it could be reshelled. It was meant to serve in case of an emergency. Of course, the one major emergency I actually suffered, I didn't even have time to eject my spare cubes, let alone my spark chamber."
Discussions of unique body structures aside, it was certain that Bumblebee would catch what Skyfire had said without focusing on it. Raw energon - and within Starscream's reach.
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Post by Bumblebee on Sept 18, 2023 1:48:57 GMT
It was like no matter what Bumblebee said, Skyfire just didn't seem to get it. The white seeker was so dead set on tracking down Starscream and Soundwave, and possibly Nightshroud, that he was willing to throw his own life away. He felt that they needed to be reprogrammed in order to re-integrate them into society and even that made Bee cringe. Shadowplay was not a term to be used lightly, and the fact that Skyfire felt it was the best course of action outside of their demise was horrifying even if he didn't say the magic word directly. Just how far was Skyfire prepared to go to handle things?
The taller mech could suggest he could survive a self-destruct all he liked, it didn't make the scout feel any better about it as he grumbled. "Skyfire, you're not listening. I don't know what makes you think you could survive self-destructing, but there is no good reason for you to take such an extreme. We are here and can help! I know you feel bad about failing to reunite Clematis and her sister, but that isn't your fault. If Nightshroud isn't willing to listen, then you did all you could." Granted, Bee didn't know just how Skyfire had talked to Nightshroud and how he had sent the femme into a panic whether he intended to or not. "I don't even wanna know why you think shadowplay is a good alternative. That and empurata are not good ideas, and I can't see Optimus agreeing to that either."
Though while he focused on Skyfire's wishes of how he wanted to deal with the Decepticons, he finally realized something else that the scientist had stated. "Wait.. Starscream has a supply of raw energon? How.. do you know this?"
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Post by Skyfire on Oct 3, 2023 7:30:20 GMT
Skyfire looked down at Bee, trying not to be grim with his small friend. But that was where his cogitator was turning now. Whatever he had to do now, he would do it. When Bee asked him what made him believe he could survive self-destructing, he shrugged, with an attempt at a smile.
"I was a long-range explorer. I have a reinforced spark case, which was meant to serve as a sort of 'black-box', if I crashed. Unfortunately, as I said, the one serious crash I suffered, well, you know how that turned out."
He lifted his chest canopy and opened the compartment beneath, revealing a highly armored spark chamber - it was enclosed enough that it might not have been obvious what the function of that component was, except that it was labeled. He reclosed the section quickly after the smaller scout could see. "Obviously, I'd lose my processors and functions, but my core could be reshelled, and the core memory accessed with the correct tools. An artifact of times gone past, when the Elders ruled wisely."
He looked at Bee when he mentioned shadowplay, and shrugged lightly. "Personality adjustment for serial malcontents is sometimes necessary and beneficial for society. Some mechs have faulty reason circuits or unmoderated conflict circuits. Their firmware is incompatible with social needs, so, short of replacing the offending chips, I see no way to repair those who have chosen to remain Decepticons. Optimus may not agree, but what choice do we have?"
Ah, there was Bumblebee's intelligence at work, he'd realized Skyfire's misstatement. "I don't know if he has direct access yet. But I know there is a supply, one that does not seem logical. And... I know that both he and Thundercracker know about it."
He shook his head. "I told him. I wanted to help him understand it wasn't his fault that I crashed and he was thrown so far off course and was damaged; that his only failing by me was when he decided to shoot me. The two of us were affected not by some windstorm, or even solar wind. It was a transwarp pulse that affected us, threw me to Earth, and damaged him badly. That may have reformatted him. Direct interaction with a transwarp pulse like that, with a less-armored shell, could cause severe mutation."
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Post by Bumblebee on Nov 4, 2023 13:33:06 GMT
Primus he was getting nowhere with Skyfire, or at least Bumblebee felt that way. He was so hellbent on terminating Starscream to the point of believing he could actually survive self-destruction. It was kinda in the name, but Skyfire kept insisting that he would be fine and that his spark would be protected by his heavily reinforced spark casing. Skyfire even didn't see anything wrong with altering the processors of the Decepticons knowing that Optimus wouldn't agree to something like that.
If nothing else at least the subject matter shifted slightly as the white seeker began to speak of Starscream knowing where he could get his servos on a supply of raw energon. While it wasn't exactly consumable by any means, if Starscream had some means of refining it then that would be a big win for the Decepticons. The Autobots had cut off their supplies, and while it might have seemed cruel how else were they supposed to draw them out? The Cons weren't exactly making it easy for them. "Unless Starscream plans on blowing that stash up, I don't see too much harm in him knowing where it is. It's not like he can just refine it into consumable energon, right? Still.. wouldn't hurt to have someone scout around the location and maybe bring the raw energon back with them. Just in case." Last thing they needed was for a trigger happy Decepticon to just blow the place sky high by firing at the energon.
Though what Skyfire had to say regarding the transwarp pulse went a little over Bumblebee's helm. He understood the severe mutation bit, but not too much else. All that scientific jumbo made his processor want to spin. "So what? You're saying Starscream is some sorta mutant?" And here he thought that sort of thing only worked when you sent a fictional group of astronauts through cosmic radiation. "Skyfire.. I hope you didn't just come here to talk about Starscream. I get you guys have a shared history, but I think you might be letting him consume your processor."
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Post by Skyfire on Nov 12, 2023 7:47:42 GMT
The unhappy shift in Skyfire's expression would be enough to tell his very small friend that he believed that Starscream certainly could section and cube the raw Energon they'd found. He nodded sadly. "We must protect it, either way. We also need to figure out why it's here, along with artifacts of the Primes. It is very dangerous, and I don't want our human friends to come to harm from something that may have been left buried deep in our past."
He thought for a moment, and there was a slight hint of humor in his tone. "Though when I let it run through my cogitation engine, protecting myself and all of our people from whatever funny business might be going on around here isn't low on the list, either." It was strange lately to hear Skyfire speak so naturally; for a brief time after the war, he'd worked to repair his damaged emotion processor and even virtualized some of it. Wheeljack's repairs had been extremely helpful in that regard. Over time with the return to self-maintenance, he'd fallen back toward his native logic and pessimism. But every few cycles there was some spark of the old Skyfire, when he was a much brighter person and could find ways to crack wise even under stress.
He nodded when Bee mentioned Starscream being a mutant. They'd all been customized in some ways. Skyfire with his black box and huge shell (and cargo space to carry enough energon to supply long-term missions), Thundercracker's sonic attacks, Skywarp's teleportation, Starscream's survival ability and the Null Ray, and more. And with Starscream, there had always been something unusual - maybe that transwarp pulse they'd encountered was what changed him.
"It's entirely possible. I worry about him, though. He may not show it often because of his hubris, but he is intelligent. All of the mechanisms who escaped that prison are dangerous - but I can only conclude that Starscream or Soundwave must be leading them. Either one is highly deadly. And as I said, I don't want our human friends to come to harm because of our history. You and the others told me about the Great War, what it did, and what just a few years of open fighting did here on Earth. We must ensure that it never happens again. I may not like the Arctic very much, as you can certainly imagine, but I do like this world. If I'm fixated on Starscream, it's only to stop him from doing something horrible."
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Post by Bumblebee on Feb 17, 2024 17:44:25 GMT
No matter what Starscream could or couldn't do, it didn't change the fact that having raw energon anywhere near humans was never a good idea. Regular energon was lethal enough to them, so introducing the raw variety was only asking for trouble. Even Cybertronians couldn't consume it raw without negative side affects to their bodies, so having someone who knew how to convert it into refined energon was both a blessing and a curse depending on who was preforming the task. Starscream being one of them would be a major benefit to the escaped Decepticons, but also meant that the one advantage they had over the Cons was now gone.
That wasn't even factoring in the trigger happy Decepticons who'd love to blow up just about anything.
Still, Bee's focus was on Skyfire's hyperfixation on his old friend. It was clearly affecting him badly to the point of blinding him to everything else, but he didn't quite know what more he could do to help either. "I might not know who's leading the Cons, but just because they're dangerous doesn't mean they can't change their ways. I'm not speaking about Starscream or Soundwave exactly, but the Terrans have had some sort of impact on the Cons. The kids are pretty close to Megatron, but even Tarantulas seemed like he was perfectly fine with Nightshade. In fact Tarantulas chose to act as a decoy just to help keep us off G.H.O.S.T.'s radar. I don't know how the Terrans do it, but they really are the future of our species, you know. When we're all gone, they're going to be what's left of us." It was the beauty of neutrality and being so young. The Terrans didn't have those prejudices that the Autobots and the Decepticons had during the course of a four million year war. They were open to helping others, and they'd actually done a lot of good.
"I just don't want the war to rear it's ugly head again. I don't think it'd be fair to the Terrans. We've dealt with it for so long that we know what we're doing, but them? They're just kids."
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Post by Skyfire on Feb 23, 2024 8:12:06 GMT
In spite of all his worries, Skyfire couldn't help but smile at his smaller friend's comment. "You know, there are those among us who still struggle not to see you as a child, Bumblebee." Obviously, the smaller yellow mech was from a later build generation than some of those who still functioned, especially groups like the Seekers, the Constructicons, and the Insecticons. And there were many who had hoped to see his generation free of the war.
He cleared his vocoders and shrugged. "The war has changed our society in deep ways. We have to rebuild and try to bring about a new Golden Age on this world." The Earth was a strange place. Skyfire had never seen a world with biological life coexisting with energon, and the remnants of the Thirteen. Those facts bothered him, and it was part of why he didn't mind going offworld to build the new base on the Moon.
The thought of any of the Decepticons changing their minds seemed absurd, after all the chances they'd been given to reform. "Perhaps some of the younger Decepticons. But Terrans or no, I doubt any of the Decepticons who saw the Space Bridge destroyed are going to surrender."
He glanced around and smiled again. "As the one human wrote - what a brave new world, that has such people in it."
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