Battleworld 2.0

Sylvia covered her mouth and stifled a chuckle. She had taken a seat while she waited for the Koopa emissary to get done with his talk with the Desperado group. As she sat there she seemed to be fiddling with her phone. Henry who remained standing where he was for most the meeting looked at her to see what was up.

"What's so funny?"

"Oh nothing. Just remembering a time when I had invited you to lunch. I instead went to the cafe across the street and just watched you wait for me. As I enjoyed a lovely meal, you just sat there patiently waiting until the staff finally kicked you out for not ordering anything. It was all very humorous."

"Really now? I'm glad at least you got a kick out of it."

Henry let out a small huff of annoyance from recalling the memory when his phone beeped. He pulled it out and in it as a list of profiles and instructions to gather them all at the UAA building. He recognized two of them as people he was supposed to kill before this whole thing started. Another was that rapper guy who came with them. He didn't recognize the other three. He looked at the woman who had sent it to him with a raised eye brow.

"Whats this now?"

"A little something I want you to set up for me. I still want to talk with the mercs here, so if this representative from Paradise shows up, I will be here. I won't hold my breath though, and neither should you."

"I'm not your errand boy."

"Are you sure about that? Besides, what I have plan, its important that you all get along. So you can start by saying hello to your new friends. Or if you prefer, you can stay here and continue waiting patiently..."

He stared at her for a moment, clearly annoyed, before relenting and turning toward the portal.

"Good boy."

He paused briefly upon hearing her comment, before deciding to let it go and head through the portal back to Santa Destroy.

Dr. Naomi nodded as she listened, all the while continuing her work on the football. When Lady had finished her list of demands, Naomi stood up and grabbed a near by clip board. The first thing she did was walk over to inspect Lady's rocket launcher.

"Hmm, custom model? Anything I need to know about it? Fitting it in a cradle with a firing mechanism won't be a problem. Going to have to take its measurements to get it properly fitted."

She heaved the weapon up and brought it to an empty space in the warehouse then wrote on the clip board.

"Order seems easy enough. Don't have to invent a way bend the laws of physics. Most of what you want is current technology and easy enough to implement. The only real challenge is making it so everything runs together smoothly. I'll be installing a stabilizer system to counter act the recoil and weight distribution of the weapons. Handling may feel a little stiffer while firing, but other then that the thing will run smoothly. May need to test fire your rocket to get a reading on the recoil."

As she talked she walked around the room grabbing parts and tools and bringing them to the same spot. Each time she dropped off a piece, she marked the paper on her clip board.

"The armor and other accessories will add some weight to your bike but with the engine I am giving you, you won't even notice while driving. The wheels will keep traction and are durable to boot. With the frame and armor, your bike can stand to be knocked around. It holds up well against blunt force and small arms fire, but know I use this metal alloy to test my inventions against. Try to avoid weapons that glow or anything that can take out a tank. The battery is one of mine, you won't have to worry about changing it, ever. The fire is a classic, just keep in mind its bad for mileage. And know that the light can burn real hot, so don't touch the lens after using it, like a fucking hot plate."

She had amassed a nice pile of parts on the floor. She looked them over, seemed satisfied, then turned to Lady and tossed her the clip board with the bill.

"Your looking to pay around there. That's not including ammo or fuel. With a project like this, I can crank out a finished product within the hour after payment has been received."

She lit up a cigarette and turned her attention back to the parts pile.

"Oh yeah, how you want this baby to look?"

One would be unsuprised to learn that the kissing teleport that left Dante naked came as a complete surprise to him. One he, naturally, took in stride. "Woh, skipping the foreplay? I like a good time as much as the next guy, don't get me wrong, but you're going way too fast. We haven't even had a first date yet. You know how this works, we get some dinner, maybe catch a movie, then we move to the fun part."

Dante stopped a moment to check his back and make sure his weapons were there. Confirming he still had both his blade and gun on him, he continued. "Heh, and you're lucky Lady called me to come and didn't show up herself. I wouldn't be surprised if she'd gone and shot you for doing this."

Sam gave an exaggerated shrug, and followed the Koopa out the door and back into the common room towards the Koopa Kingdom portal. Sylvia would easily be able to see the two, and while she wouldn't know for sure if Sam was a Desperado member, the robotic arm and the melee weapon would be good hints toward a yes. Meanwhile, she now had her opening to move in.

Lady shook her head no when she was asked if there was anything unusual she needed to inform them of. Then she thought again, and something did come to mind. "Oh, right. One thing. That doesn't need to be reloaded. Ever. So, don't worry about leaving a way for me to reload it while it's still attached.

Lady watched as the woman ran around, grabbing seemingly random parts and explaining how her new bike would work. Lady hesitated when she was told the woman would need to fire the rocket to get recoil adjustments. She'd only ever let Dante use it, and even then that was for a very limited time period. Still, she needed to know how much kickback to adjust for, and Lady supposed she could let her fire one rocket. "Alright, you can test fire it. Like i said, don't worry about loading it, just aim and pull the trigger. Oh, and make sure there's nothing important anywhere around the target area."

After a few more moments, a clipboard was thrown at her, the cost listed on it. Lady raised an eyebrow at it. She had of course been expecting high. She had the funds to cover it, but she wasn't going to be able to run around making purchases like this forever. At least she had the job stuff lined up to cover costs in the meantime, and if things really became desperate, she had that duelist job offer as well. She pulled a card out of her pocket, a platinum swipe card.

"You take credit cards, right?" If she received a yes to that, she would hand it to her along with the clipboard. Despite Battleworld lacking whatever bank this card belonged to, she would find that the thing worked as expected, only that it functioned as a debit card rather then a credit card, the balance of said card being the rather large credit limit.

Then, lastly, she was asked what she wanted it to look like. "Make it red. Maybe throw in some white as a secondary color, but keep it mostly red."

edited 6th Sep '15 8:46:05 AM by Meanken

The group then looked up at Team Prime

"Well, that was easy." said Rink.

"Hello! It's been a little while." said Iris, cheerfully waving at Prowl.

Akihabara

The squinty eyed man frowned deeply as news were relayed back to him that what appeared to be the machine beings were busy at work trying to snuff out the more organic visitors to his city, something that irked him greatly. "Have the assassins send out warning shots." Shiroe commended, his pen now furiously scribbling across the parchment with mechanical precision. "If it's ignored, then PK." With a final fancy flourish, the Villain in Glasses penned the warrant.

Nearby the Decepticon scouts, the Assassins immediately got to work. Spry bodies instantly leaped up several buildings, their feet traversing surfaces 90 degrees perpendicular to the ground with ease as the nimble Adventurers kept up with the Transformers, moving in four dimensions via roof hopping and double jumping. Large amounts of kunai, shuriken, arrows, and other pointy throwing weapons rained down from the sky by cloaked Adventurers, forming a perfect square about the mechanical giants.

"Cease and desist." A particularly small ninja woman with purple hair stated from atop the nearest lamp post, her cool gaze looking down upon the machines. "If you're going to cause trouble within Akiba, we will defend ourselves." Her eyes flickered to the girl and cat for a moment with a warmer light before turning cool again as they readjusted towards the Decepticons. Akatsuki found herself ready to react at a moment's notice, her sharp eyes trained on the various chinks in armor as viable targets to strike at...

As the police waited with the pilot to get out of the biplane, the most likely last thing they expected to see come out of it was a large gorilla wearing clothes, those usually typical of a surfer. Especially.....

"Whoa, hold up there flatfoots!"

......one that could actually talk.

"I wasn't expectin' a red carpet, but I sure didn't expect any fuzz on this luau," Funky said, holding his hands up like he's surrendering.

Rodimus looked over at the four newcomer Autobots, who transformed in unison. Hot Shot had gone quiet, for fear of saying something else and inviting further twists of fate. As Rodimus approached Prowl, Ratchet, Bumblebee and Bulkhead, the four repair-bots stood straight.

"Atten-shun," the Prime instructed, pacing along their row. "I understand that you and your leader Optimus Prime have vital information. I'm going to need a full report on exactly what happened here before we do anything else. Spare no detail."

Ratchet and Prowl briefly glanced to each other, both standing firmly at attention.

"That may take a while, sir," said Ratchet.

"Perhaps when we can find a better t—" started Prowl, but Rodimus spoke over him.

"Before I decide to trust your judgement, Optimus's judgement or that of the organics, I need information. I'm asking you to provide it, so provide it."

With little other option available, Ratchet and Prowl did their best to relate their tale. How they'd been caught and dragged along with Iacon, finding themselves with a message and a portal leading to a massive meeting room. From there, they met all kinds of strange organic representatives of who-knows-how-many civilisations from alien planets untouched by Cybertron. They told him of the Cure, and how he'd brought everyone to Battleworld for his entertainment, and effortlessly murdered one human who'd defied him. And then, with a hint of apprehension, they told of the Decepticons they'd encountered and the possibility of an alliance they'd raised.

Rodimus took all this information in, silent.

edited 7th Sep '15 12:51:31 AM by SR3NORMANDY

Iacon

April and July remained silent; even if they didn't fully understand why Optimus was trying to hide them (human visitors seemed like a respectable reason to allow them to meet the council) they didn't try to blow the Autobot's cover. Of course, that didn't mean April ignored the nonsense this "Jazz" idiot was spewing. She rolled her eyes and wondered why robots were programmed with such stupid personalities.

Akihabara

Yin remained silent and motionless, unable to run further without the threat of harm. Mao, on the other hand, tried to quietly sneak through the perimeter. It was great that the robots were being dealt with, but he wasn't interested in getting captured with them. He had no idea how Yin was faring; chances were that she'd be imprisoned and possibly interrogated. Even if these ninjas didn't know where she was from, they probably weren't stupid enough to let her go; she was caught in the middle of this incident, as was he. The only chance to relay their findings to Amber and possibly rescue Yin was for Mao to make it back to Tokyo.

...but that was obviously easier said than done. The situation had put Mao's fur on its end, and even moving was difficult to do inconspicuously. The assassin's would probably see a nervous jittery little kitty trying sneak past them without notice.

Meiji Shrine

"Well aren't you a funny one." Brita smiled as she unwrapped herself and started walking up the stairs to the shrine. It almost looked like was purposefully swinging her hips with each step.

"This way, funny boy."

At the top of the stairs was the shrine itself.◊ As the nude duo approached the entrance they would see a man in a black coat and a mask appearing from behind one of the columns. Hei's reaction to seeing a potential ally and Amber's associate completely naked was a bit disappointing. But maybe that was because nobody could see his face flush under the mask.

He removed his coat and tossed it to Dante, revealing his weapons and utility belt underneath it.◊

"Put this on." the masked man ordered. "It's hard to take you seriously as you are."

Tokyo Airport

The grey suit man met Funky's surprise with shock of his own. He had the latest information available on this "Battleworld" his city was transported to, but...talking chimps? That's what they were up against?

Perhaps speciesist pride got the better of him when he turned to the officers and signaled for them to lower their weapons. What harm could a talking monkey possibly do here?

"Identify yourself." the man calmly asked. "Are you from the Ape World?"

"Ah, fer Primus's sake," muttered Thunderhoof as he transformed and watched Underbite ram the nearest boat. "What part o''fall back' don't youse understand?!" Muttering a constant stream of Praxian invective under his breath, the huge horned Decepticon obligingly waded into the blood lake, cursing every step of the way.

"You kiddin' me?" Underbite's huge, jagged head smashed its way through what remained of the bulkhead, his enormous maw crushing the weakened metal like a gigantic car compactor. "Now this is some good metal!" Electricity crackled over his body as the Chompazoid digested his latest meal; rearing up atop the sinking hulk he kissed both of his metallic muscles, preparing to lay down a good thrashing on the approaching ships...

... until the barrage of flaming debris streaked his way. "Knock it off!" he roared, crashing back down on all fours and doing his best to stay afloat on the rapidly sinking ship. Lacking any real projectile weapons, the most he could do to the approaching ships was yell at them -which isn't to say that he wasn't planning on doing that.

"Get back to shore, ya idiot!" Thunderhoof was now up to his neck in the red liquid, doing his best to keep his ^note admittedly rather large head down in the hopes of evading detection.

Steeljaw wasn't even sure if this wretched little lifeform was sentient or not, but it didn't seem like he was being given any real choice in the matter. Steeljaw obligingly set off after him, doing his best to stay inconspicuous. He'd learned over the course of his life that no matter who you are- and no matter what you did, or what your caste was- someone was always watching you. Battleworld was, as he'd quickly discovered, no exception to this rule.

"So, what do you do here?" he asked the creature conversationally after a few moments had passed.

"Oh yeah," said Airazor, throwing up his hands in the air as though he was about to unconditionally surrender. "We give up. You got us surrounded. Read us the Tyrest Accord or whatever you people do with your prisoners. Lock us up and throw away the key. Right, Divebomb?"

"Ooooh, yeah." said Divebomb, kneeling on the ground as he did his best to look terrified. "You got us good. We'll never harm one hair on a little kitty again." As he said that, he ran a thumb against the palm of his hand...

"'f I had my way we'd all be safe and snug back in that nice little base. But oh, no. 'C'mon, Clampdown! Let's go swimmin', Clampdown! Let's get attacked by a giant octopus, Clampdown!""

Anyone or anything near the coastline of Castlevania would probably be able to see something red and metallic wriggling its way out of the water. It took another few seconds before the Decepticon extricated himself out of the mud and scuttled sideways up the coastline, mumbling angry nothings to hismelf.

"'I hate dis place.'"

"We house civilians, doctors, engineers, not everyone here is a soldier. For example myself," John answered.

"Our leader here isn't much of a fighter, but he's proven himself by using knowledge of computers and robotics," Marcus continued as they marched along to the shinier parts of the factory, white walls and corridors filled their vision.

"But that is why Skynet fears John. He proved himself the leader of the Resistance by showing where his knowledge mattered the most," Cameron continued, "You must decide the battle before it is fought."

"For what it's worth, I can confirm most of what he said." said Iris, rather awkwardly breaking the silence.

"I have to ask, what happened to your leader?" asked Pamela, to the other bots, noticing a distinct lack of Optimus in the area.

The pig did not say word. Instead it glowered and pointed the path in front of Steeljaw, its other hand on its hip and tapped its foot impatiently, as if waiting for the Decepticon to walk past.

"Ape World?" Funky asked, confused. "If ya mean DK Island, then of course! But there's more den us Kongs there! There's also elephants, giraffes, squirrels, pigs, crabs, moles, chickens, robot chickens, the undead........Kremlings......" The grey suited man would immediately note how Funky's jovial tone turned near hostile at the mention of the last thing on the list.

Underbite's yelling had little impact on the men on the ship, who continued firing fireballs repeatedly at the robot. Meanwhile, the men on the shoreline got a target lock on the robot who had ventured into the lake, and they fired. A few of the rockets impacted the blood lake and stopped, but several continued onward, streaking toward the robot's exposed head.

"Hey, I'll take funny boy." Dante said as he followed. "Been called a lot worse, trust me."

As he reached the top of the shrine and was thrown a coat, Dante chuckled. "Hey, not my choice to come in the nude, you know? You can blame her." He said, pointing at the woman next to her. "Oh, wait, how rude of me, I haven't even asked you your name yet." He said to the woman as he put the coat on.

"Prime's, uh... he's with the Council," said Bumblebee, not quite lying. "Telling them everything."

Rodimus spent a moment in reflection, then crouched beside Iris and the other humans.

"Alright then. If you trust Optimus to know what he's doing, then it would be best if you all remained with his team until further notice. Team Athenia and I will continue our sweep of the perimeter in the meantime. We're really more fighters than diplomats, anyway."

"Repair-bot training didn't exactly cover organic first contact either," mumbled Bulkhead. Rodimus pretended not to hear him. With a gesture to his squadmates and a nod to Ratchet, the three warrior bots transformed and drove for the luminescent highway to return to their postings.

"Well," remarked Prowl. "I guess you're stuck with us."

Optimus remained silent for the remainder of the elevator ride that seemed to drag on and on, while Jazz continued bobbing his head to the elevator music. It seemed even completely mechanical alien cultures still put bad synth music on their elevator speakers. The door opened, and Optimus quickly stepped outside with a curt nod to Jazz.

The Council Chambers were straight ahead, Optimus finally feeling confident enough to let April and July out from under his cover.

"Okay, we're in. Now we just need to get the Council's attention."

"Great Primus's exhaust port, what in the Pits is that?" cried out a voice. Optimus winced, then looked up to see a short, red and agitated Autobot staring at him. Or rather, at the two humans in his hand. It was Cliffjumper, a personal attendant and analyst of Cybertron Intelligence - Prime recognised him from the Academy.

"They're, uh..." started Prime, racking his brain for some kind of explanation before Cliffjumper flipped out and had the whole area scrubbed with detox chemicals and him arrested for attempted biological assassination of the Council.

Sylvia watched as the wizard looking koopa left with the cyborg samurai. When they had disappeared from into the portal, she got up and made her way toward the Desperado's door. Outside the door, she stopped and pulled out a compact mirror. She quickly fixed her hair and fiddled with the top button of her coat to try to get a balance between sexy and professional, before deciding to just leave it as it was. Satisfied with how she looked, she but the mirror away and knocked on the door.

"Really now? Infinite rockets huh?"

She looked at the rocket launcher with new found curiosity. A part of her wanted to open the thing up and see how it worked. Matter teleportation from a stockpile elsewhere? Bending space and time within the barrel so it always returns to a point in which it was loaded with a rocket? The weapon seemed pretty low tech so perhaps not, but it could be supernatural. Even magic must cater to the laws of reality, which means it can be studied and replicated. She was a professional though and knew better then to indulge her curiosity. She would however keep it in mind, incase the thing went on auction after this girl bit the dust.

Dr. Naomi took clip board back and looked at the card. She walked back to her desk, pulled out a credit card machine and swiped it. After seeing the transaction go through, her lips curled into a smirk.

"Alright, let's get started."

"I SAID I DID NOT WANT TO BE DISTURBED!"

The secretary sheepishly peaked her head through the door, not daring to step foot inside the office. The boss was in a really bad mood. she knew what tend to happen when he was like this, after all she was the one who had to place the order for replacement windows and for someone scrape the bloody stain from the street below.

"I-I-I k-know sir. You s-said n-not unless its..."

The door flung open and Nathan casually waltzed into the room, boom box still playing, and took a seat at Jasper's desk. Jasper seeing who it was, tried to compose himself.

"Ah, sorry about that. I just received some very bad news. But enough about that, you kill this Cure guy?"

Nathan shook his head.

"Nah."

"So did you find out how to get Santa Destroy the way it was?"

Nathan shook his head again.

"Nah."

Jasper's eye twitched. First to hear there was no more Travis, then to deal with this bullshit. He was barely able to keep himself contained.

"Well then, do you have any good news what so ever?"

"Of course, I have wondrous news."

Nathan grinned, then proceeded to tell him of the meeting and the demands of the mad god.

Resistance Base

"And how do you propose we fight this battle?" Misaki asked. "Some territories seem bent on destroying each other and anyone who stands against them. If we're to satisfy the Cure's bloodlust while testing his limits, it's best we focus on the most hostile forces first: Outworld and Koopa Kingdom."

Her brow furled again in thought. "Problem is, those two seem eager to fight each other first, and if I remember correctly, you share a border with the Koopa Kingdom. That giant turtle didn't seem interested in joining forces with anyone, but perhaps if we can convince him that we share a common enemy, we can at least forge a truce between us. So long as Outworld's leader seems prepared to destroy us all, he's everyone's enemy."

Tokyo Airport

"I see." the grey suit man nodded. He took good notice of the ape's disdain for these "Kremlings;" it might be useful later on.

For the first time since their meeting, the man smiled. "So you're from that island down South, correct? Well on behalf of the city of Tokyo, welcome to our little slice of the globe. I am Yoshimitsu Horai, Chief of Tokyo's Public Safety Bureau. And you are...?"

Meiji Shrine

"Call me Brita." the blonde woman winked.

"You can leave now." Hei told the woman, but she just smirked and shook her head.

"I'll pass, thanks. I'd rather watch the show."

Hei sighed. He held no authority over Amber's minions, so there was no way to get her to leave except by force, and that might alienate him with the Evening Primrose.

"Fine." he said after a pause. "Just stay out of our way."

Hei then turned to Dante. "Were you serious when you said you'd fight the bastard holding us all here?"

Iacon

April groaned when Optimus dropped his guard and got caught smuggling. Maybe he really was green after all.

She stood at parade rest in the Autobot's hand as she spoke to Cliffjumper, making sure her chin was slightly elevated to help her look authoritative.

"We're ambassadors from the Metropolis of Tokyo, thank you very much. My associate and I have an audience with your Council to discuss a possible alliance between our cities. You're no doubt aware that Iacon is no longer where it once was, correct? This dimensional collage is filled with threats to both our nations—some may be more familiar to you than others. Our best chance of survival is to work together; and right now you're hindering that cooperation. So I suggest you move aside before you make us late for our meeting!"

Steeljaw had been born only a few hundred stellar cycles before the war swept over Cybertron, in those last, final days before the caste system finally broke down and everything went to hell. Unlike the ill-fated "final generation" of Cybertronians, he'd been alive to see an intact Cybertron, however briefly.

Perhaps for his reason, he found organic landscapes hard to appreciate. The jungle seemed to stretch on forever, pressing in on him and the organic creature as the duo picked their way through the mud and dirt. The Decepticon leader scowled and flicked a speck of mud off of his face as he did his best to maneuver around a particularly dirty stretch of jungle.

"I don't mean to impose," Steeljaw said, his voice taking on the faintest of edges, "but have we almost reached our destination?"

"Funky Kong, ace pilot, weaponsmith, and the sickest surfer to shred the ocean, mon!" the Kong introduced himself.

However, the pig did not actually travel with Steeljaw, for as soon as the Decepticon walked past the stand, there was a sudden eruption of horn squeals and confetti from behind the stand with a green checkmark flag unfurled at the front of it as the pig jumped for joy and dived into some unseen compartment below. Apparently the pig as not really giving Steeljaw directions as so much just wanted him to walk past the stand.

edited 9th Sep '15 8:29:38 AM by UdtheImp

"Buh... wh... whuh?" responded Cliffjumper, eloquently. His optics darted between the two humans, then to Optimus.

"Do as she says, soldier," was all Prime said.

Looking thoroughly rattled, Cliffjumper took a step back, then collapsed onto his seat, nodding absent-mindedly. Optimus took this to be his go-ahead, and stepped into the Council Chambers.

The Council had been in debate for megacycles, keeping up to date on the events surrounding Iacon's sudden divorce from the planetary surface. The crisis had no logic to it, and the situation wasn't exactly conductive to constructive debate and decision making. Nonetheless, they were at last starting to make priorities beyond deployment of the Elite Guard to clear the streets and secure the borders.

"Our third attempt to re-establish long range communication with Cybertron has met with limited success," reported Longarm Prime. "And our global sensor network is completely inoperable without the wider planetary satelites. At this stage, we must refocus our efforts to re-establishing local communications - until then we are leaving many vulnerable gaps in our responses to potential threats."

"Do so," ordered Ultra Magnus, clasping his Magnus Hammar with his stalwart grip. "We cannot afford to remain in the dark with such frequent communication breakdowns."

"And we of the civilian guilds have finally delivered an estimate on our energon reserves," said Alpha Trion, stroking his metal beard thoughtfully. "As it stands, our supply will last perhaps ten to fifteen solar cycles at current rate of consumption. After that, we will be forced to use our military supplies to compensate. Perceptor has already proposed a collaboration to begin gathering resources to convert to energon - though it is likely that our new alien neighbours may react to such resource-gathering with hostility."

"Without energon, we will not survive," answered Ultra Magnus, matter-of-factly. "We will do what we must, with or without the approval of the organics."

"Begging your pardon, Commander," said Optimus, stepping into the centre of the chambers, holding April and July up. "But I think it would be in the spirit of the Autobot way if we were to seek approval."

There was a murmur of consternation from the Council as they took notice of Prime's new friends, Ultra Magnus narrowing his eyes at the interruption.

"Could be worse." said Pamela, folding her arms and sighing.

"Considering one of your friends there tried to smack one of us as if we were some sort of bug..." said Eifer, rolling her eyes.

"That was scary..." said Rink, wincing.

"What do we do now? Just wait?" asked Iris, looking around to see if there was anything of interest

"I said get back ta shore!" The first projectile smashed into Thunderhoof's head, leaving a nasty scorch mark. "Or at least get your stupid, fat head down!"

"'Sat all ya got?!" Hopped up on metal and bolstered by his usual reckless overconfidence ^note  an overconfidence that tended to vanish whenever Steeljaw was around Underbite's tone was still defiant- even though the ship he was on was sinking rapidly. In a few more minutes, he'd be entirely underwater, but in the meantime he was being peppered with molten projectiles. Bits of his paint and armor had flaked off or partially melted... which was only making him angrier and more reckless by the second.

"Ah'll take ya all on! Ah'll take this entire slaggin' Battleworld on!"

Steeljaw blinked in confusion at the bizarre ceremony. Organics tended to do strange, sometimes incomprehensible things for no reason. Blame it on their unpredictable neurons, or whatever organics used to think with.

Well, if he couldn't talk with anybody here, then he could at least try and find a base here among the mud and overgrowth. Steeljaw transformed back into his vehicle mode. Fortunately, his Earth disguise seemed to have been custom-made for this kind of rough offroad terrain ^note he had covertly scanned it only a few hours after he had broken out of his cell, at some kind of outdoor sporting event .

Tires squealing, Steeljaw transformed and sped off through the tropical forest, doing his best to try and stay inconspicuous... wishing all the while that he had some way to cover up the tire tracks and crushed undergrowth that he'd inevitably leave behind.

edited 9th Sep '15 6:20:15 PM by Locoman

Tokyo Airspace

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Kong-sama." Yoshimitsu smiled with a bow. "Now that we're no longer strangers, I invite you to stay in our city for the time being. At least until we can refuel your...plane. There's no telling how many foreign hostiles patrol the skies of this new world."

Iacon

"So you're just going to take what you want without thought of the consequences?" April asked, an eyebrow raised to her forehead. "You lot sound like our politicians."

She scanned the room as much as her frontward vision would allow; guessing how the bot with the staff seemed to be running the show, she gathered he (it?) was this city's leader.

"Call me April. My associate here is July. We're here to represent what you might know as Hell's Gate Tokyo, a human city not too far away from your Iacon. If you're looking for material to turn into this "enerjohn" maybe we can reach an agreement. But first I have to ask: what do you use to make this stuff? And keep in mind if the answer is "organics" like us, I doubt I'll be able to convince my other associates to allow it."

There was a long, long silence. Optimus did his best to keep his back straight and gaze locked.

"Optimus Prime," began Longarm. "You have brought an organic past quarantine in open violation of the Commonwealth Organic Dissociation Act of 32.007-8."

" Actually," said Perceptor, sounding suspiciously like a text-to-speech device. " Under the Commonwealth Intergalactic Communion Act of 28.337-2, Fourth Amendment, organics are permitted within Iacon if they are recognised as representatives of their people."

"Regardless," said Alpha Trion. "in a Council-recognised State of Emergency, any legislation can be countermanded by the Magnus if he deems it necessary."

Optimus Prime did his best to keep quiet as the Bureaucratobots argued the letter of the law, before Ultra Magnus spoke up.

"This Council recognises and permits the active presence of organic diplomats, and shall consult with them accordingly," he stated, striking the ground with the pommel of his hammer. The other Council members fell into quiet.

"April, you have the word of all Autobots that your sovereignty will be respected," he continued. "And we hope that peaceful relations will prevail in such a difficult and unorthodox time. Your unfamiliarity with energon is to be expected - it is a power form unique to Cybertron. It can be cultivated in a crystaline form or converted from more primitive fuels and sources. It is power in a form that our mechanical bodies can use."

"Well," said Prowl, "We were ordered to secure portal within the hangar."

"It's not there any more," said Bumblebee, returning outside from the hangar after a brief, speedy investigation. He skidded to a stop beside Bulkhead.

"Wait, what do you mean it's not there?" asked the large green bot, puzzled.

"I mean it's not there. I really don't know how to condense that down any further for ya," said Bumblebee, shrugging.

"If the portal's not here, then I say we find ourselves somewhere to sit tight until Prime gets arrest— uh, I mean until he gets results," said Ratchet. "There's an great old greasy valve just across the block that wouldn't give two fuseboxes if we brought organics in. Maccadam's Old Oil House."

"That place waters down its ethanol," complained Bulkhead.

"You take that back," said Ratchet.

"The Cure..." said Iris, trying to recall some of his words, "he mentioned that the portals were going to be at the entrance of each land..."

"Is that so?" asked Schirach, earning a nod from Pamela and Eifer who themselves just got reminded of it "Well, then this place hardly looks like an entrance."

"This means..." started Rink

"... the portal must have been relocated..." finished Lecht

"The portal must be anywhere within the city's borders!" Iris concluded, looking quite perky

"That's still a wide area to search, but at least it's better to look for it than to just go into a bar in order for you to go drink what I can only assume is your equivalent of alcohol." said Eifer, sighing at the general incompetence she was seeing.

"They're right," said Prowl, doing his best to suppress his own impatience with his team. "The ship's as secure as it'll ever be, we should be searching the city to find it."

"And how do you propose we do that?" asked Ratchet.

"The ship has a sensor array, doesn't it?" was Prowl's response. "We'll just determine distortion that the portal emanated and locate a similar signature."

"Oh yeah?" questioned Ratchet belligerently, raising a finger. "Well that idea... might... just work. Alright, fine."

The medic-bot turned to head for the ship's boarding tube, grumbling. Prowl followed silently.

"You'll love the ship," said Bumblebee, trying his best to ingratiate himself with the weird, fleshy aliens. "It's got tons of room and surround sound I got rid of the last razor-wasp nest growing off of it."

"It still leaks," said Bulkhead.

"Not that much," responded Bumblebee, quickly. "A-anyway, let's go."

Iacon

April crossed her arms in disappointment. The boss bot hadn't given her much to go on.

"So you can make your sustenance from more primitive fuel sources? Like coal, and natural gas? Or do you make it from other materials like metal and rocks? Sorry if I sound ignorant, but judging from the looks of you lot I'm guessing your technology's a bit more advanced than ours; I can't even begin to guess what you can or can't turn into food."