“Well, it just seems easier sometimes, not having feelings, looking at him,” Brainpan says.
Beside him, Rough and Tumble crowd the hologram.
" ‘Ground bridge module’," reads Rough, curiously. “When’d we get one of those?”
“More importantly how do we turn it on?!” Tumble excitedly exclaims, tapping furiously at the hologram and bringing up an array of controls.
“Brainpan, this is hands down the worst thing you can ever wish for yourself.” Song said, looking at the small window between the two cells, her voice genuinely full of concern.
“I am sure that the captains are trying to figure that out in this very moment.” Alterion told them without actually moving his glance to them.
Meanwhile, Gronius unintentionally returned to the memorium area, walking in circles, not being able to find Scrapshot anywhere.
“Where is he? Really now, where is he? I looked at the Sunrise, in the training rooms, in the most important hangars, but I just couldn’t find him. For Primus’ sake, where can I find…” he said, before his glance froze on one of the holographic lists of deceased crew members, the one opposite of Broadwing’s. “Oh…” he said, as the word ‘SCRAPSHOT’ was floating gently in the air.
He sighed. First Broadwing, then Scrapshot. Then there was the Titan Squadron, all of Delta’s wacky companions, and so, so many more. Too many more. It was only then when Gronius truly realised how many casualties this supposed “simple quest” caused, how many lives were lost in the fighting with the heretic New Order. And he was more determined than ever to be sure that his sister’s name will not be on any of the lists.
“Zepar, come in.” he called the Angelicon. “Scrapshot’s dead too. Delta, Alterion and Redstocker are doing something else, I can’t interrupt them. Take Epsilon and Shockwave, that is if you convinced him to join, and come to the cathedral. The Splitters are probably already waiting for us there.” he said as he jumped in the air and turned into his dragon mode as he headed towards the meeting place.
@BlackBeltGamer98
Brainpan cocks her head.
“It is?” she asks, genuinely confused as to why that was.
“Well I don’t want to wait for the captains to figure it out,” Tumble retorts, “I wanna figure it out for myself!”
Tumble taps a screen, and nearby, the floor beneath a stack of tankards warps as a swirling, lime-green portal opens beneath them. The tankards groan as they fall into the portal’s crackling horizon.
“HEY!” a nearby technician screeches.
“Sorry!” Tumble shouts back. “Sorry!”
“Of course it is!”
“Uhm…” Alterion mumbles, switching his focus to the two.
“Oh,” Brainpan reacts.
The irate technician stands by the open ground bridge portal, glaring at Tumble.
“Dude, that’s awesome!” Rough exclaims, his eyes wide.
“I know!” Tumble squeals. He then turns his focus back to the holo-map.
“Now, where’d those tanks go…?”
“Surely you can’t feel only bad feelings.”
“How about one of you jump in to see that?” he jockingly asked.
“I don’t,” Brainpan says. “Did I say I did?”
“That’s a great idea!” Rough exclaims, transforming and speeding toward the portal.
“Wait, bro, I think he was just-!” Tumble starts to protest, holding out his hand before-
“YA-HA-HA-HOOOOOO!” Rough laughs as he reverts to robot mode and leaps into the portal.
“-joking…” Tumble sighs…
King-Quan smiled kindly towards Flyby. He gives him a slight nod of his head before his mouth plate was moving. “Thank you…” He said. “I do try my best at these current dark times.” He mentioned.
Scorchlock rose a metal eyebrow before chuckling briefly. “Don’t tell me I already scared ya…” He smirked. “Come on, I’ll go easy on you. Wrecker’s promise.”
“Hmm…?” Scorchlock hummed as he turned his head around, he heard the low hum of the ground bridge’s installation throughout hangar twelve. He also noticed the technicians getting their weapons out. He rose his hand at them. “At ease…it is just a Ground Bridge…” He said, his tone taking a quiet one at the end of the sentence. “Though…I didn’t know we had a Ground Bridge.” He mentioned as he crossed his arms.
“Well, it’s appreciated; thank you,” Flyby says as he returns to guiding Salvation through re-entry.
“Uh, guys?” Broadband pipes up from the communications console, “apparently we have a ground bridge now.”
Breakswitch swivels around in her seat.
“And how did that happen, exactly?” she sputters in disbelief.
■■■■■■■■■■■■’s optics narrow; the captain his his confusion behind a mask of skepticism.
“You never felt happiness?”
“Uhm…”
“I feel happiness all the time!” Brainpan exclaims with a wide smile. “Some people even say I’m too happy. They say it’s ‘manic’ and ‘disturbing’.”
Tumble pores over the holo-map to locate his twin.
“Rough? Rough! Where you at, buddy?” he calls into his comlink.
“I’m okay!” Rough’s voice blurts from the communicator.
“I’m okay! I’m… holy scrap; I’m on the moon!”
“And would you like to permanently loose it?”
“Wait, what?”
Brainpan shrugs, bringing her arms out to her sides.
“I dunno,” she says.
“I’m on the moon!” Rough repeats. “Of the planet! It’s all dusty and pale and there’s a couple ruins and it’s really cold can I come back inside now?”
“I don’t think you would want that.”
“Bring him back!” Alterion ordered Rough’s brother.
“If you say so…” Brainpan replies.
“No slag, genius; that’s what I’m trying to do!” Tumble retorts.
“Rough! Can you just… go back through the portal or something?” he asks, fiddling with the controls.
“It’s two miles above my head!” Rough snarks. “Whaddya want me to do, jump?”
Zepar nods, “I’ll see if he is willing to help.” He said as he sent a coded message to Shockwave asking if he wanted to take a break from working for a bit, give his mind a chance to rest so he can approach his work with a refreshed mind.
Epsilon also received a similar message and began heading for the cathedral.
Shockwave finds Zepar’s logic to be reasonable, and leaves his lab to rumble down to the cathedral in his tank mode.
Zepar and Epsilon soon arrive at the cathedral, waiting for Gronius and the others.
Shockwave rolls into the chamber before returning to robot mode.
“Why have I been summoned?” he asks the group.