“Thank you my good primate!”
He shouted. Spinning his tires, creating a horrible screeching sound and brining up a cloud of smoke, before rocketing off into the portal, cackling the whole way through.
“AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA”
“It is… Difficult to say.”
Fortress replied.
“It is less of a food, and more of a fuel, I suppose.”
Greasemonkey shuts the portal as Pipebomb drives through, and the junkion would find himself outside the entrance to the vault, on a round landing pad.
Pipebomb transformed into robot mode and walked into the vault, taking a look around.
@Chromeharpoon
“Oh.”
SideStep put away his drinks and glasses.
“That’s a shame.”
“Do not worry. I am unable to experience many of the pleasures most other do. Many for… Obvious reasons. It is something I have come to accept, and no longer troubles me.”
Sidestep nods. “I guess that’s good, in a way. Anyways, what brought ya here?”
“It is complicated…”
Fortress said nervously.
Enough secrets. These are understanding folk. There’s no use dancing around it all now.
“I was not forged from the Well of Allsparks, as most were. Instead I was made. Constructed from the ground up as weapon to fight for the autobots in the war. I am not a Cybertronian. I am a machine… When the war was called to an end, and the Salvation crew was being pulled together, I was placed with the rest of the cargo, in case my abilities were ever needed.”
Zepar examines the slits, trying to see if the Keys were needed to open it.
The slits were of the right dimensions to fit the omega keys.
The vault’s dilapidated interior smelled earthy, and its machinery was rusted and broken. A few crewmembers were already inside, opening storerooms and emptying them of their wondrous contents.
The junkion walked in and looked for a chamber that had yet to be cracked open by anyone else.
Zepar sends Motherboard a request to ground bridge into the Conflux from his current location, providing her a picture of the door to show the keyholes.
Pipebomb would happen upon Thrift just as the merchand finished affixing an explosive charge to an unopened door.
A ground bridge portal opens beside Zepar.
Zepar steps through it.
“I think you’d best leave the explosives to the expert!”
Pipebomb laughed.
“Don’t wanna risk hurting yourself.”
The portal takes Zepar back to the Conflux, where both keys rested in their respective slots- Shockwave had evidently returned the Blue Key after his need for it had expired.
Thrift back away from the bomb and stands up straight, looking almost offened.
“I am an expert in explosive devices, thank you very much!” he assures Pipebomb. “And in many other fields and disciplines, as well! For example, I’m versed in intergalactic economics, haggling, tax fraud, weapon design, evading Allied Species authorities, Allied Species linguistics, arcane lore, fashion sense…”
Zepar takes them through the portal, looking at the security cameras and letting Motherboard know that he’ll return them promptly when he was done with them. Bringing them back through the portal, Zeapr inserted the Blue Key into the left hole and the Green Key into the right hole and tries turning them very carefully.
Pipebomb laughed to himself.
“Alright then Mr. Talent. Let’s see what your little firecracker can do.”
He said in a mildly mocking, yet still friendly tone.
The keys each click into place as Zepar turns them, and the door’s edges retract into the walls. The rest of the structure glides backward, sinking into the far wall of a short hall beyond, which held four small canisters containing red combination sparks, like the ones Corona’s pilgrims had given to Gronius and Wildsong on OL-0.
“Yes indeed-y!” Thrift agrees, pulling up the detonator on a holo-projector in his wrist. The merchant backs away down the hall, advising Pipebomb to do the same. When both parties were far enough away for his liking, Thrift taps the hologram, and the bomb emits a flashing red light…
…following it up with a pitiful sizzling sound as the device falls off the door and onto the torn-up catwalk.
“What?!” Thrift cries in disbelief. “Oh, that five-faced jackaft! He-…they-?.. it lied to me, the spawn of a glitch!”
Zepar gingerly handles the combination sparks and empties the chamber of all other artifacts before returning to the hauler with them and the Keys. “Handle these carefully.” He said, referring to the Combination Sparks.
“Ahem, watch and learn from a professional.”
Pipebomb reached behind his back and pulled out three pressure mines. He throws them at the door, each one sticking to the target. They each give a loud and quick beep-beep, accompanied by the blink of a red light.
A red detonator button then shifts out of the palm of Pipebom’s good hand. He jams down on it with his thumb, and the three mines go off with a deep Krak-boom!, as well as a brief yet dense cloud of smoke.