Kitai noticed Leslie’s eyes burning into him.
He turned towards her, his form emanating both curiosity and frustration, his wings stood limp at his sides.
“Is there something you need?” He asked, towering over her. His voice sounded ancient and hollow, as if he had been buried for thousands years, hidden and waiting. @Chromeharpoon
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“Okay, okay, cool! Welcome aboard. Glad to have ya.” Nova hastily replied. “Would you mind dialing back on the righteous indignation while you’re plugged into my leg?”
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“Pardon?” he responds. “Oh, of course, forgive me. One moment.” All at once, all the joints shifted a bit as Hauler loosened the limiters. An uncanny feeling. “There, that should be as if it were the real thing. Test it out. Run, jump, acrobatics if you know them” The cable disconnected and the vague whispers receded.
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Nova tentatively took a step forward. Niko made sure to be ready to catch her if necessary. Slowly she walked forward a few more steps, until she was able to move forward with a more confident stride. She kicked the leg forward and swung it back, bending the knee with the motions. Then she made a small hop and landed on the prosthetic, balancing for a moment on the mechanical limb.
“It still feels… strange. It’s going to take some getting used to. But I feel like that’s more on me at this point.” Nova replied. “By the way, are you going to want this back after my new leg is done? If I’m gonna be stuck with this for two whole weeks, I at least want to personalize it a bit.”
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“Not especially. It’ll likely wear out in a month anyhow. It was always meant to be temporary. Like a… I believe a cast, is what you call it? It restrains a limb’s motion until it heals. It’s part of the Operations fee.” He said, keeping a straight face.
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“A cast huh? That seems like a pretty apt comparison.” Nova said with a nod. “Well now that we’ve gotten all this settled, is there anything else you need to go over? Or can I finally get my stuff and get on my way now?”
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“No, you are free to go just… don’t forget to contact me when you leave. I can’t exactly mail it where you’re going.” As the fury left his eyes it was replaced with exhaustion. The Bot wasn’t young anymore and he had just preformed a very mentally taxing surgery. He just hoped Nova will be alright while he worked on the new prosthetic.
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“What if you just met up with the old bird and the rest of the crew? You said you wanted to join anyway. It honestly makes more sense than having to track you down before I go anywhere.” Nova suggested.
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“Ah, I didn’t want to assume. I’ve taken enough of your time as it is. Just let me pack up my tools and workbench.”
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“Just curious,” Leslie says, “How does Liege fit into this, do you think? I mean, we came here to pick him up because we wanted an extra set of hands, but you said the quintessons are convinced he knows something important to them- something I reckon ties into this business with Gabriel and Sentinel Prime somehow. Any guesses there?”
At this moment, Present Memory comes flying back over the water toward Excalibur II, Liege Maximo having evidently concluded whatever errand he’d seen fit to attend to before our heroes departed for the next leg of their journey. Speak of the Prime of Lies, and he shall appear, apparently…
Nova’s belongings are all present in the room, undisturbed in any way. Her piloting suit is still in tatters from the battle with the quintesson beast, and stained with a mixture of human and alien blood to boot.
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“He is important to them. That means he becomes important to us. We continue with what we have planned from there. There is no need for guessing. I understand the unknown must make many uncomfortable. But frankly, that’s not what matters. “ Kitai stared at Leslie. “ We complete this mission. Then, you know what happens next, correct?” He asked her, his eyes narrowing.
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Nova sighed, feeling a slight sense of guilt.
“Look, don’t worry about it. You’re giving me a new leg for free, If anything I should apologize for being such a pain.”
While Nova was talking with Hauler, Niko decided to be helpful and go collect her things. He picked up her weapons and tattered pilot suit and brought them back out to her.
“Hm? Oh, thanks man. You didn’t have to do… that.” Nova noted as she saw Niko walking back. Though she trailed off at the sight of her old flight suit. “Seriously? I knew it would be bad, but I didn’t think it would be this messed up. I can’t even imagine how long this will take to patch up. Not to mention cleaning.”
She picked up the uniform out of Niko’s hands and nearly gagged. The foul and pungent stench of alien blood still clung to her clothes. “Oh man, it reeks too! Ugh.” She looked back to her friend, surprised to see how unphased he was by the foul odor. “How can you just stand there? Don’t you have refined cat smell or something? I’m surprised you aren’t throwing up.”
Niko’s ears twitched, his eyes narrowed, and his face turned to a slight frown of annoyance. 'While the profiling is less than appreciated, you’re not entirely wrong. Mikesu do indeed have an impressively keen sense of smell compared to most other species. Except for me though. My nose just doesn’t work. I haven’t been able to really smell anything since I was a kid."
“Seriously? Doesn’t that bother you?”
Niko shrugged. “Not really. Maybe it’s because I don’t really know what I’m missing out on? I dunno. Just something that’s never been all that significant to me I guess.”
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Hauler nodded, he appreciated the apology. Few Patients thanked him for anything, let alone contact him. There was one of those he help build, but she was currently on Cybertron and thus, out of reach.
He left to acquire his mobile workbench, and hefted it onto his shoulder. Upon returning to the pair, he overheard their discussion about clothes, and spoke up. “If you require clothes washing, I have a cleaning machine at my labs. I primarily use it to get energon out of wipes for my primary employment, but it should treat your clothes fine enough. I need to acquire some items there anyway that I didn’t bring with me. Primarily my Reductor.”
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Leslie shrugs.
“We find whatever the quintessons are looking for, nab it first, and kick them back into transwarp?” she guesses. That seemed a logical chain of events to her.
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“Actually, if it’s all the same to you, I’d rather just get back to the ship.” Nova replied. “After the day I’ve had, I’m exhausted, and I just want to get off this crazy ring.”
@Rukah
“Aaaanyway, we’re gonna get going.” Maximus said after a long and awkward silence. “So uh… see you around I guess? Or come on in. Whatever you wanna do.”
@Chromeharpoon
Maximus and Honeycomb stepped through the ground bridge and into the Excalibur II. Just as the predacon set foot in the ship, he was surprised to feel Axis’ warm embrace around him. He couldn’t help but smile and return the gesture.
“I missed you too.” He said softly.
Axis then quickly stepped back and tried to regain her professional composure.
“Sorry. Today has been… a lot. I’m just glad to have you back. How was your visit home?”
“It was nice! Shorter than I would have liked, but still nice.” He replied with a warm smile.
“I’m glad to hear that. Oh, and it seems you’ve brought a friend.” Axis noted, looking to the unfamiliar insecticon.
“This is Lunawing! She’s my best friend, and she wants to come with us and help against the quintessons!” Honeycomb eagerly exclaimed.
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“very well, I’ll see about having my orderly retrieve my equipment. I suppose it’s better I meet the Prime before I begin lugging around medical equipment eh?” He ended the statement on a upturn, indicating a somewhat poor attempt at humor
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“Don’t worry, we’re with the Prime,” Stonefist called once he and Roadgrind had caught up with the excited Aralysa.
“Uh, yeah, yeah we’ll come in!” Aralysa sputtered out, having finally regained the powers of speech. Behind her, Roadgrind facepalmed, the truck-bot already quite familiar with the Hecatan’s chronic cases of hero worship. Next to Roadgrind, Stonefist just grunted and waved the two towards the portal.
“Let’s just go. We can do introductions later,” the rocky bot rumbled, and the three stepped onwards into the ship.
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As the group enters the ship, Oreo emerges from the hallway near them.
“Do the introductions have to wait? I’m Oreo, by the way,” he said, making his way towards Aralysa. “Welcome aboard the Excalibur, one of Cybertron’s finest warships!”
“Hmm. I think I have heard the name before. He was an explorer, right? One of the first humans to come all the way to Cybertron?”
Defender’s brow furrows with a slight scratch as he tries to remember what exactly he had heard about the man.
He was an explorer… and there was something familiar about the face in the photo. Something… that’s it! The hologram on the Quintesson skull!
“I think we spoke to him earlier,” Defender said quietly. “A short conversation, but enough to be sure that his course is set. He’s not one who would stop his mission, whatever the risk.” He paused, realizing that his words were entirely out-of-context.
“Apologies, Chancellor. I forgot to mention this earlier, but one of my companions received a transmission from Gabriel through a Quintesson artifact she bought at the Iacon Spaceport. Gabriel was not pleased that we intended to find him, although he ended the transmission very shortly after.”
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Lunawing greets Axis with a respectful nod of her head. “If you’ll have me, ma’am,” she says. “I’ve been around the galaxy once-or-twice, picked up some skills that might be useful.”
“That sounds like Troy, alright,” Chancellor Patel says. “Once he got set on something, it was near-impossible to get him to back down. He wouldn’t let anything stop him.”
“Not even death itself?” Redshift interjected. “It’s pretty hard to keep a human alive for five-thousand years, isn’t it?”
“Under normal circumstances, yes,” Nirali confirms. “But if Troy and Gabriel are indeed the same person- and I suspect they are- the quintessons must have prolonged his life somehow. I’ve sent his information to Excalibur II- give it a read. In the meantime, the UHP is starting to catch on that there’s more to what’s happening in cybertronian space than meets the eye. I need to prepare them for what’s coming.”
Niko’s communicator then chimes as Salvage opens a channel to the mikesu.
“Hey, cat-boy,” the Junkion says. “How’s Nova? It looks like the gang’s getting ready to go. She fit to fly?”
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“Yes.” Kitai said, and without further measure, walked away.
“Maximus.” Kitai approached the group. “ I take it your trip was fruitful?”
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