“Not a pleasant experience, is it?” the medic jokes as he repairs Tokamak’s injuries. Humor may have been his way of enduring traumatic situations like this. The bot is skilled at his craft, and the repairs are relatively quick and not too terribly uncomfortable.
Some of the paramedics are searching the scene for Loader’s severed arm- they had a duty to treat the sick and injured, even if their patient was a criminal.
“Have you found it?” the curator asks, looking hopefully up at Firestorm (assuming the Knight was currently connected to his transtector). “The case contains the journal of Sentinel Prime- it has a particular historical value. Probably a high monetary value as well, for someone to go though all this trouble to steal it.”
“That does not mean we are above judgement,” Ironclad says to Kitai. “It is good to question your leaders.”
The restricted section consisted of rows upon rows of shelves containing artifacts and data storage devices from every era of cybertronian history- all of it inaccessible to most without special permission from the library’s staff. Maximus finds another dead archivist lying beside a smashed glass container, within in the section for Stagnation-era material.
“I think I’ll stick with eukarian gladiator games,” the bot says, and he leaves Barrage’s company.
Ah, scrap. If they catch me, I’d have to pay for my medical bill - or worse, I’d get caught with the tech I stole!
Legally reacquired. I meant legally reacquired. It’s not like the stuff was patented or anything. I’m pretty sure anyway. Yeah. But it’d still look bad!
So saying, Conjoint picked up the second arm, hid it behind his back, and tried to wheel off without being too clearly noticed by the paramedics. That terrorist, he’s a nice fellow, wouldn’t rat on a guy like me just because I attacked him and then stole his arm. Right?
“Yeah. Figured it’d be a great place to show off my talents and look for people to join my bad. I’d say it all went over pretty well.”
Niko replied happily.
Conjoint is able to flee the scene without being discovered. The paramedics would just assume that Loader’s left forearm had been destroyed in the fighting, and patch up the remaining upper arm.
The display had a holographic label, conveniently enough. The projector appears to have taken a stray shot from a plasma weapon, but blue text still flashes intermittently within the shattered glass:
A316: Journal of Sentinel Prime
“Nice meeting you, Tokamak,” the doctor says. “I’m Patchwork.”
Recognizing her novel reaction, Cargo’s eyes glint warmly as he walks. “You saved a man’s life today. You’ve done more than just ‘help.’” It felt good, acting as a hero again. He felt as if he had been waiting a while for it.
“Very well Wilhemina, I am sorry to inform you that there is little more I can do for you right now, as you refuse to let me administer aid, and it seems the local law enforcement is here. However, if you will work with me, I might be able to pull some strings. Will you do that?”
“That sounds like a good idea to me.” Stonefist rumbles. He gestures for Aralysa to hand Axis the case, and the purple-and blue-armored Cybertronian does so, making sure not to break its ancient contents.
“Now it appears the only issue left is to figure out why they stole the case…” Aralysa’s sentence trails off as she ponders the statement.
“Oh, so you must have heard me earlier when I was singing for my grandad. Yeah, no luck yet. Still just me. But I’m still not giving up. I know I’ll get the band I want eventually if I just stick to it.”
Niko replied.
“Well aren’t you ominous.”
Maximus commented to himself. With that he lifted up the nearby body, and grabbed the other one outside the restricted section, and walked out to tell Axis what he had discovered.
“So… this is what it feels like to be a hero then?”
Nova asked with a smile.
“I gotta say, its pretty nice.”
As Axis took the case from the two, Maximus came walking out of the Hall of Records with a body under each arm.
“Well I figured out what they tried to take.”
He said as he walked up to the three.
“Whatever it is, its called the Journal of Sentinel Prime. No idea what it is, but if they wanted it so badly, I doubt its anything good.”
“Same to you. Hopefully it will be under better circumstances next time. Good luck with the others.” Tokamak says and goes around looking for the remains of his other drones. Collecting them to salvage what he can to rebuild or make replacements later.
“So if you’re looking for bandmates, what made you jump into this mess?” Roaster asked.
“No, definitely not.” Aralysa replied. “If they were willing to go to those lengths, I doubt they would’ve needed it for benevolent purposes.”
Stonefist smirked.
“Good thing we stopped them, then.” The rocky bot cracks a smile and chuckles again, recalling the satisfying feel of his fist against the green-armored terrorist’s face. “Well,” Stonefist continues, “I’d say our work here is done.” Aralysa nods in agreement and glances at the ruined parts of the Hall of Records, a forlorn expression on her face.
“So much for a nice trip into the past.”
As they speak, a shape appears behind them, climbing over the rubble placed there.
“Behold,” a proud voice booms, “the champion!”
Zipline stands heroically, spinning twin swords around in his hands.
“Zip?” Cargo gawks. “Where have you been?”
Zip smirks. “I have slain the great beast! The day is won!”
"What beast?"
“The massive dragon that was just over there,” Zip says, gesturing to the building behind them. “It was just behind the Hall of Records, you probably didn’t see it.”
Cargo raises a brow. “Really?”
Zip sheathes his blades on his back. “Of course, I always-” His eyes lock onto Nova, and grow wide.
Now in a darker corner of the city, just barely able to visually observe the goings-on around the library, Conjoint wheeled silently along, the spare forearm pressed between his bicep and his side, furiously working at ditching the scrapped arm so he could move on to attaching the next one.
And yet I can’t truly rush this. Go too fast and the energon valves don’t close properly, and there goes another bunch of energon. The amount I’ve already lost is making me ill; no point in losing any more.
Two clicks sounded off from Conjoint’s arm. Ahh, there we go. Then it’s the main valve, nerve connectors, outer socket, inner socket, primary coupler, then detach, and then it’s another five hours to hook the other one up.
“You’re very much welcome. Always amuses me to bash a few heads.” Stonefist replies, then gestures with his rocky hand towards Aralysa. “Come on, let’s go see more of Iacon.”
“Alright then, I guess we’ll be leaving.” the Hecatan bot says, waving goodbye to Axis Prime and Maximus. “I’ve got to show this old lump around the city.” She giggles as she finishes her statement, and Stonefist gives her a long-suffering look, and grunts, but clearly he’s not serious, and the two head off.