“Oh cool! When did–” Roaster is cutoff by the others starting to freak out. Seeing the reaction of the other bots around them, this clearly wasn’t a new interactive animatronic. She pockets that idea away for later, since that would an awesome feature to add.
Now looking at Headbite more as a person than attraction, Roaster tries to determine their construction and potential stasis wear. If this insecticon was from the Great War, that couldn’t have been good for it. Especially if they weren’t designed to be resting for this long.
“Calm down,” Roaster says, trying to get between Stonefist and Aralysa and the mantis, putting an arm’s length between. Her tone almost sounds annoyed, like a guest did something unfunny on her show.
Have they never seen a horror special? This is not what you should be doing. Well, the other option was immediately blasting the thing. Honestly, that is usually the best option. But at least they didn’t do that, it’s not like this is a monster that’s completely unknown.
“And put those away, they’re easily frightened. Let me handle this.” She tells them.
Now turning her face to Headbite, she says in a friend’s voice, “Hey there, glad you’re finally awake. Sorry you were in stasis for so long, there was an issue with your pod. We need to make sure you’re still functional. If you follow some quick tests, I’ll give you some treats. Would you like that?”
“It’s uncommon, but I’ve encountered a couple skaters. Easier to win the footraces that way.” Tokamak answered as he observed the vehicles. “Maybe we won’t find it here, the repairs could have been completed by now and the ship gone, but we can ask around about any weird ships they’ve worked on recently. Just need to phrase it correctly.”
Tokamak looks for whatever would be the customer service desk to chat with a representative.
“A-alright then.” Aralysa replied, and then the purple and blue-armored bot returned her weapon to her belt. Stonefist was less convinced, but grunted and lowered his rocky fists anyway. The gray-armored transformer still stood in a combat-ready stance, however.
The bot at the service desk is a male insecticon with a wide build and dull green armor. Engine grease coats the fingers of his six hands, and his eyes resemble a pair of goggles.
“Hey there,” he says in a rumbling voice. “Need something?”
“That’s surprising,” Headcase remarks. “At least, it is to me. But I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do with that information.”
Once Maximus finds an available workshop, he opens the door and lets Nova in.
“Here ya go. Plenty of room to work, and plenty of privacy… probably. I’m sure you’ll be fine.”
The predacon walked in and set all the purchased components on a clear work desk, while Nova followed him in.
“I’ll go ahead and come back here after a while just to check in and see how you’re doing, but until then you’ll be free to work in quiet.”
Nova set Gungnir’s head on the desk, then climbed out of the cockpit and hopped out next to it. She looked up to Maximus.
“Thanks again for all your help. I really do appreciate it.”
“Don’t mention it.”
Maximus said with a smile. With that he walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.
With the predacon out it was time to get to work. Nova tied her hair back so that it wouldn’t get in the way. She then grabbed her tools and approached this project with an eager grin.
The first step wasn’t too difficult. It would be easiest to fix the head before putting it back on the robot, so that’s exactly what she did. Replacing a broken eye, putting the comms radio back in place, all that sort of thing. All together it didn’t take long for her to finish.
After that she climbed back into Gungnir and used it to grab the head, moving the arms to hold it above the broken neck. After some fine adjustments to get the alignment right, she climbed back out and up on to the shoulder. She began the processes of reattaching head to body, which proved to be a much longer task. It wasn’t that it was particularly difficult. But it was certainly tedious and time consuming effort. Lots of repetitive motions that she was well familiar with.
As her hands set to work, her mind began to wander. Until surprisingly she began to sing. It was completely absentminded, done without thought or reason. Something to keep her thoughts busy while her hands ran on autopilot.
It was an old song. One she knew perfectly well by heart. One she heard many times before and dedicated many long nights to memorizing. But with an old song came many old memories. Lingering associations that inevitably came up as the music flowed through her mind.
She remembered a time when she was younger. Much younger. She could see the warm and smiling face of her mother. She remembered her singing as she tucked her into bed. A gentle hand brushed through her hair as her mother’s lullaby guided her to sleep.
Another memory passed. She was tucked in her father’s lap inside a space flight simulator. He sang her the same song as her mother. While he never could quite get all the words right, it never stopped him from trying. And seeing the stars slowly pass by along with the hum of the simulated engines, helped turn what was going to be a difficult night into a peaceful sleep.
Next was something special. She sat in her mother’s lap with her father sitting next to them. The three of them sat together on the roof of a building. It, along with everything else around them was covered in a heavy sheet of snow. It was late at night, and little Nova was wrapped up a fluffy jacket that was just bit too big for her. They looked up at the sky. It was a rare kind of night free from clouds. It gave them a gorgeous view of the stars above, but that wasn’t why they were outside. What was most captivating was the shimmering show of lights that danced through the sky. A dazzling aurora that trailed and weaved over their heads. It’s beautiful lights reflected off the snow covered ground. All the while her mother sang that same song.
Nova was abruptly pulled from her thoughts as she felt a droplet of water splash against the back of her hand. She looked at it curiously, then wiped her palm against her cheek. Surprised to find a wet trail running down her face. It seemed she had become so lost in thought that she hadn’t noticed when she started to cry.
Nova scrunched her eyes shut and wiped the tears away with her sleave. That’s enough of that. Just focus on the work.
She thought as she tried to push the memories out of her head.
But the mind can be a cruel thing. For the more she tried to push the unwanted memories out, the more they forced themselves in. And the more desperately she tried, the more unpleasant those memories became.
“But papa, it’s too early. Why do you and mama have to go?”
Just focus on something else. On anything else. Just not this.
“We’ve been over this kiddo. Patrol is part of what we do to keep people safe. It’s what heroes do, remember?”
Please, not this. Anything but this. Just stop.
“But you’re always gone so long! I’ll miss you!”
Just shut up! Why can’t this just stop! Please!
“I know Nova dear. Trust me, being out all day is just as hard for us as it is for you. But I promise we’ll be back in time for dinner, just like always.”
Nova’s vision blurred as water welled up in her eyes. She tried fighting it off, but she lost. She dropped her tools and sat down. She pulled her legs close to her chest and buried her face into her knees, sobbing quietly as the tears flowed freely.
Axis looked curiously at the picture.
“Forgive me if this is insensitive, I’m still not perfectly familiar with your history. But, did you know him?”
“Is this normal? Is this something that normally happens at museums here?”
Niko said, trying not to freak out.
“I sure hope not.” Stonefist replied, still a bit on edge after the unexpected failure of the pod. The rocky bot kept his optics on the Insecticon the whole time, ready to spring into action at the first hostile move.
“Axis Prime?” Headcase repeats. “You met her? Well, you’re very fortunate; if the Prime considered you a threat, life would get rather difficult for you, I suspect.”
“I’m… not sure I can be of much more help to you,” Headcase confesses.
“I am a skilled mnemosurgeon, if you’ll allow me to boast, but you are a unique case,” he explains. “Part of you is cybertronian, but the rest is quintesson biotechnology. I wasn’t trained to work with that.”
“I hope you can uncover more of it,” Headcase says empathetically. “It may take time, but if there’s anything else in there, buried in your subconscious mind, there must be some way to bring it out.”
“Yes, I was wondering what ship repairs were going these days. Small personal craft, I think the engine is making a weird noise. Also considering some mods, if you guys do that.” Tokamak says.
Headbite looked up in a very confused way, her head quirking to the side as she mumbled a bit before coughing a little.
She walked over slowly, tentatively looking at everyone with reactions that were a mix of befuddled and terrified.
Eventually she’s able to speak in a warbly kind of voice, “Wh-a, what?” she stammers out eyes wide and paranoid, “Thas not, not…huh?” she exclaims glancing at Roaster while blinking some more.
“Yeah, a little.” He says, “We ran into them on a mission aboard the Excalibur-EX and this journal was a little experiment I had him run; I gave him some knowledge that he kept secret to keep his tomb shut until we got back and that included what he wrote in this journal.”
Ferrex discreetly lowered its head to let Niko out. He cautiously walked over to Roaster, keeping his eye on the bug like stranger.
“So… what is this exactly? Are they like you, or something else?”
He quietly asked.
“Fascinating.”
Axis said.
“For as much as I’ve learned, I’m always amazed by how much of this world and it’s history I still don’t know. It seems as if there’s no end to it’s secrets.”
“The galaxy’s a big place,” he says. “I’m sure there’s someone out there who can help you, if you ever need it.”
“You’re in Burthov,” the insecticon proudly says with a toothy smile- his huge jaws were packed with needle-like teeth- “we can fix anything from a scratched paintjob to an imploded transwarp drive. Just lemme know where you’ve got your ship docked and I can take a look at it.”
The Knight this statue depicted isn’t in any way a remarkable figure. In fact, many artworks that feature Knights of Cybertron feature similar-looking characters. This may have been the general silhouette of many warriors of the Order.
It takes a second for Ivory’s communicator to connect to the secured frequency of his contact.
"Talk to me," a heavily-modulated voice says through the commlink. “What’ve you got?”
It is at this moment that Beta Maxx arrives at the Primal Basilica, quickly heading to Axis’s chambers and knocking on her door.
“Mercenaries, not terrorists. Smash-and-grab for some journal stored in the library.” Ivory explained. “They’ve got a contact, but they never met or spoke directly.”