OOC: Oops, I meant passionate there. 
IC:
“You okay?” Aralysa asked as she observed Roaster’s work and listened to her monolog. The purple and blue-armored Hecatan transformer had her own feelings on the subject of cold construction, but wanted to wait for Roaster to finish before sharing them.
Remember darling, stars always shine bright! So take that frown away, smile for the camera! We’re going live in 3. . 2. . 1!
“Hm?” Roaster looks over at Aralysa, an almost blank questioning face before stretching into a pleasant smile. With a slight tilt of her head Roaster says, “Of course! Just needed to really focus on the head is all. You know, the old bowling ball of knowledge is the most important part after the spark chamber. Don’t want to mess that up.”
“Yeah, pretty much,” Overclock confirms. “Come on, the others shouldn’t be far behind.”
It is at this moment that Watchdog arrives at the police station, with several more of our heroes behind him. He transforms and nods to Overclock, then points a thumb behind him to Snowblind, Stonefist, and the rest.
“I feel like I’ve got my share of them,” he reports. “You?”
“I found Tokamak in Burthov, and this one here- Conjoint- back here in Iacon,” Overclock replies. “Overhead found the human with the mech, and K-Nine is talking with the bounty hunters.”
“And the rest?” Watchdog asks.
“Turns out the one with a cloak and only one arm is, ah… how do I put it, unavailable,” Overclock continues, giving Watchdog a knowing look. “We can’t find the predacon or the green one with the stick either, and the techno-organic was last seen several hours ago flying out of the city. No clue where he is now.”
Watchdog gives an annoyed grunt. “These guys will have to do, I guess,” he says. “There are two more in the hospital by the Grand Museum, but they can’t be disturbed at the moment.”
“You wish to view all data pertaining to the Fourth Quintesson War,” Vector Sigma replies. “That can be done. Have a seat at the terminal over there.”
To Kitai’s right, one of the inert consoles chirps as it comes to life. A chair rises from the floor, and the control panel expands as an array of holographic screens materialize above it.
Kitai sits down.
The holo-screens display a wealth of information- far more than what the Hall of Records and the Grand Museum could ever provide. Kitai can see old battle plans drawn up by human and cybertronian fleet commanders, exact casualty reports from military bases destroyed by the quintessons, archived footage of cities on alien worlds being invaded, and logs from long-dead soldiers. It would take Kitai the rest of his life to read, watch, and listen to it all.
“Is there anything that you’re looking for in particular, visitor?” Vector Sigma asks, their voice coming from the console, quieter now. “I can help you filter out irrelevant data.”
Conjoint gave a sweeping bow upon mention of his name in the direction of the other party. They’re almost as peculiar-looking as myself… I guess I’m in good company! Just as long as nobody recognizes this new arm…
OOC: Rukah that fave was faster than lightning are you ok
“All data on quintession-cybertronian hybrids.”
“Affirmative,” says Vector Sigma. “Displaying all data pertaining to cybertronian-quintesson hybrids in the Fourth Quintesson War.”
The screens change, now showing images of various cybertronian organisms modified with quintesson biotechnology. Some cybertronians had quintesson tech carefully integrated into their systems, while others appear to have had their bodies mutilated and roughly jammed back together with their augmentations. There is also data on quintessons modified with cybertronian technology, grafting weapons from fallen imperial troops onto their limbs.
“Quite revolting, isn’t it?” Vector Sigma remarks.
At another terminal nearby, Beta Maxx and his Angelicon guard are engrossed in their own research- they must have found a faster means of travel to the city, like Kitai had done. The terminal has reshaped itself to accomodate Beta’s smaller form, and the journal of Sentinel Prime is plugged into the console.
No, it not revolting. Kitai took a deep breath, and continued onward.
There are also autopsies of hybrids slain by human-cybertronian forces, showing in gruesome detail the extent to which the quintessons butchered their vassals. One hybrid had human muscle tissue grafted into its endoskeleton, and another looked like an amalgam of six different cybertronians all cut up and stitched together. Vector Sigma offers no further comments- not at Kitai’s terminal anyway.
“Beta Maxx,” they say from the minicon’s terminal. “I am detecting additional video and audio data within the journal. It is stored on a secondary drive, and heavily encrypted.”
“How very interesting!” Beta remarks, his eyes going wide. His voice sounds identical to Vector Sigma’s. “Can you show me?”
“I cannot,” Vector Sigma replies. “The encryption schema is most complex, and quite unfamiliar to me. I cannot decipher it.”
“Curiouser and curiouser,” says Beta Maxx. “And somewhat embarrassing for two beings who are supposed to know everything, hm?”
“Quite,” says Vector Sigma, audibly irritated.
Tokamak gives a brief wave when his name is mentioned, but goes inside soon after. Only just catching the description of the one-armed bot. It was surprising to hear that he was somehow involved in the battle. But with the gathering crowd, it was clear there were a lot more combatants than he realized. It sure would have helped if he didn’t get shot so many times.
“It seems we’re in agreement then. Interesting about the prime colonies though… perhaps there’s something hidden on one of them? Something truly worth hiding. Maybe one of Solus’s more devastating creations? Or something particularly devilish made by Maximo?” Ivory suggested, his mind running through the possibilities.
Maximus transformed into his robot mode and approached the two.
“So, shall we get started then?”
He asked.
“I doubt Solus would craft anything more destructive than the Requiem Blaster. And I personally saw to its destruction. If these secrets we are searching for do reside on the colonies, then they would need to have been hidden from the colony inhabitants as well. Or else we would have found them.”
“That is a fair point… unless there’s another bit of info on the colonies leading to whatever it was Sentinel was so scared of, I think we can rule them out for now, at least, until the journal is translated. Maybe some sort of beast from unicron? Or perhaps some sort of doomsday code? Perhaps I’m just spinning my wheels?” He said the last phrase with a inflection of humor. “I suppose it may just be pointless to speculate until we know, eh?”
“I suppose so.”
Axis replied, only kind of getting the joke.
“I have a specialist searching through the journal as we speak. Sooner or later, it’s secrets will be revealed to us.”
“That sounds great, i’d appreciate it if you keep me in the loop.”
“Vector Sigma, could you please bring up any data on the name Kitai?”
“Certainly, visitor.”
The name, spelled out in Neocybex, appears aboard the screen, with several variations in spelling and alongside text written in multiple alien languages.
“Similar names exist in many languages,” Vector Sigma reports. “In Old Lithonian, it is believed to be one of the seventy-three names of a certain fire goddess. It could also refer to a neighboring star to the Nebulon home system. Non-canonical elements of the mikesu religion also refer to a trickster deity going by a remarkably similar name.”
@rainsong
@Rukah
@BlackBeltGamer98
Watchdog and Overclock lead the assembled party into the police station. As one might suspect, it is rather busy this evening. Officers are going to and fro about the interior, chattering to each other about the morning’s events. Immediately through the doorway, the emblem of the Iacon Department of Police is engraved into the floor: a hexagonal design bordering the Ancient Cybertronian glyph for ‘servant’ or ‘protector’. An elevator to the right would take our heroes down to the detention level, where the terrorists they had fought were likely being held.
Watchdog leads the group through the commotion, looking over his shoulder to ensure that none of them got lost.
Kitai continues through the list.
Similar names appear in a variety of cultures, in a variety of context. They are attributed to notorious thieves, deities, planets, war heroes, and more. There is no discernable pattern.
“The name appears also in both the thrall and a’ovan languages,” Vector Sigma says. “Interestingly, both cultures attribute it to a kind of demonic figure that once terrorized both sides of their ages-old conflict.”