"Yes ma’am, it is. It was an honor to meet you. " he tipped his hat. “Good luck Ma’am, you’re going to need it.”
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Conjoint took up a position in the corner of the room, to ensure he could keep his arms folded behind him. Out of sight, out of mind, after all. Of course if my shenanigans are on clear display in the footage I’m doomed, but why give up until you know you’ve been defeated?
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Maximus took a steat towards the head of the table.
Niko exited Ferrex and climbed on top of its head.
Nova hopped off Snowblind’s shoulder and sat down on the table.
And Low-Tide attempted to sit in one of the seats towards the back. Though he soon found it wasn’t exactly built for someone of his size, and it collapsed. So he decided to just sit in the same space on the floor.
“Thank you. And likewise.”
Axis said appreciatively.
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“Alright then.” Stonefist replied. After scanning the immediate vicinity, the gray-armored transformer selected a seat which was more-or-less in the middle of one of the table’s sides.
The seat groans under the rock bot’s weight, but doesn’t break. Then Stonefist turned his attention to the recording.
“Sounds good. Anything particularly difficult?” Aralysa follows up after she looks Headbite up and down.
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Axis’s commlink then crackles to life.
“Axis!” it’s Beta Maxx’s voice, and his tone is urgent. “Vector Sigma and I have found something most intriguing: there’s a second storage device within the journal, and it contains encrypted data that neither of us can crack. It certainly seems like we’ve found our terrorists’ motive to me.”
The footage close to the library’s main tower was rough and difficult to analyze, marred with smoke from explosions and gunfire. As well, when the fighting started to get up-close-and-personal, it became even more difficult to tell who was who in the video. The amateur camera work did nothing to help matters.
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Tokamak takes a seat in the far end of the middle, already tapping a foot as he waits. At least now he could watch himself get shot and relive the pain via flashback.
“No, the rest of this is easy. The longest part will be fully recharging her system with Energon.” Roaster answered. As she was putting the finishing touches on Headbite, something crosses her mind.
“Hey, didn’t you ask me a question earlier? I don’t think I answered it.”
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Snowblind helps Nova down, then leans against the wall, still within a few paces of the door. She seems a bit more relaxed now, drinking in every detail of the attack. Seeing the actions of herself and the others from different angles, trying to find the patterns in the chaos.
Her attention shifts to the images of the captured terrorists, goggles capturing images as she tries to compare them against what she had seen in their files. Of course, it was only cursory, but it felt good to be in her element again nonetheless.
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Axis’ optics widened as she received the news.
“Understood. I’ll be on my way immediately.”
She then looked down to Ivory.
“It seems there’s been a breakthrough. I’ll be heading down to Kaon to see it for myself, and I believe it would interest you to join me.”
“So, you got the whole thing on tape. That’s great. But what exactly are we supposed to do with this?”
Nova asked with her arms folded, sounding a bit irritated.
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“That’s good.”
“Huh? No, I don’t think I did. Maybe it was something on cold construction?” Aralysa replies, a bit confused.
“I thought I heard you ask something back at the museum, but must have imagined it.” Roaster shrugs and wraps up restoring Headbite. She now leaves the bug to charge up and takes a short break.
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The terrorists all very much resemble the images that Hotfoot had sent Snowblind in the dossiers, though many of them, like Loader, were sporting additional integrated weapons.
Viktoriya and Loader are probably easy to recognize. Avalanche was the terrorist leader and Bellatoran defector. Turnpike, the red motorbike, was a murderer from Velocitron who had been imprisoned for killing his racing opponents. Lowrider, the green-armored bot, used to be an enforcer collecting debts for cartel based on Junkion. Overwatch, the helicopter, was another ex-military bot who had become a mercenary. Snapjaw, the predacon, had been exiled from Eukaris for a gruesome murder. Saberchain, the yellow bot with the plasma sword, was a pirate known for operating at the fringes of human-controlled space.
“You beat us to the scene and were the ones who fought and neutralized the attackers,” Watchdog explains. "We’re still processing them, and as you can see, what we’ve been able to gather from the datanet leaves much to be desired at the moment. We’re still trying to learn who these people are, why they wanted the journal, and who in the Pit hired them. Myself and my superiors were hoping that you could all fill us in on anything we’re missing.
“I want to be clear: you are not under arrest, you are not being detained, and none of you are suspects in this investigation. But you might have seen something we didn’t. Your perspective could help the authorities determine who hired these thugs, and how we can track them down. And, though I’m in no position to make promises, there may be a small reward for your cooperation, if you require further incentive.”
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“Nothing has changed since our last chat. Knew nothing before, haven’t learned anything of value since.” Tokamak shot off, kicking back to relax.
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“Ah wait, did it have something to do with you making those cookies?” Aralysa asked, recalling the conversation from earlier.
“I only saw the dragon looking one.”
Niko said.
“Roaster and I teamed up to kick his butt, and it was probably the coolest thing I’ve ever seen! He was shooting out missiles everywhere and turned his hands into huge buzzsaws. It was wild!”
The mikesu excitedly exclaimed as he thought back to his battle this morning. Only to quickly realize how misplaced that excitement was.
“But it was also really not cool, cause he was threatening innocent people and all.”
He awkwardly added.
Nice save, idiot.
Nova thought to herself.
“Well I never got a good look at any of them. I was busy hiding behind one of the other fighters most of the battle. And it didn’t help when he threw out a flashbang.”
“I helped Axis take down the leader, but there isn’t much I can tell you about him.”
Maximus noted.
“Oh, but I did see Axis take down the copter guy. She seemed to scare him pretty good. I bet if she came in to interrogate him personally, he’d open right up.”
Low-Tide leaned back in a relaxed position.
“I didn’t show up until everything was winding down, so I don’t know how much help I’ll-”
The Eukarian turtle abruptly sat up as something caught his attention.
“Hold on a minute bro, I think I know that dude!”
Low-Tide pointed at the footage of the predacon attacker.
“See, a long while back I decided to take a hike all around Eukaris. Best decision I ever made dude. Changed my whole life. But one day, I think while I was around the Shard Mountains, I swear I ran into that dude right there. Man, what was his name? Snapdragon? Trapclaw? Something like that. let me tell you man, I did not like that dude one bit. He just gave off the harshest of vibes you know? If this guy is the same dude I’m thinking of, I tell ya it wouldn’t surprise me one bit. Heck, I could probably even tell you for sure if I got a better look at him.”
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“Feels familiar.” Firestorm says.
“Less like a military but I can literally see what this is reminding you of.” Dark replies.
——————-
Seraphicon was busy in the museum going over the various relics brought from Zepar’s tomb: Shadowraker’s remains (which were being scanned so a replica could be made for display), the journal and a couple of Zepar’s personal effects.
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“How exactly would you like me to go about this? Should I just relay events?” Stonefist asked Watchdog, his rocky hand rubbing against his chin thoughtfully.
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“Well, that’s just convenient. I’d be more than happy to join you.”
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Roaster gives a snap of her fingers as she says, “Right! You were asking how I learned that.”
Her mouth opened to continue speaking but stopped midway, hanging ajar for half a second and then closing.
Forced studio clapping. Camera swoops over the artificial crowd before focusing on Roaster sitting in a chair next to a Junkion behind a fancy desk.
“And we’re back! Welcome, welcome!” The host declares, garnering more claps from the crowd and some from Roaster.
“This time on Ladies’ Night I have a very special guest. You know her, you love her, you wish you could eat her too, it’s my good friend Roaster!”
“Thank you Treasure, it’s always a treat to be here!” Roaster chimed in as the clapping died down.
“It sure is girl! Been too long, too long! We should meet up more often!” Treasure lifts up her drink and takes a big swig of the latte. “Might ruin my figure if you keep making these, they’re delicious! Which leads me to my first question of the night. How did you, a Hecate wizard, learn to make this?”
“That is quite the question Treasure. How did the wizkid of Hecate do this? Well–”
“That is quite the question. How did the wizk-” Roaster grimaced and then continued. “I, learn all this…”
She grabbed what remained of her mixes and started working on a new concoction. Headbite wasn’t going to be happy when she woke up, but maybe a little cake would sooth things over. As she works on this new dessert, Roaster tries working out an explanation.
“The ministry approved my research project to study Junkions. And while I was there I…I don’t know, I guess got caught up into things? They probably thought I was some chef because of my alt mode. I read through so many trashy human magazines and books. You think cooking their food is hard? Try converting it all to a Cybertronian equivalent. It took forever for me to figure out a prime roast.”
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“I don’t mean to pry, but why exactly did you want to study Junkions?” Aralysa replied, listening and digesting Roaster’s reply.
“Yes, I figured as much,” Watchdog says apologetically. “I tried to tell them that I’d already spoken with you, but they were insistent. You can leave, if you want to.”
Watchdog retrieves a datapad and begins to record our heroes’ testimonies, writing down anything he believes could be important. However, when Low-Tide speaks, he narrows his eyes and looks up from the pad.
“I’m sorry, who are you?” he asks the massive Eukarian. “Why are you here?”
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