Ep. 1 -- your new lord -- open

For the second time in only a few months, Acid Storm was cleaning up the labs, muttering all sort of curses upon the heads of Autobot and Decepticon alike. The Seeker was just eradicating the last traces of some of the more toxic areas when the mech realized that the comm systems were being activated.

Considering who was now in charge, some sort of speech was expected and as much as Acid Storm just wanted to turn off his audios and ignore it, for all he knew there could be a change coming and the Seeker was not fool enough to ignore something that could alter his already low quality of life...

[[ooc: I was waiting for Soundwave to open the comm. Just skip that part?

also will edit this when know or delete.]]

Shockwave would not ever say he was happy, or sad for that matter, about anything; of this he was sure. It was within reason, however, if only in the privacy of his own mind, to permit himself to express...'discontent' with a given situation. He was a living, sapient being and therefore it was normal to feel 'dislike' when a plan went awry or, as was the case now, when a certain neon colored scout blew out a certain Core in a certain ship under his watch. Some small part of the science officer was rather chafed at Bumblebee's escape and the damage done to his own system in the explosion, but with the same cool methodical process by which Shockwave compartmentalized any of his stronger emotions, the anger was acknowledged, packed tight, and stored somewhere in his processor he had likely never visited in his entire existence.

As he always did, Shockwave onlined quickly, each step in his awakening activating his systems as swiftly as possible without sending him into shock. Normally, he would snap awake, immediately arise, and begin his scheduled tasks. Now, though, his systems paused at the beta stage - his pre-animate diagnostics detected signs of trauma from the helm and torso regions and were asking to reactivate his pain receptors. The scientist quickly confirmed and braced himself.

Alpha stage reactivated his nervous processes and his single optic blinked solid gold, entering consciousness.

There was pain, yes, but that was a good sign. His nervous system was healthy and according to his diagnostics, he could tell the damage was easily fixable. Just painful was all. The dermal armor and mesh of his chest was peeled and warped and his paint was bubbled where something hot had barely missed him. His neck plates were wrenched out of place and ached sharply, indicating severe whip lash. There were slices and scrapes everywhere else, but he dismissed them as minor injuries he could fix without issue given a few supplies. His inner systems were perfectly fine, except his processor, which throbbed from trauma - he must have been thrown head first into something.

For the size of the explosion, he was relatively untouched. He did not expect the drones to have been as fortunate. They had been much closer to the explosion, and he remembered several of them being dismantled by debris as he shut down.

He wasn't in the Core anymore. He was in medbay, which suit him fine. Except for the fact that he was still damaged. Either he had awakened before repairs, or Knock Out was ignoring a high ranking officer.

He paused in his thoughts.

Knock Out was by no means brilliant, but he was not stupid or neglectful. The latter option was dismissed.

The cyclopian mech moved to sit up, mechanically placing his angled pedis on the ground next to the horizontally placed birth, and checked himself over.

As he began a few medical grade scans of himself, he noticed something odd about his surroundings. It wasn't a physical difference, but an intuitive change and he was reminded yet again that emotion did have some functionality...

A cluster of Vehicons nearby were looking at him expectantly and seemed to be conversing among themselves excitedly. The comms were quiet save the gentle buzz that indicated private frequencies he could not access, and these alone were odd. There were no longer explosions, and apparently the ship was intact, so the Autobots had either been defeated or driven back, although the damage they had inflicted was currently incalculable.

Perhaps that was what had changed, Shockwave concluded. Something had happened, and the Vehicons seemed to think it had something to do with him. There were endless possibilities it could be, though the scientist was certain it had something to do with his inability to protect the Core. He had no one to blame for that but himself and Megatron would not be pleased...

But wondering would do him know good, except only to waste his time and intellect. He needed an accurate, ship-wide status report and so Shockwave opened a comm to Soundwave to request one.

He promptly shut it.

Starscream's face was suddenly leering at him, ever so giddily, from every screen on the medbay walls and the violet mech froze.

It was completely against his own standards that Shockwave's spark lurched in utter, unabashed 'dislike' for that smirk, and yet he could not bring himself to compartmentalize that too.

He waited.

[[ooc: lol ok]]

Soundwave gave slight node when the comm were open. It took Starscream a few astir-kilks to start his speech. His wings high and EM field pulsing more arrogance than would have been thought possible.

“Decepticons as I am sure many have heard by now Lord Megatron was offlined by Optimus Prime. The former Lord Megatron’s frame was taken by the Autobots. However there will be a full search. The Autobots will not be allowed to get away with such a barbarian act.”

It was luck the Autobots had been seen and on the Nemesis. A perfect and easy out for what happen. Now Starscream only had to make sure the few smart Decepticons did not ask too many questions. No reason to worry, enjoy the moment was always best.

“We will make the remanding Autobots regret attacking the Nemesis. And do so under new leadership. My leadership! One who was sparked to lead, who knew and learned from the former Lord Megatron. With me, Lord Starscream, the Autobots will fall and at last the great Decepticon army will rule.”

Ok so Starscream knew he had not been able to get rid of the last of the Autobots in the short time before he ruled but surly after such an attack the Autobots would be over confident and would fall all the faster.

When Knockout came bustling up to him, Shockwave did not acknowledge his flustered words as he stiffly laid back down. He was too busy staring at the preening fool currently decorating himself in Megatron's credentials and dusting the Decepticon leader's throne on the medbay walls. Surprised he was not, at least that Starscream would take the throne given any opportunity, no matter how tenuous. Rather, he was surprised that Optimus Prime had finally done it - if that particular bit of intel was indeed a fact. Given that was true, Shockwave had many more options for his plans laid out before him made previously unavailable because the rope Megatron's rulership bound him with.

He wasn't hopeful. There was an eighty eight percent chance that Starscream was lying and Megatron's body was not missing because of the Autobots. The scientist knew that this Prime did not work that way, and had Prime killed him, the empty shell would have been left to be found. Previous observation of the Lieutenant's behavior also indicated a constant range in variable behavior in which Starscream's speech consisted of ninety two percent...'bullshit.' Considering a few other factors, such as the infamous example that through no one of his plans has Starscream ever managed to annihilate Cybertron's most famous and powerful of Gladiators before, Shockwave concluded that some other factor contributed to Megatron's disappearance. It was highly probable that Starscream honestly had no idea where Megatron was, or else the Lord's shell would have been paraded proudly throughout the ship. Shockwave, therefore, estimated that Megatron had somehow literally gone missing, either under his own power, or because of a force out of his control. Shockwave was certain, however, considering these facts, that he wasn't dead, nor did Prime have him.

Megatron's disappearance did not faze him, but it was a problem to be fixed. While his death would untie Shockwave's servos and free him to alter the Decepticons' direction, as long as Megatron was in the picture, the scientist's operations could continue undetected. And that was the important concept behind resolving the Commander's eloquent untruths. However, finding Megatron was not on Shockwave's To Do list. He trusted that the likes of Soundwave would already be tracking him down, and that left the violet mammoth free to continue his investigation from a different angle.

So. Why did Megatron leave the ship? Had Shockwave had no explanation whatsoever prepared, he may have considered the Autobots as logical suspects, but first and foremost on his mind was another force, an unknown entity, that he had been wondering at for some time. Megatron had restricted his knowledge on the subject upon his arrival, and now the Decepticon leader was not present.

Excellent.

He had one suspect, and this suspect factored in to not only solving this mystery but unlocking new avenues on his way towards exacting Cybertronian advancement . In his credible opinion, this suspect was an unstudied Unknown Megatron had not bothered to truly research before utilizing it; an ignorant move. If the suspect could be properly examined, its properties and effects exposed, it could not only shed light on the mystery, but its power properly harnessed and, perhaps, used to Shockwave's advantage over both Decepticon 'Lords.' Lo and behold, the perfect mech to interrogate about the suspect was standing right next to him.

"I have been meaning to speak to you," he said coolly, with some trace of thoughtfulness another might attribute sinister qualities to. "Knockout."

Shockwave lay quietly, stony and unreadable, his EM field tight and a blank gray. His single optic was was a burning neon gold, staring. A mostly model patient, it being illogical to resist treatment from a capable and handy medical professional, he was still.

"It's about Dark Energon..."

Well this would be about as fun as cleaning up a strain of mold that grew on rust and could not be killed by a vacuum. One of the stranger parts of Acid Storm's job, one he would very much not like a repeat of any time soon. His memory of being directly under Starscream's command was still fresh in his mind, in the great war Acid Storm was treated like any other Seeker, just another set of wings to crash and burn for the great 'cause' or whatever some 'Cons were always yapping about.

About the only protest Acid Storm could do was interface with his lab's computers and, on what few screens remained unmelted, change the face of Starscream into that of an Earth creature called a chicken. It set a small smirk to Acid Storm's face-plate as he kicked back and listened to the announcement, to which he was already considering starting a pool on when Megatron would return. After all, as much as he disliked his leader, Megatron was not easy to kill or hold down, the bot had stared a god in the face and did not lose processor speed over it. Regardless of Acid Storm's feelings about Megatron, the bot had a nasty track-record for cheating death and without a body or anything short of Megatron's spark-case on display, Acid Astorm would just continue expecting the bot to stroll right on through the nearest hatch and complain that Acid Storm was not working fast enough.

Such was life.

“Optimus Prime… went crazy?” paraphrased Steve.

The other Vehicons glanced at each other. Steve tilted his head and tried to imagine a scenario in which the Autobot’s extremely up-tight, frowny-faced, and stalwart commander in arms lost his last brain gasket and pilfered Megatron’s corpse as a result. He couldn’t remember the Autobots having ever had a notable history of desecrating the dead for the sake of intimidation. The Decepticons did that sometimes, the scarier outfits, DJD, Squadron X…. those who served on the Nemesis. Steve hadn’t forgotten what had happened to Cliffjumper and the Terrorcons counted double for desecrations of bodies he’d like to think.

Bottom line: Optimus Prime cracking and running off with corpses due to defeat-related stress still seemed unlikely and considering the can of unholy whoop-aft they’d just opened on the crew they didn’t seem that damn demoralized, frankly.

“But...” Steve started again, doubtfully, “if we don’t have…”

::Steve. What the hell? He’s gonna scrap you if you keep talking.::

::There’s no body!::

::So what!? Let the officers fight about it! Let Soundwave sort it out!::

Steve contemplated his loathing for everything… then pinged the rest of the Eradicons to break it up. The small crowd dispersed, some what reluctantly, back to their stations. Fine. Starscream was making a powerplay. Steve, already thinking of Shockwave, Soundwave, Dreadheart, and every other Megatron loyalist on ship, supposed that, yeah, the officers would ‘sort it out’.