We are a literate, intermediate to advanced AU Transformers RPG Based off of the first season of TFP with dashes of other incarnations sprinkled here or there. Characters from any continuity are welcome however must be restyled to match the TFPrime universe.
Active, with ongoing plotlines, we are always willing to integrate new characters into storylines once incorporated into the setting.
Ughhh, darn the Cons for ruining another good thing in her life! They were always getting in the way and bringing down the fun in burning flames. If anything, that was the biggest threat the Vehicons posed. Not their deadly accuracy, which was questionable some days, or even their numbers (which did seem endless some days) but their ability to just ruin a perfectly normal day. Miko liked adventure but she also liked going back to the Botbase and vegging out on a couch with a carton of icecream. She really wanted to prove to Ratchet she could ingest far more than physically feasible for a teenager of her size.
“Ok,” Miko breathed out with the longest sigh that only females of her age seemed to excel at. She gave dog sighs a run for their money. Without further coaxing, luckily for Mirage, she climbed into the seat and buckled up without prompting. Although, something did occur to her while she settled her bag under her feet.
“Why does the cloaking blind your passengers? Does it bother your sight too?”
Mirage was all too happy that Miko had complied without further prompting. He did not know the girl very well, as he hadn’t truly interacted with her at any great length in the past, however he did know a bit about her from hear-say. He had honestly expected her to fight him a little bit more on the issue, and he was pleasantly surprised to find that there wasn’t as much truth to what he had heard about the girl after all.
Once she was safely buckled in, Mirage prepared to take them on their way, only to pause momentarily as Miko asked her admittedly very good question. His holo turned in his seat to face her, arm slung casually over the back of the seat as he addressed her properly, face-to-simulated face.
“Well, Ms. Nakadai, that is a very simple question with a very complicated answer. The abridged version is simply this: one cannot see when there is no light, and no light can meet one’s eyes when one has bent that very light around themselves to remove themselves from view. If you would like a more in depth explanation later on I would be happy to give one, but for now we really must be going.”
With his piece said, Mirage’s holo at last disappeared from view.
Along with everything else.
“Again, I do apologize for the darkness. If at anytime you feel yourself suffering from motion sickness, please do not hesitate to let me know.”
He would really prefer not to have vomit in his interior, thank you very much.
"Ugh, dude, Ms. Nakadai sounds like my mom before she married!" Comfortable in the tight confines of the car, crossed her arms comfortably across her lithe chest and listened to the explanation with an open expression. When not forced to study something as tedious as Civil History, Miko could actually pay attention and soak up the knowledge like a flamboyant sponge.
What he said actually made sense! As much as she liked to take jabs at her science classes, they were kinda cool. The teacher was lame but then again, he was a middle aged man desperately clinging to his fading youth and dwindling hair line. But science was pretty cool. Light, in particular, was awesome. They'd studied light waves before and she'd found it really cool how bending them changed everything.
"Ohhh, I get it. Optical camouflage! Very cool. Is your plating special or-YAH!" Miko squealed at the sheer darkness. She'd expected.......well, she'd been told one thing but to have it happen was another! This was weird! She held her hand up to her face, at least she thought she did, and waved it around. Freaky..
"Dude, how do you even function like this??...And I'm not going to yak in you, ok? I only did that because Bulk decided to do a double flip while trying to kick a Con's butt," she added in a delicately incensed tone.
Miko had no way to feel it, but there was a smile in Mirage’s field. Her startled yelp was not at all unexpected, as he had long ago learned to anticipate such responses, but he found it amusing even so. It was always entertaining, watching the ways people reacted to seeing his electro-disruptor in action. Typically, the responses followed a particular pattern: first surprise, followed by disbelief, which then turned into enthusiasm or excitement.
Requests to turn random objects (and people) invisible inevitably followed shortly thereafter, which is precisely why Mirage had the sneaking suspicion that Miko would request of him a more in-depth demonstration of his abilities once they returned to the outpost.
That, however, would be a thought to explore at a later time. In that moment, he had far more pressing matters to attend to. Namely, seamlessly weaving in and out of the left and right lanes, passing by other cars with practiced ease. All the while, he took care not to jostle Miko as he moved, not wanting his passenger to be tossed about by a too-fast turn or a hard, sudden stop.
“It was not my intention to imply that I thought you would.” He replied, his tone gentle. “It simply felt prudent to mention, seeing as your lack of vision may cause you to develop motion sickness.”
He paused a moment, unsure whether he ought to comment on that little anecdote regarding Bulkhead. From what he had heard, she was rather fond of the rotund green mech, and he did not think she would take kindly to him being criticized for what certainly sounded like recklessly endangering a child. There was probably more to the story to that, however, which is why Mirage ultimately decided not to comment on the matter. There was no sense in being judgmental when one did not know all the facts of a particular situation.
"This is too weird." Miko muttered, busy feeling about the place to convince her brain it was still there. Like, she knew Mirage hadn't gone anywhere, but not seeing him made her feel like her brain was being duped. Like this was all part of some crazy hoax meant to make her look stupid. Pfft, like that'd happen. Red Alert being part of a prank? That'd never happen.
"Sooo, all this trouble actually paying off?" Miko coyly asked, a bit too knowing. She had a good theory now that no matter what fancy maneuvers they employed, their tail was going to find them eventually. Which kind of sucked, because this really was all her fault and she was going to have one big I Told You So from Red Alert. She might as well bail into traffic now and get it over with.
-
Like magic, which was full of lies and sleight of hand deception, the Decepticon trail hounded them from a safe distance. Given the exceptional skills of Mirage, the drone had a hard time pin pointing them and wove in and out of traffic as if confused. But the mundane form was easy to spot several car leagues back, sticking out from every sedan and soccer mom van on the road.
If Mirage had a dollar for every time someone managed to track him even with his cloak on - well, he would find himself with a small amount of human currency which he would have absolutely no use for, but that was beside the point. The point was, he hardly ever found himself in a situation where he could not evade detection with the utmost ease, which made the circumstances he now found himself in a bit perplexing.
Not to mention frustrating.
It was more than a little bothersome to discover that not even five minutes had gone by before their tail somehow - to Mirage’s utter bafflement - managed to track them down once again.
Either the vechicon was an exceptionally good tracker, or something curious was going on.
If he recalled correctly, the humans had some sort of phrase about curiosity, felines, and satisfaction validating the aforementioned feline’s questionable choices. He felt it was applicable, not only to himself and the justification for the vast majority of his decisions, but to their current situation as well. Somehow, they were being followed despite his rather valiant efforts to keep them both hidden - this much was clear the moment he detected the Decepticon’s presence weaving in between lanes of traffic a few car-lengths behind them, hot on their heels.
Mirage wanted very much to know how it was he was able to do that. Very much indeed. Unfortunately, as it was, he had priorities which stood above his own burning desire to know how the little faceless purple cretin was managing to see through his cloak. Namely, ensuring Miko made it home safe and sound. The girl’s well-being far surpassed his own personal interests in terms of importance, and he wasn’t about to put her at risk in order to sate his curiosity.
Hence why he felt it prudent to mass-text the outpost to see if there was anyone who could take her off his hands for a bit, while he…investigated their persistent stalker.
While he sent out the request for aid, he spoke aloud to Miko, to let her know what his intentions were in the event he was lucky enough to have someone take him up on his request.
“I wish I could say it was.” He replied, sounding just a tad peeved at the situation they found themselves in.
“My apologies, Miko. I haven’t the slightest idea how your secret admirer is still keeping track of us, but I assure you, I won’t allow them to do so much longer.”
Mirage slowed down a bit then, easing their speed down to a more moderate pace, in order to mislead their tail into thinking he was under the impression that they were in the clear, and no longer being followed.
“Now, Miko, I would like to apologize in advance. I am about to break several traffic laws, and so the next few minutes the ride may be a bit...jarring.”
With that warning given, Miko would feel herself abruptly pushed back against her seat as Mirage rapidly accelerated, his tires screeching momentarily as he shot forward, making sharp and frequent turns as he weaved in and out of traffic at a rate which was probably giving Red Alert fits, assuming the mech could hear them from wherever he was at the moment.
It was times like this that Mirage was grateful for his alt-mode. It might not have been very sturdy or practical, but it’s speed was difficult to surpass. Being what amounted to a street-legal racecar had it’s perks.
This would be so cool. If she could see it. However, since she couldn't see anything, this was actually kind of not so cool and she started to have those irrational thoughts one usually got late in the night. Like what if they crashed? What if the force from his driving gave her an aneurysm and she bled out from her nose??
Before she give into the small sound of dismay that wanted to burble up in her throat, she scowled at herself and crossed her arms tighter across her frame. This was not fitting Wrecker behavior. She was supposed to embrace the unknown with a 'come at me, bro' attitude. A little blindness wasn't gonna change that. It just made it more challenging. Besides! Her theory was true! She had figured it out before the bots ever did. Score one for the meat bag!
"I know why you can't lose him." She nodded and immediately felt sort of dizzy from the combined sensations that did not mesh well together. Yuck.
As Mirage drove, he listened to Miko with half an audio, paying more attention to the road than the girl. This was not because he cared little about his fragile human passenger - quite the opposite. It was because he cared about her well being that he focused on the road ahead of him, doing his utmost to avoid crashing into the cars which surrounded them on both sides as he weaved between lanes.
As a consequence, Miko’s words went unaddressed for a moment, before Mirage belatedly responded.
“Hmm? And why is that, Miko?” He asked absently, his mind clearly elsewhere.
It was evident by his tone that he had only half-heard what Miko had said. Had he not been so distracted, he might have responded a bit more eagerly to her epiphany.
"They're tracking us with this doohicky." She found the object that had caused so much trouble and held it up for him to see. Which was kind of funny given that vision was compromised at the moment. She wasn't even sure she was holding it correctly. Not that it made a big difference if the keychain was upside down or not.
"Before you get mad, let me say that I didn't know what it was when I picked it up. How as I supposed to know it was a trick? That's why they call it a trick!" Miko could just hear the lectures that were awaiting her after this. She already knew exactly what they were going to say.
"Miko, how could you be so reckless?" "Miko, didn't you think before you did anything?" "Miko, why are you so forgetful?"
She was already so over them and she hadn't even heard them yet. But she knew they were coming. They were always coming. Some days Miko wasn't ever sure they'd run out of things to nitpick at her about.
Breaking the speed limit aside, Mirage had been trying carefully to transport Miko in a relatively safe fashion. He had more or less succeeded for the better part of the ride, but all that changed the moment Miko revealed her newly-realized blunder.
Abruptly Mirage swerved, shocked, his tires screeching a bit as they veered near the edge of the road for a few moments before he hastily pulled back into the middle of the lane. Poor Miko was likely jostled a bit from the sudden movements, for which he would apologize later on. In the present, however, Mirage had more pressing matters on his mind.
Namely to get that tracker out of Miko’s possession, post haste.
“Miko, whatever it is you have, dispose of it - now.”
Realizing that command would be a bit difficult for the girl to follow considering she couldn’t even see where her ride ended and the road began, Mirage elaborated.
“Throw it to your right, as far as you can.”
With any luck, the tracking device would land in the ditch running alongside the road, where it could be found and recovered later for study. If it landed on the road instead - well, the thing run over by a succession of tires would hopefully destroy it.
Miko had already made up her mind. Super sexy stealth sucked. She'd take brute, wide out in the open, super non sneaky Bulkhead any day. This dude was going to get her killed! Her stomach lurched at the violent maneuver. Luckily, she hadn't had anything to eat nearly all day or Mirage would be facing another insult.
"I would get rid of it, if you hadn't made me drop it!" Her hand was indeed empty of the small bauble. When he'd veered to the side, sheer surprise had loosened her hand enough for the thing to drop, unseen, away from her. It was probably on the floorboard. But how the heck would she know?! She couldn't see crap! And she wasn't about to unbuckle to find it, either.
Mirage couldn’t help but think a very unrefined four letter word as Miko revealed that she had dropped the very thing that was endangering both their lives.
Not wanting to let his frustration towards the situation leak into his voice, Mirage bit his tongue for a moment and steadied his tone, so that Miko would not think he was angry or upset with her.
“Well then. I suppose we’ll have to take a small detour.” He replied, his tone controlled, even.
He merged into the right lane, then pulled off onto the shoulder of the road, his speed gradually decreasing so he would not give Miko whiplash or jar her overmuch as he pulled to a stop. For the sake of Miko’s eyes, he very slowly dropped his cloak, the opacity of the veil lowering gradually until it dissolved completely and their vision was returned to them once more.
If Miko looked to her left, however, she would not see the traffic flying past them. Likewise, the occupants of all the vehicles on the road would be unable to see them, thanks to the screen Mirage had projected like a backdrop between them.
“Do you know where it is now, Miko? If not I’m afraid I am going to have to ask you to step out so that I can retrieve it myself.”
Unlike Bulkhead, there was no way Mirage could possibly transform with a human in his cab. At least, not without severely mangling said human in the process, and that unpleasant thought was out of the question.
Last Edit: Jul 15, 2015 19:39:53 GMT -5 by Deleted
While not nearly as sensitive to feelings as Jack or Raf, Miko was starting to pick up on the tell tale "talking through clenched teeth" sound the Bots made when addressing her. A sure sign they were peeved but trying not to show it. It was more obvious than if they were just yelling at her. Though she wasn't sure she'd like that either. Both meant she was in the wrong (again) and they were in the right.
Which wasn't even fair this time! This wasn't even her fault! Either her or Raf or Jack could have picked up the stupid tracking doohicky. It just happened to be her because her luck was questionable at times. And they'd just chalk it up to Miko being Miko, cluck their tongues, and use this as an excuse to keep her from doing anything on her own.
So disappointed in how she knew things were going to go, she couldn't even be bothered by the detour. Having her vision return was just downright shocking after being blind. She rubbed at her face for a few seconds, the sudden light nearly painful in its return. But she had never been happier to see the interior of anything. Even if it was Mirage. And there, just near her feet was the stupid thing that had gotten her into so much trouble to begin with.
"Yeah, I see it. I'm unbuckling to get it." Pout firmly in place, she released the harness and wiggled out of it until she could bend over and finger feel for the keychain. It looked so harmless. Like something anyone would have. She turned it over in her hand and stared at it a second, frowning at the trouble it had brought about. Something so stupidly small could really put a kink in the cogwork.
"...You still want to throw this thing away, right? What if we threw it onto the back of one of those big trucks that travel across the state? Dude would have to follow, right?"
Mirage did his best to be patient as Miko retrieved the keychain, difficult though it was for him. He disliked having to stop in the middle of a game of cat and mouse, especially when he was the prey rather than the predator, and having Miko in his cab made him no less eager to fly down the road as soon as possible.
Thankfully, it did not take his passenger long to retrieve the source of all their trouble.
“Tempting though the idea may be, Miko, I’m afraid I am going to have to turn it down. Primus only knows what that Vehicon will do once they realize they have been deceived, and I would rather an innocent bystander not be caught up in all of this. It’s best to simply do away with the blasted thing.”
Oh looky there, Miko, Mirage almost kinda said a not-really-but-sort-of-close swear. Maybe this trip wasn’t a total bust after all.
Begrudgingly, she had to admit he had a point. She wasn't super familiar with the drones that the Cons used but they all seemed to have, like, major attitude problems. Must be something in the programming. And when they weren't actively trying to kill everyone, they were kind of boring and machine like. Which was weird.
Miko made a mental note to ask Ratchet about the drones in the future. Something didn't jive right there but she couldn't put her finger on what. Besides them being terrible shots in general. They were like Star Wars clone level of bad shots.
"Yeah, you're right." She hefted the thing in her hand and pulled her arm back, ready to lob that sucker out. "...wait, though. If I was stupid enough to pick this up, what if some hitchhiker does the same thing? Or someone walking their dog or something? Isn't leaving this anywhere in the public kind of a bad idea? Can't we just destroy it?"