Ep 1 (AR) - Terms and Conditions (Closed)

[Deleted]

(Continuing on from Home Medicine. The Joyriding thread has been retconned due to conflict with these events. But it will happen at some point. Hopefully) 

The med-bay door slid shut behind him as Zoom-Zoom paused to take stock of himself and the situation. He could see again, for once. That was great. One servo rubbed his forearm and he was delighted to feel some, not a lot, but some of the sensation. It had been a long time since his frame had felt this well-oiled and tuned or his dermal sensors were somewhat functional. His new tires though...that was taking some getting used to. They felt wrong from where they were attached to his frame. No longer did he have the comfortable weight of his magnetic thrusters, which he knew that he could always use in a pinch to give himself a bit of extra mobility and reach, even in his root-mode. These...things, these rubber abominations were pinned underneath his sensor panels or just above the inside of his pedes. They were absolutely useless where they were right now not to mention they were fragile compared to the rest of him. Zoom-Zoom was tempted to head straight back and demand for his magnets to be reinstalled.
 
Deep down in his spark, part of him was absolutely appalled that he'd just allowed the medic to rip a part of him out and replace it with these useless things. He understood necessity, no one better than him understood the need to blend in and match one's surroundings. But he'd had the mag thrusters since the orn he'd been sparked. When he'd left Cybertron, he'd had nothing left of his home planet except the very frame which housed his spark and the contents of his subspace. He'd never needed to reformat his frame prior to the exodus; his missions had always taken him to places built to accommodate Cybertronians. And afterwards...there had been no medics to reformat his alt-mode into an all-terrain explorer suite so he could be better adapted to the planets he'd explored as he wandered the cosmos. His frame was it; it was all he had left of Cybertron.
 
And Ratchet had just ripped a part of it out and Zoom-Zoom had given the go ahead for it. The distress the minibot hadn't allowed himself to feel at the time bled briefly into his EM field before he could control it. It was no big deal, Zoom-Zoom told himself. It was necessary. A matter of survival. There was no other choice.
 
Except…
 
His servo dropped to the new Autobrand gleaming on the centre of his bumper. This was not how Zoom-Zoom had envisioned arriving to the blue planet at all. He'd planned to unobtrusively find a way on planet then spend time gathering intel on the exact situation before even came close to the Autobot forces. He hadn't come here for enlistment or the frontline, he'd just wanted to find out if somebot knew what had happened to the rest of his cohort or anything that could point him in the right direction again so that Zoom-Zoom could then get the frag out of there.
 
His servos curled around the Autobrand. It was tempting to rip it off again. He didn't deserve it nor did he want to carry it, not when he did not uphold the ideals it espoused. Zoom-Zoom may have been a lot younger, desperate and unbelievably angry when he'd torn it out of his frame and deleted his ID codes to a corner deep in his processor but Zoom-Zoom found that the long millennia alone had not tempered his feelings even the slightest (humans would have recognized the feeling and act as something akin to flipping the bird had they been around for it). There may have been no one around to witness his act of rebellion but it had meant something to him. A promise to not stop and come back until his cohort was found.
 
But he was here now, back with Autobot Command. Zoom-Zoom couldn't keep going any more, not without leaving the Autobot forces for good and that was not an option. What would his cohort say if he did find them after that? Zoom-Zoom could not imagine such a reunion would be joyous if he turned his back on the faction and ideals that they believed in. Not even to find them. He might have avoided thinking about whether he was an Autobot or not when he was on his own but now he was confronted with the reality of his situation.

Zoom-Zoom grappled with the decision for several astroseconds. A relatively short amount of time but it was eons for a being that processed at the standard speed of a Cybertronian. In the end, he reluctantly relaxed his grip and his empty servo dropped to his side. For now, he would leave it be. Destroying it would cause more questions to be asked (and probably bring the whole planet-stomping might of Fort Maximus down upon him).

Instead, he accessed the schematic of the base provided to him by Red Alert and found the location of the other mech's office. He'd barely taken two steps away from the med-berth when Red Alert sent him an message, ordering him to come see him immediately. An order Zoom-Zoom was currently disobeying with his dawdling. Zoom-Zoom hadn't forgotten the amount of suspicion the mech had radiated at him, so he was slightly apprehensive over the meeting. Granted, Zoom-Zoom hadn't exactly been behaving like a trust-worthy Autobot at the time. Hopefully, Mirage's confirmation of his faction was enough to allay the mech's concerns about him.

As Zoom-Zoom set off down the corridor, he studied the materials of the bunker as he walked and he couldn't help the apprehension that rose up inside him. It was primitive stuff, even though it had been bolstered with Cybertronian tech. Zoom-Zoom had been at many different outposts all over the galaxy but there was always something off about pre-space faring civilizations. They were not his favorite place to be. Too open, too exposed. Blending in with the background was difficult, even with his experimental colour changing technology, when there was so much variation in the environment.

Idly, he wandered if he could request a transfer off planet. He wasn't sure of the resources available here and doubted that they had a transport to waste on a recalcitrant soldier. But Zoom-Zoom's processor was at work, calculating his odds of survival on a planet that he was ill-suited to function as an infiltrator plus with the majority of the Decepticon top officers in the near vicinity and he was not happy with the results. Maybe he could steal or smuggle himself aboard a Decepticon ship? He'd done it before. Though not under an outpost manned by the Decepticon High Command. This was a little out of his skill range.

At last, Zoom-Zoom found his way to Red Alert's office. The door slid open at his approach and he wandered into a freakishly organized office. A range of monitors were arrayed across all of the walls, each displayed a live feed presumably from all over the base. There was a work area where Zoom-Zoom could see some cannibalized electronics, probably more cameras to be set up and installed.

Seated behind a desk was the mech himself. Zoom-Zoom hadn't actually seen Red Alert before, he was all slim and sharp angles with a red and white paintjob. Taller than him too, but Zoom-Zoom had long ago bitterly acknowledged that most mechs would tower over the minibot. Red Alert didn't look like a frontliner, he was probably something lighter than that and much faster.

Zoom-Zoom stopped pouring over these details and turned his attention to Red Alert. "So," he said lazily. "Here I am. Reporting to duty. Ready to serve and all that slag. You needed me for something? Sir."

That last word was said in a sneer. Zoom-Zoom still hadn't gotten that hang of that whole talking-to-your-superior-officer-respectfully thing.

(OOC: I have no idea what Red's office looks like but I'd imagine that there are monitors everywhere. Actually. It'd probably look like the Batcave)

[Deleted]

((OOC: I couldn’t have described the placer any better myself, honestly! Your description was spot on.))

Well. Zoom Zoom was certainly taking his time. Shorter legs or no, Red Alert knew how long it took to travel from the medbay to the security center at an average walking pace. Zoom Zoom would have had to have been dragging his heels to be over three minutes late.

Not that Red Alert was counting down to the second, or anything. He valued punctuality, but he didn’t value it THAT much. He was simply paying a bit of mind to the time because it helped him gauge how invested Zoom Zoom was in following instructions, and it gave him an idea of how cooperative he might be in the future. The mech already proved himself to be recalcitrant, mouthy, and disrespectful towards his (supposedly) fellow Autobots. Simply put, he had given no reason for Red Alert to be thrilled that he was on base. Quite the opposite, really. He pegged Red Alert as a troublemaker - not because he seemed prone towards mischief or anything of the like, but because mecha with defiant attitudes like his tended not to take orders well, or follow rules, or work well with others.

Needless to say, he gave Red Alert cause for concern.

Hence why he called him into his office as soon as Ratchet had cleared him from the medbay. He wanted to talk with him, evaluate his character as best as he could (without outright interrogating him), and assign him his duties for the coming weeks. That, and there was protocol to follow, which meant he needed to take stock of Zoom Zoom’s skills, and catalogue whatever he was carrying in his subspace. The former was so he could be assigned to tasks suited for him. The latter was because Red Alert trusted Zoom Zoom about as far as the minibot could throw Fortress Maximus, and so he didn’t want him running around with Primus knew what in his subspace. Mecha transferring into new bases usually carried mementoes, spare ammo cartridges, and other inconsequential odds and ends, but every now and then someone came along with a Neucleon-bomb in their pocket. It was his duty to make sure no dangerous contraband made problems for them later on, a duty which had been waylaid by Zoom Zoom’s extended stay in the medbay.

To say Red Alert was a little impatient about getting that particular job done now that the mech had finally been cleared from the medbay would be an understatement. Three days was a long time to wait to make sure Zoom Zoom wasn’t carrying something he shouldn’t be, at least to Red Alert, and so it was hardly any wonder that he was tapping his foot by the time Zoom Zoom finally arrived at his door. With a sneer and a dry comment, no less. Not that he had really been expecting much else from a mech he had already labeled as contumacious.

He stood as Zoom Zoom walked in, chin dipping downward slightly as he looked down at the shorter mech. “Your ID.codes are outdated.” He held up a datapad, waving it slightly in demonstration. “I’ve fixed that for you.”

Instead of handing Zoom Zoom the datapad, however, he set it back on his desk. “Before you’re put back on active duty, we have a few things to address. Your skillset, a brief overview of your history, anything else that might be relevant in deciding the tasks you’ll be assigned to in the future.”

He stepped out from behind the desk, stopping just a few paces in front of Zoom Zoom. “You also need to be screened for contraband. You’ll need to empty out your subspace and allow me to inspect whatever you’re carrying. If its not dangerous or illegal, you’ll get it back.”

He crossed his arms, optics narrowing slightly as he arched an optic ridge. “If you do have anything like that in your sub-pockets I suggest you tell me now before I find out the hard way. And I will find out.”

[Deleted]

Zoom-Zoom eyed the datapad with his new codes like it was a bomb about to go off in his face. His servos itched to grab it, though whether it was to have the security the codes offered or because he wanted to smash it to pieces was debatable. Instead, he folded his servos behind him and peered up at the mech, trying to appear like he was paying attention. In truth, Zoom-Zoom was idly examining the base's data network and trying to figure out whether he could discretely hack the system.

He pulled his attention away to respond to Red Alert. "Skillset? I'm an infiltrator. I'm good at keeping out of sight and unnoticed. Ah, hacking too. I'm not cut-out for the frontlines, in fact I was bounced through a few units before Spec Ops took notice of me. And as for history-how far back are we talking? My entire service record or do you want my life story? Because it basically comes down to living on the streets of Iacon prior to the war, then the Autobots. Nothing particularly exciting, sorry."

Red wanted to see his subspace. Zoom-Zoom exvented with exasperation but obligingly dumped the contents of his subspace over the mech's desk with a defiant glare. There were spare energon cubes, a basic and half empty repair kit and a few additional ammo packs for his pistols. For close range combat, he had a pair of energon daggers and a shock baton capable of stunning a mech offline. On top of the pile was a half assembled explosive that he'd acquired at some point during his travels. Zoom-Zoom often occupied his time on long space flights by pulling it apart and putting it back together again. So far, it hadn't gone off in his face. Yet.

All of these were basic items for a soldier. The pile was almost completely devoid of personal effects aside from one currently inactive item. It was an odd thing, a small, purple mechanical toy that had been in Zoom-Zoom's possession for the entire length of the war. Zoom-Zoom did not know what it had been originally built for, all he knew was that it came from an organic planet somewhere which explained its odd design. A human might have described it as an adorable robotic griffin with a fabulous mane and rocket jets.

Zoom-Zoom, in his infinite capriciousness, had named it Unicron. And for a very long time, the small robot had been his sole companion.

The minibot surveyed the pile with a satisfied air, ignoring the reaction of the mech looming over him. "There," Zoom-Zoom smirked. "I think that's everything."

[Deleted]

As a general rule, Red Alert did not trust spec ops mecha. He didn’t trust most mecha, honestly, but that is beside the point. Special operations trained mecha in the fine art of everything that opposed Red Alert’s field was meant to uphold. To think that highly trained mecha capable of infiltrating the most secure bases bases, hacking into heavily encrypted systems both living and non, and escaping without leaving any evidence were living inside a place he was warding - even if they were on his side - was concerning. It wasn’t often spec-opsers went rogue; prospective agents were carefully screened to prevent anyone who might switch insignias one day from acquiring the training which could damn them all if they turned traitor. That did little to alleviate Red Alert’s concerns, however. It wasn’t that he trusted special operations agents any less than he did the common soldier, it was simply a matter of pragmatism. He kept a closer eye on special operatives because they were dangerous, not because he felt they were more likely to betray their faction.

The simple fact of the matter was that a spy had the skills and the training (that common soldiers lacked) to retrieve and escape with confidential information that could cause catastrophic consequences for the Autobots if given to the wrong hands. It really wasn’t any wonder why his proverbial hackles raised while dealing with a spy like Zoom Zoom who had already proven by his removal of his Autobrand that his faith in and his devotion to the Autobot cause was questionable at best. His defiant attitude and his apparent disdain for authority didn’t help matters either.

Frowning thoughtfully, Red Alert quickly swept his optics over the contents Zoom Zoom had unceremoniously dumped on his desk, so he knew what to prioritize first. His optics were immediately drawn to the strange purple...thing on the top of the pile, but he glanced over it in favor of focusing his attention on the more pressing concern - namely, the half-assembled explosive. He frowned at it, then at Zoom Zoom, before (very carefully) reaching out and picking up the half-made device. He examined it closely for a moment to figure out what sort of make the thing was, how it ticked, before looking back down at Zoom Zoom.

“No.”

It was the answer to the question he wasn’t even going to let Zoom Zoom ask. Until he could ascertain the little red bot’s character, he wasn’t about to let him continue toying with explosives. He made quick work of disassembling the simple explosive, before setting it aside on the opposite end of his desk and returning his attention to the rest of the pile. The ammo, first aid kit, and energon were all standard equipment. He examined each of these items briefly, as his well trained optics needed only a brief glance in order to pinpoint an abnormality. He found none. Those items all checked out. The energon daggers required a bit more attention, as did the shock-baton. He recalled having to learn how to use one when he was reassigned to the security enforcement unit in Iacon. Nasty little things, simple but effective. He didn’t really have a good reason to confiscate the item from Zoom Zoom aside from his own personal dislike of the idea, and so he reluctantly pushed it forward towards the mech along with the other items he had finished inspecting.

The only item left was the small purple...thing. It was vaguely bird-like in appearance, though Red Alert did not think there was any species of avian in existence that could possibly look as unfortunate as the Primus forsaken thing sitting on his desk. He leaned forward against his desk, hands pressed flat against its surface as he loomed over the purple oddity and stared down at it with a look torn between suspicion and curiosity.

“...Do I want to know what that is.” He said flatly.

It wasn’t a question; of course he wanted to know what it was. He was simply expressing his disbelief that this thing was even a thing to begin with.

[Deleted]

The loss of the explosive wasn't a surprise so Zoom didn't even twitch at Red's decision. He did, however, follow the disassembly curiously. If the bomb went off in Red's servos...well, that would be interesting. He didn't want it to happen to injure Red Alert, it was more that explosions were awesome and that tended to override Zoom-Zoom's concern that people could get hurt. Still, he was prepared to leap backwards in the case Red messed up disassembling the bomb and it actually exploded. He had that much of self preservation hard coded into him.

Fortunately or unfortunately, Zoom-Zoom wasn't certain which it was, Red Alert disarmed the explosive without a problem. The minibot marked out where Red had placed it on the end of the desk, in case there was an opportunity later to sneak the bomb back into his subspace or one of his hidden compartments within his frame. The rest of Zoom-Zoom's gear, Red returned to back to him and he quickly placed it all back into his subspace.

The one personal effect he had however was not returned. It never did. Autobot base security didn't like it when unknown items came through. Technically, any item that have originated off-world needed to be registered and sometimes even a license had to be issued for a mech to be allowed to possess said item. Especially something that had come from an organic planet.

Zoom-Zoom had never bothered with clearing Unicron through customs. It was much, much less troublesome to let the toy get confiscated and then retrieve it at his own time and leisure. Or smuggle Unicron straight through without letting base security lay an optic on it. The only reason he'd complied here was because he was on shaky enough grounds as it was and Red Alert seemed like the sort of mech who'd have his frame and subspace thoroughly scanned if he suspected some much as the slightest thing was amiss.

"This?" Zoom-Zoom lazily glanced down at the toy on the desk. "I call him Unicron." The minibot paused to give Red Alert time to process this. "It's all part of my fear treatment therapy and it's very effective. You can solve all sorts of problems when you're in a high risk situation and you've convinced yourself you've got the Unmaker sealed away in your subspace."

The minibot delivered this with a perfectly straight face. He was aware just how much it made him sound like a lunatic (and possibly a crazy Unicron worshipping cultist). The last time he'd checked, mechs generally preferred not to deal with people they thought were crazy so hopefully he'd be on his way soon. If it came down to it, Zoom-Zoom preferred to be underestimated than to be thought even the slightest bit competent. That was how he'd managed to survive all these vorns.

The answer he'd given was also a much preferable explanation to 'No, I don't actually know what it is but it is mine and I'm keeping it. What do you mean it's contraband? I fouuuund it- wait, no, stolen contraband? I didn't steal it. It was not possessed by anyone at the time I acquired it. No, no, give that back! I'm warning you~!

3 joors of brig time for refusing to hand over an illegally imported stolen good? Eeeh, bout time I had a break."

Still. It was the only possession Zoom-Zoom had that had made it through the War in tact. He was so attached to it that his self defense mechanisms recognized it as part of himself. It was only on a rare occasion that Zoom-Zoom acknowledged to himself just how messed up the entire situation was. Eventually, he'd learnt not to let it show just how much the thing meant to him because making a fuss over it made mechs even more curious about it.

That had led to some very close calls with Unicron almost being disassembled. But, Zoom-Zoom had gotten very, very good at retrieving the toy unnoticed that he was not unduly worried about leaving it in Red's possession for a while.

[Deleted]

“...Unicron.”

He repeated the word with deliberation, as if he had never heard it before, his optics lingering on the purple toy as he waited for some sort of feature to reveal itself which would explain why Zoom Zoom had chosen to name it after the Primus skragging Chaos Bringer. He could only hope that he had done so ironically, and that the little purple thing wasn’t actually some sort of instrument of Mass Annoyance. He doubted it was another bomb; for one thing it didn’t resemble any sort of explosive he had ever seen in all his days, and he made a point of keeping himself up to date on those sort of things. For another, the thing didn’t smell like chemicals, or compressed gasses, or even powders. If the toy was filled with dangerous materials, his olfactory sensors would’ve picked up on them, so he could check “bomb” of the list of Dangerous Things the toy might possibly (secretly) be.

Shaking his head, he picked the so-called Unicron up and turned it over in his hands, searching for a seam, a switch, a button, or something which might allow him to see what was inside of it. It had weight to it, far too much to be just a simple hollow toy.

...Whatever it was, it seemed important to Zoom Zoom. He couldn’t, in good conscious, confiscate it from the mech without good reason. He could, however, delay returning it to his possession until he had fully examined and cleared it--which would likely take a while, since he had to find a way to see inside the blasted thing without breaking or damaging it. He supposed he would have to ask Ratchet if he could borrow one of his scanners later, see if he couldn’t get an x-ray of it.

Looking back down at Zoom Zoom, he set the toy down upon his desk, keeping his hand over it. With his free hand, he slid the dataslate with Zoom Zoom’s updated codes towards him with a nod of what bordered on acceptance.

“I’m going to need to take a closer look at this...thing, but in the meantime, you’re clear. Update your codes, once you do you’ll have access to the duty roster. I’ve given you something to occupy yourself with for today, so take a look.”

He paused thoughtfully, feeling the sudden strange need to reassure Zoom Zoom that he wasn’t about to demolish his therapy companion.

“It’s something simple, shouldn’t take you long. Come back for this when you’re done; I should be finished looking it over by then.”

[Deleted]

"If you say so, sir," the minibot tried to keep his tone pleasant but a slight grumble may have worked its way into his voice.

Zoom-Zoom snatched the data slate and tried to not look too reluctant about it. Work. He already had work to do. With a careless wave over his shoulder, Zoom-Zoom pivoted round and wandered out of the room. Part of his processor was already occupied with figuring out the quickest way to sneak back into Red's office and bust Unicron out of there despite the mech's assurances. Two steps away from the dooor, he hooked a cable from his wrist to the data slate and downloaded his new codes.

When he pinged the base's computer network, Zoom-Zoom noticed that he didn't have a lot of access. A lot less than he normally should have on an Autobot base. Zoom-Zoom debated going back to confront Red Alert over it then decided not to push it. He had chores to do and delaying them to deal with this matter could result in Red piling up some more him. He didn’t know enough about the mechs on base here to try pushing his luck. For now, he should probably lie low and just get on with things.

The minibot downloaded his orders for the orn. Apparently, the base just had a shipment of supplies delivered to it by the US government, the major native Earth organization that the Autobots had allied themselves with. Ratchet had given Zoom-Zoom some basic files to read over whilst he'd been in the med-bay undergoing repairs so he had the general gist about the local sentients. Specifics would have to come later, all Zoom-Zoom knew and cared about was that they were organics (gross) and the current Autobot directive regarding them was to keep out of sight and hidden, which suited the minibot just fine.

The job Red Alert had allocated the minibot simply required him to transport these supplies to where they were needed in the base. It was a basic task, one that would help Zoom-Zoom familiarize himself with the outpost so that he could learn his way around. Fortunately, Red Alert had included a map of where these supplies needed to go, the passcodes he'd need and a reference point as to where Zoom-Zoom currently was. He made his way down to the loading bay at a leisurely place, cataloguing unknown hallways for later exploration.

The loading area wasn't particularly large by Cybertronian standards, in fact it was really small. But, by the standards of the native sentients, 'humans', Zoom-Zoom understood that the room was actually quite big. Several shipping containers sat in the middle of the room, alien as they were and on a much smaller scale than he was used to, Zoom-Zoom immediately recognized the look of them. He had worked for a shipping corporation after all, way back on Cybertron and there were somethings a mech didn’t forget. Or, in Zoom-Zoom's case, couldn't forget without actively shredding his processor in the first place.

In one corner of the room was some sort of vehicle, presumably to help with the unloading and distribution of the contents of the containers. Zoom-Zoom unabashedly stared at the machine, it was obviously a native vehicle, one that looked like it was for loading and transporting equipment but utterly useless to the Cybertronians on base. Perhaps the acquisition of it was to add to the illusion that the base was populated by the human creatures. That didn't stop him from marching over curiously and looming over it. Zoom-Zoom's bright blue optics swept over the machine before he leant forward and tried to make sense of the tiny control scheme.

"Hey," he said to it. Then, he shuttered his optics once and immediately felt foolish. The machine was clearly unsparked and Ratchet's files made clear that the humans were a long way from developing any sort of artificial intelligence that could rival a Cybertronian. Zoom-Zoom might be by himself at that very moment but he was no longer, technically speaking, alone and could get away with talking to inanimate objects. What if another Autobot had wandered by and seen him talking to the Earth vehicle? In Cybertronian, moreover. After an astrosecond of contemplation of the scenario, Zoom-Zoom gave a dismissive mental shrug. Whatever.

He reached down curiously and gently -or so he thought- tapped the vehicle's screen. Zoom-Zoom was not prepared for the glass to shatter under his touch, the minibot jerked back, his optics wide under visor. What the slagging- just how fragile was this Earth made stuff? He immediately glanced round the room, even though he knew no one else was close enough to see let alone hear him break the fragging thing.

Or was he-? Zoom-Zoom craned his head back and scanned the ceiling. He had not forgotten Red Alert's wall of monitors inside his office, displaying live feeds from all over the base. Aaaand- there, up above the door was indeed a camera. Pointed in his direction. The minibot sagged momentarily, then gathered himself up and approached one of the shipping containers, figuring that the mech would contact him to give an earful in his own time about the property damage. According to Red's instructions, this one was filled with medical supplies. He pinged the access code he'd downloaded and the electronic lock on the container opened.

This time, Zoom-Zoom was a lot more careful in his approach. He very gently pulled open the door and picked up one large metal bulk box, careful not shake the contents. A quick perusal of the box gave him a catalogue number which he cross referenced with Red's instructions so he knew exactly where it was going (med-bay, obviously) and the exact location it was to be stored (back shelf, on the bottom right).

With a bored exvent, Zoom-Zoom was on his way. First orn back on the job and he was a delivery mech. Such fun.

Wheee.

[Deleted]

Once Zoom Zoom took his leave, Red Alert wasted little time in gathering the tools he would need to examine Unicron. Thankfully, the little toy was simply constructed. A few different screw-drivers and maybe a soldering knife looked to be all he would need to see what was inside the thing, assuming he couldn’t figure out whether or not it had some sort of manual opening mechanism. After a few minutes of fruitless searching, he discovered that this was unfortunately not the case. The thing was sealed up tight.

After turning the toy over in his hands a few times, taking note of the various screws and hinges which kept the thing together, he decided to start his disassembly at its belly. If his hunch was correct, removing the underside plate would be the quickest way to get to whatever was inside it. The back plate was another option, but to get to that he would first have to detach the wings, and his goal was to search the toy, not take it apart piece by piece.

As he worked, he glanced up at the monitors occasionally to keep an eye on Zoom Zoom. He had given the mech a map, along with his new codes, but he wouldn’t put it past the mech to take a detour and wind up getting lost, just because he didn’t seem to like following directions or instructions. He could always comm him and let him know when he was going the wrong way, or give him a nudge when he was getting off task. He was about to do just that when he noticed Zoom Zoom approaching the car, however, before he got the chance to the little red mech went and tapped the car’s windshield, shattering it on impact.

Primus damned newbies. Why did they need to be warned that the tiny organic aliens had primitive tech as fragile as they were? He would have thought that was obvious. Gritting his teeth in annoyance, Red Alert shook his head and made a mental note to confront Zoom Zoom about that later. Someone was going to have to explain that to agent Fowler, and it certainly wasn’t going to be him.

A bit of concentration and six screws later, Red Alert finally removed the plate on the underside of the toy, and was surprised to find what looked like a data-port inside of it. Frowning, Red Alert reached down and rummaged through his desk drawer for a disposable datapad, which he made a point of keeping around for occasions such as this, when he didn’t trust that the source he needed to check data from was clean---which was always the case when he was dealing with unconfirmed sources. Unfortunately, once he connected the dataslate to the toy, he was met with a blockade and a request for a security code. Well. That was concerning, to say the least. Whatever was hidden inside the blasted little toy must have been either highly incriminating or highly confidential if whoever hid it there went to such great lengths to make sure it would not be found.

For a moment Red Alert considered comm.ing Zoom Zoom and calling him back to his office to explain things, but he quickly decided against it. He could confront the mech about the contents of his toy after he figured out what they were - he didn’t want to run the risk of giving the toy back to him so that he could input the pass-code, only for him to delete whatever was inside before he could incriminate himself. With that option off the table, he had little choice but to try hacking the thing. Unfortunately, that wasn’t exactly his forte. Keeping hackers out, he could do. Acting as one himself was another matter entirely. He briefly contemplated whether or not he should call someone more skilled in this particular area to assist him, before a thought occurred to him.

He still had Zoom Zoom’s old codes.

Pinging the base’s wireless network, he quickly imputed his own Ident codes, and once his authorization was confirmed and he gained access to the profiles he had made of the residents of the outpost, he scanned Zoom Zoom’s file for his outdated ID number. Once found, he typed the number into the keypad of the dataslate then waited to see if his hunch would pay off.

[Deleted]

The data-unit that Red had found sealed inside Unicron was a vault. It was a treasure trove full of memories and quite literally too. It was a repository of everything the mecha of the Ninety Second Division had ever been.

It had started off as a joke. Vibes, the division leader had been amused and baffled by the mechanical toy that Zoom-Zoom toted around despite all the teasing he received for it. The former scientist turned demolition specialist had been the first one to steal away Unicron, smuggling the data-unit and a set of mini-speakers inside with a pre-recorded message as a prank. From there on, Unicron had undergone several transformations as each mech that made off with it made their own alterations until the division just left it with the data unit.

And the memories they encoded inside it.

They didn't really exist on any official rosters, their missions were classified. Their names had all been stripped from what records that did remain. And they weren't the best that Spec Ops had to offer, Zoom-Zoom certainly hadn't remained the new rookie for long. When they died, it was only the mechs in the Ninety Second division and their superiors that knew of their passing.

It was as thought they'd never lived, never existed.

So the data unit became a way of remembering. They donated their own memory files of important events in their lives, the first time they onlined, getting a promotion, a good orn with the cohort, where they were when the war broke out. The mecha they had lost during the war.

Meeting each other for the first time.

Their hopes and their dreams.

And their regrets.

And the terrible thing about it, the nature of their work meant that each memory had to be altered. If Zoom-Zoom had gotten caught and the data-unit found, the information on it could have exposed every mech in the division. So they stripped the video files, altering frames, alt-modes and locations. The audio was similarly hacked to change names and even completely change their voices.

Even in trying to remember and leaving a legacy behind, they had to hide who they were.

The data unit was everything to Zoom-Zoom, the last known surviving member of the Ninety Second division. It was all he had that was left of them.

And now it was at Red Alert's mercy.

~

Zoom-Zoom peered at the box in his servos. That hadn't sounded good. He raised it up to his audials and gave it a light shake.

Huuuuh, yeah. That definitely did sound like glass breaking.

OH WELL.

The minibot delicately placed it on its designated shelf then calmly headed back to the loading bay.

One box down, only fifty million more to go.

[Deleted]

He didn’t know what he was expecting to find, honestly. There could have been anything on the data-drive, from something as harmless as a movie collection to something more... insidious. Unfortunately for Zoom Zoom, Red Alert’s suspicions were leaning towards the latter category, if only because most mecha, generally speaking, didn’t go out of their way to hide innocent, harmless data behind passwords and tuck them inside inside of bizarre secret compartments no one would think to look in.

Unless they were like him, that is, and they did so compulsively regardless of the sort of information they were dealing with, but Zoom Zoom didn’t strike him as that sort of person. From what little he knew of him, the mech seemed rash, impulsive, and prone to poor judgement calls. Hiding something inconsequential simply because he was in the habit of securing his files didn’t seem like something he would do.

So. All signs seemed to point towards Zoom Zoom having something hidden away on the data-drive that was either incriminating, illegal, embarrassing, or deeply personal. Perhaps all three. It wouldn’t be the first time Red Alert stumbled over something of such a nature - he’d been in the business for a long while, after all. He had enough experience to have seen just about everything mecha tried to sneak in under the radar. Most of it was harmless but embarrassing to be in possession of, while other things were outright dangerous or morally objectionable. He could only hope whatever Zoom Zoom had on the data-drive, it fell into the latter category. He would much rather find something that would result in Zoom Zoom’s embarrassment than something that would require him to be reprimanded and punished.

Luckily for Red Alert, or perhaps unluckily, what he found on the datadrive didn’t fall into either category.

He was confused at first. The footage that began to play was grainy in places, heavily edited. The audio quality was poor for the most part, as if it had been severely altered without proper editing equipment. Images blurred in places, particularly around faces and sometimes in front of what he could only assume were distinguishing landmarks. He thought he watching some sort of home-video at first, but the more he watched the clearer it became that he was bearing witness to a collage of memories, from a score of different mecha. Zoom Zoom’s cohort, undoubtedly.

The realization settled heavily on his shoulders and he slumped forward slightly, as if it were a physical force weighing him down. He offlined his optics for a moment, bringing his hand up to his face to rub the space between them, before looking back down at the dataslate. Part of him was relieved that he had found something harmless, that Zoom Zoom wasn’t in possession of unlawful content after all. The other part of him was burdened with the knowledge that he was intruding on something private, watching something personal he wasn’t meant to be privy to. That wasn’t exactly a good feeling, and it was made no less uncomfortable by the knowledge that he was just following standard procedure and doing his job. Especially since he wasn’t even a fourth of way through the contents of the datadrive, and he had to check all of it to make sure there wasn’t anything hidden away in the last few files, or embedded into the memories themselves. He was almost sure there wasn’t, but “almost” had never been a good enough reason for him to wave something off before, and he wasn’t about to make an exception.

Crossing his arms, he leaned back in his seat, watched as the rest of the video played, and tried not to count the kliks until it was over.

[Deleted]

Zoom-Zoom hefted up his latest box and peered carefully at the label. Huh. This one was for Red's office. He ignored the nice big label of WARNING. FRAGILE GOODS INSIDE as he set off. A quick scan of the box revealed electronic equipment, cameras, the minibot was quick to deduce. Seeing as the mech himself would be inside his office when Zoom-Zoom came round, he figured he should probably make an effort to, you know, not let the package be smashed to bits.

It wasn't his fault that the damn organic built stuff was just so breakable.

He was so focused on the box that when he walked into Red's office, that it took him longer than it should have to realize something was Up.

Zoom-Zoom shuttered his optics once. He stared dumbly across the desk at the sight of Unicron, the underplate removed from the toy and the…

The…

...dataport was exposed.

For a long moment, the minibot just stared. His vocalizer let out a few confused clicks of static as he tried to speak and failed. Conflicting chains of thoughts chased each other around his processor. Red had opened Unicron up. Red had tried/possibly seen what was on the data unit.

Red had-had-

Fury was quick to rise in the minibot. How dare he-? It wasn't for him. It wasn't for anyone but the mechs that made up the Ninety Second division. No one else was supposed to see it. Along with the anger came a whole storm of emotions Zoom-Zoom was not prepared to deal with. A crushing wave of loneliness and grief at the long-time absence of his cohort. They were probably all dead, the minibot knew but so long as he didn't think about it-

Zoom-Zoom fought for some semblance of control. His defense systems were attempting to activate -Unicron had been damaged- but somewhere in the midst of his turmoil, he was able to think, attacking Red Alert would be a really bad move.


"What-" the minibot demanded coldly, military decorum be damned, "Do you think you're doing?"

[Deleted]

Red Alert had finally finished the sorting through the contents of the datadrive after what seemed like a considerable amount of time. After checking his chronometer, he realized that not much time had passed at all: there hadn’t been that many files to sort through. Their contents simply weighed on his mind and made the minutes slow to a crawl as they ticked on by. Every memory that passed over the screen seemed longer than the last, considerably so, until Red Alert began to wonder whether whether Zoom Zoom had catalogued his entire life story. He hadn’t, of course, hardly even fifteen minutes worth of video was on the datadrive, but each moment that passed Red Alert felt increasingly more uncomfortable with what he was watching. He wouldn’t call it guilt, exactly, but there was an unpleasant feeling plaguing him as he sat there and did his job with something almost bordering on reluctance.

When the screen finally faded to black, dragged his hand down his face and let out a hard sigh, allowing himself a moment to try to purge the images he had just viewed from the surface of his mind. He wasn’t very successful, but then, he wasn’t really expecting to be. For better or worse, he had a bear-trap memory, which meant he wasn’t likely to forget anything he saw on the datadrive anytime soon.

With another sigh, Red Alert straightened in his seat and stared down at the toy and datapad laying upon his desk with a somber expression, his mouth drawn into a thoughtful line. After a moment of consideration he reached for the datapad and began typing away at its keys.

He had nearly finished the task he had set his mind to when Zoom Zoom waltzed into his office unannounced. He was about to tell the Minibot that, contrary to whatever practices he might have been accustomed to, knocking was considered common courtesy---but then he looked up and noticed the mech’s expression. It wasn’t a happy one. Given the circumstances, Red Alert really couldn’t blame him.

“My job.” He replied simply, unphased by Zoom Zoom’s severe tone and expression.

He continued to type away at the keypad for a few moments more, before standing, unplugging the datapad from Unicron, and returning his attention to Zoom Zoom at last. Damn, but it was harder to look at the mech the same way he did before he watched those files.

“You realize you could have saved us both a lot of trouble by just telling me about the datadrive, don’t you?” Surprisingly, there was no reproach in his tone, no annoyance or anger.

He sounded tired more than anything.

[Deleted]

Red Alert's exhaustion and bluntness toned down Zoom-Zoom's own anger a little bit. The minibot still bristled defensively, he was torn between immediately bolting to the door and away from the source of his confused and conflicted feelings or darting forward and grabbing Unicron away from the security director. Zoom-Zoom didn't think about these things, he resolutely had mastered the art of not thinking about his own cohort. Zoom-Zoom existed in the persistent delusion that they had to be out there, nothing more, nothing less. Acknowledging them, entertaining any stray thought or speculation about them threatened that careful equilibrium he'd built.

So no. He didn't want to discuss the data drive. Not with a stranger he'd just met -even if he was an Autobot- not with anyone, not ever. Not unless they belonged to the Ninety Second Division and could tell Zoom-Zoom how many times Vibes had sat on him to make him learn something. The data drive was theirs and it's existence was not a thing meant for other people.

He awarded Red Alert with a cold glare as he carefully lowered his package to the ground. You have no right to know about it….would have been his immediate, sparkfelt protest except the words didn't form any sort of defence. Red was his superior officer not to mention he was in charge of base security so he totally had a right to look at the stuff in Zoom-Zoom's subspace.

"I could have just..."his voice trailed off incredulously before the brunt of his anger returned full-force. "What in Primus's name gives you the impression I want to talk about that?" the minibot snapped wildly, still teetering between his conflicting desires to get the frag outta there or punch Red Alert in the faceplates then get outta there with Unicron in tow.

The thing was, Zoom-Zoom didn't even know who or what he was angry with. The mechs that were missing, the ones that had eventually wormed their way into his misplaced spark? They weren't at fault and if they had survived then there was no doubt that they were searching for him just as hard as he was. That he hadn't heard anything...

He was all alone with nothing more but the memories -their legacy- they'd entrusted into his care.

No. No. Zoom-Zoom shut down all further lines of processing on this matter and focused on the situation at hand.

As much as he wanted to hold it against him, Red Alert had just been doing his job after all. It was an invasion of privacy he didn't really have any sorts of right to anyway in the army.

All that anger had to go somewhere though. Zoom-Zoom spun on his heels to storm out before he did something that he wasn't quite sure he'd regret.

[Deleted]

Red Alert watched Zoom Zoom carefully, taking note of his posture and expression, keeping watch for any subtle clues that might warn him ahead of time if the mech’s temper flared. In the event the urge to punch his superior officer in the face got the better of him, Red Alert wanted to be prepared. Though, truth be told, he didn’t consider that to be a probable reaction. For one thing, Zoom Zoom had shown enough self-restraint to gently set the package he was carrying down upon the floor instead of dropping it or throwing it across the room out of spite, so he clearly had enough self-control to mindful. For another, due the the height differences involved, Zoom Zoom would either have to jump seven or so feet, or find a step ladder if he even wanted to reach his face to begin with.

Needless to say, Red Alert felt rather confident his face was in no danger of being punched in. At worst he’d probably get kicked in the shins or sworn at, but he didn’t think either of those reactions were likely either. Judging by the look on Zoom Zoom’s face, the way he spoke, and the deeply personal nature of the contents of the datadrive...

It seemed safe to say the mech was probably more upset with the situation than he was with Red Alert personally; it was just that it was considerably easier to direct anger and frustration at a person than at an intangible series of events. Red Alert had to give Zoom Zoom credit for trying to end things peacefully by turning on his heel to storm out of the room before he wound up turning his anger back on the most readily available target. He was at least trying to keep himself from getting into a shouting match with his superior officer, which is more than other mecha might have done in his place.

Red Alert was sorely tempted to actually let him walk out the door, too. It would diffuse the situation for the time being and let Zoom Zoom have time to cool off, but…well. Zoom Zoom was upset, and Red Alert felt at fault for that. He couldn’t just let the mech storm off to sort himself out without at least making a small attempt to make amends. It just didn’t sit well with him. He argued with himself that he was simply being practical, since assuaging Zoom Zoom’s ire would fall under the category of preventative maintenance. The mech broke enough things when he wasn’t even trying to; it would be in the best interest of every fragile thing on base that he not have a desire to vent his frustrations through violence.

That’s the rational Red Alert used to justify pinging the door shut before Zoom Zoom could stomp through it. He was just being practical. It wasn’t like he was concerned for Zoom Zoom’s emotional well being or anything.

Or so he told himself. Insistently.

“Zoom Zoom.” He sighed, as the door slid shut with a hiss. “We’re not done here.”

He briefly rubbed at his optics again with his thumb and forefinger to quell the faint ache growing behind them, before waving the datapad he held in his other hand towards his desk, where Unicron lay.

“You can have---” It, Your toy, That thing. “---him back now. Everything checks out.”

He had the feeling the next five minutes were going to be particularly unpleasant for them both.

[Deleted]

Red Alert had locked the door on him.

Red had locked the fragging door.

Zoom-Zoom stared blankly at the unmoving sheet of metal. He was aware that he was already on precarious ground here, his arrival to the Autobot and subsequent friendly firefight hasn't exactly been the most auspicious of beginnings. Even after Red had given him his new codes, the restricted access he had to the base network was a warning sign, that he wasn't fully trusted.

So, it had taken every inch of his self control and preservation and then some to have kept everything in check up until this point. Zoom-Zoom couldn't risk fragging up because there was nowhere else for him to go.

But this-this-

The minibot turned his helm slowly away from the door, servos clenched. He just wanted to get out and away from this room, away from the thoughts and memories that were swirling round in a jumbled mess within his processor. But Red had locked the fragging door...

Hacking the door right in front of Red's optics would be a quick way to get himself locked in the brig before you could say 'Sir Stomp-A-Lot.' With deliberating slowness, Zoom-Zoom turned round, marched up to the desk and snatched Unicron back without a word. He glanced down at the exposed port and removed underplate. He was tempted to demand for Red to fix it but leaving it in the Security Director's servos was the last thing he wanted to do. But on the other servo... Zoom-Zoom's optics flicked as he contemplated his own repair skill and the fact that he utterly sucked slag at it. Sure, he was willing to apply it to his own frame but that was in desperate situations with no other options in sight. He didn't want to risk breaking Unicron…

That could be dealt with later though. He backed away from Red Alert's desk, crossed his arms and glared sullenly. It was taking all his self-restraint to keep his restless energy from exploding outwards. He badly wanted to move but by forcing himself still, it was easier to remain in control. "Can I leave? We are not discussing my life story," he said flatly.

Unspoken was the implication that the likelihood of slag getting broken increased the longer he stayed in this room. He might not be able to reach Red's face but that didn't mean he wasn't willing to try.