[ti]Flashback[/ti]Fancy meeting you here! (Shale/closed)

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Flashback; caste era.

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Hazmat rolled his shoulders as he stepped out of the decontamination shower, followed by tilting his helm to the left and gently tapping the right side of his helm with his right servo in an attempt to dislodge the remaining drops of decontamination cleaner that were sticking to the inside of his left audio pickup. "That feels so much better..." he sighed with content as he started to walk away from the shower unit. He had just returned to the Reclamation Depot in Tyger Pax from being in Cybertron's underground for several cycles, fixing leaking pipes that were causing an acidic environmental hazard. He had been there for so long that his hazardous armor was actually wearing down and needed to be repaired and re-coated with acid resistant paint. He was still his old black and green self, but for now he was feeling a little hesitant on doing any hazardous duty. Technically he wasn't even cleared for more until he got that new coat but for now he just wanted a not cup of Energon and maybe a Rust stick. Sucking in air through his vents before letting it out as a sigh as he allowed the stress from his last assignment drip off of him like the cleaner was still dripping, Hazmat walked down the hall towards the rec, making sure he was on the grated part of the floor so anything that might be dripping off of him would go down the drains under the grates and not sticking to the metal floor.

Rolling his rotator cuffs, the large cybertronian entered the rec where there were multiple tables of various sizes to accommodate for the multiple sizes that the custodians came in, though mostly the came in two sizes; extra-large to haul vast quantities of the hazardous materials they collected and extra small to fit into tight spaces to either gather said materials or make repairs on tiny bits of damage that could cause said materials to leak. After letting his yellow optics scan the room for a moment or two, he walked over to the Energon dispenser, grabbed a cube, and filled it to the brim with some hot Energon while his free servo grabbed a Rust Stick from a nearby canister of sticks before walking over to a rather large table where several others were seated. Intending to join them to talk, Hazmat’s thoughts of relaxing were cut short when an announcement rang out over the Depot’s comm system. ”Attention! We have a priority one hazardous containment train incoming and it has a broken seal. All tow capable Custodians are needed to remove all unprotected train immediately.” boomed the voice of the Tyger Pax Depot’s foreman, Smokestack. If he was the one calling for the full evacuation of carts that didn’t have environmental protection then this wasn’t something to take lightly.

After quickly downing the Energon Hazmat discarded the cube and the Rust stick as he started to run towards the hanger… and if he knew that someday he wouldn’t be able to run like that without a small boost from his vehicular form he would’ve appreciated it more. Entering the hanger Hazmat’s optics gazed on what was known as the revolver track, a large cylinder full of straight tunnels that housed most of the transport carts when they were waiting to be used again. The large cylinder rotated on a horizontal beam so that the various carts stored in different tunnels on the revolving track can be placed on the same length of track located at the bottom, or several tracks can extend to each tunnel of the revolver to extract several cars at once, which is what was happening at the moment. Before Hazmat could make his way over to them he was stopped when an orange cybertronian mech, that was even bigger then Hazmat, walked up to him. ”Hazmat, you’re hazardous armor’s compromised. You should’ve left instead of coming here.” Smokestack growled out in his static-filled voice, but he was still understandable. In truth Hazmat wasn’t really surprised that Smokestack not only knew about his hazardous armor’s current condition, and that he wanted the custodian with the armor problem gone. However the orange foreman wasn’t worried about Hazmat’s health… but rather his safety rating so Hazmat did the only thing that he knew would get Smokestack to shut up and let him help in a hurry.

”Then give me one of the larger trains and I’ll take it through the ground bridge. Two cassettes with one blast.” Hazmat stated in a hurry, itching to get moving since if he couldn’t get new new acid protective paint then he might as well make himself useful. After a moment Smokestack nodded. ”Fine. Take the top level train to Iacon. It’s bound for a demolition site. Afterwards take it to the Iacon’s Reclamation Depot instead of returning here. You’ll get you’re acid resistant paint there. Now move it!” Smokestack bellowed, and Hazmat was off and quickly started to climb onto the lift that would take him to the track currently extended into the top of the revolver track. It was loaded with cargo carts that were well armored to handle impacts from falling debris. With a nod, Hazmat started to transform into his vehicular form; he lower legs bent till they were completely flush with the back of his upper legs and his pedes retracted into his lower legs, his helm retracted into his torso to allow the chest piece to pull upwards and cover the hole that his helm had retracted into, his servos retracted into his upper arms which then spun around so the elbows were facing in the opposite direction, followed by his arms bending so they were flush with the back of his upper arms, followed by his arms pulling inwards till they were retracted into the sides of Hazmat’s torso, and finally he started to spin around at the waist while the backpack unit slipped into place between Hazmat’s hips and torso. Several of his armor plates rearranging so his hazardous armor was streamline again, and the custodian mech had turned back into his original vehicular form ((He wouldn’t miss it when he obtained an Earth friendly vehicular form later on though.))

Carefully reversing, Hazmat backed into the train of carts and coupled onto them. ::This is Hazmat. Train bound for Iacon is ready. Open the ground bridge.:: he transmitted to Smokestack, who in turn activated the ground bridge by remote with the coordinates that he had for dispatching trains to Iacon, and soon the swirling green tunnel materialized in front of Hazmat. Blaring his horn to notify everyone he was about to depart, and soon his wheels started to turn to pull him along the road and his long train of 30 cars followed him. Entering the ground bridge, Hazmat couldn’t help but marvel at the swirling tunnel of energy that was capable of transporting him from one point to another almost instantaneously. Soon the mech found himself exiting the other end of the bridge…

[Deleted]

Where he was sent didn't exactly have the glittering skyline Iacon was known for.

It was still Iacon, and there were far more terrible spots on the planet, but by comparison to the bustling down town area this place was certainly slum-y. Especially the conditions of the roads. In order to keep the far more traveled roads in constant top condition the ones less traveled by were riddled with holes and stains. Most of these buildings would probably be torn down fairly soon, pity really. They were still nice to look at. Just because no one had stepped foot in them for so long didn't mean they had to go.

She was about a breem early, that was normal for her though. Shale was always early when she had a job to do. It gave her time to gather her thoughts, observe just what she'd be hauling that day, or get to work early. She was hoping for the last one. She was eager today, she wanted to get to work as soon as possible. The night before she'd gotten decent rest and the result was a good one. She was ready to take on the world today.

Her heavy duty vehicle mode made a slow left turn to avoid a small hole in the road. The job site was just on the outskirts of the city, she'd be driving for a while longer to be there on time. She'd be staring at this old road for that long. It irritated her quite a bit. She hated broken things, why didn't they take better care of theses back roads? Sure they hadn't been used in who knew how long but they were under Iacon jurisdiction! That still meant it was their job to tend to them!

It wasn't her job but at this point she wished it was. Then it could be done right.

As it stood she tried not to think about it. She was in a pleasant mood today and some rundown road wasn't going to ruin that. She wouldn't let it.

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Hazmat was well aware that he was heading for a demolition site. He also knew that demolition sites were known for being located in areas that were a bit run down or occasionally damaged from possible falling debris. However this was Iacon his was heading towards, the best of the best lived there so it was one of the most beautiful cities on all of Cybertron. Still Hazmat was more aware then most that underneath the towers there were several places that were a bit disgusting that only a custodian could handle, thus nothing should be judged by appearances. Because of this Hazmat always braced himself for when ever he was about to exit a ground bridge, and at times was even reluctant to exit the swirling vortex.

However Smokestack was going to need the ground bridge to send out another custodian mech and their train, so this time Hazmat couldn't decelerate and brace him before exiting the ground bridge. The instant that the large Cybertronian locomotive exited the ground bridge he hit a pot hole with his front wheels and nearly flipped.

"Frag!!" he exclaimed in surprise as the green and black mech attempted to steady himself while pull the entire train to the left a bit so only he hit the pothole and not every single car in the half a mile long train. Rather then use his side mirrors to look backwards Hazmat extended one of his decontamination emitters, which looked like a gray gun turret with a telescopic barrel, from his 'smokestack' and rotated it so he could use its targeting system to look at the convoy he was towing. The carts seemed to be fine, only a couple of them were rocking from having hit the pothole and they would stop soon as the energy of it died off.

At first Hazmat was going to retract the decontamination emitter and had even started to by rotating it to face forwards, but then he stopped. "Did Smokestack send me to the wrong city?" he thought out loud as the turret started to rotate to look at his decimated surrounding while Hazmat kept his attention on the road ahead of him. According to his GPS he was in the right location and was heading in the right direction... but as he looked around he felt as if he had landed in Kaon instead of Iacon. This place was falling to pieces and there was no one around! Yeah it was the outskirts of the city but it was still Iacon for Primus sake! Shouldn't they be trying to repair or replace all of this or...

Were the rumors true? That those living in the towers were spending more resources on themselves instead of those around them?

Hazmat sighed through his vents as he pushed those thoughts away to the back of his processor and abandoned them there. That line of thinking had a tendency to bring out the worst in him. Besides it wasn't like nothing was being done... There was a demolition crew working in the area, right? Maybe these buildings were being demolished to make room for something else... Maybe? Unable to shake his helm in his vehicular form he instead shook his decontamination emitter as if he was shaking his head and finally retracted it into its storage bay and sealed it in. When ever there was something that didn't make sense to him his processing wouldn't stop focusing on it, even when he pushes those thoughts aside. So instead he focused on the road ahead of him.

Every now and then Hazmat had to shift the position of the train he was towing to one side or another to avoid hitting a pothole or a grease stain he saw in the distance. The maneuvers were slow and a little awkward, mainly because of how much he was trying to shift over. Also his six driving wheels were connected by coupling rods so they always turned in unison; great for torque, not so much for maneuvering since he had six wheels that were locked in line with his vehicular form's main body. He had four other wheels for steering but they were small and couldn't turn him quickly... and if they couldn't turn him quickly then they couldn't turn an entire train quickly either. This was why Hazmat preferred the separate custodian roads that were self contained; they were kept in good condition and they didn't have any tight turns, which Hazmat had trouble handling with a large train. Weaving a half mile long train in between dips in the road that could make extra tall carts tip over? It was close to impossible and he looked like a massive snake slithering along the highway, sure to be spotted by anyone in this area if there was anyone here.

As a matter of fact Hazmat did see someone else nearby, and from what he could see they were going to end up on the same highway when road she was on would converge with the road he was on.

[Deleted]

If Shale was honest she was wasting a little time familiarizing herself with the layout of these streets. Taking a random turn here or there just to see where she would end up next. It was a habit she'd formed after so long, roaming around trying to keep her mind occupied. And if she was going to be coming back here for work it would behoove her to know what road lead where to keep herself from getting lost.

It wasn't the shadiest neighborhood she'd been in but she still didn't want to get stuck here.

Most of the holes in the road weren't an issue for someone like her. If they were small enough she could drive right over them with little to no concern. But the bigger they got the wider she turned to avoid them. She was built to take a lot of punishment but that didn't mean she wanted to get reckless now. She casually slid around another turn and made her lazy way toward the next intersection. She was a few meters away when she saw someone come down the road she was approaching.

That wasn't something she saw everyday.

A hazmat unit? In a place like this? She slowed to a crawl to watch him go past feeling mildly concerned about his presence. But seeing his haul was empty made her immediately relax. Was he just heading back to the depot? Either way she patiently waited watching as each cart passed her by. She'd found herself in this situation many a time before, these guys were very common on the maintenance roads, so to pass the time she'd made a sort of game out of them. Well, a boring one someone might say but it kept her occupied while she waited for her turn.

Shale counted each of the carts as they passed and once they were gone she'd do the math in her head to figure out just how long the train was. This was a big one. She did wonder where he was going, it almost looked like he may be heading in the same direction she was supposed to be going. Maybe he was dragging these empty boxes to the site? It was possible.

At the far end of the road, where it branched out into a four way intersection something was lying in the middle of the road. It was kind of hard to see unless the sun hit it just right. This puddle was recent, probably from another passerby that took a pot hole too hard and was now leaking. Either way of someone hit it it probably wouldn't end well for anyone involved. And it was directly in the path both Shale and this guy needed to take to get to their destination.

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When the hauler on the road had slowed to allow Hazmat to pass by her, he acknowledged her willingness to let him go passed by activating the green indicator lights on the carts he was hauling. Each cart's lights lit up to form a letter to a pair of words that Hazmat had spelled out across the side of his train, though their illumination was turned down so they wouldn't make the femme squint from the brightness. It was spread out a total of nine carts. However instead of lightning up all the carts at once he instead only lit up the carts as they started to pass her, then turned off after they had passed her. It was a standard procedure that the custodial mechs and femmes used to quickly show a foreman what was in each cart so the comm was kept clear for emergencies... Though the carts normally lit up with multicolored symbols and emblems instead of letters.

The car directly behind Hazmat had flashed with capitalized 'T' while the car behind that lit up with an 'h,' then the next lit up with an 'a,' then a 'n' and finally a 'k.' The car after that didn't light up at all because it was supposed to be a space. The next three carts lit up with a 'y,' an 'o,' and finally a 'u.' Hazmat didn't bother display anything else because he didn't think there was any need. He didn't keep them all illuminated at the same time because then it would seem as though he had 'uoy knaht' written on the side of his train, and that would be embarrassing.

However later on Hazmat wished he did keep them on because their light would've reflected off the lubricant on the road and he would've be able to stop in time. The instant his six driving wheels rolled over the lubricant Hazmat started to drift to the side while he continued to pull more of his carts over the lubricant. Warning messages started to pop up on his HUD but by then it was too late. "What the- OH SCRAP!!!" he yelped as he slammed on his breaks and the breaks of every single cart he was pulling, hoping that some of the carts that hadn't gotten their wheels greased would be able to at least slow the train down while he tried to think of a way to stop completely. He also activated his warning lights, causing all 30 cars to light up with blinking red and white lights and several fog horn-like sirens started to sound. The light from the warning lights reflected off the pool of lubricant so hopefully the femme would see it and stop in time.

But for now Hazmat had his train to worry about. His wheels stop spinning but were just sliding against the road, and the massive amount of momentum his train had built up was now pushing him forwards! The wheels of the rear cars were trying to stop but they getting dragged along the road, throwing up sparks. Worse he was actually getting turned sideways so if he didn't do something he'd end up getting turned completely perpendicular to the road, resulting in him rolling if his train kept pushing him... or he'd end up throwing the carts into a building by mistake.

Off the top of his helm he had one idea on how to stop the train, thus Hazmat began his transformation by uncoupling himself from the train a started hid transformation sequence. However instead of starting with his arms as he normally did he forced his legs to start first, this caused his lower legs to push hard against the ground as they started to flip out from under him so they could connect to his upper legs and stick straight out of the back of his vehicular form. The result was Hazmat literally flipping himself into the air as he continued his transformation with his arms flipping out, his backpack unit extending out and attaching itself to his back, his servos extending from his forearms, his pedes extending from his legs, the front of his vehicular form flipping down to attach to his torso to become his chest, and ending with his helm extending out of the top of his chest and the antennas on the sides of helm springing up and his yellow optics glowed to life.

With a determined look in his optics and his field flooded with it as well the mech landed on the road off to right of his carts. His heavy dry pedes quickly gripped the surface as Hazmat grabbed onto the first cart as it passed him, right servo clamping down on the front of the cart with a vice grip and the left servo gripped the side mounted guard, and dug into the road with his pedes using the three toe-like structures on the front of his pedes as claws to dig into the road.  Instantly the carts started to push Hazmat back so his right shoulder got slammed into by the first cart but the large mech refused to give in and dug in his pedes to slow down the train... and his pedes started to leave horrific scratch marks on the road as a result. The effort was starting to slow the train but the back of the train, which had finally rolled over the lubricant, started to drift out to right side.  Hazmat would've preferred to of grabbed the train from the rear so the forward momentum of the train would keep it straight but there was no way to know if he could grab the rear car fast enough to slow it down.  Because of this he had to grab it from the front and thus the forward momentum in the train kept pushing the carts causing them to go to the side since they couldn't go forwards.  Hazmat could only watch as the rear of the train drifted to the side and slammed into a dilapidated structure before the train finally came to a stop.

He let out a small groan as he stood up from his hunched over position and glanced downwards at the cart and the road.  His four digit servo had left a servo shaped dent in the cart, as did his shoulder.  Pounding out the dents wouldn't be a problem though; just open up the cart and use his steam hammer to hammer out the dents.  Shifting his gaze to the rear of the train, he chose to ignore the dented cart to see how the damage was to the carts that collided with the building along with seeing if the femme that had he had gone passed was alright.

[Deleted]

The lights threw her off for a moment, she also didn't see THAT every day either. Watching each glyph light up made her snicker to herself softly. This hazmat unit had way too much time on their hands. But it was a very polite gesture so she ignored it for now. Shale was about to turn when something not so friendly caught her attention.

The lights changed colors and suddenly horns began blaring. Something was wrong. It didn't take her long to notice the sway in the carts as well. She quickly backed up, nearly to the opposite side of the road as she watched the spectacle from her angle. Slowly the train disappeared as it curled in on itself, and she nearly leapt right out of her alt at the following loud crash.

Had that really just happened?

Did she really just witness that?

She'd heard stories of trains collapsing in on themselves in a horrifically marvelous display but she never expected to witness one herself. She wanted to drive away, go find someone to help that poor glitch out. But help wasn't anywhere nearby. And as far as she knew the stranger was lying in the road bleeding to death. Looks like she was being a good samaritan today. She quickly circled around - at a speed that would probably get her in some form of trouble if anyone was around - to a different road that meet into the round about that had been the epicenter of this accident.

Fortunately the stranger seemed okay and was inspecting the damage of his cargo. Shale shifted into root mode mid step as she crossed the distance to the crash.

"Hey! You okay?!"

She asked as she approached, knowing that looks could very well be deceiving. He was upright and moving fine but he could very easily be hurt still.

Primus he was big.

[Deleted]

Hazmat was about to start heading towards the cart on the opposite end of his train to asset the damage of the collision but stopped and shifted his optics to glance down at the wheels of the cart that he was standing next to, observing the black goop of lubricant that was oddly clinging to the wheels and seemed to be resisting gravity's pull.  It was slowly running down but still it was clinging to the wheels as if the substance was sticky, and that made Hazmat's brow furrow.  He knew the lubricant was slick since it nearly sent him and his entire train into a massive crash, and yet the substance was acting like a thick sludge that was sticky, not slick.  What type of lubricant had a viscosity, resistance to flow, this high?  He couldn't think of any, at least any in usable condition.

He was about to start scanning the substance when he heard the sound of a Cybertronian engine behind him.  Curious, the large black and green mech turned at the hip and turned his head to see the same cybertronian that he had seen earlier racing towards him from a different angle then he had last seen the femme.  Did she drive around the nearby buildings to approach him from a different angle?  That could meant she was either concerned or she could of placed the slick substance in hopes she'd catch a Cybertronian to attack and steal from and most likely thought she hit the mother load.  If she was here to out of concern then he would let her know he was find... but if she was here for trouble then she was going to sorely regret it.

Weary Hazmat turned his entire chassis to face the incoming femme and watched her turn into her root form, which barely reached passed his waist, and relaxed when he heard her words and sensed her genuine concern in her field.  He responded by allowing his field to emit his appreciation for her consern and said as much.  "I'm alright.  A bit shaken up but I'm alright.  Thank you." he responded using his typical deep but kind voice.  He shifted his gaze to his train and placed his left servo on the cart that he was next to, which was also the first cart in the train so the servo shaped dent was clearly visible.  "Can't say the same for my train through.  I just couldn't stop." he finished with a shake of his helm an a hint of regret in his voice.

As his gaze drifted back to the femme in front of him Hazmat's optics caught sight of the odd lubricant on the wheel that was attached to his left shoulder, and it was coated in the lube.  Lifting his right servo, he scraped a glob of the stuff onto his fore and middle digit and then lowered it so the femme could see it clearly.  Maybe she knew what kind of lube it was.  Just because he didn't know of a lubricant like this didn't mean it didn't exist.  "Ran over a patch of lubricant.  Question is what kind?  Not safe for me to move till I remove it all." He commented as six beams of golden light emitted from his shoulder blades started to scan the glob on his servo.  As he did so streams of data started to scroll across the left side of his HUD as his decontamination system analyzed the substance.

[Deleted]

This wasn't entirely normal for the femme, she didn't just go out of her way to help someone. Usually her response to others seeking aide would be to try and redirect them to someone else as her people skills were atrocious. She watched out for herself and the very small handful of people that she dubbed her "friends". She couldn't exactly deflect this situation though, she was the only one around for what looked like clicks and this guy could be seriously hurt. Large or no they're weren't many bots that could walk away from a train crash unscathed. If she was in this bot's boots she was sure she'd be dead.

But this guy knew what he was doing and as she approached he confirmed he was unharmed. A little rattled - as anyone would be - but otherwise alright. Shale would have left it at that saying she'd get someone else to come and help him but she didn't. She was too curious. She wanted to know just what had catalyzed this entire debacle. Was it because of some outside force? Or had this poor glitch just dozed off and lost control of himself? She kind of doubted the latter, especially when he spoke again.

The stranger then offered to her the cause of his calamity. A thick ooze he'd wiped away from the wheels of his now dinged up haul. It'd been slick enough to send him sliding but it was thick and looked almost sticky. What was this stuff?

As Hazmat scanned the strange ooze Shale scraped her own sample off a tire and turned her hand to inspect it.

"Not ringing any bells with me."

Flicking the muck onto the ground she turned her attention to the dents on the leading car. Those weren't from an impact with a structure of any kind. It was nearly an exact replica of this guy's hand. Her fingers traced the outline of a scratch lower on the cart. This thing needed some TLC and badly.

"Where ya going with this?"

She cast the question over her shoulder as she slowly walked along the length of the train. She was a big femme but she felt pretty small compared to this strange bot and his cargo. That was a strange feeling that she was by far not used to. As she walked inspecting the damage on the first three cars - because forget walking it's whole length - she couldn't help but notice just how used this rig looked. That was mildly disconcerting, ideally something that hauled toxic waste would be up to date at all times. But it seemed this rig hadn't seen that kind of work on a while.

Still, she hoped that others were in good condition.

[Deleted]

Well, so the femme didn't recognize the odd substance either. In all honesty Hazmat wasn't too surprised about that since even he didn't know what it was, and he was working with all sorts of different compounds since the day he was sparked, and more since then. He even invented a few. After all he wasn't just a custodian mech but a toxicologist as well so he wasn't just interacting with chemicals but his purpose for existing was to analyze them as well. However as his decontamination analyzers scanned the odd compound that he was holding his optics tracked the femme as she examined the damage done to the cart he had stopped. She was rather large for a femme and was heavily armored, making Hazmat wonder if she was a construction or demolition bot. She just didn't rub him as the combative type so he doubted her armor was meant for handling weapons.

"I might try to pound out the dent from the other side... but in all honestly I might just end up putting a hole through the cart if I do it." he begrudgingly admitted as he tilted his helm to the side while he frowned. As he said this he transmitted a signal to the cart, making it open up so it resembled a flat cart instead of a box cart. With it open like that the damaged section of the cart was now folded down so the backside of the plate was much easier to access... and the dent had gone all the way through the plate of metal. "Afterwards I'm taking them to the nearby demolition site to collect the discarded materials... but after that though I might have a word with the foremen of the reclamation depot at Tyger Pax. I don't care how long these carts had been in storage they should still be maintained properly." He said with a frown as he glared down at a large blotch of discolored metal that was in the center of the cart, clearly about to rust. "That... is just not acceptable. Smokestack you have got to stop thinking about your personal record and do your job."

After he said this Hazmat's gazed shifted from the cart and now he seemed to be staring straight out at nothing, but in reality he had shifted his attention to the readouts that his scanner were displaying on his HUD. The golden scanning beams coming from his collar bone vanished since he wasn't getting anything else from the glob. He was actually surprised to find that his decontamination system actually had this stuff on file. "Huh... so that's what this stuff is. It's a type of adhesive designed to be poured into a broken plate to act as a patch till proper repairs can be rendered. It was fazed out when it was discovered that broke down quickly, turning into the opposite of a non-newtonian fluid; solid and sticky when left alone but when inflicted with a shock impact..." Hazmat then stopped speaking as he curled his empty servo into a fist and slammed it into the palm of his goo filled servo... and suddenly the goo started to freely flow out from between his digits as if he had been holding water in his servos. "It's viscosity completely vanishes. No wonder I went sliding. A tanker loaded with it must of gone by vorns ago. At least the stuff is designed to dissolve when sprayed with a weak base solution." He finished as a mechanical whirling sound could be heard from Hazmat's backpack unit as the containers of chemicals located in his pack started to shift positions so Hazmat's choice of chemicals can be deposited into his main tank so he could use his decontamination emitters to spray a weak base onto the goo to dissolve it. It was gonna take him a little while to mix the solution up though.

It was at that moment that Hazmat realized he had been rather rude and he turned to face the femme. "I'm sorry, this situation seems to of made me forget my manners. I'm Hazmat. Thank you for stopped to check on me."

[Deleted]

These dents were deep, that was an obvious fact. The thick metal crumpled in on itself from the sudden and harsh impact... it was irritating. At least to Shale it was. What was broken had to be fixed in order for it to work properly, that's how she saw it. At the mention of him probably making the dents worse she nodded only really half paying attention. She was too busy trying to remember if she had some of her tools in subspace. She could easily get out the dents without making them worse.

She stepped back as one of the carts folded open giving a better look at the damage they had taken. He'd definitely punch a hole through this if he tried himself. Hearing his destination with this rig wasn't all to surprising but she still found it amusing. Sounds like they were heading to the same place after all. Upon further inspection and spotting the patch of rust herself she had to agree with this stranger, his foreman needed to be notified about the condition of his carts.

"Well, seeing as how we're going to the same spot, I can give you a hand with this."

She gestured to the dents with a tilt of her head, like she'd give him a choice even if they had one available to them. If you wanted something done right you did it yourself. As he stared off into space - probably just reading the results of his scan on his HUD - Shale tried to recall if she had the correct tools in subspace. As she delightfully discovered that she did he shared the results of his scan. An adhesive once used to fill in as a temporary patch before a full repair could be done. But this model had been discontinued when it was found that high impact made the usually thick and sticky substance became slick and flowed easily. To prove a point he punched the small but in his hand and it fell through his fingers like water.

"Hmm... I think I heard of this stuff before. Heard some bots complaining about removing it, got stuck all over the place."

Glad she wasn't needed for that job. Credits were credits but picking this stuff out of herself for a long while after didn't make it worth the hassle. Finally she could put a name to the face, Hazmat. Uncreative but far too fitting.

"Shale, and don't worry about it. Not like there's anyone else 'round here."

She replied with a roll of her shoulders. There was still time before she really needed to be at the site but this was going to take more than that. At least now she'd have an alibi for being late today. And she never made a habit of being late, if she was it was always with good reason. Those occasions were far and very far between, and she had Hazmat to confirm the situation. The boss would let it go.

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Hazmat had partly expected that Shale was also heading to the demolition site that he was heading for since she seemed built to take a bit of punishment, but moment that the femme had offered to give him a hand with fixing his cart he couldn't keep his mild surprise from radiating within his field. It was quickly followed by a aura of appreciation and thankfulness as a warm smile started to cross the custodian's face plate. "I'd greatly appreciate that. Thank you. I'll have to owe you a big favor in return. I mean it."

Turning his attention back to the slime in his servo, Hazmat's HUD flashed up a new reading to let him know that his decontamination system's chemical pack was finish mixing the weak base solution. With that he had his emitters deploy; a pair of doors on the top of his backpack opened up, a cannon extended out from each opening, and the deployment ended when the barrels extended out passed his shoulders. To the untrained eye it would seem as if Hazmat was now armed with a pair of shoulder mounted Enegon blasters, though they were in fact non-lethal. The green and black mech held the glob covered servo up to the left barrel as a red mist started to slowly drift out of the barrel. The moment the mist touched the glob it started to dissolve. "I can understand why it would be hard to remove; it sticks to everything and if you try to pull it off too hard it will dribble into your gears, in which case getting rid of it would be even harder. Good think it reacts to chemicals." Hazmat commented as he glanced down at his own wheels, and then started to spray the red mist on himself causing any gunk thar was sticking to him to go away. "Huh... Though maybe it would be useful for combating scraplits. Will have to run some tests on that back in the labs." he thought out loud.

The large mech then turned to Shale. "Anything you need before I start spraying down my train?"

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His surprise was noticed by the femme as was the appreciation in his field. Shale herself was mildly surprised about how open he was with his own field. Most of the mechs she'd dealt with in her life had kept to themselves; only giving small threads of pride as they saw their hard work came to fruition. She'd never really been around someone who wore their emotions so openly. It was weird, but a good kind of weird. Refreshing actually. At the mention of owing her she immediately waved it away.

"Don't worry about that, it's just what I do."

She didn't like the thought of puerile owing her favors. She just did what she did because it what she was supposed to do. It was why she was pulled from the well in the first place. Having someone say they owed her just for doing what she was supposed to do made her feel a little awkward in all honesty. She didn't like it.

She watched as the barrels on his back settled into place and began missing his hand with the base chemical. Lab?. She lifted an optic ridge at the mention of a lab. Did the dispatch he was stationed at have a laboratory for their employees to use? Stranger things happened on this planet.

"I'm sure that'd be useful, out here certainly so."

She'd seen some pretty tough construction mechs squeal in terror at the very sight of those little pests. And working out her poss more then a big threat of being attacked by Scraplets. Maybe Hazmat could change that. She'd invest in that for sure. As Hazmat asked if she needed anything before removing the solution from his haul she shook her head.

"No, I'm fine."

She stepped away from the cart to give him room to work, taking the time to walk further down the train to see what else may be damaged. This was an old train, the rust made that clear. Shale really hoped Hazmat could get through to his foreman and get these cats back in better condition. It made her really annoyed that someone decided to not do their job just to save time, doing it quick over doing it right. She hated that. More often than not it just lead to more problems further down the road. Taking the extra time to do it right would be so much simpler.

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Hearing that made Hazmaat smile warmly. "So what you 'just do' is be nice enough to help an unknown mech for the heck of it? Heh, sounds good to me. I 'just do' the same." In truth Hazmat wasn't always this open with his emotions, when he had to fight an empty or a criminal his emotions and field were pretty much unreadable. However right now it seemed fine. In truth most custodians were a bit more open then most other cybertronians, including Hazmat, though he never bothered to figure out why though.

After making a mental note to remember to test this goop as a way to fight off scraplets, the large mech began to transform back into his vehicle form and when he was done he was parallel to his train but facing backwards. Afterwards another one of his decontamination emitter cannons extended out of the top of his vehicle form while the other extended out of his front bumper. "I'll be back. Might take me some time though. Got a lot of train to get unstuck." Hazmat said, or rather chuffed since he was in the form of a locomotive. And with that both cannons rotated and angled till they were aimed at the wheels and started to spray that same red mist that was causing the rotten adhesive to dissolve.

With a small groan coming from Hazmat's gears, the green and black mech started to roll forwards as he started to head down the line of cars, spraying the red mist on the wheels causing the gunk to dissolve off of them. ::Shale, I might have to clean up that large puddle of this stuff as well so you'll have plenty of time to make repairs. Take your time.::