[ti]Ep 2[/ti]Are We There Yet? (Closed)

[Deleted]

(Set 11 am, day 6, week 4)

Ugh, where was she?

Zoom-Zoom glared at a random patch of floor like it was personally responsible for the situation. He'd reluctantly left the storage room for one reason only.

Find Shale.

Then drive several hours away to Mirefield to pick up a range of electrical conduits, junction boxes and a few other bits and pieces. It was the other Autobot's fault that they had none, she'd knocked over a shelf in the storage room that contained a number of these items and had damaged them. Now they needed more - the Omega base was a site of constant renovation as its population increased and they couldn't leave naked wires running about the place lest one of the base's human pets had a nasty accident.

So, finding Shale it was, since it was her mistake that needed fixing and Zoom-Zoom couldn't travel on his own as according to the current rules in the base.

They wouldn't have needed to travel all the way out to Mirefield if Jasper's own local hardware store was stocked up. But it was the Omega base's misfortune that it wasn't. It was unsurprising in a way - Jasper was so far off the beaten track that it could take weeks before more stock came by.

In fact, before leaving the store room, some snooping about the local hardware store's Facebook page and Twitter had shown that it had temporarily shut down during the wait. The store owner had gone camping while this state of affairs persisted.

The minibot had absorbed this news sourly. He'd also hovered over the Facebook page, half tempted to engage in this social media thing and leave a negative review there, complaining about how useless it was.

Sanity had prevailed and he'd left it alone for the time being. But there was a disgruntled part of his mind that was contemplating setting up several Twitter bots that would leave angry comments in response to the photos the absent store owner was posting.

With a grumble, Zoom-Zoom headed towards the rec room. It was usually a good starting point when it came to searching for a Bot.

[Deleted]

A half empty cube was lazily pushed around on the table top. It did a full turn to the left, wobbled a little on one back corner, and came back down to do another half turn before it was pulled back by the digit hooked onto the rim. With a sigh Shale took a sip before her four digits gripped it on all sides letting it hang in the air as she swirled it's blue contents in a slow clockwise motion. She'd been pecking slowly at her ration for the better part of an hour and a half. The base was running fine, nothing was broken, everything was performing at optimum... much to her dismay.

There was nothing to do today. Nothing for her to do today anyway. She'd checked over everything twice already and had even contemplated 'accidentally' dropping one of her tools into some important looking machine just to spend the day fixing it. Rationality - and recalling the fact Red Alert had cameras EVERYWHERE - had won out in the end. So she'd resigned to simply getting a cube. Maybe there was something on tv worth her time?

No such luck.

She'd spent forty five minutes flipping through channel after channel praying that these humans had something entertaining playing. But it was all uninteresting and rehashed garbage. She'd settled on the weather channel just to have some form of background noise. Apparently Jasper was supposed to be getting some pretty heavy rains coming in soon. Given how arid this part of the world was that'd be a blessing. Maybe if it poured enough she could talk Bumblebee into going out and driving in the mud. The young bot seemed like he'd be up for that.

Yeah. That could be fun.

Now she just had to hope that the rain would actually come. For now she had a cube to focus on. Oh, looks like the Vegas area was unseasonably warm this coming week.

[Deleted]

Unsurprisingly, the rec room turned out to be a good choice to start looking. The very Bot Zoom-Zoom was after was there, forlornly pushing around a cube of energon.

A more considerate individual might have wondered what the cause was for Shale's long face. Not Zoom-Zoom. For him, she looked free, which was most convenient for him. Fantastic, really.

The minibot beelined straight for Shale's table.

"Hey," he said shortly when he got there, not even bothering to greet Shale properly. "Are you free? The roster says you have nothing on, so you better be."

[Deleted]

"Finally... done!" Hazmat said while venting with relief as he gazed down at the row of cylinders that he had been arranging in the Med bay. Each cylinder contained a chemical that the custodial bot would use to decontaminate dangerous substances or to clean up spills. He had been needing to sort through them properly and then put them in proper containers ever since he arrived at the base more then a week ago and he finally managed to get around to it. However as he had been going through his chemicals he realized some of them were mixed and had to be separated... and the only way to do that was to put the chemicals into his backpack unit and have his decontamination system separate the chemicals inside of him. It was a slow process that was rather tedious, and he had to constantly stop and walk away to help within the rest of the base. In the end it took over 24 hours to get it done, not counting the pauses. However the work was done, and now everyone in the base had access to the chemical supply that Hazmat had, along with anymore he could make.

However having his decontamination system constantly running and churning ate right through his Energon reserves faster then a 2 year old eats a whole pack of chocolate chip cookies. Now he was lower then he'd liked to be and needed to refuel. However part of him felt guilty over refueling because of how much Energon he needed to keep going on. It wasn't just his decontamination system that ate his reserves, but his hazardous armor as well... and unlike his decontamination system the armor couldn't be switched off. The most he could do was take smaller rations and try to use as little Energon as possible. At least the good news was that he wouldn't have to do this again for a long time... if ever again. With a shrug the large mech started to make his way to the rec-room and the heavy thuds of his pedes seemed to announce that he was entering the room, though when he arrived he was greeted with a pleasant sight that made him smile warmly.

Shale.

Had it truly been more then a week since they talked and buried the hatchet of their past? Since then they hadn't had a chance to really interact with each other, even if they did share a room. Thanks to Shale being a workaholic and Hazmat doing his best work at night the two of them rarely got to see each other. Still they did manage to squeeze in a moment or two together... though nothing long enough to be considered personal time. Still though it was nice to see his significant other, and finally when she wasn't working.

However it didn't look like he'd get that wish today since a small red bot that Hazmat didn't recognize was already talking to her.  With a sigh through his vents and a shrug, Hazmat simply walked over to the energon dispenser, grabbed a cube, and filled it up half way before bringing it to his lips.  However as he did so he had turned so he could look Shale in the optics, hoping that she'd get the idea that he wanted to talk as soon as she was done with her friend.

... or maybe not a friend since the little guy seemed to be out right demanding to know if she was free.  What was all that about?  Now the look he was giving Shale was one of concern, wondering if she needed a hand with this little guy.  She was more then capable of looking out for herself, so he'd only step in if she asked him to.

[Deleted]

Shale's head slowly lifted from the table as her attention shifted from the next week's forecast to the slowly approaching foot steps. For a moment she thought about simply downing the rest of her ration before slipping out the door hopefully unnoticed by said approaching bot. But the moment she caught sight of green and black that was instantly forgotten about and a smile spread across her face. She watched Hazmat cross the room intently, hoping he'd find a place to settle next to her and not just run off with his ration to continue something elsewhere. It'd been a week since he arrived and they'd finally put everything to bed, but even with sharing a room the two didn't have much quality time these days. With work to be done it couldn't really be helped. But it seemed today was yielding something good after all.

She began to feel good about today...

...Then that was promptly thrown out of the nearest window.

The moment she tried to open her mouth to speak to him another cut in. Shale's face pulled into a flat emote, where once was a smile was now a flat mildly irritated line. She knew that voice much as it dreaded her to admit it. In painfully slow fashion she turned her head to look at the doorway again praying to Primus as well as whatever deity figure the humans called their own - was that blasphemy? Should she be doing that? Did it even matter anyway? Questions for later - for even the slimmest chance it wasn't who she thought it was. But it seemed divine intervention was not on the schedule today. Sure enough Zoom Zoom was there demanding to know if she was busy right now. Slowly she cast her gaze back to Hazmat, then with a sigh she swiftly grabbed the remote and turned off the tv.

"Yeah, I'm free. What do you need Zoom Zoom?"

She'd ask what he wanted but she knew by now the minibot didn't do anything if he just WANTED it. Especially if it required others. No he NEEDED something, something he couldn't do on his own. Shale immediately latched onto the hope that this meant something to do, something physically predictive anyway. She would have loved to spend the day with Hazmat talking over nothing but her hands were too steady. She needed to move. Even if it did mean she'd have to deal with the resident annoyance in red.

She waited - with not so batted breath - for the minibot to answer, propping her chin against the back of her hand as she stared at him. Her other hand gripped the cube in front of her and she drained the last of it's contents. She felt like after today she'd be needing something stronger.

[Deleted]

As the minibot waited for an answer, a set of heavy footsteps approached the rec room. He didn't turn to look, content to track the whoever it was by sound alone. He didn't recognise the footsteps, they were sounded heavy enough to be Prime but not quite right, so one of the new arrivals. So long as they didn't interrupt, Zoom-Zoom didn't care what they were doing, though it did sound like they'd made their way to the energon dispensor.

Even socially oblivious as Zoom-Zoom was, he did notice the change in Shale's expression as she registered who she was dealing with, the change from a smile to a look of mild irritation. Which was a-okay and entirely mutual in his books, he wasn't pleased to be talking to her either.

"Remember that shelf you broke?" It was unlikely Shale had forgotten, given the number of times he'd brought it up when she was putting together another one. "Well, like I figured, you broke a heap of nice little bits and pieces sitting on it and now we're out."

"And are going to be out for quite a while if we wait for Jasper's hardware store to get its act together because they don’t have anything either. Which I'd be delighted to wait for, really, but we kinda definitely need more electrical conduits right about now so you and I are going to have to haul ourselves over to the next town and replenish our stock from there."

This wasn't an official mission and really, Zoom-Zoom could have picked anyone else to come with him - or tried to, at least. But hey, why make someone else fix up Shale's mistake when she could do it herself?

[Deleted]

For the briefest of moments Hazmat managed to catch a glimpse of Shale's smile, which to him was one of the greatest things in all the universe. Sure it was only a smile, a simple act that could be easily faked, mimicked, and snuffed out. However to Hazmat a smile coming from Shale was absolutely beautiful and irreplaceable. So when that smile vanished thanks to the small mech that was addressing Shale so informally and rudely, Hazmat took a slight personal offense to it and frowned at the small mech.

So his name was Zoom-Zoom? That little mech quickly got to the point after Shale said that she was available. Knowing Shale the black and green mech was pretty sure that the femme would take any work that she could get since she was known for not liking having nothing to do. Last Hazmat knew, she despised it. However after hearing what Zoom-Zoom was asking of her, Hazmat found himself wanting to take Shale's place so she wouldn't have to put up with that small loud mouth of a mech.

Still... ZZ was right in demanding that Shale help pay for her mistakes, even if it meant going on a long drive... but the wise old mech saw a few problems with ZZ's plan after remembering how buildings looked when he took Miko out to Jasper. However this small mech didn't seem like the type to let Hazmat take Shale's place, sooooo...

"Pardon me for interrupting," Hazmat began as he walked towards the pair, pausing only to take a sip of Energon. Huh... it wasn't bad cold, though it was still better warm. "I couldn't help but over hear that you're planning on going on a long trip. I am free as well, so I'd like to join on on this mission." He stated while kneeling down so the two Autobots before him didn't have to crane their necks to look up at him. "However I do have a concern; how exactly do you plan on getting the materials from inside this store to our storage compartments and our subspace? As robots in disguise we can't just reach into the store and pull the needed parts out. And last I knew holoforms can't pick items up either." the former artillery commander asked. he also would've asked how they'd pay for all this but since he wasn't aware of how human currency worked, or that it even existed, he didn't ask about it.

He knelt their, patiently, his field a perfect match to the calm but unemotional field that the Prime normally gave off.

[Deleted]

What was that saying about beating a dead horse?

Shale sighed as yet again Zoom Zoom brought up the shelf she'd stumbled into and broke. It wasn't as if he brought it up several times when she was trying to fix the damn thing. He really wasn't about to let that go. Not only that but it seemed like he was now trying to use it as leverage to coerce her into this little escapade. Just what she needed today.

It wasn't like Zoom Zoom was giving her a choice but she still opted to defy him and weigh her options. On one hand it was an opportunity to get something of value done today. It'd also give her a chance to burn some rubber and energy. On the other.... was ZZ, and he was counter balancing the pros just fine on his own. But again, it wasn't like she had a choice in the matter to begin with.

"Fine, not like I've got anything else to do."

Her attention swiftly turned back to Hazmat as he raised his voice, offering his own assistance as well. Even if this would be tedious she was just thankful that he'd said something. She might be able to avoid being alone with Zoom Zoom yet. Hazmat made a very good point, how would they go about actually acquiring said materials by themselves?

"He makes a good point, how exactly will we bring the stuff back without either breaking our cover or causing property damage?"

[Deleted]

The footsteps drew closer. But that wasn't important, what mattered most right now was that Shale had said yes, so this little impromptu mission was on. It was not the most enthusiastic agreement in the world -Shale sounded like she'd rather do anything else right now- but as the feeling was entirely mutual on Zoom-Zoom's part, he was content to take what he got.

Then, an interruption. Resting one hand on his hip, Zoom-Zoom lifted his head to look over his shoulder at the mech who'd joined the conversation uninvited. And...was offering to volunteer himself? This seemed to be one of the new arrivals, as Zoom-Zoom hadn't seen the mech around before. He was ridiculously big, which made Zoom-Zoom somewhat uncomfortable - he was never happy around large individuals due to the ease at which they could manhandle him. In regards to this field trip however, the minibot didn't have a problem with a tag-along, more people on the trip meant to the blame could be spread around and away from him if something went catastrophically wrong.

Yes, Zoom-Zoom had a wonderfully altruistic soul.

Not.

His feelings towards the unknown mech had been neutral up until this point but when the mech knelt down to talk to them, Zoom-Zoom's opinion began to slid towards the negative. Well, that was just insulting and unnecessary. For all his grievances with Prime, Sir Stompers and the other large Autobots around, at least none of them had never belittled him this way. His upper lip plate curled in irritation as he listened to what the big mech had to say.

Huh. That was unexpected. Frowning, Zoom-Zoom's head swiveled towards Shale when she added her agreement. He arched an optic ridge, surprised by their ignorance.

Holoforms certainly ranged widely in their capabilities and not everyone was equipped with an emitter for one. Solid holoforms made of holomatter were uncommon and even they varied in how substantial and dense they were. While one was far more likely to encounter a Cybertronian that was capable of just projecting images than solid light, the technology was not a secret nor was it new. Knowledge about it was common place - or least Zoom-Zoom had thought it was.

And yet here he was, with two individuals completely unaware that it existed.

"Alright," Zoom-Zoom drawled slowly. "Apparently you have both been living under some very, very large rocks or stuck in stasis or something but some people have this thing called holomatter. It means - wait for it- that you project a solid holoform. Surprise! I sure hope I haven't shocked you too terribly enlightening you about this magical technology and I'm sure the name didn't give it away or anything."

Being ignorant about something didn't call for rudeness in response. And yet, Zoom-Zoom...was himself in this matter. A jerk unnecessarily in all things.

"So by the sounds of things, I will be doing the walking, talking and the fetching," he continued. "No problem - my alt-mode don't have much in the way of storage, so I guess you guys can be useful by doing the transporting."

Zoom-Zoom gave Shale a snide sideway glance but refrained from making a comment about not trying to not break the cargo. It seemed to him like the matter was sorted, he'd get what they needed, the other two could carry the materials. Additionally, tucked away in Zoom-Zoom's subspace was a credit card NEST had organised for the Omega base, in case there were purchases that needed to be made on short notice or for an emergency. Before taking it with him, the minibot had logged for the record that he had borrowed it and what it was going to be used for.

The minibot's field was tucked tightly around him and closed off. There were a slim number of individuals he opened it up for and not a single one of them was on this planet.

"Are there any other trivial questions that need answering before we go? Does anyone need to be told that they can transform into vehicles, perhaps?"

As always, Zoom-Zoom's mouth ran a lot faster than his thoughts. Antagonizing one's teammates was never the smart thing to do.

[Deleted]

Hazmat was glad to hear Shale agree with him, but that flicker of joy that filled his field didn't last long as the little minibot began to answer his question. As the little bot spoke Hazmat started to wonder if he was getting himself into a rather nasty scrap pile of a mission. It only took one foul-mouth or one mech with a chip on their shoulder to make a routine mission a pain in the aft... and it would seem as though Zoom-Zoom was going to be difficult.

However two could play at that game.

"What?! Really?! Our holoforms can physically interact with other objects?!" Hazmat exclaimed with wide optics, an enormous grin, and a bunch of enthusiasm that was clearly fake. He then held out his right servo, palm facing upwards, and created his gruff looking holoform so it was standing in the middle of his palm. With the forefinger of his other servo he went to prod his holoform, only for his finger to slip right through the image of a bearded man. The overly large grin on his face plate quickly faded into a frown as the custodial bot shifted his gaze back to ZZ with a what almost could be described as a whimper on his lips, though it was also clearly fake. "But... but I want that upgrade..." Hazmat moped before the frown faded and he closed his open servo around his holoform, which vanished in a cloud of spots.

"Give me a bad attitude and I'm gonna give you one right back. How about we clear the air before we go on this trip? Otherwise we might end up at each other's throats before it's over." the black and green mech offered before standing up to his full height and crossing his arms over his chest. "Attitudes aside, you do have a point with the hard light holoforms. I can make one of hard light, but only for a limited amount of time. I would like to point out that my vehicle form is that of a crash truck, so we might want to come up with a cover story for why we need all these supplies if some nosy human gets curious as to why an emergency vehicle is being used to pick up such supplies. And our holoforms should match it." Hazmat pointed out. As he did so he held up his right servo again, palm up once again, and created his holoform in the center of his servo... though this time instead of wearing the normal gray shirt and tan pants, the holoform was wearing fire fighter gear.

He then glanced over at Shale, before turning back to the minibot. "A simple accident resulting in some vehicles getting stuck behind debris so only the crash truck was available for use to get the needed parts would suffice. However seeing as you're the one in charge of this mission and have more experience on Earth then myself, I will defer to your judgement on the matter." Hazmat didn't like the idea, but he had to take the back seat in this situation.

[Deleted]

The very moment ZZ opened his mouth Shale grimaced. It was like he was made of smarm and sass topped off with a cherry red finish. This was definitely going to be a very long trip with him spear heading the operation. Were they even going to be retrieving supplies? Shale wouldn't put it past Zoom Zoom to fabricate an excuse like that then leave them in the middle of nowhere for a while. Solely because he could.

Then Hazmat put in his opinion, layering on just as much sass as ZZ had on top of his sarcasm. Shale had to quickly turn and cover the lower half of her face to hide her smile. That was glorious. Composing herself she turned back to them both, the smirk having faded to an upturn of the corners of her mouth. At least with Haz here she would find the drive tolerable.

"Not all of us are exactly outfitted with that kind of tech." She input once she'd fully settled down. "When you don't interact with humans- or leave the base much for that matter it's not exactly a lucrative investment."

It hadn't been that long since she and Haz had even made it to this planet either. For him it'd been a week, and she only had a few days beyond him. Like that mattered to ZZ. He probably just wanted this to be over as much as she did. Hopefully this wouldn't take ages and go without any issues. She could barely stand being around ZZ for as long as she had fixing the shelf.

"Where exactly are we going?"

Having a set point B would be helpful, at the very least she could estimate how long she'd have to deal with the little red terror. If all else failed she could just find something on the radio to tune him out with as they drove. Damn this "buddy system".

[Deleted]

The minibot had watched Hazmat's display with an arched optic ridge and an unimpressed expression. Mentally, he was at the 'let's just get going' point of things and this unexpected volunteer was clowning around.

"Wow," he said dryly. "Five seconds ago, you didn't even know what that was. Thank you for wasting my time with that unnecessary question then. Moving on."

His optic ridge raised even higher at Hazmat's comment about attitude but otherwise Zoom-Zoom ignored it. As far as he was concerned, his attitude was not the problem here, so he didn't bother dignifying that with a response. Hazmat would get a mild, guileless look and not a thing further.

Make that a mild, bored look. Zoom-Zoom had not considered that the newcomer's alt-mode would be a problem for two reasons: A) He hadn't been expecting a tag-along. B) He did not know what Big and Green's alt-mode even was but it was sounding annoying and inconvenient. The minibot also couldn't care less about whatever poor decision making process had led to such a choice and that they were now needing to figure out a solution to make up for it.

At the reminder that he was in charge and thus had responsibilities, his least favourite thing in the known universe, the minibot blinked. Not that anyone could see that with his optics concealed by his visor. "Oh," Zoom-Zoom drawled. "I'm in charge. Sure doesn't feel like it. In fact, let's keep it that way. Feel free to take the lead for this, Captain Enthusiastic. I will gladly pass the mantle of responsibility over to you."

The minibot had no qualms about letting someone else take over. It meant if something did go wrong with this venture, the finger of blame could be pointed not at him but elsewhere.

Zoom-Zoom shifted his attention over to Shale when she spoke up. He hadn't seen her turn away, he'd been briefly preoccupied with the somewhat terrifying realisation that these two individuals were actually looking up to him as a leader and not, say, an unwilling teammate along for the drive.

"Heading over to Mirefield," he said in answer to Shale's question. "It's a three hour drive away from here. Which means that there should be plenty of time on the road to sort out things like explanations for poor choices in alt-modes."

Impatiently, the minibot would turn towards the door and begin to head out, assuming that the others would follow.

"Come on, the sooner we get going, the sooner this is over."

[Deleted]

{{OOC: Sorry for the delay!))

Seeing Shale cover her mouth in an attempt to stifle a laugh brought a smile to Hazmat's face plate and he gave her a quick wink when ZZ wasn't looking in his direction. Seeing Shale with a smile was one of the best sights to the large mech, and he wanted to see just what he could do to keep her smiling during this trip. He might not be able to see it while she was in her vehicle form, but still he could most likely feel it via her field. Now he just had to make sure he didn't annoy the tiny Autobot too much.

Oh... to late... oh well.

When Zoom mentioned that he would gladly pass the mantle of leadership to Hazmat, the black and green mech glanced over to Shale with a raised brow before turning his head back to ZZ. The look said everything; Don't tempt me bro. Hazmat was more then capable of taking over and leading this mission, but even if he did it would still be ZZ's name on the paperwork depending on how they did so might as well keep him responsible... hopefully. Letting out a quick vent, Hazmat turned to follow Zoom-Zoom when the half-ling of a cybertronian started to walk off, but stopped when the pip squeak commented on his poor choice of alt. He slowly curled his massive servo into a fist and considered how much he could annoy ZZ, but then another thought occurred to him that stopped him from saying anything in return. Leaning in towards Shale he whispered "Humans must have their own currency, and I don't think either of us have access to it. The small fry might though. We should avoid annoying him too much or he might leave us without a means to pay for the needed parts."

He then turned to follow ZZ. "On that note, we can agree." Once they were in the control room and about to head out the door though, Hazmat stopped and glanced at the nearby table. After half a second of thought he walked over to it as the compartment on his left leg opened to reveal it held a can of rust sticks. It didn't have that many in it, he kept his main supply in his and Shale's room after all, but removing it from his compartments would give him some more storage space for the stuff they were going to buy. After placing the can on the table, Hazmat turned on his heel and walked towards the exit to Omega base and transformed into his rescue and crash truck from.

"Lead the way." he said, even though he was using his alt's GPS to calculate the route to this 'Mirefield.'

[Deleted]

Three hours away. That was three hours just to get there. That then meant three hours back. On top of however long it'd take to load the cargo and ensure its safe to travel. And all of this was on the assumption that traffic wasn't going to be an issue. This could potentially take most of the day. Shale had barely managed last time and now she was facing a road trip with the little red menace.

Super.

Shale first watched ZZ walk out before standing from her table. Trying to limit herself on contact with him before they'd be sharing the road for hours on end. At least she'd be putting rubber to the road. Lying her emptied cube in the "to be washed later" pile she turned to follow the two out before Haz spoke up. He made a good point, and it was just best not to give him ammunition in the first place. She was sure she would be hearing about shelves for a while yet. He could turn anything against them.

"Good thing I was just planning on blaring my radio and keeping as quiet as I can."

She wanted to keep her nose as clean as she could on this trip. It would be over sooner that way. Hopefully there wouldn't be delays to and from Mirefield. She didn't feel like sitting idle in one spot would be productive today.

She followed into the control room, shifting into alt mode beside Hazmat. Being on her tires felt good, calming even in the face of the task and company at hand. Now to just find the right station. Maybe she'd get lucky and they were in the power hour. She hoped it'd be Pink Floyd this time.

[Carbine]

Shuffling.

The Control Room was left empty once the three departed, allowing the automatic lights to eventually time out, and plunge the room into darkness. A soft hum, the faint whir of the Ground Bridge, the gentle thrum of the base's systems working down below, it was peacefully quiet all things considered. It was only broken when the lights flooded back on as something entered the area sneakily.

A huffing sniff, a rustle beneath the table, soft taps rang out to announce the presence of a creature lurking within the small sanctuary. It bumped one of the table legs as it slid around, snaking to the front where the others had stood a moment prior. With a solid leap and a heft of mass, a large Cybertronian dog slammed its forelegs onto the table.

Bolo's front paws splayed against the solid metal, pushing hard while his throat stretched as far as he could to reach for the jar that was abandoned. It was placed precariously far from the edge from him, leaving the Cassette straining and poking his tongue out before the top barb of a tooth clipped the leading edge. With a quick pull, and a thrash as the quadrupedal animal fell back down to the ground, the can of rust sticks slapped against the floor and splayed its contents out.

A concern of a mess may have been there for a moment, the powdery residue flaking off to speckle the floor in burnt red, but it would soon be taken care of, as Bolo cleaned up every trace of food there was, before taking the can and trotting off back out of the room.

The lights flicked off again.