EP .5 - Utah Desert - That's Not Up To Code!
Feb 21, 2012 17:39:19 GMT -5
Post by steele on Feb 21, 2012 17:39:19 GMT -5
League have been more annoyed then he normally was, moodily stomping about the Autobot base and growling at just about anyone who got in his path. Anyone who cared to notice would have seen this shift around the time Serotype had left to return to her little hole in the wall. This only escalated until one day the sub logged out and took one of his free days. Using the ground-bridge League warped himself into the middle of no where, roughly where Ratchet had sent the switcher femme. It was rather simple to just call up some of the past log entries and then open the bridge to that location.
Once the heavy mech found himself walking about a massive wasteland of sand, he was in even less of a good mood. But he kept his scanners on max, looking for any sign of a Cybertronian signal, figuring that Serotype had cast off her Decepticon one and wouldn’t be likely to pick up that of an Autobot. This would make her all that much harder to find, however in spite of the pain in the aft League considered her, the flier was the only real verbal sparing partner he had found in quite some time. Enough to make tromping around an unforgiving pile of sand in the heat of day, but thankfully League was not one to give up easily.
Serotype’s “hole in the wall” was less of a hole and more of a cave she was working on. It took her forever to assemble the extra materials for what would be future walls and surfaces. That involved multiple trips to Jasper late at night to steal what she needed. But building what she wanted to in a cave was a lot harder than she had anticipated. It involved working with explosives to come up with larger caverns, clearing out the debris, and carving up the rest with her blades. It was when it came to working with her blades, there was only so much of that she could do before she had to take a break.
And that’s what she was up to currently.
Serotype sat on the floor with her blades placed beside her and her back up against the wall. She was, of course, covered in a fine covering of dust. She was tired of digging and took her break. She’d pick back up in about an hour.
There was nothing here, as far as the optic could scan there was just sand, sand, a few fading bushes and more sand. Some bots would go insane just living out in this blasted place, not a soul in sight, be they human, Cybertronian or even animal. League wasn’t too impressed with this place, there was open ground on all sides which made it hard for any bot to hide, much less a giant plodding submarine. There was also an issue with all the sand, it was starting to get everywhere, making the mech’s joints feel gritty and cogs rather itchy. Venting some air under his breath League added the sand to his list of growing complaints to take up with the femme when he managed to find her. But for now he could only silently brood until his sonar managed to pick up Serotype’s signal, if he was even going in the right direction...
There was the sound of something outside. Footsteps. Quietly, Serotype got up and reattached her blades. Her arms still felt like jello to her. But what if there was an enemy near by. Cautiously, she kept to the shadows until she was at the mouth of the cave. Glancing out side she could see...
Primus....
It was that sub-bot again! Only this time, he was looking rather lost? What was he up to? Although, she knew that he wasn’t going to do much harm except for trading insults. For all she knew, the Autobots might have needed her again and this was who they sent. Sensing no threat, she stepped out of her cave.
“Looking for someone?” she called out.
The mech was starting to think he was mistaken in where the ground-bridge had sent the annoying Seeker-Spawn. He paused for a moment to once more scan about, but just as he was starting to think about going back he felt a sudden ping on his sensors. After hearing a shout, League turned his optics towards a small rock formation, low and behold the very thing he was seeking had emerged from a hole and was now shouting at the massive bot.
“There you are! Fragging rotor-afted sand collector!” League’s bellowed out before picking up a little speed and marching towards the femme standing by what had to of been her hide out. It was fairly well hidden as it blended in with everything else in this Primus forsaken landscape.
It didn’t take all that long for League to reach her and went he dig the mech vented out a cloud of sand in a motion similar to a human hacking up something lodged in their throat. Then with a shake of his head, League placed his cool opticed glare on Serotype and crossed her arms in an annoyed fashion.
“Well, aren’t you going to invite your guest in? Ruddy Decepticons...even their switchers have no sense of manners.”
"A little far from the ocean, hm? Your sense of direction is terrible," said Serotype.
She moved out of the way and gestured for League to enter.
"I take it Optimus Prime sent you?" asked Serotype.
“No he slagging did not! I came to make sure a certain little switcher wasn’t selling Autobot secrets.” At least that was what the miner said he was here for, but in reality he just wanted to fight with her again and see if she was any better now that the femme was back at full health. League had a nasty habit of testing bots, combined with his love of arguing, it could make him quite the pain to deal with. Though Serotype had showed that even in a weakened state so could she.
With a grunt the mech entered the little cave and glanced about “Primus...a first year miner could have done better then this...” he grumbled as his trained optics spotted a few fault-lines that would need to be braced and just poor construction in general.
“Oh! My apologies for going off to pursue a career in medicine instead of doing nothing and choosing to become a miner,” said Serotype in a tone that was dripping with sarcasm.
Admittedly, she knew very little about mining or construction in a cave. Actually, this was her first attempt at it.
“Besides, I have no plans or inclinations to align myself with my old faction. I much rather prefer to stay alive,” said Serotype.
“Would have made a real femme out of you. Pity.” The mech couldn’t help but think that Serotype would have made a fine miner, though it wasn’t like she could suddenly change herself after all this time.
“That’s what i was talking about. A bot will say anything to save their aft.” League grumbled as he placed his servos on his hips and glanced about, still scanning over the shoddy workmanship on the cave. Then with a huff he brought out his pickaxe and moved towards the nearest wall, giving it a short tap. “Fraggit all! I could carve a better cave in my sleep, with one hand tied behind my back and my pickaxe replaced by a half broken tree branch!”
“I could tie your hand behind your back and give you a half broken tree branch,” said Serotype, “We can see how well you’d actually fair.”
She looked over at the walls she had been working on.
“I was trying to produce enough of an area for a new lab,” said Serotype.
“Not even enough sense to look up how...even these humans have some idea of how to mine.” League growled as he inspected the femme’s latest attempts to carve out a new camber for herself. Then without being asked or even offering his help, League swung his pick back and smashed it against the rock, chipping off a great section before pulling it back again and setting to work. In short order he had enlarged the chamber by a few feet and showed no sign of tiring or stopping.
Serotype watched. She seemed a little confused as to what League was doing. Why was he helping her. Was he trying to prove some kind of point? At least she could have some sort of reprieve. He seemed to go at it like a tank.
“I didn’t expect that I’d be trying to manufacture a home out of a cave,” Serotype growled, “matter of fact, I didn’t expect YOU to show up either.”
She took a seat down on a near by boulder and tried to dust herself off. She would really have to clean herself up later. She let silence pass between them for a few beats.
“Things ARE okay back at the Autobot base, are they not?” she asked.
League could hear her just fine, but he waited until getting a few more feet of room before pausing in his hammering to answer. “Things are just peachy at the base. Prime is a stoic bugger, Vel, Ratchet and Jazz are slaggers, Bee and Blue are always places they shouldn’t be. Peachy...” With that the mech went back to work, putting his weight into some of these next blows as the stone he encountered became a bit more compact and harder to deal with. But the result was the same. In such a short time League was close to doubling the space for Serotype and he was completely covered in dust for his trouble.
Ratchet, she could understand as a slagger. Jazz and Velocity, well... then again, this was League’s opinion of them and that was entirely subjective. She watched him wondering how much bigger he was actually planning to dig this room.
“Look. You’ve proven your point. I think this room is big enough for a lab,” said Serotype.
League paused once more, scratching his chin before flipping his pickaxe to the sie and using the flat of the tool to scrape and grind away any chunks or bots of rock hanging out from the wall. he only stopped when it was extremely smooth to the touch, then he turned about and leaned on the pick like it was some sort of cane. “Point? What point? Your a half slagged moronic scientist who knows nothing about digging, if you were half as smart as you claim you would let a bot who knows what he’s doing get some work done.”
“Key word is *SCIENTIST.* I don’t typically DIG things out. I would think even you would have figured out that one by now,” said Serotype, “But since you think your so perfect then fine. You can go slag yourself at this since you seem to enjoy the dirt so much.”
“Well miss smart-chips. If you were as bright then why do you need a know-nothing processor like like myself?” The bot shouted this out as he began to make a hallway leading into another room which he quickly began to hollow out, making it nearly as large as Serotype’s lab before he stopped in his digging to smooth out the walls and check over his work for any flaws.
“You just invited yourself over, remember?” said Serotype following him in to the next room, “first, I saw you you were looking rather lost in the desert.
She went over to a pile of sheet metal and picked up one of the thinner sheets. She started to try and bend it in to a small table.
“Besides, there’s Eradicons out there, You wandering on your own would make you a walking target and they would subsequently find me as well!” said Serotype.
League turned about to see that the femme was just as mouthy as ever, though now it looked like she was trying to bend some sheet metal. The mech was extremely tempted to just stand there and watch her while shaking his head, basically being his normal slagger self, but that last sentence was aimed at his protection, even if she was more worried about herself. He figured that it should be worth something.
With a vented sigh League stomped over to the femme and knelt down beside her. He didn’t try to take over, instead just adding his strength and bending the metal ever so slightly to give Serotype a crease to fold along and make her task just a little easier. “Fine. Then I’m going to need some busy-work to keep from going nuts in this dust-bowl.”
With the extra help, the metal bent with ease. She stopped when she felt the crease was right and moved on to the next corner.
“If busy work is what you’re interested in I had originally planned for three rooms - my lab, a standard main living area, and a small meditation room. I also need to construct much of my equipment for my lab plus living. There’s a *lot* to do,” said Serotype.
League raised an optic ridge at that “Femme, I used to do three times that every day, nonstop for weeks on end. What you consider a ‘lot’ of work is nothing compared to what most non-brainy bots do. Spoiled Fly-Brat.” for some reason or another he felt that it was time to once more complain at Serotype, though it had only been a short time since their last verbal brawl.
“You have NO IDEA what I do, glitchwit. I do not sit around and bang rocks together like you do. I do far more sophisticated things like actually coming up with things that are actually useful to others. You just play in the dirt!” Serotype growled.
“And all you do is sit on your aft and stare at things.” League countered as he crossed his arms and shot the femme a hearty glare. “I move tons on tons of rock, dirt, soil and then drag energon crystals up from the depths to be refined. So please, tell me how your job is so much harder then mine, I would love to see that.” As he spoke the mech set his optics on Serotype, tapping his fingers against one of the heavy metal plates that made up his arm.
“I “sit on my aft” and make calculations and advancements. Actual things that are worth while. I doubt you’d even be able to figure out higher mathematics! That’s something that actually takes *processing power!* You and your wide aft just spend your day lumbering around in tunnels,” said Serotype crossing her arms.
League uncrossed his arms and then raised a hand up to take something out of his shoulder, a torpedo shaped detonation charge, and then held it out to the femme. “Now tell me, on the room I just dug out, can you locate the correct fault-line, where on that fault line to place the charge, how much time you need to program the charge or and the right dosage of explosives to use.” League was tired of her belittling his job and was now offering Serotype a little challenge.
Serotype took the explosive. Not that she hadn’t seen explosive before. She did smuggle a few in to her old Life Unit and she knew about setting timers. But she knew very little about faultlines. This was going to end up a fair bit of guessing. Not to be out done, she pulled out her datapad from her subspace and lined up a bunch of complex complex formulas and mathematical equations. She held it out to League.
“I accept your challenge if you accept mine. Lets see how you fair against what I have lined up for you on my datapad,” said Serotype.
The mech growled at that before taking the datapad up in his massive servos. It all looked like gibberish to him, at most he could spot a few numbers and work his way up from there, but he didn’t seem to be making much headway. In spite of his inability to fully grasp what he was looking at, League refused to give up.
Serotype got up and started looking. Essentially, she knew HOW to make something explode. But her destruction didn’t have the same sort of creativity that League had in mind. She hovered up towards the celing trying to logic out where the detonator was supposed to go. He didn’t really expect her to actually set this thing, did he? She looked over her shoulders at him.
“Not so easy, is it?” she said.
“I don’t see you doing much better.” He shot back as the mech began to lean his back against the nearest wall. League scratched his chin as he looked back over the datapad, still not really getting anywhere with it.
Serotype wasn’t doing much better either. She knew very well how to explode stuff. Afterall, that was exactly what she had did to her lab on the Nemesis in her explosive farewell. But to find some kind of fault was difficult. She found herself occasionally pausing and staring at ceiling.
“I’ve detonated things before. I know how these things work!” Serotype shot back.
Well... just not in the way that League was thinking of.
With a grunt the miner set the datapad down on a near by table before walking up behind Serotype who seemed to be getting increasingly more frustrated. “Well? Then go ahead and plant the charge. I was going to do it to help start the hallway to the next room, but since you think my job is so simple why don’t you locate just the right spot to plant the bomb and then we will dodge back to your lab and wait for it to go off...if you know what your doing.”
Serotype turned around looking at League as though he had sprouted a second head.
“Are you absolutely crazy? At least what I gave you won’t automatically kill you unless you actually put it together!” said Serotype.
“If you know what your doing everything should be fine.” He stated as he crossed his arms and stared right at the femme. “Now, wouldn’t you like to prove me wrong?” He asked in a taunting tone with a certain smug smile on the mech’s face-plate, perhaps the first real smile he used while near Sterotype.
Serotype scowled at him.
“If I didn’t think it would kill us, I would. Unless that was actually your intent,” said Serotype.
League unwrapped his arms before reaching out and swiped the bomb from her before sticking it to the wall directly on the fault-line. Then he punched in something on the pad before beginning to walk towards the lab “Better get to the next room or else you’ll have a few new dents!”
Serotype took herself out of a hover and dropped to the ground. She picked up her datapad and kept pace with League making her way to her eventual lab. Once there, she couldn’t help glancing out the door waiting for the loud bang to happen.
League paused and waited for a moment before there was a muffled explosion, luckily League had dialed it back a bit from it’s original destructiveness. The miner then made the slow march back into a wave of dust, though it seemed to be clearing out quickly enough. Once it did it was easy to see that the entire wall was cracked, though the rest of teh room was untouched, save for the dust. The big mech turned about and looked back at Serotype “See?”
Dust still hung in the air as she walked back with him. He seemed rather proud of himself. She rolled her eyes at him before looking down at her datapad. It would have appeared that League had made next to no progress on deciphering her formulas.
“For someone who claims to love exploding things, you certainly cannot recognize a formula for a chemical explosive when you see one,” said Serotype.
This swiftly stole away the mech’s good mood as he stared back at the femme “So?” he asked defensively. While the idea of a chemical based explosive was nice, it also meant he was unable to make it, unlike the sorts he normally carried.
“What that means exactly is that without science or scientists working on new advances, you wouldn’t have any explosives. The one I had just showed you was a powerful one. Although, since you can’t read the formula, no nice new explosives for you to play with, dirt-pusher,” said Serotype.
“And who do you think funds that or makes sure you have enough slag to play with? I work, you just piss around until something works!” The mech snapped back, not at all happy with Serotype’s newest attack on his person.
“At the very least I wasn’t out to kill you with my challenge. You were attempting to turn me in to a crater!” growled Serotype.
She put her datapad back in to her supspace, crossed her arms and looked him directly in the optics.
“The things I work on don’t kill you unless you build it and implement it!” said Serotype.
League growled back as he made a heavy vent as he glared back “That explosion would have barely dented your armor, pirss-copyter! If you were as smart as you claim and if my job is as easy as you say, then you should have had no problem using that charge!” he didn’t even try to bother with how strange her job was, at least not when he could keep giving her hell over something he knew about.
“And if you actually though my job was easy, you’d have that formula sorted out and ready for use! You also should have no problems with it since it was easy to follow! Even a first year could have figured it out!” Serotype snapped.
“Likewise.” Was all League countered with, though he knew better, a bot would need training in either of their fields to make any headway. But in this fight Sterotype nor League would back down from this, not until someone admitted they were wrong, which would never happen.
Rather than admitting she was wrong, Serotype glared at him for a moment longer before letting it go. This argument would have gone no where. Instead, she picked up another piece of sheet metal and started to bend it. She was going to make a work surface for her lab.
“As long as you’re here, I do have rations available. It’s going to be some time before nightfall. When it’s dark, it will be far safer to travel. They won’t be able to see you as well. Especially if you’re covered in rock dust,” said Serotype.
League watched her for a time before slowly walking over to Serotype and once more creating a crease in the metal. “Yeah...I’m good on energon.” The mech muttered before adding “I would rather have some good high-grade, feels like one of those days. I have some stashed back at base.” he wasn’t going to offer her any, Serotype would have to do a lot of aft-kissing to get into League’s personal stash, but he wouldn’t take any of her’s either.
“That’s fine. Suit yourself,” said Serotype.
With the extra help, she was able to get the metal in to the shape she wanted.
“When you wondered if I was actually trading military secrets.... I have no interest in my old faction any more. If anything, my interactions with them would certainly mean my demise. I really have no interest in becoming anyone’s information dealer,” said Serotype.
The Autobot listened as he helped out with the sheet metal, the repetitive work proved very productive for letting one’s mind wander. “I know...” He said after a time “You would have better equipment then some slag cobbled together from human tech.” though in admitting this he had left the whole reason for his visit to suspect.
“Yes. But what good is it if I never really felt safe around who I was working with? I just have to get used to this. In the long run, this is far better for my health. I can deal with this,” said Serotype.
This was starting to remind League of something, vorns ago when he used to be on a pit of a mining world, a mesh of desperate bots all clawing for every scrap they could get. If possible the mech felt that he could understand Serotype’s paranoia and was perhaps one of the few that could. “Such things can make a bot go crazy...” He commented in a deathly calm tone, the mech’s optics on his servos as they worked.
“That I can agree on. Combined with desperation, it can make anyone do crazy things,” said Serotype.
Yeah. she could remember how desperate she was in trying to keep away from her enemies. So much so that she turned up at the Autobot base tired and nearly starved to death. It took her some time before she had a clean bill of health again. She recalled those days in the desert very well. She was always trying to keep ahead of any Decepitcon who may have been out looking for her that day. Only to have gotten lost repeatedly.
“Not exactly what I had planned on happening since arriving on this planet, albeit *accidentally* landing on this planet,” said Serotype.
“Humans have an odd saying, I believe it goes like this: ‘The best laid plans of mice and men.’” The mech stated as he vented out a little extra air in a sigh “It roughly means no matter how hard you try, you can’t account for everything.” and with that League fell silent once more.
“Interesting expression. I cannot claim to have heard it,” said Serotype.
He was right, though. Being in her current situation was the last thing that she had expected. Matter of fact, prior to Optimus letting her go, she was expecting to remain incarcerated. But that never happened. Everything had been a series of unlikely occurrences.
She looked over the metal surfaces that she and League teamed up to bend in to shape. In the time they were either talking or thinking, they had managed to have create quite a few.
“I think we have enough of these. Most of them will be in the lab,” said Serotype.
The sub gave a short grumble “I blame Bumblebee and Bluesteak. They always have some human program or another on, it’s hard to avoid it all together.” as League spoke he stood back and scanned the sheets the two of them bent while working together. He then turned his gaze back to the strange copter-bot who he now found himself standing beside “So...any other chores to do or will I just go back to digging out a few more chambers?”
Serotype thought for a moment. They had some new surfaces bent. She took a moment to stretch her arms. She had been going at this building and fabrication thing for most of the day. They were staring to feel a little stiff. Once again, she’d have to dope herself up on pain killers.
“I’ll probably be clearing out some of debris to make room for things. Before you arrived, I was essentially using my blades to dig and then I just cleared out the debris,” Serotype explained.
“That will blunt your blades in a hurry.” The miner said with a small sigh, wondering if Serotype had any sort of backup weapon. He then began to move out of the lab and into the next room, slowly gathering up the rocks and mounds of dirt before taking the mess to the front of the cave where he dumped it outside. With that done he took pickaxe in hand and headed back to the chamber to start digging again.
“Usually, resharpening my blades is one of my other tasks I have to do at the end of each day. But I’m not a miner. I have to make do with the best I have.... with everything,”
said Serotype.
She got up and tried to help in clearing the debris.
League was a tad shocked that the femme was even bothering to help, but he wasn’t about to stop her from doing some real work for a change. Of course he knew she had dug most of this on her own and for the most part it was crap, but at least the cave managed to last without falling in on her. This tended to happen with bots who knew nothing about digging a good mine, though Seratype at least managed to get that part right. As he moved back to get a second load the mech mulled this over, muttering under his breath the entire time.
Serotype didn’t quite understand why League was deciding to help. Honestly, it had confused her. One moment, they’d be at each other’s throats and the next moment, they’d be helping each other. This wasn’t entirely unusual by Decepticon standards. However, League was an Autobot. It didn’t really make as much sense to her.
She moved debris outside of her new hideout and dumped it in piles. She paused for a moment to see the sun had been started in to set. Eventually, it would be nightfall and safe for travel. Serotype reminded herself that she would have to go back out to collect more energon at a nearby cave when League leaves for home. She never wanted to starve herself quite like that again.
Serotype came back inside to gather more debris.
“It will be safe for travel soon. There’s a few spots where you can call a groundbridge safely without being seen,” said Serotype.
“Bah, I don’t much care for safe.” The mech grumbled as he stepped outside of teh cave to stomp down the dirt mounds before covering them with sand. This was another helpful trick as some eagle-opticed bot was sure to spot the disturbed soil. Sand on the other hand always looked fluid and acted as the perfect mask. That done he turned back to the femme “If you think I’ve overstayed my welcome I’ll go...” League stated slowly before adding on “But I warn yah, if I don’t finish my digging now I’ll be forced to come back and get it done another time. I have never left a site unfinished before and I don’t aim to start now.”
“*I* care. I’ve been trying my hardest to keep this place out of sight. I don’t need it given away!” said Serotype.
She crossed her arms and fixed him with a slight glare.
“I never said you had out stayed your welcome. I’m just trying to keep us both from getting killed out here,” said Serotype.
League returned the glare with one of his own “It’s a war, risks will be taken.” he countered back as he mimicked Serotype and crossed his own arms. He wasn’t about to give a single inch, even if she was right in this case.
“ *REASONABLE* risks. Exposing me to my enemies is highly unreasonable and illogical unless you WANT me to be killed. Considering it’s you, that wouldn’t surprise me,” said Serotype.
“Also not my problem.” The mech stated as he continued to glare back and put on the little show of not really caring if the femme was found or not. “Your the resourceful neutral here, I’m sure you’ll find a way to wiggle out and survive.” This was perhaps the closest thing to a compliment League had or may ever the the ex-Decepticon.
“Yes and I’m sure you’ve already actually acquainted yourself with the Eradicons? Most of them *DO* fly. If you have a blaster, you’re entirely fine. But if you’re a ground-bound melee fighter, good luck at trying to knock them out of the air. Of course, if that was the case, I may have to bail you out just for the satisfaction of saying I-told-you-so,” said Serotype.
The mech just gave a dismissive vent at that “I have no blaster, I don’t need one and I’ve never needed one to crush Decepticons.” he stated in a rather gruff manner as he narrowed his optics at the femme.
“Fine. You can face the flyers by yourself. Just draw them away. You’re a big enough target anyways! Everyone can see you coming!” said Serotype.
“I will!” The mech growled before he turned and began to stomp towards the opening to the cave “Fragging femme, must have a cog up her tailpipe about even little thing, can’t even sweat a little scuffle...”
“And you can’t handle a little desert!” Serotype shouted after him.
Either League didn’t hear that parting shot or he decided to ignore it, whichever the moody submarine was already slogging through a few sand dunes. With a scanner on the sky, his ol’ paranoia was acting up something fierce as he headed to a good bridging location so he could join the rest of the Autobots.
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Serotype = Steele
League = Raven
IN TECHNICOLOUR
Once the heavy mech found himself walking about a massive wasteland of sand, he was in even less of a good mood. But he kept his scanners on max, looking for any sign of a Cybertronian signal, figuring that Serotype had cast off her Decepticon one and wouldn’t be likely to pick up that of an Autobot. This would make her all that much harder to find, however in spite of the pain in the aft League considered her, the flier was the only real verbal sparing partner he had found in quite some time. Enough to make tromping around an unforgiving pile of sand in the heat of day, but thankfully League was not one to give up easily.
Serotype’s “hole in the wall” was less of a hole and more of a cave she was working on. It took her forever to assemble the extra materials for what would be future walls and surfaces. That involved multiple trips to Jasper late at night to steal what she needed. But building what she wanted to in a cave was a lot harder than she had anticipated. It involved working with explosives to come up with larger caverns, clearing out the debris, and carving up the rest with her blades. It was when it came to working with her blades, there was only so much of that she could do before she had to take a break.
And that’s what she was up to currently.
Serotype sat on the floor with her blades placed beside her and her back up against the wall. She was, of course, covered in a fine covering of dust. She was tired of digging and took her break. She’d pick back up in about an hour.
There was nothing here, as far as the optic could scan there was just sand, sand, a few fading bushes and more sand. Some bots would go insane just living out in this blasted place, not a soul in sight, be they human, Cybertronian or even animal. League wasn’t too impressed with this place, there was open ground on all sides which made it hard for any bot to hide, much less a giant plodding submarine. There was also an issue with all the sand, it was starting to get everywhere, making the mech’s joints feel gritty and cogs rather itchy. Venting some air under his breath League added the sand to his list of growing complaints to take up with the femme when he managed to find her. But for now he could only silently brood until his sonar managed to pick up Serotype’s signal, if he was even going in the right direction...
There was the sound of something outside. Footsteps. Quietly, Serotype got up and reattached her blades. Her arms still felt like jello to her. But what if there was an enemy near by. Cautiously, she kept to the shadows until she was at the mouth of the cave. Glancing out side she could see...
Primus....
It was that sub-bot again! Only this time, he was looking rather lost? What was he up to? Although, she knew that he wasn’t going to do much harm except for trading insults. For all she knew, the Autobots might have needed her again and this was who they sent. Sensing no threat, she stepped out of her cave.
“Looking for someone?” she called out.
The mech was starting to think he was mistaken in where the ground-bridge had sent the annoying Seeker-Spawn. He paused for a moment to once more scan about, but just as he was starting to think about going back he felt a sudden ping on his sensors. After hearing a shout, League turned his optics towards a small rock formation, low and behold the very thing he was seeking had emerged from a hole and was now shouting at the massive bot.
“There you are! Fragging rotor-afted sand collector!” League’s bellowed out before picking up a little speed and marching towards the femme standing by what had to of been her hide out. It was fairly well hidden as it blended in with everything else in this Primus forsaken landscape.
It didn’t take all that long for League to reach her and went he dig the mech vented out a cloud of sand in a motion similar to a human hacking up something lodged in their throat. Then with a shake of his head, League placed his cool opticed glare on Serotype and crossed her arms in an annoyed fashion.
“Well, aren’t you going to invite your guest in? Ruddy Decepticons...even their switchers have no sense of manners.”
"A little far from the ocean, hm? Your sense of direction is terrible," said Serotype.
She moved out of the way and gestured for League to enter.
"I take it Optimus Prime sent you?" asked Serotype.
“No he slagging did not! I came to make sure a certain little switcher wasn’t selling Autobot secrets.” At least that was what the miner said he was here for, but in reality he just wanted to fight with her again and see if she was any better now that the femme was back at full health. League had a nasty habit of testing bots, combined with his love of arguing, it could make him quite the pain to deal with. Though Serotype had showed that even in a weakened state so could she.
With a grunt the mech entered the little cave and glanced about “Primus...a first year miner could have done better then this...” he grumbled as his trained optics spotted a few fault-lines that would need to be braced and just poor construction in general.
“Oh! My apologies for going off to pursue a career in medicine instead of doing nothing and choosing to become a miner,” said Serotype in a tone that was dripping with sarcasm.
Admittedly, she knew very little about mining or construction in a cave. Actually, this was her first attempt at it.
“Besides, I have no plans or inclinations to align myself with my old faction. I much rather prefer to stay alive,” said Serotype.
“Would have made a real femme out of you. Pity.” The mech couldn’t help but think that Serotype would have made a fine miner, though it wasn’t like she could suddenly change herself after all this time.
“That’s what i was talking about. A bot will say anything to save their aft.” League grumbled as he placed his servos on his hips and glanced about, still scanning over the shoddy workmanship on the cave. Then with a huff he brought out his pickaxe and moved towards the nearest wall, giving it a short tap. “Fraggit all! I could carve a better cave in my sleep, with one hand tied behind my back and my pickaxe replaced by a half broken tree branch!”
“I could tie your hand behind your back and give you a half broken tree branch,” said Serotype, “We can see how well you’d actually fair.”
She looked over at the walls she had been working on.
“I was trying to produce enough of an area for a new lab,” said Serotype.
“Not even enough sense to look up how...even these humans have some idea of how to mine.” League growled as he inspected the femme’s latest attempts to carve out a new camber for herself. Then without being asked or even offering his help, League swung his pick back and smashed it against the rock, chipping off a great section before pulling it back again and setting to work. In short order he had enlarged the chamber by a few feet and showed no sign of tiring or stopping.
Serotype watched. She seemed a little confused as to what League was doing. Why was he helping her. Was he trying to prove some kind of point? At least she could have some sort of reprieve. He seemed to go at it like a tank.
“I didn’t expect that I’d be trying to manufacture a home out of a cave,” Serotype growled, “matter of fact, I didn’t expect YOU to show up either.”
She took a seat down on a near by boulder and tried to dust herself off. She would really have to clean herself up later. She let silence pass between them for a few beats.
“Things ARE okay back at the Autobot base, are they not?” she asked.
League could hear her just fine, but he waited until getting a few more feet of room before pausing in his hammering to answer. “Things are just peachy at the base. Prime is a stoic bugger, Vel, Ratchet and Jazz are slaggers, Bee and Blue are always places they shouldn’t be. Peachy...” With that the mech went back to work, putting his weight into some of these next blows as the stone he encountered became a bit more compact and harder to deal with. But the result was the same. In such a short time League was close to doubling the space for Serotype and he was completely covered in dust for his trouble.
Ratchet, she could understand as a slagger. Jazz and Velocity, well... then again, this was League’s opinion of them and that was entirely subjective. She watched him wondering how much bigger he was actually planning to dig this room.
“Look. You’ve proven your point. I think this room is big enough for a lab,” said Serotype.
League paused once more, scratching his chin before flipping his pickaxe to the sie and using the flat of the tool to scrape and grind away any chunks or bots of rock hanging out from the wall. he only stopped when it was extremely smooth to the touch, then he turned about and leaned on the pick like it was some sort of cane. “Point? What point? Your a half slagged moronic scientist who knows nothing about digging, if you were half as smart as you claim you would let a bot who knows what he’s doing get some work done.”
“Key word is *SCIENTIST.* I don’t typically DIG things out. I would think even you would have figured out that one by now,” said Serotype, “But since you think your so perfect then fine. You can go slag yourself at this since you seem to enjoy the dirt so much.”
“Well miss smart-chips. If you were as bright then why do you need a know-nothing processor like like myself?” The bot shouted this out as he began to make a hallway leading into another room which he quickly began to hollow out, making it nearly as large as Serotype’s lab before he stopped in his digging to smooth out the walls and check over his work for any flaws.
“You just invited yourself over, remember?” said Serotype following him in to the next room, “first, I saw you you were looking rather lost in the desert.
She went over to a pile of sheet metal and picked up one of the thinner sheets. She started to try and bend it in to a small table.
“Besides, there’s Eradicons out there, You wandering on your own would make you a walking target and they would subsequently find me as well!” said Serotype.
League turned about to see that the femme was just as mouthy as ever, though now it looked like she was trying to bend some sheet metal. The mech was extremely tempted to just stand there and watch her while shaking his head, basically being his normal slagger self, but that last sentence was aimed at his protection, even if she was more worried about herself. He figured that it should be worth something.
With a vented sigh League stomped over to the femme and knelt down beside her. He didn’t try to take over, instead just adding his strength and bending the metal ever so slightly to give Serotype a crease to fold along and make her task just a little easier. “Fine. Then I’m going to need some busy-work to keep from going nuts in this dust-bowl.”
With the extra help, the metal bent with ease. She stopped when she felt the crease was right and moved on to the next corner.
“If busy work is what you’re interested in I had originally planned for three rooms - my lab, a standard main living area, and a small meditation room. I also need to construct much of my equipment for my lab plus living. There’s a *lot* to do,” said Serotype.
League raised an optic ridge at that “Femme, I used to do three times that every day, nonstop for weeks on end. What you consider a ‘lot’ of work is nothing compared to what most non-brainy bots do. Spoiled Fly-Brat.” for some reason or another he felt that it was time to once more complain at Serotype, though it had only been a short time since their last verbal brawl.
“You have NO IDEA what I do, glitchwit. I do not sit around and bang rocks together like you do. I do far more sophisticated things like actually coming up with things that are actually useful to others. You just play in the dirt!” Serotype growled.
“And all you do is sit on your aft and stare at things.” League countered as he crossed his arms and shot the femme a hearty glare. “I move tons on tons of rock, dirt, soil and then drag energon crystals up from the depths to be refined. So please, tell me how your job is so much harder then mine, I would love to see that.” As he spoke the mech set his optics on Serotype, tapping his fingers against one of the heavy metal plates that made up his arm.
“I “sit on my aft” and make calculations and advancements. Actual things that are worth while. I doubt you’d even be able to figure out higher mathematics! That’s something that actually takes *processing power!* You and your wide aft just spend your day lumbering around in tunnels,” said Serotype crossing her arms.
League uncrossed his arms and then raised a hand up to take something out of his shoulder, a torpedo shaped detonation charge, and then held it out to the femme. “Now tell me, on the room I just dug out, can you locate the correct fault-line, where on that fault line to place the charge, how much time you need to program the charge or and the right dosage of explosives to use.” League was tired of her belittling his job and was now offering Serotype a little challenge.
Serotype took the explosive. Not that she hadn’t seen explosive before. She did smuggle a few in to her old Life Unit and she knew about setting timers. But she knew very little about faultlines. This was going to end up a fair bit of guessing. Not to be out done, she pulled out her datapad from her subspace and lined up a bunch of complex complex formulas and mathematical equations. She held it out to League.
“I accept your challenge if you accept mine. Lets see how you fair against what I have lined up for you on my datapad,” said Serotype.
The mech growled at that before taking the datapad up in his massive servos. It all looked like gibberish to him, at most he could spot a few numbers and work his way up from there, but he didn’t seem to be making much headway. In spite of his inability to fully grasp what he was looking at, League refused to give up.
Serotype got up and started looking. Essentially, she knew HOW to make something explode. But her destruction didn’t have the same sort of creativity that League had in mind. She hovered up towards the celing trying to logic out where the detonator was supposed to go. He didn’t really expect her to actually set this thing, did he? She looked over her shoulders at him.
“Not so easy, is it?” she said.
“I don’t see you doing much better.” He shot back as the mech began to lean his back against the nearest wall. League scratched his chin as he looked back over the datapad, still not really getting anywhere with it.
Serotype wasn’t doing much better either. She knew very well how to explode stuff. Afterall, that was exactly what she had did to her lab on the Nemesis in her explosive farewell. But to find some kind of fault was difficult. She found herself occasionally pausing and staring at ceiling.
“I’ve detonated things before. I know how these things work!” Serotype shot back.
Well... just not in the way that League was thinking of.
With a grunt the miner set the datapad down on a near by table before walking up behind Serotype who seemed to be getting increasingly more frustrated. “Well? Then go ahead and plant the charge. I was going to do it to help start the hallway to the next room, but since you think my job is so simple why don’t you locate just the right spot to plant the bomb and then we will dodge back to your lab and wait for it to go off...if you know what your doing.”
Serotype turned around looking at League as though he had sprouted a second head.
“Are you absolutely crazy? At least what I gave you won’t automatically kill you unless you actually put it together!” said Serotype.
“If you know what your doing everything should be fine.” He stated as he crossed his arms and stared right at the femme. “Now, wouldn’t you like to prove me wrong?” He asked in a taunting tone with a certain smug smile on the mech’s face-plate, perhaps the first real smile he used while near Sterotype.
Serotype scowled at him.
“If I didn’t think it would kill us, I would. Unless that was actually your intent,” said Serotype.
League unwrapped his arms before reaching out and swiped the bomb from her before sticking it to the wall directly on the fault-line. Then he punched in something on the pad before beginning to walk towards the lab “Better get to the next room or else you’ll have a few new dents!”
Serotype took herself out of a hover and dropped to the ground. She picked up her datapad and kept pace with League making her way to her eventual lab. Once there, she couldn’t help glancing out the door waiting for the loud bang to happen.
League paused and waited for a moment before there was a muffled explosion, luckily League had dialed it back a bit from it’s original destructiveness. The miner then made the slow march back into a wave of dust, though it seemed to be clearing out quickly enough. Once it did it was easy to see that the entire wall was cracked, though the rest of teh room was untouched, save for the dust. The big mech turned about and looked back at Serotype “See?”
Dust still hung in the air as she walked back with him. He seemed rather proud of himself. She rolled her eyes at him before looking down at her datapad. It would have appeared that League had made next to no progress on deciphering her formulas.
“For someone who claims to love exploding things, you certainly cannot recognize a formula for a chemical explosive when you see one,” said Serotype.
This swiftly stole away the mech’s good mood as he stared back at the femme “So?” he asked defensively. While the idea of a chemical based explosive was nice, it also meant he was unable to make it, unlike the sorts he normally carried.
“What that means exactly is that without science or scientists working on new advances, you wouldn’t have any explosives. The one I had just showed you was a powerful one. Although, since you can’t read the formula, no nice new explosives for you to play with, dirt-pusher,” said Serotype.
“And who do you think funds that or makes sure you have enough slag to play with? I work, you just piss around until something works!” The mech snapped back, not at all happy with Serotype’s newest attack on his person.
“At the very least I wasn’t out to kill you with my challenge. You were attempting to turn me in to a crater!” growled Serotype.
She put her datapad back in to her supspace, crossed her arms and looked him directly in the optics.
“The things I work on don’t kill you unless you build it and implement it!” said Serotype.
League growled back as he made a heavy vent as he glared back “That explosion would have barely dented your armor, pirss-copyter! If you were as smart as you claim and if my job is as easy as you say, then you should have had no problem using that charge!” he didn’t even try to bother with how strange her job was, at least not when he could keep giving her hell over something he knew about.
“And if you actually though my job was easy, you’d have that formula sorted out and ready for use! You also should have no problems with it since it was easy to follow! Even a first year could have figured it out!” Serotype snapped.
“Likewise.” Was all League countered with, though he knew better, a bot would need training in either of their fields to make any headway. But in this fight Sterotype nor League would back down from this, not until someone admitted they were wrong, which would never happen.
Rather than admitting she was wrong, Serotype glared at him for a moment longer before letting it go. This argument would have gone no where. Instead, she picked up another piece of sheet metal and started to bend it. She was going to make a work surface for her lab.
“As long as you’re here, I do have rations available. It’s going to be some time before nightfall. When it’s dark, it will be far safer to travel. They won’t be able to see you as well. Especially if you’re covered in rock dust,” said Serotype.
League watched her for a time before slowly walking over to Serotype and once more creating a crease in the metal. “Yeah...I’m good on energon.” The mech muttered before adding “I would rather have some good high-grade, feels like one of those days. I have some stashed back at base.” he wasn’t going to offer her any, Serotype would have to do a lot of aft-kissing to get into League’s personal stash, but he wouldn’t take any of her’s either.
“That’s fine. Suit yourself,” said Serotype.
With the extra help, she was able to get the metal in to the shape she wanted.
“When you wondered if I was actually trading military secrets.... I have no interest in my old faction any more. If anything, my interactions with them would certainly mean my demise. I really have no interest in becoming anyone’s information dealer,” said Serotype.
The Autobot listened as he helped out with the sheet metal, the repetitive work proved very productive for letting one’s mind wander. “I know...” He said after a time “You would have better equipment then some slag cobbled together from human tech.” though in admitting this he had left the whole reason for his visit to suspect.
“Yes. But what good is it if I never really felt safe around who I was working with? I just have to get used to this. In the long run, this is far better for my health. I can deal with this,” said Serotype.
This was starting to remind League of something, vorns ago when he used to be on a pit of a mining world, a mesh of desperate bots all clawing for every scrap they could get. If possible the mech felt that he could understand Serotype’s paranoia and was perhaps one of the few that could. “Such things can make a bot go crazy...” He commented in a deathly calm tone, the mech’s optics on his servos as they worked.
“That I can agree on. Combined with desperation, it can make anyone do crazy things,” said Serotype.
Yeah. she could remember how desperate she was in trying to keep away from her enemies. So much so that she turned up at the Autobot base tired and nearly starved to death. It took her some time before she had a clean bill of health again. She recalled those days in the desert very well. She was always trying to keep ahead of any Decepitcon who may have been out looking for her that day. Only to have gotten lost repeatedly.
“Not exactly what I had planned on happening since arriving on this planet, albeit *accidentally* landing on this planet,” said Serotype.
“Humans have an odd saying, I believe it goes like this: ‘The best laid plans of mice and men.’” The mech stated as he vented out a little extra air in a sigh “It roughly means no matter how hard you try, you can’t account for everything.” and with that League fell silent once more.
“Interesting expression. I cannot claim to have heard it,” said Serotype.
He was right, though. Being in her current situation was the last thing that she had expected. Matter of fact, prior to Optimus letting her go, she was expecting to remain incarcerated. But that never happened. Everything had been a series of unlikely occurrences.
She looked over the metal surfaces that she and League teamed up to bend in to shape. In the time they were either talking or thinking, they had managed to have create quite a few.
“I think we have enough of these. Most of them will be in the lab,” said Serotype.
The sub gave a short grumble “I blame Bumblebee and Bluesteak. They always have some human program or another on, it’s hard to avoid it all together.” as League spoke he stood back and scanned the sheets the two of them bent while working together. He then turned his gaze back to the strange copter-bot who he now found himself standing beside “So...any other chores to do or will I just go back to digging out a few more chambers?”
Serotype thought for a moment. They had some new surfaces bent. She took a moment to stretch her arms. She had been going at this building and fabrication thing for most of the day. They were staring to feel a little stiff. Once again, she’d have to dope herself up on pain killers.
“I’ll probably be clearing out some of debris to make room for things. Before you arrived, I was essentially using my blades to dig and then I just cleared out the debris,” Serotype explained.
“That will blunt your blades in a hurry.” The miner said with a small sigh, wondering if Serotype had any sort of backup weapon. He then began to move out of the lab and into the next room, slowly gathering up the rocks and mounds of dirt before taking the mess to the front of the cave where he dumped it outside. With that done he took pickaxe in hand and headed back to the chamber to start digging again.
“Usually, resharpening my blades is one of my other tasks I have to do at the end of each day. But I’m not a miner. I have to make do with the best I have.... with everything,”
said Serotype.
She got up and tried to help in clearing the debris.
League was a tad shocked that the femme was even bothering to help, but he wasn’t about to stop her from doing some real work for a change. Of course he knew she had dug most of this on her own and for the most part it was crap, but at least the cave managed to last without falling in on her. This tended to happen with bots who knew nothing about digging a good mine, though Seratype at least managed to get that part right. As he moved back to get a second load the mech mulled this over, muttering under his breath the entire time.
Serotype didn’t quite understand why League was deciding to help. Honestly, it had confused her. One moment, they’d be at each other’s throats and the next moment, they’d be helping each other. This wasn’t entirely unusual by Decepticon standards. However, League was an Autobot. It didn’t really make as much sense to her.
She moved debris outside of her new hideout and dumped it in piles. She paused for a moment to see the sun had been started in to set. Eventually, it would be nightfall and safe for travel. Serotype reminded herself that she would have to go back out to collect more energon at a nearby cave when League leaves for home. She never wanted to starve herself quite like that again.
Serotype came back inside to gather more debris.
“It will be safe for travel soon. There’s a few spots where you can call a groundbridge safely without being seen,” said Serotype.
“Bah, I don’t much care for safe.” The mech grumbled as he stepped outside of teh cave to stomp down the dirt mounds before covering them with sand. This was another helpful trick as some eagle-opticed bot was sure to spot the disturbed soil. Sand on the other hand always looked fluid and acted as the perfect mask. That done he turned back to the femme “If you think I’ve overstayed my welcome I’ll go...” League stated slowly before adding on “But I warn yah, if I don’t finish my digging now I’ll be forced to come back and get it done another time. I have never left a site unfinished before and I don’t aim to start now.”
“*I* care. I’ve been trying my hardest to keep this place out of sight. I don’t need it given away!” said Serotype.
She crossed her arms and fixed him with a slight glare.
“I never said you had out stayed your welcome. I’m just trying to keep us both from getting killed out here,” said Serotype.
League returned the glare with one of his own “It’s a war, risks will be taken.” he countered back as he mimicked Serotype and crossed his own arms. He wasn’t about to give a single inch, even if she was right in this case.
“ *REASONABLE* risks. Exposing me to my enemies is highly unreasonable and illogical unless you WANT me to be killed. Considering it’s you, that wouldn’t surprise me,” said Serotype.
“Also not my problem.” The mech stated as he continued to glare back and put on the little show of not really caring if the femme was found or not. “Your the resourceful neutral here, I’m sure you’ll find a way to wiggle out and survive.” This was perhaps the closest thing to a compliment League had or may ever the the ex-Decepticon.
“Yes and I’m sure you’ve already actually acquainted yourself with the Eradicons? Most of them *DO* fly. If you have a blaster, you’re entirely fine. But if you’re a ground-bound melee fighter, good luck at trying to knock them out of the air. Of course, if that was the case, I may have to bail you out just for the satisfaction of saying I-told-you-so,” said Serotype.
The mech just gave a dismissive vent at that “I have no blaster, I don’t need one and I’ve never needed one to crush Decepticons.” he stated in a rather gruff manner as he narrowed his optics at the femme.
“Fine. You can face the flyers by yourself. Just draw them away. You’re a big enough target anyways! Everyone can see you coming!” said Serotype.
“I will!” The mech growled before he turned and began to stomp towards the opening to the cave “Fragging femme, must have a cog up her tailpipe about even little thing, can’t even sweat a little scuffle...”
“And you can’t handle a little desert!” Serotype shouted after him.
Either League didn’t hear that parting shot or he decided to ignore it, whichever the moody submarine was already slogging through a few sand dunes. With a scanner on the sky, his ol’ paranoia was acting up something fierce as he headed to a good bridging location so he could join the rest of the Autobots.
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Serotype = Steele
League = Raven
IN TECHNICOLOUR