Ep 2 - Buyer Beware (open!)

[Deleted]

Setting: Somewhere southwest.
Time: End of week one. (will elaborate further)
Place: Welker's Storage Lot

"Repeat that again and slower," Thana ordered into the phone. Her irritation nearly bit the last word of the sentence in half. Across the line she could feel the hesitation from the poor smuck that had drawn the short straw in delivering this message to the firing line. If their voice had been timid before, it was downright meek the second time around.

"We have a situation. One of the personnel that was killed in action had what appears to be a storage unit separate from MECH facilities. There was no way we could have known about the unit," the voice hastily assured the agent. "Completely off the books and part of their former services before they were recruited. Intel found out today when an outdated notice was delivered to his email. Someone, by the grace of God, checked his-"

"Get. to. the. point," Thana hissed out. Her fingers curled tighter around the company cell, threatening to crack the case. Fortunately for MECH, Silas had been thoughtful enough to include otter cases to protect the rather breakable tech. Agent Odile had yet to break her phone through sheer rage and it wasn't from lack of trying.

"It's being auctioned off in two hours!" the voice squeaked out. She would have no way of knowing that the agent on the other end of the line had folded their legs up partially in the chair. Why did he have to pick the short straw, oh why?? "You're the closest personnel in the area that can make the cut off time. It's too late to stop the delinquent status but you can try to win the lot back through the auction! .......Um, hopefully, ma'am."

Thana took the time to rub at the space between her eyes where a sore headache wanted to bloom. She fought the sour urge with ferocious tenacity. She didn't have time to lay in sick, not when stupidity was ruling the day. With a long sight through her nose, she readjusted the receiver to her ear.

"Tell me that address again..."

-

From her hotel, the trip to the storage lot should have taken two and a half hours. With questionable intel and tech, Thana made it through four speed traps in an hour and forty-five minutes. While she was a stickler for rules and regulations, she also considered herself well above the plebeians who had to follow such terms. There were those who rules and those who followed. And then there were those, like her, who paved the way for rulers and followers.

At the hotel, she'd left her room a wreck in her haste to get dressed in more civil attire. This short furlough hadn't provided her with a plethora of wardrobe materials. Thankfully, she had kept her mother's advice to always have one nice suit on stand by should an emergency call for it. Her mother's idea of "Sunday best" had been a gingham dress and comb combo. Thana's tastes were more...selective and refined. In the trunk of her rental, she had a pressed suit waiting for her. Softening the harsh lines of her face with pastel makeup that brought color to her cheeks and eyes, she was on the road in minutes after the phone call. She merely pinned her hair back from her face with a clip.

The parking lot to the storage unit left much to be desired and she parked at the far end away from the entrance. She had to walk at a faster pace to reach the milling crowd of low-life's but she wasn't about to risk the rental being scraped by some backyard hick in a jacked up truck searching for urban treasure. Luckily she didn't have to waste her time registering for a bidding right, as the intel had at least provided that for her. Which saved the messenger some wrath.

Taking her place away from the lot of people, she brushed a strand of hair from her face and eyed the crowd anxiously eying the sealed unit with a cool gaze. It was...difficult not to show her usual disdain for everything breathing and not. But she dialed back the attitude and strove to put on her "game face." While she wasn't openly friendly, her demeanor shifted to a more open stance and she slid the sunglasses to rest on top of her head, further pinning her hair back. Worry lines relaxed from her forehead and she shuffled from one foot to the other, checking the time as if slightly worried.

[Deleted]

"Can I have some money?"

Fairwind's head appeared over the edge of her carrier's desk, beak resting on the dull metal. She watched Megatron continue to read for a few seconds, then re-positioned her feet around the table leg to shuffle higher. "Dollars, specifically."

"I don't have dollars," Megatron replied without looking up, his voice distracted as he concentrated. "You can get your own dollars. Like everyone else, you can wire yourself wealthy in seconds."

"Yeah, but I'm also asking you to ask me why I want money."

Finally Megatron looked up from the datapad. Fairwinds beamed back at him. He put the datatpad down and gave her his full attention. "Why do you want money?"

"Well, see, Soundwave gets all this data, yeah?" Fairwinds chattered, clambering up over the edge of the desk to stand in front of her master's fist. "And, super as he is as processing data, he can't process it all super fast, so he sorts it into different tiers of potential relevance and importance and then delegates off the the bottom rung stuff to the Eradicons and the second-to-bottom to-"

"I am aware that Soundwave gives you work to do," Megatron cut in. His optics narrowed, patience beginning to wane. "Get to the point."

"Well, see, we run facial recognition from the field, and DNA off of the mashed bits of MECH squishies that get squished in our sharp bits, to build a profile of what military departments these guys are being funneled from." Fairwinds began pacing the short walk across the array of pads to Megatron's other fist, her helm crests flicking andswaying. "And to see if they're all related like the Westborough Baptist Church, which like, whoa, Overlord woulda raised an eyebrow at."

"Fairwinds..."

She abandoned the tangent at his stern tone, though wasn't especially bothered by it. "Some mashed bits led to a social security number which lead to an address which lead to some credit cards, which lead to a storage locker-"

"Fairwinds."

Fairwinds hopped to stand directly before her Commander, presenting herself to him. "A bunch of MECH stuff is being sold off totally legally and I wanna buy it! There could be some really useful stuff in there!" A gasp, chest plates swelling as her optics brightened. "Or a treasure map..."

Megatron stared at the little cassette for a full ten seconds, overlooking her last remark. What she proposed, whilst unorthodox in delivery, was potentially valuable and bore relatively few risks. If the contents of the storage locker could yield anything tactically valuable, or give any further insight into the organisation, then it was a lead worth pursuing.

"Go ahead," Megatron rumbled, holding Fairwinds' stare to keep her attention. She was easily distracted in the seconds immediately following permission. "Buy the contents of the storage locker, make a preliminary investigation and return with anything relevant to MECH."

Fairwinds bounced, nodding vigorously. "Yes Lord Megatron!" she trilled, hopping about-face on the desk and spreading her wings.

Megatron picked up the report he'd been reading as he watched her go, and sent a short notification of Fairwinds' 'mission' to Soundwave.

If nothing else it would keep the cassette semi-constructively occupied for a few hours.


****


Fairwinds could have circled high overhead and projected her avatar remotely, but knew that if she got too excited, her holo had a tendency to flicker. Thus, she has herself bridged into an empty warehouse overlooking the parking lot, perched up in the rafters, smashed a hole in a window to watch through and sent her holo out the door.

The Decepticon cassette was adept at surveillance and long-range recon missions. She could, despite her fidgety and childish nature, remain still and watchful for days when needed; and blend in with her surroundings. Fairwinds had watched enough 'Storage Wars' to know that her default avatar was too young in appearance to be present and not suspicious at an auction like this. There hadn't been a great deal of time between finding out about the MECH agent's locker and the start of the auction, so she'd thrown together an avatar of Bette Midler in a purple trilby hat, black trouser suit and a purple silk shirt.

The stiletto heels of her hardlight projection clacked across the asphalt parking lot. Fairwinds wasn't so into the role of buddying up with the amassed humans, but knew that standing around as a loner would draw attention to herself. So in the interests of blending in (and gaining some insight into her competition), Fairwinds came to stand alongside the smartly dressed female whom also seemed to be lurking.

She tried to put her hands in her pockets to project an aura of casual-casualness, found that she hadn't coded pockets, and settled for resting her hands on her hips instead. Fairwinds drew in a synthesized breath through her nose, looking out upon the scene with brewing anticipation.

"Fine day to buy some stuff, dontchya think?" she remarked, flashing the brunette a winning smile.

[Deleted]

Thana thought she had the crowd figured out. It wasn't too hard. This wasn't exactly FBI's best milling about the gravel lot. There was the usual draw of 'treasure hunters', antiquities dealers with their eccentric quirks, and a few token idiots passing their day with an auction. Psychological profiling was best left to professionals, but Thana liked to take a stab at it while idling away her free time. She'd never be recruited by any respectable agency for that talent, but she was no slouch at being aware of the average knucklehead in front of her.

The woman that sidled up beside her, however, derailed her easy to organize thoughts. Thana glanced over, for all the world looking like she was bored and that the heat was making her sleepy. But inside, that mind of hers was already taking note of the woman's build, type of clothing, the way she held herself, and the lilt in which she spoke. All subtle clues that led to a bigger picture of a person. The outfit was sharp and professional, but the bright shirt suggested a whimsical side that wasn't squashed out by a desk job. The hat boasted of a love for style and accessories. However, Thana was further distracted by how much the woman resembled a certain actress. It was uncanny...

...certainly not.

"Mmn, I guess. Don't usually go to these sort of things," she drawled out, thickening her naturally southern accent like warm honey. She almost said more, but held her tongue. There was an art to conversation that Thana just...didn't have. She was a very stoic individual and bantering didn't come natural to her. Perhaps it was from spending most of her time issuing hard orders that eroded any subtleties away.

[Deleted]

The Bette Midler holo smiled, amused, and folded her arms across her chest.

"Really? They're a lot of fun."

Fairwinds eyed the human, scanning her with the avatar from scalp to toes. Human females, she'd observed, did this to one another within the first minute of meeting. It also served to establish a confident position from which to continue socialising from. She hadn't missed the glance - no doubt assessing her as a tangible Storage Wars veteran and legitimate purchasing threat.

Unfortunately, Fairwinds wasn't particularly adept at 'reading' humans. Abnormal behaviour and underlying motivation were pretty straightforward to extrapolate with enough observational data, but this woman was giving very little away. Really it only mattered so far as outbidding her, and it was unlikely she'd be able to glean anything of significant tactical advantage before the action began.

Unless she expressed a specific phobia that would have her running out of her heels. Fairwinds wasn't above throwing spiders.

They should bond.

She stuck out her right hand, arm ramrod straight and thumb pulled to a right angle with her palm.

"Winona."

There were thick silver rings adorning every single one of her fingers, embellished with purple crystals. Rather like knuckle dusters.

[Deleted]

Unfortunately, it would be rude for Thana to slide the sunglasses back down to rest across her eyes. Her migraine, always lingering in the background like a shade ready to stretch with the barest hint of light, waited. She could feel the onset of it pulling around her eyes and tightening across her temple. She forced her hand to stay by her side and not rub at the skin in a feeble attempt to thwart the pain. Migraines were irritating, but she wasn't going to show any signs of weakness to the milling competitors.

The offered hand in front of her was a good a distraction as any and she slipped her callused hand across the palm giving a surprisingly strong grip. Her father, a product of his times indeed, had always instilled upon her the importance of a sure grip to impress upon a stranger some mysterious dominance. Thana had never felt a handshake would be the precursor to finding the mettle of anyone but the lesson had, irritatingly, stuck with her.

"Thana." She was about to pull her hand away before she noticed the rings and gently angled the grip to study the rings. "Those stones...are they amethyst? I only ask because my mother's birth stones are the same kind." Which wasn't a lie. Her mother did have some sort of purple stone for her birthday. However, the rings were lovely and the magpie for all things expensive and shiny rose up in Thana with a passion.

[Deleted]

Fairwinds withdrew her hand with a smile, then held it up to admire the rings adorning her splayed fingers. In actuality, she was worried that Thana would ask her to take one off to examine in, and hardlight holoprojection across two images, one of which was being handled, was astronomically difficult.

Doubtless the ring would have immediately sunk into Thana's palm, her impeccable backstory would get rumbled, and she'd have to make a head-shot across the parking lot with her laser and deal with the body before anyone noticed.

"Amethyst, yes," she agreed, because agreeing with people made them like you. "I just love sparkly things. I'm hoping there'll be some jewelry in this lot, tucked up in a bureau drawer, or sellotaped to the inside of a motorcycle gas tank all Easy Rider."

'Winona' looked back to Thana with her hand still raised, the fingers curling into a fist before she dropped her arm back to her side, not breaking the stare. A blink and she'd uploaded an image to the Nemesis database for a quick search.

No harm in checking out the opposition.

"How many do you think'll be out today?" Fairwinds asked, cocking her head to one side. For all she knew, Thana wasn't going to be the bidder to worry about. Not that Lord Megatron's personal and most awesome cassette had anything to worry about given that her bank account was bottomless.

[Deleted]

She wouldn't dare ask for the ring. Her mother, hard working woman that she was, had gifted Thana the allure of prettier things. The older woman loved rings and costume jewelry and kept a large box full of the shiny stones in gaudy settings that her daughter had always envied. But the working woman's lifestyle had caused her fingers to swell and rings were hard to work off. Which cause no small amount of embarrassment that had impressed itself on Thana.

Not that she cared about this woman before her. Far from it. But an embarrassed potential rival was a ruthless rival in the making. She didn't want to make the bidding war more than she had to.

"Hm..I doubt there will be jewelry hidden in the lot. A man owned the space." The corner of her mouth twitched as she mentally turned over that small slip. Had she over played her hand by letting too much information go? Perhaps she should let more go. Maybe the older woman would lose interest. "I heard he was a tech geek."

[Deleted]

Fairwinds' childishness was the direct result of her (willingly) throttled processor. her personality matrix had never matured, leaving her wildly tempered, frequently impatient and fundamentally selfish. Intelligence, experience and skill were quite separate from her emotional intelligence, however, and the impression she made of being as stunted as a youngling was carefully (and maliciously) cultivated.

Her throttled bird-bot guise was comprehensive, and she was rarely taken seriously by anyone but those who knew and understood and tangled strings of her mind.

It was beneficial to be overlooked in plain sight as well as in hiding. Fairwinds was perpetually primed for intelligence gathering, and took whatever she could get. On board the Nemesis, it was gossip and which was Starscream's loyalty was blowing that week. In the field, right now, the spinning gyros of Fairwinds' mind turned together towards a single point of interest at the sniff of intelligence.

"Oh did you now?" she asked, the finely shaped arches of her eyebrows lurching upwards.

Fairwinds knew that Squishy McDeadmeat was a 'tech geek' because she knew he'd been a MECH agent, and those guys were all about the tech. Unbidden, the pricking sensation of wires and needles in her brain crawled up her brackstrut. She shook it off, holding the hologram still and smug.

'Winona' folded her arms up tight beneath her breasts, a post that had weasled her holographic-self out of trouble in the past. She had no intelligence on which way Thana's inclinations went, but it was a low-risk and potentially beneficial tactic.

"What little bird told you that?" she asked, studying pupil dilation, respiration rate and how much the woman's nostrils flared. She cocked her hip, biting her thumbnail thoughtfully. "I thought I had the inside scoop on this being a recently deceased tech nerd's locker, but clearly you've done your homework."

Which meant that Thana was more than casually interested in this lot, and was doing to fight for it.

Tough luck, buttercup. You're going down.

She smiled sweetly, flashing perfect white teeth. "I thought you didn't do this kind of thing much."

[Deleted]

She wasn't cut out for this, she decided. Thana hated social settings. Sure, she was a hell of an actress and could probably pass a lie detector test with blind colors all while lying through her teeth. But she didn't enjoy it. She found this back and forth banal and a waste of her time. It became a struggle to stay interested in the verbal spar (if that's what it was) as they spoke. Mostly because she wanted this over with so she could get back to what she had planned earlier.

"I knew the deceased. Morbid, I'm sure, me being here to pick over this things in such a way. But that is the world for you. Time doesn't stop on account of one death." She snorted as if amused by the thought.

And she wasn't outright lying. She had worked with the dead man but if asked his name or what he looked like, she'd not be able to say. Most of the grunts in MECH were nameless to her unless she needed to scream at them for something stupid. The only few she was familiar with was the team she'd been given by Silas. As much as they regretted it, she was sure.

[Deleted]

The Bette Midler lookalike flapped her hand with a light, dismissive chuckle. "Oh absolutely. What's morbid about scavenging about the material remains of the recentlt deceased?" A short laugh that bordered on a cackle. "It ain't like he's gonna be using them anymore!"

Fairwinds settled back in her physical form, crests twitching thoughtfully. She ran a quick scan through the holo, recording Thana's dimensions to supplement her image files.

MECH was an uber-secret organisation operating in regimented cells, all under the directive of the central overseer and figurehead, Silas. Tightly controlled as they ere, as evidenced by Soundwave himself still struggling to get a good bead on their network, Fairwinds doubted that they were completely insulated from the outside world.

Unless they were like Dr. Okun and co. in 'Independence Day; and had government-issue bread rolls and toilet seats supplied to them in-house so that they never left the compound and thus never socialised with nosy-nosy civilians. But that was unlikely, she decided, because that movie was stupid. Gloriously destructive, but stupid.

The crux of the thought process circumnavigating about the cassette's brain module was that Thana could have been Agent McDead's squash partner or a fellow MECH operative. Or, most valuable of all: Silas him/herself.

Fairwinds twisted the holo's thumb and forefinger around one of the large crystals adorning her hand. She arranged the squishy bits of her humanoid face into sympathetic convern.

"I'm sorry for your loss," she said, because she'd watched enough television to know that you were supposed to say that even if you blatantly weren't. Then, gently:" How did you know the deceased?"

[Deleted]

Thana was very tempted to chuckle at the flippant attitude. Shock and horror from the plebeian society as a whole grew tedious. This nonsense about honor and honoring the dead was pure drivel. The dead didn't need honor. What good was honor going to do a man who was rotting in a box?

Unfortunately for the man in question, there hadn't been enough left of him for a box. Thana was sure he'd been cremated to avoid unfortunate questions. The final story his family had been told was something about an electronic malfunction resulting in fire. The whole building had went up, igniting several volatile parts of the building. Sad and tragic, she was sure, but perhaps better safety standards should have been in practice.

The real cause of the fire rankled Thana to no end. Not only had the base been destroyed, countless members lost their lives (well, they had a rough estimate), tech lost, but the very monsters who had attacked escaped! Granted, her attack had been poor form even if she had struck a critical hit. She'd acted in pure anger and had somehow come out on top. That was the only good news from the entire ordeal. Thinking about it renewed her migraine to near screeching levels.

With a grimace, she slid her sunglasses back down on her nose and crossed her arms. If she was going to wait, she was going to do so comfortably. She even leaned against the nearest building. Already the weather was hot and growing muggy. She regretted wearing so many clothes.

If Fairwinds did a background check on the woman, the snoop would find her history quite bland. She had some ranking and worked as a recruit. Hardly anything to brag about. Her credit was good but she didn't own a house. She'd never been married. Her parents were still alive and living on the same farm they'd lived on since they'd been married. Revoltingly normal human stuff.

"Don't be sorry," she dryly quipped. "I barely knew the man. He was interested in the military and I work as a recruiter. Unfortunately, he couldn't be bothered to pull his face from a computer monitor long enough to even hack it in boot camp." She sighed, nearly disgusted at the idea. So many flunkies. "I'm sure his skills were put to use elsewhere."

Technically, everything she had spoken was the solid truth. She couldn't even remember his name and wouldn't have thought about him for a second if not for the enormous mess he'd left behind. His death was highly inconvenient.

[Deleted]

Fairwinds was momentarily torn between mirroring the human's posture -leaning against the wall in a gesture of trust-building solidarity and alike-ness- and maintaining her more assertive posture. Ultimately she decided on looking bad-ass, scuffing her feet a little further apart, cocking her hip, folding her arms and teasing a thumbnail between her holographic teeth.

She nodded at Thana like she was interested. She wasn't, really. She was running facial recognition and scanning the area and kicking Dexter's skidplate in online checkers.

"Sounds like," Fairwinds replied absently whilst her physical form tracked the approach of a group of middle-aged men on to the lot.

Winona turned on her heel and looked towards where the new humans would appear. No sign of them yet from the perspective of the hologram. She looked back to Thana. "This must be kicking off soon. You just here for this lot?"