Ep 2- Oh But It's Cold Outside (ASK)

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Set: Episode 2. Week One, day 2.

It was cold outside.

No. That alone was an astronomical understatement that did little to truly express just how frigid the Canadian Coastal Mountains were. It was the perfect place to hide, but at times Porrim Pax wished he wasn't so prone to paranoia, because it had led him to claiming this snowy tundra as his.

The gelid weather of the mountain range was a decent home security system. Humans did not venture close and it was unlikely that any Cybertronian would be looking for a member of their own species out in this isolated terrain. He surmised, hoped and wished; at the very least, that no one still had the coordinates for his location.

The Mine was hollowed out and barren, the walls chiseled and stretched in great, cathedral-esque arches. This cast even the smallest sound into a booming choir of echoes. This could be quite disorienting and it took Porrim nearly a day to map the Mine before he was truly comfortable with living in it.

His lab was placed in the far back of the Mine, in a room that was attached to several circular alcoves that lined the back wall. Each was large enough to fit a Vehicon; as these rooms were most likely used for storing mind and prepped Energon.


Bits of machinery and tools were spread out meticulously throughout the chambers, organized despite the sparse quantity. Porrim had very little to his name but what was with him in his stasis, he maintained these precious few possessions well and with great care. But the one thing he did not have was Energon.

He was in dire need of it, already he was struggling with his higher processes; his mind was sluggish and his movements even more so. It was slowly approaching the point where Porrim needed to escape his little haven to find a resource of fuel.

That is how he found himself, scanning and wandering aimlessly through the dense coniferous foliage. Seeking out any signs of Energon with a little, antiquated tracker he had managed to finagle together from spare parts.

He was no mechanic but several tests had shown the rudimentary device had worked; but the victory of the working tracker did little to assuage the bitter failure of finding precious little Energon in the massive mountains around him. Of course, logic dictated that what Energon was present was most likely already pillaged by whoever had cleared out the deposit he was residing in; but not trying was a worse option.

It was sunny in the gray, dreary way that America's North West often boasted. Cold and wet, with powdery snow caking every surface, it stalled his already struggling joints and made mucking through it a endeavor he could not endure for long.

Porrim stared hard at the small screen, swiping the screen several times to adjust numbers and ratios in hopes that something might show. He had been at it for a few hours now and was slowly losing his patience. His body was cooling rapidly.

Thankfully; ahead, a clearing cut through the thick trees. Sunlight would offer him a boost that was much needed, and Porrim found his caution lacking for no one would be flying overhead.

He would risk the clearing for what warmth he could get.

[Deleted]

He knew they were out there.

Starscream skimmed the top of the vast expanse of altocumulus. It formed a broken layer beneath him, nearly two thousand feet thick, grey and dense with moisture. The advancing warm front loomed over much of the west coast and trudged inland with the prevailing winds. Further out over the Pacific was snow. It would arrive within hours, and the low visibilities and driving flurries it would bring would set back his search by at least a day. Already he could see little through the gathering cloud, save for gaps of ugly rock and snow-capped mountain whenever a hole tore through the blasted overcast.

They were out there. They were somewhere beneath him, tucked quietly along the coast. He had found one already, largely thanks to bits and pieces of information gleaned from the humans during his time spent with them. But one did not contain all of the raw data he needed.

He needed to find more. And soon.

In a foul mood, Starscream flew north up the coast. The grey cloud only grew thicker the closer he drew to Alaska. At least it concealed him from observation from the ground. He doubted they knew he was coming, that he was looking for them - but it was good to be sure. In an area this remote, poor weather would at least ensure that few humans would be able to spy him coming.

With his radar swapped to ground mode and the range set at forty nautical miles, Starscream petulantly studied the snowy terrain below. Nothing. His radar broke nothing from the ground return. All habitable structures had been left behind to the south. What a bleak landscape. Rocky. And cold. It was vile. He muttered an oath to himself and swapped to ground moving track mode. He did not really expect to spot a vehicle moving below, but it was better than -

A target lit up on his radar.

Startled, Starscream focused on it. An object, moving less than one hundred miles an hour.

It was Cybertronian.

Astonished, Starscream thought quickly. No Vehicon patrols were in the area; he had ensured that they were occupied elsewhere while he sought his own prey. He was supposed to be alone. Which meant that this was either an Autobot, or a straggler.

Or one of Pyrotech's crew. They had once been stationed in the north. But no longer.

Wary, but amused, Starscream rolled onto his back and dove into the cloud. It swallowed him instantly, dense and damp and grey. When he broke out through the base and rolled upright again there was ice on the leading edges of his wings and vertical stabilizer. He ignored it as he plunged for the mountains below and began a curious circle over his target. The sound of his engine roared off the rock.

There was something down in the trees.

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The roar that bounced from jagged spike to jutting stone did not seem to come to Porrim’s notice as he pushed ever forward. The snow was up to his pelvis now; cold and damp, but eventually the gentle rays of the sun that did manage to poke through the clouds above engulfed him. His singular optic fluttered closed and the Mech collapsed face forward into the dense, snowy powder.

Vents sputtered and chilled metal began to heat, Porrim spat out some of the melted snow that had shoveled its way into his mouth and rolled over onto his back; optic still offlined. He would stay this way for awhile, listening to the wind whip and roar overhead as the sunlight of midday brought some life back into his icy body.

The makeshift tracker sat, forgotten in the snow a few yards away; bleeping with muffled glee as it detected an Energon signal. It did not manage to hang onto the signal for long and would go silent, then bleep again, then go silent. Despite it’s best efforts, Porrim ignored the irritating thing in favor of cycling through some internal systems to check if any of the more delicate parts of his pedes were in need to attention.

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Separated from his tracker, and with his optics offlined, Porrim would not see the shadow that descended over him. He would only be able to hear the sound of an aerial transformation, and then feel the heavy thud of a body striking down into the snow somewhere behind him.

“How curious,” a voice drawled. “Just when I expect to be alone, when I had all but given up upon the prospect of finding any sign of non-organic intelligence within this miserable forsaken wilderness - here you lie. You’re not one of Pyrotech’s crew, who were the last Cybertronians stationed here to my knowledge. Which begs the question who - are - you?”

There was another sound.

Okay, that one was the familiar whine of an arm blaster powering up.

“I’ll give you eight seconds to state your designation and allegiance. And taking into consideration the time it took me to say that… you now have seven seconds.”

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Porrim bolted upright out of the snow,optic glowing to life in a panic-stricken heartbeat. No one was supposed to be out here, not a human or a--Oh no.

The slender mech pushed himself slowly to his feet, moving his arms out of the snow to show that he was unarmed. The whirring of a weapon had the jittery Con tense and anxious, Porrim was eager to prove he was no threat, but that smarmy; sickly smooth voice most likely came from only one type of bot.

The little mech turned around; though it was a struggle, and offered a shy, submissive expression to the towering Seeker. The symbol on the larger mechs chest did little to assuage the fear Porrim had for the weapon leveled at him.

“Porrim Pax. Decepticon. Forensic scientist and Anatomical deconstruction specialist”

It was all he could think to say, but then again his processor was stalling and hitching on the notion that even their shared alliance would mean nothing. It had been TOO long, Porrim was hopelessly out of the loop and dangerously prone to a flight response; but even he remembered that running from a Seeker was stupid.

He’d have to rely on what little charm and guile he had. “It is very cold out here, perhaps this---altercation could best be settled in a safer, less conspicuous place? As you can see I am unarmed--” Primus he hoped the tall, lanky Seeker fell for THAT particularly smooth lie. “I have a hideout nearby in an abandoned Energon mine. Which I am hoping it is safe to say is yours? I will be able to explain myself better there”

[Deleted]

Unfortunately for Porrim, Starscream never believed that anyone was unarmed until he had shot them for actually being unarmed.

Starscream narrowed his optics. He stood behind Porrim, snow dusting his grey wings and shoulders. His arm blaster was active and glowing red. However, at the declaration of faction and function he lowered the weapon, enough that its deadly muzzle was angled at the ground between then instead of at Porrim's chest. It hummed gently.

"A scientist, living in an energon mine for long enough to refer to it as his hideout," he said. "Interesting. Is it nearby? Perhaps you will escort me there, so that you might explain this peculiar state of affairs at greater length. Then we can discuss the matter of your present solitude, and how it might reflect upon future allegiances back within the Decepticon ranks."

His voice was smooth and laced with faux affability.

The blaster did not deactivate. But it did not raise either as Starscream gestured to the woods.