[ti]Ep 2.5[/ti]Up! Up! And Hopefully Not Down...

[Carbine]

A beaming look, Carbine planted his free hand on his hip in a borderline hero's stance when he was called awesome by the tiny human. Not at all meek or passive with the compliment. After the praise however, there was a question and he grunted some while he thought, eyes squinting in a frown.

"Welllll, we may need to cal̕l ͏fo̧r͡ ̸a̴ bridge. I don't know if it is s-smart to walk ̸al͝l̕ ̛the way back, and I can't fly it, but..."

Just then, Carbine hooked his frame forward some, his spine arching up as metal pushed into the air more. His rotors flared out one ether side, as a whirling hiss was the only warning before the white rings on his back spun and clunked into place as transformation kicked into gear. In just a brief moment a canine's frame wrenched out from seemingly nothingness, a helm ratcheting up and out with a lock, as paws clapped down onto Carbine's shoulders. Soon, Bolo stood proud atop the ex-cop's back, rear paws capped over the metal prongs of his hip for stability.

With the Cassette formed, Carbine wrenched upright into a more comfortable stance, Bolo hopping off and to the side with a grunt before a shake raked across his form. A swift lurch of metal, a clatter as plates shifted, the slap of long ears being flopped side to side... he stretched out his limbs some from being docked, before looking up at Master for guidance, only to then peer at Miko curiously as he had to have been summoned for SOME kind of goal, OR game!!

"Let's go aheaḑ an͞d͢ s͢teal got we k̸zźtt̀ before witnesses."

Carbine's hand lifted at his words, a white finger extending to gesture and make a 'shhh' movement, though the crook underneath the optic projections seemed to imply a smile of some sort. A stifled chuckle rumbled from his chest as his hand lowered. After this, the free hand flicked to Bolo to summon him near, before Carbine gently grabbed the back of the canine's head to guide him towards the slab of Iron Glass.

Bolo seemed confused, not really understanding the goal here, but he complied happily, plodding forward as his muzzle was gently bonked on the edge of the material before he opened his jaw. His teeth were guided to tap down right near the edge, not too far to be a real bite which was extra odd to the toddler like processor. The white panel's of the Cassettes' eyes seemed to angle slightly up at Carbine for affirmation after this, before Bolo's systems roared and he slammed the front prongs of his jaw into the glass with a snarled hiss of the powerful hydraulic press.

A growl, a crackle... the damaged integrity of the glass had zero resistance to the brute force of the bite, as a small chunk splintered out and shattered free, the chunk as well as smaller shards falling to the ground underneath like coarse glitter. After the piece was snapped clean, Carbine let go of Bolo, who stepped back a few paces, ears perking upright to look down at what he had done with a slight wiggle of his haunches.

He still had no clue why Master did that.

"Fr̷ee for all."

Carbine mused, letting Miko pick out what piece or pieces she wanted. Some of the bits were chunky, while others were probably a tad dangerous and sharp. He was trusting Miko to be responsible... hah...

[Miko Nakadai]

“Walking back? Nooo way, we flew so far from the base! It’d take us forever to get this thing back!”

That was even without the object in question being ridiculously heavy by the looks of it - and as strong as Miko felt? There was no way she’d be any sort of help in lifting the thing, let alone moving it.

There was movement from Carbine then, and for a second Miko thought he was about to psyche himself up to hulk the weird object up onto his shoulder just to try and show off. But what happened instead was like a MILLION times better! She’d only met Bolo once before two days ago and the situation surrounding that moment had been full of stress and not-so-great memories. But those were all in the past! This was now!

She could only stare in absolute awe as Bolo hopped down and to the side. He was so much bigger than she remembered, and she found herself staring up at him with wide eyes, a quiet ‘Whoa’ uttered under her breath. If she weren’t so loyal to Bulkhead, then Carbine and Bolo would be hella upgraded to COOLEST bots at the base.

Still though, definite second! For sure!

“I like your style!” she could only grin at his comment, lifting a hand to copy his ‘shhh’ motion. This would be their little secret and nobody would ever know!

As much as she wanted to rush forward and pet Bolo, she would remain standing where she was. They had work to do, and Carbine had obviously got the pup out to help with the mystery object and she knew better than to get underfoot.

It was still interesting to watch what was happening, though! Leaning up onto the toes of her combat boots, she’d keep her attention on Bolo as he bit down on the edge of the material. Was he going to have Bolo drag it? Could he even DO that?

The growl and crackle that followed these thoughts were the answer to that! No dragging, but he chomped right through part of it! Whoa, he made that look easy! Her gaze on the cassette, before snapping to Carbine as he spoke. Her eyes lit up.

“Woo!! Hell yeah!” she didn’t need telling twice, and would push into a run over to the now shattered pieces of glass. A lot of the finer, smaller pieces weren’t worth much and would simply be scattered the next time a dust storm came through the area, and while some of the bigger pieces were really cool looking, it was probably a litttle too much. Compromise time! She’d squat down and would reach forward, being careful of her fingers - picking up some of the medium-ish sized pieces. She didn’t even know what she was going to do with them, but she picked up an assortment of sizes and shapes.

“Did you want me to pick up one of the bigger pieces for you? Not sure where I’d hide it though!” the pieces she picked up would fit (barely) into her pockets, but a bigger piece? She’d have to hide it behind her back when they took the ground bridge home.

“Maybe Bolo could carry it in his mouth? If he’s careful! Or I could hold it and ride Bolo back! Nobody would think to check cos I’d be up so high!”

Okay, ever since she saw Bolo two days ago, all she wanted to do was ride him - other girls had horses? She had a GIANT. ROBOT. DOG. So any excuse, even one as flimsy as that? She was gonna try it!

[Carbine]

It was somewhat fun to see Miko so delighted. She was really having fun it seemed getting to do things that may or may not have been the smartest of things. Carbine half wondered if it was because of his own more rebellious and irresponsible personality. Maybe things he saw as acceptable, like the child running full tilt at a pile of glass shards, were things that would have stressed the heck out of Optimus or Bulkhead. Made the boring Cybertronians nag her, make her get scolded... Maybe that is what earned her such a reputation, because she simply wasn’t given an OUTLET to her little psycho energy.

Carbine didn't have much time to consider the details of this guess, no time to wonder if he was seeing her on a good day or not versus normal chaos, before he was addressed. Tuning back into the conversation, yellow optic projections flicked down to look at Miko, before glancing to the pile of glass splinters. They were mostly too small for him to have any real use for them, unless he could follow in Miko's footfalls and make some kind of jewelry out of it.

Maybe he could make something slightly pretty for a 'romantic' gift, create some kind of beauty in this shit-stain of an existence they were all trapped within. He seemed to mull over this briefly, before Miko chattered about Bolo carrying the chunks. Bolo seemed to perk up at his name, large helm crooking around to look down at her with curiosity. He didn't really understand the humans yet. He knew he shouldn’t chase or kill them now, he knew to be good, but that didn’t mean the small predatory part of his processor didn’t focus hard as she moved about.

"Bolo's mouth be a ̡b̸it̕ ͜mo̡re for ch-chomping than d̀ȩlic͠ate work."

The black and white mech mused this happily, Bolo crooking his head up to look at Master, before looking back at Miko. With a bend, his helm twisted to the side, ears angling offset in the process.

"I got som͡e ̶h̀i̡p͠ s͠t̨orage th-th-though, hand me͡ the ĺa͟r͝ģest chunks yah got."

A couple loud hollow clunks rang out as he slapped the side of his thigh. There wasn’t really much to indicate there was storage, no satchel shape, no protruding compartment or other mass to associate with it. It was a sloping piece of armor that ran flush with his thigh, the smallest seam carving out the vague shape of a pocket. With this, he adjusted his weight, being sure that he could keep the slab of glass balanced, before he stooped down only far enough to get his hand into range.

He may have planted the back of his palm down flat on the gritty earth in any other day, but he needed to keep the glass stable lest it fall and turn Miko into squish, or fall the other way and cause a gust of wind that'd throw her down. One would be significantly better than the other, but whatever the case it landed with his hand a bit high, meaning Miko would need to probably stand on her tippy toes. To help alleviate this, he crooked his fingers while pinning them together, creating a 'shelf' out of the white armor that could angle a wee bit lower.

While he found him the best largest chunks she could even pick up, he considered the hip pocket he had, his processor churning.

"So, yo͡ú ̸l͟i͘ke̵ ͘g͢o͜rȩ ̛a̢nd stuff?"

He asked, wondering how far her demented little honorary Wrecker mind went, diverting from the ride she wanted. Maybe he could earn more Miko points, maybe it'd mean he could keep her out of REAL danger later if he fed into her twisted human noggin.

[Miko Nakadai]

Honestly, this was the most fun she’d had in what felt like ages. With the buddy system in place, Bulk was always super hesitant to deviate from the norm of driving to and from school because rules and not wanting to disappoint Optimus. Yet somehow, SOMEHOW she had managed to convince Carbine to take her along on his patrol.

Probably helped by the fact that he and Bee were all awkward and stuff. He was proooobably supposed to come along too but had stayed back at the base to watch the monitors instead. Pssh. Whatever! His loss? Miko’s gain! Heck yeah!

There was the smallest of pouts as Carbine explained that Bolo didn't really do delicate work, and as she turned to look up at the cassette she suddenly realized something.

Waaaait. 

“Chomping? Like chomping bad guys? That. Is. Badass!”

She’d seen all kinds of cop videos with their K9 units going absolutely crazy on people who were up to no good. Running at impossibly fast speeds only to lunge at them and tackle them down in a blink of an eye - and the thought of Bolo doing that was… aaaaaah, her thoughts sidetracking some.

Maybe sometime they could find a willing victim to play a bad guy so Bolo could be all action-y and cool! Things to ask about later for sure! Maybe Bulk would play along with something like that, he was super big and tough so it wasn't like Bolo would do toooo much damage, right?

At the mention of storage, she’d blink, turning to look at the pile of glass again.

“Weeelp if you have storage, I’m gonna grab some more! Hang on!”

As Carbine eased down his servo she would rush back to the shattered pieces of glass - being careful again as she reached down to pick up some much bigger pieces. They were a little heavy, but she managed - and was super careful in taking them the few steps over to Carbine.

Leaning up on the very tips of her toes, she would reach up and ease the glass shards into his servo as best she could. It was a bit of a struggle, even with him crooking his fingers to assist, but she managed. There weren’t many decently sized pieces that she really wanted - some of them far, faaar too big for her to even move or do anything with, but some of the more medium-sized ones she’d grab and repeat the action, before pausing at Carbine’s question that came from nowhere.

“Gore? Heck yeah! Like in violent movies and stuff?? Me and Bulk watch them all the time when he’s on monitor duty!” she beamed “I think I get into them more than he does though!” she laughed, brushing her hands on her shirt to get any dust off them.

“Do you? I bet you have all kinds of cool stories filled with that kind of stuff, huh?”

Bulkhead stories were cool and all, but uhhh hello? Stories from a cop with a badass dog? SO much potential for awesomeness!! 

[Carbine]

"Dam͜n ̕rig̨ht! Bolo is the b-b-best at the best at bi͜ting̷ ̛people."

Proud, happy, Bolo's helm crooked up and turned to Master, appearing to feed off his pride which made the canine push his chest out a bit and look more regal.

"Crim̶in͟áls and 'Cons alike have been͝ d͡owned by his jaws!"

Granted, it wasn't very difficult when the individual in question was a small thief with no fighting skills, or a Decepticon who just couldn't draw their weapon in time and was smaller than Bolo. Anyone sufficiently tiny would be instantly turned into a chew toy and thrashed around. It was only before the war that Carbine would put a stop to things before they got too out of line and he had to report to his sergeant. After war?... well... there were more than one occasion the black and white mech used Bolo to rip someone apart with a slow death since he couldn't administer mercy himself in form of a fast offline.

Seeing Miko appeared to be done offering glass shards she wanted, Carbine's systems let out a hiss as he pressed his weight down and craned himself fully upright again. The large panel of glass maneuvered a bit under his grip, being sure to keep it sturdy and in line, before he pressed at the bottom edge of the vague outline on his thigh. Much like a garbage chute in an apartment, the bottom was hinged and the top crooked away from his frame to create a sort of pocket. It didn't appear particularly LARGE, but it was plenty big enough to serve for their needs and then some.

A couple clunks of glass falling within the metal confines, a few softer pats as if it hit something else down in the small void... Carbine brushed his hand off to make sure there were no lingering splinters stuck to his fingertips, before he looked down at Miko calmly.

"Oh yeah, all s-s-sorts of͜ st͜ories! As a cop ̛b͝efo͢re t͟he war I saw a l-l̨o͡n͝ǵ-̡lot of things but I don't ask so we can go on ̶s̵to͠ry̸ ̧tim̨e."

He exclaimed this out happily, the hatch left ajar on his hip instead of closing.

"You a͜re͘ an astute little th-thing; I am sure you like͡ a g͟o̵o̴d ͡m̧ys͢tery and can snoop around b-b-better than I."

With this, he reached down into his hip pocket again, light clinks of the glass being pushed aside ringing out before his fingertips snagged onto an object. With care he pried out something that was bound up in a blue tarp. Stained, a bit disheveled, the tarp had seen better days though the interior was likely much more notable. At the object being produced, Bolo's attention perked up and he watched, gaze flicking down to the blue object, before looking up at Master, knowing many things pulled from there were objects to be tracked.

"When out scouting, ̨B̨ơlo̴ ̨fou͝n͏d some remains of an unknown A-a-autobot. It woul̷d ͜b̀e s͞o ̶ea̴s̴y to blame the death͞ o̧n a̶ Dec̨epticon, but they don't tend to HIDE their t-triumphs."

It was awkward working with one hand, Carbine wiggling his thumb over the object some before he gave up. With a snarled heave of systems and care not to let it get out of his control, the black and white mech eased the panel of glass softly down onto the ground. With his hand freed he squatted down to rest his weight upon his heels, setting the tarp on the lowest edge of the glass. A couple pushes and a flick, and what remained became visible.

Bits and parts, broken pieces of metal Miko wouldn't be able to place since she wasn't a medic... but one part didn't require a medic to identify. The hand was mangled, distorted, missing some fingers with a splintered connection where a forearm would have been. It was long dulled, dusted over and damaged with water smears, while a cracked and broken Autobot emblem sat to the side.

This was totally inappropriate to show her, but Carbine didn't really care.

"I have susp͜ici̡on̢s a͏n͢ ̛Autob̕ot may have d-d-done something, and want͘s̷ t͢o̕ HIDE their affront."

He watched her some.

Miko had been around the Autobots in the base far longer than he had, maybe she had some insight with her tiny human brain. He also needed more eyes on this since Bumblebee and Ratchet couldn't offer him any help.

[Miko Nakadai]

“That’d be soo cool to see!” Miko beamed.

Okay, technically she had seen it a little bit. She’d seen Bolo bite Bumblebee after that weird altercation in the Control Room, but that hadn’t been cool - it was scary in a way, and even then Bee was probably super lucky that Bolo wasn’t biting with everything he had.

But seeing him in action chasing down a bad guy like those K9 dogs on those badass cop shows? Aaah she’d kill to see something like that! Hopefully one day she’d be able to time things juuuuust right to get involved in the action and see it first hand. It may mean some sneaking around to be in the wrong place at the right time, but when there’s a will? There’s a way.

Her gaze shifted from the now-very-regal Bolo to Carbine as he spoke again.

“Dude you have to tell me stories sometimes. Bulk’s stories are super neat but I bet they’re nothing like the things you did!”

Bulkhead was a Wrecker and his stories were full of heroism and general badassness, but stories about all the skeevy underbelly things of Cybertron that only a cop would deal with and know about? It was an entire other side of cool that Miko was totally missing out on!

At the mention of her snooping, she’d tilt her head just slightly, watching as Carbine reached into his hip pocket again. Whatever it was looked gross, and she quickly realized it was a tarp.

But what Carbine said next? OHOohohoo... Remains? Wait, of an Autobot?! He was carrying those around with him? Instantly she imagined him somehow carrying around an entire body but there was no way it’d fit in that little pocket!

As the tarp was lowered and opened to expose the remains, Miko would step closer to get a better look. A lot of it just looked like bits and pieces, nothing special - nothing she could recognize anyway. The Autobot emblem she recognized, but the coolest part of it all was the mangled hand.

Okay not that it was cool knowing someone had been completely murdered, but-

It was still pretty cool.

“An Autobot at the base? How long have you been carrying this around with you?”

They had new folks arriving all the time and she wasn’t sure the level of background checks that went into those that were new to the base. Was it like here on Earth with a quick little check on your background against some database, or was it more involved than that? She had no idea - could a murderer have snuck in? Were the other Autobots in potential danger?!

“Where did you even find this thing? Was there more? Like a whole body?”

Aaand here came the questions.

[Carbine]

"I don͡'̡t ̶k͡n̴o͏w... a month? Month half? Th-that soun̷d r͘i͘g͞ht?"

As if Miko had any frame of an answer when she was the one to ask initially.

The time Carbine had been here on Earth felt like a blurred smear of events and nonsense. Chaos and madness, fights and peace. Simply recalling some of the adventures he had gotten involved in since coming to Earth made his chest ache and itch, and with his hands no longer clutching the glass and only one was occupied by the tarp and remains, his free palm reached over to idly run across the weld marks that smeared down his chest in an etched line. They were long since painted over, not really noticeable unless the light caught the sheen on its surface... but it was there.

Hiding damage that racked through his Riot Armor from one particularly bad day.

Tuning back into the conversation when Miko joined the adventure, Carbine's helm crooked to the side a bit, gaze settling upon her.

"Nope! That is ̢t̨h͠é st͟r̛aǹge part. Whoever d-did this absolut͡ely ́OB̨LITERATED the corpse. I had Bolo canvas͟ ̨that a͏r͞ea for hours, and th-this is literally all we could find."

A pause.

"Well... I mean.̶..͏ h̀e s͞ignaled at a couple othe͝r şpóts but the bits m-must have be̡en ̶too s̀mall to be located in the dump..."

That place was absolutely rancid, a monstrously horrendous pit of death and rot. It had seemed bad at the surface alone but actually digging down to the festering warm mush of deeper layers was an entirely other ordeal in itself. Molded cardboard, twisted plastic objects that once had been things of value, shattered glass and rancid food that had long since lost its original shape and turned to gray goop that smeared and stuck in joints and plating. Wet puddles of fluid runoff from rain that collected into empty food containers and festered into mosquito breeding grounds...

Yeah, Carbine LIVED in the wash racks for a good while after that adventure. So much cleanser and soap, practically pouring bleach down his legs and forearms. Wire brushes trying to peel the DEATH off of himself that clung like a waxy film. Even when he was so clean he probably stripped off the clear coat on his armor, the psychological feeling remained as strongly as the smell stained his psyche... and Carbine wasn't even a clean freak! He didn’t run to go wash up when he took a tumble through the dirt! He didn’t pitch a fit if mud was spilt against his forearm...

A testament to just how bad human trash was.

"I suppose more͜ ̷co͝u̵lḑ ͘be at a d-different dump, s̴in͡c̨e so little was found, but that̴ ́brińgs ̵up MORE questions..."

So many more questions that kept pointing back to a desperate soul.

"Like, who͠ w͠oul͘d̸ w̢ant to hide it SO BAD that th-théy spl̕i̕t̀ the corpse across dumps?"

A crooked top of optic like a brow raise, Carbine looked back over at Miko.

He didn’t really think she could help out for reals... but many probably felt a lot more comfortable opening up around her, so just being aware of the mystery may make oddities stand out that she would hopefully report to him.

[Miko Nakadai]

“Iiiii guess?”

There was a loose shrug of her shoulders at the timeframe given and the question asked as to if it sounded right. She had asked him. Still though, a month was a long time to be carrying around a body part- then again it wasn’t like it smelt of anything and wouldn’t be the same as a human carrying around something dead. That’d just be gross.

She couldn’t take her eyes off it - she was fascinated! It was unfortunately far too mangled for her to even think of who it belonged to, though. She’d met nearly every Autobot at the base and obviously it wasn’t any of them, but- on that same wavelength, she’d met nearly every Autobot at the base and couldn’t think of anyone who would do this to another.

As Carbine mentioned the body was found in a dump, she’d look up at him, brow furrowing some in thought.

“What if it was an accident? Someone rummaging for things like scrap metal and they fell into one of the big shredder things? They have those at dumps, right?”

As if he’d know.

“Like uh, big machinery for shredding and crushing garbage and stuff like that! It happens! Like people fall asleep in dumpsters here and… well, it’s not pretty!”

Was that what happened though? Oddly convenient that an Autobot insignia had been found when you thought about how tiny that was compared to the rest of a Cybertronian.

“You said a month so if there’s anything left in the dump it’s probably long gone by now.” there was a touch of disappointment in her tone, almost like the thought of rummaging through a dump for body parts was somehow fun.

“Do you have any suspicions? You’re a cop, right? Or were - so surely you must think someone is to blame! I won’t tell anyone!”

Whoever it was was smart, though - splitting a corpse across dumps was a good way of not getting caught!

[Carbine]

While Carbine had never seen the tools that Miko spoke of in person, he could easily translate the mental imagery to things on Cybertron he knew. Industrial shredders were seriously horrific things, working around them being a highly dangerous job. There were more than a few times you saw it reported on the news, a worker getting snagged only to be pulled in and ground to pieces before anyone could hit the emergency shutoff. It would always kindle a brief flicker of protest for safer working conditions, but such things died down just as fast as they started, shuffled beneath the table as others focused on their far more luxurious lifestyles.

"I question how ͏n̡o͜ ̷ḩuman would see it th-͠th͞-ou̡gh?"

Ignoring the idea that a human shredder would be more likely than not a significant amount smaller than a Cybertronian one, there were questions about if one of their kind could even be pulled into it unseen. Sure if it was activated at night when the workers went off home to relax, that'd be one thing. Pulling the poor victim in to be mangled and blended into more manageable bits, but... it'd maybe start an investigation?

"I mean, I woul̷d̀ t͡hi͜nk ̡wo͝r͡k͠e̷rs would question a r-r-running machi̶nȩ ̕a͜n͠d a new pile of metal bits spat out on the o̢th̀er side?"

Carbine didn't know, maybe it was all automated in some way and Miko would clarify that for him in the next couple moments. Whatever the case, he shifted his weight a small amount, getting more comfortable while he thought.

"To be h-ḩ-honest... I don͞'t kn͠o͏w. I don't KNOW anyone."

He didn't really truly know any of the new people he had met thus far. Carbine had made a few friends, found solidarity on some levels and could relax enough to have fun, but truly KNOWING them? There hadn't been enough time for that. As far as he was concerned you don't just sit down with a possible friend and start asking a million questions to try to core into their deepest secrets and regrets to get to know them. Most things were buried in the past, and he only knew the other Cybertronian at surface level.

"I told others,̶ bu̧t͟ ͟no̡t m͠uch has been done to e-e-even look into it. It mak̕e̢s ͢me̢ ͡wonder if people know but don't w-wan̴t̵ an͝yo̢ńe ̧else new to know. Like it'd make us uncomfo̕rta͢b͞le."

Carbine hooked his hand up to do some air quotes with one hand at his last words, a sort of sarcastic tone in play. He wondered if Optimus, Ratchet, and Red Alert knew, like it was their fault for sending some lady on a mission that went upside down. Maybe they didn't want others to think they could be sent to their death even on some mundane task. Who knows. Carbine just found it obnoxious.

[Miko Nakadai]

Miko could only frown as Carbine brought some logic into the equation. Unfortunately, though, he did have a point. Cybertronians weren’t exactly small, and if one did happen to fall into a shredder or crusher type machine, it’d probably be noticed by somebody. Even if it wasn’t the process itself that got spotted, there were all kinds of people who rummaged through junkyards for scrap, and Cybertronian parts weren’t exactly a common sight!

Still though…

“What if it was an automated process? Or they fell in there at night and accidentally turned it on trying to escape and it kinda spat them all over?” she made a vague explosion-type gesture with her hands at this, as if to try and demonstrate.

She was grasping at straws, but it was only because she couldn’t believe an Autobot would do that to another Autobot! Especially not any of the ones she knew at the base!

She wrinkled her nose, frowning as her thoughts caught up to her. That wouldn’t work, because the parts had been scattered elsewhere by the sounds, and someone else would’ve had to do that and the chances of them being seen were fairly high.

Arghhh..!

“Although if something like that happened, there would be cameras and it’d be all over the news super fast! I know Raf has to scrub pictures of Bumblebee’s vehicle mode off the internet all the time because of crazy conspiracy theorists!”

If something like that got out? It’d be game over for Cybertronian in general. So just as quickly as her theory had arrived, it’d been mostly debunked. Which didn’t help the mystery at all, only making her more eager to try and solve not only who’d done it, but who the poor victim was!

She shifted her weight, planting her hands firmly on her hips as she peered up at Carbine. They had to solve this. Even if the murderer wasn’t anyone at the base, a Cybertronian - an Autobot - had died, and someone out there had done it. Meaning they were all in danger of it happening again!

“We should look into it! Make it into a project! Try and gather all the clues we know, maybe even do some interrogating on the down low to see if anyone at the Omega Base is hiding anything! I bet you have some wicked cool interrogation skills! Or I can try and make people talk!”

Her eyes lit up at the thought, even if she wasn’t sure how she’d get people to open up and spill the beans about them committing a possible murder but hey, she was creative!

“You’re a cop! You can find out things, and I can help! Maybe we can bring Raf on board, too! With his computer skills we’ll be unstoppable!”

Maybe she’d seen too much NCIS, but her enthusiasm had to count for something!

[Carbine]

"That'd b-be͘ ͘a j̴o͏b̵ for you to research runt͝l̵i̵ng."

Automated shredders? Fully unmanned systems? Fuck if he knew.

Carbine did not look into such things here on Earth, it not really something he had been curious about. Should he have free reign of the human's internet for an entire year with the ability to read he probably wouldn't have ever gone down that path of inquiry and learning. His preference had always been geared towards learning about humans and their gross laughable ways, as well as any humor and jokes he could wrap his processor around to spin into his own sayings.

Given enough time Carbine would probably start looking into animals though, always having a great love and fascination of the critters on Cybertron. Should he be permitted he would probably own far too many of them, but his job interfered with that and he never had opportunity to consider such things. A lot of his free time was spent facilitating his less than legal activities and dark contacts in the back alleys of their world, so it was more an interest than anything he could pursue.

"I can't broẁs̷é ͝t̀h̨e ̵internet and y-y-o̢u͘ ̵kno̢w̴ what to actually search for."

Did he normally talk openly about his defect? Not really. Did he partially care right now? Not really. It wasn't some grand secret than he has issues with written language. Anyone who would walk by while he was giving an oral report would be witness to that. Any time he had to file anyway away to share what he accomplished out on a mission he either had to narrate directly to another to write down for him, or simply speak into a recorder to be logged away.

He let out a snort pop after this at Miko's following words.

"B-̵B͡-̀k̀zz͜kt-͟S̵q̀ue͝akers is that SHIT to keep getting ph͜òto̢gŕaph̴ed?! HAH."

Oh that was some good ammunition. It sounded like the little Scout didn't always use his Holoform or sped around too much to be unnoticed. At this point if he WAS being photographed so much, individuals would know what to look out for. He had to probably change his entire paint scheme to get a fresh start, and make a REAL effort to use his Holoform even if it was a pain.

Carbine didn't use his most of the time, but... as a helicopter it wasn't as noticeable.

His weight shifted some at this, arms loosely folding across his chest. Bolo meanwhile sat down, watching the two chat in silence.

"Oof... yeah about th̕a̧t. ͏I ͝w̷as a p-pursuit officer. I do tracking and tackling, not so much the forensics and int͜èrroga̧ting bits."

Really... he had an idea of it, but only a rough one.

Carbine had witnessed individuals who did forensics work. Standing by the keep eyes on an environment and keep the place clear of civilians. He learned to recognize patterns in Energon and other fluid splatters, he could get a slight bead on how long a splatter had been present from overhearing investigators working, and he overheard and scanned over bodies with guesses on how long they have been 'rotting' for if dumped somewhere.

Things on surface levels that can be learned by a few internet searches were where his knowledge ended. Interrogation was an entire other ballgame though, and he was never present for that. His experience came down to inflated nonsense in movies, and with how media failed to portray cop work with any level of accuracy? It left a feeling of ignorance. He knew how to prison interrogate though... but that equated to more curb stomping someone until they told you where they hid there syk.

That wouldn't fare well here.

"Raf could be a good ̷idȩa͜ ̢though!"

[Miko Nakadai]

“Research? Aw man…” there was a little bit of disappointment there. Research meant work and that was far, far too much effort. Buuuuut- on the flip side of that coin, it was researching things for fun, and wasn’t tied to any sort of boring lame-o homework for school.

“You can research with me if you want? Even if you have no idea what I’m doing, maybe we can find some fun stuff! Like awesome music - I can show you all sorts of cool bands!”

Okay, little off track there, but heeellooo freedom of the internet, and she was absolutely positive that Carbine wouldn’t give a crap if she looked up all kinds of weird stuff and would probably be a super bad influence - which made it all the more fun. If it was someone like Optimus or Ratchet it’d be wikipedia and nothing else but ohohoo there was a lot more to the internet than that crap.

The snort pop after her comment about Bee made her laugh, and she would nod.

“Uh-huh! Although I don’t think it’s because he does anything, I think people are just paranoid? He has blackout windows and stuff - then again don’t all you guys have that?”

He was a frequent sight at the school, maybe that was just enough to arouse suspicion given he was a bright yellow muscle car, not exactly the norm for around Jasper - especially not that close to the school!

“Anyways yeah, Raf does a good job at keeping him off the internet, but hey! We can look that up too to see if he’s appeared anywhere else!” she’d grin at that, her gaze shifting to Bolo as he watched them. She wanted absolutely nothing more than to rush over and pet him but didn’t want to spook him, and so would wait a little until she found a way to ask permission.

“Tracking and tackling?” she repeated, eyes lighting up at that last word in particular. “Dude! That’s so cool! You should try to tackle Bulk sometime, I bet you can’t! It’d be like running into a wall! How did you tackle bigger guys than you?”

He’d opened up a can of worms, and the thought of Carbine crash tackling people like some madman was amazing. She wanted ALL the details because of course she did.

Her gaze lingered on Bolo then, maybe he did the tackling, which was even more badass. But could a dog bring down someone as big as Bulkhead? She doubted it!

[Carbine]

Research?

Better her than him!

Though... Miko then amped his interest from 'not at all' to 'ohh?' with only a few fleeting words. With a crook of his brow, Carbine's makeshift expression twisted to that of curiosity, wondering what sort of things would be looked up and what human music was even like. While Carbine never really had a strong interest in music, it didn't mean he hated it or wouldn’t be curious to see what it was like, game for any kind of entertainment to see where else Miko would scuttle around when cut free to not just research.

"Kay̛!"

Eh, any excuse to mess around and not do work. If someone did catch him slacking off, then having one of the kids all visibly disappointed or sad at losing their entertainment should he start to get in trouble would likely diffuse it. How could they be mad when he was helping one of the little ones?! They couldn’t!

At the subject of tinted windows, Carbine let out a sort of 'eh' noise. His own windows were rather dark, but that came down to the reflective nature, a lot of the threat of being spotted by someone with a pair of binoculars more slim due to distance possibly even making it look truly black.

"Comes dow̶n̶ ̧t͠o ͠pref͠er͘ence. M-most want to have exterior͝s͢ ̡s̀ee͏n more than kzz̶t͝ going in on a bunch of bare seats and͏ ot͡h̀er͝ no͜n̢sense."

A pause.

"Or is my g͘u͡e͘ss̨."

Focus on the outward lines, curves, and angles of an Alt-Mode, drawing attention to wheels and paint, accenting trim or who knows what else an individual would want to show off... to have clear windows would detract from that shape in Carbine's opinion, revealing the awkward nature that a smaller thing could sit inside them like they were some kind of sentient transport pet for the creatures. Seats were weird, and just having Miko on one a short bit ago when flying was a weird experience. Even more so when he knew if something bad happened, he would probably blend her to pieces if he had to transform.

Another subject shift.

A deer in the headlights look.

Tackling Bulkhead? Oh no.

"N-normally they are runninģ ̕away, so I aim for the back̢ ͜o͏f ͟th͠eir̶ ̨kn͘ee, or if they are top-heavy their upper back."

Bulkhead was one of those Mech's that Carbine would have to use more tactical thought than just blind tackle and hope for the best. He was on the larger side, low center of gravity with some oomph and strength to him. Limbs were shorter and round, joints protected well by a cage of armor that may limit mobility, but make him a formidable thing to try to pin down. Should Carbine try that maneuver to spear slam into the back of Bulkhead's knee, it would probably end with him grating his chest on the ground with how low it was, gifting himself a gnarly road rash, while more likely than not doing nothing. The round mech would probably stumble than catch himself.

Push came to shove he would need to double team with Bolo, but alas...

"Head on confront́àt̸i̡o͏ns a d-different situation, but most criminals decid̵e t̛o̢ s̡ke̡d͘addle."

Never know when reinforcements would arrive.

In a populated city it may be easier to hide and flick into a crowd or dart between or through a building... seek an escape to allow the criminal to continue on with their illegal goals and ambitions. To stand their ground and fight more likely than not made them liable to be surrounded and have escapes clipped away. So, running was the general norm, followed by someone hunkering down somewhere to try to make a last stand, the option of a hostage a give or take on the wheel of luck.

"OR... I send͞ ̶B͘o͡lo̧ i̷n̢to it!"

Carbine plopped his hand then down onto the canine's helm, the Cassette having perked up when he recognized his name. The large Cybertronian creature started to wiggle a bit, haunches scooting and crackling in the dirt as Master scratched his ears and helm. It was pretty darn apparent that if Bolo had a tail, it would be whapping against the ground happily right then and there.

"M-most don̴'̨t re͢a͠ct well to a d-dog bįtin̛g their arm."

Bolo's circular eyes stared up at Carbine happily, his mouth open a small amount. Given his lack of any real expressive features, it may be difficult to get an exact bead on what sort of face he was making. Was he looking up ready for a command? Happy? If it weren't for body language it would be an unknown, however with his little rump wiggle and the way his tongue lulled out of the side of his mouth... it was fairly apparent he was a happy little guy and wanted to keep getting his helm scratched at.

[Miko Nakadai]

Miko had expected Carbine to snub her at the suggestion to help her research. While she’d managed to wrangle him to the point she was allowed to come on this little ‘mission’, there was probably something super uncool about hanging out with the kids at the base. Well, unless you were Bumblebee! He didn’t seem to mind it at all, and seemed to be more of a kid than she was at times!

Maybe it was because of their size, maybe it was because they didn’t have a whole lot in common with their Cybertronian friends, but it did seem at times like they were merely tolerated, nothing more. Buuuuuuut Carbine came through with a chipper ‘Kay!’ that made Miko beam with excitement.

More friends at the base were always good - and Carbine had the added bonus of having Bolo as well as a million billion super cool stories about his cop days that’d keep Miko’s attention for a while. She imagined him like the cops on those flashy American TV shows - only a hundred times better because um, hello?! Giant robots! It made him all the more badass in her eyes, and she wanted to hear every single story he had to offer.

“Awesome!! Music makes researching go by so much faster, too, so we’ll have to find something you like!”

Ohhh she hoped he liked metal… Or at the very least some kind of rock. If not? She’d hopefully be able to sway his opinion! She didn’t have time to deal with those lame-o country music-loving types! Yuck!

The ‘eh’ at the mention of tinted windows made her head tilt some in curiosity. Maybe she wasn’t entirely correct in her assumption, then again it went back to the whole friend thing. She hadn’t seen many of the Autobots in their altmode, and those that she had? Most of them had their windows blacked out that she could tell. Theeen again? Bulk didn’t! But he was so high up that it wasn’t like it mattered.

“Eh, that makes sense. Doesn’t seem to help though, I mean if they have busted Bee? Who knows who else they have pictures of! Maybe you!” she gave an ominous finger-wiggle at that, trying to be spooky.

The deer-in-headlights look at the mention of tackling Bulkhead made her laugh, and she’d brush a strand of hair behind her ear before dropping her arms to her sides once more.

“Back of the knee works! I once chased a guy down and crash tackled him- course it was only after I realized that he totally wasn’t who I thought it was. Awwwwkward!” the dude hadn’t been happy about that at all, and she’d been put into detention for it but it was weirdly worth it if only because she felt super cool doing it.

She would nod eagerly as Carbine continued on, and all sorts of cool mental imagery was going through her mind of Carbine chasing down all sorts of criminals like a total badass.

“Boloooo! Man I bet he’s the best at hunting down bad guys, huh?”

The rump-wiggling was not lost on her, and even from over here she could feel the slight vibrations in the ground through her combat boots. She’d seen firsthand what a bite from Bolo could do, having seen Bee get his hand bit only days earlier - but that wasn’t even with Bolo trying. If he was going full tilt she wondered if he could tear an arm clean from its socket!

“How many guys has Bolo stopped? Any super cool stories?”

They had completely deviated from the original task here, but how could she not ask him this stuff? It was SO much cooler than anything else at the base had to offer. At least for right now!

[Carbine]

"Go ahead a-and have the͜m ͟tak͟e̴ ̸pict͢ures of me, I am great!"

Carbine boasted this out with a laugh, a pompous bit of arrogance thrown in with a 'smile' and chuckle. While in reality it'd be bad for a human to take a snapshot of him out and about without a Holoform, it was a very unlikely situation as far as he was concerned. He hadn't really gone over a populated area much at all, so other than a couple occasions he was free and clear. It would be a lottery chance that he would be photographed during these fleeting moments, but not impossible. Whatever the case, the conversation seemed to shift, and he looked back down upon Miko curiously.

"Hope you r-ran̶ ͝bef̵ơre he realized whò ͡yo̕u̧ w͟ere, but with th-that hair I doubt it."

Carbine had seen maybe... nine humans in total... max... Out of these few Miko was the only one that didn't have a preset hair color ranging on the scale of blond to brown to black. Her pink hair was super unique and he didn’t think that her school had oodles of others with that, and if they did than her scrawny body shape and attire probably betrayed her also? The television shows he's seen briefly and all the stuff online he had also witnessed showed pink wasn't really a thing, unless it was a child hair flash that they grew out of? Something that'd vanish in a couple years to be replaced with more drab colors?...

Organics were weird.

"Bolo has two job̛s,͟ ͏ch̢a͢si͡ng ̷pe̡ople down, and sņiff͟i̛ng t-targets out from drugs to rescue. Ḩe͟ ͏i̧s͞ more p-professional than I!"

When set to a job? Bolo went full tilt with his full spark behind it. The canine was proud, he was dedicated. He wanted to please because he knew when he did well he got praise, and when he got praise it often had head scratches with it... and after those head scratches more likely than not came food. Bolo loved food. He loved to eat, to a point Carbine was pretty sure Bolo had consumed more food than him in their lifetime, the mech leaching off the dog's reserves when they docked. Whatever the case, at Miko's question he rocked his weight back, Bolo's helm snapping to look from Master to human with curiosity.

"Ahh... our lifes͏p̸aǹs are t-too long to really keep tràck͘ of͟ a ̡ǹu̶mber..."

At the onset of his career he did. Fresh from training, bright eyed and hopeful! He was out to do good and every victory counted! But as they amassed up, as things got tarnished and the world showed him its true colors, he just stopped caring and simply did with no real record in play.

"I re͞me͞mbe͏r͏ once he was ch̴as͟ing d̨o̴wn a small m-mech and Bolo was a bit too zea̧l̢o̸us."

The little guy was lower on the weight scale than Bolo... poor tiny fool...

"Slamm͞ed̷ ́in͏t̛o ̧him͝ a̢n̕d͜ ͞they both cartwheeled because the guy h-had no resis̢tan͜çe."

A spin tumble, a flopped clatter of limbs and metal...

"I got wri̸t͟tèn up for a bit too͢ much͝ ̨force... but HEY, the spinout w-will bring a smile to my fac͡e e͘v̵ery time!"

As he said this both hands rose, pointers tapping down in the middle where his mouth should have been, before drawing back to indicate a grin.