[ti]Ep 3[/ti]Risky Riches [Closed]

[Cintra]

Episode 3 | Week 2 | Day 7

Sunrise Mountain Park - Nevada

The sharp sound of metal against stone carried far through the waning day. Chipping intermittent impacts that clattered one second, while laying silent the next... It was almost as if a tool was being struck down against the taupe and gray stones with force, though there was no perceivable rhythm or logic behind any of it, an almost erratic nature as it moved along the rough terrain off the edge of a rather steep drop. The nature of the dropoff didn't appear to halt whatever it was, as it continued before everything went quiet other than a chirped beeping sound of a device.

Down off the ledge, a bright flash of pink, teal, and yellow would be easy to spot, the individual facing the rock wall head on with one foot clipped atop a protruding bit for stability, while her hands were occupied with some type of device. She was leaning back casually away from the stone in a way that would normally cause her to cascade backwards in a deathly cartwheel, except she seemed to be tethered by two cables that bridged over her shoulders up into the rocks above. Below, there was a third mass of the remaining two that remained coiled together, left to hang loose as she tried to figure out what was going on here.

Cintra stared down at the Energon scanner, unsure if she was even remotely using the thing correctly. It seemed simple enough, it really HAD to be simple! She just couldn't wrap her mind around it right here and now. Her thumbs pressed a few of the buttons trying to see if anything would happen, and yet there was no real result other than a ping. Did the ping mean something was found? Did it mean to keep moving? She didn't know. She just knew this area had a possible bit to find, yet that was such a vague idea.

Such was the life of scouting.

And it was boring as hell.

Letting the tool fall down at her side, Cintra eased her weight back further, the tendrils twisting down out of the way so she could hook so far she was looking at the city. She may be looking at it upside down, but that didn't really change anything. She still looked at it in an almost... longing? Way?

Human cities would never be Cybertron. That was a plain and simple fact. Their skyscrapers may be large to their standards, but they didn't soar high into the sky as true monuments to be traversed and explored. Overbearing shapes that cast immense shadows that plunged the lower layers in darkness that would never see actual sunlight... needing to be illuminated by artificial lights that hazed in neon. No... Earth simply wasn't as built up and layered, and they certainly did not reach very high, but one could somewhat appreciate what was there even if it was substandard when they were starved of seeing any cities at all.

From a distance, the odd mass down where the earth flattened out and humanity began showed some potential. It seemed to start to grow up, rather than grow out like the surrounding swaths of buildings, reaching higher with some different shapes to them.

Some kind of archaic castle shape, a weird looping circle of light, lots of straight sided structures that flicked with patches that had to be glass. There was some sort of spire thing framed in lighting, while there was a strange green building that stood out from others drastically from the color difference... It all just looked interesting, and it got more and more interesting as the sun kept shifting further at the horizon. New lights flickered active and became more and more visible as time went on, casting it all in primarily yellowed white light, with a streak of rainbow that ripped through its center like a blade that was only slightly visible.

Cintra would much rather be THERE. That was a given. It may not be Cybertron cool, but it could still be nice. Yet, she had a task to do, and she would begrudgingly continue to do it. That said, she of course would keep looking back to see how it all evolved when eventually the red sky would hemorrhage out to black... As such, she whipped her helm back up to look at the rough rockface, triangular fingertips goring into a seam of rock as she tried to pry chunks free and snoop for any fleck of blue that could possibly be hidden beneath the surface.

[Bandit]

A single motorcycle pulled to a stop at the clearing overlooking Vegas.  It was just now starting to get dark, the last stubborn moments of daylight casting the encroaching night sky in a blue-green hue.  Bandit knew that that was partially an aspect of industrial and light pollution, but it still had a kind of beauty.  

The driver of the bike cast an eye around the lot.  It was, perhaps, disappointingly empty at the moment.  Ah well.

With a final glance around, the driver blinked out of existence, and the bike itself unfolded into a smallsh blue-green mech covered by a cloak whose outer color seemed to shift to find a form of 'dark' that would work with its current surroundings.  

Bandit wandered over toward the edge, looking over the city.  He could see some of the city lights start to flick on, eager to start illuminating the encroaching night ahead of their comrades, like they got cookies for being first.  City lights were notoriously competitive, Bandit imagined -- always in a hurry to be first on, last off.   

Whether or not this new lightbulb canon had any basis in fact or reason sat squarely last on the very vast list of things Bandit didn't care to care about at the moment.  He was so taken by the thought that these city lights had lives, loves, and drama of their own that any scrambling, climbing noises he might have heard from below the ledge went completely and conveniently unheard at the moment.

[Cintra]

The rock Cintra was in front of seemed to have some sort of seam ahead of her, a place that could perhaps have Energon laying below ready to be found given it looked a bit different than the surrounding stones. Shoving the scanner between two rocks to keep hold, she would plant both hands on either side of the small crevasse she was working on, stuffing her face close. She was trying to see anything in its depths, even though her own body mass ended up blotting out any light that may have even slightly reached within. This didn't matter though, as even though she expected it to only be dark dirt and stone, nothing of value to be found... she was surprised with a faintly glowing sight that almost made her suck in a gasped wheeze of a sound as if she were trying to huff in dirty air from the opening, joy instantly felt.

Pulling and tugging, tearing and scratching with new resolve... Trying to get her goal out was a chore and a half. Cintra wasn't strong enough to just grab the opening's edge and wrench, tearing rock free like a paper door... Flux would be able to do that but he wasn't here, and he also had no way to traverse this vertical surface like she was. In order to try to make progress, the third mass of tendrils lifted, her hands grabbing its end to then use the two blades on it as leverage, pushing hard.

The gap pulled open a small amount, rock tumbling down with clatters and pops along the rough and severe slope, unknowingly masking over the sound of transformation above. It created a void just wide enough that she shoved her forearm into it.

She was on her own here, needing to try to cobble together some sort of plan... until she suddenly wasn't.

Cintra didn't know what it was that made her look up. Perhaps it was simply luck, or perhaps it was that weird feeling someone got when they were being observed or something was around. Some people argued it was a real sense, a milder ability than the more glaringly obvious ones such as sight and hearing. These theoretical talks were far beyond what the pink femme could even try to debate or comprehend, though it didn't really matter. The final point and what really mattered was the watered-down fact that someone was up on the ledge above her.

"REALLY!?"

A shrill yell suddenly barked out into the relative quiet of the cliff face, a loud screech that echoed and bounced down across the environment below. She didn't seem to care if anyone else other than this unknown individual would hear, it not even crossing her mind that it could draw unwanted attention by any humans who may be hiking out and about. Keeping a low profile meant absolutely nothing to her right then, her offended and angry sounding voice continuing.

"They sent someone to check up on me already!?"

Cintra didn't know everyone at Blackridge, and even then there were bound to be Decepticons out and about that didn't reside in the underground hovel. As far as she was concerned, this blue-green mech was some babysitter to make sure she was doing her job and not messing around. Checking up on the 'new recruit'. She may be new to this outpost but she wasn't a new Decepticon! She served and tried to be useful! She was OFFENDED.

"Jokes on you! I am doing my job well!"

For once.

At these final snarled words, Cintra's right hand wrenched up with a snapping movement and a flick of loose stones lurching into the air to drop behind her, shaking the chunk of luminous blue she just ripped free around to make sure this person saw it.

[Bandit]

"REALLY!?"

Bandit was taken uncharacteristically off-guard by the shrill voice that sounded through the dim twilight and scattered some Earth-birds who had been perched on the nearby fence.  Oh, sweet Primus, what? 

He looked up, side to side, and then down at the femme climbing up the side of the cliff. As she wailed at him he took a step back and appraised her.  Short -- about as short as he was.  Loud.  Both in volume and in color, yikes.  

Yes, this Decepticon was exactly the opposite of who he had been hoping to run into tonight.  

Then she brandished the crystal in his face.  Bandit was nothing if not adaptable and a fan of taking things.   He recovered and drew himself up, optics flicking from her newly found treasure to her bright optics. 

"Look, lady, I don't like it either.  I had better things to do tonight than babysit.  What can I say, the leadership has had a bad track record with subordinates on this stupid planet."  Bandit gave a shrug.  "And Pyrotech doesn't trust anyone, so don't take it personally.  He probably has someone ready to come and check up on me checking up on you."

[Cintra]

Orange optics glared up at this unknown 'Decepticon', eyeing him over as he replied and elaborated on what exactly was going on here. While some may just shrug and assume it was an issue with Command and they'd eventually get over it and trust them... or just understand right away and relate it to their own bad experiences with less than loyal Decepticons... Cintra was not one of those that thought that way. She didn't let this brush off so easily, as this was almost taken as a personal attack in some ways. Others may be bothersome troublemakers, but that didn't mean she was! Her record had to prove as much! Except... there was no record given she had been stationed on a border outpost out on the far sidelines.

"Well! They should give someone a chance before insulting them!"

Barked and hissed words were paired with a snorted noise afterwards. There wasn't even the faintest of attempts made to mask just how much this irritated her... an irritation that only seemed to compound when the other Cybertronian mentioned Pyrotech and the possibility of ANOTHER individual being sent out to check on the person who had been sent out to check on her... Cintra's upper lip peeled back a small amount in a sort of sneer at this.

"That's dumb."

She wouldn't call the individual dumb for doing something like that, no... Cintra may not know who Pyrotech was, yet she heard the name mentioned at Blackridge at some point after her arrival to this world with Flux. She remembered that he was someone to report to and acknowledge as higher up on the food chain. This foundation quelled her from saying less than pleasant things directly at the individual at fault, no matter how much his perceived command had bothered her.

Reaching over, the pink femme snatched the scanner out from its precarious position on the rocky ledge, the movement quick and borderline whiplike in her irritation, causing bits of stone to get knocked free and cast below. She could try to root around for more crystals, but for this moment she needed to get the scanner and current 'find' safe, while finding out just WHO she was speaking to.

It was nice to know who was on one's team, was it not?

Leaning back further to try to see more of the blue-green mech, Cintra's legs took a couple steps higher on the rock in front of her so that she was angled out more severely. Despite this, she could still only really get a bead on a bit of him though, noting some kind of weird fabric like covering that he wore that wasn't an every-day sight.

"Are you here to help or be useless?"

With her luck he'd be the type to laugh, say he radioed in that she was working, then skip off to go do whoever knows what else to leave her alone fumbling with what to do next.

[Bandit]

Bandit shrugged down at the femme. "Orders are orders. I was to 'render assistance with your current objective'. Not that they mentioned what the heck you were doing out here." 

He gave a long-suffering sigh and a dramatic roll of his optics. "Officers, right? They just give orders and assume everything will just work out the way they want without bothering with the details. People like us?  We're the ones who do the work.  So, what is your current objective, exactly?"

Bandit crossed his arms and did his best to look bored and exasperated, which tended to be his default mood back when he was an Autobot, so he had plenty of practice, alongside some residual venom he saved from his former commanding officer to add some authenticity to his current conjob.

[Cintra]

At hearing that this individual was here to help... even if he didn't know exactly what he would be helping with... Cintra leaned forward towards the rockface to pull her center mass closer to it, while tucking her arms against her chest to keep the Energon and scanner safe. The moment she was close enough, the tendrils that were anchored above her would start to hoist her towards where the mech was standing. Metal ground and scraped against stone with angry crackles as the sharp blades twisted in the indents they had dug into, sending smaller pebbles cascading down to click and rattle. It was only a moment later she was high enough, and she scrabbled the last couple steps by foot, standing on the edge of the dropoff on the opposite side of the fence from the other presumed Decepticon. Not that a short human fence did much of anything to hinder.

"I was told there were possible Energon bits here and to check it out, and-"

After this was said, she lifted her hand that was holding the Energon up near her helm sharply, wiggling it a bit as if he hadn't seen her victory previously.

"Tadaa!"

The pink femme certainly seemed pleased with herself given her tone and rather excited expression, not responding or addressing the comments regarding Officers outright. The two of them would figure it out! Maybe the Officers were vague so they could overachieve! If they were told to just find fuel, the mission would be over... but now? Now Cintra wanted to GET at it, and now she had someone to assist with that goal.

"There may be more but my hands are too big..."

Cintra held up her forearms in front of herself as she said this, glaring at her broad palms and less than dexterous fingers. They were chunky with little articulation to them, meant for basic functionality and not things with exceptional finesse. After this glare at her own appendages, she looked over at Bandit, noticing that while his forearms were broader as well, his hands were a lot narrower. Maybe he could claw more Energon out? Though, just like her, the broadness of their forearms could be a hindrance.

"You don't look strong enough to pull rocks out of the way."

Almost judgmental, orange eyes looking this green mech up and down a second.

"What can you do?"

Shifting her weight to the side, Cintra settled in place, her fingertip tapping the side of the scanner a couple times. While she tried to figure out how he could help, the long tendrils from the back of her helm and shoulders would curl back together into a single unified shape once more. This mass would loosely drape behind her at rest, part hanging off the ledge.

[Bandit]

"What can you do?"

Bandit patted himself down and pulled something from the inside of his cloak.  

"Mostly admin.  Paperwork, making sure the numbers all add up so the higher-ups have something to show off to their higher-ups and and so on and so forth."  Bandit gave a helpless shrug.  "Can't ravage an organic stink-farm like this planet without all the ledgers and columns are all properly collated and tallied, yeah?"

"I mean, I have a gun and stuff too, and a few gadgets."  He walked past Cintra, peering over the ledge.  

"Just down there, then?  Let me take a look and see what we're working with, here.  Did command you send you with any explosives or anything?   Here, hold this."  Bandit half-turned to Cintra and tossed her something blue, small, and fuzzy. 

Then he turned from her, and pointed the grappling launcher in his forearm housing toward a nearby stump.  The grappling claw embedded itself in the old, dead wood and the small mech tossed himself off the ledge, rappelling down to where Cintra had appeared from. 

[Cintra]

Paperwork? What kind of paperwork would create a job on that level? Wouldn't it just be 'we did this', add on a stamp, and move on? Surely that didn't require an entire individual to accomplish... yet, she could be missing something. Cintra did understand that this outpost was different from the one she had been on. It likely had different rules, and seemed to have documentation to go along with it. That sort of care... and math evidently with the term 'add up'... boggled her. It was outside of what she did. It didn't matter though, what mattered was what happened next.

Watching as Bandit walked past, the pink femme was ready to follow him, curious what 'gadgets' entailed, only to have something tossed at her.

Cintra scrabbled when whatever it was ended up flung her way, an instinctive motion made to try to snatch it so it didn't fall to the ground. She hadn't been expecting to need to catch anything, so she wasn't really prepared, and didn't have the frame of mind to act tactically because of it. The broadness of her palms and lack of dexterity was poor for palm grasping something out of the air, however would have made an excellent ‘net’ to push and pin it against her chest to keep it from dropping! Or... she could just swing both palms together to clutch it that way!

Such things were not meant to be... Before Cintra could comprehend what was going on after a couple batted pops trying to catch it, her right arm swung around and full-tilt palm spiked the object straight down off the cliff right at Bandit at full speed.

Lurching forward instantly, Cintra slammed her knees onto the ground while dropping the scanner and Energon at her sides, sliding forward with a scrape of the sharp points against stone. She would have skidded right off the edge from her violent kick-off, however the bladed end of her tendril rammed down to act as an anchor and stop her from toppling into open air. This left her knelt slightly over the edge, arms flared out on either side in a panicked futile grabbing motion.

"I'M SORRY!"

She did look remorseful, and her tone showed it with a squawked fear laden scream. While the pink femme could be a spiteful individual that would do something like what happened if wronged, this mech hadn't incurred such ire from her. She hoped whatever it was wasn't breakable and could be retrieved, orange eyes dancing around to see where it went with a frenzy like fear.

[Bandit]

Bandit had dropped down to dangle off the cliff as Cintra did her fumble juggling of the haunted Furby.  As Chauncey Pilkington bounced off her hands off the cliff, Bandit looked up in time to see a blue mottled nightmare bound off the cliff, as if propelled by the dark cosmic forces that manipulate Decepticon clumsiness.

The thief's reflexes were quick, his wit was quicker, and his free hand shot out to intercept the Furby's terminal trajectory off the cliff -- but in this case, his reach was insufficient to the task, and only two of his digits even made contact with the mottled fur, sending Chauncey Pilkinton into a bit of spin as it went sailing out of distance and sight.

Bandit swung his green optics back up at Cintra.  "Well, that's not good.  I generally don't like to let Chauncey Pilkington out of my sight for too long.  Things... happen.  But what's done is done."

He looked back down into the darkness that the Furby had disappeared into.  The last time Chauncey Pilkington went unattended for an extended period of time, half of the City State of Killikitax lost power, several death cults spontaneously formed, and herds of livestock turned up mutilated.  Whether or not the Furby had anything to do with that was up for debate, but all Bandit knew was that by the time he found Chauncy Pilkington again, the place was a mess.

But still.  How much trouble could one broken toy get up to?

*******

One hour later, a man named Jimmy Brooks almost tripped over a broken toy on his way to his favorite off-strip casino.  Jimmy's been down on his luck for a good long time, and as he bent down to examine the weird thing, he thought about the last fifty dollars he had in his wallet that he was ready to sacrifice on the gambling tables.  

A crooked, half-drunken smile formed on the corners of Jimmy's lips.  "Maybe ol' Jimmy's ship has finally come in?  Could you be the good-luck charm I've been lookin' for?"

Jimmy Brooks scooped the damaged Furby up and had a spring in his step as he wandered down the street.  "Finally, everything's comin' up Jimmy Brooks."

********

Bandit sighed, and looked back up at Cintra, his processor finally catching up with what he was doing here in the first place. "Sorry, shouldn't have tossed such a valuable and important piece of equipment at you. That's all on me. My bad. No one needs to know about this little whoopsie, right?"

[Cintra]

Once again, Cintra squawked far too loud for a quiet night a little bit too close to humanity.

"It had a NAME!?"

She thought it had been some kind of tool or who knows what... Now she was under the impression it was a Cassette or other small companion that warranted a real name on that level. It was ALIVE and she had launched it off a cliff!? It didn't seem to be able to fly as it hadn't caught itself on its fall... which made things a million times worse as some tiny little Cassette friend took a tanked dive down a cliff into some unknown dark abyss of shrubbery rock and more rocks after being batted around like a ball.

A squealed stress sound of anxiety eked out after her cried question, Cintra's hands pulling close to her body as she tried to process what to do next. She could launch down after it, try to find the small animal in the tangled mess of wilderness... but it was so tiny, and it had been sent off into a cascading spiral into the unknown from its Carrier's hand trying to stop its deathly plummet. She had no idea just how FAR it was cast, and how far it could bounce or roll. What if it was now scared and was running off if it could even run?

Why did he throw a friend at her!?

"Sorry, shouldn't have tossed such a valuable and important piece of equipment at you."

Equipment... so it was a tool? No... wait... what?

For a moment Cintra blankly looked at Bandit, her mind trying to cobble together just what this meant. Was a tool given a pet name? Or was a pet treated like a tool?

"Should... should I go get them?"

A cautious question, Cintra's arms would gesture forward in the direction the Cassette-tool-thing had spun off. She considered briefly yelling at Bandit however, accusing and asking why he was so dumb that he would throw something valuable! Yet he was being tasked to report back to Pyrotech, and as such she let out a low grumbled sound as her mood was gradually shifting from horror to irritation. At his last question her lips pressed together some.

"Yeah. Sure."

[Bandit]

Bandit hung off the ledge, watching Cintra thoughtfully.

"Nah, don't worry about it," the small mech shrugged. "Chauncey Pilkington knew the risks when I threw it at you."

"Anyway!  Before Chauncey Pilkington decided to make this whole situation about Chauncey Pilkington - which, to be fair, is Chauncey Pilkington's only real talent -  we were talking about stripping this pitiful mudball of all its precious resources in the name of Decepticon Hegenomy."  Bandit began to lower himself down the ledge a bit.  

"So, what have you found down here?"

[Cintra]

So... it was alive?

Cintra couldn't decide if Chauncey was a living thing or a tool, yet she certainly was leaning now in the direction of the prior the more that this Decepticon was talking. He was saying its name multiple times as if he were trying to drill it into her helm, which only made her more confused at the fact there was no concern shown to the thing in turn. Maybe it had survived worse and was built for such falls... Primus knows she could take a fall and live... though, it would certainly hurt and could rip off outer layers... yet, she had to give the benefit of the doubt his friend would be alright.

Adjusting her position, Cintra scooted a knee into a different point now that she wasn’t ready to launch herself off into the darkness, trying to get a bit more comfortable as she didn’t know how long she would be on standby. She watched as the mech lowered himself further, trying to think what to say or do next to help, before he asked her what she had found. At this prompting, Cintra would plant her palms down on the edge of the platform, grit and small stones pushed free to click down below, before she heaved off and turned around into a fleeting freefall.

Quickly, the tendril on the femme's upper shoulders would split apart cleanly into two pieces, the blades on the end hooking down to clip onto the rocks with a clank and sharp spark of dinged metal impacting stone. The leftmost anchor wedged between two stones and twisted slightly as a hook, while the right rammed on the other side of Bandit to let her lean closer to work alongside him. She didn't seem to take note of any issues with getting up in his personal bubble, nor how jarring her approach could seem, speaking just as quickly as she had joined him.

"I got it from in there, I think there is more but I can't grab it."

[Bandit]

Bandit was peering into the seam, pressing the brim of his helmet into the gap a bit to see what he could see.  The hood of his cloak fell onto his shoulders, and the single off-center yellow finial on his head popped up accordingly.  "Yeah, that's a tight fit. I think it's workable, though.  I might have just the thing-- ahh!"  He watched Cintra pop out some extra limbs and scale down the cliff face like one of those Earth arachnids.  A spaniel.  Something like that.

"That... is actually the coolest thing I've seen in awhile.  That's brilliant!  Ever thought of going into crime?"

He used his free hand to pull some small devices from one his cloak pouches.  "Anyway, I should have just the thing for this particular situation.  Should be able to open the way a bit without blowing us, and the energon, to blithereens.  Which are like smithereens, but smaller, because of the larger explosion.

[Cintra]

Bandit's momentary noise of shock caused Cintra to pull back as well, startled as his commentary had been cut off as it was. To her, the climbing cables were second nature, as natural to her as ones arm or a leg. She often forgot how alien they could seem, and this concept was only just catching up to her when the other mech continued to speak, saying something that derailed her previous thought process.

"Crime?"

The single word was said as if Bandit had just spoken some mystical phrase in another language, rather than something so incredibly basic and easy to understand. She technically knew the word of course, back on Cybertron it was an element that ran rampant through countless sectors, yet... on Earth? Who would she be stealing with that her cables would be viable? She wouldn’t steal from the Decepticons, and while she would steal from the Autobots if she could, she lacked such skill to infiltrate. Did he mean the humans? She didn't know how that'd work. Not in regards to what he spoke of that is, as she had already taken a couple souvenirs from the car lot that she and Flux visited... which anyone could manage with just two arms and determination. However, if told to jump by the right individual, she would sure try!

"Err..."

Focusing back towards the moment at hand, Cintra's previously confused expression remained, looking over the crevice as this other Cybertronian started to evaluate a path of action. It was good that he had a plan of some sort! Since she certainly did not... but the idea that it could cause an explosion was absolutely not on her to do list for the day. She most CERTAINLY didn't want to be blown to blithereens with a splatter of pink, teal, yellow, and blue.

"Are bombs really a good idea?"

A moment of brilliance for the pink femme where she thought over risks!

Which wasn't actually that impressive when Bandit had spoon fed her the worst-case scenario.

"What other options are there?"

Her right palm would then press against the cliffside for balance, though it was more importantly acting as a good handhold to pull on harshly. If bombs were thrown into the equation, she wanted to be nowhere near them.