| abstract | - Main Facility - If you thought the Launch Pad was in need of a big band-aid, the Main Facility might require a cast. Full body cast, that is. Entire structures are caven in, either with amounts of acidic solution pooling up within, or makeshift quarters for the outpost's inhabitants. Only one real building lies in the area, seemingly untouched by fate's cruel hand. On the front of the structure, a large golden door that's missing a hinge. The door reads: Accilade-6 Supremo Leader. LAST TIME ON THE TRANSFORMERS.. Having ventured to the planet Accilade-6, Cyclonus led a contingent of Decepticons to ascertain just -what- was done to his core and how they can fix him. Alongside being mobbed by hugging gumbies envious of their names and transforming abilities, they also met Backfire's mentor.. Fireback! And so the Decepticons went to Megatron Mountain, which was really a volcano, to get the special acid used in the modification.. accompanied by the Warriors Four. Except, they're all dead. Except Brawny, his rockin' stache probably kept him alive. Probably. And so they've reassembled at the Main Facility, Fireback taps his foot impatiently. "What do you mean they all died? They were the FINEST warriors everer!" "Not by my reckoning," Cyclonus says dryly in response. "But at the very least they *did* make excellent fodder. I'll award them, posthumously, with suitable medals and citations and all of that sort of thing." He won't. He'll forget. "Now, I am... doubtful that this acid will do nothing other than destroy Backfire. You are aware what will happen if I find that you are... mistaken?..." Amongst the base, in between a pair of ruined buildings, a Decepticon shuttle appears through the clouds. With its underside scorched from re-entry, the shuttlecraft slows its descent, eventually touching down in the centre of the base. They would have used the landing pad, but everything's so ruined here there was no real advantage. Scorn is simply glad to be out of that sweltering volcano, the femme rather close to critically overheating during their little adventure. But with the group safely back at the base she opens her vents once more, wings fluttering lightly to keep any stray fumes away from her systems. "I hope they hurry up.. this container isn't going to last long." She mutters while pulling Sippy Kup's severed, acid lava filled head from subspace. Wouldn't be long before it eats a hole through the top of the skull, which serves as the bottom of the container. Rampage has made his way through as well. "Are we there yet?" he wonders, looking around. At least it wasn't hot anymore, though he's not that bothered by heat. After all, his pad is in the middle of the sweltering Jungle. "Mistaken? Me? I mean, I oversaw all the modification Sippy Kup made on Backfire's core.. we'll just make sure Sippy Kup, oh wait." Fireback replies to Cyclonus, foot still tapping impatiently. Looking left, then right. Then at Scorn, and down to the head full of acid. "Is that Sippy Kup's head??" The shuttle's landing draws the attention of the gumbies, who clamor about it with the same awe inspired glee from before. "Did you see that, it has THRUSTERS!" "Yeah, and it's like purple and stuff. Just like the Decepticon emblem." "Dude, the wings even match!" It's obvious some of them haven't seen a shuttle in a long time, if at all. Industrial Dump Truck drives out of the recently landed shuttle and carried within his bin is the unconscious form of Backfire. "Wow, sure I dropped the ball in letting the chance of getting the antimatter slip outta my hands, but being a made a glorified stretcher? That hurts the circuits, you know?" Long Haul complains as usual, but he does his job as instructed regardless and thankfully when the job is as simple as carrying comatose Decepticon from point A to point B it's pretty much impossible to screw up. Right? Cyclonus gives the gumbies an annoyed look before returning his attention to Fireback. "Yes, obviously they were... modifications. Of some kind. I almost said 'sound' but fortunately I stopped myself. LONG HAUL!" he bellows, waving the Constructicon over. "Bring Backfire's carcass over here so that we may end this silly nonsense and have another body available for the Olympics. He may at least prove useful in one of the races." Shockwave and a squadron of Seekers follow after Logn Haul (and Backfire) out of the shuttle. "Do your job or I will find someone who will," Shockwave states to Long Haul. Stepping down the ramp and onto the ground, Shockwave adds, "Fireback's coordinates indicated they were in this direction. Long Haul and I will make the journey; the rest of you stay here. We will make the most of this opportunity to save Backfire's life." "Huh?" one of the Seekers says, scratching his head. "I thought you said we only came here cuz it was on the way and you wanted to see what happens if Backfire's head explodes from the repair attempt." Shockwave reaches over and smacks the Seeker one before following after Long Haul, eventually joining Cyclonus and the others. "Only the best, now only if I can remember what we did.." Fireback considers, tapping the bottom of his metallic chin. Then Shockwave and Long Haul arrive, with his prized pupil's collapsed form in the back. "Gah, damn.. I didn't think it was this bad. What'd you guys say happened? Someone was using him as a puppet??" he frantically asks the gathered Decepticons. A group of -somewhat- competent gumbies clear a table for use, beside it some rusty and antique surgical tools. Hopefully Backfire has had his robo-tetnus shot! Scorn looks up from the head in her hands at Fireback's surprised question, replying with a rather toothy grin. "Why yes, it is. He wouldn't have survived after what that smaller guy did to him, so I made the best of both situations. Gave him a swift death, and found a lovely container." Attentions turn to Long Haul and Shockwave as they move into view, her optics training back on Fireback only a moment. "I would've gladly made a snack out of him, but I prefer them a little.. fresher." She punctuates her sentance with a small wink and a light click of her teeth before finally moving off towards Shockwave. "Good to see you, Commander Shockwave. Here's the stuff that will apparently fix Backfire... And do excuse the container." The femme speaks with a smirk, handing the mech the severed head. Cyclonus seems almost relieved to see Shockwave. "Shockwave, apparently Backfire needs to have acid poured into him so that he can survive, acid, which, as you can see, is dissolving the container it is in as we speak." He allows Shockwave time to process this highly illogical statement. "Does that make any sense to you? How does that even *work?* How did these fools--" He gestures to Fireback. "--think to do that, and THEN conceive of a way for it to work? It... ennnh...." He clenches his teeth tightly, an optic twitching. Industrial Dump Truck weaves around all the rubbles and pools of acid in the area. "Yes yes, just let me get--- whoops." One of his rear wheels slips momentarily as the floor beneath it slides away. "This place in overdue for the Constructicons' magic touch, if y'all know what I'm saying." Eventually he makes his way over to Cyclonus and the others where he then raises his dump bin and drops the comatose Backfire right onto the table. "Have fun putting that bucket of bolts back together. I'll stay put back in the shuttle. That volcano off in the distance is making me nervous." The Predacon just hopes they don't have to fill in Backfire's missing pieces with Junkion parts. Now that would be a disaster! "Good thing I'm not into putting jigsaw puzzles back together," he mutters, "Hey, is there a TV anywhere around here?" Shockwave gazes at the assembled Decepticons that he and Long Haul have come to join with a wary look. He is skeptical of all this, feeling the Seeker's life is simply not worth all this time and effort. Thus, he is here as a matter of scientific curiosity. This acid processing system holds some interest with him. "Yes," he replies to Cyclonus. He studied Backfire's systems along with Scrapper and Carjack. He has the gist of it. "I should be able to replicate the acid in question." Shockwave glances at Long Haul. If only Mixmaster were here. The Commander takes the sample from Scorn, analyzing it with a careful optic. "Sippy Kup was my trusted advisor, and friend." Fireback wallows, a salty energon tear running down his Seeker face. "Not a snack!" Shaking the sentiments, the leader of Accilade-6 realizes he needs to do what he can to save Backfire. Here. Now. The Warriors Four met their deaths, so the great shining example of Accilade-6 could LIVE! Meandering over towards the table, Fireback checks some vitals and opens up Backfire's chest cavity. It'd be a display of strength, but apparently Scrapper and Carjack didn't see fit to seal it last time they pried it open. "Perhaps I'm a genius beyond comprehension?" he offers to Cyclonus, shrugging. Inside, the modified core lies still. The tiny recess that's usually filled with Accilade-6's acid is empty. Fireback points at the hole, "I think all we did was put it in there?" Sadly, Long Haul's only talent is to drag things around. He might try to convince the other Decepticons otherwise, but it is as it is! With his immediate task done, the Constructicon drives on back into the shuttle that he had came from where he disappears for the rest of the scene--- but that's because his player needs to sleep now. Cyclonus is honestly shocked that Shockwave managed to process that so quickly. "I see." He pauses, at a loss for words. "Well, can you at least concur it doesn't make SENSE to do this?" Fireback pipes up again, and Cyclonus just.... sloooowly turns his head towards him, giving him a rather murderous look. "Unlikely," Shockwave notes dryly. With the acid in his hand, he steps up to Backfire. The head makes for a very poor pouring instrument, but Shockwave manages to do a remarkably good job of dribbling it into the recess within Backfire's core. "I consider this," he replies to Cyclonus, "An experiment only. My hypothesis is that Fireback is insane and this will kill Backfire." He waits to see if he's right. Scorn steps back after Shockwave takes the head, moving beside Cyclonus and giving him a light pat on the shoulder when he stares at Fireback. "I wouldn't get so worked up, sir. Soon, we'll be off this world, back at base, and we can forget this /ever/ happened." She'll certainly be forgetting it soon enough, this entire trip too crazy for her. Fireback checks the vitals, all stable.. but not responding either. Energon pump isn't pulling the goodness into his systems either. Leaning in with his head, the mentor squints his optics at the core.. and the added acid. "OH, right." Fireback momentarily laughs, then scratches the top of his head. "We had to create an acidic power converter so it's useable for his systems!" With a gut-wrenching yank, Fireback pries open his own chest compartment. Gross. "See, it took a lot of trial and error to finally get it right." As Fireback manages to rip out the fabricated converter, Backfire lies still and motionless. A gumbie asides to Rampage, "What's TV?" "Are you kidding me? It's the best thing ever," Rampage tells Fireback, "You can sit there and watch music videos or nature shows or gameshows for hours on end!" Shockwave is about to announce that it didn't work, but then Fireback speaks up and points out that something's missing. Shockwave gives him a look for wasting his time by forgetting useful information. Then Fireback tears out his acidic converter and hands it to him. "...unless my understanding of your modifications is incomplete, do you not require that to live?" "I will live through my.. my.." Fireback manages to spurt out, optic lights already dimming then flickering. In grand standing fashion, the Decepticon Seeker stumbles forward.. then backward, then to the left, then to the right. "Backfire." Collapsing on the table, over Backfire, Fireback's laser core is fast fading. "Tell him.. jst tll hmm.. he wss alwys myyyy fvvvvrttttt." Then nothing. His frame quickly fades to grey and black, falling off the table. Death aint' real in Transformers unless you color change. Scorn actually frowns a little when Fireback sacrifices his own life to save Backfire's. It's quite sad, really, despite her minor distaste for both of them. A few moments pass after he finally fades and collapses to the ground, the femme finally scooting over and looking over his corpse, a curious look shooting to Cyclonus. "...Can I take him back with us?" Shockwave watches as Fireback staggers, falls, and dies, speaking of his friend Backfire the entire time. If there's any hint of emotion in his cold chassis, there's no hint of it on the outside. With the acid converter now in his possession, Shockwave reaches into Backfire's innards and installs it. It's a crude job, but given the lack of any real medical facilities it's remarkably sturdy. Answering for Cyclonus, he drones, "Yes. I will dissect his remains back on the Absolution to see what else we can learn from him." Shockwave watches for any signs of the converter successfully processing the acid. This is where we find out if Backfire makes it or not. "Aw, I wanted to keep him for myself..." Scorn huffs softly at Shockwave's answer, grumbling a little and folding her arms with a minor pout on her face. Some gumbie medics, or what passes for them, rush over towards Fireback's corpse. "Hey not so fast, that's our leader." One of them shuffle steps, "Well, was." Backfire's systems are still offline, the laser core unresponsive. Acid trickles into the system, but it seems Fireback's sacrifice was in vain.. as it's still not processing the acid for use. Such a waste. BUT WAIT! Emanting a bright glow, the converter kicks into overtime.. sucking up the acidic solution and enabling energon syphoning. As juice flows into his robotic veins, Backfire slowly stirs on the table. Optics come back online, "Heh.. Overture, we'll totally rule while working together on this." he whispers, in a somewhat dizzying state. Sitting up on the table, "Wait, what are you doing, Overture? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" In his dazzled state, the simpleton Seeker flops off the table and on top of Fireback's grey form. Standing quickly, he looks around nervously. "Umm, question." Backfire says aloud, "Why am I on Accilade-6 again? Where'd you guys come from? Why is everyone staring at me? And why is Fireback dead?????" Shockwave stands upright, taking a step back from the recovering Decepticon. He looks to Scorn and Cyclonus to answer this question. As for Fireback, Shockwave doesn't immediately intercede to claim the mech's body. For now the gumby medics are able to grab him. "Because you killed him," Cyclonus says cruelly. "Well, in a manner of speaking you did. He sacrificed himself so that you may live. I suppose, all things considered, it was mostly a fair trade. One dead simpleton for a live, somewhat less stupid simpleton. Hm." He gives the inhabitants of the planet a dour look. "Backfire. What is WRONG with these people?" Cyclonus pretty much sums it up before Scorn can answer, the femme instead simply patting Backfire on the back and grinning, "Welcome back to the world of the living, Backfire. A shame what happened to your friends. But yah know, at least they died for the best thing to come off this planet." And that isn't saying much, honestly. "Whatever it is, it's not TV's fault," Rampage opines, "They didn't even know what one was!" "-I- killed him?" Backfire reels from the accusation, fists flailing wildly. "Well, okay. Maybe hypothetically. You know. Damn, he was the BEST mentor ever. Taught me everything I know!" Bending low, he picks over Fireback's corpse.. grabbing what weapons Accilade-6's commander used. Looking around at the dilapidated state the planet has fallen on, "You should have seen it during the GLORY DAYS! It was immaculate." Backfire lies. If anything, it was a lot crappier. They've had time to pick up most of what Backfire would have ruined. "They sorta lost their way when I left to join the.. EMPIRE!" Whirling around, the Seeker eyes Scorn. "Wait, did you just say I was the best thing ever? Ahahahaha, I STILL RULE!" he does a fist pump gesture. Staring at Rampage oddly, "What's TV?" Bending low, Backfire hefts Fireback onto his back and makes his way towards the shuttle. "Hey Fireback, let's blow this taco stand." Silence. "Oh, hahaha. I see what you did there." More silence. "NO, Starscream was dead when I got there. But they totally made me Aerospace co-captain. It was AWESOME. My first order was mandatory glitter camoflague." And so his voice trails into the night on Accilade-6, probably a night best forgotten by everyone. Ever.
|
