| abstract | - Assembly Plant Directly north of the entertainment district lies the industrial zone, belying a literal translation of the "all work and no play" maxim. This area is starkly vacant, save for one enormous, sprawling grey building with ominous black smokestacks; across the front of the building, in giant white lettering, is the word "ACME". Geo flies after Slugfest. "Slow down, Slugfest!" she calls after the other tape. Slugfest comes into the area at a trot. The saddlebags of materials for the contest jiggle as his little feet go pitter patter. He screeches to a halt when Geo calls out, nearly causing his panniers to unfill. Geo lands behind Slugfest, and points to a nearby building, conveniently the ACME building. "Come here," she says, ducking behind the building very quickly. When Slugfest joins her, she says, "I have a few more parts we can add to the mix, if you'd like," she says, suddenly pulling what looks like a box of junk and parts and mechanisms from within her subspace. Chromedome has arrived. "Okay," Slugfest says. He wiggles out of his saddlebags, and starts pulling out placards with his mouth. The Cybertronian Sports Car transforms, Stylor changing into Chromedome's blocky head! Geo glances at the placards, as she pulls a few pieces of mechanisms from her box. She whispers to the other tape, "So, what were you going to do for specifics with this all-special stuff?" She leans in, conspiritorially, as if anyone around could be listening in on them. Probably noone is paying attention to a bunch of tapes, but... "Glue stuff demonstration. But this weird glue. Sometimes it sticky, sometimes it slippery," Slugfest replies. He picks up a folding placard that's already been written out. "Slugfest's Speshul Mystery Glue" is the title, written in large block lettering with a few spelling mistakes and backwards letters. "Backfire helped me writed these," he says to Geo. Monstereo journeys on foot across the vast trecherous lands that are Junkion. His goggles pulled over his optics, Monstereo has a stern look of all business. He strides towards the plant, walking past the Decepticon Tapes without a word or motion of acknowledgement. Geo glances at the placard that opens up when Slugfest picks it up in his mouth. "I see. Backfire's as special as you are, Sluggy," she says, without a hint of the fun she's having in her voice. "Slippery sometimes, but sticky other times eh?" She nods, and turns around, beginning to dig into her box. "What we need to make this a good demonstration is, well, something that will make sure that the judges are aware of what the 'Speshul Glue' does." From within her box, she pulls something that looks like a cross between an air horn and a Cybertronian super soaker, complete with backpack. "Perhaps we could load the glue in this 'dispenser,'" she says, "and then use it on, say, some of these extra parts? Then the judges can see how the parts either stick together, or slide across the floor." "Oh, oh! Good idea!" Slugfest says. He does his best to try to set up on one of the tables provided in the Acme Assembling Plant. One wonders why an anvil hasn't dropped mysteriously out of nowhere onto Slugfest's head by now. Geo nods, and settles down to make a few adjustments to the 'dispenser,' which is in reality something like a high-powered water hose. Not that Slugfest (or really, probably anyone else) is going to notice. Primarily, the adjustments that she is making are primarily to the output flow end. She turns it up past 11, to LUDICROUS. The actual display will read 'easy flow.' Glancing at Slugfest, she chuckles. "Slugfest, it need sto have all of it's legs popped out," she adds helpfully. Slugfest nods and helps Geo pull out the legs to full extended position on the 'dispenser'. "Us going to win for sure!" he says, "Us beat smarties. Then nobody call me Slugfest stupide evar again!" Geo glances at Slugfest, and unclicks the leg locks so that they extend. What they have looks pretty comical; a rounded central body, on a rotator that is attached to four legs. A long pipe and hose comes out of the central area, attached with a handle and a nozzle that looks like a combination between an air horn's square-end and a cybertronian gun. The display, in helpful green, reads 'FULL. TEMP 98.6. DISPENSE: EASY FLOW.' "That should do it, Slugfest," she says, standing up, glancing around the area. "And yes, we'll win for sure." Lab-Brat works on setting up his stand, which holds his most amazing invention yet. An invention that will top everything ever. Schematics are show on the wall, as well as results of his studies of what looks to be a shard of glass. On a display stand in the middle of his booth, is his device. Being of Junkion design, it of course doesn't look like much. A small spherical object cobbled togeather out of... well... junk, but its been polished to shine as much as the rusted worn metal can. LEDs flash on it as well as what looks to be an old kitchen timer. Monstereo digs out a gong from under a tarp, sets it up, consults his time readout, waits a few seconds, and then bangs the gong once. He then stands tall and announces slow and firmly, "Let it begin." Battle Station is located conveniently in an open area that's accessible to all of the contestants. Raw materials are constantly being fed into the many conveyor belt inside Fortress Maximus' construction bay where it's refined and manufactured into all kinds of parts for the contestants' use. The finished products are laid across the sides where Cog is standing by the automated robotic arms from Fortress Maximus' construction bay. Cog himself is standing by, ready to take requests from the contestants for parts and feed the order into the battle station's computer network. What better place to hold an event of technical and intellectual magnitude than on the planet of the subrace that can build almost ANYTHING out of EVERYTHING? Well, that and it was a place that wasn't busy being used by other events, but just happened to work well into the plans. The junk scattered fields around the Assembly Plant have been cleaned up, at least by Junkion standards, to make room for stands, racks of tools and other things the would be constructors may need. Note the cleared scrap has just been piled up around the area instead of being carried off. Hmmmm. The thupthupthup of propellor blades can be heard overhead as a orange and red chopper decents towards the sight. Then transforms into prehaps an even odder sight than the tapes here, being a Wrecker! Carrying one of the Autobots' long time friends and computer wizard in his wheelchair so he doesn't get stuck. "I know this really isn't your sort of thing, Sandstorm," Chip Chase remarks as he adjusts his glasses before they get all dusty. "But appreciate the lift and the help. Jetfire said he was too busy working on his 'special project'." Sandstorm just shrugs a bit as he walks over to set Chip's chair down on the podium platform. "Eh. I ain't as thick headed as most people think the Wreckers are," he replies with a wink. "But don't tell no one. It'd ruin our rep." Chip rolls over to the podium and takes the microphone down, opting to hold it in one hand instead. "Hello everyone, and thank you for coming. This is a new event this year to try and give those of you less interested in combat arts something to attend, so lets put on a good show so it gets an even better attendance in future years, okay? Once you've had a few moments to prepare we'll begin!" With a lightning fast flip and twist, Sandstorm lands in his robot mode, ready for action. Geo turns her red optics up to the human, and a nasty smile crosses her face for a brief second... then she claps, a metallic clanking sound. "Hear, hear," she murmurs softly, looking at her and Slugfest's 'special device' and grinning. "Slugfest, this should be quite awesome," she says, glancing across at the gathered areas. Noting the construction equipment that Fortress Maximus has become, she hrms, and brings up a holographic schematics display. "Hmmm." Monstereo smiles slightly and claps for the event MC and his airborne entrance. He makes a mental note not to do anything to 'out there' as his science project at the last Chip Chase Science Fair seemed to go over most peoples heads. Monstereo then takes this brief time to inspect the available tools, getting acquainted with what is available and where they are situated in order to save time. Slugfest starts picking up bottles of what is proclaimed to be "Elmer's Glue-All" on the labels. But what's in the bottles is decidedly NOT the original product. It's clear and looks somewhat jellified. He starts putting them on the table. There's also a big tub of the 'glue', to be poured into the device Geo brought along. The display placard reads Slugfest's Speshul Glue in big block letters. Obviously someone thought it would be cute to put some of the letters on backwards. There is also a white plastic bucket with a lid on it. For some reason there's small nail-holes in the lid. Whatever could be inside? Turbo-Car races into the area, Stylor's legs are flailing and he's barely hanging onto the rear mounted plasma turret. "Would you slow down, all this wind is ruining my hairstyle!" Instead of replying right away, the Headmaster hacker turns on the speed and transforms when hitting the competition area. Skidding to a stop, sparks fly up and the metal on his shin-guards are overheated red hot. "Apologies for the excessive speed, partner Stylor. But my participation in this event was required, not requested." Giving Chip a relaxed sigh, Chromedome makes his way over towards Monstereo. "Greetings Junkion, many thanks for allowing us to host this event on your home planet!" Other than making small talk, he's likewise scoping out to parts to make any later mad-dash easier. Lab-Brat doesn't seem to have much care, seemign confident that he'll win. He of course claps and greets the MC, as he puts the finishing touches on this stand, including the sign: THE AMAZING REALITY BOMB! It stats in big bold letters. YEah, he kinda nicked the name, but as long as any cyclopian pepper pots don't show up, He'll doubt anyone will notice. THough anyone that knows the Junkion's safety standards and success rate explosions might want to be marking the exits just in case... Monstereo gives a nod to Chromedome. "Mi casarole et su casarole." "Everyone ready? Good, then lets get an expedient start shall we." Chip claps his hands briefly, and event assistants filter through the area briefly, setting a panel with a series of circuit boards on it at each one. "We'll begin with something fairly simple. Repairing this circuitry panels." There's a brief pause, almost long enough to see what could be a glint of cunning amusement behind Chip's glasses. "But!" He sits up, waving one hand towards Fort Max, and the other at the piles of junk around them. "Some components may be in Maximus' production, while others... well, you'll have to take advantage of Junk planet's stockpiles of old electronics to find.. And go!" Sandstorm, feigning a bored look, picks up one of the spare panels and examines it. Huh. That's a clever trick, forcing them to -use- the junk. No wonder they decided to hold the event here. Geo picks up the larger of the buckets, opening a hatch on the back of the large object, and beginning to pour the viscous glue in. She gives a non-commital nod to the gathered Transformers and humans, letting her optics move from participant to participant. "So, Slugfest? Waht's in that bucket?" she says, looking at the one that has holes poked in it. Once the bucket in her hand is empty, she tosses it aside and shuts the hatch. "Hold that thought." And with that, she lifts up and hovers towards Fortress Maximus. At the actual announcement, she PEERS at Chip. "Wait, I thought the point of a science fair was to, y'know, build something cool and unique?" Combat: Lab-Brat compares his Technical to 50: Success! Combat: Chromedome compares his Technical to 50: Failure :(Combat: Slugfest compares his Technical to 50: Success! Combat: Monstereo compares his Technical to 50: Success! Chip Chase just grins a bit wryly as he waggles a finger at Geo. "Just showing off what you could already build on your own wouldn't be much of a challenge, now would it?" Slugfest rushes to find the necessary components. He may be stone cold daft, but he does know proper components when he sees them. Monstereo brow arches behind his goggles and then gives chromedome a wave. "Gotta fly!" He dashes off to start scavenging and collecting what he needs. His palm is filled soon enough and he gathers up a couple tools, begining work on a circuit board as he sings, "The diodes connected to the .. capacitor. The capacitors connected to the .. processors. The processors connected to me .. wristwatch." Geo glances at Slugfest, and taps her helmet, sending a short, cloaked radio burst of 'tape telepathy,' as it were. Her optics return to Chip, and she gives a very noncomittal shrug. "I suppose so," she says, glancing around the area. Chromedome transforms back into his Turbo-Car mode, <> Stylor just blankly stares back at the Cybertronian Car. "Huh?" Lab-Brat seems a bit disapointed that the event doesnt seem to show off the work he's done. He's spent a week on studying that shard and building his device. He moves past his table and over to the panels, being both a Junkion and a scientist, this is rather easy for him as he finds the correct peices and junk required to pass the first test. Sandstorm psssts aside to Chromedome. "You're using too big of words for your partner again." Combat: Chromedome misses himself with his Grab attack! Transforming back into robot mode, the Headmaster attempts to salvage at least some sort of loosely functioning circuit board. Back and forth Chromedome zips, throwing as many random pieces in place as his agility will allow. Combat: Chromedome strikes himself with his Grab attack! Monstereo studies his work, makes a few soldering refinements, and then studies the circuit board again. "Hmm... s'not bad. Could use a few bells and whistles." He looks around and finds a nearly empty bottle of Macrodraconian nail polish and starts dot-painting on each of the circuit board chips little Lucky Charms. Geo floats in place, watching Slugfest. "C'mon, dinobutt," she murmurs. From Fortress Maximus, Cerebros looks up at Geo and offers a finely crafted soldering iron, "It's just isn't an Olympic even without some surprise twists here or there, Geo. Interested in a SPUDDERCOM Inc soldering iron? You'd be amazed at how many galactical tool companies had sponsored this event." Yup, even Fortress Maximus has become a pawn of commercialism! "I think that about does it." Lab-Brat says as he finishes the work on the panel, without even gettign electrocuted once. Slugfest holds a little soldering iron in his mouth as he fixes the circuit board. It's easy enough, he's had stored data that shows how to do that sort of thing. Once it's fixed he holds it up proudly. "Me done!" Monstereo fans his work dry and smiles. "Bettah." Geo glances to Cerebros, floating over. "Sure. I could use a new soldering gun," she says, taking one from Cerebros. "Um. It's free, isn't it?" She looks back to Slugfest and grins then. "Great job, Sluggy!" ... Chip just stares blankly for a moment as the Autobot computer expert has a bit of a problem, either with his partner or with the sort of materials they're working with. Then again, this is construction, not programming. Either way. After a moment he achems softly and goes back to watching. Everyone else seems to have done well... surprisingly the tape-con with no hands. Eventually the whole crew appears to be done. "Well, then, now that everyone is warmed up. Let's try something a bit more complex... but don't throw away those circuits they -may- come in useful later." Is that an ominous hint. A new set of props are brought out, as a tray of assorted vials, beakers and bubbling chemicals are set down at each station. "From computers to chemistry, it would seem. All you need to do is combine the appropriate chemical compound from the provided ingredients... But can you find the right ones is the question!" "Only if one of them contains the booze!" Sandstorm retorts with a smirk from beside the stand, drawing a momentary facepalm from the human. Combat: Slugfest compares his Intelligence to 60: Success! Combat: Chromedome compares his Intelligence to 60: Success! Combat: Lab-Brat compares his Intelligence to 60: Failure :(Combat: Monstereo compares his Intelligence to 60: Success! Slugfest somehow manages to get the correct beakers and vials. He sniffs each one, then picks according to what it smells like. Geo stares. Really. It's either an 'awe' stare or a 'WTF?' dumbfounded stare as she watches Slugfest pick and choose the correct beakers; perhaps not in the standard 'order' she would've to make a chemical compound, but... well, he got the job done, didn't he? She kinda floats in place, looking around at the others after a few moments. From Fortress Maximus, Cerebros nods and hands over the soldering iron over to the cassetticon, "Well technically it's not free in that while it's contestants are free to use whatever sponsored company tools I have been schematics to manufacture with... I have to pay by randomly advertising their wares----" The Minibot-sized Autobot suddenly swings his mouth plated head around to a nearby camera and announces in a deep salesman-like voice possible to a nearby camera with a medium sized capacitor in his other hand, "No fuss, no must! Nothing outlasts Fazz Co's industrial quality capacitors. Your consumers will FEEL the quality!" Cog then looks back to the other contestants, "Yeah... each time you pick up one of these tools, I've got to make a corresponding advertisement pitch." Chromedome smells each beaker closely, giving his Headmaster partner upstairs another chance to redeem himself. "Yes yes, I know it's nothing like your offensive perfumes and other scents to increase your sexual attraction when dealing in the opposite sense, but your refined nostrils will work all the same." The hacker manages to pick out each correct beaker by his Nebulon-Hound's advice. Lab-Brat says, "Damnit Chip, I'm an Inventor not a Chemist!" He says as he starts fumbling with the chemicals, having no idea what he is doing in the least, which probably makes him a hazard to everyone's health as he picks all the wrong chemicals, which react very badly too each other and BOOM! a loud explosion as chemical fire, shards of glass, and one Junkion Inventor goes flying." The assitant crews all visibly yet -slowly- back away from Lab-Brat's station when he shows having a bit of trouble. Even Sandstorm edges to the other side of the MC stand, though its less out of fright and more out of just not wanting to be close to potentially volatile results. "Relax Sandstorm," Chip reassures him, "The chemicals for this event are not even explosi--" He's cut off by the eruption from Lab-Brat's stand launching the Junkion. Fortunately there' Geo turns her head around, and... GRINS at Cog. "So if I pick up this one? Or this one? Or this one?" She picks up, suddenly, a laser capacitor, a circular saw and a power coupling converter. The assitant crews all visibly yet -slowly- back away from Lab-Brat's station when he shows having a bit of trouble. Even Sandstorm edges to the other side of the MC stand, though its less out of fright and more out of just not wanting to be close to potentially volatile results. "Relax Sandstorm," Chip reassures him, "The chemicals for this event are not even explosi--" He's cut off by the eruption from Lab-Brat's stand launching the Junkion. Fortunately there's a saftey crew at hand, who step in to spray down the station briefly to put out the chemical fires with super futuristic non-flammable extinguishing foam. ".. Uh, care to try that again?" "He's a Junkion," Sandstorm replies wryly. "If there's a way to make something explode, they can probably find it." Monstereo puts his work away, taking the hint. He says, "Nudge nudge wink wink eh know what I mean?" He then studies the chemestry set laid before him. His pinky finger uncaps and a thin extension pops out. He dips it into each ingredient to analyse them as he sings Love Potion No. 9. He pauses as there is an explosion. "Egads! We're gonna need another Timmy!" He chuckles. Once done testing each, he ponders what is the most logical and cool thing to whip up in his kitchen. He smiles as it comes to him and he turns up the burner just a smidge preparing to brew. Meassuring and adding. Stirring and heating. Soon there is a gently bubbling work in progress right out of an old black and white B-movie. He lifts the jar off the burner to let it cool, and then sets it down on his table. What could it be? Combat: Lab-Brat strikes himself with his Grab attack! Lab-Brat is a Junkion that specailizes in explosives and spends most him time watching Mythbusters. Of course he'd gonna find away to make things explode that aren't ment to. He slowly shakes himself off, and gets to his feet thanks to the safty crews, and tries again; though is surprised they are letting him. Luckily he seems to succeed this time without blowing something up. Fortunately there's no seconds when it comes to spontanious combustions. At least Chip has the sense to not question how Lab-Brat managed to explode what was meant to be a non-hazardous selection. He just coughs and brushes some soot off the blanket covering his legs. "Okay, moving right along..." The leftover chemicals (or shattered glassware in Lab-Brat's case) are removed from the stands. "Hopefully we won't have any more... unforseen detonations. Heh." Fortunately he spent enough time around Wheeljack to not be -too- bothered by it. This time on each stand is placed a panel with a number of gears of different sizes and shapes. Some are set to spin in place, others are on sliding panels or turnable poles. At one end of the panel is a crank, and the other a bell. "You need to arrange the gears so when you turn the crank, they'll spin each other to work the level to ring the bell. Take your time, people, there's more than one right answer to this one." Combat: Slugfest compares his Intelligence to 70: Failure :(Combat: Lab-Brat compares his Intelligence to 70: Success! Combat: Monstereo compares his Intelligence to 70: Success! Combat: Chromedome compares his Intelligence to 70: Success! Slugfest tries rearranging the gears but doesn't get anywhere. Probably because since they're spinning and shiny, they're distracting the little dino-con-tape. He sits there mesmerized. Geo frowns as Slugfest gets mesmerised and distracted by the gears as they spin. She floats over and lands next to him, leaning over with a concerned look. And then WHACKS him as hard as her little tape arm (without switching to jackhammer mode) can. "You can do it! I mean, come on, it's only a sereplex sorting algorythm, I'm sure that's not too hard!" Chromedome easily configures the gears before him, attaching the crank last. "Chip, I mean you no disrespect.. but this was hardly a taxing task." Giving it a whirl, the bell chimes. Then he looks over towards the mesmerized Dino-tape. "Well, perhaps my hasty analysis failed to incorporate the other participants." Lab-Brat says, "Ah this is a bit more like it. No Chemicals, but at least that was an awesome explosion! I think that might be a record for me, making non-hazardous chemicals hazardous!" He says with a jovial luaghs as he puts the gears togeahter with little tought and effortlessly makes the bell ring. "I'm gonna have to store that one in my hall of fame..." Combat: Slugfest strikes himself with his Bird Droppings. (Grab) attack! Monstereo smiles. It's like being in kindergarten.... or being a damned dirty ape stuck in a human run zoo. Mental excercise games. He takes his time with this one just enjoying the simplistic nature of gears and the beautifully complex combinations they can form to work towards a goal. He sings Ring My Bell. Yes, he is a highly musical nerd. He makes his bell ring. And then just for fun, goes back to figure out another way to do it. Slugfest gets clobbered by Geo and snaps out of it. Finally he starts moving the gears around until they do what Chip tells them to. He wags his tail. "Me done it!" he says to Geo. "Thanks, me think." Geo grins at Slugfest. "Thataboy, Slugfest." Sandstorm meanwhile has aquired one of the extra gear sets, and also fiddled around with it for his own amusement, since he wasn't actually competing and was just here because Chip wanted an extra pair of optics around. Proving to be one of the more intellectual (not that he shows it often) of the Wreckers, he solves the puzzle in a fair amount of time as well... and then tosses it over his shoulder into a pile of junk and goes back to looking mildly amused. Chip claps briefly as even Slugfest, with a bit of encouragement from his partner, manages to figure it out eventually. "Alright, we're drawing towards the end of the contest, but there's still a round or two more to go... Remember the circuit boards from before? And your vial of chemicals? Good." He pauses for a moment for dramatic effect. "The circuits are a control panel, the gears a mechanism, and the chemicals.. well, chemicals. You need to assemble them so the circuits run the gears and make a device to it to pour out the vial... And you thought I had you just doing these puzzles at random I bet..." Combat: Monstereo compares his Technical to 70: Success! Combat: Chromedome compares his Technical to 70: Success! Combat: Slugfest compares his Technical to 70: Failure :(Combat: Lab-Brat compares his Technical to 70: Failure :(Slugfest looks like a deer in the headlights when Chip has finished speaking. "Him want me do what?" he asks Geo. "This seems like pointless busy work." Lab-Brat comments as he tries to hook everythign up, but then realizes he seems to have lost his circuits in the explosion. Floating behind Slugfest, Geo's arms menacingly transform into the jackhammer-arms typical of most humanoid 'con tapes. "He wants you to take the circuit board, use it to run the gears YOU JUST FINISHED, and attach a wiggly arm," she rumbles, pointing with one of the jackhammer arms at the junk piles, "to pour out the chemicals." She floats a little lower, finally landing behind Slugfest with a dull clank, trying to think of a SIMPLER way to put it together for Slugfest. Chip coughs lightly into a fist. "You may need to help him with this one too, Geo... he doesn't have hands, after all." He's not going to be mean enough to comment on Slugfest's intelligence, seeing as this is a compatition and not the war. Combat: Slugfest strikes himself with his Bird Droppings. (Grab) attack! Geo glances sidelong at Chip, and then smiles sweetly. "Oh, I can help him with this one? Alright!" Her arms transform back, and she dives into one of the junk piles, coming back up with... well, something that looks like a rusting skull, an arm that looks like it's off of Autoscout, and afew other pieces. "Here, Slugfest, let me help." And she helps Slugfest by directing him, and doing the more hand-requiring attachments. Slugfest nods at Geo and starts putting the device together as she suggests. "Yes, help," he says, "Us win together!" His little feet being surprisingly dextrous. Combat: Lab-Brat strikes himself with his Grab attack! Chromedome manuevers all three devices in front of him on his workbench, hands in fluid motion assembling them to work in conjunction. Secretly, Stylor had warned him of this probable outcome.. so he saves some time by having already kept that in mind in their production. Sliding the last piece in, Chromedome flips a switch and the machination pours out the vial. Lab-Brat finds the missing circuits after a bit of searching around his area, abd begins to set up the silly device that the human demands, it seeming to be a bit below him. There's no grandure to it, no art. Just a simple little device that even a casseticon can make, apparently. Monstereo grins and has the old board game Mouse Trap on his mind as the gets to hunting down a power cell, an adaptor, an old cracked switch, a bucket with a hole in it, a hunk of burnt apoxy to seal the hole, a gyroscope, a self sealing stem-bolt, a stuffed albatross, an exhaust pipe, and a set of hinges. He then goes over to Max and his little buddy and requests a roll of duct tape, a few bolts and a manual or automatic bore. His arms loaded fully, he drops his goodies down before his three finished products and gets to assembling as he sings Lets Get Together. Geo peers back at Monstereo as she welds an arm onto the mechanism. "Now, hit the switches, Slugfest, and that should do it." She looks... calmer, perhaps? Slugfest presses the switches. And lo, the circuit board lights up! Followed by the spinning of gears and parts, which swings the piece that would've rung the bell; however, this is attached to the gripper arm, which is holding the vial. Which pours out, into a handy-dandy upside-down rusting skull-looking piece to catch the spill! There's a bit of fumbling around, but once again all four parties, even the dino-tape (again with some help from his assistant that has actual hands) due assemble their contraption in time. Which both pleases and amuses Chip, to watch all three of the factions stretching their minds as well as their physical skills for a change. "Well Sandstorm, what do you think?" He pauses to look one way, then the other, but the Wrecker seems to have disappeared off-screen again. Maybe behind one of the scrap piles were he threw his own tinkering with the tests. "Ooookay. Guess I shouldn't be surprised." Chip shrugs a bit and turns back to watch the others finish up. "Alright, good job contestants!" the human remarks as he picks up his microphone again. "Now that we've had our fun utilizing your processors and tactile skills for something other than mutually beating the sprockets out of each other... Let's get to what you all really came for." Chip settles back in his wheelchair with a smile across his face, readjusting his glasses with one hand. "I know several if not all of you expected this to be a science -fair- and have your own inventions... And it would be a shame to let such work and application go to waste, so lets see what you all brought." Monstereo taptaptaps and ratchets lots more. He rips out length after length of duct tape. He drills and welds. He fastens and lubricates. He fiddles and tweaks. Until finally he activates his finished product. Lots of plinks and clicks. Lots of movement and sound. And the circuits work the gears. The gears push the albatross which pours the chemical into the pipe which leads gently down to the bucket... cause there is no need to cause a mess. :p Combat: Slugfest compares his Technical to 80: Failure :(Combat: Slugfest misses himself with his Bird Droppings. (Grab) attack! Combat: Monstereo compares his Intelligence to 80: Failure :(Combat: Lab-Brat compares his Technical to 80: Success! Combat: Chromedome compares his Intelligence to 80: Success! Combat: Monstereo strikes himself with his Groping for ideas (Grab) attack! "Time for glue show off!" Slugfest says to Geo, "Glue cannon ready?" Combat: Slugfest strikes himself with his Bird Droppings. (Grab) attack! The glue-cannon is all loaded, ready to fire. Slugfest lets Geo do the honors. Monstereo arroos at the subject of presenting projects comes up, and starts checking his 'pockets'. He's fresh out of Klud progeny. He doesn't have his dimensional harness handy. He really didn't come prepared. So it's down to coming up with something useful on the fly. What does he have? He pulls out the most technical thing he possesses, his sonic rifle. Monstereo looks around, stomps his foot in frustration, and then an idea finally comes only after losing that bit of cool. He searches for a monitor screen, a few sensor circuit boards, a cable, and then grabs his duct tape. He starts assembling while others show off what they did happen to bring. The brown nosers :p He uses his time and waits to be last as he works and prepares... Geo floats over to the contraption that she and Slugfest brought with them, and lands next to it. She flips a switch and picks up the nozzle portion. "C'mere Slugfest. You're hte one who got the most important component." She grins at the dinotape, then amplifies her own voice. "Thank you, everyone, for watching this event. It was, surprisingly, a LOT more interesting than the other events," she says, "and now, for our piece de resistance, we have... the multi-function scatter glue cannon. With Slugfest's rather unique discovery of a chemical that is, at differing temperatures, capable of producing a super-slick surface..." Wow, she sounds very used-car-salesman... "or a super-adhesive bond." She points the nozzle at the floor nearby, away from everyone (while surrepetitiously trying to point the 'secondary' nozzle at Chip and Sandstorm's area). "Now, watch this." She sprays the floor, leaving a shiny patch about 20x20. "Now, Slugfest. Go skating to show off the first aspect of the compound!" Slugfest starts running, his little feet scrabbling against the floor as he builds up a head of steam. He lands on the slick patch...and sliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiides! Slip and Slide, eat your heart out. The rim of the lid on the tub that has nail holes seems to be inching upward, almost as if something is pushing at it from the inside... Finally, what Lab-Brat had came here for. He goes back to his presentation stand, with his patented Reality Bomb. He begins giving it a final once over, making sure everything works and is in order. And this seems to be one of those rare occassions where indeed everything is working properly with one of his inventions. Oh yes, this was going to be the most wonderful explosion ever! His optics lit up like a alpha unit in a energon goody store. Be afraid. Be very afraid... "Ah ladies and gentlemen, step right up to invention of the milenina! My patented and amazing Reality bomb! With this device you can quite litterally reject reality and substitute your own! Thanks to the shard I found deep in the mazes while hunting for the Six Lasers Treasure; I have built a device that will temporatily effect the reality of everyone around them!" Geo glances sidelong at the reality bomb. "Uh, no, thanks. Why don't you show us how it works, Junkion?" She chuckles, then switches the lever on the glue cannon. "And now, Slugfest. The second of his amazing finds, the super-adhesive. Come over here and do the honors!" She says, switching the lever.. not realizing that some of the glue has 'solidified' in the nozzle after being used to make superslick. "Pull the lever for us, and we should be good!" Slugfest pulls the lever. Slugfest says, "Why it no come out?" Slugfest pulls harder! And with that, one of the valves simply EXPLODES, and suddenly both deceptitapes (and their immediate 20 foot radius) are caught up in a blast of super-sticky goo, splattering both tapes with enough force to slam them together. And seal them together, as both are covered in the adhesive. "What... WHAT DID YOU DO?!" There's one burst that flies away from them, landing about twenty feet to the left of Sandstorm and Chip. ".. Oh great, he's going to defy -more- physics," Sandstorm can be heard murmuring from behind one of the trash piles. And then the sound of more digging around, tossing a few pieces of junk here and there. Who knows what he's up to. Chip watchs the tapes demonstrate their slick compound. "Hmm. Interesting." But then his attention is taken for a moment by the Junkions, watching Monstereo work for a bit, then listening to Lab-Brat's rambling explaination. "So it's.. some sort of virtual reality bomb?" even the human genius looks a bit confused. Junkions, go figure. He's about to say something more, but it's interrupted by the technical difficulties with the Deceptitape's invention. "...Oh my..." Sandstorm looks up at the sound of something blowing up... and starts snickering at the results. "Hey look, they did so good in the event that they got all 'stuck up'. Hahahaha!" Slugfest is on his back, little feets waving in the air. "Help! Me stuck!" he says, glued firmly to Geo. Meanwhile, something slithers unnoticed from the tub... Geo groans. "I would say 'you stupid dinosaur,'" she starts, pulling at the adhesive holding her back to Slugfest's left vibrocannon, as he's on his back. And both are stuck to the floor. "But you did good. A lot better than I expected." She lets out a sigh. "Try to fly, Slugfest..." Lab-Brat says, "Oh hey look! An explosion I didn't cuase!" Lab-Brat exlaims happily and claps his hands. "That was simply Amazing little cassetticons! Good work on yoru FanTAStic explosion!" The junkion replies honeslty, without even the least bit of sarcasm. He then looks to Chip. "Something like that, yes. It effects the minds and processors of anyone in its range, and drasticly alters how they perceive the reality around them. I think the effect would be similar to those hallucinagentics you humans use for recreation." Geo also, mutters, "So the Junkion built a POT BOMB." Slugfest tries flying, but so far no luck. Meanwhile the Slithering Thing(tm) is in search of an unwary leg to crawl up... Monstereo is quite unwary, totally focussed on his work. His leg is thusly also unwary... One of the saftey crews comes in, with full hazmat hardware no less, to clean up some of the splattered globulets of the glue before some unfortunate fool steps on it. Chip coughs softly. "Um.. someone may need to help clean them up... and we should get on with the event." Geo has not yet noticd the Slithering Thing from Beyond. She can't quite turn towards it, anyway, being stuck. "Anyone got any, uh... nail polish?" She actually has no IDEA what chemicals are in the super-adhesive s othat she can formulate an escape. Several more Slithering Things have escaped the Tub. The lid's only open a crack, but that's apparently wide enough for a whole host of Slitheries to stampede to freedom, horrible freedom! Chromedome was, just as Monstereo, not prepared with any sort of handy 'invention' that was already thought out and constructed. So he has to think on the fly, construct something from.. nothing. Or so that's what the others are led to bleive. The Headmaster constructs a crude terminal on the workbench, throwing together cables and circuit boards as fast as he can find them. In front of the screen, the hacker constructs a miniature makeshift keyboard complete with matching junk mouse. The hastily assembled computer is made up of that orange sheet metal the Autobots go gaga over. "As you can see here, I've constructed a simple personal computation device. Nothing that would rival Computron, I assure you. But this is not the show, oh no." Chromedome displays his construction, bending down in front of the keyboard and typing in a myriad of commands. "This on the proverbial other hand, is!" Stepping back from the screen, everyone can see a black rectangle box. On it is some scrolling white text, a log in screen.. in Telnet? "Homosapiens 2k5 is the forefront in multi-user shared happiness, the only spot online where you can fully assume a human's role in life. I've programmed every imaginable job, skill, asset, and area possible into the lush enviroment. I have an advanced combat code for those pesky fender benders that boil down to roadrage, or when you want to punch your boss in the nose for being passed on a promotion. All in all, it's just good clean fun when Cybertronians aren't saving or endangering the galaxy!" the Headmaster finishes, crossing his arms and looking proud at the MUSH. Then he's covered in glue. :(Geo hrms. "Can you transform, Slugfest?" She says that, then... blinks. "Oh, wait, don't try that. It'll get stuck in your servoes." She looks at the hazmat crews. "Hey, you guys. Can you get a scan of what all is IN this stuff? I can formulate a solvent if I know what's in it." She doesn't even try to look at Slugfest, and then adds, "Where EXACTLY did you say you picked up this stuff again?" "It from in tub!" he says. But if the technicians go to look in the tub with nail holes...they'll find it strangely empty... Monstereo manages to ignore the explosive chaos that went on around him. This is his kung fu, and it is strong. Finally his time comes and he holds up his sonic rifle. What's new about it is there is a monitor mounted on it facing whoever is holding it for firing... sensors are linked from the monitor to the dish end of the weapon. "Behold. I give you what no Junkion household should be without. Ever lose your car keys under a couch? Ha! That's nothing. Try losing your transformation gear under a mountain of junk. But with this little beauty new from Monstereo Wurx, you can search that pile without lifting a single piece of scrap. Just check this out..." He grabs a hollow space mine spikey casing from a pile, hurls it at another, and waits for the pile to finish avalanching down on top of the casing. He then walks over to the pile, points his rifle at it, and starts it off on lowest setting. He gradually turns it up until the pile starts to vibrate dangerously. As the power goes up, an image on the monitor appears and changes in layers like a brain scan in a hospital. Every single piece of junk in the pile is clearly outlined on the screen and he stops when he spots the spikey hollow space mine case. He points dramatically at the screen. "YAHTZEE!" A Slitherie slithers away deeper into the pile off the monitors current depth range. He doesn't notice it because his goggled optics are already turning towards Chromedome's lit up screen. "Oooh, a new online roleplaying game? I wanna be a balding middleaged biker." Monstereo says, "Named Incometax-Armpit.... hope there's no strict naming rules in effect." One of the hazmat guys holds his scanner out on one of those extendable gripper arms so Geo can see the screen without having to risk touching the stuff himself. A couple others try some random desolovents at the edges of the mess, but aren't having much luck. "A.." Even Chip is dumbfounded for a moment at Chromedome's presentation. "... An online game about being ordinarily human?" Then after a moment he grins a bit. "Jazz and Blaster will get a joy out of that I imagine." And it would appear that Monstereo has built a super sonar metal detector device. "That must be very useful for a place like Junk. Hmmmm." Chip rubs his chin for a moment. "Wonder if it could be used to find recycable items that got thrown in trash yards during those decades we didn't know better." The slithering creepy crawlies are now everywhere, having dispersed from their happy slime tub. Each has a pair of eyestalks, a smaller pair of feelerstalks, and they're green mottled with black. One crawls right towards Monstereo. Chromedome sighs, "Actually, it sounds a little too.. dull." Transforming, Stylor hits the ground with a tiny *thmp*. "Yeah, uhh.. Junk. It needs some flair, some style." Combat: Chromedome compares his Technical to 80: Failure :(Combat: Lab-Brat compares his Intelligence to 80: Failure :(Monstereo smiles at Chip and feels like pat-patting the human on the head. He then spots a creepy crawly coming for him. "Oooh, you're new." He crouches and puts out a hand palm up as he studies the oncomming creature. Combat: Chromedome compares his Technical to 80: Success! Combat: Lab-Brat compares his Technical to 80: Success! Slugfest the Creepy Crawly, upon close inspection, proves to be a rather large Banana Slug. It looks up at Monstereo with its little black pinhole eyes and raises up the front part of its body. The Creepy Crawly, upon close inspection, proves to be a rather large Banana Slug. It looks up at Monstereo with its little black pinhole eyes and raises up the front part of its body. Focused on the screen, Geo doesn't notice the creepy crawlies that are makign their way around. She'll notice eventually, but she frowns. "This... makes very little sense. It has some of the same chemical markers as, well... Earth-based lifeform 'banana slug' slime." She frowns. "The chemicals on the table, I'll need you to mix these amounts for me." And her actual intellect and function shines through, and she begins to ramble off confusing and very, VERY accurate chemical formulae to the technicians. Whether they'll work on the slime is left to be seen, but it IS three separate solvent formulae. "And be quick about it. It needs to be applied in 3 layers; the first set, let it begin to dissolve. The second set, to speed the reaction. And the third set to, well, set us free!" Combat: Chromedome compares his Technical to 90: Success! Combat: Lab-Brat compares his Technical to 90: Success! Monstereo quietly awwwwws and makes subsonic pulses to sooth the invertebrate before rising and leaving it alone to its own affairs. The slug seems soothed by the harmonics emitted by Monstereo. Slowly it retracts its head into its mantle cavity and sleeps. Combat: Chromedome compares his Technical to 90: Failure :(Combat: Lab-Brat compares his Technical to 90: Success! Slugfest is finally unglued, thanks to the special chemical solvent mix. He scrambles up, with difficulty, onto the display table. He goes to the tub...and discovers it empty. "NOOOO! SLUGS ALL GONE! HELP FIND!" Geo kinda just flumps after the solvents are applied and the goo dissolves. "We can get you more, Slugfest. Maybe they'll stick everything on the junkion planet together with their slime." She looks, if a Transformer can be said to, exhausted. Slugfest hurries to find some of the slugs and recaptures them. However, he forgot how many he brought and some slip away undetected...perhaps to reappear later. The hazmat techs all hurry to do as Geo suggests, gathering the chemicals together, mixing them, and then applying the three seperate compounds as instructed. As much as normally people would love to leave a couple of Decepticons stuck, it wouldn't be very Olympic spirit like. And they were playing nicely, too. Meanwhile Chip is passed over a datapad. He shifts his glasses to look at it. "Alright, the judging has been finished. The Gold medal goes to ... Monstereo! For the potential useful applications of his sonic searching device. The Silver goes to Lab-Brat, for the theoretical advancement to virtual... aaah... stimulation of the senses." He's not going to use the hallucigenics comparison the Junkion did, that'd be bad press. "And Bronze goes to Chromedome, for designed a game that no one else would think of and is likely quite amusing to all those other species out there that'd like to live a day in our shoes! And you all have my thanks for coming out and making this intellectual compatition what it was." With that done, he rolls his chair over to the edge of the stage. "Hey, Sandstorm, we're done now... Sandstorm?" He rolls off the stage and around the pile of scrap. "What are you doing back he--" "Hey!" Sandstorm wheels around, flatting against the contraption he's built himself, but it doesn't really hide well. Especially when it starts pouring out energon at the end. The strong stuff. Looks like he tried to rebuild one of those stills from the drinking compatition. "I'm trying to make something useful out of this assignment here! Let a mech have his fun." Chip just plants his face in his palm again. "Wreckers...." Geo laughs loudly as Chip turns to head out, and Sandstorm is caught with his mouth on the booze. "Good jorb, Wrecker. Real good." She stands up, and claps for those who were gathered and had won. "Congratulations, you guys." She grins, and lifts off. "C'mon, Slugfest. Let's go. I could use some rest and Energon." Slugfest follows Geo out as the participants are finished being awarded. "Yus, us go. Us no win, but was fun!" he says, practically prancing. His saddlebags have been reloaded and he's carrying them.
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