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2016-09-24 The Things Wasp Carries

From Transformers: Lost and Found

The Things Wasp Carries
Date 2016/09/24
Location Lost Light - Recreation
Participants Brainstorm, Gearshift, Waspinator
Summary Brainstorm finally gets to question Waspinator in depth about his experience with titans.

The recreation deck runs from Swerve's boisterous bar at the far end to the quiet of the Observation Deck at the front of the ship. Rooms to either side are set up for use by individuals or groups so long as they sign-up for a timeslot. These rooms are occasionally used for weapons training, sometimes sparring, sometimes obstacle courses -- and sometimes people just sign off for a block of time for a little peace and quiet in the noisy, crowded ship.


There's not too many mechs populating the recreation deck, which surprises Gearshift but does not distract her from her jovial gabbing with her favorite Wasp (the only one she knows as well, but besides the point). She's leading the mech back from Swerve's to her habsuite, where she swears up and down she has an Earth movie he'll enjoy greatly.

"Seriously, you'll LOVE A Bug's Life! It's a classic on Earth." Gearshift gushes, plating puffed up proudly.

Waspinator is not sure what this movie entails but from her description is seems.. Strange. He is only really coming along because he doesn't want to upset the femme, Wasp would have been perfectly content to remain at Swerve's. In fact, he is already trying to figure out if he will have time to go back later, he is far from drunk right now and that is a problem. Wazzpinator juzzt wantzz to forget... But Gearbot izz alwayzz nice to Wazzpinator.. Wazzpinator not want to hurt Gearbot'zz feelingzz... So he is lettig himself practically be dragged down the hall by a femme half his size.

Contrary to some rumors, Brainstorm does not actually live in his workshop. While he does enjoy locking himself in there with his work, every now and then he does step out to do his work somewhere else. Today, 'work' happens to be the ongoing question of the engine issues, and 'somewhere else' happens to be the library, with its collection of literature on titans. It's a selection of that literature that Brainstorm carries under his arm when he spots something even better: a real live titan hunter. His last attempt at interrogating Waspinator was cut a little short, since it turned out that the medibay staff do not appreciate people taking advantage of their patients' states to question them without the risk of them running off. Now he can continue where he left off! Picking up his pace, the scientist moves after the insecticon, and his buddy, hailing them with a cheerful "Hey!"

Gearshift turns to the direction of the familiar voice and brightens up "Brainstorm! Hi! We were just headed to my habsuite to watch a movie, what about you?" She notices the datapads and asks "Just coming from the library?"

Waspinator tenses up when he hears Brainstorm yelling after them, immediately recognizing the voice. He starts to move faster- only for Gearshift to stop. What izz Gearbot doing!? He takes one look at the approaching scientist and quickly shuffles so Gearshift is very much between the two of them. Obviously if she is willing to greet him like that then he isn't about to hurt her, or hurt her to get to Waspinator. Brainstorm gets no response from the bug other than a wary stare.

Clearly, Waspinator does not know Brainstorm very well. Violence is only the answer when someone else is performing it (and not in his direction). He just makes it easier. On his own, he's quite fine talking things out. Or gesturing. Or both. He nods at Gearshift's guess "Yeah. I was doing a little research on something. Realy important research. Like, you couldn't even imagine how important!" he makes a wide, sweeping gesture with the arm not laden down by datapads to emphasize how important it is "But trust me when I say that it's so important that our lives could depend on it. Your friend here actually has some experience with it." he nods at Waspinator, stepping in a bit closer "Mind if I borrow him for a bit?"

This is when Gearshift notices that Waspinator has hidden himself behind her as best he can "I don't think now is a good time." She says, a bit sternly "Unless you don't mind me coming with you?"

Waspinator looks nervously between the two of them, immediately wondering if he has time to make a break for it. Gearshift sticking up for him does make him begin to rethink making a break for it, however. Gearbot hazz not led Wazzpinator into danger before... And Wazzpinator can grab Gearbot and run if Wazzpinator needzz to. If she wants him to talk to Brainstorm he will.. For a little bit. That doesn't mean he will relax any.

"Did I mention how important this is?" Brainstorm steps in even closr, looking from Gearshift, to Waspinator, and back again "If you want to come along, feel free to do so. Actually, we don't even have to go anywhere. I just have a few questions!"

Gearshift turns to Waspinator now "Are you okay with this?" She can tell he's really not, but isn't about to make a choice for the mech. She gently takes his servo in hers, doing her best to seem reassuring, that she might possibly be able to keep him safe.

Waspinator takes a step back as Brainstorm takes a step closer. What izz mech planning... What? Zzciencebot hazz quezztionzz? He is about to say no when gearshift takes his hand. Why izz Gearbot doing that? Despite his confusion he does notice that the fact that brainstorm wants to ask him questions doesnt seem to concern her very much. Maybe it izz not dangerouzz... "...What doezz Zzciencebot want to know?" He sounds wary, very wary, "Zzciencebot hazz already tried to talk to Wazzpinator with Vortex, what elzze doezz Zzciencebot need from Wazzpinator?"

"Keyword: 'tried'" Brainstorm points out "Until you impaled yourself on Vortex and ran off. And then the medibay staff kicked me out of the medibay. They really don't understand what's at stake here. I mean, if it's really bad, this whole ship could go BOOM!" he spreads his free hand again to show the size of the hypothetical explosion "And we're all stardust! Anything you might know about titans could be really helpful in preventing that. Like, how did you find them? And how did you get to them?

"wait, what do you mean the ship could explode!?" Gearshift can't stop herself from asking. That's definitely something worth knowing in her mind, at least before Waspinator has to explain himself.



Waspinator stares blankly as Brainstorm seems to start rambling. Zzciencebot talkzz alot. When the actual questions finally come around, Waspinator tilts his head to the side in confusion. "Wazzpinator not know how to explain, Wazzpinator juzzt.. Follow trail.." With Bludgeon you kind of learned on the job and just picked things up as you went along. Titans, like ships, tended to leave faint traces behind. If one knows how to find them, one can track them. Only titans are harder to find than ships. The second question confuses him even more. "Wazzpinator.. Rode in zzhip?" You are going to have to be more specific here Brainstorm.

Brainstorm grants Waspinator a moment of mercy to explain the situation to Gearshift "What I mean is that every time we approach a colony, something drains our engines. If this ever turns in to something more than that, we could have a real problem on our hands." that done, he turns right back to the insecticon "What sort of trail? How did you know you even had a trail, and it wasn't just random radiation, or some passing ship? Also, did anything weird ever happen when you did find a titan? Any engine troubles? Other mechanical anomalies?" again, Brainstorm steps in, even leaning forward a bit, once again closing some of the distance between them. His expression is eager and curious, but hardly hostile.

The explaination suits Gearshift just fine, but the barrage of questions does not. She puts herself between them again, servos up. "That might be a few too many questions at once." Not that Waspinator isn't capable of answering them, but he was already nervous as it is. "Don't overwhelm him" She says gently.

Waspinator clearly takes two steps back for every one of Brainstorm's. The mech may not be hostile but the aggressiveness of his excitement is unnerving the bug. He would bolt but Gearshift quickly steps in, keeping the weapons engineer at bay. Waspinator settles a little and tries to process the huge amount of questions just thrown at him. "Wazzpinator juzzt know trail when Wazzpinator see it... if find trail, have to follow. Trail might be wrong, might not. Mozzt titanzz warp around univerzze. Uzzually zzhow up after they zzpace bridge, have to catch titanzz when rezzting and refueling." His optics narrow as the questions as the engines come about, "Wazzpinator wazz never in charge of that zzhip controlzz. Wazz zzent to help track down from outzzide with other Inzzecticonzz."

"Alright, alright" Brainstorm straightens out, shifting his grip on his datapads. Even he can see that Waspinator is getting a bit overwhelmed. The last thing he needs is the mech running off on him again "So, I'm guessing they never told you of any problems, huh?" That's an assumption. That doesn't count as his question for this round. What follows, does "So, can you find that trail when we approach a colony? Like, if we came up to a colony and, hypothetically, dropped you on it, could you find its titan?"

That sounds like something that Waspinator would be loathe to do alone if he has the choice. She watches the insecticon, then Brainstorm, letting the mech answer on his own now, offering her presence as support.

Waspinator thinks for a second, deciding the best way to answer. Wazzpinator could lie, not have to do anything. But if found out Wazzpinator lied... Its a long moment before Waspinator slowly nods. "Wazzpinator... could try."

Brainstorm might have said 'hypothetically', but his optics light up at Waspinator's answer "In that hypothecial scenario, how much would you mind if we hypothetically attached sensors to you, or sent someone else along as well?"

Gearshift chimes in with a "I could go with him" She's a scout too after all!

Waspinator gets the feeling this hypothetical situation is going to become very real now no matter what he says or does. Beginning to tense up again, Waspinator responds, "Wazzpinator... wouldn't mind?" He really would prefer if he's about to be shoved into a situation that he has someone around to act as a bullet sponge so he can get away. When Gearshift talks, Waspinator even surprises himself when he says, "No. Wazzpinator would need mech who can keep up. Geatbot not fazzt enough."

Brainstorm's expression only brightens "Awesome!" for someone discussing a hypothetical, he sure sounds excited. Now he just needs to put together the equipment and find this guy an escort. But that's for later "Okay, hang on, I have a few more questions, unrelated to this whole hypothetical planet drop. When you find a titan, do you feel anything unusual at all? Awe doesn't count."

Gearshift takes in the information as well, noting that it would probably be good to retain as much of it as possible. She's starting to wonder if the ship should change from trying to find the Knights of Cybertron to becoming Titan hunters.

Waspinator stares for a moment before looking away, starting to curl in on himself, "Wazzpinator.. Not like to remember feelingzz. Remindzz Wazzpinator of... bad place." His antenna starts to twitch in discomfort, as do his wings. He can still remember the horrible pain and cold of that place the dying titan warped him to. He doesn't like this conversation anymore, he never really did but now it's bringing up horrid memories. Maybe bezzt to run now...

"Bad place?" This time, Brainstorm's the one who's confused. What could a titan do to invoke feelings of a bad place. There's the thing that happened with Soundwave, but from what's been told and whispered around the ship, that sounds like something due to his telepathic abilities, which Waspinator never showed any signs of having. Of course, a titan could do lots of things in self deffense, which could very easily make for a traumatic experience even without psychic powers. Still, Brainstorm asks, his voice loses the former eager chipperness, replaced by something that could even be described as sympathetic "What do you mean?"

Gearshift touches Waspinator's arm "It's okay Wasp, just tell Brainstorm as much as you're comfortable sharing right now." Her voice is gentle and soft as she tries to coax Waspinator to at least clarify for the scientist what he meant. Then they can easily abscond to her habsuite.

Waspinator looks down at gearshift, still twitching and tense. Finally he seems to relent, again not wanting to disappoint Gearshift. "Wazzpinator.. Only found one titan with crew. Found it, drained of energy, attacked it. Wazzpinator delivered final blow." Suddenly the mech is pacing back and forth, biting at his clawtips in agitation, "Wazzpinator zztabbed it in zzpark, wazz eazzy, titan weak. Not zzee Wazzpinator coming, zzink into itzz chamber like knife through cabling. Wazzpinator zztill feel itzz energon flow over armzz, zzo much." Whatever is going on in Waspinator's head, hes not so much terrified anymore as seemingly to relive something in his head. "Then bad thing happen. Wazzpinator not know what happen, but big flazzh and zzuddenly Wazzpinator in zzo much pain, zzo cold. Wazz.. Wazz nothing elzze. Titan only thing Wazzpinator zzee, Wazzpinator feel it die. Trapped in bad place, zzo alone." It almost seems like Waspinator cant stop himself anymore, this very well might be the first time he has ever told anyone fully and he seems like he is growing more agitated as he goes. Was.. was his stinger always so prominent? "Felt zzomething. Zzomething was weird but Wazzpinator uzze it. More pain! Then Wazzpinator can zzee again, out in zzpace but titan nowhere. Wazzpinator drag zzelf to nearezzt planet, crazzh down and find zzomething to zzuzztain zzelf. Then leave to try and find otherzz. Not find them. Not until Lozzt Light."

Brainstorm listens to Waspinator attentivley, his expression interested and thoughtful. Any remaining chipperness, however is completely washed away. This is certianly something new. He's not yet sure if it has any relevance to their imediate problem, but he will make sure to note it down when he gets back to his workshop.

When Waspinator finally falls silent, the engineer speaks up "Sounds like it must have been awful, but thanks for telling me. This could be useful. Not sure for what yet, but it could be." His voice is more serious than before "That should do for now though, but I might need to catch you sometime later" he might have a reputation as an amoral jerk, but he's not so much of an afthole that he's going to push a mech who's clearly reliving some serious scrap "By the way, you might want to talk to Rung sometime, or what's-his-name, the other guy - wait, I think that is his name. They might be able to help you somehow."

Gearshift nods in agreement "Rung is wonderful," She assures her friend. "Thank you Brainstorm, we'll catch you around." With that she looks up at Waspinator "Let's go watch our movie, mm?" She says, hoping to cajole Waspinator into relaxing still.

Waspinator can feel it, the stir of old instincts starting to label everything not just as dangerous but as a clear threat. The kind of threat that needs to be ripped apart before it can rip you apart. The same feeling of rapid panic he had when first coming back from... that place. One look down at the other two has him knowing what he has to do. "Wazzpinator not want to zzee movie anymore." Without another word he shifts into alt mode and goes flying down the hall, around the corner before one can reset their optics. He has to stay away from others until he can come down from this pseudo adrenaline rush, he doesn't want to hurt them. He would much rather choose flight than fight right now.

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