| abstract
| - Nevada A land of rugged, snow-capped peaks, dry desert valleys, and huge, sparsely populated expanses, Nevada, the Silver State, still has the aura of the Old West. Blessed with widespread mineral resources, it is the nation's leading producer of gold, silver, and mercury, but its main claim to fame comes from, of course, gambling. That, entertainment, and skiing make it a popular destination for tourists not only from the bordering states but from around the world. Las Vegas, Reno, and Lake Tahoe are the best known tourist traps. Less well known features are the large, discreet military facilities and testing grounds in the least-populated areas of the state. Grimlock has found a stretch of Nevada desert. A big stretch. With rocks. And cactus. And not much else. He waits atop a particularly large hill- lord of all he surveys! Which...isn't much. There might bean old trailer over there, at least. Desert! A great place to dig holes! Or at least, Nosecone thinks so. And people are less likely to complain about it. Perhaps Grimlock has drilling holes in mind; after all, it seemed to work out quite well in Ayotzinco. OH, and a desert has lots of rocks to find to paint later! Patchwork already has several in one hand as she comes upon the training area, making her way casually rather than with any particular hurry. Air Raid coasts on over and almost topples the little trailer with jetwash as he lands, transforming. Taking up position next to Patchwork, he raises his hand. And leaves it until Grimlock calls on him. Foxfire makes his way through the desert toward Grimlock's position. Occasionally he playfully jumps over a boulder or large hole, and, as always, lands on all four paws. He approaches Grimlock with his ears perked. Grimlock hmmmms, and looks over the little gathering of Autobots he's summond. Well, THIS bunch certainly isn't going to be winning any mighty battles anytime soon. Eh. "OKAY." he finally says, and crosses his arms across his mighty chest. "Who know why me Grimlock pick this place? Air Raid just continues to raise his hand, frowning. Nosecone raises his hand. "Because it's out of the way, it's a desert, and humans won't complain?" he ventures. "Ooh, ooh!" Foxfire sits on his haunches and raises a forepaw, imitating a human raising his hand. "Because of the harsh climate?" "Because there's nothing here for you to break?" Patchwork volunteers as she settles into the little gathering. Grimlock hmms, and nods to the other Autobots. "Hmm. Yeah. That stuff." Grimlock says, a bit dismissively- and then he peers over at Air Raid as the Aerialbot raises a hand. "WHUT." "How the frag did Sunny get out of this so easily!" Raid exclaims, stamping a foot. "He probably had an appointment with a car wash," Nosecone says, elbowing Air Raid. Air Raid would've laughed at Nosecone's jab, but he wasn't too happy about being out in the hot desert when he could be leveling up his paladin. "Stop pouting, Raid..I'm gonna have to do this and THEN repair you all." Patchwork mutters to Raid as she elbows him from the other side. Grimlock grunts. "IT NOT MATTER WHAT HIM SUNSTREAKER DOING." he shakes his head. "Me Grimlock just get him later." he shakes his head a little. "ANYWAY. Me Grimlock say now be TRAINING time." And with that, Grimlock pulls out his double-blaster, setting the fire control setting to 'lots.' "Me Grimlock count to five now. ONE." Meanwhile, a voice is heard faintly from the trailer: "What's all that racket?" Foxfire stares at Grimlock. "Hold it! You're gonna *shoot* at us?!" He flicks his ears at the voice, but doesn't comment on it. Air Raid shushes, but only because of Patchwork. "Eh? EH! Holy slag!" He instantly starts jogging in the opposite direction. Nosecone ulps. Is this dodgy-dodgy time? Perhaps he should get into drilltank mode and start burrowing! This could be dangerous.... Folding and bending, Nosecone folds down into his Cybertronian Drill Tank form. Drills, away! "What, wait...I wasn't serious! I don't want to have to do repairs!" Patchwork protests, taking several rapid steps backwards. "TWO." "THREE." "FOUR." And from the trailer: "'Ey! It's some of thems shiny space robots! They doin' somethin!" Foxfire jumps to his feet and ducks behind a rather large rock. And then he peers toward the trailer. "Uh...guys? Maybe we should move to a different area." "RUN PATCH'," Raid yells, unspacing his rifle. "Man, I thought we were gonna' throw rocks!" Patchwork looks to the trailer at the voices, and then to the firing Grimlock. "There's -humans- here!" the medic protests even as she's backpedalling, keeping half an optic on the trailer to be sure no shots get too close to it. "Me Grimlock say it be VERY IMPORTANTS to ALWAYS KNOW WHAT HAPPENING! Be ready and stuffs!" And with that, Grimlock proves the benefit of surprise as he cuts loose with a barrage of laser fire, raking the beams back and forth! *pewpewpewpewpew!* Combat: Grimlock strikes Air Raid with his Laser Barrage Area attack! [Pulled -2] Combat: Grimlock strikes Cybertronian Drill with his Laser Barrage Area attack! [Pulled -2] Combat: Grimlock strikes Patchwork with his Laser Barrage Area attack! [Pulled -2] Combat: Grimlock misses Foxfire with his Laser Barrage Area attack! [Pulled -2] Even as he drills his hole of shelter, the Cybertronian Drill Tank gets a few hits! He digs faster, trying to make a shelter from the attacks. Foxfire stays behind the rock. "Okay, you're askin' for it..." He peers out from behind his makeshift shield, crouched down, and then fires a pair of lasers from his optics, straight toward Grimlock. "Eat this, buddy!" Combat: Foxfire misses Grimlock with his Optic Lasers (Laser) attack! Air Raid flails as he's nailed right in the chest. Oh no he di'in't. "OW!" He continues running back and forth between the laser fire, looking rather silly. "Ow ow! Sir! I'm fairly sure we know what's happening!" Raid pauses to gawk at Foxfire, "You have EYE LASERS?! Awesome!" Grunting as a laser scorches her, Patchwork stumbles a step before her path is altering. "Grimlock, there are HUMANS AROUND!" she shouts up at the commander, turning to take herself across the open space to plant herself in front of the trailer, blocking it physically. "Be -CAREFUL-!" Combat: Patchwork takes extra time to steady herself. [Pass] Foxfire shrugs to Air Raid, as best as a quadruped can. "Had DepthCharge install 'em for me some years ago. Pretty handy, huh?" Combat: Air Raid takes extra time to steady himself. [Pass] "Hnf. You Foxfire puny!" Grimlock says, as those eye lasers *ping!* from Grimlock's thick armor. He hmms, and then grunts- at which point he transforms to his dinosaur mode. "Raaargh!" And he stomps forward- opening his mouth to spew out a gout of flame! *FWOOSH!* Fun fact: Deserts are quite dry. Quite flammable, in fact. And soon, what began as a controlled spew of flame turns to a proper conflagoration...which happens to surround that trailer! "Oops." Air Raid gives Foxfire a thumbs-up before turning his attention to the burning trailer. "... Sweet! Grimlock lit the trailer on fire!" If no one else noticed. "...Uh, water! Where's water?" Combat: Patchwork compares her Strength to 75: Failure :("GRIMLOCK!" Patchwork shouts, p erhaps for the first time ever, at the Dinobot before she rounds on the trailer. Apparently, standing in front of it does not prevent fire from surrounding it, and she notes so for next time. Ignoring the blaze, the medic steps the short distance to the trailor, reaching down to lift it up and out of the middle of the blaze. Only she can't, the stupid thing seems bolted down. So the next best thing. She holds her hand down by the door. "Come out, and I'll carry you!" That ought to work! Foxfire would bristle if he could. "Slag it!" He rushes toward the trailer, and...jumps through the flames! He's resistant to fire, you know. With his claws out, he tries to get the door open. The Drill Tank burrows and tunnels, finally testing the topsoil to see if Grimlock is underneath. He attempts to burst out from the earth and give the Dinobot Commander a good drilling! Combat: Cybertronian Drill strikes Grimlock with his Durabyllium-Steel Alloy Drill attack! [Pulled -3] "Ow!" Grimlock says, even as his foot is poked by a drill! Grimlock hops up on one foot, and hophophops to the side. "Pointy thing!" Meanwhile, Patchwork rocks the trailer on its moorings- but the fire still blazes around it! Oh no! Air Raid just continues to stand around, not helping anyone or anything. For once, a fire he didn't help start! "Yeah, go Patchwork! Go team!" Air Raid says, "And go Foxfire!" Peterbilt 352 Car-Carrier trucks down the highway, taking the relevant exit for the deserted patch of land that Grimlock calls his training area. With the windows rolled down in the cab, the Autobot blasts some generic rock and roll tunes. Arriving on the scene, well a good hundred feet from the fire encircled tanker, Magnus transforms into his Power Armor mode. Standing at full height, the Autobot Commander merely let's out a sigh and watches. Let's see Grimlock get himself out of this one. He mutters into his commlink while waiting. Only a moment of hesitation before Ultra Magnus transforms into his Power Armor robot mode! Patchwork isn't resistant to fire, but the medic's doing her darnest to ignore the burning paint and other various scorchmark damage the fire is causing to herself. She looks to Foxfire, nodding to the other end of the trailer. "You get that end, I'll get this, we'll lift together. Hurry...!" Foxfire lowers his ears a little. "Okay." He grabs his end of the trail with his claws and fangs, holding onto whatever he can. It really is difficult, sometimes, to be without opposible thumbs, but he always manages. "Let's go!" he exclaims, his voice slightly muffled. Grimlock glances over at Ultra Magnus, and shrugs. "Whut?" he asks, entirely casual. Meanwhile, within the trailer, two human voices can be heard going: "Aaaaaaaaaah!" Entirely justifiable, really. Grimlock hmms, and looks over at Air Raid. "HOW COME YOU NOT HELPING?" The Drill Tank suddenly is aware of a fire! He starts to drill a trench around it so hopefully the fire won't spred. It isn't long after Ultra Magnus has arrived that a rather large and bulky vehicle appears along the horizon. The closer it gets, the clearer it gets just how large this vehicle is: an autobot insignia on its grille. However, it takes a while for the bulky machine to arrive within any reasonable distance. The modern looking amphibious vehicle soon finds itself steering clear from a burning wreckage he had been previously warned about, and stops right next to Ultra Magnus, however does not transform into robot mode yet. Ultra Magnus peers down at the Amphibious truck that pulled up next to him, going over a dossier in his hand. "Stalwart I presume? I'm Magnus, Prime's current desk jockey." the large Autobot notes, extending a hand out for a shake ... then realizing that you can't shake hands with a truck. "Okay okay!" Raid trudges over to help lift the trailer from the middle. "Ow, hot hot!" Ultra Magnus and the newcomer go unnoticed for now; Raid's too busy trying to keep his grip on the smoldering mobile house. It doesn't take much time for the truck's sensors to pick up on the fact that a hand is being extended to him. "Yes Sir, I am indeed." The amphibious truck's cabin suddenly bursts outwards and the trunk move up! It's body quick shifts, cabin shutters closing: the one on the right showing the Autobot insignia. Within a few moments, it reveals the form of Stalwart Having just transformed into robot mode, the bot extends a hand to Magnus and firmly shakes it - a handshake like one would expect from a miner, a bit too tight. Ultra Magnus returns the firm grip, smiling from the left side of his helm to the right. "Ah, quite a grip you got there. I've received your file from transfer, it's quite a stack I've got to say ..." Pausing to look over at the burning tanker, suddenly he realizes that their ARE PEOPLE INSIDE! "Ah frak, excuse me a moment..." the Autobot trails off, turning away and muttering into the commlink. Patchwork manages, with the help of both Foxfire and Air Raid, to get the trailer up off its base. "Okay, now move..." She starts to move backwards, clearly intending to carry it out of the range of the fire before setting it down. To the screaming humans she offers as soothingly as she can, "We have you, you're safe." With three sets of hands (well, two sets of hands and some paws) the trailer is moved! And thanks to Nosecone's impromptu digging, the fire is contained! Well, that's a start. But the screaming inside the trailer keeps going. "Aaaaaaaaaah." Foxfire is walking on his hind legs to help carry the trailer! Stalwart's head slowly turns towards the burning wreckage, its visors focussing on it - trying to scan it, before he gives a rather odd look at the autobots present. The radiochatter was getting to him - and he seemed a tad confused about the going-ons. He lets go as Ultra Magnus comments on his grip and - somewhat uncertain on where to now leave that hand, puts it on his side. "What is going on?" He mutters mainly to himself, and takes a step in order to aim himself at the trailer. Grimlock, meanwhile, just watches. "HEY. Am them humies okay? Them no sound okay." he says. And in the trailer: "Aaaaaaaaaah." "Am I going to have to drill the door of the trailer open?" Cybertronian Drill Tank wonders, "And to think this was supposed to be a simple training exercise." "You tried to barbeque them, Grimlock. What do you think?" Patchwork snaps towards the Dinobot as she and the others, presumably, set the trailer down carefully. A furious expression builds on Magnus' usually detatched and apathetic look. Speaking into the commlink at great length, he turns around towards Stalwart. "Grimlock is holding a training session, don't worry yourself ... this happens /all/ the time." Whether he was referring to the excercises themselves or the humans at risk, he doesn't bother to elaborate. "I've forwarded your name and file to Hot Spot. He's your division head and leader of the Protectobots. Nice fellow, he'll take you under his wing and show you the ropes of Operations. Hrm, it shows here that Air Raid is up for new arrival tours ... so I'll forward the appropriate orders to him ASAP. Do you have any questions Stalwart?" "Maybe you guys need CHECK on humies 'stead of just moving them house?" Grimlock asks. As he gets a radio message from Magnus, however, Grimlock merely turns his head and...grins. There are lots of pointy teeth. Meanwhile, trailer: "Aaaaaaaaah." *click* "Aaaaaaaah!" Once the trailer is set down, Foxfire tries to check on the humans inside. "What the slag..." Stalwart's right hand finds a place to be - scraping the top of his head carefully - not wishing to damage the antennas. It was hard for the 'bot to understand why someone as high ranking as a Commander would make such a foolish mistake. Surely, there was some kind of good reason for it - perhaps the Dinobot had not noticed the trailer being occupied. And this was supposed to happen 'all the time' - not exactly the stories he heard back on the planetoid he used to work upon. "Sir." He however distracts himself as Ultra Magnus adresses him, and he quickly salutes him - a bit nervous. Yes, the leader had told him not to call him sir, but that tends to go out of the window. "If everything here is handled, and you do not need me for any further assignments, I shall take my leave then?" And with that said, he transforms into vehicle mode again and turns towards where he came from - lingering, waiting for an answer. Stalwart bends down quickly and collapses his body into the form of a large looking amphibious military truck. The two energon-cylinders settle onto the trunk while most of his shape compacts into the cabinunit, and lower chassis. Poking through the door, Foxfire sees...well, they're human SHAPED, at least. Mannequins! They've been haphazardly knocked about by the movement of the trailer...and one has speaker of somesort taped to its chest- with the door open, the cries of dismay are louder. "AAAAAAAH!" "Maybe they 'fraid of him Foxfire?" Grimlock notes to those still outside. "Cuz him ugly and smell bad." Foxfire stares. Then his ears lower as realization hits him. "...Some training session." He glares at Grimlock. "I am and do not!" Grimlock blinks at Foxfire. "So you say you is ugly? HAW HAW HAW! Me knew it!" Foxfire facepaws. "I am NOT ugly, you..." He bites back a retort. "Would'nt do much good if they ended up barbequed." Patchwork mutters as she straightens, optics narrowing at Grimlock. "You're -awful-." Asuming there are no more tasks to fulful for the amphibious truck 'bot, Stalwart takes his leave. The Drill Tank Transforms, and helps get the Trailer open. Unfolding and shifting, Cybertronian Drill Tank takes the shape of a robot. "Me Grimlock GREAT!" he says, and even transforms back to his robot mode! Further investigation of the trailer shows it to be apparently abandoned- and roughly repurposed with the addition of the decoy mannequins. "Me Grimlock TOLD you for being ready for SURPRISES! Haw haw haw!" He hmms, and glances around. "So. Whut you learn?" Ultra Magnus allows Stalwart to depart, merely standing there and staring at the headache Grimlock has caused. You see, some people see things a little differently ... like when viewing the 'Matrix'. Instead all Magnus sees are stacks upon stacks of paperwork. Letting out a groan, he slowly trods towards Grimlock and the group of ragtag Autobots assembled. Foxfire points a forepaw at Grimlock. "Not to trust *you*." Air Raid ragtagg'edly salutes, and pumps a fist in the air, "Woo! Flaming trailers!" ... He rubs his chin thoughtfully, smiling at Patchwork before answering Grimlock. "I learned... uh... about teamwork. Yeah. Hello Ultra Magnus, sir!" "What I learned can't be said politely." Patchwork mutters as she steps back, looking down at her scorched paint and the rather obvious laser blast mark on her chest. Grimlock hmmms, and finally tromps down to walk amongst the other Autobots. "Hnn. You medic-femme do good for tryin' to pro-tekt humies, but you no do it very good. It easier if you grab HUMIES, 'stead of whole car. 'Speshully if you no strong like me Grimlock. If you do that earlier, maybe you no look so dumb! Or on fire." He nods, and turns. "You Foxfire do good too, but you no go inside either. And you all tiny! How come you no think of that? Being small is YOU JOB." and now, Grimlock turns to Air Raid and Nosecone. "You guys am slackers! Them two do all hard work at first! Maybe you just lazy when you not turn into feet or somethings." "As you were." Magnus barks towards Air Raid, sauntering up to Grimlock like a pissed off psycho ex-girlfriend. Peering over his shoulder and at one of the mannequins, a speaker duct taped to his chest. Glancing back at the Dinobot Commander, he gives a grin. "I didn't think I'd be saying this, but nice.. job.. Grimlock." Turning on his heel, he stalks away from the area and transforms into his Car Carrier mode, trucking off for another burning trailer with REAL people in it. "ME GRIMLOCK TELL YOU ME GRIMLOCK KNOW WHAT ME AM DOING." Grimlock hollers after the departing car carrier. "I do not know any humans who will race out into a fire...and my hand wouldn't fit -into- the door anyways." Patchwork informs Grimlock, not looking any happier. Air Raid is am slacker! Damn! But he knew that already, and shrugs indifferently. "Ya'll had it under control! Alright, are we through here? Can't let the guild down! Aw Patch', c'mon, cheer up!" He gives her shoulder a hearty shake. "Make hole!" Grimlock says, turning back to Patchwork. "Is what firemans carry axes n' stuff for. Choppings!" Grimlock even makes the gesture himself. Chop. Chop. "Maybe you need get axe. Talk to him Fairway and him make you one!" Patchwork simply glares at Grimlock, shrugging her shoulder out from under Air Raid. "Yeah, we done? I have repairs to do." "Yeah, you done. 'least 'til me Grimlock find more trainings to do! Haw haw haw!" Well, at least it's better than being a Decepticon.
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