Visiting Aunt Nautica

It's been a while since Nautica ventured into Nyon; despite her general approval of Hot Rod's little band of troublemakers, she's had her own training under Chromia -- as well as scientific concerns -- to take care of. This time, she's decided to explore a bit more of the outskirts of the area, to have more of an internal map of the region. And if, perhaps, she runs into Hot Rod, or Flareup, or any of her friends who tend to spend time in the region... well, that's only a bonus.
A jet black speeder is zooming along the outskirts of Nyon along abandoned roads that are frequently used for racing. It's a place that Hot Rod uses often - speaking of, that speeder looks remarkably like Hot Rod! It's just black and purple and gold. Even has purple and gold flames! It's like it's Hot Rod from some kind of horrible alternate universe where everyone bad is good and everyone good is bad!
Or it's just someone that looks like him. Either way, as the vehicle gets closer the differences are stark: insect features show up on the car. The spoiler looks like a pair of locust wings. There are spikes and claws along the back and wheelwells. And whoever is driving is -really bad at it-. Swerving wildly the black bugmobile narrowly avoids hitting lamp posts, buildings, abandoned tankers, getting closer and closer to Nautica until it looks like it might crash into her!! "Look out!" cries a familiar voice seconds before impending impact!
Luckily, Nautica's recent experiences have improved her reflexes; she dives out of the way almost instinctively as the car nearly crashes into her. It's not a graceful dive; Chromia would almost certainly give her a failing grade for it, because she doesn't manage to roll and come back up on her feet. But it serves its purpose in getting her out of the way of the vehicle. Getting back upright takes a moment longer, as she dusts herself off and glances in the direction the car went. "What... /Kickback/?"
He panics at the last minute and as Nautica dives out the way he transforms and leaps straight up, landing feet first against a wall, springing off it, backflipping and landing on his feet. "I'm sorry!" he blurts out between ragged gasps for breath, his new engine running hotter than he wanted. "I'm just -- do you have any idea *pant* how hard it is *gasp* to move on wheels? *wheeze*" It's Kickback all right, but why in the world is he a -car-?
"I can't say I do," Nautica admits. She's staring at Kickback as she says this, however; his little run-up-the-wall-and-transform-and-backflip routine was more than a little surprising. "I'm a submarine; I'm pretty useless on land. Er... I'm glad to see you're doing well. I... gather a few things have happened since we all got loose?" Like, you know, Kickback being a car.
"Oh yes, quite!" Kickback announces. He sounds more erudite and grown-up every day. "Well, for starters I bet you're wondering about why I'm not changing into a Swarmer - I copied Hot Rod's form, he's a very nice mech, someone Arcee trusts, so I do too. You see, I read everything you brought me and more -- did you know there are libraries in this town? Old temples and shrines too? It's a wealth of information -- anyways, I'm getting off track." He stands up and walks over to Nautica, friendly as ever. "I decided that if I'm going to learn anything more about what's going on around me, I needed an altmode that was more acceptable to the masses. I know I look a bit off still, but more people will talk to me as a car than a bug. It's not right, but I've accepted it. The other Insecticons are safe near the Mithril sea, there are places there to hide and find food, but I'm a little concerned. Nautica... they aren't content to just find a place to live." He sounds worried. "They want -revenge-."
Luckily, Nautica's sharp enough to follow Kickback's multiple rapid topic shifts. "Nyon is /fascinating/; I wish I had more time to study it all," she agrees. The altmode discussion... well, that earns a darker expression, but she doesn't comment on it. And then he mentions the Mithril Sea, Nautica's 'home turf' on Cybertron, as much as any can be said to be. Sure, the embassy is in Iacon, and she spent a lot of time in Nova Cronum, but the Mithril Sea is the one place her altmode is actually useful to any real degree.
And now, it's where the other Insecticons are. "I'm... I wish I could say I was surprised, Kickback," Nautica admits, a touch sadly. "It's a natural reaction. I don't always think it's the /right/ reaction, but it's hardly unique to Insecticons. Many of us 'Hollows' act the same way, when they feel they've been wronged."
"Well, it's worse than that," Kickback continues after listening to the fembot's reply. "Tarantulas was there waiting for us. He said we were his children, his 'sons', that we all carried his CNA, and that he had altered us all towards a great purpose." He's quieter as he speaks, as the whole thing still unsettles him. "He explained that he intends to solve the energon crisis by reducing the population through the introduction of predators. He said that... that /balance/ had been lost when Mortilus was removed in the wars of the gods, and that without death, the entire world is becoming sick and chaotic."
And now Nautica's expression turns conflicted. "I... kind of suspected as much," she admits, finally, even as she looks over Kickback to assess his current state. Any new dings and scrapes, any missing pieces? "I figured that was why Tarantulas helped us escape; he wanted you all free for his plans, rather than in Pharma's hands being experimented on. I got... glimpses." Glimpses?
"When you took me apart?" Kickback asks gently, letting Nautica check him over. He's physically fine, apart from a few very fine surgical scars here and there.
"No. Not entirely." Nautica does, however, seem pleased that Kickback is generally intact. She gives him an approving nod upon finishing her assessment. But her demeanor fades slightly when she finishes, as she admits, "I made a bargain with Tarantulas in order to help us all get free. He knew I was trying to rebuild you all to be stronger, and it... well, I suppose it served his purposes."
There's a long pause, and then Nautica adds, "He offered to give me knowledge of the Institute, and improve my wavespeech to full fluency, by doing a neural merge. But I hacked his brain in return, trying to get as much information as I could. It's... all locked up in here, but I don't really have the right /key/ for most of it. So I just got glimpses."
Kickback puts two and two together because he wants to be helpful. "Maybe I could help. If what he says is true and I have his CNA, perhaps I might be able to decypher it for you if I merged to you!" Haha, he has no idea what he just asked.
"I don't think that's the best idea," Nautica informs Kickback. "He's tricky; I wouldn't put it past him to put some sort of conditioning or programming into what I got, which could affect you. Eventually, I'll learn enough Old Cybertronian to pick up more of what I got from him." Or maybe she'll just confront him herself, eventually! What could go wrong with that?
"I hadn't thought of that," Kickback admits. He's not old enough to consider something that devious; he doesn't really grasp yet that anyone could operate on that level of trickery and manipulation. He will one day in the future be grateful for Nautica's kind redirection of his unintended offer.
"Mind you, even if there was conditioning, I don't think he'd intentionally /hurt/ you," Nautica allows, after a moment's consideration. The Camien sounds, perhaps, slightly conflicted when it comes to the pervy old spider. He did, after all, help them escape -- and his mind is fascinating. How old is he? How much has he seen? How much of Cybertron's forgotten history does he know? On the other hand, he seems to want to severely reduce the populace of Hollows, which has implications that the Camien -- as a Hollow -- isn't entirely keen on. "But I don't know that 'free will' is necessarily something he considers absolutely key to his plan, when it comes to you and your brothers."
"... I don't know. Free will is the prize we earn for surviving," Kickback says. This much, he does, in fact know; probably racial memory. "When Insecticons are created we are just drones; we are not self-aware. We are a part of the consciousness of the one that spawned us. Sometimes, as we get older, we become different... we must fight the mind of our creator to earn our self-awareness. To do so is the greatest destiny of any Insecticon; for then it is we that create drones and lead hives. Why would Tarantulas want to take that away?"
"I don't know if he /does/," Nautica points out to Kickback. "I just don't know for certain that he /wouldn't/ have conditioning in things. After all, some believe that the loss of free will for a few is a small price to pay, if the fate of an entire people -- or planet -- is on the line." To judge from her tone, she is not one of them. Likely, this explains no small part of her current dissatisfaction with the state of the planet she finds herself on.
"Should we find him and ask him, then?" Kickback questions innocently enough. He's pretty much putty in anyone's hands, Nautica - you might unintentionally shape him.
"I don't..." But then Nautica cuts off in mid-sentence. Her curiosity -- combined with a lingering sense of /some/ goodwill for his part in their escape -- mean she actually can't come up with a really good reason /not/ to ask Tarantulas. What is it that Chromia has called her? 'The dumbest genius I know?' "Maybe sometime we should," she allows.
"Very well then!" Kickback cheerfully agrees. "Is there anything I can help you with now, Miss Nautica? It's... not as if i really have anything productive to /do/. I was trying to get used to moving on wheels instead of six legs, but this is becoming very difficult. The lack of legs combined with the loss of flight is messing with my senses."
"No... I suppose not. I was worried about you and the others, but it sounds like you've found somewhere safe." Nautica pauses, regarding her insecticon... friend/student/'family'(?) thoughtfully for a long moment. "You know, I never really saw you fly before. I've always wondered what that would be like. I have limited spaceflight capability, but I have to actually get out into orbit in the first place. And I suspect being under the water isn't quite the same thing."
"I miss it, to be honest," Kickback sighs, looking up at the sky above. "One jump and I'm on the wing, fluttering for a moment, but then when I want speed, I shift, and then I have complete freedom of movement in any direction I want. I don't imagine it's that different from being underwater; you're just moving through a thicker state of matter, but you still have the same three dimensional movement." He looks down at the wheels on his arms and legs. "Like this I feel more like... a /prey animal/."
"I don't recommend you tell Hot Rod that," Nautica suggests, perhaps a touch dryly. "I think flight probably has a bit more freedom, though. Here, on land, I'm pretty much restricted to this mode. My altmode... well, I'd basically just sit here. Flight... you can fly over water, over land, and in some cases up into space itself."
"I'm thinking that as nice as it has been to experiment with wheels, I should probably find a swarmer and return to my original shape," Kickback nods. He's trying to think very scientifically and this maybe possibly could be the tiniest bit because he admires and feels kinship with Nautica. There's probably some natural scientific bent in the bug but the Camien's bringing that side of him out with almost careless ease. "Hot Rod's offered to let me stay with him since I'm a little uncertain about being with the other Insecticons... but I have a duty to them too. They're kin, and I have to find us a home."
And perhaps there's a touch of pride to the Camien's expression now; Kickback may be Arcee's 'son', but Nautica can't help but feel a little bit of involvement in helping to foster Kickback's scholarly bent. But then he mentions 'finding a home', and she frowns. "Didn't you say they'd found a place out by the Mithril Sea?" Nautica asks, a little concerned creeping into her tone now. "Or is it just... that's where they've set up camp, but it's not really a proper home? Or a proper hive, I suppose."
Kickback taps his chin, thinking, one hand on his hip. "It's a good temporary dwelling but it's not a proper hive. I don't think I'd be comfortable leaving them there where the police might find them and cart them off again. The only place I can think of is to take them all the way south to the Acid Wastes. Everything I've read says that the southern region of Stanix is practically infested with us."
"Yeah... I actually met another insecticon there, a while back. One who was obsessed with shiny things, and who was surprised I could understand and speak wavespeech." Nautica frowns. "I haven't seen her for a while, actually. I hope she's alright."
"Hmm. I hope she's all right as well, things don't seem to turn out right for us very often, do they?" Kickback muses. It occurs to him that he's probably wasting Nautica's time at this point. "I'm sorry, here I am prattling on like broken recording after almost sideswiping you. Were you going anywhere in particular? I hope I'm not keeping you."
"Oh... no. Mostly, I thought I'd wander around Nyon, learn the territory a bit better. I've nearly gotten lost a few times headed out here to meet with Hot Rod or someone else," Nautica explains, then offers Kickback a smile. "Don't worry, though. I'm glad I ran into you, and found you're doing alright. I hadn't really seen any of you since we got free."
"I'm glad to see you too, Miss Nautica. Speaking of Hot Rod, if you're looking for him, I can probably take you to him," Kickback offers. "I just... I think I'm going to /walk/."
This earns a laugh from the Camien, but a pleased one. "I probably should go meet with him, yeah," Nautica admits. "Shall we, then?"
Kickback offers his arm to Nautica politely. "Let's."