I Can't Drive Five Hundred Fifty-Five

It is a rare night that the Technobots are not in training or on patrol of some kind. Currently sitting outside of the city on one of the outcroppings of the mesa, Scattershot is taking a well-deserved break, watching the lights of the vehicles as they drive on the many roads and ways that traverse Tyger Pax, including the roads that lead along the flats where the mainframe farms are set up. Nice. Long. Straight stretches of road with no obstacles. Absolutely perfect for drag-racing, as Lightspeed would attest to.
A pink vehicle is making her way through traffic, and at least one (or more) of the Technobots will eventually spot her, as her color is unmistakable. Arcee is running some long-range scans in the area for...well, whatever reason. Perhaps Jazz sent her in this direction to look for problems.
"What?!"
A white and red hypercar is zooming across the pancontinental expressway, taking an offramp into Tyger Pax. She's swimming like a marlin through the traffic, weaving in and out between larger vehicles as she converses out loud with someone else.
"That's -crazy-! What do you mean -expendable?! How can you even -BEGIN- to say that!"
A massive energon transport crawler is trundling along the road, taking up the entire lane of traffic. It's moving at a snail's pace, and the exit the hypercar wants is coming up. Speeding up to a blurr of color and motion, the car begins to pass, and then sharply turns to slide /under/ the belly of the crawler and onto the curve of the exit. The car continues to glide sideways down the curve of the exit before shooting back out onto the road like an arrow.
The energon hauler's driver /blares/ his horn at the femme, and yells out at Override, "Where'd you get your license, out of a box of energon goodies, you crazy femme?!" But he has to concentrate more on the driving of the vehicle than the femme bot he has no chance of keeping up with. "Where's the frigging Enforcers when you need one?" he grumbles as he continues his driving.
He's not an Enforcer, per say, but Scattershot is an Autobot and this is technically his polity to protect. A frown courses the Technobot's face as he sees the pink racer swerve in and out of traffic but loses her for a moment when she streaks behind one of the mainframe farms - at the same time that Arcee's route causes her to exit from the other side of the farm. At this distance, and without using his optical enhancers, he saw a pink car enter and a pink car lead. Leaping down from his perch, Scattershot guns his engines as he protoforms into his bomber form and streaks down in an intercept path of the femme Autobot. < Arcee, > he radios down to her. < If ya'd not run the lifemix of Tyger Pax off the roads when ya ain't payin' attention because of whatever music yer listenin' to, I'd appreciate it. > he transmits to her, unaware of the other pink femme just now exiting from the other side of the farm.
"<< Huh? Wait a minute...that wasn't me, I didn't cut that mech off, >>" Arcee insists. "<< I think that might have been the colonist racer you saw, the one from Velocitron trying to get sponsorship over the broadband. Because...ok, I have a bit of pickup, but in no way can I move like *that* at *that* speed, >>" she admits, attuning her scans to try and pick up who she *thinks* might be out here zooming through traffic. She's probably back in Ibex by now...
Moving right around Blurr's speed, Override makes no effort to hide herself. Why whould she? "Oh whine whine whine! I didn't do anything to you, I drove -under your transport-!" she retorts to the driver. When she's on the straightaway into Tyger Pax, she stands out from her velocity alone.
"Ransack so help me if you convince the council to break ties with Cybertron I will -hunt you down-!" she snaps angrily at her internal radio. "You can't strand our people on this planet, you have no idea how incredibly unstable it is! You might as well be murdering them!"
< Uh-huh, do I need to remind you of what the fine for speedin' in these parts is? > Scattershot is clearly teasing the pink femme at this point, but stops himself when his radar picks up the faster - much faster target - on an approach vector behind them. < I guess you were right, Arcee. > the Technobot drawls as he suddenly cuts his engines, coalescing back to his root form as he drops heavily onto the middle of the road, boot armor kicking up sparks as he slides to a stop and draws his rifle. Twisting around, the Autobot aims downrange and then holds up his hand towards Override. << HALT! >> he barks in an order on the general frequency.
Arcee struggles to catch up to the point where Scattershot's dropped down to confront the speedy interloper. She's a little bit dismayed about the drawn rifle, but Scattershot outranks the heck out of her, and she isn't in a position to question it. She does, however, let him know on a tightbeam frequency, "<< I've met her before, she's a colonist, she isn't dangerous. Fast as all get-out, though. >>"
Override turns sideways into a stop, sliding a few dozen feet before transforming a short distance from Scattershot. "Whoa, whoa, take it easy! I'm not trying to hurt anyone! Sorry officer, I keep forgetting Cybertron actually limits road speed."
As the femme slides to a halt and shifts back to root mode, Scattershot takes Arcee's information under advisement, lifting his rifle to his shoulder in order to step asie and wave through the normal traffic. "If I could get ya to step to the side of the roadway, m'am, I'd appreciate it." the Technobot offers as he moves to stand on the shoulder and await for the approach of the lawbreaker. < Don't worry, Cee, I ain't gonna shoot her just fer drivin' too fast. Sentinel ain't passed those kinda orders... > the ominous 'yet' is best left omitted at this point as the Technobot gestures. "Name and papers, femme? I take it this is yer first time in Tyger Pax?"
Arcee tries not to worry too much, because...well, this entire situation is out of her hands! She finally reaches the pair, and she transforms back to root mode. "Oh, hi!" she calls to Override conversationally. "Have you found a track yet? Ibex isn't the only city with tracks, they're just the most-in-demand," she notes. "Because...well, YOU know."
Override turns over her passport, complete with Velocitronian emblem and information. It marks her as a Velocitronian -national-, and presently - for now - granted diplomatic immunity. Sorry officer, you'll have to go back to your donuts. She holds up a hand to Arcee and Scattershot both. "-- Just a second, this is serious." She unfolds a panel on her arm, and the holographic image of a marroon, gray and black motorcycle-frame pops up. "Ransack you are OUT OF YOUR MIND. Can't you tell the GC we need more time to think about it? The Speedia's coming up in a couple of lunations! Our government is presently in flux!"
"Sorry, but they've made up their minds," the holographic image of Ransack replies, folding his arms. "Look, we're telling everyone in Little Delta to pack up. If what you're saying about the IAA is true, none of our racers are safe." He smirks. "You wanna run this planet, you're gonna have to find a way to get *back to it*. Ransack out." The holographic image switches to the red speed-gauge emblem of the colony.
Looking over the data, Scattershot runs it against the information in the database. And as he does so, he listens to the chatter on the radio. "Damn." he says as he listens. "Sounds like ya just got coup d'tat'd without being there for ya to be placed against the wall fer fightin' back. Sucks fer ya, sorry to hear it." the mech says as he hands back the passport.
"Let me guess.." he comments towards Arcee as he holsters his rifle. "Another satisfied fan of Blurr's?" the Technobot asks before he offers a tip of his fingers against his helmet towards Override. "Captain Scattershot of the Technobots. Welcome to Tyger Pax, technological marvel of Cybertron, but I doubt ya give much a damn about that after the bad news ya just got. But seeing as ya just got deposed..."
He does indeed write her up a dataticket for reckless driving, speeding, failure to yield and failure to signal. "Welcome to the general populace, Override."
Arcee frowns. Poor Override's having a really bad day. Also, she has a temper with a short fuse. Maybe she should've told Scattershot /that/, too...
For now, she just diplomatically side-steps out of the blast zone. "...This is kind of bad timing," she says uncomfortably.
"I'm not -deposed-!" Override huffs. "We -elect- our leaders. Ransack was my main competition and he's going to try to strand me here so he can win without a fight!" She slaps down the cover of her communication system, and rubs her forehead. "... Great. I'm stuck in a police state with nowhere to go and barely any knowledge og what's going on other than the fact that it's all bad."
"Sorry... Sorry Arcee, nice to see you again, wish it were under better circumstances." She glances up at Scattershot, arm going to her side. "Oh I am -not- going to be part of the general populace. Not even -close-."
"I tell ya what. Want to fight this, that's fine. Take it to Decagon, find a guy named Prowl. He'll be more than be happy to help ya clear this up. And just tell 'im when yer tellin' 'im about it that this is what Sentinel Prime wanted." Scattershot comments as he hands over the changed up datapad. "So look on the bright side, if yer lookin' fer someplace to blow off some steam, there's a trainin' ground a few clicks from here that our speedster types use for redlinin' their caboreteurs. Straight and smooth for a good long ways. It's some land that ain't been claimed by the mainframe farms yet." he says with a shrug. As he passes back the datapad, he glances towards Arcee. "Well, since ya know her, maybe ya can show her to Prowl if she wants to complain. Me? I'm just out here for a rest after the last few cycles."
Arcee can't help but chuckle at Scattershot's suggestion. Seems no one really likes Prowl (except for her)... "He's pretty good at listening to complaints, but don't expect much sympathy, that's not really his strong point," she admits to Override with a shrug. "I just feel for you, because I know you've been getting grief since you came here, things didn't exactly improve the moment you met Blurr, and now you get the worst news of all, on top of a ticket. I just wish I could cut you a break, that's all."
"Tickets. This is ridiculous. Speed limits are -ridiculous-," Override complains. Bitterly. "I can't really use a straight flat track. I'm not trying for a zero to sixty run. The Speedia takes place across the entire planet, around the equator. The roads are anything but straight and you have to pace yourself -- oh whom am I kidding. Neither of you want to hear about that." She takes the datapad. "It's not really -me- I'm worried about. We have a neighborhood of Velocitronian colonists in Little Delta, over in the Ibex region. I don't know if they're going to be able to make it home."
Scattershot considers for a moment, a frown on his face. "I'd offer, but with the clampdown, not to mention that I ain't really made fer that type of trip." the Technobot admits. "There's very few that are willing to break the clampdown, and most of them are smugglers that I wouldn't cast two shanix on." he admits as he looks between the two femmes, his expression becoming thoughtful for a moment. "Have ya tried petitioning the Senate fer an exemption to evacuate your folks or embassy? I know that one of our transports is currently away from Cybertron on such a mission. He might be able to help ya out, but like I said, that's gotta go through Senate and all that red tape."
"Actually, that's better than nothing, and if things go through the proper channels then there /is/ a chance they can make it back," Arcee insists. "Former Senate Aide, here, so I've actually seen situations similar to this one get resolved. Of course, that was back before all the really serious problems began, but again, it was the way things got done in the past."
"I'll at least talk to this 'Prowl' guy. The other colonists take first priority. If there's a shuttle out to the space bridge port at the edge of this system, I'm last one on - *if* there are enough seats. I'll stay behind if I have to. I'll figure something out," Override states firmly. She looks at the pad. "... What am I supposed to do with this 'ticket' anyways?"
The old Scattershot would have said 'tell Prowl to wipe his windows with it', but the re-purposed Scattershot sighs. "Technically, yer supposed to take it to Tyger Pax's comptroller's office. Where they'd tell ya how much those fines add up to. Then ya pay them. But in this case? Just tell them to charge it to yer embassy, if ya got one here, and they'll handle it." he finally suggests, giving the femme an out, if she wants it. "But yeah, Prowl would be the one for that type stuff, even if he tries to send you to the Senate or Sentinel Prime, just appeal to him a little - he can change the orders of certain things for priority missions, I imagine. And fer the love of Primus, if a weasley little mech with a truck altmode that calls himself Swindle tries to offer ya a way to get them off the planet.. just remember he earned that name."
Arcee brightens a bit. "I can put in a good word for you, too! Sometimes he listens to me," she says in her most optimistic tone. "No promises, of course, but I've changed his mind before. He's sort of a tough one to sway."
"Pff. I'll just race him." Yes that's Override's answer to pretty much everything. Cultural differences.
"With Arcee's help, ya might actually get him to agree to that." Scattershot says with a chuckle. "Just make sure that ya don't let him push ya off on someone else unless it's someone that can get ya off the planet." the Technobot offers as he takes a step back to allow the two femmes room. "I'm sure y'all had places to go tonight and I don't want to keep ya, so drive /safe/ and have a good evening."
"Okay, thank you, Scattershot, and...Override, if you *do* end up talking to Prowl, let me know, okay?" Arcee looks somewhat concerned, because it isn't just a matter of Override being inconvenienced...there's a lot more at play than that. If Prowl were to put this matter into his 'not terribly important' file, she might need to nudge him a bit.
Override continues to look at this ticket, the reality of the situation beginning to seep in past her plating. "... What happens if I have to stay here? I mean, what... how do you process immigrants or newsparks?"'
The question leaves Scattershot scratching his head for an answer. "Uh. That ain't my pay grade, m'am. Maybe Arcee can help ya with that?" the Technobot offers quickly.
"You'll probably need to be evaluated and entered into the system. Just a bunch of questions and paperwork. But in the meantime, if you need a place to stay, I have a place for you if you'd like. You shouldn't need to worry about where you're going to recharge and refuel because your colony is having problems," Arcee insists.
Override thinks about this, her face pulling into a luck of unease. "... I don't like taking hand-outs, but... the reality is that for the moment, I don't have anywhere but the road, and since there are -limits-, apparently, to how fast I can go, I can't just race until the answer hits me." She pockets her passport into a side compartment. "So where do you recommend I go then, Arcee?"
"If you bring up a map of Praxus, there's this hostel over by The Assembly called XeroHostel where you should be able to get decent temporary residence for cheap. It's a very tall tower, you can't miss it," Arcee says to Override.
Satisified that Override has the assistance she needs, Scattershot takes a few more steps back before transforming and rocketting away to his patrol.