Bug Radio

Once again Harbinger's wandering brings her to Nyon, though this time it is with a purpose as something keeps her mind occupied enough that she does not even notice the handful of shiney looking Cybertronians that pass her among the many workers of Nyon, the Insecticon not wearing her heavy body cloak again. She keeps muttering to herself in her soft voice, "Need his help.. can't do it otherwise..." Over and over those few words are mentioned before she finally stops and looks around, realizing she had wandered into Nyon already.. then pauses again as the thought that she has /no/ clue how to find Hot Rod strikes, "Ah slag.." Her antennas twitch in annoyance, as she isn't sure if she should just walk up to someone or not and ask.
Talking Insecticons. Okay. That's a -- thing. Harbinger is given a wide berth by most, but one -- a disposable projector by the looks of it -- dares come up to her and ask, "Uh, who are you looking for?" The slight mech looks fascinated by the talking Insecticon, but not as /completely/ surprised as one might expect, suggesting that this isn't the first time he's seen such.
The Insecticon's focus zeroes in on the mech, her antennas giving another twitch as something a bit more primal briefly flashes across her expression as she fights down the instinct to strike at something that suddenly popped up.. having been a bit too lost in her thoughts to notice it's approach. But she simply says, "I am looking for someone.. heard he is here usually, but rumors say he both hides here or runs the place. Tall, bright red, gaudy yellow flames. Not sure of his name.. heard him called a few differnt things. Rod seems to be the only things they all share. Her voice shifts just a bit, and sounds as if a few differnt femmes are speaking at the same time, "I was pointed his way.. told he might be able to help with what I need to do." Another pause, then she facepalms herself as she sighs, "And why did I just say that to some strange mech.."
'Gaudy yellow flames' gets an, "Ah," of identification. The projector nods as Harbinger goes on. Yep, yellow flames, Rod, that'd be, "Hot Rod." He turns to point toward a building that juts above the cityscape toward the city core. He says, "There's a self-defense class or ... something, I don't know. Over there, though. It's him, or his people. You can't miss it. Last I heard they were spending more time blowing things up than actually practicing, so...." He trails off, and only gives Harbinger a briefly puzzled glance for the facepalm. "Good luck!" He then slides away, running off to join a friend with a, "See? I told you they could talk!"
When Harbinger approaches the building in question, there are definite sounds of explosions. Let's pretend and call them controlled detonations. The building is largely an empty shell, but the thick walls keep anything that slips control from wrecking anything else in the city. "Nice, Flareup!" calls a not-super-tall, it must sadly be admitted, but definitely bright red and gaudy yellow flamed mech who stands near the entry.
Harbinger stops at the entrance way to the building, optics scanning around from behind her faceplate and zeroes in on the target she was looking for but takes the time to check anyone else a bit more closely. A long moment passes before she just crosses her arms and waits near the entrance since she may be from way /way/ under Cybertron she has picked up /some/ manners the Hollows follow, and since she needs his help she waits till he finishes what he is doing.. but a foot does tap the floor slowly, each tap her antennas twitching.
There are a handful of others in the space beyond Hot Rod. They are, as a rule, generally young and flashy and boisterous. It's a femme who's in charge of actually blowing things up, and the mechs listen to her quite closely. Except for Hot Rod, who catches sight of Harbinger and startles. He turns away from the others with a, "Go ahead and keep going. I'll be back!" and then turns to face Harbinger with open curiosity. "Hey. Sorry, have we met? You look sort of familiar but I'm not sure." A glimpse during the breakout, maybe, but it's Kickback that he knows, not the other Insecticons.
Harbinger looks up at Hot Rod, her arms crossed, "No we have not. I would remember that.. shiney paintjob." It's obvious she makes a effort to avoid saying something else, but she falls quiet after she answers that question as she studies Hot rod for a long moment but finally stirs as she asks, "You really the one who runs things here?" From her tone, and the slight mixing of voices, it isn't really claer if she's asking it of Hot Rod or just talking outloud by accident.
Hot Rod laughs. He looks slightly taken aback by the question -- surprised, and maybe a little delighted. "Uh." After a brief pause, he says, "Yeah, more or less. I mean -- yeah. Let's just say yes." It is far from the most inspiring yes. He grins at Harbinger, then asks, "Why? What'd you need? Someone disturb another hive or what?"
Harbinger replies bluntly, "Probably, but was not my hive so I do not care. I killed them long ago." She keeps her arms crossed, her extra ones flexing behind her as if they want to reach around and cross as well in her annoyance, "I was told you were the one most likely to help me.. or know who might." Her foot continues to tap steadily as she still can't seem to get over that gaudy look but finally she breaks down and makes her request since she came all the way here, "I need help with what I.. desire to do. But as I am considered a animal by most, there are no avenues open to me besides ask... begging for help." She pauses, seems to inhale <or the Cybertronian equivelant> and plunges ahead, "I want to setup a broadcast system... they want to make sure everyone thinks we are stupid beasts.. and I intend on proving them wrong to /everyone/." She pauses and looks down and away before she mutters quietly, though not /quite/ loud enough to be heard clearly.
Grin brightening to something brilliant, Hot Rod says, "Good. Yeah, definitely, I'll help with that. You're right. A lot of people just think -- well, you know. I don't have to tell you. Before I heard Kickback speak -- well, it opened my eyes. Maybe it'll open some other eyes. I've actually been working on getting an underground datanet set up in Nyon. We don't have the whole city covered or anything, but it's a start, and if you want to help with that, you can put out your broadcast too. Or did you have some other idea? Pirate transmissions? You'll want to keep them moving, if so. You'll need a powerful transmitter to get far. But I bet we can make something work. What're you thinking?" His agreement is ready enough to be a little startling, perhaps, given how she had to work herself up to it. He's just all SURE, LET'S DO IT.
Harbinger hmphs just a bit, "You really do just plunge ahead on things like they say?" She flicks a hand to wave towards the outside, "I wander, and I am /very/ good at not being seen.. I intend on poking my nose around, see what they don't want seen or said and make sure /everyone/ hears it." She pauses and /almost/ seems to blush if that was possible, for her crystaline like armor /does/ seem to take a shade of red, and plunges ahead again, this time her voice quiet as she looks away again, "and I want to sing.."
Hot Rod laughs, but it's not at her last words: it's at her first. "Well, I don't see much point to hesitating most of the time. This is something we can do, a way we can help. Why /not/ do it?" He follows her gesture outside and considers the buildings that line the street. "Yeah, you could probably help us get things set up. And maybe we can distribute some of that stuff you poke around and find out. But anything you want to put out about the Insecticons? Or singing?" He smiles, but rather than mocking, he seems gently baffled and a little charmed. "Yeah, whatever you want. People should be free to do whatever they want and let people hear it."
Harbinger shakes her head.. "Simply wish to show that.. we are not beasts." She pauses in thought and then sighs, "Not all of us at least. I have seen some of the hives on near the surface, and they truly at mindless." She pauses and pulls a strip of shiney metal from a storage spot and starts to chew on it, her mandibles making short work of it as she gets her thoughts back in a line and looks back up at the larger mech, "I'm tired of seeing fake information being put out about my kind, and I've seen the.. Senate?.. do many things that they claim they did not." finally she gives another huff and a shrug of all her arms, "And.. tired of wandering. No hive, no purpose. Want to do something important, similiar to when I hunted for the Hive. Bounty Hunting is not challenging or intersting."
"It's hard because we can't really communicate. They probably think we're as mindless down there, just because we don't know how to even say hello." Hot Rod gives Harbinger a sympathetic look and nods. "Hey, look -- if you can help us out setting things up, I'll make sure that you get a safe place to stay and whatever else you need to fuel up." He watches her eat the metal with a touch of unease. Metal's not meant to be eaten like that! But his welcome remains, and it's easy besides. "Maybe if you stick around, you'll even want to join up with us. I think what we're doing is important. We help the people that the Senate forgets, and make sure that the truth the Senate wants to cover gets spoken. You guys are part of that truth."
The Insecticon's head tilts to the side as she listens to Hot Rod talk, antennas and mandibles not moving while she does but finally she dips her head in a nod of acknowledgement, "I will help... for now." Then she flicks a hand again and expands on it, as if she feels compelled to be completely honest, "The.. Autobots tried to kill me before because of what I am. The rebels tried to recruit me since so many of my kind went to them, and when I refused, tried to kill me as well. So trusting someone is not something I do often, but.. I need help if I wish to do what I need to, so I will trust your word." Harbinger sighs, "And yes.. I want to sing.. a former friend said I should try it." Finally she goes through a brief cooling cycle.. breath in, breath out, and offers her hand to Hot Rod with the large claw that had been there peeling back to fold into her forearm leaving her normal looking hand offered, "I'll help out wherever I can, just understand I don't like lies. Bad things happen when people lie to me.. if you can't tell me the truth just say you can't, just don't like."
Hot Rod's unusually sober as he says, "If it was the Institute, I know what they did. I've never been so happy to put an end to something. I'm not asking you to trust me entirely, but maybe we can work together on some stuff, yeah?" He meets the offered hand with, it's true, just a slight hesitation until the claw's folded away. With a more recognizable hand, the clasp is more easily offered. He smiles again. "I don't like lies either. Putting an end to the Senate's lies one of the most important things we can do."
Harbinger frowns and tilts her head to the other side, "I have heard the Institute be mentioned before.. that a raid of some kind occured on it. But I have not been there myself." She nods, "Was not full trust.. I have learned /that/ must be earned. But she use to say 'To earn trust, some trust must be offered first.' But she herself betrayed that trust and suffered the response." Her optics briefly flare for a second as she remembers something from long ago but shakes her head, "As you have said you will help me with what I need to do... what would you have me do in return, for now?"
"Help us get more nodes up for a datanet. You can work with Nautica and Rewind on that. They can give you what you need, tell you where it goes. Basically the more of them we can put up, the better coverage we've got, and the harder it is to take down," Hot Rod says with a quick smile. "Other than that -- if you do hear anything, anything about the Senate or the Enforcers are up to, anything that makes you feel like it /shouldn't/ be happening--? That's valuable, too. Just let me know."
Harbinger 's antennas stand up at the mention of Rewind, but says, "I have meet those two before, meeting hi.. them again would be nice." And she somehow seems more.. perky suddenly, thought it's not really clear how, just a general feeling she seems to give off, "Those I can do. I will keep my audios open for anything that might be useful." She darts a narrowed optic look at Hot Rod, "And the other thing as well.. don't forget that either." Singing may sound stupid, but it clear to anyone looking at her that /she/ considers it important, "But I better go before those mechs come looking for me again.." She starts to turn to leave, but stops and faces back to Hot Rod and gives a small bow, "I will check back here regularly to see if you have need of me for something." With that she turns and heads for the exit, the Insecticon fading from view as she leaves the entrance and heads back into the city.