Aftermath Of El Sleazo Bombing

August 17, 2011, 12:38 AM
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Streetwise Lifeline Ratchet NPCs Don Vespa Rampart Stopwatch Clamps Tiny
(Lifeline's Clinic, Cubicron)
El Sleazo is still belching smoke as mechs stagger (or are carried out). The first wave of injured bar patrons have just begun to reach Lifeline's clinic- shrapnel damage from the bombs, fire and smoke damage, most of it minor, but here and there are mechs with more serious damages, mostly from the fires and the blast itself.
Amongst the crowd is a familiar youngster. And a familiar Don. With them were two goons, each carrying a seriously injured mech. The two most seriously of them all no doubt. Vespa glanced about in the chaos, grimacing in disgust.
Lifeline is in the middle of the WORST situation imaginable. She's dealing with the wounded as quickly as she can, having conscripted one of the town to scan incoming wounded and let the increasingly overloaded computer prioritize them and advised to notify her instantly if anyone new arrivals are about to expire. For her part, she's patching people up as fast as she can, doing the bare minimum to keep them from dying then moving on. It's really all she CAN do at the moment, as she's quite literally the only medic in the city. Damn Prowl and his 'security measures'.
Clamps groans and makes a choking sound as soot and shrapnel clog his intake fans. His damaged pectoral armor is still smoking.
Rampart frowns at the sound, but remains where he is, pressed against a far wall and as out of the way as possible. His armor is scorched and cracked in places, but he's capable of staying on his feet, and that's all he needs.
Stopwatch makes a quiet, pained noise from his spot being carried by one mech, most of his back badly damaged from impacting the wall after the bomb went off. Not that his front is much better, having been almost right on top of the bomb when it went off.
Streetwise remains near Vespa for now, as Tiny was busy carrying one of the two seriously wounded mechs. Vespa glanced about, then called over "Lifeline!" in a loud voice to get her attention, waving her down.
The shop is rapidly approaching capacity, although the flow of injured from El Sleazo seems to be slowing. A femme with a head injury leaking energon down her face leans against the wall, a blue bikeformer propping her up. Another mech, apparently uninjured except for some plating burned black on his side is sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall itself.
Lifeline isn't even paying attention to those that are still mostly ambulatory yet, she's still working feverishly to keep mechs from dying. She hears a voice shout her name, but it's not the first she's heard and likely won't be the last so she simply doesn't reply. Finishing what she can for the moment for one mech, she turns to the next, constantly pinging the overloaded computer system for an updated triage list. She snaps at a minibot that's been recruited to help bring her supplies from the cabinets standing open against the back wall of the now-too-tiny clinic, asking for items needed for the next most critically injured Neutral.
"... LIFELINE!" the voice shouts again, Vespa stating "These two WILL DIE if they do not get help NOW!" his voice booms across the room, tones of actual anxiety in it.
Lifeline spares the briefest glance at Vespa, then at the guardsman minding the scanner, who steps over to them immediately. The antiquated piece of medical equipment takes a few moments for each injured mech, then starts pinging insistently. With a muttered curse, Lifeline finishes the energon shunt she'd been making on a half-disemboweled femme then stands and steps over and around prone forms to get to Vespa and entourage. "Lay them down. Now." If Vespa questions being bossed around in HER clinic, then he can go find his pet medic. Where IS the fragging quack while all of this smeg is going down, anyway?
Vespa waved to the two mechs to do so, stepping out of her way. He doesn’t look any happier than Lifeline at this as he folds his arms though. Streetwise still had his gun out, but it was held at his side as he avoided optic contact with Lifeline uneasily, watching the bustle. "Tiny." states Vespa, gesturing to the youth again.
Rampart nods, slipping Clamps' unresisting form off his shoulder and setting him on the ground. He doesn't look too pleased with the whole situation, but is taking it remarkably well.
In the background, another set of ambulatory-but-injured mechs arrive and are direct to wait by others.
Lifeline promptly starts doing what she can to stabilize the two mechs brought in by Vespa and entourage, Streetwise having received the bare minimum cursory glance -- and that possibly only to determine if he needs to be scanned as well. The guardsman with the scanner moves on to check on
Rampart and Clamps as well as the other ambulatory individuals that just arrived.
Streetwise is pristine as always, and stood near to Tiny now, his arms folded, looking rather concerned as the mechs were worked on. Then his face darkened.
Rampart has a few nasty cracks in his armor and a few leaks, but nothing particularly major, and he waves off the guardsman with a mildly annoyed look.
The guardsman just glances at Rampart then takes the time to scan Clamps. Anyone carried in is scanned straight away, that's what Lifeline told him to do and he's NOT about to go against her. The medic in question manages to stabilize one of Vespa's mechs and immediately starts to work on the other. Smeg! "Don't you DARE," she mutters at the injured mech. "Get that energon line over here! NOW!"
"He's full up on Energon." remarks Vespa "He had some before he came here. These two are the ones I'm worried about." he gestures to the two on the tables. "Rampart, just take it easy for now. "
Rampart hesitates for a moment before nodding and slipping outside, leaving the medic and the more heavily injured more room to work.
Lifeline tosses a brief glare at Vespa as he shows how little he knows, her own hands wrists-deep in the second of the injured mechs he had brought in. "So you'd rather he bleed out that energon he just consumed?" She turns to yell at the scrambling minibot again. "I said get the line over here NOW!" The minibot hops and skitters his way through all of the mechs prone on the floor with a coil of clean energon tubing.
Ratchet pulls up to the outside of the clinic, having passed the smoking mess that was El Sleazo on his way. He transforms and strides to the door, peering in with a deep frown. "I'd've thought the local gangs had their own physicians," he says as he takes in the situation. "What do you need?" he asks Lifeline with a lift of his chin.
"This one will die a lot faster than Rampart. " he may not be a medic, but he has seen enough explosions and battle. Vespa though states "I've also called Bandage. He'll be here soon to take care of him. " he turns and his optics narrow at Ratchet, but Vespa smartly said nothing.
Lifeline says, "Med terminal frequency is," she rattles off a frequency number, and makes a mental note to change it the moment this crisis is over as she just blurted it out in front of Vespa and who knows who else. "The triage list is on there.""
Bandage rattles up and walks in with a disdainful expression on his face. He ignores the other casualties, making straight for Clamps and Stopwatch. "I'll take care of /my/ patients, Autobot," He says with a sneer at Ratchet.
"Ease up, Bandage. " notes Vespa, knowing that keeping the peace would mean EVERYONE lived.
Streetwise nods simply to Ratchet, remaining quiet.
Lifeline tosses Vespa another glare then starts to use the tubing she was brought to shunt past a shredded energon line she'd been holding closed with her hands. "About time you smegging quack. Primus forbid you take time out of your /busy/ schedule to actually do your JOB." She finishes the shunt on the injured mech and moves on.
Vespa had pulled his group together out of the way once they were all assembled, merely watching quietly as his two mooks were stabilized, hopefully
--Some Time Later--
"It's amazing they've even lived to get themselves to El Sleazo in the first place, considering," Ratchet says, scowling at Bandage. "All right! If you're physically able to get the slag out of our way, get moving! We're not going to buff your paint jobs for you here..."
Lifeline tosses Ratchet a brief glare but then follows up his words with, "Please come back tomorrow and I'll check up on your injuries then. If anything starts to feel worse, please return immediately."
Vespa states "If we're able to, we'll make sure they get back." not eager to say much more about this. He looks about, the room having started to clear out. He looks at Tiny, and then at Streetwise as the youth remains quiet and close, quite different than his usual boisterous self. He seemed in shock, watching this all.
Streetwise does though, look from Lifeline to Ratchet and back again. An opticbrow raises
Then the youth blinks "Where's your assistant?"
Lifeline glances at Streetwise, then turns to level a glare at Ratchet. "Where do you think?"
Ratchet returns Lifeline's glare in some irritation. "Don't even try me on this one," he says in a hiss. "You don't have any idea how much all this slag has spiraled out of control."
Vespa is no fool, and he glances sharply to Streetwise, then states "We're going to have a talk, son." Then looks to the two warring medics "If you're done on my boy, there's a matter of payment and departure. We shouldn’t hang around here longer than we have to."
Lifeline finishes up a last repair, most of the work having gone more quickly with Ratchet's arrival. She refuses to count Bandage, he is a waste of energon. "Excuse me?" She glares at Ratchet more openly. "YOUR assistant, YOUR control." She turns the glare on Vespa then. "Just take your quack of a medic and go," she snaps at the Don dismissively, then walks back toward the now gutted mess of her cabinets. Luckily for the minibot, he left as soon as things were enough under control that his help was no longer necessary.
"... No." states Vespa simply "Part of the way my world works is in favors, and I ain’t having yo hold a favor over me." he pulls out a credit chip and tosses it onto a counter, where it wont get lost "There. That should MORE than cover it." Bandage was looking quite miffed at this, but he was typically calm now "Streetwise let's go. Tiny, load 'em up... Stopwatch too. We gotta tell his family he was murdered.
Streetwise though, looks from one to the other, a question in his face.
Ratchet slams down a hunk of slag onto the counter rather than into the recycling hopper. "Which would be fragging terrific, if it were true! Pit-slagging Autobot military command wraps its fonging tentacles into everything I do... and now I gotta put up with static from you? Hell, I'd be sending my assistant into a slagging deathtrap if I sent him down here again! A bar, Lifeline -- an energon dispensary with a profit margin, and it's a smoking husk! You want me to rail against those aftheads when your own damn city can't keep itself under control?!" He picks up the slag and tosses it into the corner, hard. "My first concern is his safety, and Cubicron is _not_!"
Lifeline tightens her grip on the spanner in her hand. "How DARE you yell at me in MY clinic? And you don't know SMEG about what goes on around here! You live in that posh palace of yours and you don't give this place a single thought except for when it might affect you directly! Oh, and Primus FORBID you should ever have any of your slagging Autobot friends risk their dainty little sparks to come to this dangerous backwards SLUM! No, if you had YOUR way, every last one of these mechs would have to come crawling to Your Specialness and claim fealty to that bland moron Optimus Prime just to save their own lives!"
Vespa helps Rampart to load up Tiny, the largest of them all (Ironically) with the body, with Clamps as well. While they did that, Streetwise stared at them both. His face darkened again into an unhappy scowl. Finally though, he has to step in.
"Will you two just STOP FIGHTING! LIFELINE! Ratchet's just as busy as YOU are! He can't take care of every single city, he has a LOT of doctors under him - ever notice that camp outside of Iacon?? Every medic in there works for him, as well as in Iacon and other cities. And NOBODY is forced to join the Autobots for help! They'd probably have this war OVER if they weren’t supporting all those other people!" "Streetwise. " " And Ratchet, if you want someone to blame, don’t blame the city, blame the MAFIA and the other scum who make this their home. Its not HER city, she has NO control over it! Just like HE has no control over Iacon. They do their slagging best to help as many as they can - and no, those they help do NOT have to join the Autobots either just for help!" "STREETWISE."
Don Vespa's voice booms out over the clinic, his cold optics staring at his son now as Streetwise whirled. And then looked down.
"Will you quit venting out your aft?!" Ratchet shouts at Lifeline, sparing a gimlet glare for Streetwise. "Don't even give me static about how wonderfully palatial Iacon is, if we're getting Primus-damned alien spacecraft detonated right over *our* heads, with refugees getting irradiated just because there isn't enough shielding to go around! When's the last time you got one of those blasts here? Huh? _Now_ who's in a palace?!" he demands, spreading his arms wide. "And none of that smeltery about claiming fealty to anybody -- you know better! Slag, if it all came down to handing out sigils to everyone who came through my Medbay doors, we'd have whole fragging legions added on by now! We've been taking care of neutrals that stay neutral, and don't you ever try to tell me we don't!!"
Streetwise's optics flicker at Ratchet, and he half lifted his arm to point in the direction of El Sleazo, when Vespa's heavy hand fell on his shoulder. His optics flash, but he straightened and nodded to both
"Th... Thank you for your help. And good luck." he states, turning to head out with his father, faceplate still angry at the arguing.
Vespa adds "Good luck to BOTH of you. Keep yer heads down an' watch yer backs. Getting meddlin in family business can be risky." to both doctors as they depart.
Lifeline actually pulls back and the throws the spanner in her hand at Ratchet. "You are so full of LIES, Ratchet! I don't know how you managed to brainwash First Aid, but you should be glad that he's not allowed back here! I wouldn't let him near you ever again! Get out! And don't you ever even consider coming back here!" Streetwise and Vespa are seemingly forgotten in her rage.
Ratchet picks up the dicebag and rolls against his dexterity <Catch and toss...>.
Ratchet's roll succeeds!
Ratchet catches the flying tool and lobs it away, sending it hurtling toward Lifeline's supply cabinets. "Fragging rust to powder, for all I care! Don't ever expect Iacon or the Autobots to supply your slagheap clinic, either. Frag off!" he snarls as he leaves, transforming and speeding off as quickly as he can.
Lifeline picks up another random object to throw after Ratchet, but he leaves too quickly. Stomping angrily toward the open bay door, she GLARES at anyone still hanging about. "What are YOU staring at?" Turning, she slams the doors closed and locks them from the inside. Closed for the rest of the day, kids. Behind the now secured doors, though, she leans against the wall and takes an uneasy breath. That had better have been convincing enough... she's not entirely sure what part of that argument was just an act and how much was genuine anger. For her OR Ratchet.
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