A Quick Awakening

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==================================<* Armory *>==================================
Basement Sublevel 1 is located directly below the atrium and is home to the Autobots' largest arsenal. A straight, barren corridor extends from the elevator and is lined on each side with heavily reinforced doors to massive vaults filled with weapons and ammunition. Small holographic security keypads can be found on each door, requiring any who wish to access the interior to enter a passcode and show an ID to be scanned.
If one were to venture even deeper into the underground portion of the Decagon, one would find armored bunkers designed to protect Iacon's citizenry in the case of an attack like the one that occurred not too long ago on the next sublevel down, as well as a stockpile of energon rations designated for such an event.
At the end of the Armory, behind a similarly locked but much more reinforced door lies a similar weapon, an inert but open secret. The sixchanger, Quickswitch, rests in stasis here.
Unconscious and unaware, his body rests until a cure for his unfortunate mental malady can be found. And so, he waits, for a cure, to be summoned...
The Decagon's sublevels are filled with massive floor-to-ceiling vaults containing weaponry and ammunition to the brim. Some of it was looted off of dead Decepticons who were killed in the assault on Iacon recently, though most of it was stockpiled by the Cybertronian military and security forces--aka the Autobots.
One of them, though, located on one of the deeper levels of the armory, isn't. It's as colossal as the others, but instead contains only 1 weapon. Well, person. It hasn't been opened since...right after Zeta Prime fell. So it has been a number of years.
And that's why Wheeljack is here. Because as intelligent as Prowl is, he knows when to delegate. A being like Quickswitch is rather...unique. Someone neeeded to make sure the cryogens were properly bled off so as not to cause any unnessary pain, trauma, or discomfort. And also as much as he'd loathe to admit it openly, Prowl doesn't handle unpredictable things very well.
Suffice it to say that Quickswitch is one of those things.
He approaches the door, keying in the passcode before it slides open to reveal the stasis chamber inside. He doesn't make any casual conversation with Wheeljack. No reason to, he's already told the engineer what he needs to know.
"I bet nobot expected to need to come down here for a long time." That's okay, the chipper engineer has been making plenty of small chatter for the both of them. Even if it resulted in it being a fairly one-sided conversation. "... Though I wonder if Sentinel stashed any of -my- stuff he 'confinscated' down here..."
But the vault swooshing open after Prowl unlocks it diverts his attention back to the matter at hand. "Oh, right, -that- weapon. I'll check the inventory logs for -my- stuff later." Wheeljack ambles up to the cryo-systems, and rubs the main screen of the controls off with the base of an arm. "Looks like everything has been running smoothly down here."
Quickswitch can be seen behind the glass of the cryo-system. The Autobot's face is frozen even now into one caught between emotions. He has remained here without incident. Were he awake, he would wonder what Prowl and this other whom he's never met before, were doing all the way down here. The readings, however, remain static, stable. Amazingly so.
Yeah, the conversation is pretty one-sided, with Prowl mostly just nodding or going "Hn." in response, if he responds at all. Though when Wheeljack brings up his own confiscated prototypes, he glances momentarily up at Wheeljack. "Certainly a possibility. In fact, if I spent some time perusing confiscation records I may be able to track them down."
When the doors open he moves over to check the systems. They appear stable, so that's good. "So far, so good." He starts to enter the authorization codes to get the system active again. "Start bleeding the cryogens. Careful--he has a reputation for being rather...unstable."
"And yet you brought me to do this?" There is a hint of teasing tone in Wheeljack's voice to make up for the lack of a mouth to smirk with. Nevermind Ratchet was already preoccupied with doing medic type stuff. The engineer crouched down at the side of the machine, and once Prowl has the lockdowns turned off with his codes starts slowly turning the dials to pump the cryogen mixture out of the chamber. "If you're worried about him waking up cranky, Prowl, keep the energon redistribution to minimal. He won't have enough juice to power up more than basic operating systems that way."
"Mhm. And that is why I brought you to do this." Prowl replies laconically, his arms folded as he watches Wheeljack go about his work. Yes, the joke was taken as a serious question.
Slowly, gradually, awareness returns to the Autobot Sixchanger. Awareness of being, at first, and no sooner does this come, then comes a torrential flood of emotions--enough that he becomes painfully aware of his own bodily dimensions, that he's in robot mode. Sadness, anger, happiness, relief and confusion vie for a place within the enormous Autobot.
And then, outward, he is aware of.... /two/.
Suddenly, a sharp, spidery crack appears in the glass. Then another crack, as the sixchanger hurls his weight at the glass a second time. Inside him, a maelstrom and physical pain.
".. Yeah, that's what I thought." The flicker of Wheeljack's emittors is slightly off from his words, giving the visual a sort of 'deadpan' equivilent as he stands. "Now we just need to wait for the process to--"
*crack*
Wheeljack hops back from the pod at the sound as some cracks crinkle in the door."-- Or he could get impatient."
Prowl immediately notices the cracks as the larger Autobot starts to attempt to break out. Great. Too fast. He sighs and just decides to open the door. Because if he doesn't, Quickswitch is bound to break it anyway. Might as well prevent the damage. His hand moves swiftly to the controls and the door slides apart, precluding the need to break the glass.
He doesn't break out any weapons yet, but they -are- ready...
Quickswitch continues throwing himself at the inside of the door, then suddenly he feels the door give and practically falls out of it. A loud clang as he hits the floor. Then, through cryogenic steam, a frenetic sound as he transforms, limbs splayed, into a beast. The beast snarls, giving each Cybertronian present a piercing, somehwat confused expression as he assesses the situation. He crouches, preparing, perhaps, to pounce on the nearest one, "Who.." he growls, vocalizer thick with static, "...who are you?" he addresses Wheeljack, and it is almost not a question at all, "Have they found a cure for--thisss?" the beast hisses with rage, glaring out at the both of them.
Wheeljack takes another cautious step back, holding his hands up palms forward. "Easy there fella. You've probably a little disoriented from being stasis for so long."
Then he leans a bit closer to Prowl. "You have any idea what 'this' he's talking about, because I sure don't. It's not like transforming into a cyber-animal is -that- unusua--"
This is probably the point where Prowl tells him to shut up before he starts rambling.
Yeah, it is. Prowl gives the engineer a sharp look to shut him the slag up. "Patience, Wheeljack." He will clarify everything in a few moments.
For now, he looks calmly at Quickswitch. "You could say that." he replies to the quesiton. "It may not be what you were expecting, exactly. You're not really ailed, Quickswitch. You just need more -focus-."
The giant beast quickly folds and unfulds into a large jet. Underground, it can do nothing, but it speaks strongly of the sixchanger's present confusion, "Why are you looking at me like /that?/" he snaps disgustedly at Wheeljack, "I have no /intention/ of hurting you," another painful shift, into a large, floating laser cannon, -shift- a hovercraft -shift- drill tank as his emotions carry his t-cog away with them. Then a violent reversion back into robot mode, where he rests on one knee, "Hey gang," he says at last with a smile, and then, regarding Prowl, "Focus? You don't say. I'm all audials," he looks at Wheeljack again, "Hey no worries. Like I said, I won't hurt ya. Feeling kinda weak though."
Wheeljack ducks as a wing comes -><- close to taking his head off as Quickswitch convulses through his modes, then has to press back to the wall to avoid getting scrunched when he's a floating cannon only to drop back to the floor as another heavy vehicle.
And then he's back to robot mode. ".. Yeah, stasis can do that to a mech." Wow, and he thought Blitzwing got crazy with the mode-shifts.
Prowl nods at Wheeljack. "Not to worry," he says, with regard to the weakness. Assuming 'that' referred to the weakness part, not the crazy shifting. "That's normal. You've been in cryo-stasis for a number of vorns." He probably knows the exact number, but isn't giving it right now. "But Wheeljack here will get you back into shape, isn't that right?" He looks back in the engineer's direction again.
Wheeljack already has out a med-scanner going over Quickswitch's vital scans, so he doesn't actually answer other than a "mmhmm"
Quickswitch looks between Prowl and Wheeljack. Frustration as Prowl does not understand, but the assault unit is in no partiular mood to elaborate at present, "Vorns...?" he asks in a soft voice, shaking his heavy helm in disbelief, "How can this one help me?" He watches the med-scanner with mild interest, gives Wheeljack a small smile and hopes this long sleep has left him fully functional.
"Wheeljack." Prowl clarifies, giving Quickswitch the engineer's name again. "He's one of our best engineers. Of course he can help you. Once you've returned to full strength, come see me. Alright?"
He starts to leave, but pauses in the doorway. "Oh, and if anyone asks, you woke up on your own, and we just happened to notice. Understood?" The question is to both of them.
Quickswitch narrows his optics suspiciously, "Understood," all of Quickswitch agrees, some aspects of him more reluctant than others.
"It's going to take a few cycles for energon to fully circulate back through your systems, but other than this," there's a pause as Wheeljack smacks the side of the scanner with his other hand, "doesn't show any critical physical discrepencies.. not that there's much info to go on, I've never seen more than a Triplechanger befo--" Wheeljack pauses, looking up with a surprised flashing of his lights. "Huh?" He glances from the retreating Prowl over to Quickswitch. "What did he say about waking up on your own? I was distracted."
"Oh, um.." Quickswitch mumbles, "Just to say that I woke up on my own and you guys found me. Good enough for me. Just glad to be out and about again!"
Sure, Wheeljack. Talk about Prowl as if he isn't even here any more. He gives the engineer an exasperated look. "I said, if anyone asks, Quickswitch woke up on his own unexpectedly, and we just happened to notice first. Cryo-containment failure, or something. You know the drill."
He's asking me to lie... Quickswitch raises a hand, says again in a quiet, compassionate voice, "Why lie like that..? I am glad to be out and about, but.." The sixchanger's mood, entire demeanor, changes. Perhaps this was unauthorized. Perhaps this was fortuitious accident, like he said. I was asleep, after all... Quickswitch looks numbly confused, "Whatever you say." the decision is finally reached.
"Oh?... Oooooh." Wheeljack almost asks why they were doing this in the first place then, but doesn't when he figures Prowl wouldn't tell him anyways. "It -has- been a few vorns. Systems were probably wearing out anyways. That cryogen pod is seriously outmodded hardware." Nods his head a bit. Then reachs over to give Quickswitch a pat on the .. well... back, but the sixchanger is a lot taller than he is. "Com'n, we'd better get you situated either way."
Quickswitch rises, not having quite enough strength to transform, "Good idea. /Excellent/ idea."
Oh no. Prowl isn't -asking- them to lie. He's ordering it. Always assume that whatever he tells you to do is an order. That is, unless you're Optimus Prime.
He nods curtly, with a quiet "Good."
"I will see you both in my office within three megacycles." And yes Wheeljack, that means you need to get Quickswitch back to 100% before then. With that, he leaves the room.