126/Seekers Seeking

**Phantom has posed:**
The recent murder of the Vosian Flight Academy's headmaster has left the city of Vos in a confused and frightened mess. Almost everywhere there's a screen, breaking news about the terrorist attack at the graduation ceremony is being displayed. The whole town is talking with optics wide for any young looking seeker who looks like he or she might have attended the unexpectedly tragic event.

 Which is why, for the time being, it is safest for all of the graduating class from the Vosian Flight Academy to be in hiding, either somewhere where neither Autobot or Decepticon will find them, or at the designated abandoned underground warehouse where Starscream's sympathizers from the school have agreed to congregate on a regular basis to discuss next steps for the new Decepticon recruits.

 The nervous seeker who had unfortunately clung to Windcry since the shooting at the graduation ceremony is perched near the back of the warehouse, quiet and afraid. Every now and then he looks over at her, but says nothing.

**Windcry has posed:**
As for Windcry herself, she's been patiently waiting for Sunstorm to 'assess' her. If he's doing things alphabetically, it would explain why she hasn't had a turn yet. If he's doing it by grade top down, he should have reached her by now. If he was going from the bottom up, it would take a little longer, but she can't quite gauge how long. Either way, she's pacing now. But it's not a motion of aggitation. Rather her strides are smooth and even, her turns precise, as she counts the steps it takes to walk the length of the back of the warehouse. She knows the nervous one is looking at her now and then, but she's going to wait to see what he does, figuring he has more to lose than she does at this point.

**Phantom has posed:**
"..."

 There's a heavy silence, he says nothing for a while.

 Then, finally, "Are you okay?" he asks. "You seem.. worried."

 He sighs. "I guess I never even asked you what your name was. It didn't seem appropriate at that time, but since it looks like we're probably going to be stuck here together..."

**Windcry has posed:**
Windcry stops mid-stride. "Worried?" She shakes her head. "Not really. I just feel like I should be doing something more than waiting right now. Waiting and hiding." Turning to face the nervous one directly, she extends a hand. "Windcry," she introduces herself. "I wasn't one of the top students, or bottom students, so I guess a lot of people didn't notice me," she adds modestly, hiding her inner glee at her success in being exactly what she wanted.

**Phantom has posed:**
"It's better than.." he doesn't finish his sentence. "I don't really know. Whatever comes after the waiting and hiding. I'm--" He sighs again. "I'm not certain I made the right choice," he says a bit anxiously.

 He transforms and shakes her hand. "My name is Twitch," he says, "and I was one of the lower tiered students. I don't really know what I'm doing here," he admits.

 Suddenly, one of the seekers Windcry may have noticed accompanied Sunstorm and Starscream appears behind them, having come from only Primus knows where. "Hey," he says, nodding at Windcry, "come here. I will see if you are good for joining our cause," Phantom adds."

**Windcry has posed:**
Windcry nods her head, as she releases Twitch's hand after the shake. "That makes sense. But so many of us joined, it would have been a disaster if you were the only one remaining." She purses her lips together. "I'm not any older than you are. I have no wisdom to give you." She sounds a little rueful about that, but not enough to break her spark over it.

Then Phantom...happens. Windcry is usually pretty good at tracking motion, and a couple of quick calculations later, she's still not sure where he came from. But she doesn't want to appear too startled, so she just looks him over. Recalling him from the short lived Graduation ceremony, she nods and stands at attention. "Of course," she says smoothly, moving towards him at an even pace.

**Phantom has posed:**
This seems to leave Twitch feeling even more unsettled than before. "I don't know, there's just something that doesn't seem right about.. just doing something because everyone /else/ is," he whispers, noticing that Phantom has arrived. "I mean.." But then the other seeker interrupts.

 Phantom examines Windcry as well, frowning. "Okay," he says, "come with me, we can fly around some and I will ask you a lot of questions. Are you ready?"

 "<Good luck>" Twitch tight beams to Windcry.

**Windcry has posed:**
"< You're right. But sometimes being right doesn't necessarily mean you'll survive. Me, I want to live, "> Windcry replies to Twitch via tightbeam while she follows Phantom. "Have I done something to displease you already?" she asks evenly, having noted the frown. It's not that she's being disrespectful, but she's not beating around the bush either.

**Phantom has posed:**
Twitch seems unnerved. He retreats to a different part of the warehouse, hiding tucked away in a cranny somewhere where he can process his own thoughts and uncertainties.

 Phantom arches his brow ridges at her. "No," he says, "Why do you say that? That sounds so negative of you!" he shakes his helm, tsking. "I just think it is weird that girls can be in the military here. They are better at other things, you know? Like doctoring."

**Windcry has posed:**
Windcry shrugs her shoulders evenly. "There aren't that many of us," she admits. "I only asked because you were the one who frowned first," she adds. "Still, when different people were in control, you just did what your design said you were to do, and that was that. All Seekers competant enough went to the Academy." This doesn't seem to bother her one way or another. "Are you from one of the colony worlds then?" she asks, curious.

**Phantom has posed:**
"You can't always think a frown means bad things," Phantom says, although he quickly realizes he can't think of a situation where it didn't mean something negative. He just shakes his helm and motions for Windcry to follow him outside.

 "Right, of course," he says, "it makes sense that way."

 Suddenly, he appears self conscious. "What?! Do you mean you are making fun of my accent?" Which, if she isn't aware of it by now, may notice now after all. "My Neo-Cyber isn't good," he mutters, "don't judge me."

**Windcry has posed:**
"Nothing like that," Windcry says easily. "You said that it was weird that girls can be in the military 'here'. Since it's not a matter of just Vos, but the whole planet, I assumed you must be from off world," she goes on to explain. "There's nothing wrong with that. You're the one here to judge /my/ fitness; not the other way around."

Stepping outside, she looks up at the sky. "Did you have a particular course you wanted to take?" she asks in deference.

**Phantom has posed:**
Phantom takes a moment to makes sense of what Windcry is saying. "...Oh, okay," he says finally, still looking slightly embarrassed.

 He smiles at her. She's pretty nice after all. "Not yet," he says cheerfully, "You did not tell me your name yet," he says, holding up a finger.

**Windcry has posed:**
Windcry ahhhhs softly. "Sorry," she murmurs. "Windcry. I wasn't sure if you'd already collected all our names somehow and I didn't want to tell you something you already knew." Nice? Not exactly, but she tries to be polite. Also, she knows this guy works under Starscream's orders, so she doesn't want to get on his bad side if she can help it.

**Phantom has posed:**
Not that Phantom really gives two slags about what Starscream asks him to do, he only ever obeyed on 'If I feel like it' basis anyway. He hasn't gotten in trouble yet, so thus far he doesn't plan on changing his behavior.

 "Why would I do that?" Phantom asks, befuddled. "That's boring, then you don't get to ask anyone what their name is, plus it is a lot of work!" He leans forward and plants a kiss politely on her cheek in greeting.

 "Oops," he says suddenly backing away with optics wide, "I forgot girls are not like that here, are you okay?!"

**Windcry has posed:**
Windcry looks stunned for a moment, but then laughs. "I went through military training...a kiss isn't going to break me," she says. Then she gives Phantom an odd look. "Who have you been talking to that went into hysterics because you kissed them?" she is curious to know. "Hopefully not another Seeker." She draws herself up to a straight posture.

Still convinced that he's just from another world, she goes on to say, "If there's anything you want to ask about how we do things around here differently, feel free to ask. I'm not the most experienced person on the planet, but I don't mind answering questions to the best of my ability."

**Phantom has posed:**
Phantom grins, appearing pleased. "Oh, that is a very good answer!" he says, patting her arm gently.

 Then he transforms and flies upward, expecting Windcry to follow. "I am confused," he admits. "Sometimes, they like it, sometimes they hate it. Sometimes they don't say anything about it. I can't understand it," he confesses. "You are nice, though. You have a better reaction than some girls, sometimes," he says.

**Windcry has posed:**
Windcry transforms soon afterwards and follows Phantom on his ascent. "< If I fell apart anytime someone noticed that I was a femme I wouldn't have made it through training, >" she says, continuing their conversation through radio. "< Do you have a lot more femmes where you come from? >" Her flying is pretty smooth, and she's keeping alert for the slightest warning that he is going to change course; she doesn't want to be caught napping, so to speak.

**Swivel has posed:**
Perhaps, while flying, one might not be able to hear the domestic dispute going on in one of the Vosian habsuites. Of course not - the walls are made of sturdy material, and not a lot of shouting will get past them, let alone be heard over jet engines. However, one might see a door burst open and a set of four wheels being tossed out. Odd, for wheels to be in Vos. Oh, look, there's a femme attached to those wheels. S non-seeker flier stands in the doorway yelling, as the small femme scrambles to her feet. He throws something at her, then brings up an arm with a gun mounted on it. The femme isn't sticking around. Barely keeping her balance from her shambling gait, she hops down onto a ladder, not even bothering with rungs. She lightly grabs the sides of the ladder, using just enough pressure to allow gravity to pull her down to a swift escape without falling too fast. As she tightens her grip to slow her descent, sparks fly.

 Up in the entrance of the habsuite, the flier is yelling angry things, until another person from inside comes and tries to pull him away from the door. The two argue in the doorway, before, finally, the one convinces the other to go back inside and close the door.

 Meanwhile the femme has stopped, but is still holding tightly to the ladder. Oh Swivel and those ladders.

**Phantom has posed:**
"<That does not help my confusion>" Phantom answers, "<but I guess that means you do not have an answer for my question, even though you are a girl... huh, I guess other girls do not even understand girls>" he observes. "<Yes I think so, but they do not fight, they doctor people, that is the normal thing to do>" he says, "<where I am from, I never saw any girls doing things like you do, flying and fighting and the like>"

 Good thing she keeps aware of his movement, it would appear he's rather distractible. As soon as he notices Swivel, he banks sharply left and starts to descend, heading straight for the little femme.

**Windcry has posed:**
"< Some of them probably thought you were overstepping your boundaries, >" Windcry suggests. "< Others were probably flattered. I'd have to know something about each of them to really guess better than that. >" There's a brief pause. "< I don't know if I would have had the patience to be a doctor. >"

She notices his sudden shift in direction and she corrects her course to follow. "< Are we interfering? >" she asks, waiting for 'orders'.

**Swivel has posed:**
Slowly, her arms shaking, the small femme let's go of the ladder, stepping onto one of the broader walkways. She takes a few steps away, and then proceeds to sit down cross legged and get out a datapad, quickly tapping in some sort of entry. It is while she is, now calmly, doing this that she looks up, seeing an incoming seeker jet. "Ohfertheluvoprimus...."

**Phantom has posed:**
"<Overstepping my boundaries? I do not know what that means>" Phantom says, puzzled. "<that same girl also used to like it, and then she didn't anymore all of a sudden. That is very weird to me! Well, I think you look like you can be a good doctor. Doctors are good, you know, they can save you...>"

 Phantom doesn't answer Windcry's question. Instead, he protoforms shortly before he lands, letting gravity drop him to the ground as he bends his knees and reaches downward to break his fall. The ground beneath Swivel will shake a little as he lands right next to her, possibly jostling the datapad out of her hands.

 "I bet you know something about that time that Starscream had a bomb in his house!" he exclaims.

**Windcry has posed:**
"< I'd have to know more, >" Windcry says, though she can't help but sound a little intrigue. Someone going hot then cold? That usually means one of two things. But now isn't the time to talk of that. "< I have nothing against medics. I simply am what I am. >"

Following suit, she transforms back to her robot mode and gently sets down on the otherside of Swivel. She doesn't ask anything about the bomb, letting Phantom do the talking for now. Instead she just folds her arms across her chest. Hmmm, this feels familiar.

**Swivel has posed:**
"Yeep!" Is the piteous little cry of exclamation and embarrassment as Swivel fumbles the datapad. It lands in her lap awkwardly, and she quickly goes to pick it up, only to end up flinging it onto the ground in front of her. The femme then looks over sheepishly at Phantom, who doesn't waste time with small talk and gets right to the accusations. While keeping an optic on Phantom, the femme slowly leans forward, tucking her knees under, and crawls over to where the datapad landed. "Bomb? Bomb... bomb... bomb... the one in Starscream's.... oh that bomb." It looked almost as if the femme were about to deny it, but then she glances over, realising a second Seeker is there, and decides against it. Sure, Windcry looked familiar and hadn't really been much of a heel to her in general, but even so, seekers are a clannish folk as far as she's observed.

**Phantom has posed:**
"<Maybe I will tell you another time>" Phantom says to Windcry.

 He kicks the datapad out of Swivel's reach. "Yes," he says, "now, look at me, I am speaking to you!" he says authoritatively. But instead of forcing her chin upward to look at him, he kneels, so that he is at optic level with her. He leans closer, frowning. "It was that one you gave to me from my brother Quantum, right?" he says, "somehow, you got another one, but from who? Do you know where my brother is?"

**Windcry has posed:**
Windcry doesn't know Quantum, so she doesn't say anything about that. She just stands there, looking firmly in place, watching for any cues from Phantom. The younger Seeker is ready to back him up if he needs it. If not she'll just look quasi-intimidating.

**Swivel has posed:**
"Wha-oy! Tha's me..." Swivel abruptly stops gawking at where the pd was kicked to and looks up at Phantom, as he commands. Authoritative tones certainly get the femme's undivided attention. Mostly undivided. She hazards a teensy-weensy glance over at Windcry, but then looks back to Phantom. "Y-yes, I mean, I saw 'im, but I'unno if e'd still be there..." The femme shudders as if recalling something unpleasant. "I dinna wan' no part of it...."

**Phantom has posed:**
His optics widen, and his expression becomes more urgent and worried. "You saw him??" he exclaims, leaning even closer to Swivel. If the femme has any sense of personal space, Phantom has violated it.

 He grabs her by her tiny shoulders and shakes her, but not too roughly. "Where was it? You have to help me find him."

**Windcry has posed:**
Windcry will have to get more information...later. But this is quite interesting. "Just be careful not to shake her head right off her shoulders. She won't be much use to you then," she says mildly.

**Swivel has posed:**
"Wah-oh-eh-erlg-g-g-g....gah!" Even Phantom's 'not to rough' is rough enough that it causes Swivel's head to bobble around initially until she tenses the cords in her neck to keep it from rattling her words any further. Now steady, the femme stares at Phantom's urgent expression. "I kin tell ya where I saw 'im, but tha's some cycles ago. If I know THEIR type, there wun be 'enthin' there but an empty ware'ouse." The little femme offers up a shrug. Or tries to. Phantom's hands may make the difficult, but he can feel the shift of her shoulders beneath his palms. "All's I kin tell ya is alls that I know, which 'ent much." The femme brings a hand up to try and place on his forearm, patting it lightly.

 Swivel glances at Windcry again and tilts her head, then looks back at Phantom. She speaks slightly louder, so that it's clear the message is for both of them. "B'lieve me 'en I say Quantum dragged me inter sumtin big 'n dangerous. Ya mightn't wanner get involved. But.... if ya do..." Swivel's voice lowers again and she digs around on her person. "These 're the coordinates where I saw 'im last. Er... well, there in there... lemme just quickly narrow it down..." Swivel holds a dataslug, whipping out a small machine with a basic interface and begins to fiddle with it. She hums lightly, until she is satisfied. "Gotter built in tracker always loggin'... Coor'd start at Maccadams. I was kinner unconcious when I was taken from there ta where Quantum was."

**Phantom has posed:**
"You have to help me," Phantom repeats. "you /must/." He takes the the data slug from her quickly, examining it briefly before subspacing it. His optics narrow, and he stands up, backing away from Swivel. He looks over at Windcry, nodding. "This is going to be your test, then," he says, "you will also help me to find my brother. If you do good, you can join."

 He then turns to Swivel. "I will investigate to see if the information you gave me is good. If it is true and good, I will meet you back here tonight," he says, "and you will have to go with me to find Quantum," he says with a nod, not giving her a much of a choice.

 "Okay," he says to Windcry, "we will go back to the other place for now." He transforms, and starts to fly off.

**Windcry has posed:**
At least this test will be 'active' work in the field and not just more of the same from the Academy. It certainly won't be dull at any rate. With a soft chuckle, Windcry gives a little wave to Swivel. She transforms into a jet and follows Phantom back to where the other Seeker students are.

**Swivel has posed:**
"But I-- Oh no I coo - Whaddya mean I.... But I dun.... I..." And he's off. Swivel tried protesting against having to go WITH him to look for Quantum. She's not his brother's keeper! When she is sure the jets are far enough away, Swivel crawls over to where her datapad was kicked and picks it up. "But I dun wanna...."