1179/Reliving the Past

**Hot Rod has posed:**
It's been a breem since Hot Rod has been seen around the Decagon - rumor has it he'd been running around the Ruins of Nyon chasing after... only Primus knows what. He hasn't divulged any details thus far, but finally, last cycle he'd shown his faceplates, tires grubby and his chassis covered in soot.

 And now he's in the training chambers, looking like he still hasn't bothered to clean up since having arrived back at headquarters. Weirdly, his spoiler isn't dirty at all. Must have been the only thing he'd bothered to wipe down. /Classic/.

**Hot Rod has posed:**
It's been a breem since Hot Rod has been seen around the Decagon - rumor has it he'd been running around the Ruins of Nyon chasing after... only Primus knows what. He hasn't divulged any details thus far, but finally, last cycle he'd shown his faceplates, tires grubby and his chassis covered in soot.

And now he's in the training chambers, looking like he still hasn't bothered to clean up since having arrived back at headquarters. Weirdly, his spoiler isn't dirty at all. Must have been the only thing he'd bothered to wipe down. /Classic/.

**Starlock has posed:**
     Starlock was the training sims floor, nothing active asshe did some simple streaches, warm up practice as they would say, with her stave. After a cycles of working in the medical bay, stewing in her own negative thoughts, she had needed some time to herself to try and get her mind off them, or at least try.

      Her finial twitched up as she heard someone enter, and looked back. "Hm?... Oh.. Hello Hot Rod, been a hot klik since I've seen you." She would say, turning around to face him, sounding much more subdued since the last time he'd likely heard her.

**Hot Rod has posed:**
He peers at her, but doesn't comment on her more subdued demeanor. "Were you doing those weird meditative chassis exercises that one book Rung has on his shelf recommends for like.. peace of mind or something?"

 He shrugs. "So? What about it?" he picks up a sparring rod, and then walks over to the training drone, jabbing at it experimentally.

**Starlock has posed:**
     Starlock quirked a ridge. "Nah, I'd never be able to sit still or keep my head clear for any of that." She'd vent a huff. and brought her stave forward. "Mostly practicing, and getting used to this stave, it's a new...ish, weapon of mine." She'd nod, watching him jab at the drone.

      She'd tilt her helm, looking him over. "You're lookin' a bit rough though, doing alright?" She'd ask, as she started to move over. "And would you rather a opponent that will actually fight back." She'd smirk, looking at the drone that had caused her so much irritation.

**Hot Rod has posed:**
"Yeah, good, because I think it's all bullslag anyway," he scoffs.

 "Nothing like a good long offroading adventure in the middle of damn nowhere to let off some steam," the former Nyonian rebel says with pride.

 "What?" he says when she asks. "For the record, I look /fine/. I am also, doing better than fine." Then he shrugs. "Sure."

 He starts scrolling through some of the sims on the console boredly, looking annoyed. "I've done all of these before," he grumbles.

 "..."

 "Deleted ones, huh?" A pause. "Permission denied??! Bullslag.. Oh wait.." he peers more closely at the console. "Accessible via the backup data tower, hm.." He wanders over to sim data tower and studies it. Looks like all the data drives were shut inside of passcode protected lockers. "Aw.. mech!"

**Starlock has posed:**
     "Eh, if it works for others, I won't judge 'em for it." She'd nod, Starlock then, once more, raised her ridge and went over to look. "Wonder why it was deleted..." She'd muse, looking at it, and then snorted. "Careful Hot Rod, who knows, if their passcode protected, maybe their badly glitched, or one those lewd alien simulations." She'd grin, clearly messing with him a little as she moved back to the field.

      "Eheheh~ anyway, I don't like using that drone for combat practice, it's much to easy, and glitches to much." She'd nod.

**Hot Rod has posed:**
He's not intimidated. Maybe her joking actually encourages him to.. well, he gets out his miter saw and slices one of the locker doors clean off. Oof.

 He then reaches in and yanks the drive out, tearing the wires of the apparatus encasing the sim data file in the process. Now they're sparking everywhere, but that doesn't seem to bother Hot Rod. He also cuts the top of the encasing apparatus off, and pries out the sim data file. It appears to be intact.

 "There," he says, "exactly what I needed." He then tosses the broken device aside like a piece of trash and sticks the sim file in the console. Next, he leans over the console and presses activate.

 The lights go out.

**Starlock has posed:**
     Starlock's optics settled into a half-lidded position, and she places a hand on her ship platting. "Why does this not surprise me?" She'd ask herself flatly, aaand then the lights go out, the glow of her optics still there, as she then flips on her chassis lights. "Hot Roooood!" She'd yell. She would not be surprised if this specific suit was now slagged, poor Hoist was going to have so much work to do.

**Hot Rod has posed:**
Her chassis lights reveal ... nothing. It's like the room suddenly emptied. If this is the sim... well. It's .. interestingly accurate.

Suddenly, an environment blinks to life in front of her.

It's.. Harmonex? But at the same time, it's not. It doesn't even really resemble the ruins. In fact, it could be likened to what Harmonex could have looked like, if it was forty vorns after a deadly disease had suddenly stricken all its citizens and killed them all in a single cycle. The structures are all the same, but they look so.. lifeless. Moldings are corroded, and many of the roofs are rusted and caved in. The street beneath her is decaying and ... wet?

And the silence. The silence is suffocating. Hot Rod is nowhere to be seen.

But in the far off distance, she can see Nyon. She can see Acroplex. And even from here, it doesn't look anything like the version of Harmonex she's seeing right now. It looks... restored.

**Starlock has posed:**
     Starlock blinks as she is momentarily stunned, looking around at the... strange recreation and simulation of Haremonx.. Had someones simulation of what a restoration effort would be like, gone awry? "What the hell..?" She'd finally whisper, starting to attempt to move through the simulation. "Hot Rod?" She would call as she started moving, and looking around, and then down below at the wet substance.

      "Acid..?" she'd ask herself, only thing she could really think of when paired with the corrosion on the buildings, kneeling down to take a look at it... There was Nyon in the distance, and Acroplex.... Both places she'd been sorely tempted to go exploring in the past, but didn't due to not wanting to miss her studies or work duties.

      She'd then look up, her mind wondering if Hot Rod somehow got dropped in the Nyornian area? That was where he was from after all, if it somehow was working like that... Was this simulation /that/ large?

**Hot Rod has posed:**
Maybe, maybe not. The wet ground beneath her doesn't sting her pedes, so if it is acid, it must have mild strength.

But as she navigates the strange simulation, she'll notice that in some areas, like in back alleyways and such, there are clouds of strange looking fog, that's thick and luminescent. It's actually.. quite pretty in its own way, but there's something about it that will make Starlock uneasy.

If she wanted to find Hot Rod, though, the shining Nyon in the distance is a good bet on where he probably is.

**Starlock has posed:**
     "Oookay, this is a dozen different shades of creepy." She'd say to herself, knitting her ridges.. She'd move for a few kilks, making her way to where her the library she worked at, would be located, but the more she noticed the fog, the more uneasy she got. She'd stop and look around for a moment for some light rubble to huck at it, if anything in this simulation was solid enough for it.

      Yes or no, she was still becoming wry, and turned right around, and made her way back out into the street, ready to transform and start heading for the simulation of Nyon.

**Hot Rod has posed:**
She won't find the library. Instead, there's a graveyard there, filled with eerily straight rows of nameless tombstones, the only inscriptions on them being the epitaph, which were all names of books one would have found at the Harmonex library. The graveyard is very thick with the shiny fog, and from where she stands, the other end of the graveyard is not visible. For all she can see, it looks like it extends into infinity.

 The simulation of Nyon is perhaps even more disturbing. It looks just like how Nyon would have looked during the Golden Age, but no one is on the streets. It's like showing up to a giant gala, only to discover that no one had come.

 In the city's central plaza, sitting on the edge of a fountain, is Hot Rod. His helm is in his hands.

**Starlock has posed:**
     "Whoever made this really has a weird, and morbid sense of humor..." She'd state, raising a ridge at the graveyard, admittedly a bit unnerved, but this was a simulation, so she shouldn't let it get to her too much, right? she would huff at the graveyard, and transform, and make her way to that Nyon...

      Once she got to the center and spotted Hot rod, she'd transform back into her root mode and started making her way over. "Hot Rod?" She'd call as she approached, slightly worried that may not be the real him, but... Well she'd seen no other meches in here, so that was probably not likely.

**Hot Rod has posed:**
He doesn't look at her. He's staring at the fountain, a blank look on his face. "I.. I did this," he says, without look at her. "I know... I never talk about it. But that's precisely why. It's the worst kind of feeling, you know? The one that tells you you're responsible for genocide." He scoffs quietly, and folds his arms.

**Starlock has posed:**
     Starlock looked confused for a moment before looking around, did he mean the simulation? No, that couldn't be it, he likely wouldn't of pulled it had he known what was on that drive. She'd frown, and sit beside him.

      "...I can't imagine what that would feel like... " Well she could partly, thinking back to Clemency. "...If I can ask, why? Erm.. What happened, I mean, to make you feel like that, as I don't know what happened here...If your comfortable, that is." She'd frown. "The Harmonex emulation has many odd alterations and looks like it was restored from what happend." She'd muse, giving him a way out if he didn't want to talk about it.

**Hot Rod has posed:**
"...You don't see them?" he asks. He then gestures at the fountain.

 Upon first glance, it would have just looked like obsidian in liquid form, but a closer look would then reveal that hundreds of bodies of many maintenance bots are actually floating in the fountain. And that the liquid is 90% blood. Some of them are facing down, and on their back is inscribed YX, and then a number. They don't have optics. It's... a horrible, horrible sight.

 Should she look back at Hot Rod, she'll find that suddenly, he's been impaled on... a sparring rod from the rack in the training room?! Now it's really unclear what's the sim, and what's not.

 His optics are dimming as he bleeds out. "I... deserve this," he mutters, his chassis going limp.

 And then the strangest thing happens. Phantom.. appears? However, his appearance is very glitchy, and his coloring and armor are kind of different. He's saying something, but due to the glitching, she can't hear his words clearly.

 Just then, she'll hear a familiar voice calling out her name.

 "Starlock...!" Well, hopefully this is the real Hot Rod...

**Starlock has posed:**
     "See what..?" It take a moment, she'd look down and then see it, her optics narrowing and her lip twitching upward, she wasn't unused to seeing the dead, mutilated or un such fast numbers but... It, combined with the fact someone had to have gone through and purposefully create or recreate such a thing bothered her. "What the Frag?!" She'd yelp, getting herself up, and only backing up a step.

      She'd look at Hot Rod, or a sim of Hot Rod? She'd been ready to jump to his aid anyway, confused momentarily, and then.. Phantom..? She'd squint, how did he get into this place? and what was he saying, and why was his armor different?

      Her finial's twitched up as she looked form the 'dead' Hot rod, to the living one, was this one a sim too? Well.. "Hey Rod, just making sure your not part this fragged up sim, Where did I mistakenly say where your spoiler was over the communlink?!" She'd call.

**Hot Rod has posed:**
Hot Rod doesn't get the chance to respond, because just then Glyph and several other security mechs come running up, as the simulation starts to fade.

 "Hot Rod? How the hell did you get your servos on this?" the mini-bot splutters, looking shocked.

 He steps over to the console and ejects the data disk, shaking his helm. He then subspaces it. "No wonder the connection got severed," he mutters.

 Hot Rod looks.. pale but unsurprised, strangely enough. "Starlock, are you okay?" he asks.

**Starlock has posed:**
     Starlock took a vent through her denta and got up as the simulation faded and Glyph and the security meches came in, and ribbed at her optic, pushing her glasses up to reveal the dark bags under her optics. "I...I... Yeah.. It was just a simulation, a really fragged up simulation but a.. Simulation all the same." She'd /lie/ knitting her ridges, and look over the group.

      "...Just what the hell was that?" She would ask.

**Hot Rod has posed:**
Hot Rod frowns. "Well," he says. And then he stops. There's so much to say. "Actually... I'm not sure..."

 Glyph steps forward, interrupting. "It doesn't matter," he says, "I'm erasing it. Permanently." His brow ridges furrow. "Also, don't divulge anything about this simulation to anyone outside our faction," the cryptologist says.

**Starlock has posed:**
     Starlock quirked a ridge at Glyph, and then to Hot Rod, and then looked back. "Riight... Classified stuff.. Goootcha'." She'd huff, rolling her pauldrons. "...Wonder what Phantom was trying to say in it." She'd muse as she brought her finger up to scratch at her face plate.

      She'd then lean over to Hot Rod and whisper. "Where were you..? what did you see?"

**Hot Rod has posed:**
Glyph and the security mechs take their leave, and Hot Rod watches them go, frowning.

 "This is all really weird," he says suddenly. "None of that stuff is classified. In fact, both factions were involved. It was all public knowledge. Hell, we were even..." A pause. "Working together, at some point."

 "I was trapped inside a room without a door. I guess you couldn't hear me shouting until it disintegrated," he says shrugging. "Look, we can talk later. I need to go for a drive to just.. think. If you've got questions, you should ask Swivel."

**Starlock has posed:**
     Starlock frowned. "..I guess.. but.. I've not seen Swivel in a deca-cycle since the whole mess with Blurr I think she.." She'd go quiet, she didn't want to think about it, but it was a possibility as to why she'd not seen Swivel. She would then sigh, and rub at her helm. "Yeah... Later..." She'd close her optics.

**Hot Rod has posed:**
Hot Rod seems bothered when she mentions that Swivel was probably currently being a hermit. "Oh," he mutters, "Well, we can talk later. In that case, I'm going to go look for Swivel." He transforms, and drives off loudly, leaving tire marks, as per usual.

**Starlock has posed:**
     Starlock looks panicked. "Wait Rod that won't do any good if shes--" Aaand he's gone. She would vent a sigh. "..left the planet." She'd frown, rubbing at her neck wiring, and shook her helm.

      She'd subspace her stave, and pull out her music player, playing it without attaching the headphone jack, in a bid to get her mind off everything, and even started lightly singing along to the lyrics as she left the simulator. She'd plaster a "out of order" sign over the door, and then made her way for her room.