Introducing: Slag

Another day has begun in the metropolis of Rodin. Cruising over the city, intrepid field reporter Teleprompt is in her altmode, a turbo-copter, reporting the usual griefs of the morning. "And watch for delays along the 501, where there seems to be some heavy construction going on along the Tesarus Bypass." she offers cheerfully as she flits along towards some accident up on the highway near Polyhex.

- Three cycles ago. The Dynobots were standing in an alley, discussing their future plans. Grimlock looked around his team and grumbled. "We will fight in the arena games. Slag, Snarl, and I. We will make plenty of stanix in this and be able to afford our own transport off world and away from Sentinel Prime."

Slag growled, looking even more sullen than usual. "You fight. Snarl can fight. Small scores. I want to leave a mark. Make sure that Sentinel knows that he has frakked up. And that we will make him pay."

An argument broke out shortly thereafter, which ended with Slag getting frustrated and storming off to go solo, as he put it. Grimlock grunt. "He'll come back. He always does."

- Present day. "Mech, construction again? When are they ever going to have this pass finished?" Lockbox asked his companion, the two of them escorting supplies to one of the companies that supports the weapons industries of Kaon. As the truck nears the tunnel, the lights for the traffic directors flash, directing the vehicle over to a weigh station. "This again? Third time in the last twenty cycles." As they pull up towards the stationhouse, they are unaware of the small sensors underneath the platform that are ticking down quickly to zero.

Bored bored bored bored BORED BORED. Did we mention bored? Shiftlock is bored. Orange Tunnel Speeder Needs Excitement Badly.

For the last two weeks Shiftlock has been holed up in Orion Pax's hab suite in Rodion, taken away from Prowl and Pharma and other extremely questionable figures after Pax had listened to her explanation of how she went from being a Nyon Rebel to a Security Forces Recruit in under 24 hours. That, and her involvement with the now equally questionable Senator Ratbat lead Pax to convince the little fembot to go learn about law and order in Rodion. Ostensibly it made sense, what with Pax's gleaming reputation as 'Super Cop'. In reality, Pax was trying to get to the bottom of what looked like more corruption.

Unfortunately for Pax, his houseguest is not the type to lay low, stay put, or even make not-foolish decisions. She's perfected the art of making energon goodies (without blowing up the kitchen like the first time around) and now she's in need of ACTION!!11!!1. The blame likes in equal parts between the nature of her altmode and her relative toddlerhood state of existence.

Thus, no longer having Mr. Prowl to LOUDLY ASK QUESTIONS OF or a Banzaitron to force her to exhaust herself in repeated Circuit-Su training exercises, Shiftlock does what any unattended toddler would do: She decides to get into trouble (she has no idea it's trouble). Leaving a note for Pax about going on patrol in Rodion (just like him!! He'll be so proud!!), she slips out of the residential tower and transforms headed into the streets. Scummy criminal scum, BEWARE.

While the bored little speeder sits in traffic, Lockbox has stopped the transport in front of the small building that holds the weigh station and manager. Lockbox puts on a grin. "You know, Tollbooth, you keep pulling us over like this, and the boss is going to start to think you're taking more than you're worth to bribe for us to haul this material through this pass." he comments as he turns his attention to the large red and silver mech that stands in the doorway of the station. "You're not Tollbooth." he says, his grin dropping into shock and then suddenly to fear. "Y...Y...You're one of them!" he suddenly realizes. "They said you were safely in prison!"

Slag may smile. It may have been a smirk. But Lockbox may never realize this as the large Dynobot shoves his hand inside of the vehicle, rips Lockbox out by his chestplate and slams into the ground as he looks down at the small mech. "They lied." he comments simply, as he depresses the trigger in his other hand.

Some distance away, Teleprompt is still flitting over the scene of the accident when suddenly a shockwave rocks her small body. "Oh slag!" she cries out as she twists her body towards where two large plumes of smoke rise from the freeway and the sound of two explosions rip through the air.

The twin explosions have destroyed part of the Teleprompt, meant to slow response time. As Slag stomps forward, the other passenger has gotten over his initial shock and stumbled out of the vehicle, grabbing for his pistol to fire at the large Dynobot. "Stay back!"

Growling low in his throat, Slag tosses aside the detonator as one of the stray rounds 'PINGS!' off of his shoulder and he turns his full anger onto the poor escort. Grabbing Lockbox by the large handle protruding out of his back, the Dyno hurls him at the other escort as he pulls his rifle and starts to return mostly ineffective fire, meant to really not pin down the two guards - just drive them back and free up the transport. "It would be better if you ran. But much much better if you try to fight." Slag offers with a dangerous glint of his optics.

Alarm systems go off immediately and pedestrians and ground vehicles are trying to get away from the explosion. The Rodion Police band lights up with distress calls - some to call for helpin finding the culprits, others are aimed at the nearby Deltaaran Medical Canter, caling for first responders to help the injured. Chaos is erupting all over.

Adventure at -last-.

SFrom Shiftlock's hood a holograph projection of an Autobot badge emerges like putting on the red and blues of a police vehicle. Okay she isn't a police vehicle, but as a Security Forces Junior Recruit Third Class she is CLEARLY qualified to handle an exploding bridge, mass panic and whatever else caused it. /Clearly/. She transforms out of altmode, right hand plateshifting into an energy grapple. "Try to stay calm citizens there'll be help soon so I'm just gonna go over there and beat up the bad guys because it is the RIGHT THING TO DO!" Very reassuring. She grapples up onto an overhead walkpath, running a few feet at remarkable speed, and leaps off, transforming back into altmode. The grapple lances out from the front end of the tunnel speeder, grabbing onto another overpass, and instead of allowing her to flip up on to it, she swings to position herself UNDER it.

Magnetic roller-wheels latch onto the underside of the bridge, and she zooms across the suspension Teleprompt from beneath, avoiding the clutter of pedestrians and ground vehicle altmodes.

Getting close to the source of the explosion in seconds rather than minutes, she drives out from beneath the overpass and transforms again mid-air, falling towards the scene of the crime - a downed transport, and a really big weird-looking guy who is being shot at, and shooting at, two smaller individuals.

The logic of someone with the tattered shreds of 183 years of memories kicks into gear: Big Weird Guy = CRIMINAL. Of COURSE! That's how it works, she's seen it on broadcast. She lands a short distance from Slag, and ... wait did she bring any weapons?

Nope. She shrugs. She'll have to improvise.

"HEY BIG GUY WHY ARE YOU SHOOTING AT THEM ARE YOU A CRIMINAL BECAUSE IF YOU ARE I HAVE TO ARREST YOU SORRY!"

As ballistic rounds are exchanged with electrostatic fire, Teleprompt has made her way back to the scene. "I'm over the Tesarus Tunnel where there has been a pair of explosions! Is this another Decepticon terrorist attack? Or maybe that dreambot Hot Rod on one of his oh so heroic thefts.. oh let it be him please, please.." she says as she focuses in on the large creature, and then on the nearly scratched out sigil on his chest. "W-wait.. is that an Autobot?!" she cries out over the net without realizing it. Just as she starts to report more, her mic is cut, a massive feedback bursting over her line. Apparently someone, somewhere, did not like what she said.

Amid the chaos and confusion and destruction, Slag is just as at home as any good destroyer bot would be. Firing off a couple of more rounds, the large mech grabs a hold of the side of the transport and rips the door clean off of the hinges, slamming it into a ground to use as a makeshift shield. The internal clock in his head is running, he knows that Autobot or local response will be arriving any minute... ah, there it is now!

As he turns to face the sure to be overwhelming opposition, he stops. Stares. Tilts his head a little to the right, as he puts away the very sword that he was about to draw because of what he was expecting. A full on assault. Instead.

"Aren't you a little small to be playing cop, mini-bot? Stay out of it, kid. I'd hate to have to hurt you." he comments, promptly ignoring the small femme to deal with the two escorts. Grabbing that aforementioned sword, he yanks it free and slams it home into the second, he never got a name, did he?, escort, the poor mech's optics flaring and then dimming as Slag shoves him away. "Last chance. Want to live? Run." he says simply as the large mech growls again low in his throat. One measly mech? Is that all he's really worth?

He'll file a formal complaint later.

Shiftlock frowns. "Hey! HEY I AM JUST AS MUCH A COP AS ORION PAX YOU BIG -- did you just kill that guy?" This is amazing. Real death. She has to see this.

She holds a hand up to Slag. "Can you stop for just a second please, sir, I have to see this. I mean I've seen it in videos and training and stuff but this is the really real world and ... I dunno, it seems very serious. You can get back to being a criminal a second, I just have to look at this."

And with that Shiftlock, if not otherwise stopped, walks over to where the stabbed, nameless mech has fallen. She kneels beside him and looks for signs of life, but he's fading fast if not already dead. She vents a little sigh, her transformation plates bunched up in distress and her doors rising like the hackles of a cat that that's been confronted with a threat. "I'm sorry, I tried to get here really fast. I guess I'm not as fast as Blurr." She consolingly touches the side of the mech's head, and then stands back up.

Shiftlock tries to look as threatening as possible (which is about as scary as an angry kitten) as she points at the corpse. "DO YOU SEE WHAT YOU DID? THAT WAS -WRONG-. Why did you even do that?!" she demands. "And I am going to fight you all right because SOMEONE has to do it and stop all this nonsense! Don't count me out because I'm small, I can do things you wouldn't even believe!"

Slag is actually stunned enough by the audacity of this little femme to actually stop his attack and just watches the little bot as she goes over towards the body. "This is surreal." he manages. Wow, she illicited a big word from the burly mech. When he says surreal, seriously, he sounds like he's cursing.

The mech is so dead. DO YOU SEE WHERE YOU FAILED, SHIFTLOCK? Oh wait. If this is the first time she's seen a dead mech, well.. she better get used to it.

Lockbox is just as incrediolous. "Are you /insane/?!" he yells towards Shiftlock. "Don't you know who he is?! That's one of the Dynobots! He'd rather kill you than give you the time of cycle!" As if to back up this very claim, Slag puts a shot through Lockbox's abdomen, and while he is falling backwards, Slag looks towards the offending guard. "It is half-past ten." he growls as he turns his attention back to the truck. "It is simple. I take this. You stay here. And do not get in my way, or you end up like them." he comments towards her as he fires a shot at her feet, just for effect, reaching inside the cab of the transport to free up the brakes.

Shiftlock startles as yet another mech is shot in front of her. She puts out a call to the first responders to try to save these two if possible.

But she is a SECURITY FORCES RECRUIT THIRD CLASS and it is now her duty to deal with this criminal because no other Enforcers are around right now.

She doesn't care that Slag could kill her. She's faced mechs just as bad as him; the memories that had been altered and repressed would indicate that not only had she seen worse she had DONE worse, but thanks to Pharma, they're buried under firewalls and broken links. The self-repair mechanisms in her body start to work again, trying to re-establish those missing links and destroy the firewalls, to give her back everything she was -- but it's slow going. It may take a couple thousand years before anything returns.

Shiftlock only startles a -little- at that second shot at her feet, which makes her oh so very MAD. "No! No you don't get to just shoot at people and kill them and then drive off with whatever is in there! I am TOTALLY going to get in your way and even in your BIG STINKY FACE!"

She does the absolute worst possible thing she can do, and completely unarmed other than a grappling hook, she runs towards Slag in a blur of motion (9\* speed yaaaay) and attempts to jump onto his back! SHE WILL WRESTLE HIM TO THE GROUND SOMEHOW. Or mildly annoy him. We'll see.

As he had just shifted the vehicle out of gear into neutral, Slag was not expecting this.. nuisance.. to be so.. nuisancy. The large mech barely makes note of the ranting and raving of the small femme with a snort of diresion before he keeps his attention on the task at hand.

While Shiftlock is charging at him, the large mech applies a couple of large chain links to the trasport. The cab is far too small for him to fit into. So how was he planning on getting it out of here?

Hooking the chains around the large horns of his altmode, Slag sucked in a sharp breath and prepared for the next part of his plan. Without his team here to help him off-load the goods, he planned really.. to just carry it away.

It is while he is making his transformation from his root form into the large Triceratops that Shiftlock makes the lunge towards the Dynobot. The young femme does indeed land squarely on the back of Slag.

...but it's not mech Slag.

The Triceratops turns his head back towards Shiftlock, quirking the only optic that can see her at her before the large Dyno suddenly lets out a ROAR of anger, fire belching from within his frame and out around the frills of his head armor and from his mouth as he starts to /buck/ hard, each of his feet rattling and shaking the already damaged bridge supports as he starts to try to get rid of the femme that dares to take the Dynobot for a ride.

"OH THAT IS THE SWEETEST WEIRDEST EVIL ALTMODE EVER--!!" Shiftlock's compliment is cut off as her optics widen at the gout of flame coming right at her. The only thing saving her right now is the fact that she's small, fast, and extremely agile. She flings herself over to the side, the edges of her right side getting a bit singed, paint going from copper to black in no time.

Shiftlock is trying to remember all that unarmed combat training but it's hard to do when flamethrower-in-the-face business is going on. Yes, she shouldn't have taken on Slag at ALL but damned if she's not going to try anyways. She desperately wants to make Prowl proud of her, especially after running into his cadets, leaving tiremarks all over the decagon and then littering (and trying to blame it on some invisible bad guy as a distraction).

Shift begins to slide off to the left side of Slag; the magnetic grips of her altmode's wheels, which rest in her forearms and heels, lock onto Slag. ... But she just keeps sliding until she is now UNDERNEATH Slag, hugging his underside. "STOP THE RIDE I WANT TO GET OFF!" she shouts from underneath the Dinobot as she's jostled and tossed around, stuck fast.

There is an even louder roar of disapproval from Slag as the femme slides all over him - and not in the good way. She may have hit a tickle spot, judging by the near hiccup of a burst of flame, but she may not live to find out. As the Dino storms and stomps all over creation, that massive tail whips out and slams into the weigh station, destroying it utterly. Between the stomping and the jumping and the bucking of one angry dinobot, one with acute hearing may hear the tell-tale creaking and cracking of metal as it starts to give way under the earlier damages and explosions from the Dynobot.

As the Triceratops continues to buck and rage angrily, he seems to hardly be able to form words. "GET... OFF!" he roars angrily, as the creature breaks the chains from the truck, twisting and trying to roll over onto his back to throw Shiftlock off. Just as she moves and slides onto his belly, which now puts her on top with his legs jutting straight up into the air as he thrashes and slams his tail against the bridge angrilly, trying to move again and get back to his feet - which is not the easiest thing in the world when you are in full rage mode.

The smaller fembot is suddenly on top of Slag who is on his bag. Cue the cat calls? She seems as surprised at this turn of events, there's clearly no plan here, only dumb luck. "Uh--! Uh--!" She's searching for ideas, her processor slowed down by its constant battle with the control program, and then it dawns on her. GRAPPLING HOOK! Her arm plateshifts into a grapple again.

"I'm not going to get off because you killed two people and you can't just go around killing people like that! It's WRONG!" She's so focused on dealing with Slag that any warning sounds of impending bridge collapse aren't really reaching her thought processes. "I -have- to make you stop, sorry but it is my JOB!" And with that, she attempts to use the grappling line to hog tie Slag's feet together.

While Shiftlock is busily trying to dinotie the large former Autobot, Slag's tail thrashes out again and slams into the transport. A transport that was marked as carrying supply parts. As it slams into the railing, it tips over, the doors coming open and spilling it's contents. If one is paying attention, they'll notice something.

The 'supplies' are weapons. Rifles, pistols, reloads, demolition devices. A pair of missile reloads tumble out of the back of the transport and jostled about along the deckplates.

The missile rolls right towards the duet. As Slag fights between ripping the poor femme apart and controlling what little grip on his sanities that he has, he spews a massive blast of flame at the missile. It detonates in a spectacular explosion, sending up another shockwave and starting a chain reaction that goes back to the vehicle.

As the transport detonates, the whole bridge shakes and starts to fall, sending the pair of bots tumbling downwards. Slag flails his massive dinolegs uselessly, before transforming, snapping the ties around his legs (9\* strength, yay!) and grabbing the small femme, yanking her off of him. As he glares for a moment, he tries to throw her towards a nearby roadway - and to safety as he continues to tumble downward, still roaring in anger.

He don't quite remember he can fly yet, mayhaps?

Shiftlock looks shocked (and a bit pathetic) when she's grabbed, but she doesn't have time to ask Slag not to wad her into a little ball and toss her into the wastebasket - he's throwing her out of the way as everything just -blows up even more- around her. Well, she wanted excitement, and now she's getting it, isn't she?

Flying through the air she attempts to right herself (at last a little of that wax-on wax-off training stuck) and regenerates the energon grapple line, costing her a little more of her internal stores. Shooting it towards a more stable overhead Teleprompt it latches onto a guard rail and she's \*jerked\* out of the skies. Transforming into vehicle mode she adjusts her spoiler and kicks on turbines at her rear, causing her to jet, while still tied down, towards the underpass.

Slag is beginning to fall, and Shiftlock isn't done with him yet. Just because he did something bad doesn't mean -he- deserves to die.

She /has to save him/.

She latches onto the underside of the bridge with her magnetic wheels, aims her grappling line and fires it towards Slag, determined to snag him or at least give him something to grab on to. "GRAB ON!" she shouts, adding emphasis to that intent vocally.

As he watches her jet away, Slag snorts. "More trouble than it worth." he grumbles beneath his breath. Even as he's falling amongst the rubble, explosions and debris. Trouble for him? Or her? As everything falls into the darkness below, there is the loud metallic collisions of bridge pieces hitting the ground below.

Slag finally gets back his senses as he collides into a part of a building and then pushes off, using his large arms to shield himself from the worst of it as he continues to careen into the darkness below.

Team Dynobot is blasting off again!

He's made of stern stuff. Should be okay, right? Since there is no hand grabbing onto that grapple line.

Nothing grabs onto the line. Now Shiftlock is worried. She was supposed to save him and then everything would be okay and she could teach him how to be a nice ... whatever he is and not kill people and then Mr. Prowl would be happy and ACTUALLY SMILE FOR ONCE. (And then the universe would explode but don't tell her that.)

"... Mr. Criminal?" she asks pathetically. No response. She'll have to go find him.

She ramps off the underside of the overpass (what a mouthfull) and down itno the smoke and rubble and debris. Darkness is not a problem for her - she's used to driving in to the darkness deep into the ungrid, where monsters like Slag's altmode live and hunt. Even if she doesn't the name of such creatures, she is very curious as to how one of them is actually talking to her and transforming. They don't normally do that.

She drops out of the skies and transform into robot mode to land. Which really isn't that great of an idea as the whole area is unstable rubble; her weight causes the chunks of bridge and building to shift around and she howls, loudly, as she proceeds to fall right down the pile.

Crunch. Shiftlock lands in the ungrid. As she does so, there's a scattering of debris, a large pile of it crushing a large conduit pipe that has long since been placed into disuse. There is no sign of the large creature or mech that Shiftlock was battling, as Slag has maybe made his way into the conduit or somewhere else - or perhaps he is even buried in the debris itself.

A light from above shines down on Shiftlock as the hover-copter races down and transforms into her root form as Teleprompt lifts her camera from her left shoulder. "Excuse me! Hey! This is Cybertronian news, and we want answers! Was that an Autobot? Are the Autobots carrying out secret experiments on lower caste citizens? Why were there weapons in that supply truck? Is this a terrorist attack? Was that an Autobot that has become a Decepticon?" she asks, continuing her deluge and barrage of questions on the femme.

Shiftlock looks up. She beams widely, despite being just a bit singed, and just a bit dented, and just a bit filthy. "I'm sorry I'm busy hunting a criminal but if you have any questions about all this you can feel free to ask Mr. Prowl at the Decagon his contact number is --" And then the well-meaning doxxing of Prowl begins. Sorry Mr. Prowl, you never told her how to deal with the press.

That being answered, she transforms and begins to search around through the tunnels, zipping further into the darkness. "MISTER CRIMINAL?" she calls out loudly, looking for Slag. "... Please be okay?"

Teleprompt, as she is named now, is not so easily deterred by a smile and a doxxing. As Shift transforms, she does too, turning on her bright camera lights to scan the area ahead. "If you think that is going to throw me off of secret Autobot experiments, you're crazy! Besides..." she adds cheerfully, "...Prowl isn't here. You are."

The tunnel is wide enough to hold an Ark-class ship, the pipes and lines that are inside of it hinting that this was once a transportation line of some sort. The continous drip of condensation from the large heating units overhead give a perpetual steamy fog to the area. The metal creak and groans, with the occasional splashing and sloshing of feet. One might hear what sounds like a large mech stomping around in the muck ahead, but then again, there is so many small tunnels and lines all over the place, it's easy to get lost down here. Even with a guide, like Shiftlock seems to be now.

Shiftlock turns around and looks very cross at Teleprompt. Hands on her hips and FROWNING SO VERY HARD she tries (and fails) to look intimidating. "I can't catch a criminal if you are down here! Besides, it's against the law for an unauthorized civilian to be down here, unless you're a maintenance bot or manual labor cast you can be fined in excess of five hundred shanix for being down here. /I will arrest you SO hard if you don't get back up there right now!!!"

"I'm with the Press!" Teleprompt responds, transforming and standing there, with one hand across her abdomen, and the other holding a microtransmitter. "You can't deny me my right to follow a story wherever it goes! And /you/ are the story. You stood up against the odds and now, you aren't answering questions. I demand my rights! Answer my questions!" she says with a tiny frown. "Or is this yet more of the censorship that has come into play since Sentinel Prime declared martial law? Do you support that?"

A femme can try right? Teleprompt continues to film all of the underground. "You heard it here." she says as she turns to leave. "The Autobots are covering up the terrorist activities of their own troops under the cover of martial law!" she says, so excited to have some type of scoop that she can probably sell on the black market. Waving her free hand, she steps back. "Fine, fine, I'll leave." she says as the femme transforms back into her flight mode to head back the way she came.

Shiftlock vents a sigh of relief. Good, she doesn't know if she can keep a reporter safe under here, she's barely capable of taking care of herself. Besides, she much prefers to work alone.

But now the EVIL PERPETRATOR has had plenty of time to get away from her, and if he's hurt, it's wasted precious time being able to get him necessary repairs. Tumbling forward into altmode, she turns on her headlights and begins the search. "HELLO!? Are you okay down there Mr. Criminal? It's okay! I just want to make sure you're not hurt! If you're hurt try to make a noise or bleed or something so I can find you!!"

One would think that a massive dinobot would make a lot of noise. Or ask for help. Or something. None of the above are happening as the femme travels the tunnels. As for Slag, he has made his way along the many tunnels, he knows the area known to the Dynobot from his prior experience. Mostly submerged in the muck, he watches the small transport pass by his position and makes a small noise, barely noticable. He's probably not happy about this.

"I wonder if he's buried in rubble and is dying and can't talk or move or bleed and oh mech this is all my fault!" Shiftlock curses herself. She flips on infra-red scanners (her see-in-the-dark feature) and begins scanning around, looking for Slag. Who probably has a pretty decent heat signature.

Indeed. There are several heat signatures down here, after all. Turbo-rats and insectoids and all types of other stuff.

But yes. Slag is very very hot. Infact, her first telling of how close she is to Slag is when a burst of flame comes shooting out from one of the side-tunnels, meant to neatly singe the femmebot and send her back. "/Go away/." comes the growl from within. A warning growl. One that suggests that this may be the only warning she gets.

The dented and damaged Dino stomps forth. He's taken some injuries. But he's nowhere near death as the nightmares of Shiftlock would suggest. "Go back to top. Where you belong!"

SURPRISE! Shiftlock throws it in reverse and immediately switches directions, getting singed on the front but not melted. It's a good warning shot, that's for sure - and one would expect that level of control from someone who was once a member of the Primal Vanguard.

Relieved that Slag is not infact dead or buried alive, she transforms again, but doesn't leave. "... but I was forged to be down here. This... kind of is where I belong," Shiftlock gently protests. "Besides, I was afraid you were hurt. What were you doing up there anyways?" She stays where she is, just in case he's going to breathe fire again and she needs to bravely run away, or at least get out of range.

"Autobots done enough." Slag growls. The golden armor shows the glow of the available light off of it, the bright flare of his optic visor as he looks at her. "You are Autobot. Be up there. Protecting others." he says, feeling the need to spit the words at some point. "Slag not go back there. None of Dynobots will. Know what will happen. What has happened. Traitors. All of you. Want to capture. Experiment. Refuse to return. Will kill, will die if I need to. I did not choose to be this. Just want to leave Cybertron. Do not need help. /Especially/ from Autobot."

With those words, he starts to turn. "I will leave now. If you try to follow, I /will/ end you." he promises, a growl in his throat.

"I..." Shiftlock rubs her head. It's beginning to hurt. "... I was an experiment too. Combiner. It hurts to talk about it. People know me that I don't remember. They said I was someone else -- a rebel. Even a Decepticon." She winces more. "Ugh my head. Sorry it hurts to try to remember. They did something to me." She looks up at Slag, pleading with him for understanding. "I'll leave you alone now that I know you're safe, but... I still want to talk to you sometime. I need to know what happened, because people are saying I was captured too. I need my memory back."

She starts to step back and away, and rattles off a number. "... Talk to me sometime, please, and be safe. I'm just trying to find answers."

The echo of transformation sounds bounces off the tunnels as the little speeder retreats, leaving Slag with his thoughts.

The Dynobot watches the femme leave. And snorts. "Weak." he growls. "Do not need to talk to anyone." But he doesn't delete the number. Instead, as promised, he turns and heads his own way, plodding through the muck and metal that is his home.