Shocking First Impressions

The doors open wide. WIDE. They have to, considering who and what is passing through them.

With a deep throaty rumble like the warning growl of a lion, a massive Cybertronian reptile saunters into the room. He tucks wings to his back and ducks his crested head down to slither sinuously into the room.

His teeth part just enough to let him sense and taste the air, his exterior illumination casting a bright golden glow amid the rough, light-eating patches of black that is his base armoring. He seems to be looking for something.

Shockwave records and considers the new visitor, while continuing in his methodical sweeping.

Defeat can leave one feeling bitter and even ashamed. But Chimera felt nothing of the sort, even during her last moments before the darkness came spilling in and unconciousness took her. In fact, she felt.. glad. Megatron defeated her in single combat with nothing but his bare hands, a feat that earned him her utmost respect and loyalty. It didn't hurt that Dragotron was on his side, either.

Laying upon a medical bed now, the femme is just beginning to stir from her slumber. "Nnh.." Wounds have been cleaned and repaired, though one optic remains missing for now as well as her snapped horn. With a grunt she slowly sits up, a hand to her head as she sulks forward and grumbles. "That mech's got a tough head.." A comment on what finally did her in, but her thoughts wander as she catches sight of Shockwave, staring at the odd empurata for a few moments before Dragotron makes his way into the medbay. "Dragotron.. I wasn't expecting anyone to visit." Because who would?

* Clan-clack, clan-clack, clan-clack...\*

The sound of claws scratching on flooring are a foreign sound that's grown more common in recent cycles, with beastformers and Insecticons both swelling Decepticon ranks in the wake of Nyon's destruction. Both, in this case, are what walk in, slowly and carefully, behind the enormous reptile. Part Cybertronian hound and part scorpion, her red lenses sweep the room until she picks up the distinctive ticking of Shockwave's frame. Chimera gets more than a passing glance - what is \*that\* doing here? - but she's not the purpose of this visit.

For the moment, Overclock hangs back and lets the monstrously large Primordial mark its territory first.

Dragotron stalks over to Chimera and sits on his rounds near her bedside, curling his bladed tail around his haunches. He lowers his head down to mere inches from hers, and a gutteral hissing rasp emanates from his fangs.

Shockwave ejects the collected shavings into a funnel-shaped waste metal recycling disposal in the wall and hangs up the broom on its charging hooks. He crosses to Chimera, tilting his eye down at her briefly to assess her current state, now that she's rebooted from earlier inactivity.

It's a good thing Dragotron is here and Chimera is less than a hundred percent, lest the femme go after Overclock the moment she sees her. But the insectihound only earns a low growl from the depths of Chimera's chest, a threat to keep well away from her. Single optic then meets Shockwave's unblinking one, squinting slightly and pressing lips thin. "Am I going to be released anytime soon? I hate sitting around.." Especially in medbays.

But the worry of leaving fades away when Dragotron approaches and sits at her bedside, the femme not shrinking back in the least when he leans in. Audials perk, however, at the raspy hiss he speaks to her with and optic glows a tad brighter as she replies in kind in the beastial speech.

~I do. What has happened after all these years, Dragotron? This age is.. confusing..~

~I do not know. The Great One lies sleeping, dormant for countless vorns. I am still... uncertain. Groggy. As if I had been in stasis lock too long.~

Dragotron turns to Shockwave and chuffs at him, flipping the tip of his tail.

Shockwave picks up a small box from the counter behind Chimera's slab and takes out a shiny new eye, removing the shrinkwrap deftly with his thumb as he palms it. He sets it aside and turns back to Chimera, presses a switch on the side of the slab which pins her in place electromagnetically so that his workspace is held still, and with a surprisingly quick movement for his bulk, seizes her damaged eye, rotates it sixty-five degrees to the unlocked position, and snaps it out.

Swivelling back towards the counter to deposit the damaged eye, Shockwave takes up a small vacuum to extract the glass left in the socket when the original was hurt. "You will experience a period of blurred or double vision for some hours after the installation due to the time required for firmware matching," Shockwave's voice intones. "Do not rely on the injured side for precision work or estimation of distances until the effect passes."

When Chimera musters a growl in her direction, Overclock smiles, palpably, and swishes her tail to show off her own good health. There is something nice about seeing the Primordial on her back for once, even if it's not the Insecticon's doing.

Daring to move closer now, she steps around to be more on Shockwave's side than Dragotron's and rises as she transforms into her taller, bipedal form. The Insecticon's red visor looks at the more mammoth robot, sizing up its intention to do her harm, before drifting down to watch the medical procedure in progress. With entertainment like this, Overclock is happy to wait.

Dragotron hisses, looking back and forth between Chimera, Shockwave and Overclock. His tail lashes a little more.

~I have sensed others since awakening and have met fake kin who steal our forms. I have also sensed something.. familiar in the city they call Harmonex. We must go and see-- Ergh!~

Chimera is cut off when the electromagnet activates and pulls her back against the medical slab, completely immobilizing her. Shockwave's quick, autonomous removal of her optic draws a startled, shrieking yowl from the femme, body trying its hardest to move even an inch as he goes about cleaning out the socket. "Rrgh! This is why I hate healers!" Fanged mouth snaps uselessly at the air to get at his fingers and an uncomfortable, threatening hiss passes her lips.

Shockwave sets the vacuum aside in turn once the glass is cleaned away. He examines the socket briefly but the damage was superficial and thankfully limited to the eye itself. The new one is taken up and set into place with a smooth, rapid motion, twisted and locked in. Shockwave switches off the slab controls, the buzzing of the electromagnetic restraints fading. "You are sufficiently functional to resume service," he informs Chimera, and goes to put the damaged eye in the component recovery bin, where interns will later collect it for disassembly and recovery of any still working parts prior to recycling.

Overclock looks up to Dragotron again, aware of his presence but not yet repelled by it. Chimera's struggle draws an honest, light-hearted laugh from the Insecticon as she watches. "You're not very comfortable like that, are you?"

"Shockwave, once you are finished, I have information you may like," she offers to the former senator.

Dragotron bellows at Shockwave, as if distressed by Chimera's outburst and blaming the monoptic scientist for causing the pain.

Shockwave turns back from depositing the damaged eye in the bin (after replacing it in a small box and labelling the box with Chimera's eye type and socket size, as well as which side's eye it was, of course. He doesn't visibly react to Dragotron. Presumably he hears it, of course. Shockwave just doesn't seem to react to much that doesn't directly require his input. This goes as far as small talk, bedside manner, responding to any communication which isn't inquisitive. "Proceed," he informs Overclock.

Chimera's claws are raking small lines in the table as the scientist replaces the optic with a fresh one, another displeased groan rising from her until he finishes and releases her. On instinct she immediately scrambles from the table, rubbing furiously at the new optic from the odd sensation of it activating and trying to adjust to her visual preferences.

"Rrgh.. Damn healers.." She huffs and squints at Shockwave, part of him still blurry. "But.. thank you. I guess I'll have to come back later for my horn." Because she sure as the pit isn't sticking around here any longer, expecially with Overclock here. "As for you.." She turns to the other femme, glowering at her. "I'll deal with you later, /bug/.." With that said she gives a knowing look to Dragotron, transforms to her beast mode, and shakes her mane out before padding quick out the medbay doors. It would be best to speak with him where she won't have people digging in her optic sockets.

Overclock's panels bristle at the booming voice and Dragotron once more gains her attention, but it's Shockwave's call to answer. There's a twitch of 'get the scrap out of here' in the Insecticon's EMF at having a disgruntled Primordial in her immediate vicinity, but it's fought down. The perks of being a Self-Aware, the bug no longer slave to her instincts.

"Of course," she agrees mirthfully to Chimera, further amused rather than put off by her manners. Pausing for a few moments, she gives the beasts a chance to leave before addressing Shockwave again. Not everything she's about to say is meant for wandering ears.

Shockwave's lack of reaction to Dragotron inspires something of puzzlement. This... doesn't happen. Smaller creatures don't just -not cower in fear-. WHAT IS THIS SORCERY. The beast tilts his head to one side, before slinking over to the purple mech and sniffing him inquisitively. Is it alive? It -smells- alive. He reaches a clawed foreleg up, prepared to bat at Shockwave like an uneasy cat--

And then Chimera speaks and turns to leave, staying his hand. Literally. Dragotron raises his head as the other primordial exits the medical facilities, and, reluctantly, looking back and forth between her and Shockwave, he places his foot back on the floor.

CLEARLY nothing left of interest here, nossir, and with a twitch of his tail, he decides to exit, stage left, even.

Overclock tenses cautiously again, not liking the thought of what might be about to happen to her almost-new-mentor but unable to avoid - at some small level - envying the imposing presence Dragotron has naturally. Without anything she can really do to help the femme just watches, relaxing again once both Primordials are gone.

"Megatron assigned me to you," she answers belatedly to Shockwave, mimicing some of his directness.

Shockwave's eye follows Dragotron like a security camera before turning back to Overclock once the creature seems to lose interest. "Describe your skill set."

"Varied and complicated," Overclock preambles, hedging her bets as she pauses to reflect on just what she can do, and how much of it she wants to admit.

"Hunting and tracking, especially by scent; chemistry, mechaforensics, working knowledge of most illegal substances; night operations, reconnaissance, long-term wilderness operations; combat from close to medium range; anything Insecticon," here the femme's tail twitches, "And a desire to expand that list..."

"My name is Overclock," she finishes, letting the name speak for itself.

"Sufficient," replies Shockwave. "I have an interest in acquiring Outsiders, intact, for study and indoctrination. I will not refuse any Outsider, but the more exotic capabilities are to be considered priorities. There is one Autobot in particular which I am especially interested in. It is a female-type said to be capable of some degree of time control. Are you familiar with this individual?" Shockwave's voice does not waver, nor does his posture change at all from its typical rigidly upright pose, so the intensity of his interest will have to be taken as read.

Overclock pauses to think on that and her tail twitches thoughtfully. Her own face offers no more expression, being completely covered, but next to Shockwave she's still the more expressive of the pair. "I am not."

"Reports have this individual in the common company of my former collegue, Orion Pax," Shockwave elaborates, "but Pax is no longer interested in maintaining correspondence with me. The object of your search is reported to be standard size and between the fortiesth and fifty-fifth percentile in mass, transforms into a ground vehicle, and may display a crest or decorative plume on or about the head. I require someone who can see and not be seen, observant and subtle, to bring this Autobot to me intact."

"I'm not the quietest femme to walk Cybertron," and it's true she's not, "but give me enough time and I can find her," Overclock assures. "Do you have a name, more detailed information about her alt-mode, or a scent?"

"I will clarify," Shockwave explains. "Do not let your mission be known before it succeeds, or Pax will conceal and/or protect the Outlier, and make further attempts to acquire her significantly more difficult. It does not concern me if you take the subject blatantly or with violence, but I want her capabilities intact, and I do not want your successors' attempts to be compromised by your failure, if you should fail. Is there anything you require in order to beegin this mission?"

"A means of restraining her such as a stasis collar... and a better understanding of your plan for her," Overclock answers, regarding the former senator warily. "To be clear I am capable of hunting and catching but I'm no spy."

"I will provide you with a means of restraint." A low buzzing sound comes briefly from Shockwav's head, or the antennae at least, and a printer on one of the counters nearby immediately spits out a requisition form, already signed. Shockwave reaches over and picks it up, rotating to present it to Overclock in a continuation of the same movement. "This requisition indicates that you have my authority to make use of stasis locks, glue guns and magna-grapplers from our stocks. It further orders the Decepticon designated 'Hun-Grrr' to assist you as required in seizing and taking the target once you have identified and located her. Hun-Grrr is to report to you for the purposes of this mission only. Your further capabilities will be assessed after mission completion, or your report of incapability. Do not hesitate to inform me if you are incapable. Unlike others in this organization I do not treat my resources with prejudice born of failure."

Overclock accepts the form without hesitation and tucks it into a seam in her paneling, but the Insecticon's posture betrays some lingering distrust. "And your plan, Shockwave? 'Study and indoctrination' sound a lot like 'vivisection and reprogramming' and activities like that are why this movement exists. It seems illogical to use them at the risk of eroding our support." The femme has other ways she'd like to phrase that, but when dealing with an emotionless mech, she'll adapt.

"It is not necessary for you to know the details of the later stages of this plan in order to carry out the first," replies the voice from Shockwave's chst. "If you display competence in the first stage, and demonstrate capacity to assist meaningfully in the second stage, I will consider you as an assistant in the study, at which point your input would carry more weight. However, your concerns are noted."

Overclock's engine rumbles as the femme bites back on her first response to the sound dismissal. Then her systems still as she realizes something.

"Whatever's necessary... right?"

"Proportional to the value of the results," Shockwave corrects.

"Of course," Overclock nods to the correction.

"Do the Decepticons have a mnemosurgeon?"

"Feint is studying in that field," Shockwave replies, apparently without prejudice even against that dread field, as he suggestedd earlier. "You may find her in Kolkular. If you have no other questions I suggest you prepare for your mission."

Overclock nods again. "I may seek her out afterward. I may be more... useful in that role and good mnemosurgeons are hard to come by."