Home Sweet Home

++ Translucentia Heights <BOT> ++

Translucentia Heights is the elite sector of Iacon. Here is where many of

Cybertron's richest and most prestigious members of society would have

their homes. Or they're bound to at least have one of their residences

here, anyway. It's certainly a beautiful place, with its towering luxury

residential complexes and pristine streets. The area is famous for its rare

blue glass, which seems to decorate every residential tower and and

building.

Lights dance merrily across the facets of each building, either from the

partying within or the advertisements without. There are a few commercial

structures as well, such as casinos, bars, hotels, and specialty shops, but

it is more of a residential district than anything else. Many of the area's

residents are altmode-exempt - a privilege that allows them to choose their

function and direction in life. A jump in pay grade often follows.

Cybertron's wealthiest and their privileged guests make their way up and

down the streets, laughing and enjoying themselves or simply conducting

business as usual. Practically any every luxury a mech could think of is

here, at the disposal of those with the means to pay for them. And if

someone didn't have the means to pay for such common luxuries, well,

perhaps that someone just doesn't belong here.

Blurr's ritzy habsuite in the Skyline Tower looks as immaculate as the drones usually keep it. The bar stocked, the recharge slabs spotless, everything in its place as if someone were still living there. Yet at the same time it looks as if no one has been in here for a while.

Given the rise of Megatron's new regime, one can only assume that Blurr has fled the city, given how fast he can move even without any sort of external transportation aid. He could be -anywhere- on the planet by now. There's no doubt that tracking someone like him down would be quite a monumental task.

And yet, he -hasn't- actually gone far. Quite the contrary, he's just been holed up in a secret vault under the Skyline Tower--one he'd had set up just before Zeta Prime went down. It's linked to the -regular- vault in the rear of the hab suite via a private elevator that only opens into two places: Vault 1 or Vault 2, which is deep underground. That way, he can still keep an optic on his stuff with the surveillance systems he'd had installed, and occasionally make trips up to his apartment for his personal belongings should he want or need them. And if the Decepticons ever came looking for him, he'd know when -not- to be in there. He might not be a sports celebrity any more, but having a good deal of shanix at his disposal from those times certainly came in handy.

Today, he is standing on the roof of the tower, looking out over the city. At least Iacon still stands, mostly free of Megatron's savage methods. Translucentia Heights, still beautiful as it ever was. He could just sit here forever, perched below a large upper-level balcony, and forget anything had ever happened...yeah, that would be nice.

The jet's aimless wandering has taken it to the upper class area of Iacon - The Translucentia Heights. Where he /should/ be, away from the rabble and the noise of those lower castes, and he, Quickswitch, clings to those very things that he can. His elite caste, his altmode-exempt status, his six modes. Six... Thoughts of his elective father threaten to overwhelm the even moodier than usual sixchanger. And the false Prime....

Quickswitch is a rather ugly jet in the skies and so lost in thought is he, that he nearly collides with the Skyline Tower. Transforms at the last moment to puma mode, to hang precariously from the edge of the roof before pulling itself up. The beast chuffs, looking around.

Blurr's attention is quickly pulled away from his thoughts when Quickswitch suddenly appears, having almost collided with the resdential complex. Recognizing him immediately, the racer immediately feels several pangs of guilt. Rung...the last he'd seen of the psychiatrist--had he even survived?

Quickly, he pulls himself up onto the balcony and edges in front of the mechanical puma. "Quickswitch," he greets, though he sounds tired. "Careful there."

"Oh.." says Quickswitch absentmindedly, "Yeah." the puma circles and stretches. Seeing the speedster, Quickswitch eyes him carefully. He, too, is tired, but wonders if the speedster's brainwashing has lifted. Last he saw, Feint was killing Cipher, and Blurr was there. /Dirty speedster!/ interjects into his mind. The puma looks closer.

"Blurr?" he asks, questioningly with a ragged, beastly edged vocalizer, "It's nice to see a familliar face, man," Quickswitch greets him, "It's been...awhile..."

Blurr nods. "It has." He sits down on the edge of the balcony, dangling his feet over the street below. "Quickswitch, do you know what happened to Rung? Did...did he make it?" His voice shakes a little. He's trying to hide it, but he's definitely worried. It's been plaguging him.

The puma sits down on all fours. "Yes," it nods, "A relief... I found him in Deltaran. He'd left the Decagon permanently," Quickswitch shudders and looks darkly grieved, "Just in time, too. For...all that happened..."

"Oh, good." Blurr looks relieved. "Good." He pulls his knees up then, hugging them to his chassis. "I'm glad he left the Decagon." There's a pause for a beat. "Are you going to accept Megatron's 'amnesty'?" he finally asks. "Are you going to accept what he's doing? Do you..." he trails off for a moment. "Do you think Zeta Prime really killed Pax?"

Quickswitch twitches at the mention of Zeta Prime, "...Perhaps..." says the assault beast, "...Though no one and none of us can be certain..." Quickswitch's optics flicker and blaze, "...I could never join the Decepticons. It's--just not something I can even conceive of doing..." the beast growls, "I am a loyal Autobot...yet, I cannot even join the Autobots now," he does not elaborate.

"Zeta was a powerful robot, though a /false/ Prime!" Quickswitch almost yells out, "It took two to bring him down, so, perhaps yes, he did kill Orion Pax."

Blurr nods. "Me too." He doesn't need to elaborate. The Autobots right now are in clear cooperation with Megatron as far as he can tell, and that he won't stand for. Sure, he has a -slightly- better opinion of them after Backdrop saved him, but that doesn't mean he trusts them any farther than he could throw their illustrious leader.

But he shakes his head at the idea that Zeta Prime was a false Prime and killed Pax. "I don't think he did it, Quickswitch. Zeta Prime was not a false Prime, there is no such -thing- as a false Prime. The Matrix had to have chosen him, whether we like it or not." He sighs. "Besides, Zeta and Pax were -friends-. Before. I mean, after Sentinel died--they were. They might not have agreed with each others' methods, and Zeta might have been cruel, but I don't think he would have killed Orion Pax. Not unless he was -forced- to."

"Why would you believe what Megatron says, anyway! Megatron is going to say whatever makes him look good so that he can get more cronies for himself!" He clenches a fist. "He's such a hypocrite. If Zeta Prime was bad, he's just as bad or even worse."

"If he's so sure that what he's speaking is the truth, then why hasn't he come forth with any kind of proof or even -evidence- that Zeta Prime was the one who did it?!"

"But--" the beast worries its head about, "My father said--" his elective father, the reknown Sixshot. --He SAID Zeta was a false Prime!-- --...Father would not lie...-- --He's a Decepticon now-- The citizens of Translucentia Heights hear a break in their daily, magnificent routines. For Quickswitch has thrown back his head and howled, terribly upset and confused. The beast growls threateningly at Blurr, "My father Sixshot SAID Zeta was false," he almost NEEDS Zeta to be false, to assuage all that happened during his primacy, all that Quickswitch was responsible for, "It's not Megatron I believe, Blurr," he breathes, calmer after that outburst, "I believe Sixshot. We go back a very long way. Megatron? I nearly raked his face off!" the beast rakes his claws through the air.

Blurr stares at Quickswitch as the mech howls loudly, then folds his arms. "But Sixshot -believes- in Megatron, Quickswitch. Sixshot is Megatron's -minion-. Of -course- he's going to say Zeta Prime was a false Prime. Of -course- he's going to fill your head with rustwash, just like his boss would! If you hate Megatron, then you shouldn't be listening to his -goons-, either." he says indignantly.

The young Autobot transforms to robot mode and shouts, "He's not a goon. He's not a minion. He's my father!" Grief is purely evident in his voice, and anger at Blurr, "Shut up! Shut up! Don't say it again!" then, in a much quieter voice he says faintly, "Please.."

"You said it yourself, he's a Decepticon. All the Decepticons are Megatron's minions, because they -obey- him, duh." Blurr looks exasperated and shakes his head. He acts like he has it together on the outside, but on the inside he is just as torn and messy as Quickswitch is. "Not thinking about it isn't going to make it go away. If you're not going to join the Decepticons with Sixshot, then you're either going to have to hide from them, or fight them. Including him."

"I know.. I know.." Quickswitch barely manages to say. He looks ragged, not yet having accepted that he and Sixshot are now on opposite sides, once inseparable kin, "I won't kill..Not him," the sixchanger speaks quietly, looking up at Blurr for direction, for yes, without a Prime, he is indeed lost, "Where can I go? I would rather hide than have to kill my own kin."

"You can stay here." Blurr suggests, shrugging. "Where do you think I've been?" He smirks just a little bit. "I could be anywhere on the planet, but they'll never think to consider the idea that I might not have actually left at all."

He sighs. "I just can't trust Megatron. Or -any- of them, for that matter. If Autobots are going to have to listen to him--I just can't. Not after everything they did to me. To -Feint-."

"Feint? I heard she--" Quickswitch stops abruptly, not wanting to upset Blurr further. He dares a weak smile, "Sure, man, I'll stay," his smile grows, cautiously as his demeanor changes, "Anyway, those Autobots might as well be traitors, wearing the Decepticon brand themselves," Quickswitch nods to himself, certain of this, "I can't go back either. I just. Can't," he says, grows silent, "Yes, I'll stay, though I might be rather conspicuous with all these modes."

"It won't matter." Blurr grins and motions for Quickswitch to follow him. "C'mon, I'll show you." He enters the building through a pair of sliding glass doors, which lead to a pristine corridor inside. The walls are curved and vaulted, arching gracefully upward into a line on the ceiling. The former racer stops in front of his own hab suite, the door quickly opening to allow him inside.

Quickswitch follows along, grateful for the invitation, "Hmmm. Nice place," he says, as he walks along the corridor, looking up and around at the arch on the ceiling, "So this is home, huh?"

"Yep." The hab suite inside is just as beautiful as the hallway. Floor-to-ceiling windows line the far wall, looking out over a beautiful view of Translucentia Heights. Blurr heads toward the rear of the apartment though, and starts to open a storage vault, entering a series of access codes. "Hopefully one of these cycles, someone will figure out that allying with Megatron was a -bad- idea."

Quickswitch can only agree through his brainwashing. Sixshot has made a dangerous impression on him. What the Council, what the government did to them both was wrong, very wrong. Perhaps if he had free will..

--No. Unthinkable!--

Quickswitch continues following along behind the speedster, pauses as he enters the access code, "We can only hope.."

"And hopefully not too many Autobots will get killed before then." Blurr sighs, entering the storage vault. There are a few metal crates in here, a few odds and ends here and there...and a secret door in the left side wall. "But for now, all we can do is lie low and...I hate to say it, but wait." Oh, he hates that word. But what choice does he have?

He enters yet more access codes, and a portion of the wall suddenly moves, folding in on itself and parting to reveal a small elevator beyond.

Quickswitch looks on, impressed by this little hiding place, or wherever they're about to go. He sighs, "I /hate/ waiting," says the contemptuous aspect of the sixchanger. Though not as much as Blurr probably hates waiting! "But if that's what we have to do, then so be it, I suppose," he looks into the elevator, "Where does this lead?"

"Underground." Blurr answers, stepping into it. It's kind of cramped, with both of them in there, since Quickswitch is on the larger side, but it still works. "I set up a sort of safehouse, right before Zeta Prime died. With everything that was going on, I figured I would need it pretty soon. Well--my friends recommended I have one installed somewhere I could easily get to. Which is anywhere, really. But like I said, I bet no one will think of considering the fact that I might not have gone anywhere."

He sighs at the waiting part. "Don't I know it," he mutters. "Seriously you have no idea, Quickswitch. You're not even a racer."

Quickswitch chuckles, "True. But my name /is/ Quickswitch," he says, jovially inside the cramped elevator, "Good thinking on your part man," the sixchanger says, more friendly than he was, "I've just been travelling around Cybertron. I wasn't sure what I was doing, just travelling," he shrugs, "I hope this place is big enough."

"It won't be incredibly spacious but it should be comfortable enough." Blurr replies as the doors to the gravlift close, once again concealing its existence from the outside.

"To be honest though, it wasn't my idea." It was probably Panacea's idea. As soon as the doors shut, the elevator begins its long descent from the top of the Skyline Tower straight into the catacombs below the surface.

The long descent into the depths of the planet doesn't trouble Quickswitch. He's a digger after all. It's home to him. He waits, somewhat impatiently for the gravlift to arrive at its location, keeping his bored and impatient transformations in check for the moment. It wouldn't go over well in the cramped gravlift, "Still a good one," Quickswitch reaffirms, "Is it just you and me?"

"Yeah." Blurr confirms. The gravlift finally stops, and the doors opens into another, larger vault, though it is certainly not as large as the hab suite itself. Still, it has standard accommodations. Recharge slabs, seating, a small archive supposedly for reading materials, couple of workstations. And a monitoring stations with a live feed of the unit in the tower.

Quickswitch smiles, "Not as nice as upstairs, but it'll do," a contented aspect makes its appearance. He heads further into the vault and looks around.

"Yeah so..." Blurr shrugs, flopping down onto a couch as the elevator doors once again seal themselves behind him. "Make yourself comfortable I guess. Not as nice as my actual place, but for a shelter it's nice. The IAA actually wanted this. They think--they're -hoping- that once all of this blows over, they'll be able to go right back to racing. And they don't want to lose me, if that ends up being the case. So if I just stay here, I'll be relatively safe. Which is fine, for now." Though honestly, he's not really planning on returning to racing. If it will ever even be possible, after all of this.

"Well anyway I'm glad you're satisfied. Just let me know if you need anything, I can run out and grab it from the hab suite for you. Or if I don't have it," he smirks. "I could always swipe it from the Decepticons. Which I actually -try- to do, every chance I get." Smirk.

Quickswitch continues to smile, "I guess this is home sweet home."