42415-Keep The Flag Flying

- Radio: A-Chat -- Zeta Prime says, "Autobots, I am in command in totality. Officer Pax is a traitor."

-- Radio: A-Chat -- Zeta Prime says, "The rat's nest of dissenters and Decepticon sympathizers in Nyon have been dealt with."

-- Radio: A-Chat -- Whirl says, "What..uh.. what did you do?"

-- Radio: A-Chat -- Zeta Prime says, "Ready the second wave of Omega Destructors. We'll march on Kaon next."

-- Radio: A-Chat -- Whirl says, "This is.. quite horrifying, if I'm going to be honest."

-- Radio: A-Chat -- Feint says, "... Autobots, would you please join me in the ready room? This might be an opportune time for grief counselling..."

-- Radio: A-Chat -- Torque says, "Grief counselling? But.. Shouldn't we be at Nyon, helping get people out..?"

-- Radio: A-Chat -- Zeta Prime laughs. "There's nothing to save. Nothing -worth- saving."

-- Radio: A-Chat -- Zeta Prime says, "The second wave of Omega Destructors is ready. We'll solve the energon crisis by harvesting it from these wretched dens of rebellion."

-- Radio: A-Chat -- Torque says, "But.. But, sir, there are civilians in there!"

-- Radio: A-Chat -- Zeta Prime says, "Not anymore."

-- Radio: A-Chat -- Whirl says, "..Primus."

-- Radio: A-Chat -- Feint emphasizes, "Please, Whirl, Torque. This is a delicate time and I'm -certain- you could use someone to talk to."

-- Radio: A-Chat -- Torque says, "Hngh.. Fine."

-- Radio: A-Chat -- Whirl says, "Right.."

Feint - a monstrosity barring her visored face - is waiting in the ready room. "I've altered the camera feeds to this room for the time being and found and removed all the recording devices. We'll be able to speak freely for a few hours," she says to those who are joining her.

Whirl is here because of course he is. He knew people in Nyon, he lived there for a little bit, and he's extremely upset by the news that all of it is gone. Okay maybe not all of it, surely there are some teeny tiny scraps of it that haven't completely burned up yet. Maybe. And what about Hot Rod? Is he one of those bodies he saw on the broadcast? What about Arsenal and Rewind and Moonlight and everyone else he's met there. What about Blast Off? There's a good chance he might've been in Nyon at the time, running supplies or whatever shady things he gets up to. Did he get destroyed with the city?%r"What the hell is going on!?" Whirl blurts out as soon as Feint informs them they can speak freely. "Zeta is a friggin' PSYCHOPATH!"

In the distance there's a revvvvvvving engine, the sound of horrible tire screeching, and then a terrible chase that shakes the building. A few moments later, Road Rage staggers into the ready room, a dazed look on her face. "Uh... ouch... hey... where am I? What just happened?"

Vision slides in, wringing her hands. She looks distressed, but Whirl's words only seem to distress her more. She's an easily overlooked scout, and even now she slides along the edge of the room, quiet in contrast to Whirl's outburst.

Whirl just /stares/ at Road Rage as she stumbles into the ready room after what sounds like a hit and run. He has no idea who this person is (there are so many Autobots he still hasn't bothered to meet) and he really doesn't care. "What the hell do you mean 'what happened?!' Didn't you see it? Didn't you FEEL it? Didn't you hear that monster of a Prime practically GLOATING about Nyon?!" He spins around to address the others in the room. "I'm not the only one PISSED OFF about this, am I!? This is fragged up, right!?"

Road Rage blinks repeatedly at Whirl. She frowns, looking a little embarrassed. "What are you talking about? I'm pretty sure I just got into a little fender bender. You don't have to make into the end of the world."

"I'm going to be brief," Feint says to those gathered here. "Zeta has proven himself to be completely out of control, far worse even than Sentinel." Her visor dispays a waveform and she repeats a vocal recording, Zeta's own words:

"Dissidents of Nyon! You have been branded traitors to the Autobot regime! Now you and this wretched slum will be bled of energon, so that Cybertron may thrive! Do not be dismayed; your rebel sparks shall serve the greater order! Your future - your energon - shall live within \*US\*!"

Feint's face returns to mirrored black.

"And he's the Prime," Vision pipes up with open dismay. She breaks her silence, then, the wring of her hands stilling. Rolling her wheels in a fidgeting rub, she says, "I didn't join to help any monster, but."

Whirl just /stares/ at Road Rage. Again. He thinks this is going to be a reoccuring thing if this first interaction is anything to go by. "Really?"

The recording Feint relays is far more important to him right now than whatever craziness is going on with this femme and he listens to it intently, the slight flickering of his optic the only expression of horror and disgust he's able to make. "This is crazy.." Finally he notices Vision when she speaks up and it kind of startles him as he had no idea she was even there. Did she just materialize out of thin air or something?

"This is it. This is my limit. I'm not doing this anymore." He looks down at the Autobot badge on his chest and jabs a claw into it, trying to tear it right off his body. "Even my hands aren't worth this crap!"

Road Rage listens to the recording with growing concern. "Hmm, yeah that doesn't sound so great. Uhm, maybe we could put together a... citizen's committee! We could petition the council! Yeah!" She smiles broadly. "They'll have to listen! This is terrible! Surely they'll do something about it." She pauses. "Uhm. So, like, if you have that recording... maybe someone is recording THIS conversation..." Her eyes dart around.

"No, Whirl. Don't." Feint leans down and picks up the torn off badge. "Autobots - and I am proud to call you all that, all of you who believe in what Orion Pax did and said before the corrupt Senate under Sentinel - we may be all that is left. Zeta's monstrosity goes beyond even this. He's reinstated the Institute. During my time as a Decepticon hostage, I saw -exactly- the kinds of things he did."

"Zeta has called for Orion Pax, Hound, Bumblebee, Ironhide, Ariel and Wheeljack to be -killed on sight- now, because they were in Nyon and tried to stop this. If that is the case, if they fall - we may be the only thing standing between Zeta and the rest of the planet."

Vision looks startled by Whirl's startlement, and it could all be a quickly spiralling mess of surprise-mirroring-surprise until guns are drawn and someone's dead if not for Whirl's dramatic gesture. SO THANK GOODNESS FOR THAT. She shakes her head and looks back at Feint. Her expression is serious, and the dismayed wringing of her hands has become a firm clasp. "If nothing else, you need to make sure as many people hear that -- hear the truth -- as possible. Who knows how quickly Zeta will clamp down on the media."

Road Rage bites her lower lip and narrows her eyes. "But... I LIKE Ariel! And I like Orion Pax! And Wheeljack (and Ratchet) rebuilt my front end so I don't smash it every time I-... I mean, so I don't get damaged." She looks around the room, eyeballing Whirl, then Vision, and then Feint. "We should all go, you know, somewhere else. And like, plan. Where's Orion Pax? He'll know what to do."

"Orion Pax went to stop Zeta. I'm sorry, Road Rage... there is the very real possibility he is dead," Feint states as gently as possible.

Whirl would frown at Feint as she retrieves his torn badge but he can't so he just gives her a long, hard stare. He's not big on Pax in general and he only went along with this because it was supposed to result in him getting his hands back. Obviously that never happened so now he's just kind of.. here so it's difficult for him to share Feint's pride in the badge and what it's supposed to stand for.

"Forget the media!" Whirl snaps at Vision who already looks like a nervous wreck without him yelling at her. "What do you think is going to happen to us? Obviously we're not going to go along with Zeta's insanity, so what are we supposed to do? If we're not on board with him, he's going to have us killed too."

Road Rage looks down at her feet. She kicks the floor a little and looks up. She looks at Feint and ventures quietly, "What about Aerial...?"

Vision recoils from Whirl's snap and turns her hands up in a placating gesture. "There aren't a lot of places for anyone who stands against Zeta to go, unless you go to Kaon." She laughs somewhat nervously, then hiccups to a pause and blinks at Feint. "You're not -- suggesting that, are you?"

"We don't know," Feint answers Road Rage. "We dont' know what happened to any of them, but they'll die if they come back here." She turns to Whirl and Vision, and any others that have gathered near. "We have to play this smart now, as Scattershot and I did before: We give Zeta the lipservice he craves and work in secret to tear him down." She faces Vision. "Not if we can help it. I don't trust Megatron, not completely. He's too hungry for death now."

"And how are we supposed to do that?" Whirl says to Feint, giving Vision a respite from his cold staring and angry yelling. "What can /we/ possibly do to take down anyone? There's like, five of us."

Road Rage smiles weakly. "Well, I mean, I'm good at talking to people and calming people down, but... I don't know how good I am at... lying." She looks a little nervous. "Especially, you know... in", she whispers, "Y'know, car mode."

"/He's/ too hungry for death." Vision laughs again, but it's weaker yet. She says, "And what about Nyon? /Zeta's/ the one who--." She breaks off, unable to say it. "Whirl's right." Of course she knows his name. Empurata. Distinctive! "There aren't a lot of places to go."

"Patience breaks everything," Feint reassures the rest. "It only took one mech to cause an uprising. Imagine what we can do with five." She has no idea how or where they will start, but they can't simply do -nothing-. There's too much at stake. "If we run now, we no longer have access to anything Zeta might plan to do, and we ourselves will be on the run. Others who have been brainwashed into obedience will take our place and we will loose any chance we have of trying to stop this. We have to act smartly, not impulsively."

She vents a gust of heated air, her internals spun up from stress and focus. "... if nothing else, we pass sensitive information on to... on to the Decepticons. They may be the only ones with the power to stop Zeta now."

Road Rage looks nervously between Whirl and Feint. "Well, okay, I mean, I'm a bodyguard. That's my main function. If you want me at your side, I'll be ready to take action." She thumps her chest confidently.

-- Radio: A-Chat -- Zeta Prime says, "IACON! Ready yourselves for my return!"

Did someone say pass sensitive information on to the Decepticons? Perhaps Feint was hoping no one else would overhear, but this is still Autobase, after all. And about the worst person to have overheard it has definitely overheard it. Yep, Blurr is standing in the doorway. How long has he been there? Probably just long enough to have caught the tail end of her sentence. The racer is staring at her, appalled. "What the -hell-, Feint!"

"There you are! Blurr, everything's gone to the pit! Zeta's killing civilians! He's trying to kill his own men!" Feint shouts to Blurr. "We have to do something about this, he's on his way back and he's getting more of those -- those /things/ ready to burn another city!"

Slowly, Vision says, "I don't know how I feel about that, even if you're right." She regards Feint -- newly-freed-from-Decepticon-captivity-Feint -- with something like suspicion. Mostly, though, she just looks unsure. With Blurr's arrival, her uncertainy pushes her back into silence.

"Do something? Like join the -Decepticons-?" Blurr replies incredulously. "Good Primus, you -just- got away from them, and after everything they did to you, you want to go -back-?"!

"I never said I planned to join them!" Feint denies. This could get messy. "But Zeta has overstepped his boundaries as a Prime and he -must- be stopped. The institute is -alive and well- Blurr, and he's bleeding entire cities for their energon - draining it out of innocent mechs and femmes! You cannot honestly expect me to stand by and let this happen when Orion Pax may have just -died- trying to stop it!"

"And what the slag do you think you're going to do, huh? You couldn't have stopped something like this -before- Megatron messed you up, and you don't even have your abilities any more!" Blurr looks genuinely distraught, and he shakes her desperately. "Please Feint, don't do this...you're just going to get yourself killed..."

Road Rage clears her throat. "Uhm, excuse me... hi, I'm Road Rage." She waves at Blurr. "So tell me again, what do the Autobots stand for?"

Vision's content to /not/ interrupt this little domestic, actually.

After a long silence of just watching Feint and Blurr argue, Whirl finally speaks. "Feint's right." There's a bit of reluctance when he says that, he REALLY doesn't want to play this game but if he has to..

"She's right and it's happening so if you have a problem with it Blurr, WE'RE going to have a problem."

Time's up. Daddy's home.

Zeta marches into the ready room, on his way up from the lower floors where the medics are already trying to tend him as he walks. It doesn't take Soundwave to tell you that he is in a foul mood as he walks into the room.

"Someone give me a status report," he tersely commands. "-and make a note that the traitor Orion Pax is no longer going to be a problem for us."

Boy it's a good thing Feint isn't being shaken by Blurr or anything or that would be really awkward.

Oops.

Feint moves to suddenly hug Blurr, taking him into her arms and cuddling him as if he's had some kind of breakdown. "It's all right, dear, Zeta's back. I know this must be hard for you but we'll get through it, all right?" Subtle hint for everyone else: Play along.

Blurr quickly stands at attention with a sharp salute as soon as Zeta Prime arrives, though he doesn't say anything yet. One part of him wants to warn Prime of his own soldiers' mutinous plans, but the other is desperately concerned for Feint's well-being.

Whirl is about to step in and slap the scrap out of Blurr (he'll take any excuse to do some Blurr slapping) when Zeta, the mech they were just scheming against, walks in. Everyone act normal!

Whirl tries to act casual and hopefully keep his torn badge out of sight around the Prime but wow is it hard. He feels like he's standing in the same room as robot Satan himself. "Yes, Blurr, we are all very upset that Pax turned out to be a traitor. None of us had any idea, there's no one to blame but Pax himself."

Road Rage grins guilelessly. "Good evening sir! Situation normal!" she blurts out. Gee, she hopes that was convincing.

Zeta Prime is too focused on his plans to worry too much about the shuffling around. He pauses long enough to touch the side of his helmet, receiving updates from some of his other command centers.

"... Reposition the Omega Destructors around Headquarters. Megatron -dared- to make an attack on my person. Get the vamparc cannons ready for activation and positioned atop the base. They'll be coming. I can almost guarantee it."

He glances around at his troops gathered around and... yes, they are acting a bit squirrelly. No struts, he assumes. "I want all of you on high alert until further notice. You will remain armed and available for deployment at all times, and you will recharge in shifts. I will have General Coreburst send your new schedules - and be sure to report any suspicious activity, or any contact attempts by Pax's traitorous friends."

Blurr nods. "Yes, sir." He waits for Zeta Prime to leave, so he can have a word with Feint in private so that he can convince her to stop acting like a madmech.

Road Rage salutes. "Yes sir!" She winks at Whirl.

"Understood, Prime. Sir." Whirl hates himself so much now. Having to pretend to respect someone who should be put down for the safety of the planet is so hard and it stings what little pride he has left.

"-- Feint. You were with the Decepticons for a long while. Come with me. I need to pick your brain a little," Zeta Prime commands.

"Yes sir," Feint replies without hesitation. She pats Blurr on the shoulder, her visor displaying a smile to him, and then a wink, as she turns to follow him out of the room.

<< Feint...please. Just tell him the truth. >> Blurr begs privately.

<< Blurr - what \*is\* the truth? >> she radios him back.

<< Whatever isn't a lie and answers whatever question he asks fully. >> Blurr replies. << Can't be that hard, can it? You were always that kind of fembot. The honest sort. >>

Zeta Prime begins to march out of the room, ignoring everyone else, expecting Feint to follow.

<< Honesty never seemed to get me anywhere, especially when no one listens, >> Feint says saidly and somewhat pointedly to Blurr before leaving.

Road Rage looks back and forth between the departing Zeta Prime and Feint. She hisses under her breath, "Go with him!"

<< Yeah maybe but -this- time -Zeta Prime- is listening. And I'd rather you survive as opposed to die... >> Blurr responds desperately.

Feint has moved out of range, and Blurr will have to do the thing he hates the most: Wait.

Road Rage sidles over to Blurr and reaches out a tentative hand to him. "Come on, blue guy, don't be blue. She'll be okay."