a true machine (transformers 1x1 with crimson_raven)

[the machine]

jolt drive

the little femme smiled, setting up the second controler once the console was set up.
she offered it to crosshairs. "well, let's start with tetris, get things warmed up."
She used her controller to select the game already installed that they would play
When the game loaded as she was selecting the multiplayer mode, the faint yet recognisable theme played
"Wish I had Brough a soundsystem to hook it up to. I really like the Tetris theme.
Nice little soundtrack." She commented.
She selected multiplayer mode and started the game.

speedsmoke

The little white femme listened to her brother explain what was happening
"Oh... the purple one with the pigtails? I see now." She remembered how smart jolt drive was.
Then she tried to calm down g-smoke
"I'm sure they are okay. Your brother is a good sniper and jolt drive is really smart
I'm sure they'll find a way to stay out of the sandstorm." She tried to tell him
Honestly, she didn't even know if what she was saying was nice but she tried to make it sound nice
She had a limited vocabulary
and that came with precautions of if she said words in a wrong order, she'd sound rude.
Then dot mentioned that jolt had an issue with getting use to new environments
Then that made her rethink her statement to try to calm down gunsmoke. She looked a little ashamed.

longshot

"_-longshot. Listen ratchet, my brother and smoke's sister 're getting a little anxious
Could you maybe give us some info and maybe try to get 'em back.
And by them I mean jolt 'n cross-_" he stated in the link
Then he noticed a pink bot by the mainframe.
"Dot?" He asked.

evac

The blue mech followed the two others bots and their siblings to the mainframe
He then noticed dot.
She mentioned something about jolt drive having an issue and being worried about it
Evac felt a weird feeling in his gears. It was of fear and curiosity.
What ever jolt's "issue" was, it was worrying dot and she doesn't get worried easily
So something must be happening.

loco dot

The pink femme looked at longshot when he said her name
"Oh hey. perdon. I was just a little anxious and decided to stay by here." She explained
"Because of cross?" Lonz asked.
"Not just cross, jolt drive too.
She's been having issues getting use to our base,
I can only imagine what getting use to a dark cave would be like for even a little bit."
She kept the main reason she was concerned about jolt and cross a secret,
As to not disclose jolt's personal issue in respect of her.

ratchet

The medic sighed.
"_-Alright hang on, I'll get to the main frame in a bit.
Let me just notify Optimus and I should be able to tell you where they are.-_"
He then sent a commlink to Optimus "_-if either you, pence piece, cogman or twin drills need me
I'll be at the mainframe, checking in on where crosshairs and jolt drive are and how they are doing.-_"

twin drills

"Of course we think so" twiny chuckled
"Well that's one amazing teacher down, a head mistress... we'll need more teachers obviously,
I'm sure the mastiffs would be able to get energon from their base to start off, everyone gets involved in clean up.
But I feel like we are missing another type of important staff memember to help start us off." She thought.
"Hmm maybe as we develop things it will come along." She suggested.

eureka

eureka smiled when she noticed starscream facing the other way.
she transformed once she reached the flight deck, landing on both pedes behind starscream.
she had a look at herself, impressed with how the new aircraft mode looked in her robot mode.
"alright, now you can look." she told him with a chuckle
"now that i see it, this looks way better on me than i expected.
an EA 18g Growler ain't that bad"
Though some parts on her robot form changed,
She was still pretty happy with the result.
"Now that this jet mode is lighter, I can finally give my shoulder struts a break."

knockout

the red medic paused.
"a gun? autobot technology i'm guessing. or was a rouge or neutral involved?"
he asked.
this was interesting. he had no idea autobots had something that powerful.
he kept working as he waited for an answer, dread's helm was almost all patched up.

thrust fault

"oh. other than design weapons?
well i just was eureka's partner. we went on missions together when we were on cybertron.
in our squadron, everyone called her and i ze "Two Pointers."
we were Kaon's finest duo." she explained
"i monitored machine guns and eureka shot them.
i always armed any ship machine guns with flares.
if we shot ze flare, everyone knew in our squadron it was us and where we were shooting.
thus ze nickname, pointers. ze flares were a different colour to distress flares." she chuckled.
"designed them myself. only eureka and i knew how to operate them.
although if we weren't able to be together for some reason i was on weapons repair"

skywarp

the sekker nodded, impressed
"impressive" he told her
"so you designed things and got to fire them.
and you also repaired weapons? we would like to thank you for your service."
"oh it's nothing" thurst chuckled. "jammed ammo was always a common issue that couldn't be helped
no matter how well ze gun or weapon was designed, it was bound to happen and someone has to fix it."

[Crimson_Raven]

Crosshairs

"Ah, I can help with that." Cross opened a plate on the side of his leg and an audio cable popped out which he plugged into the console and then the Tetris theme played louder out of his speakers in his radio.
"That good enough?" Cross asked and smiled, picking up the controller.

Gunsmoke

The lime green mech tapped his ped on the floor a few times and vented a sigh, looking up at his brother and then to Speedsmoke when she spoke to him, figuring she meant well by what she said.
"Thanks...I know but..." he frowned and vented another sigh.
He hated this, hated feeling helpless.
"Not helping..." He growled after Dot spoke and he felt anger and his own shame welling up inside of himself.
"I can't take anymore.
Whatever happens to them is all my fault." he gritted his denta and his servos balled into fists inside his coat pockets.

Smokescreen

Smokey put his arm around Speedy, sensing her feeling bad for what she said but he saw that Gunsmoke understood that she meant well.
When Gunny's anger started to show Smokescreen just didn't know what to tell the kid and fiound himself looking to Dot as if to ask her to help without verbally asking.

Pencepiece

"Oh yes, all in good time, Madam." Pence gave a nod of his helm and looked at Optimus as the Prime touched the side of his helm to indicate that he was on a comm line.
"Hmm." Pence looked at Cogman and Twin Drills.

Optimus Prime

"-_Yes, I will join you._-" Optimus stood and turned to the others.
"Ratchet and I are headed back to the mainframe, should you need us." he informed them.

Starscream

Starz turned when Eureka was back and he blinked, taking in her new appearance.
"It suits you too, beautifully." he took her servo in his so she could do a little rotation.

Cysphere

Cys was already in a foul mood and Dread entering the topic which he wished to steer clear of wasn't helping it any.
Cys' began hissing through his denta and grimacing hard, making a big show of the pain he was in.
"Can we discuss this later?!" he growled and looked away from his shoulder with the missing arm as Sway was working on it a small distance away.

Thundercracker

TC was now say at the edge of his seat, drinking in the information he was offered by Thrust Fault.
"Fascinating." he agreed with his fellow Seeker.
"Yes and remarkable." he looked at Skywarp and a thought came to him.
"You know...I don't think enough 'cons get recognized for their efforts...we should do something...throw a party for any surviving veterans.
I think it would help boost moral around here too, it's obvious the Nemesis could do with a pick-me-up." he raised an optical ridge and looked at his comrade and Thrust for their opinions.
(omg like a ball)

[the machine]

Jolt drive

"perfect!" Jolt drive smiled.
she softly hummed the theme as they began playing
she stacked the blocks staegically, leaveing a space for the next one which she could see.
because it was dual screen, crosshairs could see his game
but jolt did not shift her gaze one bit from her game.
she was running on a good score.

Speedsmoke

the little femme was getting anaxious.
"no! gunsmoke! it's not your fault! it's mine!
you only got dragged in because i can't read!"
then she covered her mouth, optics widened.
oh no... she just said that
she froze, then dot changed the topic and everyone focused on her
which made speedsmoke let out a small relieved sigh.
hearing everyone was okay made speedy feel a little calmer.

Loco dot

noticing the mess she created she quickly tried thinking of something
when ratchet came around he had an idea.
'wait! no fighting just yet. we don't know what they're feeling!
if they are scared then we can freak out. but if they are calm, they are safe.
and if they are safe, then we can wait for the storm to pass and then we can go fetch them.
ratchet, can the scanners give a reading from their life signals of their moods?"
when the moods of the bots stuck in the cave appeared on screen, dot vented a sigh of relief
"they're expressing calm moods. they're safe. i overreacted and i'm sorry." she looked at the bots
"i really am sorry for overreacting." then she recognized another meter on Jolt's mood
"focus? no wait... hyper focus?" she was confused, looking at it.
"but it's cave.... unless...." dot snapped her digits.
"when jolt and i were walking to the other mastiffs i asked her if she liked anything
she said one thing she liked was crystals. no, more than liked, she had an interest in them
crystals are in a cave. but if it's dark then it must be a glowing crystal.
and what crystal glows?"
"energon?" Evac answered
"correct! she might have found energon!" dot exclaimed.
"i know we're not exactly at a level where more is needed,
but every little bit will help with our survival." she told them.
"with her condition, jolt will focus on things that caught her attention.
if she's really hyperfocused on the energon, she might be trying to figure it out how to get it"
dot smiled. "i think our issue has just been solved."

Longshot

The older mech looked at his brother then to Evac who backed off a step when he saw gunner angry
Both of the mechs were shocked when Speedsmoke stated she couldn't read.
Then dot came forward with her hypothesis
Then seeing their moods, it did give lonz some reassurance
Then dot brought up energon.
He guessed that it was plausible, and it was reasonable to look at another side of the situation

Ratchet

when he started seeing what was going on as he walked towards the main frame he sighed.
then speedsmoke blurted out something. that she couldn't read.
ratchet then thought back to the CNA test. he did find medical records from smokey and speedy's family
one of which was a record never handed over because of the sudden outburst of war
he was about to ask speedsmoke about how she couldn't read but then dot silenced the room
when asked ratchet nodded, regarding if their moods could be seen 'i believe so"
he walked up to the mainframe and looked at the settings. there was one to pick up their moods
he selected that and the main frame displayed their moods
which could be detected by the sparkrate from their life signals
Seeing they were calm sent reassurance of dot and he was glad it did
Then dot mentioned energon.
"It could be possible.
Erosion from the cave after its abandonment may have reavealed some energon that previously was undetected
But I don't pick up any energon reading other than cross hairs and jolt Drive.
However, small amounts will have weaker signals and may not be picked up."
He thought about it. Maybe jolt did find a small chunk of energon
Dot did say the worse case scenario before hand
Maybe looking at another angle of the situation would help.

Twin drills

The orange femme noticed the prime talking to ratchet on the link
When he left she nodded to him then looked at the two other British bots in the room.
"Shall we go see what the fuss is about? Up to you all really."

Eureka

The green jet femme let out a chuckle,
Twirling with her servo held by Starscream.
She smiled "why thank you" she giggled, wrapping her arms around him.
Because of her alt. mode change and her plates kinda shifted, her body was a little warm.
that prompted her to blurt out "huh, you're a little cold"
But then she smiled and gave him a little wing rub
"Not to worry. We'll go back to my ship and I'll set you up near a heater with some blankets
I can feed the animals myself today." She kissed his cheek.

Knockout

The red medic looked at cys and then sighed.
"Consider the topic dropped" he told cys
He then continued working on dread's helm.
"Almost all patched up, dread. Hold still"

Thrust Fault

The dark teal femme gave TC's suggestion some thought
"That doesn't sound like a bad idea.
I think it'll work." She nodded
"I think humans do that sort of stuff too
I'll have to see how they do it though,
Give us some ideas"

Skywarp

"I agree. That's not a bad idea." Warpy nodded
"Might also lighten up the place a bit"

[Crimson_Raven]

Croshairs

"Ah! Noo." Cross chewed on his stick and groaned and huffed as a block fell into the wrong place.
He glanced at Jolt's side of the screen and smirked.
"Ay, yer good at this game, Jolt." He commented.

Gunsmoke

Gunny's mouth formed an 'o' shape in shock when Speedy yelled out that she couldn't read.
Then he looked over at Dot "So...their okay? Their not scared or hurt." Gunny sat down on a box and vented a sigh, looking back at Dot.
"Dot, I apologize for shouting.
I know you must be worried about them too, especially Cross." He gave her a small apologetic smile.

Smokescreen

"Speedy, calm down, it's alright." Smoke put his arm around his sister in a half hug and listened to the others.

Cogman

"Oh yes, definitely.
My gears need a stretch too." Cogman gestured for ladies to walk first before following behind with Pence wheeling alongside them.

Starscream

"I could help, I don't mind.
But now that you mention it I am feeling chilly." Starscream smiled as she twirled and he pressed a kiss on her cheek.
"Will the animals notice the change in appearance too? They'll still recognise you, surely?" He asked a stage thought came to him.

Sway

"Hmm." Sway frowned.
Cysphere was definitely hiding something.
"Hmm? Are you done yet?! Ughh.." Cysphere snapped at the femme and then groaned, no doubt his body was aching and needing stasis.
"Almost, sir." Sway replied flatly, refraining from being a smart aft.

Thundercracker

"And the prince might like it, don't royals usually like big events? If we please him he may offer us something.
That might even put Starscream in a good mood, although let's not ask for miracles." TC chuckled.

[the machine]

Jolt drive

"Oh. Thanks." Jolt smiled, but not taking her focus away from the screen
Once her game finished she looked at crosshairs.
" good game huh? I like puzzle games."
Then she looked back on the screen.
"Wanna play another game of Tetris."

Speedsmoke

The younger femme felt a little better when smokey hugged her.
Though the fighting from before did aggitate her, given how tired she was starting to get.

Ratchet

Hearing what dot said about the energon got him thinking
Then dot mentioned that they may have found something else.
"Only one way to know. But the dust storm is too dangerous."
Then dot suggested a ground bridge inside the cave
"That could work."

Loco dot

The pink femme looked at cross' brothers
"No need to apologise.
Crosshairs is your brother, your reaction was natural.
I understand." She smiled a gentle smile back
"But if jolt did find energon, she would have to get it out.
Since her hyper focus seems to be staying, it's likely both of them haven't dug it out yet.
Unless," she re-evaluated her hypothesis. "Maybe jolt found something else in the cave.
What ever she found, she just seems to-" then dot noticed the bar show jolt's hyper focuse dropped
Not too much but enough to notice
"Well... looks like whatever cross and jolt found just got dug out."
The ratchet mentioned getting to them was an issue because of the storm.
"What about a ground bridge inside the cave?" She suggested.

Twin drills

"Thank you." She nodded to Cogman when he gestured for ladies first.
She started walking to the main frame, hearing dot go on about something.

Eureka

"nah it's fine. they'll recognize me just fine" eureka smiled, receiving the kiss
"it's only a few plates, i didn't get entirely remolded." she chuckled
"Now, let's go back, shall we.
I don't want you standing in this cold any longer, you're going to freeze." She joked, nuzzling him.
Then she backed up a bit, letting go of him before transforming and taking off into the air.

Knockout

The red medic wanted to ask more questions but had dread to fix up.
"Aaaaannnndddd.... that's done. " he told dread when his helm was all patched up
He put the tools he used away before going to te medication cabinet and giving dread a pill to take
"This should stop the pain for a while. We'll get the drones to do patrols for a bit."

Thrust Fault

"Oh yes. Let's no- wait a prince?" Thrust Fault was confused
"I never heard of a prince from cybertron. When did he arrive?"

Skywarp

"Oh he arrived here with us." The seeker answered the French femme
"Prince freefall of Kaon."
"Kaon... eureka never told me kaon had a prince. Well she is native kaonian so maybe something happened
And they aren't on ze best terms..." thrust wondered.

[Crimson_Raven]

Crosshairs

The green mech was laughing and enjoying the game so much that when it ended he wished that it had lasted longer.
"Yeah let's play again!" he smirked.

Gunsmoke

"A bridge inside the cave?" he looked at Ratchet.
"The cave walls will be too thick won't they? or the minerals could conflict with the frequencies?" Gunny may only be young but he was bright and knew his stuff when it came to tech.

Starscream

"Yes let's go.
And I want to see what your new alt can do." Starscream grinned and transformed, taking off again.

Darkdread

When the brute was all fixed up he sat still and slowly took the pill from Knockout.
"Yeah okay...thanks K.O." he nodded to the doctor mech.

Thundercracker

"Yeah he's not too well known apparently but he's prince of Kaon." TC explained and waggled a ped absent-minded as the trio spoke and nodded at what Skywarp added.

[the machine]

Jolt drive

"of course!" jolt drive selected the menu screen then selected the "play" mode again, restarting the game.
like before she was highly concentrating on where everything was going

Loco dot

giving gunny's resoning some though she was about to agree that a ground bridge in a cave won't work
that was before ratchet came forward with an idea.
"that... actually makes some sense" she agreed

Ratchet

"not if it's near the entrance of the cave. because the cave was dug into,
the wall around the entrance would be thinner and less material would be present."
ratchet told the younger brother. he understood his concerns
"we could give it a try."

Speedsmoke

the little femme listened to each reasoning, but everyone was using technical terms she didn't understand
so she remained quiet, not having enough information to process what was happeneing

Evac

"so now we got getting there done,
who's going to rescue them" he looked at longshot
"you should go, Crosshairs is your brother after all."
longshot looked around. "if anyone else wants ta go, we can negotiate"
he looked at dot.
"you wanna go?"
dot nervously chuckled. "if you wanna go that's fine by me"

Twin drills

the orange femme listened in on the conversation of the medic and the other bots
she had no idea what they were talking about though. there was no context.

Eureka

"well all i know is i have a speed decrease.
but that won't be an issue." she stated, moving the tip of her wing to touch his.
she always felt a sense of comfort in such a small gesture.
it was very comforting for her to show some sort of affection in a different mode

Knockout

the red medic looked at dread
"please take it easy."

Thrust Fault

the teal femme wondered.
"i've heard of emperors of places like Vos and councils of places like Iacon
but never a prince. but to be fair, Eureka is serentinian, they are ze native bots of kaon
i've only heard of Serentinians being in charge"

Skywarp

"in charge?" skywarp asked then remembered
"ah yes now i remember. during some council meetings in Kaon, the leader of the Serentinians would attend
they were very respected."

[Crimson_Raven]

Crosshairs

The 'vette mech shifted and got ready to play, chewing the matchstick in his mouth with determination.
Still, he was pretty sure that he was going to lose to Jolt again, though he didn't mind.

Gunsmoke

The light green mech thought about it and found a small smile of hope has formed his lip plates.
"I hope your right." He nodded to Ratchet and looked at his brother.
"I'll obviously stay here, I don't want to be the cause of more trouble." He crossed his arms and smiled a bit.

Smokescreen

Noticing his sister grown quiet, Smokey looked down at her.
"Hey you okay, Speedy? Wanna chill in the living room for awhile? We could watch a movie?" He suggested, figuring that the others could handle this now decisions were being made.

Cogman

The headmaster cleared his pipes as he,Twin Drills and Pence hadn't the foggiest idea what was going on.
"May we be of assistance?" He asked the group.

Starscream

The grey f-22 smiled to himself, a warm happy sensation spreading through him when their wings touched.
"With your maneuverability I doubt that will be an issue." He said reassuringly.

Thundercracker

TC leaned forwards on the table and clasped his servos thoughtfully.
"Well they were the designated rulers, you see.
Overthrown and their name trampled by Megatron.
They are still considered nobility and therefore respected as such.
He is still considered a prince and protocol demands that he be treated as such... Being that Megatron is one with the Allspark, the prince has come back into the picture." TC glanced at Skywarp and looked back to thrust Fault, his voice quietening down.
"Right now he's technically prince of nothing...so it's gracious of Starscream to allow him to be here.
He could just as easily throw him overboard, though that's Starscream all over.
Wanting praise from nobles." TC shook his helm a bit.

[the machine]

jolt drive

the purple femme started the game
she smiled as they played together.
then she heard a noise from the entrance. she paused her game and looked over to it
she was surprised to see dot.

ratchet

seeing twin drills, pence and cogman, the medic nodded to them
"just sending Loco dot on her mission." he told them when the bots in the room made the decision of who's going
he activated the ground bridge to the inside of the cave, close to the entrance.
but as soon as dot went through the bridge automatically closed and displayed it was low on power.
"for primus sake" ratchet grumbled.

loco dot

hearing the suggestions and deciding she was going made her shrug.
"okay guess i'm going."
as the bridge activated she walked through, but when she got to teh cave she noticed the bridge was closed
she sighed. "well, that's one way to get rid of me i guess."
then she looked over at cross and jolt.
then she let out a sigh of relief
"oh thank primus you two are okay."

evac

the blue mech nodded to gunsmoke when he said he was okay staying back
"well, i'm still recovering from that time one of the cons threw a flash bomb so my optics aren't the best right now,
longshot, you up for it?"
longshot shook his helm. "nah, you go dot."
then he wtached her go with the ground bridge closing behind her
Evac grimaced. "darn. that thing was low"

speedsmoke

"i... uh.... can we go somewhere quiet, please?" she asked her brother, quietly.
she was still upset she just revealed to the autobots she couldn't read.
great, what good is an autobot that can't read.

twin drills

the orange femme tilted her helm when she heard a mission.
"decepticon activity?" she asked
then the ground bridge closed on dot
judging by how every reacted they didn't need it to close

eureka

the green femme chuckled
"and what do you mean by that, Starry?" she was saying that through her usual wild smirk
"do you mean this?' she lowed her altiude just enough, then angled herself so the tip of her wing touched the underside of starscream's before returning to her normal position with their wing tips touching.

skywarp

"ah yes.
Now I remember the north is where all their sacred grounds are so they are given that.
But other than land, Eureka would govern the whole tribe,
Who are very well respected, so she has power too."
Then warp went back to the statement that Starscream was not looking for power in eureka
"You're right. I did notice how they interacted and it's really love that's got him
Not power. I mean, who would vow to allow their sparkmate to make noises at rust turkies,
not only for agricultural purposes,but because the sparkmate finds it fun,
And do so because it is a win win situation, out of a need for power? Nobody.
So there's no way their relationship is based off starscream's lust for power."
He whispered.

thrust fault

"i don't suppose he'd do anything else but get praise from nobels like that
Although, he seems to fancy eureka
And I can tell it's real love, not out of wanting more power.
Eureka is next chief in line of the north of Kaon.
That belongs to ze serentinians.
Freefall only governs ze south."
Thrust explained in a quiet tone.

[Crimson_Raven]

Crosshairs

"HA-HAa!" Cross grinned as he got a good ruthm of blocks falling into the right slots.
However his happiness from the game was nothing compared to the rush he got when his sparkmate appeared in the cave with them.
"Dot?!" He yelled in surprise and scrambled to his peds, sweeping her up into a hug and immediately kissed her.

Gunsmoke

"Good luck, Dot.
Tell Cross that I said he's an idiot but we miss him." Gunny smiled and waved to the femme as she went through the bridge.
But soon the bridge apparently lost power and the portal whirled to a close.
"No!" Gunny shouted and ran up to the console with Ratchet.
"What happened?!"

Smokescreen

"Sure thing, I know just the place." Smokey smiled and took her servo in his, casting a concerned glance over his shoulder at seeing the bridge lose power.
"Uh..this way." He lead her up the tunnel exit.

Cogman

"Oh blast!" Cogman hissed and winced when the ground bridge shut down.
"That doesn't appear to be good." Pence agreed, frowning.

Starscream

The F-22 chuckled.
"I mean that you are still agile despite the decrease in speed." He explained and teasing flew a bit faster so she almost missed touching his wing tip.

Thundercracker

"Oh yeah, no doubt at all." TC wafted a servo and smirked.
"It's love that pilot's their ship, not power." He agreed and nodded to both Decepticons.