"OC Episode #3"

[Optimal Optimus Primal]

"Yes, I guess I must relieve you so you can help Frilla find her some quarters."

If it was up to Rattrap, he'd rather stay and chat, or go to his own room and sleep. Yes, sleep. That sounded good. But since orders are orders, he had to help the female lizard first.

"Well, she can't be all that dangerous and evil like Megatron or...disturbed as that Starshadow girl. She seems normal but afraid to me anyway, and it wouldn't be a step too far for Megatron to play on his teammates' fears. Took alot of courage to leave, " "At least it wasn't Megatron himself or I will love to escort him to some quarters...ones with some bars and throw away the key."

"Yeah, that's exacty what she wants you ta think," the paranoid rodent muttered. But he had to remember what the boss monkey said earlier. The equine's words were prety similar. He chuckled at Whitegrazer's last comment. Sighing, Rattap added, "I sure hope Optimus knows what he's doing, lettin' all these Preds in 'ere." He shook his head lightly. He was a little territorial.

"Contrary to what you might think, Rattrap, I know exacty what I'm doing," Primal said as confidently as he could after pulling himself together from his little episode in his quarters. He over heard the rat's last words while he approached the two in the hallway. Optimus stopped by Whitegrazer but focused on Rattrap. "Have you assigned a room for Frilla yet?" It appeared that he had been delaying in assisting her simply because of her former allegiance. He wished the smaller Maximal could stop being so judgemental and just accept his decisions.

He trusts too much, thought Rattrap. Then again, maybe it was time he trusted their leader's judgement. "Uh, no. I was just about to see if she was done with Cheetor. I was helpin' WG here settle in first," he explained himself.

"The entire time I was being debriefed by Orcariner, you spent the whole duration helping Whitegrazer?" asked Optimus, making a point.

"Yeah, okay. I'm on it. Sheesh." Rattrap rolled his optics and turned around, walking back to the command center and mumbling under his breath.

"I swear, sometimes it's impossible to get him to do anything effeciently. Or to do anything at all, for that matter," Optimus said to Whitegrazer light heartedly. "I hope he wasn't too distasteful in his words." In back of his mind, Saber-Fang tugged at his memory as well, despite everything else that had happened. There was so much to do, so many to speak to, and simply not enough time. Primal knew he should make time, but he also needed repairs or else if there was to be another battle anytime soon, he would not last very long.

-----

"Compared to the nature here it seems second to it. Well unless you love big cities then ti might be considered beautiful to them."

Hm, thought Tigatron. Buildings, architecture and other structures of that sort could hold its own beauty, but Cybertron sounded like the complete opposite of this planet. How ironic. If he had to choose, where would he find himself most comfortable living? Here, or Cybertron?

"Cybertron is a giant metal planet full of cities, some parts are better then others though." "As far as I can remember the planet didn't have vegetation, not like here from what I can recall. Mainly the planet has skyscrapers, and lights can often block out the stars from some."

Which meant that other beauties had been forgotten or overwhelmed by these large structures. A shame. "Where did you live?" he asked. "Was it peaceful?"

[una]

"Yeah, that's exacty what she wants you ta think," the paranoid rodent muttered. But he had to remember what the boss monkey said earlier. The equine's words were prety similar. He chuckled at Whitegrazer's last comment. Sighing, Rattap added, "I sure hope Optimus knows what he's doing, lettin' all these Preds in 'ere." He shook his head lightly. He was a little territorial.

"Contrary to what you might think, Rattrap, I know exacty what I'm doing," Primal said as confidently as he could after pulling himself together from his little episode in his quarters. He over heard the rat's last words while he approached the two in the hallway. Optimus stopped by Whitegrazer but focused on Rattrap. "Have you assigned a room for Frilla yet?" It appeared that he had been delaying in assisting her simply because of her former allegiance. He wished the smaller Maximal could stop being so judgemental and just accept his decisions.

He trusts too much, thought Rattrap. Then again, maybe it was time he trusted their leader's judgement. "Uh, no. I was just about to see if she was done with Cheetor. I was helpin' WG here settle in first," he explained himself.

"The entire time I was being debriefed by Orcariner, you spent the whole duration helping Whitegrazer?" asked Optimus, making a point.

"I think I should apologize for that. I was making conversation with Rattrap. I'm a chatterbox sometimes." Whitegrazer replied.

"Yeah, okay. I'm on it. Sheesh." Rattrap rolled his optics and turned around, walking back to the command center and mumbling under his breath.

"I swear, sometimes it's impossible to get him to do anything effeciently. Or to do anything at all, for that matter," Optimus said to Whitegrazer light heartedly. "I hope he wasn't too distasteful in his words." In back of his mind, Saber-Fang tugged at his memory as well, despite everything else that had happened. There was so much to do, so many to speak to, and simply not enough time. Primal knew he should make time, but he also needed repairs or else if there was to be another battle anytime soon, he would not last very long.

She smiled and shrugged, "He didn't bother me. Just got to know how to talk to individuals like him." She looked at the path Rattrap was walking away from, "His distrustful nature is understandable but is troublesome. My advice? Stick them in a same room or some missions together. I did that with some of my students before. Usually works. Most of the time."

Whitegrazer noticed that Optimus was still injured. She was amazed that he was still walking around like that, "Permission to speak freely, sir? I think you should get yourself repaired. You will lose alot of more energy walking around like that. Don't want to see you fall over from exhaustion. Trust me from experience. Not fun especially in the middle of a conversation. Happened to me once and..."

She cleared her throat, "Sorry, chatterbox like I said."

[Alak]

Er.. Not sure what you could help with..unless you know alot on nano machines.. Rhinox has me on guard of Misty at the moment.. she's now classified as a hazard to the crew and base itself.. he's scanning a sample of the nano machines on the bridge at the moment..

"Nanotechnology?" replied Orcariner, "It's not something I'd say I'm an expert in, but I've done my fair share of research. I'll find Rhinox."

Walking across the bridge, the large Maximal found his slightly less large comrade. It looked like Rhinox had already ran the sample through the computer, and the Axalon was now breaking down the components. Having not much experience being around the bridge, Orcariner was not quite sure what the ship's systems were capable of. However, he was amazed at the specificity of the scans as well as the computer's ability to quantify each element and functional group. Had he tried to do the task himself, Orcariner might have attempted a more hands on analysis such as attenuated total reflectance via infrared spectroscopy. The Maximal was glad this was not the case, as the Axalon was reading the samples much quicker with more depth than he could have possibly imagined.

"Amazing," he whispered, looking at the screen, "I guess this is what I should expect from a space exploration vessel."

Orcariner once had a professor at the Academy who studied the field of physics and engineering. He recalled a conversation revolving nano-medicine, where surgeons would employ nanobots in extremely delicate cases. These nanobots would be guided through the patient's body via magnets so that they would be able to locate the area of repair. They would then be extracted from the body using these very same magnets. Orcariner noted various data sprawled across the front monitors as well as the screens built into the console. He tried not to intrude, but glanced over Rhinox's shoulder to find a magnified view of the sample. The nanobots were still in motion, but there was no pattern in their movement. If he could describe them in one word, Orcariner would say that they were lost. Perhaps this was because there was no guidance. The orca could not be certain that this was the same nanotechnology used on Cybertron now, but the concept was the same. The Decepticon must have an internal magnetic system that controlled these nanobots. Without her presence, they would be useless and aimless. He did not want to say anything too soon without proof, but Orcariner made a mental note that polarity disruption could be another weakness of the Decepticon.

"I'm not entirely sure," he finally said to Rhinox, "but someone once told me that nanotechnology can be controlled with magnets. If we have one, maybe we could extract every nanobot from Nightmist's body pretty quickly."

The Maximal wished that instructor was present with them. He would have lent Orcariner a lot more credibility with his statements, as well as corrected any wrong ones. The killer whale was going off memory since the only databanks he stored in his personal computer were related to Cybertronian history, weapons, wartime technology, etc. He wanted to become a marshal not a scientist. So much for that idea.

[NaitoKage]

Rhinox nodded as he heard Orcariner behind him True, but if that was the case I'd have Icebreaker just freeze the entire body.. from what I can tell..the Decepticon's Nanomachines appear to be more advanced then the ones we currently use. They adapted the technology from Nightmist, and even made a new hybrid of nano machine based from our and her own technology.. Regrettably these readings are also showing signs of something disturbing..large traces of Positronic energy are detected in these samples. That Decepticon didn't just simply crush and extinguish her spark.. she liquidized it. There also seems to be two signatures, Nightmist's and the Decepticons. I'm assuming that is how the Nanomachines are controlled.. or perhaps inhibited from consuming herself. These signatures seem to be mixing.. So I'm not sure what the Nano machines are doing right now, or if I could find a way to protect the other maximals if that woman is capable of doing that again.

Rhinox then let out a sigh Either way, whoever she is..She isn't your typical Decepticon in the slightest..

[Optimal Optimus Primal]

(( OOC: Wasn't Rhinox in the hangar inside the Nomad with Nightmist's body; not on the Axalon's bridge? ))

"I think I should apologize for that. I was making conversation with Rattrap. I'm a chatterbox sometimes." "He didn't bother me. Just got to know how to talk to individuals like him." "His distrustful nature is understandable but is troublesome. My advice? Stick them in a same room or some missions together. I did that with some of my students before. Usually works. Most of the time."

Optimus smiled lightly at Whitegrazer since that was precisely why he wanted him to escort Frilla around. "I've already done that with him and Dinobot, and I agree with you, I think it has worked. He'll come around. ...Hopefully before he catches on to my scheme," the leader chuckled, picking up a better mood. Rattrap was a tramendously loyal Maximal and he was great in the battlefield when he wanted to be. Even though he still denied liking or cooperating with Dinobot, Primal could see the difference between them now and the lack of tension and hostility.

"Permission to speak freely, sir? I think you should get yourself repaired. You will lose alot of more energy walking around like that. Don't want to see you fall over from exhaustion. Trust me from experience. Not fun especially in the middle of a conversation. Happened to me once and..." "Sorry, chatterbox like I said."

"It wasn't a good outcome?" Optimus smiled, finishing her sentence. "I would imagine it wasn't. I was just on my way to the CR," he assured Whitegrazer. "But thank you for your concern. You should probably get some rest as well. Although your injuries were stabilized by Nightmist, your beast mode should be able to mend the rest." With that, his smile faded and he excused himself from her to let her settle into her room and get comfortable and familiar with things, turning and following the same path Rattrap had taken toward the command center. So much was on his mind.

While walking, his voice echoed through the hall as he opened his comm. link to Rhinox. "Rhinox, I'll be logging some time in repair chamber shortly. You're in charge."

-----

Entering the bridge, Rattrap glanced around and spotted Frilla next to Cheetor. "Hey, Godzilla-girl," he called to Frilla, walking over to her and the cheetah. "You guys done? Ready for your room?" He intentionally kept some "comfortable" space between him and the former Predacon.

[una]

Optimus smiled lightly at Whitegrazer since that was precisely why he wanted him to escort Frilla around. "I've already done that with him and Dinobot, and I agree with you, I think it has worked. He'll come around. ...Hopefully before he catches on to my scheme," the leader chuckled, picking up a better mood. Rattrap was a tramendously loyal Maximal and he was great in the battlefield when he wanted to be. Even though he still denied liking or cooperating with Dinobot, Primal could see the difference between them now and the lack of tension and hostility.

Oh, that's right Dinobot was once a Predacon too. She forgot about that. It would be interesting to talk to him.

"It wasn't a good outcome?" Optimus smiled, finishing her sentence. "I would imagine it wasn't. I was just on my way to the CR," he assured Whitegrazer. "But thank you for your concern. You should probably get some rest as well. Although your injuries were stabilized by Nightmist, your beast mode should be able to mend the rest." With that, his smile faded and he excused himself from her to let her settle into her room and get comfortable and familiar with things, turning and following the same path Rattrap had taken toward the command center. So much was on his mind.

Whitegrazer shook her head with a smile, "Nope, it wasn't." She nodded, agreeing with the rest, "If I can sleep." She said quietly and waved bye to Optimus as he walked away. She entered her new room, inspecting as the door closed behind her. She wasn't really a decorator.

"Oh well, I will deal with it later."

She decided to lay on the berth in front of her, interwining her fingers and swayed her feet alittle. She had always troubled sleeping. Taking her gun off, she held it tightly and turned over. It was an instinct she had ever since those old days of her finding shelter in the most darkest, dangerous places because of her lack of currency, thanks to a commander she ticked off.

Whitegrazer just her shook her mind off that. Maybe shutting her optics down would help her? She decided to try it.

[Wintersong]

Wintersong then went silent for a moment, thinking back before her life in the Academy. "Not in my earlier times of functioning." She finally said, sitting cross legged in the seat, "I was from the poorest parts of Cybertron which had a lot of crime where I live so I left in search of a better life. Eventually I saw they were recruiting at the Maximal Military Academy and signed up to be a warrior, soldier, whatever you want to call it." She said, her attitude changing to a more brighter one. "Back home I was looking forward to helping the Maximals, actually help make a difference and be one of the best in my unit. But of course me and a few friends decided to sneak away for once and we id a bet. Unfortunately whoever lost had to sneka on a ship for an hour."

She could remember that day still and how she had found the nearest ship still being loaded, waiting for the last part of the cargo to be shipped on before she got the chance. How stupid how that bet and dare had been without checking if the ship was preparing to take off. "At the time I had heard the Axalon was going to be leaving but never realized it was taking off then and there, which resulted in having to stick in the cargo bay for a while. When they went after Megatron the shooting shook the ship and I ended up in an empty stasis pod. That's pretty much the story." Wintersong finished.

[New Moon]

Assuming they were done Frilla turned to Rattrap taking note of the distance he kept from her. Was he that untrusting or suspicious? Shaking her head she sighed, "Yea I'm ready. Lead the way garbage breathe." She replied crossing her arms.

[NaitoKage]

(Rhinox moved like two pages ago to examine the frozen sample, as after all.. it is an exploration vessel. )

"Rhinox, I'll be logging some time in repair chamber shortly. You're in charge."

Rhinox responded back on comlink Got it Optimus.

[Blazemane]

Cheetor put the frequency in to the Axalon's database just before Rhinox showed up and had his sample analyzed.

For a while, the Maximal was curious about what was going on, but the technicality of everything made it hard for him to get. He was about to give up trying when he heard Rhinox mention Nightmist and the Decepticon's mixed spark energies.

You guys done? Ready for your room?

The question reminded Cheetor of his job. He was going to answer with a simple "yeah, we're done," but Frilla took care of that for him.

There wasn't really anything else to do, so he sauntered off to his quarters, fixated on what had just happened outside.

* * *

The liquid inside the CR tank swished around as the platform elevated a repaired Steelclaw into the air. Taking a moment to get his bearings, he stepped onto a hoverboard and went to stable ground. He jumped off onto the floor of one of the Darksyde's hallways, and transformed to beast mode.

Heading off towards his own quarters, he realized he'd never seen Scorponok come back to the ship, although that didn't mean he'd never come.

Upon thinking of the Predacon, he realized he wanted to see him, so he went to his quarters instead.

Rapping on the door, he called inside.

"Hey, Scorponok- you there?"

[Alak]

True, but if that was the case I'd have Icebreaker just freeze the entire body.. from what I can tell..the Decepticon's Nanomachines appear to be more advanced then the ones we currently use. They adapted the technology from Nightmist, and even made a new hybrid of nano machine based from our and her own technology. Regrettably these readings are also showing signs of something disturbing..large traces of Positronic energy are detected in these samples. That Decepticon didn't just simply crush and extinguish her spark.. she liquidized it. There also seems to be two signatures, Nightmist's and the Decepticons. I'm assuming that is how the Nanomachines are controlled.. or perhaps inhibited from consuming herself. These signatures seem to be mixing.. So I'm not sure what the Nano machines are doing right now, or if I could find a way to protect the other maximals if that woman is capable of doing that again.

Either way, whoever she is..She isn't your typical Decepticon in the slightest..

Orcariner was taken back by the news. The fact that this technology from the past was more advanced than that of their own was surprising enough. What really threw him in a loop was that the Decepticon managed to assimilate Nightmist's DNA via nanobots.

"Positronic energy," he murmured.

Now this was something Orcariner could work with. Taking a seat, he copied Rhinox's data onto his own screen and noted that the latter was correct. The energy readings were exceedingly high, but this boded well for the Maximals. Normally, positronic energy was used in weaponry or power inducing devices rather than organic or metallo-organic beings such as Cybertronians. The reason being is that the imbalance of protons versus electrons would disrupt the natural homeostasis that bodies normally try to maintain. Hence, why Nightmist's spark was liquidize in such a violent fashion. Proton cannons were an old, but very effective examples of how this energy could be weaponized. This was actually the first case Orcariner had seen where a living individual was utilizing this energy in her very own body. Now, there existed another weapon that used the opposite form of energy: ion blasters. The late Optimus Prime was the most famous example of one who utilized ionized weaponry to its fullest extent. Rather than using a high concentration of protons, this type of firearm actually focused on using electrons to deal damage. Orcariner had no idea if this Decepticon encountered Optimus Prime, but he could not imagine such a fight ending well for her. Perhaps it was this historical figure who sent her into stasis lock.

"We should try a high powered electrical induction," suggested Orcariner, realizing that they had no ion weaponry, "We could use it to stabilize the charge in the body's system and render the nanobots into a standstill. It won't remove them, but at least we know it'll stop the spread so that we can remove the 'biohazard' tag off the body."

That, thought Orcariner, and we don't have to worry about killing Nightmist in the process since she's already...

He left the thought as it was before going too far. He was sad enough already so the orca returned his concentration to the nanobots. Orcariner pondered if using ion technology would hinder the nanobots to the point where they would be able to separate Nightmist's DNA from that of the Decepticon. He shrugged off the idea since it made no sense. The nanobots were workers in a system. They had already finished their job of merging Maximal technology into the Decepticon's DNA. The most they could do would be to halt the nanobots from working. Whatever their new nemesis has done before cannot be undone now.

Still, what does she use nanotechnology for?

Orcariner already knew that she was capable of assimilating technology that was far more advanced than her era. She could potentially use the nanobots as a way to compensate for any weakness that was discovered.

Can't be the case, he thought, We already know that the cold is a weakness and it obviously still isn't adapted to.

The Decepticon was in danger due to the radiation. Perhaps the nanobots acted out only in life-endangering scenarios. It could be the reason why she assimilated Nightmist. There was a specific term that Orcariner was searching for to describe this purpose, but nothing came to mind. He supposed that it would come to him at a later time.


--------------------------------------------------------------------

"Hey, Scorponok- you there?"

The door quickly opened, revealing Scorponok standing upright with a suspicious expression on his face. Speaking of his face, the Predacon's head was rather shiny and, dare it be said, brand new. Of course, this was only comparison with the rest of his body which still had signs of dirt and scratches from his travels in the outside world. The problem here was that the ship only had a limited supply of repair baths, and there just happened to be quite a few Predacons on board. Having primarily his face damaged in the skirmish, the others were too impatient to let Scorponok spend a full thirty cycles to rest in the CR bath, namely Terrorsaur. Therefore, he was only allowed ten cycles to stick his head into the medicinal fluids before giving the pterodactyl full access to the bath for the remainder of the day. The latter had been blown into two pieces so he had a legitimate reason for the rush, but the 1st Lieutenant was still frustrated over the fact that only his head was allowed to be cleaned up.

"What is it, Blazemane?" he quickly asked, "Does Megatron seek my assistance?"

[NaitoKage]

(In Beastmachines it was revealed that Sparks were made of positronic energy. Probably should of made that clearer.)

[Phoenix]

(Phew.. What a week of pure hell.. Spent the last several days packing things into boxes and cleaning to move out.)

Having spent most of the night flying, Nemesis had finally encountered a structure that appeared Cybertronian in nature. It was similar to the Maximal base in some ways, yet had distinct different traits to it as well. Perhaps this was another base of those Predacons..

She flew in for a closer look, but made sure to stay out of canon range regardless just in case someone was to open fire on her. Being in the form of a bird right now, she wasn't sure if any occupants of this base would recognize her or if they would merely dismiss her as part of the local wildlife, but as she was fairly tired at this point she did not feel like getting into another violent encounter before having the chance to relax a bit. It had been a crazy time since the moment she had woken up in the other aircraft.

Landing in a tree a short distance away from the base, Nemesis took a moment to gaze out upon the volcanic landscape in front of her.

This planet was so strange, so unlike her home world. Then again Nemesis had spent much of her life locked up at a science facility, so her time on Cybertron had been brief before the councils had decided to downsize and implement protoform technology so that they could spread out more to other planets in search of new energy reserves. Most of her fellow Decepticons had either perished, fled, or grudgingly agreed to go through the update.

So many changes had come about in a few centuries. A time span that was almost ridiculously short compared to the millions of years where her generation had slowly evolved. Nemesis had been one of the last few of her generation, an attempt to implement new technology that had proven to be too unpredictable to be worthwhile, so they had decided on going with protoform technology instead.

And now these tiny upstarts with beast modes rather than metallic vehicle modes were so convinced they were better off somehow..

The female snorted at the thought, her mind still having trouble adapting to the idea that she had now implemented their technology into herself. It was a disgusting concept to her.

She had been a hybrid of sorts for as long as she could remember. Although she looked like a regular G1, at least she did before, her adaption of the nanotechnology separated her from those around her. Most avoided her, whether because she was different or because of her personality. They just went hand in hand for her. Yet she did not mind being an outcast, having been one for most of her life.

[NaitoKage]

Far off in the distance from Nemesis, a sudden thin blue light came from the distance followed by a rushing sound as it passed bellow her. The tree under her revealed to be cut in half by the light while the ground behind the tree was set ablaze with glass formed in the dirt.

As Glowstick closed in on her area, he became more visible as his transparent body was somewhat difficult to see in the dark without his normal lighting on. The photophores then started to pulse in sequence like an equalizer on a music player as he came into range of her, music heard playing from the speakers on his shoulders.(Jurgen Vries-The theme http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrQ3blJcQ5A)

Glowstick's large photophores at the end of his feeder tentacles started to glow ominously Well Well.. I didn't expect you to show up here Nightmist..You must be malfunctioning Maximal.

[Blazemane]

What is it, Blazemane?... Does Megatron seek my assistance?

Blazemane?, Steelclaw thought for a second. Maybe it was a scientist Scorponok knew back on Cybertron. He kinda' felt sorry for the 'bot- what a horrid little name.

But he let it go. That was a conversation for another time.

"No," he replied, "or at least, not that I've heard recently. I actually just wanted to talk to you. You tried to get Frilla back safe from Optimus didn't you? I didn't get to see all of what happened there. Did she say anything about what she was doing, or anything like that? How did things... y'know, go down?"