ANH 'verse. Bespin Station. Jailbreak!

[astrotechmech]

Smokescreen walks seemingly absent alongside the Autotroopers escorting Arcee down the hall, the officer among them still holding Arcee after sounds of gunfire from behind forced the officer to restrain her.

Although the gunfire sounded a few minutes ago, the air still felt tense among the Imperials.

So it is no wonder that all of the Imperials snap to attention when a CLANG! suddenly resounds from the direction they had come.

The officer's face quickly turns from a serious frown to bored when he sees the cause of the commotion, and he sneers, "Walls jumping out in front of you, Baron Administrator?"

Smokescreen, meanwhile, sheepishly rubs his face after peeling himself from the wall he had run into. "Heh, heh. Whoops. I must have missed a maintenance check," he replies, cheerfully, patting the wall so that the thunk! thunk! of his hand against the metal echoes down the hall.

"Uh huh," the officer replies with force civility that failed to conceal how stupid he thought the other bot was as he points two fingers in the direction they were heading in before they were so rudely interrupted. The message is clear: Ignore the clown and keep moving.

One Autotrooper, however, does not move right away, staring at Smokescreen blankly as is the Autotrooper way but still managing to be clearly skeptical.

"He's done this before," comes the hushed and quick explanation from another 'Trooper. "Ignore him."

There are no further incidents once they start moving again. At one point, the Imperial officer appears to have received a silent communication because he relaxes and lets Arcee walk free--if still escorted by the Autotroopers. He also shoots Smokescreen a smug and taunting look, as if he just figured out what Smokescreen had been attempting with the running into the wall and knew that the message he figures Smokescreen tried to send would now never reach Hot Shot.

As if to confirm the officer's suspicions, Smokescreen merely frowns worriedly in reply.

Soon, the group begins to head for a large intersection of several hallways, brightly lit, with large vent grates positioned high between the hallway entrances. A few creaks and pops can be heard, which go largely unnoticed as the group walks towards the intersection.

What happens once all are in the intersection, however, does not go unnoticed.

The vents overhead burst open, shapes emerging from the vents before anyone can really react and falling upon the Autotroopers like pouring rain, the sudden attack disorienting the Autotroopers even further.

But in the next instant, it's all over, and the Minicons from the vents stand triumphantly on the shoulders of the Autotroopers as the Autotroopers themselves are surrounded by armed mechs from the station's own security force.

Smokescreen walks over and shoves the Imperial officer in the direction of one of the guards, who proceeds to restrain and handcuff the officer. The officer, managing to recover from the shock of the sudden ambush slightly, shoots Smokescreen a dark look to which Smokescreen responds by waving his arms in a kind of carefree "what can you do?" shrug, his eyes shining with quiet and momentary smugness. Smokescreen then proceeds to disarm the Autotroopers as most of the Minicons jump back to the shoulders of the security team.

Smokescreen does not seem to skip a beat as three other Minicons jump and hold onto Smokescreen's back armor while he makes his rounds.

Smokescreen gives most of the guns to extra guards before turning to speak to the mech who appears to be in charge of the guards. "Take them to the South security tower, and keep it--"

He does not get a chance to go further.

"Death to the Empire!" comes the enthusiastic shout in Basic from one of the security team's Minicons.

Shh! comes the unison beeping as the closest Minicon hits the troublemaker upside the head and gives him a 'what the heck is wrong with you!?!' look.

"Quiet," Smokescreen finishes. "We don't want this to get out." Smokescreen gives the trouble-making Minicon a warning look.

The head security mech nods in understanding, and he has soon ushered the other guards and their Imperial prisoners down the hall.

One of the Minicons who had grabbed onto Smokescreen's back now sits on one of his shoulders, looking down the way the prisoners went until they're out of sight. [Liftor's with The Silver Lining. He'll met up with us once we take care of business.]

Smokescreen nods slowly as he moves to hand Arcee one of the remaining guns in his hand. Footsteps can be heard coming from one of the other hallways.

Comments

[astrotechmech]

Random accepts the scrap from her, if just because he hasn't had the spark to tell her that his squishy feeling insides has kinda made him lose his appetite--and he thinks at this point, it's not just because he watched that Minicon shock the other one with a tool earlier. Blerg. What the heck did that crazy Seeker feed him?

Random shifts a bit to try to hide his disgust--but that just makes it worse--just to see that the strange orange and blue mech was still standing halfway in the room, thinking.

Or, Random thought the mech was thinking. For all he knew the mech was sleeping standing up and frowning a bit thoughtfully.

Random started as the mech suddenly turned and gently placed the Minicon he had been sporting on his arm onto a storage self. Then Smokescreen reached into one of his storage compartments.

Smokescreen seemed a bit puzzled when he saw that Random had tightened his grip on Kia during his startle, not sure what the other mech was doing.

"Don't know what she's told you," Smokescreen says, "but Jetfire wasn't expecting anything of what happened and it probably wasn't pleasant for her, even if she stayed out of most of it. Mind if I give her something, as an apology for my part of it?"

And Random sees something he has not seen in a very, very long time.

"Sunrise?!" Random exclaims, and he takes the yellow and orange, softly glowing rock that Smokescreen hands him. He turns it over in his hands, examining it closely and taking in the delicious tangy scent.

"Where did you get this?" Random asks, continuing his examination. "And with such a thick shell? I remember the shells of the ones Sneaker brought me when they were nearly impossible to find and they were not nearly this thick and hard."

"Omnicons." Random hears Smokescreen say, missing the mech's slight smile as Random continues his examination. "We have--had some on the station. Probably not as good or the same as the brand name but still quite good."

"Like I say, it's been a very long time since I've seen a Sunrise half this good--and I know how hard Sneaker tried to get good Sunrises." Random paused for a moment, reflecting how he once told the mech that he was just glad to have anything even resembling Sunrises and not to be too concerned if they were not as good as they were in the past. Random frowns as he remembers this, but then he looks down at Kia, remembering the reason the Sunrise was brought out. He takes the candy and hands it to her, treating the Sunrise as if it were something very fragile and precious--and not like something that's normally eaten like any other fuel.

[random_xtras]

Kia's eyes brighten as the treat's handed to her, and she sets down the wax so that she can take the Sunrise with both hands.

"Thank you," she says, looking up in her quiet, serious way. "But I don't understand why I need an apology."

[astrotechmech]

Random can't help the slightly smug smile from smearing across his face as Smokescreen blinks at Kia's honest response.

Kia had a way of seeing the world from a different angle, catching people off guard with her youthful innocent and lack of drilled social reactions.

Not that Smokescreen would necessarily catch that in his exhausted state.

Oh, how Random has missed Kia.

And he'll enjoy not looking the fool for once.

Random finally notices Smokescreen's quizzical look.

"I thought Jetfire told you she 'wasn't the wiped bot she appears to be,'" Random can't help but say a bit bitterly, still not approving of the assumption that something was wrong with her. Because it makes Random feel like he might have had something to do with whatever is wrong.

Smokescreen blinks again before shaking his head and rubbing the area around his optics tiredly. "Oh. Right. Newspark. . . . Wait. No, that doesn't actually help."

Random allows a pause. After a moment, he says, simply, "She's also close with Primus."

Another pause. This time Random wonders if 1) Smokescreen fell asleep since his head was still in his hand, or 2) Smokescreen was trying to find a way to politely say they were crazy.

"Oh," Smokescreen says, finally, "so that's why she didn't freak out."

[random_xtras]

Kia studies Smokescreen for a long moment, her delicate face first holding a frown of confusion, and then a slighter one of concern. Big eyes take in every part of his face and then move to his posture before flicking to the Minicon on the shelf.

[astrotechmech]

Random frowns as Smokescreen seems to stare off in exhausted thought while Kia studies him, but Random doesn't say anything.

Smokescreen recalls that he had put his Minicon friend on the shelf just as Kia looks over and swiftly replaces Liftor on his arm.

Thus settled, the orange and navy blue mech turns back towards Random.

"Speaking of Primus, how'd you get past all of the Imps on Cybertron to ask for her?"

Random looks at Smokescreen for a moment before turning and staring into a corner, remembering the day he got Kia.

"I didn't," the astrotech says after a moment. "I found her. . . . She was floating in the debris field near our ship. Before that? . . . I have no idea. Something must have happened to the people who had her before."

[random_xtras]

"No." Kia speaks up softly. "Nothing happened to him. It was just time for him to start the plan."

[astrotechmech]

It takes Random a long moment before he really registers that Kia spoke and another moment to realize what she said when she spoke. He is too distracted by worries about who the supposed 'people who had her before' were and how they met their fate and what that meant about his own worth.

When Random finally does make the realization, he is understandably confused.

"Wait. 'Him'? 'Plan'? Who is 'him' and what is the 'plan'?" Random asks.

[random_xtras]

The little femme blinks at him, her delicate face showing confusion for a moment. But then she frowns slightly as though reminding herself- or him- of something.

"Primus. And his plan to stop the Empire."

[astrotechmech]

"Oh. Right." Random lets out air out of his vents and looks relieved for a moment. Then he doubletakes. "Wait. Do you mean no one had you before I found you?"

[random_xtras]

Now he's getting a confused 'You're a dummy but I love you' look.

"Primus did."

[astrotechmech]

"How did Primus have you?" Smokescreen asks, suddenly, causing Random to start and look up at the bigger bot. Smokescreen's face told of his processor's efforts to shut down and defrag.

[random_xtras]

Such a gentle frown as she wonders how he doesn't get it.

"He has everybody before they're born. Right?"

[astrotechmech]

Smokescreen's determined frown continues as his processor keeps working hard.

"Riiiiiight. But that's supposed to be in Vector Sigma on Cybertron. . . . How did you get to where Random found ya?"