Jungle Planet. Adventure Team base. Nova

[random_xtras]

((cowritten with no_obstacle))
Nova: *has tracked Iceberg* *arrives at their base*

Iceberg: What makes you think I haven't-

Ransack: *cough*

Dune Runner: *stare*

Iceberg: *looks around* Oh, hey, kid! How'd you find your way to Jungle Planet?

Dune Runner: /:I Nexus, Iceberg. It follows you home.

Nova: Followed your exhaust trail.

Ransack: *eyes Iceberg in amusement* You've been drinking, too. *looks up at the jet-former* Nova, yes? *has a good memory for descriptions*

Nova: Yes. *studying him with those molten gold optics*

Dune Runner: Nice to meet you. *glances at Iceberg, then gives Nova a nod*

Iceberg: *waves at them* These two're my team. Ransack's our leader, Dune Runner's the techie with too much sand in his wires.

Nova: Hi. *absently whirring her cannon, though without opening it out*

Ransack: *friendly whistle as he waves to her to join them - there's plenty of boulders in the clearing, one of which Dune Runner's sitting on* So what brings you out here?

Nova: *stalks over and sits, still whirring the cannon. It's a comfort sound.* He said he'd find me training, *nods to Iceberg* and the heat was getting too close in the Nexus.

Dune Runner: You're on the run?

Ransack: *glances at Iceberg, expression unchanging*

Nova: *optics narrow warily* Yeah.

Dune Runner: *headtilt* From who?

Nova: Former teammates.

Dune Runnner: *visor flashes in surprise*

Ransack: Ah. Well, we're a long way from Cybertron here. Not many people care who you are in this end of space.

Iceberg: Yeah, it's not bad except when you have to watch out for other fugitives.

Nova: *quizzical look at Iceberg* *to Ransack* They're stationed on Earth. I've never seen Cybertron.

Ransack: *nods* We're a long way from there, too. And in a different dimension. You shouldn't have to worry.

Nova: Good.

Iceberg: *nods* I've been looking around for training, like I said. It's just about getting someone good who's not gonna be bothered by your design, or anything else we have to tell them. *pause* And getting someone out here, of course. *doesn't mention that half the candidates are (ex-)Decepticons*

Nova: *frowns* What's wrong with my design?

Iceberg: *chuckles* It's just kind of unusual for this universe.

Nova: *twitches a wing, then shrugs and whirrs her cannon some more* That was Blackout you were talking to, wasn't it? And Scorponok. *suspicious*

Iceberg: *blink* Um, yeah.

Dune Runner: *surprised* Blackout? What's he doing in the Nexus?

Iceberg: This one's different. She's... kinda bigger.

Nova: Used to be Megatron's pet destroyer.

Ransack/Dune Runner: Oo

Ransack: Considering the one time we met ours... *shakes his head*

Iceberg: >_>

Nova: Who was the red one?

Iceberg: Her name's Hormah. She's new.

Ransack: Around the Nexus?

Iceberg: ...Around everywhere.

Nova: *looking a little surprised* You mean that light wasn't a teleport?

Iceberg: Um. No.

Dune Runner: So? *pokes him in the treads*

Iceberg: Some LOL created her.

Nova: Oh. So she's not even real. *turns attention to cannon*

Iceberg: O_o What? Of course she's real.

Ransack: Just because something bizarre spawns you doesn't stop you being real. *amused*

Nova: .... The Prime said that to me once.

Ransack: *shrugs at the looks he gets*

Dune Runner: Why'd he say that?

Nova: *shrugs* He was drunk.

Minicons: *snort with laughter*

Ransack: *fakes another cough* So what happened to Hormah?

Iceberg: *damn counter-subject-changes* She went back with Blackout.

Nova: *flatly* So she's a Decepticon.

Iceberg: I guess she will be. *shrug*

Nova: *Says nothing else, but the anger under her surface is very visible*

Iceberg: *notices* *after eons of living with Dune Runner, he'd have to be dead not to* Something bothering you about that?

Nova: *Molten glare, but it's not really focused at him* I think I'm in the wrong place.

Ransack: *chin on hand, watching her with an optic ridge raised* And why do you think that, hmm?

Dune Runner: *visor narrowed in a way that suggests a frown*

Nova: *moving to stand* Blackout's my enemy. *under the anger, youthful disapointment is very apparent*

Iceberg: And you'd like it better if I'd attacked her, huh?

Nova: *shrugs* She's not from your reality, and your friends are your business *but she's wishing she could have destroyed that new Decepticon*

Iceberg: *snorts* We're not friends. But what's up, then?

Nova: *shrugs at his first words* Looked friendly to me. And if you are, then this isn't the place for me. *no, her voice didn't crackle, you heard nothing. She's really just as mean and lone wolf as she looks*

Iceberg: *sigh* It's called not burning your bridges while you're still on them. *wry smile* It's something you learn when you're a Minicon tryin' to survive in a warzone.

Nova: That's why that 'Con sparkling was the same colour as you?

Iceberg: *glances at his team-mates* No, that was the LOL. It used both our specs.

Dune Runner: *grumble*

Iceberg: *low* She's not my type, all right? I didn't get drunk until afterwards and besides she's a flier. >_>

Ransack: *mutters* And you're not a titanophile...

Nova: *momentarily distracted* What's wrong with being a flier?

Iceberg: *blink* Nothing, I just don't go in for dating 'em.

Nova: Oh. *quietly* ewwwww

Iceberg: >I Anyway, I only met her ten seconds before that, and she was ignoring me.

Nova: So you sent your kid to be a 'Con.

Iceberg: I sent her with someone who wanted to take her. And it's not like I could keep her.

Ransack: *nod* Our missions aren't exactly safe for the inexperienced.

Dune Runner: *mutters about 'wouldn't you know'* And Blackout would know how to look after her...

Nova: And make her into another murderer.

Ransack: *looks at her sharply*

Iceberg: You mean train her to fight? *not remotely pointed: he doesn't do that*

Nova: *flinches and opens her mouth, then stands and walks away, obviously not looking where she's going*

Dune Runner: Uh, that's a tree-

Nova: *thunk* *growls and walks around it*

Dune Runner: *slips off, folding into vehicle mode to cut in a wide arc around her until he meets her path, then settles in robot-mode to wait*

Nova: *knows better than to go too far from a camp, and is about to stop when she notices a lifesign. Cannon flashes out and is suddenly aimed. And even though her actions and such indicate that she should be crying about now she's dry-eyed and expressionless.*

Dune Runner: *looks up at her* *quietly* Hey.

Nova: *Pauses to consider, then puts the cannon away.* What?

Dune Runner: Yeah, he does that to me too. *sigh* I'm not going to stay out here and bother you long. I just thought I should say... look, we're not Autobots. We've had to run from them too often for that. But we're not Decepticons, either, and we'll never agree with Megatron's ideas, or forget what he and his friends tried to do to the Minicons. If you need help, we're happy to give it - but because you need it, not because we want you to go off and kill Decepticons.

Nova: *looks at him, still expressionless* Is it safe to shoot out here?

Dune Runner: We're a long way from the locals. Go ahead, just don't bring any trees down on yourself.

Nova: Yes, sir. *slips out automatically and unnoticed* *turns and continues walking, and a few moments later comes the sound of massive destruction.*

Dune Runner: *listens for a few seconds, then leaves her to it and heads back*