| abstract
| - City Center - Amidst the sea of dome-like buildings stands the tall spiraling Tower of Pion in the center of the Iacon city-state. The rest of the buildings in the sector seem to be built entirely around the tower itself in a well arranged circular pattern that sets the theme for the rest of the city-state's layout. This region of Iacon houses the majority of the city-state's entertainment and high classed residential districts. Thousands of multi-leveled collapsible floating highway networks extend all across the region, occupying the spaces in between the sea of domed buildings. Noteworthy areas of interest from here are the High Council Pavilions towards the north, the Autobots' stronghold of Decagon over to the west, the Central Spaceport that towers over all of Iacon to the east, and the the Forum of Enlightenment leading to the south. Hubcap paces back and forth across the room, shooting the occasional glance at the closed doors that lead to the High Council Pavilions. A frustrated scowl is etched on his face. Groove has been staring at Hubcap for what seems like days until his optics finally go wide. "Oh man. Guys. GUYS." He stares out at nothing for a moment, mouth open in wonder. "What if like...we made this massive finger painting. Like, the biggest one ever, and just put it on Mars! That way the Decepticons wouldn't even do anything because, I mean, look at this painting, right?" "Hubcap, buddy, you need to relax," says the totally awesome Powerglide. He's leaning against a wall looking so darn cool and sipping out of a flask held in his right hand. "Obviously we're not important enough for that meeting so why bother worrying about it? Here." He holds the flask out to his fellow minibot. "Take a swig of this and just chill for a second." "As nice as that sounds, Groove, I highly doubt it'd be that easy." Torque speaks from her spot on one of the outside benches with the other Bots, simply relaxing and enjoying her time in the Autobot city. It's been quite a while since she last visited, always tending to things on Earth, so it feels good to just lean back and let the surroundings soak in. "Powerglide's right though, Hubcap, for once. Just take it easy. I'm sure they're come up with a reasonable way to handle this mess." Powerglide looks at Torque with a very offended look on his face. "What do you mean 'for once'?" He shakes his head and takes a swig from his flask. What's inside there anyway? Cheap beer? Expensive liquor? Some crazy concotion he got from Encore? The world may never know (unless the world takes a sip of course.) "Hey, I have an idea. Let's talk about what a jerk that Cross guy is. Oh! And his mustache. What is he trying to prove with that thing? He aint no Freddie Mercury, that's for sure." Blades Blades, ahem, stalks into the area, sulking somewhat. The large crowd gives him pause. Oh hey, there's Groove, back from Burning Mech, and... are they talking about Cross? Blades growls, "Cross? The guy's a creep. And that's coming from me." Elita One eventually makes herself known, next to the rest of the crowd, her arms folded. She says to herself, "Maybe I *should* have cared about rank, considering." She gives a vague shrug, "Whatever." Hound rides in on one the many Iacon floating speed ways and stops in front of the gathered Autobots before transforming. "Hey, everyone's here already. I got word that some discussions is going to happen here, has it started yet?" Bluestreak is sitting back in a corner himself, looking at the building where the meeting with the higher ranks are. He stiffens at the mention of Cross, really not liking the guy. Period. "Creep is an understatement Blades." He looks up as Hound rides in. "I'm not sure, does anyone know when they are going to start the meeting?" Hubcap pulls up short and stares at Groove for a minute. "That sounds like it would take some /very large/ fingers, man." Glancing across at Hound, he shrugs, and thumps his fist on the thick doors of the pavilion, not caring if anyone inside complains. "/No/ clue, even I can't hear through this." Elita One regards Hound for a moment, "Hard to tell...I'm not certain I like this secrecy." She motions to the explorer, "Knowing Ultra Magnus though, it was said to have started half a cycle ago, so it probably started on time..." Blades spreads his arms out, hands palms up, and he says to Bluestreak, "The guy reminds me of /me/. Need I say more?" Blades is quite aware that he is a rather unpleasant person! Groove makes a funny face at Blades. "What if he turned into a helicopter and you like...turned into a mustache? Are you hungry? You sound hungry." Torque releases a few locks on her helmet and removes it, setting it aside before tousling up the short cables on her head to relieve 'hat hair'. Antennas twitch when Bluestreak and Hound speak, glancing over to the two, "I think it's already started. At least for them. I guess we're just left here to talk amongst ourselves." Finally she pulls a cube from subspace, stealing a few sips while resting an elbow on the back of the bench. "I just hope they come up with a plan soon. I know the humans like us.. but with Cross at the wheel, who knows." "The only difference is that you think most everyone counts as a living being." Bluestreak pauses. "Unless you don't. Which would be weird. I'm just worried what the EDC will do next if they think we are a threat. Hearing the way Cross talks about the Decepticons, saying they are not alive... who knows who he can convince?" Powerglide pulls out one of those industrial sized sharpies from his chest compartment and hastily scribbles a mustache, or atleast that's what it's supposed to be, on his faceplate. "Hurr, look at me. I'm Franklin Cross. Grrr, I hate robots and have a stupid mustache." He's never met the guy before so his impression isn't that great but whatever, you get the point. "Give me lots of money so I can build weapons of mass destruction!" Loadout may be one of the only ones who's arrived here and -isn't- here to eavesdrop or discuss the latest happenings. Instead he's at the head of a hoversled loaded with equipment and supplies that just happens to be passing by the high council pavilions building. A few civilians are even gathered about curiously, but given that the things inside being discussed involve a human on a whole different world, it really doesn't generate -that- much interest in the local non combatant population. Loadout meanwhile, looks genuinely confused by the gathering, hopping off the sled and holding up a clipboard as he waves it about a bit, "See here, what's going on?" He has to ask, as he can't exactly get through with that big heavy sled easily. A white flash drops from above, landing on the ground with a tiny *plink* that defies his medium sized bulk. Standing, Specter brushes some dust from his fingertips and regards almost everyone with a courteous nod of his chin. "Greetings." Before much can be directed back, he's already made himself a wall flower by leaning up against a pillar nearby. Combat: Specter appears from the shadows... Hound puts a hand on the pavilion doors and narrows his optic in thought before backing off. "They've really built this place solid like Fort Knox, huh?" He looks around in time to see Elita One speaking to him and he shrugs helplessly, before answering just like one would expect a mech like him to answer. "They have their reasons. This whole thing with Earth, it's not unprecedented and it's always a messy affair. It's not my place to judge their methods, although I do hope this whole thing is resolved soon." He shuffles uneasily to the corner before giving Torque a response, "Yeah, I don't roam around North America as much as I do anymore. No telling what could happen with the current political atmosphere on Earth." "No. I'm not hungry," Blades says sharply to Groove, "and if I turned into a mustache, I'd stab myself in the face, because that's an even worse alternate mode than a rhino." He makes a face when Bluestreak defines the difference between Blades and Cross, and he admits awkwardly, "...yeah, I guess so." Stabbing Decepticons wouldn't be as fun if Decepticons weren't people! Which does not help Blades's case. To Loadout, he answers, "General malingering." E1 sits down on the flooring with a hand bracing against the ground. One might consider her resting stance a bit similar to a certain mudflap bot image, but they'd be wise not to mention it. "Powerglide, that's enough." She turns her head then stands back up, "That sort of sentiment doesn't help anything." Bluestreak looks back up at the High Pavillion building, and responds to what Elita says. "I'm amused by it." Seeing a moment of confusion, Elita stands before the group, "What we have to recognize here is that in the views of the EDC we are still alien and unknown to them. They've lived alone for their entire species lifetime. They see us, no matter our intentions, and see a threat, knowledge that no matter how grand they are, that there are things out there that can destroy and conquer. It's a wake up call, sadly." She gestures to the sky, "That their entire way of life can be shattered so easily. Would you blame them for that?" "Well it's too late now, this baby is permanent!" Powerglide points to his crappy sharpie mustache before trying to rub it off. "See? Might as well make the most of it. Think I can pick up some ladies with it? Women love facial hair right?" In true Powerglide fashion, he siiiiidles up to Torque and puts on his most suave voice which isn't very suave at all since he still sounds like a nerdy kid from the Bronx. "Hey baby, what do you think of my sweet 'stache? I know what you're thinking and yes, you may touch it." "It's a logical fear, for the humans." Specter nods to Elita One's words. "Their entire electronic sustenance and way of life was stolen from them, in what appeared to be the drop of a 'hat'.. I believe is the terran expression." Then Powerglide goes on about a mustache, which silents the white Autobot up for a bit. Elita One adds, "It was scarely different than when the Chaos Bringer attacked Cybertron..." Hubcap throws his arms wide in a frustrated gesture. "I don't get how limiting the discussion is supposed to help /anyone!/" He continues to pace. "Surely the more varied the viewpoints and opinions the better?" Hound listens to Elita One and Specter's remarks, and soon wears a saddened expression on his face. "It's just a shame, you'd think we'd have garnered enough trust with their population, particularly the ones in charge." He rubs the back of his head dejectedly and sighs ever so slight, "Now we got to really tread carefully or we could potentially have a volatile relationship with the Terrans." "But we've been with them for so long." Torque frowns, piping up after Elita speaks to the group. "We've protected the humans from attacks since coming here, and sure, maybe only a few still don't like us very much. But from the majority I've met, they accept us. How can Cross so easily sway them against us?" The femme frowns a little, always having liked the humans and the things they've actually managed to teach Cybertronians. But just as she's about to speak again, Powerglide sidles up, Torque giving him a quirk of a brow in an unamused stare. "...Very nice." She mutters with a sharp snort, hand placed upon his face before pushing him away lightly. Groove is immediately touching Torque's hair. How did he get over there so quickly? Crazy. "Whaaaaaat....." He looks around to see if anyoen else sees this. "W...Whaaaaaaaaaaaat? Powerglide. I mean. Whaaatt?" Blades argues, "I don't think it was like the Chaos Bringer at all. You're comparising diesel to nuclear. Anyway... humans don't live that long, and their memories aren't that good." Loadout just stares for the longest moment, mouth half open and almost hanging to one side, his optic visor pulsing back and forth slightly almost like KITT from knightrider. It's not so much the discussion about Cross of course. That's been the talk of the town for the last while and only Autobots who've been living in a closet probably don't have a clue what's up with him. No, he's more looking at Powerglide and Groove hanging off of Torque...and touching her hair? "I really seem to have chosen the wrong time to come through here..." He mutters, tapping the clipboard against his other hand. Continuing her lecture, Elita responds, "We have, yes, since before the Battle for Cybertron, we have done what we can to merit their trust. Should we be trusted? Those who really strive to make that effort would say so, but that doesn't change that each and every one of us have the capacity for great danger and destruction." She looks back to Blades, "Were you there Blades? To feel that spark shuddering helplessness, to see your world crumble..." She pauses, "If so, and you don't see that correlation, you've a stronger spark than I." Hound frowns at Hubcap. "Even when Optimus was around, it wasn't a democracy. Prowl, Ironhide, Jazz, and Optimus convened. We follow the orders that they came out of the room with. How's this any different?" Hound rubs his hands restlessly for a moment before continuing. "I just whatever they come out with is going to smooth things out." Powerglide is actually really surprised he only got pushed instead of getting a man-hand sized fist to the face. Guess there's a first time for everything. "I know, right? Robot hair is pretty crazy isn't it. I've often thought about getting some armpit hair installed or maybe some chest hair for extra manliness but I'm afraid that would make all women in a five hundred mile radius explode from the sheer AWESOME of it." "There are still a few who believe in us still, that's a hopeful sign." Bluestreak looks strangely at Groove playing with Torque's hair. Blades takes a step closer to Elita One, optics almost feverishly bright, and he corrects, "I'm saying, there's a whole lot of /different/ ways to break a fuel pump." He tries to ignore what Groove is doing. It's Groove. It's not going to make sense. "And c'mon, when someone's in a cris, and you say, 'I understand; I went through something just like that', that's /always/ a load of jetslag. You don't know them." Groove points at Blades. "I don't want to be a Corrective Computron, bro, but Till All Are One, you know? We all know each other. Because we're like, you know. One. With the Matrix." He smiles at Elita, assuming this helps her get her point across. "This is going to probably be strange, but I agree with what Blades is saying, Elita." Bluestreak tells them. With Powerglide finally out of her space Torque returns to sipping on her drink, though she jolts when Groove suddenly gets all up in her business and actually starts touching her. A bit of energon spills from the cube and she coughs lightly, giving the mech a flustered look with bright optics and distressed, twitching antennas. "Ergh, Groove what are you doing...??" The femme tries her best to lean a little away from Groove long enough to point out to the others, "All I know is, that even if things go south with the EDC, I still believe in the human race and won't give up on them." Elita One says, "No, Blades. I can't say I know them..." Elita pauses for effect, "But I can empathize. That's all we really can do. We try to understand their views. Right now, they have a very...aggressive leader on the EDC. He may be many things, but Primus knows he's had his entire life flipped over the moment the Ark reactivated. He grew up with this mess." She takes a half step towards Blades, speaking in a calm tone, "Some people cannot be convinced. Currently I think our best option is to restrain our actions as best we can, and try not to take too active a role in the world."" Loadout looks from mech to mech to mech, then back to the hoversled again, then back to the others. "If I may, it almost sounds as if some of you are concerned we'll soon be -fighting- the EDC. Now I haven't really been involved in the latest happenings as I've been a bit ah...busy helping with the repairs to the Orion Pax, but I was under the impression that while this particular leader was a tad radical in his views, it was not necessarily shared by all of his subordinates?" Hubcap is brought up sharply, and glances down at his hands, quickly. "Right, when Optimus was in charge, right..." Glancing around, he quickly changes the subject, affecting a chagrined grin. "So, while we're all here, how /would/ we handle this 'Cross' situation?" Groove stares at Bluestreak and Elita One. "Did you guys say there were snacks?" He looks around. "Did anyone else hear that? Man. That was the craziest dream. There were all these snacks in this cave full of evil...And then Firefox stole them." Powerglide takes another sip from his flask, watching Groove play with Torque's hair through alcohol induced double vision. "Hey, Groove. You know how to braid? I think you should braid her hair, give her a new look." He snaps his fingers. "Like Lara Croft! She's a babe! Give her a braid like Lara Croft!" He makes his fingers like guns and pretends to shoot random things going 'pew pew pew'. Bluestreak says, "Yeah, we hold back. And in the meanwhile, if Cross manages to convince the rest of the world we are just as dangerous as the Decepticons, and he turned his new toys on us? We are scrap, just scrap." Bluestreak tells Elita, then he looks at Loadout. "There are a few who don't agree with them, but they are few." He then eyes Hubcap. "You probably wouldn't want to hear my idea about how to handle things with Cross. I guess we should trust what ideas they come up with in there." He nodded toward the building the meeting is taking place in." Hound stares at Groove for a moment, looking concerned. "Hey Groove. You sound a bit... unbalanced. Are you alright here, ol' buddy?" Groove just gives Hound a reassuring nod. "I'm pretty high now, Hound. Pretty high." "Groove, I turn into part of a super-warrior with you, and I have no idea what you're on about most of the time," Blades snaps, "Being 'one' and understanding don't have much to do with each other." Then he looks over at Bluestreak, optics wide. That was surprising! "Anyway, here's the thing, with Unicron? You got a face and a name for the enemy. You have someone to blame. With the Long Night? Every piece of technology on Earth betrayed the humans. All their hospital equipment? Yeah, good luck with that. There was no one enemy to blame. And that makes the situation fundamentally different. Comparing the two is just gonna insult the victims of both." What does Blades want to do about Cross? He says bluntly, "If Cross does anything funny to First Aid, I'm going to do something that'll get me tossed in the brig. Until then? Watch that motherboard fragger like an Ardurian roc." Loadout still looks a little alarmed at some of the statements flying around, "Well I think that calm, logical thought is going to be needed in the times to come. Rash actions are only going to cause the problem to blow out of proportion and..." God, he's such a -nerd-. Hound's frown lightens slightly as he hears Groove's response. "Well just make sure you don't get too trippy, or anything. It'd be bad if Kup came by and saw you so out of it." His optics opens in surprise though as Blades comments about First Aid, prompting the green Autobot to inquire the Protectobot warrior. "Cross potentially threaten First Aid? What's going on? Where is he?" Elita frowns, "I'm speaking in an allegory, Blades, but I'd rather not split atoms. The point is that the humans have had their world, for lack of a better term, ransacked by aliens they barely understand, with half of them claiming to work in peace when possible, and another half out to conquer the world. Their mistrust is understood." She gestures again, making a supinated motion, "I am more concerned with what Cross is doing with the technology he has now. He's proven the ability to disintegrate mechs, judging by the footage of Motormaster. If he feels he needs firepower to keep the Autobots in line, then we need not provoke that. He DOES need watched, but what would he do if he feels he is threatened?" Propping himself off the wall, Specter steps closer towards Bluestreak. "The fact of the matter is, perhaps some of you others.." he pauses to glance around with aqua blue icy optics, "Might have been stationed on Earth too long to properly assess this situation." Groove squints at Elita. Groove squints at Elita, leaning a little closer to her. "There...Man, there it went again. I swear you're...you're *in there.*" He points at his brain. "Can you stop time..." He drops to a whisper... "and thoughts?" After a moment, he glances over at Hound. "Oh, I'm fine 6 Hounds. No worries." "Cross is not sharing his technology with us. I know- I watched Perceptor ask him about it. Even offer to help improve it. You know what Cross said? That he rather not because it would fall into Decepticon hands." Bluestreak added, seeing Specter move closer to him. "What do you think then, Specter?" Elita One says, "The second Wheeljack is out here, I'm going to ask him to take a look at you, Groove..." Blades explains, "Cross hasn't explicitly threatened First Aid, but he /has/ demanded that First Aid help the EDC... alone... surrounded by the EDC. That's slagging shady, no matter what way you slice it." Torque purses her lips a little at all the talk going around, the topic rubbing her the wrong way. Looking over to the group once more, leaning back to her normal position to just let Groove go hogwild with her hair, because why let it bother her, she finally speaks up once more. "One of the things that really bothers me about all this, is that apparently Cross wants to experiment on Cons. I mean sure, I don't like them as much as the next Bot, but... I dunno, I still see them as Cybertronians, one of us, and that Cross is dragging everything down a very dark path." "It proves he trusts one Autobot at least, if only for his own gains. Frankly, it may be that he will only remain neutral and distant to us as long as he realizes we can be of use to the Earth." Elita-One crosses her arms again lightly, "If they attempt to capture First Aid, he knows that we will come for his rescue, and it will be problematic. I personally don't think he's got the metal to declare his own war, especially when not everyone believes in his cause." "I don't like the idea of experimenting either. It is morally unsound, essentially torture, and it will only fill the Cons with a greater sense of loathing and justification. Things may escalate even further." "What right to this planet do we have, anyway? If they asked us to leave, if General Cross himself asked us to leave, would you?" Specter asks Bluestreak, nonchalantly flicking some grime from his forearm. Groove makes a lot of crackling sounds as he opens a pack of energon snacks. "You know guys, Specter has a point. We landed on Earth and announced that we were their protectors. I love Earth, but if they want us out, it's their planet." He ruins his insightful moment by trying to put way too much energon in his mouth at once. Hound folds his arms across his chest uncomfortably as he hears Blades' explanation. "I see what you mean... I don't envy First Aid's predicament. What's he doing there anyways?" The mention of Cross expressing desire of experimenting on Decepticons catches Hound's attention, "I know the Decepticons have done far worst to other sentinent lifeforms. They might even deserve it for all the things they've done, but... humanity's so young. It saddens me to hear some of them intends to sully their civilization's hands like our race has." Hubcap folds his arms and frowns thoughtfully. "Have we had anyone do any, ah, /digging/ into his background? To see if there's anything questionable there? Immoral experimentation, Enhanced Interrogation, anything?" "Experimentation?" Specter eyebrow (well, it's more like a large crest on the ridge of his helm) towards Hubcap. "I don't like what you're implying." "Hey man, I don't like Decepticons either but-" Powerglide pauses a moment to let out a nasty belch. "-But experimenting on them? That's just sick man. That's something they would do, you know?" He looks around and sees that a bunch of people are folding his arms so he does too. Damn, he looks so bad-ass with his arms folded. Plus, that mustache? Fabulous. Specter's arms are mysteriously folded now too. Powerglide unfolds his arms and then folds them again. "I noticed that too, Torque. Everyone is folding their arms. It really harshes the room." He stares at Torque for a moment before realizing that she didn't say anything. Bluestreak looks around Iacon, Groove pretty much said what he wanted to say. "Why not? The war with the Decepticons are ours, we don't need to get Earth involved. Problem is, they already are. My question is, what if he doesn't ask us to leave, and take matters into his own hands?" His finger lazily traced a pattern on the table. "That is what he wanted to do, which is why Sides and I got in trouble- Cross wanted to take a Decepticon to experiment on, and we wouldn't let him. We got Magnus and Hardhead involved for that one. "It doesn't prove he trusts anyone. Just that he wants to use us," Blades argues. Then he shrugs. "Dunno, some kind of construction help." Bluestreak purposely doesn't cross his arms to stand out from the arm folding crowd. Elita One shrugs, "If they really want us gone, we will be gone. However we have a responsibility to the world either way. If Decepticons choose to continue threatening it, we must defend as best we can, then depart again. I wonder if they would mind us so much if we chose to redeply to the moon." Elita ponders the thought. Hubcap tilts his head and stares at Specter for a moment, before commenting innocently; "And what, /exactly/, is it you think I'm implying? I'm just wondering about this guy's record on, ah, /human/ rights issues." Loadout seems worried at some sudden revelation, falling silent for the longest moment until... "...relocate to the moon? THat wouldn't be good. That moon dust gets into -everything-. I don't know if I'd ever be able to keep Metroplex clean..." Groove transforms into his police motorcycle mode. Changes his whole perspective, man. "..What?" Torque gives Groove an odd look when he agrees with her, despite her not even speaking. "I think you need to lay down in medbay for a while once we get back. Rest off that high." She gives him a somewhat light smile. He's a good mech, despite his wacky nature from whatever he takes. Gaze flicks back to the others, the femme thinking a moment about the question posed. "..It'd be hard to leave, honestly. But I guess with a large enough consensus, I'd have to follow suit with the rest and go." "Leave? Like.. leave Earth?" Powerglide thinks about this for a moment before shaking his head. "No way! Earth is awesome! Cybertron sucks in comparison. It's all metal and dark and there's no awesome 80's music." "Experimenting, torturing, or interrogating General Cross." Specter replies to Hubcap. "Isn't that what Sideswipe and the others are arguing against, for the Decepticon prisoners?" "Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed Earth, I like it there, and I like its people, but if we were asked to actually go, we would need to. Optimus Prime would have conceded, and we would as well." Elita's voice softens as she explains, "They DO have the right to say they don't want us around." She delivers a flat look to Powerglide, thinking about the eons she's spent trying to save that 'dark metal 80's-less home'. Powerglide meets Elita's disapproving look with a shrug. "What? I'm just being honest! Don't get me wrong, I love Cybertron and everything but I'd much rather be here on Earth for, you know. the culture and such." By culture he means 'hot human ladies' but he's not going to say that out loud. Not right now anyway. Blades considers moving to the moon or leaving Earth entirely. Blades does feel that the humans are mostly a bunch of losers, but... they really do need a lot of protecting, and that is sort of what Blades does. If he's piercing some Decepticon in the optic to save a little girl's life, he's at least maiming another member of his own species for a good reason, as opposed to just doing it solely because he has issues. He reaches back to touch one of his blades, obviously uncomfortable. Then Blades remembers that he has a job to do, whether he likes it or not, "If we're ordered to deploy back to Cybertron and leave Earth? Sure, I'll do it." "So, most of us are in agreement- we'd leave Earth if we have to." Bluestreak sums up. "To be fair," Loadout points out, "While Earth's near limitless energy resources are still a boon to us, Cybertron has been recovering quite well ever since it was moved to this binary star system. The weather and energon rivers are flowing again...we wouldn't be completely helpless without Earth's contributions." Elita One nods softly, "Until then, IF that day ever comes, we remember why we are here, and we do everything we can to prove our trust to the people of Earth. We must maintain respect to Cross, even if we disapprove of his actions. He was put in charge of the planet's safety. Let the humans bring forth protests if they disapprove." Police Motorcycle givse Blades a nod. "We'll be able to do good in this war no matter where we end up. You, me, and our brothers." Groove his clear enough to recognize the twitch in Blades. Groove transforms into his robot mode. Righteous. Blades snorts. He's not going to 'maintain respect'. "But there's another point... we can play nice with Cross all we want, but what if he doesn't play nice with us? What if he disappears a few of /us/ to experiment on, huh?" Hound shrugs helplessly at Hubcap. "Hacking isn't a part of my range of expertise. Besides, how do we know if our meddling around in the background, trying to dig up dirt on Cross isn't going to backfire on us and put us into political hot waters?" After careful thought, Hound rubs his chin with interest, "Even if we do relocate off Earth, that's not a big deal for me. I really like what Earth has to offer, but there's plenty of other worlds out there. Speaking of the moon. I think I've only ever been there a handful of times and it's all been pure business, never pleasure." Bluestreak has no plans to maintain respect to Cross or any that agree with him. "That was my point the whole time, what will stop him from claiming we are not as alive as the Decepticons." Yes, Bluestreak is TOTALLY agreeing with you Blades. "Bluestreak, you're missing the point." Specter interjects, "Who are we to dictate humanity's doctrine and laws? In the end, we can only aid those who are accepting." Elita One considers Blades' problem, "We will amount a rescue, we could not stand idly by, but we would have to do so in a way to ensure we did not seem the aggressors, providing fuel for Cross in case he wished war upon us. Infiltration would be what I'd request, perhaps a system shutdown of some sort, to drop automated defenses, light weapon and stun rounds when possible." The tactical side of the femme leader takes over for a moment, "I would not recommend looking for 'dirt', though he may have enemies who would want to know such things. It would be better for all if whomever he is at odds with, were to bring such things to light, IF they exist." "That depends on who is left to accept." Bluestreak responded back, wondering why Specter is so adamant on changing his own perspective. Groove sits down indian style. Shrugging, Specter leans back against the wall. "Your logic doesn't seem.. appropriate. But perhaps this is a side effect of my own detachment from societies in general." It's true, Fort Max makes him go see a therapist and everything! Torque simply leaves once more on the bench, downing the rest of her drink. She's said her piece for now, and feels content to just listen to the others talk. With one cube down she tosses the remains in a nearby recepticle before pulling another from subspace and idly sipping. Blades points out, "Okay, imagine it wasn't humans. Humans are kind of cute if you're stupid. Imagine it was... slime aliens. Yeah. Imagine if slime aliens were saying we had no rights and were not-so-subtly implying that kidnapping us and vivisecting us would be just keen. That wouldn't be /right/, and we wouldn't stand for it. We wouldn't hesitate to use due force to see justice through. Don't let the fact that these guys are humans blind you. If they're doing something wrong, someone's gotta set 'em straight, and that someone might just be us." Bluestreak raises an eyeridge at Specter. No, he doesn't get what he means. He gets what Blades mean though. Hubcap raises a defensive hand to Hound. "Hey now, I never /said/ anything about hacking, in fact I never even suggested anything illegal. But what do we know about this guy's official record? What might he be tangentially involved in that is /off/ the record." Then he pauses and continues casually. "Do we know anyone who might be able to do some legal investigation?" Glancing at Elita he frowns again, but seems to capitulate. "Fine, fine. But character assassination /is/ a time-honoured Earth custom. Just saying." Hound can't help but reluctantly nod in agreement at Hubcap's last point. Touche, good sir, touche indeed! Blades looks over at Hupcap and points out, "We aren't considered people under human law. So their rules don't even apply to us. The rules agains wiretapping someone's phone? Are for /people/. Which we aren't. So we can wiretap his phone. It's not illegal. Or, y'know, other things." Like making Cross vanish. Elita One weighs her hands, "We can only act on what we know of a culture, our time with humanity is logged and extensive enough to understand their general well meaning. If the Quintessons had captured one of ours, we know how they generally work as well. We must reserve judgement for both cases. The difference in your examples is that we haven't made a home on the slime creatures world, which implies a coexistence of some sort. There are evil humans, of course, and if we must deal with them, then we do as we must. What we don't want is a planetary war against them, because of propaganda making it seem like a righteous cause on their side." "Supposing you did tap his phone, or dig into his records.. illegal as it might be for 'people' to do, wouldn't that further stress Autobot and EDC relations? Even had we gained information relevant to his character, how could we ever reveal such without also revealing our less than caliber means of ascertaining it?" Specter pratically thinks aloud. Hubcap glances at Blades and taps a finger against his chin thoughtfully, nodding slowly. "The problem would be being caught, adds fuel to the fire, and all. One mistake could do a lot of damage to our public image. Better to utilise legal means, or other humans." Blades smirks slowly and says, "Slag, bot! You don't have to say, 'Hey, I broke into his house and found all these terrible torture tapes in his house.' You have a human ally drop an anonymous tip off at a police station where you know the cops ain't corrupt and let them find out what you found out. Just because you got the info by less than noble means doesn't mean you got to say so." Groove lays down. Elita One shrugs, "There may be use for that, but if it gets out that it can be traced back to us, that would be unfortunate. We're discussing theory here anyway, there may not be anything so malicious in Cross' past anyway. If there is, it will be found eventually." She looks back to the Pavilion, "They'll be going on for another cycle or two, I intend to power down before then." She gives a nod to the rest of the Bots here, satisfied that she helped keep things rational. Sideswipe comes to the party late. He's been a bit ....busy lately. He moves over towards where Bluestreak stands but remains quiet for now, which might be a little unusual for the bot.... Elita One moves to kneel, her breastplate swings up on both sides, her arms retract, slipping behind her as she sinks down. A windshield rises up at the end, covering her face as she turns into a futuristic car. Blades points out bluntly, "When there's smoke, we don't say, 'Wait and see, it might be fine.' We find that motherboardfragging fire and /annihilate/ it. And Cross? He stinks. Like smoke. We owe it to everyone, Autobot and human, to investigate this guy and find out if he's on the level before he does something we'll all regret to someone innocent. Because if we just stand aside now? That energon or blood is gonna be as good as on our hands." "Yes, but in a legitimate manner Blades." Specter agrees. Bluestreak quietly entones. "Well put Blades." Groove stares up at the sky. " Hubcap glances aside at Specter and shrugs. Addressing Blades he waves one arm vaguely towards the Pavilion doors. "Well, regardless of what we believe to be the sensible course of action, ultimately, we have to follow the decisions of the Chain of Command." Wait, did one optic just flash? Surely that was a trick of the light... Sideswipe grumbles slightly, "What I want to know is where is what's up with Marissa Faireborn? Seems aweful conveienet that she goes on leave, then gets sick with the Long Night....and then this guy pops up." Groove stares up at the sky. Spoiler alert. "This is our fault, at the end of the Vorn..." Maybe people are listening, maybe they're not. "We launched the Ark looking for resources and we found them. Now we're like, reaping what we sow. People like Cross are here because there's supposed to be more to us than meets the eye. But there's not. There's just the war..." "...man." Blades nods to Sideswipe and cuts a derisive look at Specter. He just pointed out why the Autobots can, legally, do whatever the slag they feel like on Earth. Blades is about to berate Specter for being too idealistic when... Groove manages to say something coherent and slightly disturbing. Blades shuffles uncomfortably. Torque is more or less tuning out the conversation at this point, looking idly around at City Center and the various Bots that move here and there, going about their day. Finishing off her second drink she glances at Groove when he says something rather deep, and possibly a bit dark, the femme snorting softly in amusement. "Wow. Nicely put, Groove. ...Remind me to hit you up sometime for whatever it is you're on." She smirks a little and finally stands, putting her helmet back on and throwing the empty cube away. "I'm not gonna sit here all day though and wait to hear their decision. So if you mechs need me, I'll be enjoying the city again before heading back to Earth." A friendly nod is given to them all, Torque turning on a heel and moving off deeper into Iacon. Blades shakes his head and then returns to his prior train of thought. He says, "It's clear that Cross is a dirty fighter. He's not gonna pull his punches. Why should we? He's the one who pushed through this idea that we're not people and the law doesn't protect us. I say we give him his just desserts. If we're not people, we don't have to follow their human laws. Make him regret what he's done... and yeah, figure out what happened to Faireborn in the process." Shaking his head, Specter merely sighs and retakes his position on the wall. He'd speak up and again point out the need to keep relations as best they can, but Blades would just counter about not being people.. or stabbifying things. Probably stabbing things. Stabbing things is the solution to most of Blades's problems. Turning into Defensor solves all the problems that stabbing doesn't. Sideswipe nods, "Look, I know I just got here and I don't know what was said before this but I can tell you, Blue and I watched him discintigrate that Con's arms. I hate cons just as much as you guys do but ...the look in his eyes when he started ordering his people to take the con back to the EDC for ... experimentation. I knew right then that if he did, he'd start figuring other ways of defeating Mechs, not just Cons. If it hadn't been for Blue and I stepping in and telling him teh Con had surrendered to us, Cross would have gotten his way. And I heard what he did to Motormaster. We all hate that fragger, but damned...he melted the cons armor off...and when he knew he couldn't Motormaster to expreiment on him, he just shot at him point blank even though Motormaster had already surrendered to Ultra Magnus and was willing to be taken into custody just to escape that madman." Hubcap narrows his optics and stares at the ceiling. "Sooo, what did they decide a 'person' consisted of? Anyway we can take advantage of it? Times like this we need a lawyer on the team-" Then he breaks off. No, that's /too/ crazy... Groove sighs. "It might be time to just leave. We tried to disguise ourselves among the humans, blend in...But it seems like they're like, transforming into us, you know? Just like little slightly smaller than Huffer flesh robots that are turning more and more into war machines. I mean, I'm a motorcycle, but it doesn't make me part of the planet." He gives a sad look to Blades. "Not really, any way." Groove stares back up at the stars. "You guys ever feel like lots of little voices are in your head trying to get you high?" Sideswipe blinks and looks at Groove, then turns to see his brother walking up out of the crowd, "Sunstreaker! Hey!! Long time no see! Where did they send you!?" He walks over and wraps an arm around Sunny's neck. "Humans," Blades supplies helpfully to Hubcap. "Humans are people." He sighs at Groove and insists, "Turning into a lion wouldn't make you a part of the planet, either, and I have no idea why you would /want/ to be. And anyway, you don't have to be a person to be a citizen or something like that? Remember when the humans declared that their corporations are citizens or something dumb like that?" Sunstreaker huffs as his brother's weight is suddenly hanging from his neck, and he shoots him a brief, tired glare before muttering. "Wouldn't you like to know." Last thing he wants right now is talk about his mission when he /just/ finished it. "What are you all doing here anyway? Isn't there anything /productive/ you should be doing?" He says dryly, looking over at them with a scowl. "I know exactly what you mean Groove," Powerglide says, flopping onto the ground next to the possibly stoned Protectobot. "One time I went to this club on Cybertron called The Rusty Nut and this really hot chick-" He pauses to think for a moment. "Atleast I think it was a chick. Anyway, she gave me something and I was hearing voices for weeks. That was...that was a pretty crazy night. I think. Don't remember it." Sideswipe raises an optic ridge and smirks, letting go of his brother, "Well we were, but then there was this big wig meeting and we all decided to hang out and wait to see what the results were afterwards." Hubcap raises an optic, uh, crest as he looks at Groove. "Humans have been killing each other long before we got involved in their affairs, all they need is an excuse." Then he shoots a look at Blades. "So," he wonders aloud, "you don't have to be a person to be a citizen, but a citizen has rights. What if we all applied for citizenship?" "Then we'd have to pay taxes," Blades deadpans. Groove puts his hands in the air and starts to slowly wave them back and forth. The slow pace gives off the impression that he just don't care. "I'm not talking about being a citizen, Blade. I'm talking about being an outsider. An unwelcome force. We're so busy trying to do good and save lives that it's been a long time since we stopped to see if anyone even wants us here, or if we're just...like, escalating. It's like what Powerglide said. We're pretty sure that the Earth is a lady at a club we want to romance, but like, maybe it's not even a lady." Powerglide puts his fist up to Groove for some RESPEKT KNUCKLES. "Right on, brother. Right on." Groove sort of wraps his hand over Powerglide's hand because he's too high to fistbump correctly. "Oh. That really sounds 'productive'." Sunstreaker says with a sigh, shaking his helm. "I personally don't know why we even bother anymore. Those flashbags are only good for designing vehicles." He mutters, his dislike for the human race as obvious as ever. The things that have been happening lately weren't that surprising to Sunstreaker as they had been for the rest of the 'bots. It had always been a matter of time before they showed their true face. Hubcap shrugs a shoulder lightly. "Only if we had any discernable income. And besides-" He breaks off to stare at Groove and Powerglide, before continuing slowly, "We could mount a legal challenge about the non-personhood decision. Of course for that we'd need a lawyer." He twists his mouth unpleasantly as he continues, "And the only one I know is Swindle, which wouldn't really help our case." Powerglide shakes his head. "Man, why is everyone so hard on humans? Humans are beautiful. Especially the women." He folds his hands behind his head and sighs wistfully. "So soft and squishy.. And they smell so good. Mmmm... You guys just need to open your minds a little, then you'll see." Sunstreaker gives Powerglide an obviously disgusted look. "That is gross." Blades suggests, scratching the back of his helmet, 'You could become a lawyer, Hubcap?" Hubcap nods. "That's... an intriguing suggestion, Blades. CONTINUED IN.. Meeting of the Meetings!!
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