| abstract
| - Residential Sector Designed as a hundred semi-individual habitations, the Residential Sector appears disjointed compared to the rest of the city. Medium-height towers sparkle in the light towards the center of the city while spacious ground-level buildings spread towards the city walls to the northeast, separated into four hexagonal sections by the interconnected roadways. Shorter and narrower than those in the rest of the city, these roadways force a slower, safer pace. While the buildings are of the same indigo steel/titanium and crystal typical of the rest of the city, there is a noticeable difference in their designs. Each is different from the other, moderately so in the case of the architecture, and more noticeably in the crystal design and placement, making each stately building unique. Contents: Swindle Scorn Spinister Buzzkill Obvious exits: Northwest leads to Tower Promenade. South < S > leads to Industrial Park. Southeast leads to Crystal Park. Southwest leads to Memorial Square. Crystal City's Residential Sector is as close to the Cybertron of five million years ago as you're going to get. Unlike the rest of the automatically rebuilding planet, Crystal City was built with love and care. Its citizens are (or were, at least) there because they *wanted* to be, and they managed to even set up a moderate economy before Galvatron betrayed Airwolf, had Omega Supreme beaten to within an inch of his life, and installed his own rulers to run the place. These citizens prided themselves on their neutrality and their freedom. <> Shockwave's orders were to Swindle, Scorn, Buzzkill, Spinister, and Hairsplitter, <> The building in question is five stories. In Cybertronian terms it's practically a mansion for one mech to own. Widget is a popular, well off, and influential robot in Crystal City. For non-fliers the mansion accessible on the ground level and via the third level thanks to one of the elevated roadways. Like most buildings, it's crystalline in nature, and has tinted windows on all levels. The neighborhood itself is a quiet, peaceful, and safe one. What now? Brawl has arrived. Swindle chuckles a bit at 'justice they deserve'. We all know what that really means. And hopefully that means he gets to test out his newest toy. But that can come later. Right now he only cared that there was likely quite valuable contraband in that building and he couldn't wait to 'appraise' it. "I presume you ladies are going to take the high road?," he comments to the two insectigirls with a wave of a hand. "No sense in us having to all go the same way. What if they try to ditch out on us, after all? Have fun~" ... Is he going to just walk right up to the front door? Yes, yes he is, adjusting his bolo tie and being as nonchalant about it as could be. This is Swindle, after all. Which usually means he's up to -something-... Harrow has arrived. Scorn, after the recent surprise betrayal of Blades and Whirl, has been left in a less than favorable mood since, the foul air about her giving the impression of her eagerness to strike out at any moment. So it's only natural that she's accompanying the others today, ready to interrogate, maim, and maybe even kill if necessary. As the group appraoch the mansion she can only stare, a toothy grin growing on her face while eying the building. "Hmhm! Just imagine what sort of valuable stuff this mech has all over this place. I do hope Shockwave won't mind if I... claim a few things." She chuckles softly, though is tapers off as gaze slides to Swindle in particular, giving him a mild narrow of her optics. Looks like she's gonna have some collecting competition. "Mm.. Yes, we will. Hopefully the haul's a bit better up there." The Insecticon smirks once more before fluttering on up to the third floor where the other road leads, asiding to Buzzkill as she goes, "Mind puting that launcher to good use, Buzzkill?" Yep, she wants to blast her way in. Spinister hangs back beside Shockwave. "Hairsplitter has run the numbers based on under the table weapons sales in the region and expects little resistance." He pauses, nodding ahead. "He has also graphed the liklihood that if the rebels are armed, Swindle sold them their weapons." The Nebs, in the meantime, are flanking Scorn, having been tasked to assist her in busting in. Singe yawns, rolling his eyes. "Uh. Roasting traitors and amatuers. Hardly worth our superior efforts, Hairsplitter." "Selling the enemy inferior hardware counts as economic sabotage!" Swindle retorts over his shoulder. Note he doesn't -deny- it There are few things Buzzkill despises more than anything, it's neutrals. At least the Autobots, as foolish as they are, were able to make a decision and pick a side. These other guys just sit around, twiddling their thumbs and trying their best to stay out of conflict but of course they can only go ignored for so long. And so Buzzkill stands outside the mansion , flanked by her personal assistant Fractal, the best (and possibly only) butterfly to grace the Insecticon ranks. She crosses her arms across her bee-face chest, a scowl plastered on her face as usual. "Pretty fancy place, eh?" Fractal says, nudging Buzzkill in the side with an elbow. The honey bee growls a little and slaps his arm away. "Don't get too attached, chances are it's going to be rubble by the time we're done with it." She casts a glance over to Swindle and sticks her nose up in the air in a typical snobby fashion. "Of course we're going to take the high road. That's the advantage of having the gift of flight." Though really, can't all Decepticons fly one way or another? Ah well, best not to bring that up. Buzzkill activates her anti-gravs and lifts into the air along with Fractal who follows closely behind. At Scorn's suggestion, she whips her grenade launcher out and fires a frag grenade right towards the wall, blasting it apart with ease and sending glass and shrapnel in every direction. There's a long pause after Swindle marches right up to the front door before it slides open, revealing a thin green mech with knobby joints. A few telltale signs of kibble suggests he transforms into a stationary communications antennae. Whoever he is, it isn't Widget. Behind him, one can see a hall with nice furniture. "Yes?" the robot asks, eyeing Swindle's very, very fine tie. Shockwave is relatively far from the site, attending other business. He has confidence in the others taking care of things. "I am unconcerned about physical retaliation. No matter what they may have purchased from Swindle, I doubt they have the means to wage war against us without Autobot support. No, Spinister, their only recourse is clandestine activities." It's for the best he's too far to overhear the Nebulon that he doesn't like's comment. Blades, Whirl, and the two traitors could have done far worse damage than merely stealing back two humans nobody knew they even had. Back at the mansion, Buzzkill, Fractal and Scorn will find the air over the sector is sparse, as not all citizens can fly. The frag grenade hits the wall and explodes, instantly causing a breach to the top level. The green robot below suddenly grabs the door for support, shocked at this development. Swindle doesn't even have to knock. "Excuse me my good mech, I'm here for the city's civil services." Swindle flashes a rather elaborate badge that says so right on it in decorative gold letters, 'Crystal City Civil Service Badge of Office'... Who the slag gave Swindle a badge? Or maybe it's forged. Possibly both with the Decepticons in control of the government. "There has been several reports of potential dissention against the Empire that has so graciously indocturnated this fine city and thus we are doing a search of the residential sector--" The explosion going off above them causes him to pause for just a click. He wasn't expecting them to get violent off the bat, but he rolls with it. By which I mean Swindle takes advantage of the green dude's distraction to shove past him and into the mansion. "I'm sure you won't mind if I have a look around." Pause. Then his voice gets slightly more ominous without looking back. "If you have nothing to hide." Scorn has the biggest, toothiest chesire grin she can manage when the walls buckles under the explosion and falls away, optics bright with enthusiasm. "Ha, good work Buzzkill! Now find that mech!" And with that she charges in headlong, also spouting something about 'all your treasure will be mine' or something similar. The mission and pillaging are about equal in her mind right now as she stalks along the hallways stretching through the mansion, sweeping through rooms and shoving whatever she can get her spindly hands on into subspace. "Now, where could that little mech /possibly/ be?" Scorn muses with a crooked smile, waving a hand to signal the others to fan out and search as well before snagging up some decorative little statuette adorning a hall table. "Check anywhere you can. Knock down walls or tear up the floor if you have to!" Outbound leaves the Decepticon Shuttle . Outbound has arrived. Fusillade has arrived. "Excellent shot, ma'am!" Fractal chirps but Buzzkill isn't impressed with his compliment and turns around to slap him hard across the face. "Stop with the ass-kissing and get in there before I do to you what I did to that wall!" Damn, Buzzkill's a bitch. Nevertheless, the butterfly obliges and enters the mansion via the gaping hole in the wall. Buzzkill follows behind, loading another round into her grenade launcher should the need to use it again arises. Fractal takes off after Scorn, following her around and helping her in her quest to acquire phat loot while Buzzkill takes her time, moving from room to room, kicking down doors and flipping tables in her search for their culprit. She comes to a closet and promptly knocks the door down with a swift kick, revealing a single robot cowering inside. No doubt he ran in here after hearing the explosion but unfortunately for him his futile attempt to hide was thwarted. "Take whatever you want! Just don't hurt me, p-please!" the little robot stammers, hands held up to his face in a show of surrender. His pleas fall on empty ears, however, as Buzzkill reaches out and grabs him by the throat, dragging him out of the closet and throwing him onto the floor. She pins him down with a heavy foot to his chest and points her weapon straight at his face. "Where's Widget!?" she shouts, barrel pressed against the poor mech's face. The robot begins sobbing. "P-P-Please don't kill me!" "WHERE'S WIDGET!?" Buzzkill shouts again, now taking up her weapon and slamming him in he face with the butt of her gun. The thin green robot 'oofs' as Swindle pushes past him. "Hey, you're not allowed in here, Combaticon!" Badge or no badge, he recognized Swindle right off the bat. "This is a private home and if you think we're-" the robot looks up in time to see Scorn blast through the breach in the wall. "Slag," he mutters. He spares one last glance at Swindle's exposed back--just long enough to contemplate taking advantage of it--before sprinting out of the mansion, using his long legs to move at a good clip. On the lower level is a very nice holo-room with chairs imported from Lithone. Very rare now! Inside the breach is chaos. There's four robots in the room Scorn and her companions enter. One of them was sitting at a huge computerized table. The desk had a bunch of e-papers on it, but now they're all flying off due to the explosion. Everyone is jumping to their feet, and one of the three not at the table reaches for a handheld energo-blaster. "Invaders!" the thick red robot shouts as he blazes away at the first two mechs through the hole--Scorn and Fractal. Elsewhere, Buzzkill is interrogating the hell out of a cowardly little robot when two newcomers rush past her, sprinting for the breach in the wall. Upon reaching it, they each transform into a yellow and green helicopter transforming before splitting off. "Bail!!" one of them screams. Decision time! "Not only is that not a good move," Swindle comments as the mech bolts out the door, "But very incrimidating." He turns just enough to raise his right arm and level his scatter blaster out the doorway. There's a subtle click as the internal choke chamber, just recently installed, cycles down, and when he fires instead of a sweeping blast the explosive shot is fired in a tightly packed cluster at the fleeing mech's backside to drop him. His leggy stride might of gotten him far enough to not be lethal, but the considerable increase to range and focused impact is sure to leave him regretting his decision. "Another fine weaponry modification brought to you by the wonders of SwindleCo." With barrel still smoking a bit he turns and moves on. Only rare because the place got munched by Unicron. Normally Swindle would be all over those chairs, but this is business... So instead he walks over to the holo-terminal and expertly pulls it open to remove its main memory drive. Who knows what sort of clandestine transmissions these lowlifes were watching in here. Stowing that away, he kicks downt he opposite door and continues onward. "Hey, Scorn! Check it out!" Fractal reaches down and picks up a bottle of expensive energon wine. "Look, it's half full still. Or half empty, if you're a pessimist, hehehe-AUGHWHY!?" The butterfly is shot right in the gut, energon instantly spewing out of the wound, but that's not even the worst part. Another shot strikes the wine bottle, shattering it into a million pieces and spilling the expensive liquid all over the floor. "Nooooooooooooo! Where am I ever going to find another one of those?" Fractal exclaims while holding a hand against his wound to stem the bleeding. Meanwhile, Buzzkill continues to smack the poor cowardly robot in the face repeatedly with her gun while he blubbers and sobs. The green and yellow robots rushing past her and fleeing the building in their helicopter modes distracts her long enough for her battered victim to scramble out from underneath her foot and make a break for it, little legs pumping as fast as they can. Unfortunately, he's just not fast enough.. Without a word, Buzzkill whips her pistol out and cracks off a few shots, striking the would-be escapee in the back, sending him face first onto the floor. Despite his wound, he continues to struggle, dragging himself across the floor towards the breach in the wall. The Insecticon casually struts up behind him and points her gun at the back of his head, finally finishing him off with a single round to the back of the head. With that matter taken care of, Buzzkill rushes to the room her fellow bugs are in. Scorn quirks a brow at Fractal when he picks up the bottle, offering a light smirk while eyeing it. "Hm? Well now, we'll have to have some of that after all of--" And then Fractal gets run through with laserfire, the femme switching the fight mode and immediatly pushing Fractal aside and out of anymore line of fire. "Tch, nasty little neutrals." She hisses once she catches sight of the four of them scrambling at the bugs' arrival. The one weilding the gun in particular seems to catch her eye, Scorn giving a hum of amusement. "Something tells me you're Widget.. or at least know where he is. Either way, I'll get an answer out of you." The other three are of less importance now as she springs forward past the laserfire, switching to her altmode in midair and emiting some insectoid screech while strafing him, weaving around the room to close in on him and knock the mech down with a kick of two spindley legs, sharp tips digging at his chest while she lowers an acid-coated blade over him and clacks her mandibles while cackling. "Care to talk, little mech?" Ba-doom ba-doom! The thin green robot's back detonates as the explosive blast hits him square in the back, causing a chain reaction that causes the mech to fall forward. He has the presence of mind to throw his arms forward to protect himself from impacting with the ground. The instant Swindle kicks down the next door, he very nearly runs smack dab into another robot who was trying to make it for the exit, who's just as shocked as Swindle might be. The robot has a snazzy dark grey chassis with red and gold trim. "You..." Widget says in obvious surprise. He holds up his hands, revealing himself to be unarmed. "Swindle," he says in a clear voice, "I have a stealth hover-transport that can get me out of here around the side of the mansion. I need only thirty astroseconds to get there and I'm gone." Blam! Blam! Blam! Long pause. Blam! That would be the sound of Buzzkill shooting the almost-escapee several floors up. Widget glances at the ceiling, wondering which of his friends was hit. "Ten thousand Shanix, Swindle, for you to let me go. There's no other evidence in this mansion that I was ever here to begin with. Ten thousand." Intel suggests however much of a traitor he may be, Widget is a mech of his word. Up above, the red robot with the energo-blaster is quickly knocked down by Scorn. The gun flies from his hands and slides across the roof. Staring up at the Insecticon's mandibles, he can at least see past her well enough to see that his helicopter friends are making a clean getaway. "'Talk' is all we've ever done," he says in a gravelly tone, faceplate moving with his words. "And you charge in here and wonder why we're all against you." Swindle takes a step back as he's nearly bumped into, purple optics flickering once. Then his expression recovers, spreading into a wide grin. "Well well, look who's here. Aren't you fortunate to have run into, almost literally, me instead of," he pauses to glance up briefly at the sound of gunfire, "more rowdy comrades upstairs." But before Widget can move farther Swindle holds his left hand (fortunately the arm not having the large cannon afixed to it) to Widget's chest. "Only thirty astroseconds? Tch, thing must have terrible mileage. You should of actually bought it from me." With a grandous motion he steps by and turns, letting his weapon arm slip over to grab Widget around the shoulders instead, in a position it could never be used. "I could of gotten you a military grade cloaking system to ensure you weren't detected by our finest of trackers. But that's not important... Ten thousand Shanix? Now that's important. I love a mech that knows how to do business. Do you want to talk, we can talk. But first." Swindle holds his other arm out in front of them hand turned towards the two... and Widget would see just moments before it clicks and flashes that he's holding a small vid-corder in it, lense towards them. And at the same time Swindle pulls one of the system-scrambling parasitic mines similar to what he had used on Wheelie from a hidden arm compartment with his other hand and slaps it onto Widget, yanking his arm away and kicking the mech down before it electro-scrambles. "Sorry, but as tempting as your offer is, I'm not about to end up with -another- bomb stuck in my head." By the time Buzzkill reaches the other Insecticons, Scorn is in her mantis mode and making chompy faces at the robot she has pinned to the ground. She seems to have this situation under control so instead of joining her, Buzzkill rushes to Fractal's side; pulling his energon soaked hand away to assess the damage he's recieved. "Uuuugh, they got me, Buzz, ma'am. They got me. It's getting so dark...I'm so cold..." Fractal coughs dramatically only to get a slap in the face. "Shut up! You're not even hurt that bad, you drama queen." Buzzkill pulls a few tools out of subspace and begins a quick patch job on the butterfly's gut to stop the bleeding. "U-uguuuu~ You're my hero, Buzzkill," Fractal says in a mocking tone, warranting him another slap in the face. Once he's all fixed up, Buzzkill shoves him aside and turns her attention to Scorn and her captive. "Disable him, Scorn, but don't eat him. I need someone to test a few weapons on." Scorn feels the gnawing urge to lop off the red mech's head, but she holds herself back, hissing softly instead and shifting back to her robot mode. "Talk can still get you in trouble." She sneers, pulling a pair of stasis cuffs from subspace and yanking him around to clamp his arms at his back. "So.. by order of the DJD, you're being detained for suspicious activities against the Empire." And of course this just means 'You're mine now'. When Buzzkill arrives she only gives the femme a light scoff, waving a hand dismissivly at the bee. "Sorry, dear, but you'll have to find your own bot to torture. You'll be having none of mine." "Now hold on, Swindle," Widget says, lowering one hand defensively, "I don't have a lot of time but we can w-" The resistance's benefactor gets yanked forward. He glances at the electro-scrambler in horror before getting kicked to the ground. The scrambler sends waves of electricity charging through his circuits, ensuring that Widget is pinned down to the ground, albeit with a little bit of spasming. The red mech upstairs turns his head, watching as Buzzkill approaches to join her fellow Insecticon. Despite the situation he's found himself in, a part of him is proud that his distraction let the two chopper brothers escape. "'Detained'," he mutters. "Right." The stasis cuffs go on, and his ability to wrestle against Scorn vanishes. "You're right, you don't have a lot of time." One the electro-shock is done Swindle puts a heel on the mech, keeping him down long enough to get out a pair of restraining cuffs (debatable if those are from the faction or he's just kept a pair he's had to squirm his way out of before) and put them on Widget, then grab the mech by the back of the metal collar and yank him to his feet. "Like I was saying, consider yourself fortunate you ran into me. I know the value of bringing a wanted instigator in -functional-." The point is emphasized by shoving the muzzle of his scatter-gun into the mech's back. "Though that term is also negotiable if you try anything tricky." And he'll march Widget right out of the building so he can be taken into full custody. At least the mech knows what's coming to him. Maybe. Scorn has many plans. "Oh, do I have so many delightful little ideas as to what I should do with you." The femme nearly purrs while leaning in on the mech, hooking a sharp finger under his jaw, forcing him to look up at her devious smile. But with the comm crackling with the capture of Widget she soon turns away, tugging him along behind her. "Well then, seems we've found what we were looking for. Come along then, I want to peruse a bit before we have to leave." Buzzkill is most displeased when Scorn refuses to hand over her captive for the pursuit of science but it's expected. Damn greedy mantis. "Fine.." She turns to Fractal and points him towards the other room. "Fractal! Retrieve the body from the room over and bring it back to base with us. There is still much use to be made of it." Fractal sighs and does what he's told, though he bitches and moans about it under his breath. This is the only reason why Buzzkill ever drags him along on missions, to carry things she's too haughty to dirty her hands with. "Sweep the rest of the building if you so desire. Take anything deemed useful or valuable and then return to base." Buzzkill turns and makes her way towards the huge, smoldering hole in the side of the building. She transforms into her honey bee mode and departs, followed by Fractal; dead robot in tow. Widget gets pulled to his feet. The electro-scrambler means he can't form the words to argue with Swindle, but he has a defeated look in his eyes. Outside the mansion, there's whirling red, white, and blue lights as a prisoner transport mech hovers downwards, landing in the streets. There's a crowd of curious citizens forming around the place, but the transport mech shines flood lights at them. "There is nothing to see here! Go back to doing whatever the hell you were doing before!" Upstairs, the red mech closes his optics and shakes his head as he hears Widget was found. He has no proof but he doesn't seem surprised. "I'm not going to know anything you want," he says, "Our cells are kept completely segregated. Everything is on a need to know basis only." After a pause, he asks, "Who ratted us out?" The rest of the Insecticons are free to sweep the building. On the computerized desk they'll find the e-papers hold rather well written essays about why the Decepticon occupation (their word) is bad for the citizens of Crystal City, and although a return to the days of Airwolf and Omega Supreme's rule is impossible, joining the Autobots would be a much better alternative than the current situation. Swindle walks up and gives Widget one last shove with his weapon to the mech's back to get him on the transport. He takes a half-turn and tosses a small device to one of the guards. "If he gets uppity, use that to give him another electroshock. It also keeps him from saying too much annoying dribble." Pause. Then points at the two controls on the device. "But don't push the red one, that sets off the actual explosive charge in the parasitic mine rather than the electro-scrambler. Then Swindle leans in a bit to grin at Widget. "Also, thanks for telling me about the hover-transport. I can make at least three times what you pathetically offered me off its parts." Is he imply that if there had not be a larger payoff potential he might of taken the bribe? Or is he trying to just rustle Widget's jimmies farther? No one will ever no for sure. With that done Swindle steps back, turns on his heels and jauntily trots off around the side of the building to retrieve his other prize. Cooler, the prison transport mech, opens his side doors to let several Decepticon guards out. One of them catches the device and casually checks it over while the other takes Widget into custody. "What's the red one do?" the first guard asks with obvious curiosity. Now he really wants to press it. Widget, moving slowly thanks to the electro-scrambler, gives Swindle a withering look. "I'd say the deal would be worth more to your soul, Swindle, if I -bzzt- reasonably thought you had one." 10000 Shanix could have gone a long way. We'll see if Swindle's plan makes him more cash. Swindle folds down and in on himself to become a military grade off-road jeep. Military Gunnery Jeep can be seen driving out from behind the building several minutes later, using the towing power of his vehicle mode to 'impound' the transport. Of course he makes sure to drive -right past- the transport where it can be seen before chugging off with his bounty. Really it doesn't matter if it makes that much or not. Widget tried to bribe a mech with his dirty little fingers is many avenues, 10000 Shanix really was pocket change in his mind.
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