abstract
| - Great Arena Despite its grand name, the Great Arena has seen better days. Most of the decrepit walls that once encircled the arena were replaced a few decades ago; the new walls are green and straight, forming a rough rhombus around the Arena in contrast to the rubble of the original walls, which formed a huge oval. There are no provisions for spectators any more, just piles of ancient debris where rows of benches used to be. At the southern apex of the oval, the slightly better-preserved remnants of an elite seating box coincidentally form a rough circle of trilithon-like ruins, strangely reminiscent of Earth's Stonehenge. Contents: Polarity Darkwing Obvious exits: Fly leads to Sky above Great Arena. North leads to Crumpled Hills. South leads to Liberation Arch. Darkwing had been unusually quiet since he became govener of the Great Arena, pretyt much isolatign himself from the rest of the ranks. Now, it was time to reveal why, and of course when need workers only one miserable aft shows up, wait there's Americon so... One and fourth miserable afts. The cassettecon not even being good enough on Darkwings optics to count for the usual half. "Alright, I really was expecting a bigger turn out; but seems I need to work with what I got." He grumbles. Americon is grinning stupidly as he carries a bucket of paint in one hand and a toolbox in the other. He is wearing a yellow hardhat. "Don't worry, Darkwing! I'm actually very good at Home Improvement... in America!" Polarity just shakes his head at the tape a bit. Oi. The Seeker doesn't look all the impressed with him either. Whereas Darkwing was the guy in charge and all that. "Constructicons are too damn obsessed with building Iacon into something Decepticony, I guess." Darkwing says, "Likely, though I've sent a message out to Scrapper. He might arrive later. Though he won't knowing my luck." Darkwing ssays with a sigh. "Alright, I suppose that the first area that need to be worked on is exterior and main supports. Everything else will be for slag if the structure doesn't hold." HE says to Polarity, seeming to ignore Americon" An Arena means getting to watch other people have to fight and suffer for amusement, so Polarity is all for the idea. "Yeee-aaaah, don't want the walls tumbling down on top of us, after all." Idly he walks over to where said supports are stacked, picking one up by the end as if testing how heavy they may be. "So, fix the holes in the walls first then, eh?" Americon frowns. "I sent the Constructicons a postcard suggesting that they recreate Mt. Rushmore, but I never got a response from them! Those jerks!" He looks up at the two other Decepticons. "What about the paint job? I suggest red, white, and blue!" Which was exactly the reason Darkwing chose this territory. Darkwing, when not being depressed or drunk, spent his time devoted to making others suffer for his amuzement. What better way to enjoy the suffering of others, then reviving the old gladitoral games? Darkwing was also one of the 'cons sadistic enough to make them more brutial then they were before. "Yes. Make sure that they are as sound as can be." He says and then looks to Americon. "While it too early for painting; your technically correct in your color choices. Only they will be mixed togeather for a proper Decepticon Purple, for an arena befitting our Empire." "Besides, white gets dirty too easily. Don't wanna have to scrub off the grease stains after every match." Polarity comments off-handedly as he steps back, and picks up one of the support struts. Not with his hands mind you but using his magnetic powers to hoist it into the air and move towars one of the gaps in the wall. Tilts it up vertically, shifts a little to get it positioned. Then uses the force to thrust it down from that height, effectively piledriving it into place. KWATHUNG! Americon lowers his head a little. "Awww. I wanted All-American colors." He goes from grief to jealousy, though, when he sees Polarity slam that strut into place. "Hmph! I can do that, too!" He hustles over to another strut, and lifts it over his head, but it's rather big for him, so he ends up wobbling around all over the place, unable to properly support its weight! Darkwing says, "White might be good for the Arena floor, but I suppose that it would just end up being red after the first few games." The Aerospace Xo chuckles darkly. He looks over to Americon. "Maybe you should let the real mech handle that." Darkwing says as he picks up the strut, effortlessly compared to the casetticon. "Your powers make you rather useful for this type of work." He says looking to Polarity. "Maybe we won't need the Constructicons after all."" Polarity cackles a bit watching Americon wobble around like that. "Stick to picking out colors, little guy, hee." Then nods a bit to Darkwing as he magnetically lifts up another beam to put into place. "Best part of manual labor is when it doesn't need to be manual.... Besides, I got a lotta practice slamming Bots on their heads like that too." Americon hangs his head a bit as the strut is taken away. "I'm useful!" he complains, shrugging. He doesn't offer a supporting argument, however. Darkwing says, "You'd be useful if you had pile drivers like your, barely, less annoying brothers." Darkwing retorts as he walks over to one the the holes an places the strut inside. With a rather powerful punch, Darkwing knocks it into place. He may not look like it, but Darkwing's punches could be rather devastating. "Yeah, its too bad we're not all that lucky."" Polarity whistles a little. "And yer stronger than you look boss." After Darkwing pounds that pole into place, Polarity lifts up one of the crossbeams and puts that in place across the top of the struts that have been hammered into place. Turns his head a little to peer at the pouting tapecon. "You wanna do something useful that's not gettin' in the way, fly up there and make sure that's level." Americon replies, "I wanted pile drivers, but Soundwave said I couldn't have them because it would be too dangerous! I thought they were supposed to be dangerous! The pile-drivers, that is!" At Polarity's command, he hovers over to him. "Uh, ok." Using his anti-gravs, he rotates his entire body exactly ninety degrees to the right, and eyeballs the crossbeam. "Hmmmm. It's a little bit too low." Darkwing says, "Simple matter of focusing my strenght to a single point; usually my fist. I might not be a power house like others, but spending four million years in a prison you learn how to fight unarmed. A good punch will usually cripple my target." He explains as he gets another strut. "I figure that the same method would work in getting struts in as tight as possible. More skilled workers can go over the finer points."" Polarity mmhmms, readjusting the position a bit when it's pointed out to being a bit low. "Better?" Then snickers a bit at Darkwing. "I hear that. I'm not all that physically strong either, but after getting tossed around by magnetic waves a few times, 'Bots are pretty darn surprised to have me suddenly smack them in the face with my servos instead." Americon squints a little. "Well, I guess it will have to do! Darn, I should have brought my leveler thingy with me!" Darkwing pounds the next strut in, being careful not to damage it by over doing it. "Even between us, this is going to take cycles..." "Then I guess its time to wield it down." Polarity hmmms, looks around a bit and spots the welding gun, yanking it into his hand with a flick of the wrist. Looks it over a moment, then clicks the switch. "Which way does this go -- YOW!" With a yelp he barely manages to avoid flambing his face from pointing it the wrong way. "They should label these things!" Darkwing narrows his optics and rubs his brow as Polarity nearly melts his own face off. "And this is why I wad hoping to get at least one Construction... well someoen other the Longhual or Bonecrusher..." He says and puases. "Well Scrapper or Hook at the very least..." He mutters realzing that the Constructicons without one of thier leaders probbaly wouldn't be much more help then anyone else. Americon frowns, and levitates over to Polarity. "Now, now, that's not how you hold it. Lemme show you." He takes the welding gun from Polarity, and says, "Now, observe how I have the welder pointed away from myself." He hits the switch, and gives himself a faceful of plasma. "WAAAAGHHHH!" "Doesn't help that you pointed the butt end 'away from you'." Despite nearly doing similar to himself a few moments ago, Polarity still cackles gleefully when Americon actually does roast his noggin'. "Ahahahaha!" Darkwing says, "Well, least when this is over we can have roast turkey to feast on..."" Americon turns it off, and hands it back to Polarity. His face looks blackened. "Kaff. Uh. Yeah. So, don't do that." Polarity mehehehehes. "When they say you're gonna get burned, you're not suppose to take it literally." He continues to giggle a bit to himself, even as he goes to take care of welding the wall supports together. Holding it the right way now, thanks to the oh so amusing demonstration. Darkwing says, "When your done with those, you can check and weld these. I think you need all the practice you can get."" Americon blinks a few times, and reaches into a compartment on his hip. Withdrawing a cloth, he begins to wipe off the soot on his mug. "Wrblblrlblrblr gungh that hurt." If anything Polarity is fairly easy to keep entertaining. At least for a few minutes. Considering the way he keeps cackling and grunting "Fire! Fire!" Every time he sets off the plasma torch, and then continues cackling as he works. Darkwing narrows his optics at Polarity. Great a seeker version of Runabout and Runamuck... Americon looks at Polarity, then at Darkwing. "You know, he doesn't seem very responsible with the welder! Can I have it back?" "Oh quit your whinin'," Polarity snaps back at the tapcon over his shoulder. Which was kinda a mistake. "Yow!" Drops the welder to stick his burned finger in his mouth. "..." Then pulls it back out again and just shakes his hand. "Right, don't have saliva to cool it off. Ow ow ow." Americon smiles. "Ooh, I have something to could help cool it off!" He hustles back over to his can of paint, pops open the lid, and then runs back to Polarity! "Put your finger in here, that'll cool it off fast!" The fumes from the can are pretty strong... Throttle has arrived. Darkwing drops Throttle. Throttle ejects from Darkwing's back and shakes his head. "I've seen videos on Earth that start like this. A trio trying to get something done only to frag it up. Three Stoogies I think it was called..." The Nebulan powermaster says as he watches the events. Darkwing narrows his optics to his partner. "If your going to show yourself, you could at least make yourself useful." He mutters. Polarity jabs his hot finger in the paint can as soon as its there, causing the stuff to bubble and fume more as he does so. "Aaaah, that's better.... whew!" Waves the other hand in front of his face. "Remind me to turn my olfactory sensors off next time though, that stuff stinks like Rampage's litterbox!" Americon grins. "I did something useful!" he declares triumphantly. However, he carelessly sets the paint can down by his feet, and doesn't bother putting the lid back on. Throttle says, "Yeah, and how exactly do you plan for me to do that? Its not like I can use Transformer sized tools."" Darkwing says, "That's not my fualt. Your the miserable germ that decided to pipe up." and tosses a strut to Throttle, who shows Americon up and catches it fairly easily thanks to his enchanced biology. "See? Even a Germ is more useful then you Americon." Darkwing says, seemingly trying to deflate the tape's ego after 'helping' Polarity." Polarity shakes some of the paint off his finger. "... Slag it, you had to use the white, didn't you?" Then more or less forgets about it as he gets back to work. Its not like he has to actually touch anything, after all. "Ahaha, even the little monkey off Darkwing's back is stronger." Magnetically he picks up one of the wall panels and pushes it into place against the struts that have already been set in place. Americon shrugs. "Hey, can't make something look American without a little white paint!" He sniffs the air. "Man, those fumes are really strong!" Darkwing says, "Maybe you need to find better colors to be proud of. The last con that made liberal use of red white and blue was reduced to dust by Galvatron." Darkwing chuckles as Throttle brigns the strut over to the next hole for it to be hammered in." "Red and white .... did he have blue? Been so long I don't really remember?" Polarity shoves the panel into place against the struts, and magnetize them just enough to stay put. And ... Hmmm. Lacking any sort of tool for putting holes in things to be bolted into place, he resorts to using his arm guns to shooting the holes instead. Darkwing says, "Yeah, His gloves and feet, and I think tip of his nosecone were blue."" Americon puts his hands on his hips and frowns. "Hey now! He didn't really have white on him! It was more like a... light grey! Yeah." Polarity lowers his laser rifle from shooting bolt holes and turns a bit to look towards the others debating. "I dunno, it was pretty white looking. Suitable for being a sissy coward -- oh wait, that's yellow, not white. Nevermind!" Darkwing says, "Eh, you just don't want to face the truth that your beloved colors were the colors of a traitor." Darkwing luaghs" Americon scowls. "Oh, BAH! You people are just color-blind, that's all! And yeah, yellow is for COWARDS. Like Weirdwolf." He pauses. "Wait, he's actually pretty brave. Well, ok, PINK is a bad color. Yeah. No pink guys on our team." Polarity bobs his head a bit. "Only girly bots are pink, yeah." At least that one they can agree on it would seem. Darkwing says, "No self respecting con would be cuaght wearing pink. Thats more Rodimus' color." He luaghs" Americon laughs a bit harder than is really necessary. "HAHAHA yeah, I think that is because Rodimus is trying to draw attention to the problem of BREAST CANCER! Hahahaha!" "..." Polarity just peers at Americon for a moment, then looks to Darkwing with a shrug of 'I have no idea what he's talking about either'. Darkwing is as Stunned as Polaity is at the comment. Yep. That's the ideal form of killing a conversation right there. Seems we've found what Americon is good at. Americon blinks. "Because. Uh. You know. Breast cancer. Pink ribbons. Uh. You know?" He coughs. CyberCrickets chrip at Americon's effort to salvage his joke. Polarity rolls his optics behind his visor. "Don't be such a boobie." And goes back to moving wall parts into place with his magnetic manipulations. Throttle groans Polarity's comment "Ow... I think that one actually physically hurt..." Americon lets out a little laugh, but only a little, as the past few minutes were so awkward. "Heheheh. Heh. Uh." Polarity starts snicking to himself again as he magnetizes another wall panel into place, mostly at how annoyed the other two Decepticons are acting after his last comment. Heeheeheehee. Darkwing says, "So are you actually bolting those panels in? Or just making swiss cheese of them for your amuzement Polarity?"" "YEAH!" Americon chimes in, pointing at Polarity. Mostly he's just glad Darkwing is harping on someone else, now. "Do I look like I have a bolter?" Polarity retorts. "Don't worry, they'll stay magnetized together long enough for someone to fasten them now that I made all the holes already." Throttle says, "Probably better if you didn't After your welding attempt, you'd likely end up looking like Frankenstein's Monster." Throttle luaghs." Darkwing looks over to Americon and throws him a bolter. "Hey, Mr. Useful, get up there and make sure they are bolted into place. Last thing I need is for my Arena to come down becuase of you two slag-for-processors are more interest in makign fools of yourselves. Americon holds up the boltgun! "Okay, will do!" he says, then lowers it. And accidentally discharges into his foot. He doesn't say anything for a moment. "...I meant to do that!" he says, then, with great effort and a look of considerable pain, pulls his foot out of the floor and the bolt sticking it there. He then hovers over to the panels and begins to bolt them, managing not to injure himself this time. Polarity has to stifle himself from snickering too hard, partially because he doesn't want to drop the beam he's mag-lifted in the meantime. "And you were worried *I* would hurt myself with that thing?", he cackles in reply to Throttle as he puts the strut into place like he has several times already tonight. Throttle says, "Yeah, becuase your actually somewhat useful to us, while he's just one of Soundwave's pets." The nebulon replies, gettign in on the Americon abuse, as he cracks his neck before putting the next Strut into place for Darkwing." Americon sulks a bit at that comment as he bolts in another panel. "Shut up, you not-quite-human! Go do something disgusting and organic, why don't you?" Polarity flicks his fingers to give the beam a little nudge into the right place, then goes to levitate up one of the wall panels to place next. "Soundwave sure has a lot of pet projects." Which causes him to start giggling a little again once he realizes he made another joke without really trying. Throttle says, "Aw come on, are you really even trying? Even that kitty can do better then you can.", Being rather glad Ravage isn't around to hear the kitty comment." Americon seems to have read Throttle's mind, however. "I'm telling Ravage you said that!" he cries in a haughty voice. He bolts in another panel without injuring himself--thus far he's built up a pretty good streak! Polarity dusts his hands off after getting another panel into place. Hmmms, cocking his head to the side for a moment. And then to the other side. "Well, it looks better than it did before. Ya probably still wanna get an actual engineer or something in here to double check everything though." Darkwing glares too Americon "I didn't know that they had whiner babies... in america." Darkwwing says with a cruel grin before he nods to Polarity "Indeed. Its a start at least. I want this place up and running soon. Maybe when its up and runnign Americon can prove himself in battle." Americon grumps at that. There's nothing he can really say to Darkwing, especially since he just got pwned by his own catchphrase. Polarity sniggers a bit more to himself at the grumping tapecon. But Darkwing already got him good so he won't hassle him farther.... for now. Instead he snaps off a somewhat lazy salute to Darkwing. "As entertaining as this has been, it's almost my shift for patrol flight boss, so you'll hafta excuse me." After which he kicks in his anti-gravs (or just magnetically repelling himself from Cybertron's surface, its hard to tell at times) and takes to the air. Polarity has left.
|