milliways_bar | (no subject)

((This is Millitimed to right after the aftermath of this.))

There’s a growling Captain Lennox staking through the bar, out the door, and straight to Wells’ punching bag on the grounds. He is in full BDUs today, armed, and swearing under his breath between growls. The base does not need this blossoming mood and thankfully he’s just gotten off duty to deal with it.

Someone is not happy with the aftermath of the Space Bridge Rescue. Sure he was briefed to the fact that there were two Autobots in danger, that there were others coming to build a gateway – a Space Bridge – in the desert from Milliways… but he wasn’t informed to exactly what the nature of the danger was. And so he got a most unpleasant surprise…

-- “Ironhide, the HELL?! What the fuck happened out there?” --

It’s not like he’s angry at Ironhide for being injured so badly. Hazards of the job and that. It happens. It doesn’t however mean he has to like it, just the same as he never likes it when one of his fellow human comrades is wounded in the line of duty.

And Ironhide is a friend.

-- “… just tell me the other guy looks worse…” --

It is, however, deeply frustrating and worrying. Worrying because the guy’s not dead from he understands and that means there’s an enemy out there, licking his wounds, and waiting for a chance to strike back… no telling when or where. Worrying because now it might be personal for this guy and that Ironhide might need to watch his back - and damn, the mech might not escape with just a mauling next time! Worrying, because he’s now starting to hear of another guy, this One, given what Lissar said, who seems to be the equivalent of their damn devil, and who knows how much else that he hasn’t been told. There’s a difference between need to know and want to know, after all. Lennox understands need to know… accepts it.

But he doesn’t always have to like it either.

The frustrating part of this is that if – when- the time comes for a rematch, Lennox might not be able guard his friend’s back when he needs it most. Aside from something happening when Ironhide’s out of range and reach of help, he’s far too aware of his own limitations. He’s human, vulnerable, and just by himself - trained soldier or not - likely a liability when it comes to a clash between titans. Backed up is perhaps a different story -depending on terrain, the backup, and the element of surprise. He couldn’t take down Blackout without a couple F-22s, his team, a motorcycle, and a lot of luck. Blackout took the whole of SOCCENT, and its highly trained Special Ops soldiers, out easily by surprise.

It’s that feeling of helplessness at the heart of it. Lennox does not like it one bit. There’s a good deal of just wanting to punch in that fragger’s face too… but that… that’s a hell of a lot less disturbing.

So, punching bag. Fists. A good therapeutic pounding.

Bother at your own risk.

[OOC: Slowtimes in effect]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Belar cracks a couple of his knuckles before looking off towards the bar. "Okay," he says, "it's like this. The guy who beat the snot out of Bumblebee, the one with all the evil godly mojo? His name's Unicron. He calls himself the Chaos Bringer and says he's the destroyer of the multiverse. I met him once last year, just in passing, and promised myself I'd keep an eye out for him. Anybody with an attitude like that's gonna be trouble sooner or later no matter how they seem like they're behaving. And sure enough, a month or two back, an alarm goes off in the security office and it's him. And Bumblebee. Fighting like a couple of wet cats in a sack, down in the garage. I got there in time to break it up, but I'll tell you, getting that son of a bitch celled and staying celled was like trying to convince my brother Torak he wasn't the sole reason for all of existence."

"Unicron..." Lennox repeats it once, just to make sure the name's etched in his mind good. Given the cold chills just racing inexplicably through him, he's pretty sure that that's a remote possibility. "Urgh... even his name gives me the creeps. Can see why a guy like that doesn't think playing by the rules applies to him."

So. Chaos God. They were dealing with a fucking Chaos God. That was trying to destroy everything that existed. In every reality that ever was.

Fuck.

So his assumption of Cybertronian devil wasn't too far off.

And what it could possibly mean for them...

"How did you manage to get him to co-operate with you in the end, if you don't mind me asking?" Because getting a god bent on destroying the multiverse under control is a damn impressive feat, no matter how you slice it. "Now I don't know your brother Torak, but that sounds like you had to pull out all the stops containing him."

"There's an artifact in some of the other universes out there," says Belar. "It's called the Autobot Matrix of Leadership. It's basically a direct line to Primus like the Orb of my brother Aldur's a direct line to the Necessity that guided an awful lot of people on my world for the past seven thousand years. Open it up, and Unicron's about two seconds away from being Wilson the volleyball. I have a certain knack with retrieving objects when I know exactly where and when they are. And with getting the right people around to open things that only certain people are supposed to be able to open."

Belar rubs at his nose a little, and adds, "The Prime who comes here? Doesn't have a Matrix. I mean, he could open it if he had to, but as far as I know he doesn't have one. I had to borrow this one from another world entirely to get Unicron to back off, sit down, and shut up."

Lennox nods.

"He's my Prime," Lennox says quietly, "He hasn't mentioned anything of the sort to me either, but I can't say for sure either." Need to know, and Lennox definately didn't need to know, especially given that from what Belar was saying and the power this object was supposedly kicking around, it would be probably dangerous to know as well. He had seen the lengths Megatron had gone for for the Allspark on Earth, after all. "I don't know if he has one or not," he concludes.

Lennox is wearing his thoughtful face.

"So what does the guy look like?" Needless to say, Lennox would like to know how to identify the beast and avoid as much trouble as he can.

"I've seen him in a couple of forms," Belar says. "The one I first saw him using, he was about so tall, had mostly orange armor, and horns on what looked kind of like a Darth Vader helmet. Oh, and a mustache. I don't know why. Didn't exactly seem like something to ask about. When he was beating up Bumblebee, he'd found some kind of white and purple robot form with buzzsaws in his arms, almost too tall to fit in the garage. I'm pretty sure that form could turn into some kind of robot hyena. Either way, he doesn't speak. You hear the words inside your head without him ever having to use his voice."

Belar hasn't met Unicron's planetary form yet, or he'd add that to the list.

"Telepathy or something similar?" Okay... Chaos God. Yeah, those sort have powers. Major powers. But still... freaky. "Man, that's... wicked. In the worst possible ways."

"Anything else I should look out for when it comes to him? Any place he likes particulary to hang and I should be wary of, or other powers, or friends... or anything like that?"

Know thy enemy as much as possible.

"Something like that, yeah," says Belar. "It's kind of hard to describe unless it's actually happening, but you never forget it once it happens."

"He doesn't take all that much interest in humans from what I can see. He's the kind of guy who'd eat his own minions if they ran out of usefulness, faster than a Bond villain would dump 'em down the chute, so if he does take an interest in a human it's pretty much only gonna end in fire."

"I got you. Avoid him if I can." Lennox rubs his temples, and smiles faintly but gratefully. "Thanks man. That helps. That helps a lot."

It didn't make things better, but at least he had a clearer picture of what was going on.

It helps.

"You're welcome. Like I said, I'm on the security team here. Something comes up? Let me know. I'm usually around, and if I'm not, I can be there pretty quickly when I'm needed."

"I will. I definately will." Lennox leans against the bag, tired and cold. "I think I'm going to head indoors about now and get myself a drink. I've got some things to think about and the weather ain't getting any prettier out here."

Too long and he's going to get himself sick.

"I'll see you around, alright? Have a good day."