In the Metals of Madness

Megatron must have watched the footage fifteen times by now. How could such decay affect a building so quickly, and why would any mechs willingly subject themselves to it? No… He had seen some truly frightening indoctrination, both willing and unwilling. The fact that a group lived here did not surprise him so much as unsettle the old warlord. Not here, not on his Cybertron.

Megatron kept this investigation quiet, but all those few that learned of his plan advised against him being the one to go. He heard all of their concerns, agreed that certainly he could send a team of soldiers to reclaim the dormitory, but refused to change course. With the dark energon in his system, he was resistant to typical illness; without knowing the kind of plague that seemed to be affecting the building, it only made sense that he take point. More than that, this planet had seen enough soldier’s fuel shed on his behalf. He was no longer a warlord, but Cybertron’s Protector, and he would do his new duty with as much vigor as he had the last.

His optics flicked up as a flurry of green appeared in his room. Even bringing Bumblebee along had its risks. If anything happened to his friend… Well. He wouldn’t permit anything to happen. “Bumblebee. Thank you for joining me.”

There’s a blanket menacingly floating towards Megatron, ready to tuck the Lord High Potato in!

ask-smokescreen:

mightymegatron:

mightymegatron:

At this point, I’m more surprised that I’m at all surprised.

I don’t know of any hallucinations that would otherwise have any interest in my optic ridges, and I am not in need of recharge. I’ve only been awake for four days thusfar. During the war I was forced to stay online for twice as long at times.

Hey, you never know! You have pretty legendary eyebrows, you know.

Four days? Seriously? Megs, the war’s over, you don’t have to stay awake for weeks at a time. I get not being able to sleep, I’m on two days of no recharge, but you can’t be at your best if you don’t recharge! And Cybertron deserves your best, right?

/Now trying to pull on Megatron’s servo, trying to lead him to berth. Old mechs gotta get sleep!/

*His arm is pulled, but none of the rest of him moves. Still, he considers.*

If I agree to attempt recharge, you will not steal anything off of my frame, nor will you add anything to it. 

“Lord Megatron, I do not want to go back to that place ever, ever again. I don’t know what they did to the place since then, but it reeks like death- i-it’s like organic rot and rust and energon and I couldn’t find any of it! Half of the building’s been walled off! And they’re- they’re covered with sores! They have these half-open wounds in their necks!” ( The scout comes back with no news of the source of the fire. He was obviously distracted. )

image

“Sores and wounds and no response… You’ve served well. Dismissed.”

Megatron sends no further messages to this location. Instead, he begins to comb through surveillance footage of the property. No mechs, apart from his scout, can be seen entering or leaving after their initial arrival. Flashes of light can sometimes be seen from the windows, the pillar of fire erupts… and over time, the building has begun to change.

Windows break, seemingly without cause. A cloud of scraplets emerges- no, flees from the premises. In the span of a few frames of stills, an entire section of wall crumbles as if from an internal explosion, but there are no flames or smoke. Every so often, it seems as if the entire structure shudders, the metal siding darkening and rusting before his optics day by day. 

There is Something in the old dormitory.

There’s a blanket menacingly floating towards Megatron, ready to tuck the Lord High Potato in!

ask-smokescreen:

mightymegatron:

mightymegatron:

At this point, I’m more surprised that I’m at all surprised.

*Bats the blanket away.*

Smokescreen. Are you invisible?

…….

/A sigh, trying to get the blanket back on./

How’d you know? Was it that obvious?

Also, go recharge, Megs.

I don’t know of any hallucinations that would otherwise have any interest in my optic ridges, and I am not in need of recharge. I’ve only been awake for four days thusfar. During the war I was forced to stay online for twice as long at times.

Ooc

((Hey guys, I’m on mobile right now. Life has been kicking my butt recently, between travel fatigue, family business and a busy work season and I hate that I haven’t been on here at all lately. ))

((I know people are waiting on me (some of you for months…) and I have other stuff in the works too that I just haven’t been able to get to. I haven’t even done anything for inktober or my long-term rp projects aaaaaaahkdshskd so.))

((On Monday a big irl thing is happening for me and I think once I’m past it I’ll have more free time and energy to write and interact and have fun, gosh darnit. Thank you all for continuing to be awesome.))

( Out at the old dormitory, a pillar of orange flames suddenly erupts into the sky. It burns in a silent but raging column, a solid light in the cold night air. It snuffs unnaturally quickly, leaving the air around it still. )

Megatron didn’t see this himself, but the event didn’t escape citywide surveillance. Rumors are beginning to spread about the sect that inhabits the old building out on the edge of town. He attempts to contact the inhabitants, but doesn’t expect an answer. Plenty of residents on their newly-colonized world were quiet, but they remained shut up tight in the dormitory.

::Advanced weaponry will not be tolerated here. I’m sending my scout again and you will produce the source of the flame seen jetting from your roof to him if you intend to remain on-planet. You have been warned.::