He still had an hour before the solution would begin to lose its effect. Plenty of time to raid one store and circle back to their hide-out. Worst case, you get caught out on your own and die outside of the camp, far away from the rest of us. What a shame that would be~. Starscream’s words echoed in his helm. As irritatingly happy about his eventual demise as the seeker was, he was right. If anything happened, if the disease began to overtake him, he wouldn’t harm anyone. There was no one alive out here… or so he thought.
He ducked his helm around the corner for a moment and saw two forms, one small, and one very very large. The big one might give him trouble, and if he fired his canon, it would attract more… Slag. They were coming this way. He had no choice.
His weapon whirred to life, the only warning these monsters would have before he blasted them back to the Unmaker. Megatron pivoted around the corner, taking aim-
Blue optics, no rust. Megatron twisted his arm at the last second, firing a shot into the air beside them before raising his arms and letting the cannon wind down.
“Apologies! I shouldn’t have shot at you, I didn’t know…”
Rung barely saw the cannon in time to duck down, glad that the other bot realized he was alive as well and was pushing it out of the way. He could feel the energon draining from his features as he looked over at the massive form of the other mech and Tacitus wouldn’t stop growling, protective as he was. He was shaking as he put his hands on Tacitus to try to get him to calm down, petting the near feral Insecticon
“The Empties should all be closer to the check out and the exit on the far left side of the building. I came in through the back and it’s usually pretty empty.” Rung’s voice was shaking when he spoke up. The mech was traveling alone so it made sense that he was extra protective of himself, he had to be extra cautious around any threats. “Last I saw there were swoopers two buildings over. It would be better to go through the back alleys where they can’t dive in.”
Megatron took a step back before lowering his arms, in an attempt to calm the Insecticon. There were more pressing matters. As shaken as the smaller mech was, he went straight to analyzing their situation, the details of their immediate danger more important than introductions. He appreciated that in this chaotic world.
“They’ll have heard my cannon. I’ll take the rear aisles and head them off, if your friend here would be able to guard the front. We’ll deal with the fliers later.” He offered the orange mech a confident smirk. “I’m sure I don’t have to tell you to stay behind him. I’ll be back.”
The cannon roared to life again, glowing as he started at a run for the back of the building, turning quickly toward the left. He could see the check out from here, and the creeping forms silhouetted by the light from the broken windows. His right arm raised, targeting systems locking on…
Two of them fell, his third shot glancing off another. He unsheathed his sword in favor of the cannon now that there were less of them; no sense in making any more noise than was necessary. There was also no sense in caution when fighting them, not anymore. According to Shockwave, the virus wasn’t like a toxin- he couldn’t get more infected. And so, if either of the mechs he’d found peeked around the corner, they would find Megatron charging straight for the Empties, slashing wildly through the desecrated metal until it stopped moving.
“Haha- yeah, that’s even longer than me- But if you stepped in there any later, I might’ve had to fight you! I’m lucky you didn’t, to be honest.
I would’ve thought you would have been in here for the initial reconstruction, though. Kinda surprising!” Smokescreen’s looking back to give a grin, before continuing his own look around, poking around wherever he could.
Smokescreen’s probably giving a friendly wave at any of the eradicons around, thinking they’re staring at him. It couldn’t have been that rare to see Megatron, right? … Well, he hoped so. Maybe he needed to bother Megatron about checking places out more.
The jump in his step fades some as he sees the state of the floor with Alpha Trion’s personal study. “Guess- guess they haven’t gotten the chance to do much up here, right?” It looked horrible, though. Is this what it was like here when he got captured?
Still, once he’s entering Alpha Trion’s study, he’s getting right to opening any drawers he can, partially because Alpha Trion wouldn’t have let him do that, but also because he needs to make sure that it was truly checked thoroughly- he’ll even pat the space underneath the desk, and under any drawers, in hopes of finding some kind of secret note or something.
There’s got to be something from Alpha Trion, right?
Megatron huffed but made no comment about his apparent reluctance to come back to the Hall. Anything he could have said was already written in the scars gouged into the city from his battalion’s cannons.
The living quarters had of course been searched. Once long ago when they had sought out the ancient mech hiding here, and again when reconstruction began. Nothing the vehicons turned up, apart from some old journals, held any sort of interest to Megatron. He’d read through them all, and the only passages that held special significance had been in regards to Alpha Trion’s disapproval of his apprentice’s violent new companion. Those at least had made him laugh, but there were no coordinates hidden in coded words.
Coming here was a formality at this point. If two of his squadrons couldn’t find anything, surely nothing would come of this search… but it would nag at him if he didn’t check himself. Smokescreen had been given one of the Omega Keys after all, so Alpha Trion may have-
As soon as Smokescreen’s servo hit the desk, the former cadet’s badge began to flash red. The strobing Autobot symbol was mirrored on the old, cracked screen, eventually speeding up to a solid glow. Smokescreen’s name appeared below the image. Megatron ran to the console, gripping the cadet’s shoulder as he stared at the screen. This computer had been wiped when they’d checked it…
“What did you- try something else! What do you have access to?”
Megatron's back up 