Just Dropping In

Log Title: Just Dropping In

Characters: Major Bludd, Tonka

Location: A home in Switzerland

Date: 3 July 2008

TP: Non-TP

Summary: Tonka's jetpack goes awry and lands him in a very inhospitable locale: Major Bludd's Swiss home.

Swiss Home
This is a modest but well-furnished three-story home of about twelve major rooms, including a kitchen, dining room, sitting room, bedrooms, and a book-laden study.

Major Bludd sits behind a huge mahogany desk in his study, his feet propped up on it. He sketches idly on a pad of paper with a pencil, looking up at the window from time to time. The walls are lined with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves full of expensive-looking volumes.

Tonka flies along through the Swiss Alps, enjoying a bit of leave and taking the opportunity to re-aquaint himself with Earth after having spent so much time on recon missions on Cybertron. Dropping down into a small ravine to follow a high mountain road, his jet pack begins to sputter a bit. "What the slag?" he mutters, as he reaches around back and gives it a whack with one of his tiny fists. His attempt at an Engineering 101 fix doesn't work so well, and the sputtering continues as the temperature drops. "I thought I'd replaced those slaggin' seals after the last time I flew through the Rockies." he mutters, and begins looking for a place to land and do some maintenance. Spotting a house nestled in the mountains ahead, he descends towards an upper window and carefully sets himself on the snow-covered window sill. "Huh... looks like someone might be home."

Major Bludd continues sketching, oblivious to the fact he's got a visitor. Upstairs, a young woman in a maid's outfit looks up from her dusting and frowns at a soft sound at the window. She turns toward the window to see what made the sound.

Tonka at this point has begun focusing on repairing his jet pack, having unslung it from his shoulders and nestled it against the window sill. Opening a pair of panels on each side of the pack's thrusters, he begins to examine the seals. "Slag it, they did it again. Every time I go into a cold place they contract, and let the fuel/air mixture get too lean." he mutters.

The maid sees the small robot on the windowsill and lets out a shriek of surprise. She drops the feather duster to the floor and backs up slowly toward the door. Downstairs, Bludd looks up for a moment, glances toward the ceiling, shakes his head, and goes back to his sketch. "Y'd think she'd get used t'seein' spiders," he mutters to himself.

Tonka jumps at the sound of the shriek, and begins to lose his balance. He reaches out to grab anything, but all he can reach is his jet pack, and it comes away with him as he falls off the window sill towards a snowback outside Bludd's study window. "sssllllllAAAAAAAAAAAAAG..." can be heard with full Doppler effect as he nears, and then passes the window to send up a puff of fluffy snow into the air. "Ow..." he says into the snow he is now laying in face first.

The maid comes pounding down the stairs, yelling at the top of her lungs, "Monsieur! Monsieur! Un robot menu!" Bludd frowns, pondering what she could possibly mean by 'a tiny robot', when the cause of her fright falls past his window and hits the ground with a faint 'whumpf' and a spray of snow. He shoots up out of his chair, the pad of paper and pencil tumbling to the floor. "What the hell?" He withdraws an automatic pistol from his desk drawer and moves to the window, peering around the edge of the wall in search of the object that fell.

Tonka slowly pulls up his arms to get himself up out of the snow, and rolls over to sit up, putting a hand on his head. "Ugh... I'm gonna feel that one tommorrow, no doubt about it.." he mutters.

A slow grin spreads over Bludd's face as he realises what's fallen into his front yard. He holds a hand out to stop the maid rushing into the room and tucks the pistol into the back of his jeans. "Well, well," he chuckles, opening the window and brushing the snow on the sill off onto Tonka, "what have we here?" He leans his hands on the sill and peers down onto the diminutive robot. "You're the smallest Autobot I've ever seen."

For her part, the maid stands behind the doorway to the study, leaning her face around to watch Bludd's interaction with Tonka.

Tonka disappears under the avalanche of snow, and comes up spluttering. "Hey, watch it, I'm already up to my slaggin' neck in this stuff." he mutters, slowly getting to his feet. "Yeah, they don't come much smaller than me."

"And to what," asks Bludd, one corner of his mouth quirking up, "do I owe the honour of this visit, pray tell?" He glances aside to the maid. "Sylvie, au boulout," he calls, waving her toward the stairs. The young woman nods and heads timidly back upstairs.

Tonka roots around in the snow and manages to pull out his jet pack, brushing some of the snow off. "Equipment maintenance." he says as he looks into the pack. "Slag.. now I gotta get the snow out /and/ warm up the seals.." he says with a sigh.

Major Bludd can't stop smiling at the little Autobot, but his mind is still working in devious and perhaps paranoid ways. "So you landed here by accident, did you?"

"It was either here, or in the middle of the road down there." Tonka says. "Not exactly a choice locale for repairs."

Major Bludd closes one side of the window and sits down on the inner ledge. "Well, this /is/ private property," he replies coolly. "Technically speaking, you're tresspassing."

Tonka sets the jetpack up against the side of the house and pulls out a small pistol-like device that he adjusts and starts to fire a low-intensity laser beam into the interior of the jetpack, resulting in whisps of steam as it melts the snowflakes within. "Not by choice. Once I have this thing working again I'll be out of your hair." he says matter-of-factly.

Major Bludd watches Tonka work for a few moments, then asks, "And how long d'you reckon that'll take?"

"Oh, about ten or fifteen minutes, give or take." Tonka replies as he works on the left thruster pod.

Major Bludd says, "And then you'll be headed back to your Autobot mates?"

Tonka shrugs a bit. "In a while. I wanted to take a look at the Eiffel Tower while I was in the neighborhood." he says with a glance to Bludd. "Been a while since I've seen it."

"Tell me," says Bludd slowly, leaning out the window slightly, "do the Autobots require you to record a log of the places you've been and the people you've met? How likely is it you could find this place again later, assuming you were looking for it?"

Tonka talks idly while he works diligently on his jetpack. "I can find any place I've been easily." he says. "One of the perks of having a literal photographic memory." he says with a smirk, starting to warm up the seals on each thruster pod to seal up the combustion chamber. "Having a built in navigational system helps too."

The warmth drains out of Bludd's voice. "And how is your relationship with Delta Force these days? Good enough to provide them with intel?"

Tonka raises an eyeridge, looking up at Bludd. "Delta Force? You mean US Special Ops?"

Major Bludd swings his legs over the window ledge, glaring down at the little Autobot. "I mean G.I. Joe," he growls, hopping down from the window to stand before Tonka. He drops into a crouch and reaches out in an attempt to grab him.

>> Major Bludd succeeds with his generic combat roll on Tonka. <<

Tonka is too focused on his work to see Bludd grab for him, and he's snatched before he can react. "Hey! What's the big idea!? Lemme go!"

Major Bludd stands up, holding the little robot tightly in his fist, his arm extended. "I can't have you bringing the Joes down on me, little one," he says with a smile, his breath fogging on the cool air. "I'll have to insist you remain my guest for a while."

Tonka struggles a bit, then realizes he still has his laser in his hand. "Cobra!" he shouts. "I shoulda known. Sorry to spoil your fun, scalebrain, but I've got other plans." Taking aim at Bludd's nasal protrusion, he flips the beam to high power and aims square at the tip.

>> Tonka misses Major Bludd with Laser . <<

Major Bludd jerks his head back as Tonka fires his weapon and the laser beam darts over his left ear to singe the stone wall behind him. He reaches out with two fingers to grasp the small weapon, his smile gone. "None of that," he admonishes, attempting to close his fingers on the laser.

>> Major Bludd fails his generic combat roll against Tonka. <<

Tonka quickly whips his hand out of the way, aiming over the hand to Bludd's nose again. "I'm surprised I could miss something that huge.." he says as he pulls the trigger.

>> Tonka strikes Major Bludd with Laser . <<

Major Bludd gives a brief shout of pain as the laser beam hits him in the nose. "Damned little thing," he growls, closing his other hand over Tonka, engulfing the robot's entire head. "I'd just rip you in half right now, 'cept I bet there're people who'd pay a lot to get a look at how you tick." He sits back down on the window ledge and swings his legs over it.

Tonka struggles inside Bludd's hands, his muffled voice coming from within. "Being dissected isn't my idea of a good time." he says, tensing one of his legs to aim at Bludd's wrist bones. "You've got a really nice place and all, but I don't plan on staying." With that, he hauls off and tries to place a good whack against a hard spot.

>> Tonka strikes Major Bludd with Kick. <<

Major Bludd swears colourfully, pain shooting through his lower left arm from Tonka's metal-footed kick. With a snarl he hurls the small robot into the corner of the study.

>> Major Bludd strikes Tonka with Throw. <<

Tonka slams flat against the wall, sliding down it to land face first on the floor. "Ugh... that.. slaggin' hurt.." he says, but he's able to pull himself up to his feet, shaking his head. "I may be small, but I'm full of spunk." he says with a snarl. "Now if you'll excuse me, I've got places to go and things to see." With that, he transforms, and slams on the gas to head for the door to the study.

Tonka folds in his arms backwards as his forearms fold in under his cab, his wheels extending from underneath as his head retreats into his cab roof. His legs fold together as the cab falls forward into the ground. A trailer appears and hooks up to tractor, leaving a radio controlled tractor trailer in his place.

Major Bludd dives for the small tractor trailer, shouting, "Sylvie! Apporter un seau! En métal!"

>> Major Bludd succeeds with his generic combat roll on Tonka. <<

Tonka lets out a yelp as Bludd grabs hold of him. "Hey! Bug off!" he says, a small hatch opening in his trailer roof and revealing a laser turret that turns to aim at Bludd's hands. "If I have to shoot your fingers off, then I'll do it!" he says, taking aim and letting a shot fly towards one of Bludd's fingers.

>> Tonka strikes Major Bludd with Laser . <<

The maid hurries back down the stairs, gapes for a moment at the sight of Bludd locked in mortal combat with -- a toy truck? -- and dashes off into the kitchen opposite. Bludd yelps in pain as the small laser burns skin off his hand. He raises the injured hand and slams it down on the truck's trailer.

>> Major Bludd strikes Tonka with Bash. <<

Tonka lets out a scream of intense pain as the fist crumples much of the rear half of his trailer. "Got to.. get out of here..." he says in a voice laced with intense agony, and he once again slams the gas, dragging his trashed trailer behind him. His engine whines with the strain of getting himself moving.

Blood seeps from Bludd's injured hand, now additionally sliced from its impact with the truck's trailer. The maid skitters into the room bearing a metal bucket, which Bludd snatches from her hands. He attempts to slam it over the escaping miniature truck to slow its escape.

>> Major Bludd fails his generic combat roll against Tonka. <<

Tonka manages to whip his wheel hard to the left, then to the right, and heads as fast as he can out the door into the foyer. "Nice.. try.. snakehead!" he shouts. The sound of his engine begins to fade as he heads for the door. "Good thing... I've got one of my explosives along..." he says. "I might have considered... finding another way out.. but after that... I'm leaving him with one humongous repair bill.."

Major Bludd scrambles to his feet, wincing as he supports himself on his injured hand. "Don't let him get away!" he shouts to the maid. "Empêchez-lui de s'échapper!"

Tonka opens another hatch towards the front of his trailer, lobbing a small golf-ball sized object towards the front door. The resulting explosion roars through the house, blasting the door to kindling, shattering most of the nearby windows and blowing most of the door frame into the Swiss countryside beyond. "Sayonara.. sucker!" he shouts as he slams the gas for the now open doorway.

Major Bludd drops to the floor again, throwing his arms over his head to protect himself from the concussion and the chunks of wood hurtling through the air. The maid screams in terror and falls to the floor, covering her face in her hands. "Merde!" Bludd swears after a moment, looking up at the ruins of his front doorway. He gets to his feet again, pulling the pistol from his waistband and moving to the doorway. Through the haze he tries to sight the miniature truck speeding off across his front yard toward his gate and fires off a few rounds.

Tonka hears the gun come out, and as the shots are fired, he uses the slick snowy grass to his advantage, putting himself into several intentional skids as he heads for the front gate. To further taunt his opponent, he puts on the Jackelope voice. "As fast as fast can be, you'll never catch me!" he says as he heads under the gate towards the road.

Major Bludd hurls his pistol into the snow, swearing. He glares at the rapidly departing truck, knowing that, smartass taunt or no, the Autobot is right. He glances to the empty driveway, scowling. "What a week to have blown a tyre on my car," he mutters, turning to go back into the house. He helps the maid to her feet, looks her over to see if she's been seriously injured, then sends her off to tend to her cuts and scrapes. He heads back into the study and sits down behind the desk, picking up his desk phone. "Got to nip this in the bud," he says to himself, dialing.

Tonka skids out onto the road proper, his rear wheels finally starting to turn as his auto-repair systems get his axles somewhat straightened out. "That was a close one.." he mutters to himself. "I'd better consider some re-designs on that spare jetpack he says.."