Hot Potato

Log Title: Hot Potato

Characters: Brawn, Kinetic, Reverb, Skywarp, Tele-Viper 742

Location: Outskirts of New York City, New York

Date: 8 June 2007

TP: Non-TP

Summary: Several characters turn up to investigate a strange energy source.

It is a Beautiful Friday Night in Downtown Manhattan, the lights from downtown twinkle and dot the skyline, people walk the streets enjoying the fact that most of them don't have to go to work for a couple of days.

Brawn stumbles out of Reverb's Helicopter mode. He hold onto the sides of his large silver bullet-like head. "Next time I think I'll walk!" He shouts over the loud music eminating from Reverb. "My Audio Receptors are killin' me."

Skywarp saw something on Trypticon's computer network about some strange energy emissions around here somewhere, so he came to see what was what and what was not. And if he gets to mess with a few of the flesh-creatures in the process, so much the better!

Reverb has touched down outside of Manhattan. He turns down the volume as Brawn stumbles out, although that main rotor is still kicking up a hell of a ruckus. "Hey, you want me to transform and head in with ya, or should I keep an eye on high?"

Brawn regains his bearings, and looks over the area. "I know our orders are not to cause any type of disturbance. But there is no telling who else picked up those readings. You'd better come into town with me."

Skywarp flies in from the west, low and slow. *sniffsniff* "C'mon, li'l energy readings, come ta papa."

Reverb's rotor winds down, the beat dropping out. He even turns down the Metal. "Got it." The helicopter shifts back into his robot form, "So, uh...how used to seeing giant robots have these...humans gotten?"

The CH-53E unfolds and stands up into Reverb.

Brawn shrugs and raises an optic servo. "I guess we'll find out." The central point of the Alien Energy seems to be eminating from somewhere in Central Park. The park seem unusually dark for this time on a Friday night, and devoid of any kind of life. The scene is very eerie.

"True, and definitely not at night, either," communicates the Tele-Viper, a young woman, to Kinetic through the headset. She doesn't know how well the robots can hear, and she doesn't want to take any chances. She keeps her firearm ready, remaining wary as Kinetic takes readings.

As everyone makes there way closer to Central Park the humidity in the air raises to a pretty uncomfortable level. Brawn raises his scanning device, "Whatever it is it's creating a lot of heat." He says in his usual Macho way, and it sounds Cool regardless of how Obvious the statement is.

The heat readings are coming in quite clearly in the Cobra and Decepticon Scanning devices as well. The heat source seems to be at the bottom of a lake in the center of the park.

Skywarp flies low and slow in an attempt to avoid the notice of the human military radar. Of course, people on the street will probably notice when the black F-15 fighter jet swoops over their heads.

Kinetic frowns some behind her imagers, "Dis does not seem right... Would have considered it to be new portal in works, but why would it be under the lake?" Lightly shaking her head, "Could not be geothermals. Not in middle of dis city." Whatever's going on it has her wanting to reach for a gun as well, though for the situation she didn't suspect a pistol or two would do her much good, and the big one would take too much effort to haul out without a very good reason. The Tele-Viper is ready on that front, she'd leave it in the other woman's hands for now. Instead she tries to get some insight as to how any of the local citizens might be reacting to all of this, should any happen to be within range of her scanners. Up until the point of hearing something passing through the air somewhere overhead, drawing her attention for a few moments. "Seems to be popular location tonight," she mutters into the com.

Skywarp weaves in and out between the buildings, shattering the odd window and sniffing for the energy source as he monitoring his scanners. "Ooh," he rumbles, "Hot potato."

Tele-Viper 742 tugs at her collar with her free hand, obviously uncomfortable from the upward shift in temperature and humidity. As the jet roars overhead, she watches it suspiciously, monitoring the airwaves for any communications. It's dark, not much if anything can be seen...she suspects it's the Joes coming to check out this phenomenon. "The robots are drawn by the energy source, they probably want to take the power to fuel themselves," she transmits to Kinetic.

Brawn concentrates on his scanning device unaware of the screeching jet flying low through Downtown Manhattan. He holds it up and it beeps franticly. "I have a feeling we're not alone. You keep an optic open Reverb, I'll check out that lake."

Reverb nods slowly, "Yeah..." This is just weird. He hasn't been out in the field on this planet more than a week, and already there's alien power signatures. What the hell, man? Although he really shouldn't be surprised...alien planet, and all.

Skywarp spies the lake within the park and his sensors confirm the energy signature is coming from there. He mutters to himself, "Why put all that green stuff in a perfectly good city? These flesh-creatures are so weird." He reduces his speed even further and comes in low near the edge of the lake.

Kinetic nods slowly in agreement to the Tele-Viper's thoughts, making a few adjustments with the side controls of her imagers. "Have strange feelink place will be packed with people we would rather not deal with directly, want to get dis done and get out." Besides the fact that with all of her important gear packed aside, she couldn't hope to hide from another's sensors. She could see, but she couldn't hide. Granted two people are small targets to transformers, or whatever might be lurking within that hot spot, but if they looked hard enough there wasn't much she could do about it, and has a feeling the other viperette isn't much better off.

Tele-Viper 742 nods in agreement. "Agreed. Too many robots already," she responds unhappily. Maybe some of her trigger-happy colleagues would love to be shooting in the midst of Cybertronians, but not her. She knows that most of the standard-issue, conventional weaponry is pretty close to useless against such supremely tough armor. Their best bet is to get in, quickly get what they need, and get out. The time for action was drawing near.

The Lake at the center of Central Park is super heating, the fog is flowing out of it's bubbling and frothing surface. All of the grass surrounding the lake is dead either from the super-heating of the water or from some other factor. The fish inside are litterally cooking. Upon closer examination an odd glow is coming from the bottom of the lake.

Brawn checks his scanning device, and looks back at Reverb, "It's cookin' this lake like a bad radiator."

The scanners for all of the factions show the same data, it also shows that whatever is at the bottom of the lake is interfering with the area's electro-magnetic field causing all of the streetlights in the park to go black.

Reverb heard that roar, even over the thump of his personal speakers. A jet. His optics snap skyward as the F-15 darts overhead, "Oh, wonderful..." He calls over, "Brawn! Incoming! Unidentified bogey!" Even at night, it's hard to miss something that loud flying that low. And the first thing Reverb does is start looking around for nearby humans, or anything else that might be susceptible to potential fire.

Skywarp skims the treetops as he approaches the lake. He notices the Autobot, but is now moving too slowly to maintain flight in his vehicular form. "Aww," he says as he transforms to robot mode, "No missile sandwich for you."

The black fighter jet seems to crack in half as its cockpit and nose section fold down toward the fuselage. The tailplanes swivel forward as the jet stands on its tail, the fuselage splitting in two and rotating outward to become a pair of arms. The jet's wings fold back, its nose tucks into the open space in the fuselage, and the robot's head emerges from within the nose of the vehicle.

Kinetic quickly looks up and around as the lights start to cut out. Then freezes in place as her imagers scramble and click to black on her. "Shit..!" Those EM waves were rending her sensitive equipment utterly useless, which proved right then and there that her big gun would do nothing more than help hold a door open so long as they remained within the affected radius. The imagers are pulled free of her eyes and put away again, getting her gear together in case they had to make a quick break for it. Not only that, but for plain old humans this kind of temperature was rapidly approaching unbearable. "Tink is time to move back some, tovarich." It's not through the com this time, hers is somewhat out of commission. ..And then there's a transforming Decepticon. "-Know- is time to move back some."

The EM waves were more than a bit uncomfortable for the Tele-Viper, who winced as her transmission equipment began to protest in the form of a few painful shocks. She bites her lip, and -OUCH!!- appears in text-form across her goggles, briefly. She adjusts the modulations, and things simmer down a bit to annoying static bursts. Kinetic's radio causes her to watch the jet transform into a Decepticon, and she gapes in surprise, moving back quickly along with her to a more suitable location. Still, there was...the THING in the lake. Whatever it was making all of this energy. Perhaps the Autobots and the Decepticons would begin fighting -- giving THEM the break they would need to get those samples!

"Well, well, well... If it isn't Skywarp." Brawn says in his Heroic tone as he places his scanner in one of his compartment. "Why don't you keep New York clean and fly back to the scrapyard you came from."

In the meantime, something is starting to break the surface of the water and is slowly rising.

Skywarp smiles. "And miss a chance to play with you?" He raises his arm, aiming his laser at the diminutive Autobot.

Reverb frowns deeply as the Decepticon closes in, already in the mood for a scrap from the looks of things. Then again, Brawn seems pretty happy to oblige him. And there doesn't seem to be any humans around that need protection...what to do? Well, on yet another hand, there /is/ that thing coming out of the lake. Confident that Brawn can handle himself for the moment, Reverb starts moving around the edge of the 'battlefield'...

Skywarp grins wickedly as he fires his laser at Brawn.

>> Skywarp strikes Brawn with Laser. <<

Kinetic's determination to get out of the way grows awfully quickly when the big guys start shooting at each other, yanking out one of her oversized pistols while continuing to back out of there nice and fast. "Do not tink will have time for sample, too much goink on..!" Next time she's gonna bring a vehicle with, and park the damned thing close enough to run back to. This was a bad spot to be.

A purple stream of light fires out of Skywarp's arm mounted cannon, and strikes Brawn in the Left shoulder, spining his torso for an instant. Brawn looks at the small dent in his thick armored shoulder, and chuckles, "Shooting me was your first mistake, flyboy. Now it's time party... Brawn Style." The Mini-Bot charges at Skywarp, pulling his large silver fist back in an attempt to punch the sleek Decepticon seeker.

In the meantime a looming object is rising from the lake, not within the view of the two combative Cybertronians, but definatley in the view of the Human Operatives.

>> Brawn misses Skywarp with Punch. <<

"That's a shame...but you know I'm in full agreement," the Tele-Viper admits. While she's had plenty of training and isn't outright terrified, it's *still* a highly dangerous predicament and she knows when it's time to quit just to save skin. Glancing back toward the water, she sees...something, rising up from it. "...There's something coming out of there, look," she transmits to Kinetic.

What about the big, walking helicopter?

Skywarp cackles tauntingly as he sidesteps the minibot. "Take a bath!" he cries, grinning as he shoots out a foot to kick Brawn into the lake.

>> Skywarp strikes Brawn with Kick. <<

Reverb spots something moving above the surface of the water. Well...that probably fits the definition of 'alien signature.' Couldn't hurt to check it out, right? Brawn can take care of himself...right? Continually glancing at his comrade, he starts moving closer to the lake...

Brawn lunges at his tall black & Purple counterpart and misses badly. In the process he runs over a small park bench and a trash can. As he turns to face Skywarp again he ends up with a foot planted right in his face. The impact sends Brawn careening into a NYC dumpster.

The object rising from the lake has a glowing sphere sitting atop of it, but the lack of any other light source makes it hard to see any features.

Kinetic grabs the base of a tree and pulls herself around it, sidearm in left hand and right remaining upon the tree as she peers back to the lake from the new vantage point. It leaves a bit to be desired, but as long as it keeps the two from getting pancaked into the ground or cooked alive, she wouldn't complain. "Maybe will get lucky and those fools will take care of it," she hopefully mutters. "But we worry more about us than it, already know sometink big is there. Long as get that back to base they can decide to check further or not." ..What the hell -is- it, though?

Skywarp laughs uproariously as the Autobot slams into the dumpster. "I always throw my trash in the proper receptacle." He turns to stare at the glowing thing rising out of the water. "What the heck is that?"

Tele-Viper 742 nods in agreement with Kinetic, her wary gaze -- and gun -- trained on the thing rising out of the water. "It sure would save us some work if they do," she says to her companion from behind the cover of the tree.

Reverb looks up from the glowing.../thing/. He sees Skywarp across the lake, his own yellow optics glowing dimly under the brim of his helmet. This could be tricky. He knows that he can't outmaneuver Skywarp, and he knows for damn sure the Decepticon is faster...but can he swim? Reverb's managed to move right up to the edge of the lake while the fight raged on (albeit briefly)...but where's Brawn?

The small Macho-Mini-Bot is not happy. His attention focused on Skywarp, he easily lifts the dumpster over his head. Being that Brawn has the common sense of a Acediline torch he doesn't even question why Skywarp is turning from him. He hurls the giant dumpster in the general direction of the Purple & Black Seeker.

The object rises about three feet out of the water, whatever it is it seems to be standing upright, meaning it's feet must be down at the bottom of the lake, making it roughly 15 feet tall. Details are hard to come by with the limited light in the area.

>> Brawn misses Skywarp with Bash. <<

Kinetic goes from confused to really confused, they really didn't need another giant fighting machine to deal with but it's starting to seem that's what the lake holds. "..Tink want to see this, long as are out of way and all." Besides, it'd make for great intel, even if her sensors were botched by the ambient EM's.

Skywarp begins to back slowly away from the strange object emerging from the lake. He barely registers the dumpster tumbling off to the side as he stares, his red optics glowing.

Inwardly, the Tele-Viper is glad they're not going to retreat, because she really wants to see what this thing is as well. She hunkers down beside Kinetic, and silently observes. Reverb hesitates at the lake's edge. Skywarp doesn't seem to be doing anything at the moment, and Brawn is busy...being Brawn. That gives him, for the moment, an open shot at whatever's in the lake there. He sets one heavy foot in the water, sinking several inches in the muddy bottom. Steeling himself, he actually begins moving /toward/ the object. Sure, it's messing with some of his more sensitive avionics, but all the major systems are holding up, and that's what really matters...right?

Several loud snapping sounds are coming from the glowing orb at the top of the object standing in the lake. In the meantime the lake begins to cool back to room temperature, it seems obvious that the glowing orb is the source of not only the heat, but the Alien Power Emissions as well. The orb glows brighter, and the surroundings are starting to produce long shadows as if they were watching a sunrise.

Brawn begins to charge at Skywarp, but stops in mid stride as he sees the object standing in the center of the Lake.

Kinetic's grip on the pistol slowly tightens as the shadows shift all around them, she didn't like where all of this is leading but how much worse would it be if they came back to base empty handed? Psychologically things are pretty warped, but they're not actually being attacked or harmed. Patience, young viper...

Skywarp takes a few more steps back, his optics riveted on the glowing globe. From somewhere he summons the presence of mind to realize the power emissions are coming from the orb. "Hot potato..." he mumbles, leaping into the air and flying directly toward the glowing orb.

The Orb is hot... and I don't mean like a Summer Day at Daytona Beach hot, I mean a Summer day on the bright side of Mercury hot. And it's only getting hotter. As Skywarp gets closer to it something becomes very obvious, the cracking sounds eminating from it seem to be from a shell contiaining the alien power source, and the intense heat is cracking shards off of it like a christmas light bulb that's been left on for sixteen monthes straight.

Reverb can feel the waves of heat pouring off this thing. There's no way this can be good. It's then that movement catches his eye. Skywarp. The Decepticon is making a dash for the Orb! Reverb suddenly breaks into motion, water splashing in all directions as he lunges upward. In all honesty, he's trying as much to keep Skywarp from hurting himself as from getting the Orb.

>> Reverb fails his generic combat roll against Skywarp. <<

Kinetic can feel the heat from where she is, and it's only further suggesting to her that standing anywhere near this thing equals a very bad idea. Who knew if it was kicking off hard rads or something that could take the two fleshies down while trying to make the return trip? A bit more distance couldn't hurt, if not for the simple fact that she was concerned her equipment was going to be permanently damaged from the warped atmosphere.

Reverb lunges at Skywarp in an attmpt to keep him from the dangerous heat being created by the orb atop the object standing in the center of the lake. The sleek Seeker easily sidesteps the Autobot and reaches for the orb. At that very moment the cracking noises cease and there is a second of silence... and then...

POW!!!

The shell holding in the Alien energy source explores outward like a light bulb exploding. The brught light escapes the orb, and shoots upward into the sky. A shockwave shoots out from the explosion with enough force to knock Brawn to one knee. The entire park is plunged back into darkness, and sour sulpher like smell fills the air.

Reverb splashes down into the lake, the black waters rolling back in over his form. He stays under for a few moments, too. (It's okay, he's water resistant like a Timex watch.) He finally pushes himself back up out of the water, looking around at the dark and silent park. Finally...he breaks the silence, "What the /hell/ was that?!"

Skywarp is sent tumbling head over heels by the unexpected explosion. He manages to stop his unplanned flight and right himself, descending to the ground.

Kinetic, needless to say, is bowled over her feet by a blast of that size. The lovely little "GRK!" from her direction is easily lost in all of the commotion, though before it's over with she's flattened out on her back somewhere in the grass looking entirely dazed. She still didn't know what to make of things, but -now- she hurt. Time to pull out.

Skywarp scans the area in search of the energy source.

Brawn pulls out his scanner as well. The energy readings are gone. There is nothing, not even any residual radiation.