Freedom's Favour

Log Title: Freedom's Favour

Characters: Starlock, Blast Off, Vortex, Deathsaurus

Location: Darkmount

Date: 7/29/2020

TP: Combaticons TP

Summary: Starlock talks to Blast off and Vortex regarding the fact they are no longer

under Megatron's control, and Blast Off gets a response regarding an offered favour, 
that he wasn't expecting.

As logged by Starlock

Darkmount - New Polyhex - Cybertron

Starlock

Starlock comes jogging to the Darkmount medicalbay, garbed in her cloak, she is peeking over through the door way, ensuring she isn't gonna get /shot/ on sight by the combaticons.

Blast Off lies on a meditable, optics dim and gray. He seems almost lifeless, but then a violet flicker of light flashes briefly along his optics, and there's a soft groan as the Combaticon just so happens to be beginning waking up after the... quite eventful situation yesterday.

Starlock flinches as she watches and stares, carefully slinking into the room and leaning against the wall, keeping her hood up.

Deathsaurus is waiting by the medtable for when the combaticons wake up. Of course one is already out looting. Erm. Paying his respects. He shakes his head a bit, hoping they don't shoot him either. "Ah, looks like Blast Off's waking up."

The groan gets louder, Blast Off's hand reaching up to clutch at his face. His cultured voice sounds unusually hoarse. "Frag it all...zzz...wuthitme?" He groans again, placing his other hand on his head and holding it with both now as he slowly shakes it. No guns at all... yet. But these *are* Combaticons, very confused Combaticons, so worrying about being shot is wise, alas.

Vortex starts to awaken, his rotors spinning a bit. He rubs his head. "That's the last time I drink that....so...ugh. Where...are we?" he says, sounding disoriented.

Starlock glances to Des, there being the only singular glow of one optic as she does, not yet saying anything, and silently asking if she should speak.

Deathsaurus gives a nod to Starlock, motioning her forward.

Starlock nods and steps forward, finally speaking. "You're in Darkmount's medical bay." she'd say to them, folding her arms behind her.

Blast Off hears Vortex's familiar voice, his own optics lighting up to a dim violet and beginning to look around. One hand drops down to hold the edge of his berth, the other still clutched to his head. "Vortex, what happ- AUTOBOT!" The sniper tries springing up from the table... which turns out to be easier thought than done, for he merely manages to scramble, flail, and fall off the berth entirely. "OW." He's still reaching for his gun in subspace, though the fall interrupts that just a bit.

Vortex pauses. "I have no clue.. ack! Autobots! Destrons. Why are we in Darkmount. I wasn't...that drunk was I?" he holds his head. "I don't know. I was pretty drunk."

Deathsaurus shakes his head at the two "Relax. You are both safe. Starlock is working with me on this project." great. They're projects. "Trust us. You are in good hands."

Starlock is a bit nervous, not dropping her hood, but soon relaxes. "Aye.. as he said I'm not here to harm you.. quite the opposite really." She'd vent out. "Do you remember what happened yesterday? With bruticus? and the bar?" she asks.

Blast Off squints at Vortex, before glaring over at Deathsaurus and Starlock. "You weren't drunk, Vortex..." Pause. "Alright, possibly drunk... but that's not all of it." He squints even harder at Des and Starlock. "I remember everything." He grabs his ionic blaster from subspace and points it at the Autobot. "Projects, you called us? You WON'T take us alive!" Oohh, so dramatic. So... snipery.

Vortex pauses. "You rarely remember my drunken exploits but so this must have been real but..hey. Darkmount. Shockwave's Darkmount. Where room 217 is..." "Oh /slag/."

Deathsaurus pauses. "Its not that kind of experiment.." he looks to Starlock "They're not taking this well are they?"

Starlock facepalms, slightly knocking her hood off to reveal her face is half covered by a medical patch. "I'm not gonna do /that/." She'd huff. "...Remember what I said?.. Ya'll are free." She states point blank. "...Now I wouldn't tell megatron to go fuck himself right off the bat, else he'll know you're free but, you could if you wanted." Starlock says with a gesture of her hand and a pointed finger.

Blast Off seems wobbly, his grip on his gun shaky, but he eventually seems to steady enough to point directly at Starlock- and her facial patch. Then she says that- and makes that gesture- and Blast Off huffs. "How CRUDE!" He declares, "You're not going to distract me anyway, and there's no way I'd disobey Mega...." Waitaminute. The shuttleformer stops, optics flickering in confusion again, then looks back at Des and around him at the room. His gun remains pointed at her, though. "....What's going on?"

"As I said, you're free." starlock says. "No more loyalty program." she adds simply. "Your lives are yours again." She continues. "I and a handful of others worked over 6 months to do so." she'd explain gesturing out. "I need you to tell me how you feel, and.. if there is anything wrong that I need to work to correct that the anti-virus may of broke."

Deathsaurus nods "Yeah, you're all free. It was this berry's idea." He motions to Starlock "I just let her use my facilities until you're ready to do..what you want not what Megatron wants."

Blast Off blinks, then stares at Starlock. He rubs his head with his free hand, slowly, almost dazed. And just as slowly, the gun begins to lower, though the intense, baffled stare doesn't. "You did...what?" Now his mind is racing, trying to remember, trying to adjust to the lack of forced old programs, adjust to an open door inside his mind that wasn't there before. ...Well, not for a very long time, at least.

Blast Off blinks as Des speaks, looking at him next, and the gun lowers to point at the floor. "...Free?" The shuttleformer staggers back now, seemingly weak in the knee joints, and braces himself against the side of the berth he'd been on. "That... that program..." He rubs at his head, "It's... gone?" His optics suddenly brighten considerably, almost to the point of flooding out a pale, violet light. "IT's GONE!" He turns to Vortex. "IT'S GONE!"

Vortex blinks "What? What's gone the rotors?" he feels his back "Oh thank primus the rotors are still there. Wait.." he looks down at his crotch "Okay mines there. Yours is there. What are you talking about?"

Starlock just gives Vortex a look. "Know, I should've expected that." She says dryly at Vortex, chuckling a bit, she does smile at Blast Off's reaction. "And Decepticon doesn't know yet, so.. you'll need to be careful.. " She'd explain. "Else.. they may put it back, if not worse." She says softly. "I've asked Des here to give you guys shelter if you're planning to stick around.. As you all would fit in well with the rest of the fortress, since their all mercenaries and pirates too." She'd smile.

The bright light in Blast Off's optics dim a bit at Vortex's comments, and he shakes his head before continuing. "Megatron, Vortex! THINK! Megatron, would you like to..." Old habits have him pausing before he finishes, "...shoot him?" He sounds almost giddy. Stralock has a way of sobering him up, though, and the sniper looks to her next. "Oh." He thinks about this, optic ridges furrowing, then peers intently at her. "You... took that out..." Pause. He sounds suspicious now, glancing from her to Des. "...Why? You want us to work for you now, instead?"

Deathsaurus nods "We do pay well, especially for mechs of your talents. I helped free you, because...for one thing. I know what its like to have Megatron hold things over my head. For another, well let's be honest. Your skills would be better used..intergalactically."

Vortex blinks "Wait..hold on hold on lemme try something" he shouts "Megatron Shockwave Soundwave and Starscream can all kiss my aft. In alphabetical order." he chuckles. "I can say it!"

Starlock chuckles at Vortex and then to Blast Off. "Slavery, no matter what form, is wrong, and you don't deserve to be stripped of your free will.. Specially for trying to control your own fate." Starlock says frankly and huffs out with a smile. "...I think Goth and Khamsin just wanted their friends back, Banshee cares for you as well." Starlock starts to list of those that helped. "And I'm sure there is a space dragon that misses you, doesn't know i did this buuut, well, will make things easier." She'd smile.

Blast Off stares at Des now, processing all this. He still looks suspicious, but it does seem to make sense. He then turns to Tex, nodding his head. "YES!" There's a bit of dark purple flickering through his optics now. "I could *shoot* that *bastard* who..." He stops, blinks, then looks to the others, "...Excuse me, that... that *charlaton* who *dared* to alter our very *minds* and..." Now his grip on his gun tightens, "How *DARE* him... He will *pay* for this, he will..." His hand rolls into a fist and Blast Off definitely looks- and feels- the part of the very willing sniper. For a moment.

Starlock's explanation seems to shift Blast Off's behavior, however, bringing him a bit back to reality, and he blinks again. Now he begins to look horrified, sinking down to lean against the berth.

"They took... my *choices* away." The shuttle looks stricken, finally able to process that personal horror, the high class mech who values his ability to CHOOSE things for himself, denied that ability for so long. Now the anger is replaced by melancholy. His head tilts, studying Starlock for a moment. "Goth..." He sounds reproachful, then glances up as she mentions a certain "space dragon", his optics lighting up. "He... you think he really does miss me?"

Vortex pauses. "They messed with the wrong people. Oh they sure did. But.. um. If we leave Megatron. Where do we go? We join this guy and his menager...teeaaaaaam. Ix nay on menagier-ay with the beastformersay... Vortexay talking too much ay..." he says. "We gotta talk to Ons about this. And Im sober. I need to get a circuit speeder in me. Hold on." he reaches in subspace for one of his trusty speeders.

"Remember when you woke up here before? After Khamsin and I knocked you out at Altihex? He let me use his lab to scan you to get the diagnostics I needed to start the step to getting this removed." She explains softly with a smile, before looking to Tex and shrugs. "Up to you, but if you're going to stay on Cybertron, Des here is willing to help make sure you don't get tagged, again." She nod.

"The program is still.. 'there' as I wanted to cover you guys for it to still register where Shockwave and crew wont pick up right way, and fix it, but it's now inactive or broken in some place, "As for the dragon?.. Yeah, I can say that for a fact." She'd smile softly.

Deathsaurus nods "I can honestly agree that if a space dragon wants to see you you shouldn't keep him waiting. We're protective of our own."

"Yeah," Blast Off mutters to Vortex's comments, then he thinks and.... "Yeah...." He sounds a bit less sure now. Right. "We do need to speak to Onslaught ...soon." He looks up. "Where is he? Where are the others?" He's tense, looking for his bros, awaiting their answer. In the meantime, he frowns under his faceplate as Starlock speaks, not exactly thrilled at all the subterfuge, but... then again, they've finally got the blasted program removed! He rubs at his head again, gun pointing to the ground. "Right... we... we have to be smart about this." He stares at the ground, but looks up as Starlock confirms the bit about Sky Lynx, then nods to Des. "I... I'd like to see him again..."

Starlock nods. "you'll get a chances, once everything's settled, as for the others? They're all here, resting, didn't want any of the con medics grabbing you and finding out, 'oh shit it broke', ya' know?." Starlock nods.

Deathsaurus nods "Yeah, wouldn't want them fixing what took us so long to undo."

"Oh..." Blast Off rubs at his head again, looking dazed now. "..." He stares down at the floor before looking back at Des and Starlock. "It's... it's a lot to process, you know?"

"I know.. this, on top of all the bullshit and trauma from the years where it was there and actively working against your nature... It's.. gonna take a bit." Starlock says in understanding as she crosses her arms. "..Apologizes again for all the cloak-and-dagger business but, Goth told us that if you knew what we where doing, the program would actively, attempt to stop it."

Vortex nods "He's probably right." h e says, rubbing his chin. "Yesterday I could never say Megatron's a slaghead but today I can.." He blinks as he installs his circuit speeder. "Hey Blast Off. Shouldn't this have kicked in by now? I think this speeder's broken."

Blast Off stares down at his hand, which has moved from his forehead to rest, palm up in front of him. He doesn't answer for awhile, but eventually, slowly, nods. "He... was right. Anytime we tried to fight it, it... it would..." He slowly shakes his head. "It would fuzz out my thinking, and I'd forget what I was going to do, and only remember what I was *told* to do."

Blast Off's fists clench and some of the fire returns. "We *knew* it was there, too, we just couldn't *do* anything about it...." The shuttle's internal rumbles rumbles angrily at that, though he's interrupted by Vortex and glances over at him. "You don't *need* to deaden the pain anymore, Vortex... your will is your own, once more." Pause, as he leans against the berth again. "...not that a good, stiff drink wouldn't hurt..."

Starlock nods. "He also made it a point to have me tell ya'll he didn't tell me, and how I figured it out independently, though he did gladly share information once he knew I knew of it myself." She'd wink... Though she does raise a ridge at Vortex, and moves over to check, as, as a doctor, she knew it should of, so that was confusing. "Maybe you're starting to finally build up an immunity to it all." She'd snort, course that is how overdoses happen.

Vortex blinks at Starlock "Don't say something cruel like that. That'd be terrible. A drink sounds awesome bro. If this dont work. Maybe a drink." he says. "It's the sensation, its not about your mind not being your own it's...sometimes it's good to /feel/ things you know?"

Blast Off frowns under his faceplate at Starlock, still a bit suspicious of this Autobot "helping" them. And yet... he searches his own databanks and can't find a functioning loyalty program. Still... "...And how do we know you didn't just put in a new program of your own? I can still shoot ...Optimus Prime, if I want?" He says it just to HEAR himself say it, and... well, he certainly can say it, nothing is stopping him, it seems. He looks back to Tex. "...It does."

Deathsaurus shrugs. "Well I'd prefer you don't do it under a Destron contract. We're under renegotions with the Autobots right now. But if your trigger finger slips I won't mind. Just might give a bonus for a few slips in Star Saber's direction."

"I mean considering what you just said, pretty sure that confirms that no, i didn't." Starlock chuckles as she works, raising a ridge. "It was hard enough to break the bitch, can you imagine completely overwriting it? helll no." Starlock says. "..huh, your inhibitor chip isn't turning on." starlock says.

An optic ridge lifts up as Blast Off turns to stare at Deathsaurus. "You ARE working with the Autobots!" For a moment, he's looking back and forth between Starlock and Des, scooching back a bit like he's ready to run- or fight. His gun hand grips his weapon tightly. "You're working against Megatron, aren't you? I *knew* it. Well, now the turbo cat's out of the bag and I...."

Pause. Wait, Blast Off doesn't have to do a thing. At ALL. He blinks at the realization. He looks to Starlock next. "..I don't have to do a slagging *thing*." He sounds positively *delighted* about this, straightening up with a cheery glow in his optics. He looks thoughtful at Starlock. "Still, why not? Why not when I might just *shoot* you for your efforts?" He squints at her, almost menacingly... and then those optics widen. "Wait..." He blinks, then looks even more intently at the face patch on her. "I...I *did* shoot you, didn't I? That was *you*!"

"Still slavery! Shit if I did that I'd be no different than megatron.. hell if I'd ever got /that/ far I'd hope someone would /kill/ me first... Like... Shit, I went through all the trouble to ensure Autobot command didn't know where THEy couldn't use any of this." Starlock cringes and she lets out a long sigh. "Yeah... That was me." she says as she lets her hood drop, a grin on her face as a large medical patch covers half the left side of her face, optic included.

"Not as bad as it could of been, shot my Holomatter, backlash and recoil did this, kinda overloaded my holomatter generator, cracked this side my face due to it, and gave me a nosebleed, but not as bad as that shot coulda' been." Starlock'd nod. "But what 'Astraea' said, make sense now? Heeh, I admit it was dirty, but I had to ensure I did what I could and used what I knew of you guys over the years, to get as far as i did."

Blast Off stares in growing horror at Starlock... seems for all his *I'mma shoot you* bluster he's actually cringing at the realization he really DID shoot the person who helped free him. Damn that decent streak in him! "Still..." He winces. "My... apologies. I... had no idea, obviously, I just thought...I thought it was a trap, that you were trying to capture us..." His optics flicker. "And... you said Autobot command *doesn't* know?" Now he glances towards Des again. Just how deep is this operation going, anyway? He looks over as Tex speaks, and nods. Right. "Yes... what do you want from us in return?"

Deathsaurus pauses. "that's entirely up to you. I'd recommend discussing things with Onslaught. I'd love to recruit you, but you are..free mechs now. Feel free to stay as long as you'd like."

Starlock waves with an cringe. "Its okay.. Well i mean it's not more.. I've already forgiven ya?" she says. "I knew It was a possibility, and you'd understand later, so... it was worth It.. Technically, also, was a trap, but not /that/ kinda trap." She'd nod as she frowns working on Tex. "Hmm I can't get your chip to turn on so.. won't be able to get high or drunk for a while." ohh that won't be good. "But does look repairable just.. might take a bit.." She'd cringe at Vortex. "may want to get you some medication to manage withdrawal symptoms."

"I definitely plan to talk to Onslaught." Blast Off nods. "And... thanks." He looks back to Starlock, giving her a nod as well. He listens quietly as she works on Vortex, lifting an optic ridge ...oh boy, this is gonna be fun. Not. "I'll... take care of him." He states, moving towards Tex's berth. There's so much to say, but... he can't even say it all. "I... need some time. To... think." But he does look back to Starlock. "However, I... will not forget this, Autobot." Pause. "Starlock."

Starlock nods. "I'll have a prescription written for him." she says stepping away and cleaning her hands once she's sure everything on tex is secure and thinks.

"As for Favours? Know I don't do those, but in this case?.." She thinks. "It feels dirty, but... don't get caught again, yeah?" she says with a soft smile. "There may come a time and place where you can reveal yourselves and give Megatron the punching he deserves, but till then?... recover, figure out what to do, and live." She'd smile. "Welcome Blast Off." She says with a nod.