Rescue At Petrex

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On a craterous, craggy plain south of incorporated Petrex, Arcee is doing some fieldwork. She's scouting the fissures in the ground, seeking something...or someone. She has a powerful light beam and some non-flyer type rescue gear with her: a few pulley-cords and a lift board are placed nearby, as Arcee uses the beam to check within the fissures. She also scans extensively.
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Definitely searching. But what, or whom, is she looking for?

Whatever, or whoever she's looking for, it isn't likely it's Phantom, but he phases up out of the ground suddenly in front of her in his alt mode, determined to drop in for a surprise visit.

"Hello, my fair lady! I see you are looking for me, just like my brother Quantum, I am here to apologize for my terrible absence and to tell you there is no need to look anymore, I am back!" He protoforms.

Starscream is grumpy. He doesn't care and he gave himself the cycle off. Nice being SiC like that isn't it? The Seeker is flying in root mode and is heading to Petrex, to a nice quiet bar so nurse a headache with some serious highgrade. But what's this? He notices a very loudly shaded pink femme and.. oh primus, Phantom below. Noticing the equipment the Autobot has and who her company is gets the better part of his curiosity and his headache and the tri colored Seeker decends and lands. "What are the two of you up to?" he asks a bit sourly with an equally sour stare at the two of them.

Arcee startles and nearly topples backwards as Phantom just phases out of the ground. "Aaahh!!" she exclaims, taking a few steps backward, then peering at Phantom's familiar face with a sigh. "You again! What are you doing out here??" She doesn't feel threatened by Phantom, but his arrival doesn't bode well for her, because she knows now who he works for, and it doesn't bode well for her mission. Sure enough, Starscream arrives shortly after, and he looks to be in an especially rotten mood. Lucky for her. "...I'm trying to locate someone who's last location was in this vicinity," she says cautiously.

Phantom ignores Starscream for now. He grins broadly at Arcee, taking her hand in both of his and shaking it warmly. "Miss, it has been so long! I didn't see you in forever," he says, "and I thought I would never see you again! It is so good to see you."

"Oh," he says, "I am very good at finding lost things, I will help you!" He peers down into one of the fissures. "Hello! A very lovely lady is looking for you, come out!"

Starscream listens to Arcee and then gives a blank stare at Phantom's comments. He looks over the edge into the fissure and sneers, "They said they'd be right up, moron." he can't help but say.

Arcee sighs. She can't believe this. Phantom is such a strange, strange Seeker. She doesn't think he's from Vos, he doesn't even act like he's from any city she's ever been to. And Starscream is going to be his usual unhelpful self. Maybe she can buy some time before she ends up tossed down into a fissure. "His name's Safelight, do you know what's happened to him??"

He finally pays attention to Starscream. "Hey, you don't know that guy, do you? You just made that up to confuse us!"

"I don't know that guy named Safelight. But don't you think we should go down there? Otherwise, how else can you find him?" He says with a cheerful smile.

He lies down on the ground and looks down in the fissure again. "Hey, maybe I can fit down there!"

Starscream twitches a wing and just looks at the two of them like their sole pupose in life is to annoy them. "What kind of a name is 'safelight' if he's missing? -- and no I don't know him." he glances down the fissure, "And I'm not going down there to find him either!" getting this seeker in a small space is next to impossible.

"How do you do that thing where you're in the ground and you...come up out of the ground and all that?" Arcee asks Phantom curiously. "Do you think you could get down there?" She isn't sure why Phantom is weird, but he seems to be weird in a good way, despite his allegiance. Perhaps he's a newspark. But what if he's under Starscream's instruction? That wouldn't be a very good mentorship. She eyes Starscream, folding her arms across her chestplate. "I didn't name him, I'm just looking for him," she retorts.

"Hey, don't be such a protoform," Phantom says to Starscream, "are you thinking that you are not good enough to find Safelight?" he laughs good-naturedly and slaps the seeker on the back, "I kid, I kid."

He taps Arcee's nose affectionately. "Magic," he whispers. "Give me that flashlight!"

Starscream gets slapped on the back and doesn't like it. "Don't touch me." he snaps at the other Seeker and then sneers again. "I'm too good to look for him --" he pauses a beat then continues, "Why don't you take your 'magic' and go get him then?"

Arcee is still uncertain how much of Phantom's good-natured cooperation is genuine, and how much of this strange tension between him and Starscream is authentic. It looks pretty real to her! She turns toward Phantom with a hopeful smile, handing him a high-powered 'torch' for lighting up the dark and narrow subterranean fissures. They don't run particularly deep in comparison to mining caves, but they're narrow and little of the surface light can penetrate down to the bottom. "I think he might have fallen down into one of these," she explains.

"Ah, I see, are you? But aren't you thinking you could become even better if you can be the one to be the glorious guy, finding him and be the hero? See, I am always helping you. But since you are so stubborn, I will do what you say!" Phantom says, holding up a finger.

He takes the torch from Arcee and aims in down into the fissure. "Oh yes, I can fit down there!" He says, then transforms and phases through the narrow opening of the fissure, disappearing from sight.

Just the thought of going down that small fissure makes Starscream unconcerned about the fact that he can't get any of the glory for finding the mech who got lost. "Yes I'm stubborn." he mutters. Anything to keep his apprehension of going down that. small. space. his secret. "And I am your commander so you will do as I order." he adds loftily. He glances at the femme. "You are trouble." he says in an odd tone.

Arcee watches in amazement as Phantom simply phases into the fissure effortlessly.

Down at the bottom of the fissure, beyond the sight of those on the surface, is a minibot emblazoned with the Autobot symbol, not dead but severely injured. He's sustained a lot of injuries from falling and bouncing around the narrow fissure in his fall, and he lies motionless, in stasis from traumatic energon loss.

Meanwhile, up on the surface...

"Me? Trouble?? I'm not doing anything!" Arcee exclaims.

Phantom inches over to the minibot, lifting him up. "Hey little guy," he says softly, "I am your brother, here to rescue you. But I am wondering how you got so lost and why everyone is looking for you desperately! Did you see... something?" he asks the minibot, shaking him awake gently.

Starscream smirks, "Sure you are." his smirk becomes a smile a bit though its thin -- hes really not feeling well. "Look at this situation alone." he still can not understand why Phantom is helping her.

Arcee stares at Starscream, and suddenly, she remembers Prowl's orders. That prototype...the damned prototype ray. She had the perfect opportunity to use it here. If she pulled it out /now/, however, Starscream would definitely null her. So she might need to try and hit one of these mechs as they departed. She steps slowly away from Starscream as if strolling casually. "Hmm. Well. If you put it THAT way, yeah, maybe I'm a pain in the aft at times," she admits, quietly palming the prototype in her hand and keeping it hidden from view.

Down in the fissure, Safelight awakens, but is disoriented and delerious. "Huh?? Oh no, I fell down here! I...where am I?? Can you help me? I need a medic! Please get me out!" He clings to Phantom in the darkness.

He holds the small bot close to him. "What happened?" he asks, "you must tell me."

He searches for a way up, and traveling farther down the cavern, finds a small tunnel that leads back up to the surface.

"Do not forget this," he says the minibot, "Next time you see me, you should know that you can trust me." Phantom then ascends, coming up right next to Arcee.

Starscream studies the femme for a moment. "Well..." he says finally appreciating what his optics are lookinga at inspite of himself. "I suppose it could be worse."

"I was out here on a mission...and...and then I got shot at...and I was trying to evade, but..." Safelight continues yammering at Phantom, probably under the mistaken impression that Phantom is an Autobot. "But then I swerved off the road and fell down into the fissure. Thank you, thank you so much...I won't forget this!"

Arcee gives Starscream an incredulous look. "Tell me, have you ever been slapped?" she asks, and right at that moment Phantom emerges from the depths with Safelight. "Oh, my word...you did it!" she exclaims in surprise.

"No problem, my small brother, maybe I can see you again sometime." He smiles reassuringly at the minibot.

"Of course I did!" Phantom grins, "today, I like being the hero." Phantom places the minibot at Arcee's feet. "See, now you believe in magic."

Starscream stares at Arcee for a moment getting what she's hinting at but before he can answer the weird Seeker comes back with 'Safelight'. He listens to his boasting and would roll his optics if he could. "Only because I ordered you to, remember that -- and there's no such thing as 'magic'. Stop saying there is!"

"Okay, okay," Phantom says with a laugh, "you can be the hero today too if you want to." He shakes his helm with a grin. "You will believe in magic, when you see Quantum's red magic foam!" he insists.

"That reminds me, I need to go back to see him and Shockwave! I will see you again fair lady. Tell the little guy I hope he is better soon." He then transforms, and flies off, back in towards Kolkular.

Arcee smiles at Phantom, as she picks Safelight up and secures him to a transport board. She's already decided that she's going to need to hit one of these guys. While she feels like shooting Starscream, she feels like Phantom is going to present a better target. Then she can tell Prowl she's done the deed. Mission accomplished. She wants things to be DONE with this prototype gun business, but she feels like this might just be the beginning.

As Phantom heads off, Arcee finds an opportunity to 'tag' him with the prototype. She aims at him secretively, then pulls the trigger. No light is emitted and no noise is made. It does...whatever it does.

"What do you think of him, Starscream?" Arcee asks as she preps the transport. "You don't seem to like him very much, I think he's a nice guy."

Starscream shrugs as he stares at the bot on the transport board sourly. "He's weird... so is his friend. I think both have been hitting the Gs way too much -- but as long as they listen to me, that's all I'm interested in." no he didn't notice Arcee 'shooting' Phantom and even if he did, he probably wouldn't say anything about it. "So this is the mech all this was about?" he asks suddenly, "Not much to rescue if you ask me."

"Well I didn't ask you!" Arcee exclaims, securing poor Safelight as the mini slips back into stasis once more. "BUT. I really did appreciate the way Phantom stepped up to the plate like that. You see, that's what a gentlemech does," she points out.

Starscream makes a slight sarcastic mimic of Arcee's comment of 'I really did appreciate the way Phantom stepped up...'. "Gentlemechs are over estimated." he huffs. "I did order him to do this, don't forget that small detail."

"For all your grousing...you indeed did. And I'm grateful for that, gentlemech or not," Arcee says to Starscream, momentarily preoccupied with wondering whether or not she hit Phantom. She's fairly sure that she did, but he left far too quickly for her to observe the effects. She stares at Starscream pensively for a moment. He didn't seem to be an immediate threat, but then again, unless in battle, he rarely did until someone let their guard down. And she didn't want to do that.

Starscream rubs his forehead then. "I was on my way to a good bar nearby. I suppose you need to take him back for repairs right this minute?" he motions half heartedly at Safelight. "Since he's in stasis it won't matter much if take your time getting him back for repairs."

Arcee stares at Starscream with wide optics. Was he...asking her out for a drink?? She's pretty sure that's what it sounded like. Yes, with her wounded comrade strapped to a transport board beside her, he was wanting her to ditch the mini and go out for drinks with him. His ego was unbelievable at times.

"Oh, I appreciate the offer, but I really need to take him back for repairs," Arcee says politely. It's not what she wants to say, but she decides that since she's accomplished everything she's set out to do, she doesn't want to press her luck.

Starscream kneels down and does a quick exam on the minobot, "He's stable and in stasis. He will be fine." he stands back up. "But you sense of duty I'm sure blah blah..."

Arcee puts on her best smile. It's probably not her most convincing smile, but she really is trying to back out of this graciously. "Maybe next time?" she offers, making a mental note to stay the hell away from Macaddams for a while.

Starscream can't beleive hes being turned down for an injured minibot. "Suit yourself." he says finally and turns toward the town. He lits up into the air, "Your loss."

Arcee smiles cheerfully until Starscream heads out of sight, then she shakes her head and prepares to tow Safelight back to base. She's just glad she was able to handle things in this situation on her own, without once having to call for backup. And...Safelight can be crossed off the MIA list! This time, it paid to be patient. She transforms and heads off with Safelight.