(Untitled)

[due_caution]

Red Alert had briefly considered tagging along with Kitten Prime and Company, if only to make sure Rodimus stayed safe and out of trouble, but thought better of it after contemplation. Right now, at a glance, who would even know that the small orange Terran cat is the Autobot Prime, unless someone draws undue attention to him

Comments

[stupidityinblue]

Duskwing actually came by to see Daniel, but the new faces around Autobot City are quite distracting. As are the kitten, the horse and the floating fish.

This red and white Autobot is a new face, and he's as fascinated with poking around computer files as Echoshift was. He seems more enthusiastic about it, though certain entries make him twitch. A few make him cringe outright, and others, make him wince.

Duskwing stands invisibly behind Red Alert, watching him curiously. What's he going to do next, and what's so bad about those files?

The lights gradually dim....

[due_caution]

Red's engrossed in the logs enough that he doesn't notice anything amiss, at first, other than a vague sense of unease. That, however, he attributes to the logs themselves, as the information contained therein goes well beyond insanity.

For example, when, exactly, did Ratchet and Wheeljack rise from the dead? And, speaking of rising from the dead... is that... Starscream? In the Medical Bay?

And why in Primus's name is his own secure login being used to access the system from-

Red Alert yelps out loud as he compares the data logs to the security logs and realizes that the aforementioned dead Decepticon had gained access to all the most secure files in the entire Autobot system. Had had access to everything for... for...

"DAYS! Ratchet, I certainly hope you aren't dead, because I am going to kill you," Red Alert whimpers to himself as he fires up another console.

The rest of the logs can wait. He needs to get to work now if he stands even the faintest chance of ferretting all of Starscream's little surprises out of all the various

[stupidityinblue]

Duskwing stares hard at the red and white Lamborghini Autobot. What is he yelling about? And why is he threatening Ratchet? Duskwing frowns; he doesn't like that. Ratchet's one of the good ones.

"Hey! Whaddaya mean, you'll kill Ratchet?" Duskwing says from just behind Red Alert. "I don' like the sound of that," he growls, showing himself in all his dark blue and purple Decepticon Seeker glory. For right now, he looks solid enough--this guy doesn't know him, and Duskwing doesn't know this guy. There's a soft whine as of guns charging.

[due_caution]

Having been seated behind his desk, which incidentally faced the only door into his office, Red Alert had been pretty damned confident that he was a) alone in his office, and b) would BE alone in his office. At least he was pretty damned confident that no one would be able to sneak in, since he'd taken care of all the usual means of ingress, and even a few of the more... unconventional means.

Thus, having a mech the size and shape of a Decepticon Seeker literally pop out of thin air behind him, especially after having apparently been listening to him to know that he'd just made a possibly-not-entirely-in-jest smartaft remark about doing the former CMO extreme bodily harm does more than just surprise Red Alert. It freezes the energon in his lines and scares the Infernal Pit out of him.

The whimper of dread that had just very recently escaped him is no match for the yelp of mingled outrage and fear that bursts from him now. Caught between the Seeker behind him and the desk in front of him, Red Alert almost tumbles to the floor as he

[due_caution]

Very clever, Red Alert. I didn't expect you to find this one.Red Alert grumbles as the little love note from Starscream pops up on his display after shutting down one particular trojan that he'd been trying to hammer down for most of the last few hours

[attair_al_fada]

Starscream has long since dismissed from his thoughts the day he got stuck on the input stage design of the Machine and turned to other activities to loosen whatever was stuck in his logic. Those activities had included bringing himself up to date on all current intelligence, designing the Aerialbots, and modifying the more mundane systems to allow himself unlimited future access. Metroplex's personal routines, he'd stayed far away from. Re-programming minds was Megatron's game, not his

[due_caution]

Most of the occasionally polite, but often urgent, strident, and at times downright rude inquiries to the security "tech support" are answered by a rather mundane and nominally human IT staff after being processed through a tracking algorithm. Some, however, trip the flags in Red Alert's algorithm and end up forwarded on to him

[doc_ratchet]

It's happenstance that Ratchet needs to check some of the more precise measurements on the schematics a few minutes later, or else he might not have noticed the status change of his access for several hours. Maybe days. He stops dead in his tracks, however, when the following message pops up on his terminal:

Access to this account has been temporarily restricted while new security parameters are being enacted. Contact red Alert to receive your new access codes.

Oh for the love of little spanners. Why didn't anyone tell him Red Alert was on his way back? Ratchet sighs and opens up a familiar secured channel to a familiar security director.

// Cleaning house, Red? // he asks with amusement. // I need my access back, otherwise these mechs are never getting built. //

There's a brief pause before Red Alert's familiar and terse - which is also familiar - voice replies, // I wouldn't have to "clean house" if you hasn't been foolish enough to hand our entire system over to Starscream// You locked the whole kit and caboodle down, didn't

[due_caution]

If anyone had been standing directly outside Red Alert's door as Starscream strolled away, they might have heard a single, solid thump. Red alert doesn't allow himself much time to recover with his head cradled in his arms on his desk, however. Starscream had raised too many concerns, and not all of them were even about him!

// Frostbite, // he transmits, opening a secure channel to the only other Autobot who might be as healthily suspicious as himself. // Do you have a moment? //

[due_caution]

// Very good. The door will be open for you. //

Columbia: FARC Encampment

[dirty_halfdozen]

Down in Columbia, the living has been easy. The Combaticons have managed to make themselves practically indispensible to the FARC encampment they've joined forces with and all in all Onslaught and his brothers have been enjoying themselves immensely

Re: Columbia: FARC Encampment

[dirty_halfdozen]

Onslaught's optics shine briefly as he listens to Frostbite's proposition and weighs the possibilities. //You have, Autobot...forgive me, Frostbite. I presume 'deal with Drath's offworld contacts' is an Autobot euphemism for simply wiping them out, so what I would like to know is, what is in this for my team?//

[attair_al_fada]

A bit later, Starscream took a break from the fabrication of Slingshot and retired to his console. He did not, in fact, do anything at the console. It was simply an excuse to focus his concentration elsewhere.

// Duskwing? Come to me; I have a mission for you. //

[stupidityinblue]

Duskwing doesn't quite appear in Medbay--he's there, but not there, just the other side of the veil between this world and the spirit realm. Invisible and intangible... but not to Starscream. And not imperceptible to the sensitive.

Whaddaya want, Commander? Duskwing asks, genuinely curious. Starscream never before had a mission for him, personally.

[attair_al_fada]

Starscream smirks very slightly.

I hear you've met Red Alert, the Autobot Security Chief. Do me a favor, and go keep an eye on him. I want to know who he meets with and what secrets he learns. Report back to me when he goes down for recharge, or in a day, whichever comes first. Call me if things get exciting around him.

[stupidityinblue]

Duskwing salutes his Air Commander enthusiastically, if a bit sloppily.

A spying mission! You got it, boss!

With that, Duskwing goes flitting through the walls to find Red Alert at work...